August 13, 2008

Hi Everyone,
This past weekend, we attended Mary's 50th high school reunion in Cold Spring, MN, where she grew up. If you plan on attending any high school reunion, please tell the committee the following: First, the 1"x 1" high school class picture with your name in 6-point font under it on the name badge just doesn't cut it. With the lighting on dim and our 68-year old eyes trying not to be too obvious as we strain to read their names -- while slowly moving our heads embarrassingly close to their chest to stare at the badge -- only to end up by saying, "I'm sorry, but you will have to tell me your name," could use some improvement. Second, when creating the name badges for the women, put their high school names in big print (not just their married names) on the badges. Not being able to see the tiny name on the badge, I never knew if I was talking to a classmate or the spouse of a classmate. Third, put the high school name of the woman on the spouse's name badge with a cross reference to the classmate. Fourth, every reunion should make sure they have a microphone system, especially for the senior citizens at the back of the room.
I'm not criticizing the organizers of the class reunion because they did a fantastic job. For me, though, it started out slowly as I just saw a room full of old people and didn't recognize anyone -- not even my friends, Nancy and Fran (see picture below), with whom I went on to three more years of nursing after high school. What a riot!
Also, we were able to visit with relatives both in Cold Spring and Mary's son and his friends in Fargo -- which were enjoyable. See picture below of the twins of Mary's niece, Ashley and her husband, Neil.
Tomorrow we enter into Canada on our way to Calgary to attend the International Toastmasters Convention and hear the top ten speakers from around the world compete for Toastmaster of the Year 2008. We will have no cell coverage until Monday.