It’s official! By the time you read this column a majority of the class of 1982 will have turned 50. Some younger classmates will be celebrating this big birthday in the fall and a few prodigies will not be older and wiser for a year or two. If you want an excuse to return to Hanover this autumn, come for our class 50th birthday party during Homecoming Weekend (October 29-31). See our class website for details.


I celebrated my 50th birthday in June by riding my hybrid bike 545 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles as part of AIDS/LifeCycle 9. The ride takes place during seven days and it was the most physically challenging week I have ever experienced. There were many moments each day when I doubted I would make it to camp, especially during the 107-mile day from Santa Cruz to King City or the day we had 35 mph headwinds. But I am happy to report that I rode every single mile and in the process raised more than $15,000 for AIDS/HIV programs at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. Thanks to all of you who donated! I plan to have a bike-free summer and celebrate my 51st birthday on a beach!!


I nominate Cathy L. Bagley as poet laureate of our class. Cathy is a doctor specializing in obstetrics/gynecology, but she has hidden creative talents. She composed the following poem while waiting for nurses to prep a woman who was having a C-section:


“Oh my most generous Lawdy,


I don’t want to leave age 40.


So, next year if You do not mind,


Start turning back the hands of time!


An age starting with 5-anything,


Leaves such an awful nasty ring.


So, God, I ask, please stop right here.


No wrinkles on my derriere,


Just keep me where I am today,


Or subtract ’bout 10—that is okay.


But venture further in another year,


Is a cross this gal finds hard to bear.


So grant me wishes in advance,


That my ageless beauty makes me dance


The dance of youth


For ever more,


That my body parts stay off the floor,


That I might tell a little lie,


“Why, I’m no more than 35!”


At least for the next decade or two, 


Why, I’m no more than 32.


So, Master, grant my birthday desire.


Keep me out of that 50s quagmire


For 10, 20, 30 years more,


Oh my Lawdy, how I do implore!


Cathy reports that the C-section was successful and that mother and baby are fine.


Peter Cogan writes that he is still teaching high school English in Denver, Colorado. A major highlight of the year was when one of his students told him that the student loved his class “even though he usually doesn’t receive A’s and he argues with me about every paper he writes.”


Bill Prescott lives in Los Altos, California, and enjoys writing adult fiction and middle grade children’s fiction. In his previous life in technology sales, Bill traveled extensively throughout Asia, including Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. His favorite road in the world is Highway 1 just north of San Luis Obispo, California.


Doug Tengdin lives in Hanover next door to Cathy and Diana Munson’s dad, a member of the class of ’48. Doug is a volunteer for United Way and he and his family also volunteer for High Horses, a therapeutic riding program. While working for Citibank Doug lived in Tunis, Tunisia, where he learned Arabic and French. Au revoir!


Where did summer go?


—David Eichman, 9004 Wonderland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; dme4law@sbcglobal.net; Cathy Judd-Stein, 15 Lakeview Road, Winchester, MA 01890;cjuddstein@yahoo.com