What Might Have Been

On Friday, October 13th, I arrived at the Genesee Grande Hotel ready to experience a weekend full of fun activity with ol' classmates, Steering Committee cronies, and others who came along for the ride. As promised, I had my camera by my side at all times. I shot, or thought I shot, scenes of "the kids" beginning to put the decorations together on Friday afternoon for Saturday evening, scenes of the Friday Eve Roosevelt and Bellevue dinners and scenes of the Friday Eve Bash, the Saturday Eve Oldies Dinner Dance, and the Sunday morning brunch.

I even had, or so I thought, scenes of Central High with a small number of us touring the innards of SCTHS

Saturday morning, again takings pictures of what once was the study hall, the music room, the library, the teacher's lounge, and the circling staircase, plus various poses of duct-taped Minerva when an even smaller number of us went to see her at Shenfeld's Studio where she was gratefully being refurbished.

It was truly a memorable weekend, from the memorabilia that never showed up, and our own Kathleen Niles who nearly didn't show up, because of a immobilizing October blizzard in Buffalo, to all the red balloons and white balloons (our school colors) that decorated our ballroom as well as the hotel lobby, to the incredible disk jockey who allowed us to dance the night away to tunes of the 50's and 60's, to those who rolled down the hill or across the town to join us as well as those who traveled from the deep south or the west coast to be one of 200+ who chose to spend the weekend reconnecting with their own high school memories.

And it was a weekend that would bring a smile to your face, when you remembered how Peter Procopio, a graduate of Roosevelt, got lost at the Bellevue dinner, how Sue Kenyon's dress bought back a definite yesteryear, how Liz Bieling (and company) magically transformed the ballroom into a red and white extravaganza, how elegant Joanne Kennedy remains to date, how happy Dave Agresti was to see Kathleen Niles, our treasured Class of '61 Big Mama, float in late Friday eve to play master of ceremonies instead of him, how Tom Hogg keeps us all in touch through our website, and how glad we were to see that many in attendance brought their own yearbooks and other memorabilia anyway so that we could secretly check to see who's who then and now.

And oh, the heart throbs who were there! The He who used to go with She and the Hes and Shes, who were our class couples, John Bernier and Kathy Bausinger, as well as Marie Johnson and Spencer Plavacos, all of whom are still going strong! And if you were there for the Saturday Evening Dinner Dance, you saw Vic Boog cuttin' up on the floor, along with Donna Prosser, Ron Mack, Sue Kenyon, John McLoughlin, Nancy McBride, and Jim Leiter (Class of '60). And you heard Barbara Melchoir entertain us royally in song. And come Sunday morning you saw a few of the leftover classmates poppin' the balloons, breaking the set as it were, to announce the sad news that our 45th amazingly well-orchestrated weekend in-spite-of-it-all had just come to a end.

So I rushed home and with great expectations rushed my film to the shop, only to learn soon after that the film was only advancing intermittently. I expected 100+ great shots and got very few, but even so the weekend remained crystal clear in my mind and thank goodness, there were other camera buffs there who were able to supply pics for our 45th Memory Book. Were you one of those? If not, better get one so you too can savor the newest memories of Class of '61.....together again. -donna prosser britton

Recovered from scths.com, Wayback capture of 2007-07-01 · view original