Boston: 40th College Reunion

Yes, we started our vacation in Gettysburg and Philly, but our original intent was always to attend Steven's 40th College Reunion. After 40 years, his friend Hal (and fellow classmate) persuaded him he'd have fun. After 40 years, he promised everyone was mellow. Festivities started Thursday with a Red Sox game that we missed. Instead we had lunch with a colleague of mine from our Boston office and dinner with a former colleague of Steven's and her family at Legal Seafood at Boston Harbour. Not only was this where those colonists dumped a lot of tea, but Legal Seafood is a Boston institution and was a nostalgic outing for Steven. He remembers Legal Seafood from his undergraduate days. So it fit right in with the reunion theme.

Friday was perhaps the biggest reunion day. For us, it started with the class survey (we elected to skip breakfast and the morning run). Here we learned that most of Steven's classmates are "gliding" to retirement, that most use hair dye to cover the gray, and most get up in the middle of the night to pee. All very illuminating stuff.

Then it was off to Harvard Yard to assemble for the procession. Steven was unsure about this, as it wasn't really a *graduation* procession. But hell, why not. While waiting, I chatted up a staff member. Four hundred (400!) staff work in alumni relations and all staff are commandeered for this big weekend where 9,000 alumni and relations were in attendance!! Generally, the oldest alums go first in the procession. If you reach your 55th reunion, you can become part of the "Crimson Society" and thereafter come EVERY year, if health and spirit allow. The oldest alumni there was 101. By my calculation, that means he graduated in 1947! 1947 people! Now that's committment and good fortune.

Following the short procession we had an hour long program outdoors, under towering trees that gently dropped leaves and pollen on us. Then it was time for lunch. An army of alumni staff removed the thousands of folding chairs as we moved back to tents now filled with tables. Food trucks were everywhere. All meals included with our alumni fee. We made friends in line and ate well.

Then it was off to educational activities. We could choose from special interest group meetings or visit some campus museums. We chose the Collection of HIstorical Scientific Instruments. We were in luck. Our docent was a professor and I learned scientific instruments are really very fascinating.

It was here we saw Harvard's second cyclotron, built in 1947. (The first cyclotron was sent to Los Alamos for the Manhattan Project). Originally used for photon research, it was later discovered it could be used to zap human tumors. The first patient had an inoperable brain tumor and I'm happy to report the cyclotron saved his life.

And then there was the Grand Orrery, built by Joseph Pope of Boston between 1776 and 1786. It's a mechancial model of the solar system. The celestial dome is supported by bronze figures of Issac Newton, James Bowdoin (the governor of Massachusetts), and, wait for it, Benjamin Franklin. Paul Revere cast the figures. I can't say that the figure much resembles Dr. Franklin, but I appreciate he is next to Newton. He was, after all, America's foremost scientist at the time. I should add that Ben Franklin purchased many scientific instruments for the college, all now on display here.