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65th Reunion Setup Insider From Jim Oaks
Here is
list of the attendees (by Cadet Company)
at the reunion. If I
counted correctly, there were 55 classmates and 8 widows who attended. Along
with spouses and guests that gave us a total attendance of 156. There are lots
of stories to tell and I will pick a few over the next days and conclude with a
class zoom at the end of the week. For tonight, this is my start.
Indirectly, our West Point Class of 1961 65th
Reunion began last July at a summer outdoor concert. That Monday evening the
Huntsville Airport Authority was giving away Delta travel vouchers for two as
promotion of a recently initiated non-stop flight to New York City.
We entered and won!
Even though the new flight was from Huntsville to LaGuardia, we learned
that the vouchers could also be used on Delta flights to Newark. After selecting
our seats and paying for one checked bag, we slightly exceeded the $1,200 value
of the vouchers, but still considered our air travel to the reunion a freebie.
Our next concern was how to get from the Newark airport to the hotel in
Mahwah. The answer to that concern actually came before we purchased the plane
tickets. Rod Grannemann informed us that he and Jan, along with Al Vanderbush,
planned to fly into Newark on Monday April 20 and rent a van to use during the
reunion as auxiliary transportation for the busses and that we would be welcome
to ride with them if we came in on the 20th. That certainly
simplified our travel plans and it gave us an opportunity to join Gary and
Button Hyde to help with the reunion set up operation. In addition to the
Grannemanns, Phil and Babbs Mallory, Mike and Chan Eiland and Gene Witherspoon
were also arriving on Monday to help.
On Tuesday morning Gary pulled out his shopping lists and sent crews in
different directions. I joined Gary and Phil on a trip to Costco for snack
items, Babbs, Ann and Button went to Hobby Lobby to buy decoration items and Rod
and Gene headed to West Point for several items including liquor from the PX.
While Phil and I were sorting the items we had bought at Costco for the main and
two secondary hospitality rooms, Gary make a trip to Home Depot for rolls of
blue painting tape and eight 4 by 8 Styrofoam boards on which to mount the
memorial articles for the members of the class we have lost over the years. Each
Styrofoam board had to be prepped with the painters tape, sticky side out, in
order for the printed memorial articles to stick. Sometime later in the day Mike
Eiland returned from a business trip to West Point with more than 400 memorial
sheets that had been printed at West Point. Gary had coordinated with Leigh
Major, Bill Griffith’s daughter, to have the sheets printed at West Point. This
was one of many things that Leigh accomplished in support of our reunion
activities. Her biggest effort was in support of the Memorial Service activities
at the West Point Cemetery, something I will cover later.
The main hospitality room was our work room throughout Tuesday. Button,
Jan and Babbs assembled decorations, inflated balloons and helped with memorial
board preparation. Once Rod and Gene returned from West Point their spirits and
supplies had to be sorted for the various hospitality rooms. Gary was directing
these operations with the skill gained through conducting other reunions and
Golfing Grads meetings. As a first-time participant in this reunion preparation
process it was impressive to see how things were shaping up. By the end of the
day it was apparent that by Wednesday we would be ready to welcome those who had
signed up for the 65th Reunion.
By late afternoon, the sheets had been sorted alphabetically, duplicates
pulled out and we began posting them on the 4 by 8 boards. Ann and I volunteered
for this job and finished most of them that evening. Each board held 44 pages,
four rows of 11 each. We worked in the main hospitality room and after each
board was finished they were moved into the Memorial room across the hall.
Note: Here is a link to a
short video I made of the Memorial Room Tuesday
evening before we had completed all the boards.
I did send some
pictures to Sam Weiss for posting. Sam has been doing an outstanding job of
publishing info about the reunion as we have informed him.
Before I pickup on Wednesday with Part 2 of the 65th Reunion
report, let me backup to Tuesday morning when Gary Hyde was making assignments
from his various “lists.” You should know that the input for these lists came
from the feedback he asked us several times to give him in those “Preference
Surveys.” It was from those surveys that he concluded how many busses to
schedule, how much booze to buy, how to notify the hotel on rooms we no longer
needed and how to advise food management on what should be ordered.
Let me stop there to talk about hotel food and service. For a hotel in a
relatively isolated location with a restaurant that appeared to be a small
operation, we were greatly impressed with the quality of the food, the quantity
of the portions and the friendly and timely service provided by the wait staff.
Both breakfast and the evening meals were served buffet style in the main
hospitality room that basically served for all our activities. It was large
enough for the food service with enough space and tables to accommodate the 150
plus that we had on Saturday night. Several times Gary commented on his pleasure
with the food service, one of his big concerns going into the reunion.
Now back to Gary and his lists.
There were items on the list we took to Costco such as soda, paper
plates, cups and napkins that Gary and Phil purchased at a grocery store. That
was another trip that I do not know details about. But after completing the
necessary runs on Tuesday and Wednesday morning to purchase the items that Gary
had calculated would be needed for the anticipated group, the advance party was
ready to welcome the Class of 1961. And I doubt that anyone who attended can
honestly say that they could not find enough nuts, candy, microwave popcorn,
beer, wine or liquor to keep them happy between meals for the time they were in
Mahwah, New Jersey.
One lighter moment occurred Tuesday morning before Rod Grannemann and
Gene Witherspoon left for West Point to buy things. Gene was looking at Gary’s
list of brands and quantity of liquor to buy. You will recall that the survey
asked for the preferred types of drinks and brands and Gary had made estimates
on what and how much to buy based on the number of ounces he guesses each person
would drink. Witherspoon had seen how much Jack Daniels and Markers Mark was
required, but asked Gary about what he meant by Ozs. It seemed to be a brand
that Gene was not familiar with. When Gary told him that was a column where he
calculated totals based on ounces per drink, we all enjoyed a good laugh.
By Wednesday, Ed and Rina Brown had arrived with name tags and other
registration material.
I only saw and became aware of a fraction of the calculations and
communications Gary Hyde did to manage our reunion. None of us will probably
know the tight wire he walked to contract with the hotel and manage this
reunion. You may recall that at one time the total number of expected attendees
required Gary to book the entire hotel, but he had managed an agreement to
release rooms back to the hotel as our numbers diminished. (An almost unheard of
agreement when booking groups with a hotel.)
The last evening we were there I asked Gary if he was disappointed that
the numbers went down as much as they did. He paused a few seconds and replied,
“You know, Jimmy, I’m not disappointed, but I’m sad. I’m sad that we lost some
since we did that first survey over a year ago, and that some others who wanted
to come just couldn’t make it due to health changes. That’s the way it is, but
it’s sad.”
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