Mon Aug  4 08:12 EDT 1997
Weekend Update: The Reunion (8/1-8/3)

I took Joy to her high school reunion in Warwick, New York, a small
town not far from the NY, NJ, and PA junction.  It has been 20 years
since she graduated from high school and she went back to see her high
school chums.  It was a trip down the Superhighway of Nostalgia with
time to pause on a few Memory Lanes.  Warwick Valley High School
was a Soap Opera back then, and it was interesting to hear some of
Joy's friends talk of the old days and what has happened since.

For the most part, I stayed out of the way, eating the Swedish
meatballs and drinking as much Coke as I could pass through my system
to help make up for our part of the Country Club rental.  (We opted
out of Saturday night's dinner, dancing, and drinking and instead just
showed up for Friday night's drinking, dialog, and drinking.)

On occasion, I would float around.  I looked at one guy and told him
that I didn't recognize him. He didn't recognize me either and
introduced himself.  I told him that I didn't go to his school.

On another occasion, some guy asked me who I was, and I said I was an
escort for the evening.  Then I told him that I married Joy Crawford,
and his eyebrows nearly touched his receding hairline.  He looked in
the direction of my wife, who was in a conversation elsewhere in the
room.  "The one with the pony tail?"  (It was a braid, actually.)
"Yup.  That's her."  "Wow.  You married one good looking woman."
"Yes.  Yes, I did," I replied popping another Swedish meatball into my
mouth.

Most people talked about their kids and not their careers.  I wanted to
have Joy pass out business cards with "Joy Crawford Metcalfe, Homecoming
Queen Emeritus" on them.  The Queen was not amused so that never happened.

C. Craig Carter was there.  This guy was sweet on Joy from just about
the start.  He even tried to talk Joy out of marrying me and cried at
our wedding 18 years ago.  He told of how Joy turned him down in 7th
grade saying that she "just wanted to be friends" (which is the kiss of
death to any interested guy).  He persisted through the evening about
this rejection when she looked at him and said, "Would you have rather
I said to 'go blow'?"  Joy told me also of Kevin Swanzee (not present)
who dated "easy girls" but pined over Joy.  I replied that it was the
quintessential male to wants to play the field but settle down with
nice girls like Joy.

Joy introduced me to another classmate of hers asking, do you know who
this is?  I looked at her for a moment and said, "Sonya Thayer?"  Her
reputation and what I was told about her is still intact.  My brother,
John, dated her at Camp Taconic.  She had heard that Joy Crawford
married a Metcalfe and wanted to see me.  (I doubt that I held up to
her expectations as you would have, John.)  A funny thing happened,
though.  By the time we left after 11:30 pm, her escort could not find
her.  Hmmm.. she was just right over there a few minutes ago talking
to some guy.

We got home around 1:30 in the morning, long after Cinderella and
her Coachman should have been out.  It might have been
okay 20 years ago, but we're close to middle-age now!

Joy's best friend, Shelley, from high school was also there.  She's a
wonderful person and I like her a lot.  We spent part of Saturday at
her place and the two women picked up right where they left off some
years ago.

One final note: we visited my mother-in-law's grave on Saturday.  The
marker isn't up yet.  In fact, we had a hard time locating it at first
because I thought it was higher up on the hill.  It was strange for me
because when I didn't know where the grave was, I felt like I had come
all this way for nothing.  But when we found the spot, some of the
emotions from the past three months came back.  My father-in-law has
lost over 35 pounds since the funeral and has been working like a
beaver.  The New Jersey home is gradually emptying out and the
Pennsylvania home is getting more and more full.  I've hooked him up
on email while we were down there.  He will be slow in answering his
email because he is brand-spanking-new to the computer so be patient
with him in his replies.  But go ahead and send him a note or two and
we will encourage him to check his email when he is in Pennsylvania.
His email address is Tom_Crawford@juno.com.

That's plenty, although there was more.  Have a good week, folks!

Mark
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          __    _____|         Mark Metcalfe           |_____    __
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