| 09/18/09 01:21 AM |
#820
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Evelyn Gratton (Pepin)
Hey, folks! I've been lurking for a while, usually checking this site late a night on the way to bed, promising myself, "I'll spend more time tomorrow!" And now it's September. I've had great intentions for a while to jump in on the forum once I've read it through and "caught up". Well, I've given that up as a bad job, thrown caution to the wind, and here I am, hoping to God that somebody here remembers me! ;-)
Glenn - I, too, wonder where Debbie Garvin is. Jill Campbell, too. Diana Prive and John Normand haven't checked in, either. I had been worried about Kevin Farley, so I am thrilled to see that he has resurfaced! Which leads me to...
Hey, Kevin! - I am so glad you brought up the Germany trip! My host father bought our train tickets to Paris for us (well, more accurately, we paid our way, but he procured them for us), and our chaperones & host families actually let 8 of us go off to Paris by ourselves for three days! What were they thinking! I remember riding the Paris Metro with impressive ease, dragging Debbie Garvin along the cobblestone streets in her less-than-cobblestone-friendly shoes, relying on you to translate cafe menus and street signs since you were the only one among us who had taken any amount of French, and finally finding our way to the Eiffel Tower about Midnight just after it closed and bumping into our classmates on the Paris trip while walking down the street! Then we blended in with the Paris kids and went back to their hotel. Didn't you and I hide behind Leah Garlichs' hotel room door while she spoke to her chaperone in the doorway? I also remember having dinner with you and your host family, "the Bickersons", at their house, and Herr "Bickerson" argued very loudly and animatedly - in German - with his wife and daughter about something politically controversial while we sat wide-eyed and frightened, busying ourselves with our schnitzel as the argument got louder. I recall the Mom counter her husband's argument just as loudly and then, without missing a beat, very sweetly and hospitably offer me more potatoes. Man, it's all coming back now! I could go on, but I'm sure there's a character limit to this little message box, and I should save something for in-person reminisces. One last memory for now, though: Isn't there a picture of a group of us sitting in a McDonalds somewhere in Aachen, Germany with innocent-looking drink cups alongside the usual fastfood fare in front of each of us? But what parental units and other figures of authority didn't know was that each of our drink cups had beer! Good times! I think this photo is in the '78 yearbook, which I can't quite put my hands on at the moment. Hopefully I will find all my yearbooks by the reunion.
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