The Merrett Report - Class of 1961 Reunion June 17-18

My wife Thava and I just returned from our trip to ND to attend the Class of 1961 reunion. It was quite interesting to meet and converse with those class members. We stayed at the AmericInn using the same reservation I had made for our canceled reunion. The only flight we could find that didn’t require a long layover in Dallas was a flight into Bismarck rather than Fargo. While driving from Bismarck it was such a wonderful change to see how green everything was in ND and MN, which have received so much rain. I don’t remember there being so many roadside lakes between Bismarck and VC. Where we live in NM we have received maybe 3 inches of rain per year for several years.

You’re probably wondering how I managed to get invited to the 61 reunion. When I did the zoom interview with my lifelong friend, Larry Gauper, I happened to mention that our scheduled reunion was canceled. He checked with Barb (Shepherd) Lang and some other classmates to see if it would be acceptable to attend their reunion. When that invitation was extended I decide, why not?

The reunion was mainly centered at the AmericInn. My wife and I were warmly greeted and even given name badges on elastic lanyards. The first night there was a nice class-prepared meal in the community room of the AI. That same evening there was a tribute concert for Peggy Lee at the new performing arts center just down the hill at VCSU. It was complete with a Zoom invocation by her Grand daughter as well as performances of the many songs she wrote and sang and a complete history of her career and, get this, free ice cream afterwards. Win win!

On the following Saturday there was a parade in conjunction with the Rally in the Valley days also taking place that weekend. The class of 61 members rode in that parade, but since I was not a member of that class, and also because I’m not a “morning person” I declined to participate. We did, however manage to go downtown and check out the many things happening, one of which was a visit to the Barnes County museum located on Central in the old Fairstore building and took a picture of myself with my Dad’s portrait in the background. and also, of course, a visit to a new brew pup located where the Nubar used to be located on Main street.

On Saturday evening there was a catered buffet dinner at the Eagles Club. There were some representatives from the class of 62 present, namely Barb (Rome) Gillund and Virginia (don’t remember her married name)Wire. We had our picture taken and, while attending the Peggy Lee retrospective, we ran into Dawn (Emery) Wright who lives in VC in the house formerly owned by my Dad’s medical partner Dr Meredith. Since Larry had already taken My, Barb, and Virginia’s photo, I suggested to Larry that he snap a shot of Dawn to include with the Class of 62 photo he had taken previously. He did and made a passable update of that photo (included). After the reunion we drove down to where my nephew, Scott Anhalt had built a beautiful new “cottage” on the site of our old family lake cottage. I wish we could have had a 62 reunion, but this was a very nice substitute.