Last evening was a hoot! We had a lovely dinner and many of us
enjoyed a martini before dinner. The dinner was good and the
conversation was sparkling. However, before we had even finished
dinner a band showed up and played so loudly that conversation
quickly came to a halt. To overcome that deficit some folks took
to the dance floor. I love to dance and haven't done so in
years, but Robyn took me up on my suggestion that we dance. It
was sort of a debacle because we couldn't decide which one of us
was leading. It was still fun though, for me at least.
Today was graduation day and it turned out to be cold, wet and
when it wasn't actually raining it was misty.
I had made the rash promise last evening that we would go
early, bring our folding chairs and stake out ground for our
party. When we got there folding chairs had been set up so
our chairs were actually in the way, rather than being useful.
Despite arriving an hour and a half before commencement,
we still couldn't get seats close up, but we did have seats.
Robert took our chairs back to our motel, again it was nice
to have it so close. While he was there he picked up a raincoat
to wear. He hadn't wanted to wear a raincoat because he
doesn't have one and would have to wear my "camping-type"
raincoat and that is bright red.
Finally, the graduates marched in and were seated and the
program began. The Chair of the Board of Trustees gave
the welcoming address. Another welcome address was
given by a member of the class of '57 to honor those who
had come for their 50th anniversary. The college President
also gave a brief introduction to the exercises overall. In
addition there were several honorary degrees handed out
and awards given to alumni. Finally, the President
introduced the Commencement speaker, Jeffrey D. Sachs,
Director of the Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor
of Sustainable Development [Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874)
a Flemish mathmetician, statistician, and sociologist
known for his application of statistics and probability
theory to social phenomena] and Professor of Health
Policy and Management, Columbia University and
Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. The title
of his address was "Meeting our Millennium Promises."
He spoke well and blessedly briefly. He was followed by
two Senior Class Speakers "Dressing for Success in an
Infinite Void: The Value of a Liberal Arts Education.
They were fun and funny and played off one another in
quite a professional comedy way.
There were almost 400 graduates so the conferring of
degrees went on for sometime, but when Robyn's name
was called I jumped up and yelled, "Go Girl!"
The President made the closing remarks and then the
Whitman Hymn was sung, supposedly by all of us, the
words were available on the back of the program, but not the
music. The recessional was played by the Walla Walla Valley Band
and they did a good job of spoofing the whole thing by playing a
medley of many mixes of music.
Robyn, on her graduation from Whitman
Dr. Bridges, the college President hosted a buffet
lunch for all the graduates and guests and we
partook of that, although it was still pretty cold
and damp, we didn't tarry over our lunch.
The final event of the day was to be a champagne reception hosted by
Jan's parents Ken and Ila Barton at the community room of their
apartment complex. We all walked over there and enjoyed the
warmth and companionship of the afternoon and of course the
champagne and cake. Robyn and requested a chocolate chocolate
cake and it was every bit that.
At the reception Jan and Robyn suggested we all come over to
their place to help eat up the leftovers from Saturday's
barbecue. We were happy to help them out with that. I had
picked up a bottle of wine at one of our stops on Saturday so
added that to the occasion.
No comments:
Post a Comment