Meg and Phil Kendall get into the cowboy dance mode.
So does somebody’s grandchild.
These are the Durango Drifters that supplied the music.
The show opened with these two cowboy poets.
Monday evening was the final concert of the summer by the Friends of Monument Valley Park. It featured a local very upbeat cowboy/girl band named the Durango Drifters.
Good music, good weather and good fun!
On Tuesday, I helped Jane with her computer again, and we had a curb inspection by the city and discovered that we qualified for a program where they pay 1/2 and we pay 1/2 to have 15’+ of curb and gutter replaced. The broken driveway, however, is our responsibility.
Cath and I were to sit vigil with a 56 year-old woman, but she died before our time slot arrived.
Thursday, the HPA had a most amazing tour of the Broadmoor attended by more than 100 folks (mostly members). There were so many people, we had to be divided into four groups. Before the tour we went for dinner at Connie Wallace’s new patio home on the west side, joined by Betsy and her grandson. Connie’s place is just perfect for her – we loved it.
Our first tour guide at the hotel was one of the architect’s who helped spend the $150 million on restoration of the old hotel. He was very good, folksy and informational. Then we were passed to Larry Terrafranca, the Broadmoor resident sculptor who was trained in stonecarving at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. We have talked to him on several tours with the HPA and like him and his work.
Larry restored this fountain as one of his first projects for the hotel.
Larry Terrafranca describing the sculpture below.
The third rotation was to a historian who works for the Broadmoor archivist. He did a 20-minute photo/slide lecture on the history of the hotel and how it impacted the history of the region. Fascinating stuff: started as a dairy farm, then a casino, then polo and golf, then when Gen. Palmer wouldn’t sell the Antlers hotel to Penrose, he built his own hotel to compete! The final rotation was a trip through the Broadmoor Carriage Museum by a MOST enthusiastic docent.
Then, the long-awaited Class of 1962 Wasson High School 50th Reunion was here. After MUCH preparation, the golf tourney got off at 8 a.m. on Friday followed by lunch and a 5 p.m. Icebreaker party at the Valley Hi Golf Club. It went very well, packed the place and the weather cooperated beautifully. Jimmy Thompson, a classmate, provided the 50’s/60’s appropriate music.
On Saturday night, I wanted to arrive an hour early for the Dinner/Dance, but didn’t quite make it because Cathy thought the event started at 6 p.m. not 5 p.m.
No one was there!
I hung the banner, posted the alphabet signs for line up to check in, noticed that the Elk’s Club had set up twenty tables, not 16 as we stipulated, and several other odd placements. It was 40 minutes before the official start but people started arriving. I noticed they had a single serving line and tables set up in the bar/food service area that we hadn’t requested. We had no name tags. Dennis had also forgotten that the dinner/dance started at 5 p.m.
Finally, Jan, the co-planner of this event showed up and revealed that Vicky, the person from the Club who had taken over from Sue who had be fired, had a heart attack last night and was in ICU. She had neglected to inform the kitchen of “a few details” and in 35 minutes we would be invaded by 126 classmates who had paid up front for food, drink and entertainment.
Oh, did I mention we couldn’t get power from any of the floor outlets for the videographer, Jimmy’s one man band, or Dennis’ looping slide show?
The registration people and Dennis arrived with the name tags and proceeded to take them out of the careful arrangement by number (which put tags for the classmate and guest together) and rearranged them alphabetically! The reason they departed from what we had all agreed to do – because neither of them brought their glasses and neither could see the numbers on the tags!!
There were a handful of other “surprises”, but somehow we pulled the evening off with none but a handful knowing how close we came to a total disaster.
Earlier in the day Chesley Miller set up a tour of Wasson High School by the Athletic Director. Great tour – I learned that they built a bomb shelter under the swimming pool in 1959 to protect us from Russian bombs! …and no Dinner/Dance bombs.
We went to an ‘after party’ at Jack Anshutz’s house in Kissing Camels Estate, and even though it was a very late night, it felt good to visit with so many old friends.
Sunday morning was the Reunion Picnic held at the clubhouse for Crystal Park on the top of Eagle Mountain. Bill Porter (former senior class president) owns a house up there (another gated community) and generously offered us the facility. Except for a few issues trying to figure out the combination at the entry gate, the picnic, the weather and the fun continued.
Great reunion…great to have it mostly behind us. Now we need to edit all the video footage and produce an appropriate commemorative DVD.