Class Note 1982. Steve Whiteley kindly contacted us to say he enjoyed our columns. Steve was a class secretary himself for a five-year term a few years back, so he lived the life. He retired in 2024 after 34 years as a public high school science teacher and said, “I’m keeping busy! I go to a spin class at the Jewish Community Center three times a week that is made up of mostly 70- and 80-year-olds. We cycle for 30 minutes and then hang out and have coffee for almost an hour. I have found my peeps! I am on the board of my school’s education foundation helping with its food distribution program, joined Rotary, and am running for school board, playing more golf, and addressing long-neglected home projects. Sharon is still working, so trips we take are more modest. In May we checked off visiting Fallingwater (on our bucket list). This September we will retrace Harriet Tubman’s exodus from Maryland to Philadelphia. In June we had a mid-century modern [MCM] party at our MCM home. We figured we both turn 65 this year and we are MCM. The setting was 1965 and everyone came in MCM dress, and the food, music, and drinks were all MCM.” I love this. I am no longer saying my age. I’m just “MCM.” If people don’t get it, all the better.
Christi Strauss, Hank Malin, J.J. Hanley, and Marjie MacLean Zander organized a mini-reunion in Chicago June 20-22 with input from Mike Berg, Sam Laurin, and Phoebe Chandler Turner. Long-time Chicagoans J.J. and Marjie planned most of it with Hank. The rest of us just rode along on their summer-weight coattails. Attending were Christopher Caravette, Carol Davis, Kathy Boak Dubishar, Donna Fagerstrom, Al Forbes, Philippa Guthrie, Kate McKee Fox, Ken Fox, JJ, Jenny Chandler Hauge, Cathy Judd-Stein,Hank, John Moscarino, Christi, and Marjie’s husband, Boyd Zander. A few of us started Friday with a health-conscious lunch of mini-Chicago dogs (look it up) and later Teatro Zinzanni, a musical-dinner-theater-cum-comedy-circus that shouldn’t be missed if you’re nearby. On Saturday relentless sun and searing heat had most of us heading to the Art Institute of Chicago, a world-class museum that, well, as importantly, came with air conditioning. Saturday night featured two central events—dinner at Lou Malnati’s pizzeria, arguably the oldest and best Chicago deep-dish purveyor, followed by a magical sunset architectural boat cruise on the Chicago River, with a friend of Christopher’s as our expert guide. We closed with drinks at a swank hotel bar. Unfortunately, most attendees forewent the Sunday Lakefront Trail walk and the Lincoln Park Zoo to avoid heatstroke. I had so much fun I was hoarse by Sunday morning. Having grown up near Chicago (in the Midwest, four hours by car qualifies as near), I was really pleased to see others beguiled by it. If you haven’t much visited the “Windy City,” take the time.
My closing thoughts: Let’s have many more minis where classmates can show off their native habitats!
—Philippa M. Guthrie, 2303 Woodstock Place, Bloomington, IN 47401; (812) 325-7512; philippaguthrie@yahoo.com;David Mason Eichman, 9004 Wonderland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; dme4law@sbcglobal.net