ROADTRIP TO THE 40^TH REUNION:
 DISPATCHES FROM THE TYPEWRITERS OF
MADISON, HOLDER, WITHERSPOON AND BLAIR
LETTER #11 November 2018

Greetings from Blair! 

Registration for the 40th We Are Family Reunion is open and over 100 registrations have already been made. Register early to save as much as $250! Register Here!

It’s that time of the year when I go through my closet to break out the winter sweaters.   As I was doing so, I couldn’t resist going through my box of reunion garb and revisiting memories of each major Reunion.I found my black vest to remind me of 1984, when we strutted our stuff in the P-Rade as “The Class with Class….Putting on the Fifth”.   One of my favorite and well-worn casual pieces, however, remain the knee-length black shorts with orange outlined sea creatures that we wore when we surfed back for “’79 Hangs 10”.  For the 15^th, ‘79’s Reunion Committee looked to Walt Disney and the Lion King for inspiration with a “Royalty Returns to Princeton” theme.  While nobody complained about head coverings in prior years, this time some were heard to remark that the orange Velcro-adjustable crowns didn’t sufficiently protect heads and faces from the sun.  First rumblings that we weren’t exactly kids anymore!

Wow--the 20^th Reunion beer jacket with our “‘79 Returns to Classics --Reunion logo based on Proctor Tiger with a book open on front paws open to XX—still fits!  What a relief it was to finally graduate from capes to a proper beer jacket.  We paired that with a black baseball cap with 7P9 on the front – and XX on the back. The Classics theme was amplified in our 20^th Reunion Community Service project, for which we each brought a classic book back for donation to a local school.  Those were the days—now we read on tablets, and libraries are giving away books.

Five years later-- finally— we received the one article of my orange and black clothing that is on a hangar, in a clothes bag, at the ready for off-year Reunion and other appearances—‘79’s 25^th Reunion blazer, in all its unisex, box-cut, shoulder padded glory.  For “‘79 Marches Back”, we had a Reunion logo of Proctor Tiger going through an arch. So that we stood out as a class even when not on the march, we also had pale orange caps with logos, Proctor Tiger camp shirts, a Proctor Tiger white and black belt.  This time, we had special attire for the ‘79 progeny that were showing up in ever greater numbers. The orange and black tie-dye was a big hit as I recall.  

The 30th Reunion brought more polo shirts-- in orange for the P-rade and black for parties--and a theme meant to highlight the diversity and individuality in our class (even if the uniformity of clothing didn’t). We marched to “79 Shows its Stripes.”  I hung on to my straw hat with the fancy band, but we were given a tiger-striped baseball cap with ‘79 on top button and Class of 1979 around the edge of the white brim edge.

Finally, there at the bottom of my storage bin was an orange soccer shirt.  35 years had passed!  Our theme was “35th and Goal - ‘79ers Come to Play”.  Our Reunion Logo depicted a trophy with the Classics logo and ivy wrapped around the base, with a small soccer ball. We planted the class ivy this year, and partied while Brazil prepared to host the World Cup.  Early registrants received their orange soccer jerseys with their names on the back—the rest of us relied on our buttons.  For head covering this year, we chose a baseball cap using Reunion Jacket material. (The straw hat came out of the closet and marched back with me as well.)   Our P-rade uniform included a white oxford button-down shirt with classic logo embroidered on pocket. 

Wait ‘til you see how stylish we will be for our 40th! Three locomotives for our Attire Design Team Andrea Jung, Steve Mormoris and Somers Randolph! 

See you in Tigertown!
Blair