Nancy Schott Plaisted
Happy summer, everyone!
As a holiday gift from one of my grandsons and his wife, I received tickets to the University of Maine vs. Yale University men’s hockey game in Portland in January. It was a first for me, watching my alma mater play. And, of course, seats were in Row 1, with players slamming and banging, and UMaine goalie Jeremy Swayman ’21 directly in front. (We won 4-3 in overtime!)
Our 65th Reunion in September was great — it was so good to be on the Orono campus again. Some 22 classmates attended: Beverly Finney Aker and friend John Callan; Woody Carville ’54G, Phyllis Noyes Scantlebury, Meredith Monk Dalessandro, Faith Taylor Diehl, Izzie Stearns Foss, Dave and Nancy Hale, Jean Dolloff Kreizinger with daughters and brother Dana ’63, ’64G; Carol Prentiss Mower, John Noyes, Lloyd Oakes, Dick and Joan Searles, George and Rita Yardumian Weatherbee ’54, Hank and Dawn Miller Woodbrey, Helen Strong Hamilton, and myself. The food, tours, events (and bookstore), etc. kept us busy.
The blueberry pancake breakfast and tour at Dirigo Pines was also a plus. We met residents Bob and Cynthia Cowan Dunlap there. The last night many of us ate in Old Town at Governor’s. Loved it all! Can’t wait for our 70th!
Zeke Mavodones, of Poughkeepsie, NY, wrote that he and his wife, Maria, daughters, son-in-law, and four grandchildren flew to Palm Springs, CA, to attend the wedding of their nephew in November. “It was a gala event in summer sunshine with palm trees and flowers. It is another world in southern California.”
Carol Prentiss Mower, of Orono, is doing just fine, at home, after a short stay in the hospital and a month in rehab.
On to our wise, hard-to-reach, but wonderful classmates.
Dave Hale and his wife, Nancy, Punta Gorda, FL, residents, who summer in Essex Junction, VT, were about to head out on an eight-day Western Caribbean cruise. And in November, it’s off to Medjugorje, in Bosnia, Herzegovina, where apparitions of the Virgin Mary have been seen for the past 37 years. Dave also mentioned Lawrence Bailey, a childhood friend of his, living in Stroudsburg, PA. Dave is going to give him a call; I must also, for my next column.
Forrest Grant, of Bangor, is the owner of 304 Stillwater Avenue Furniture, at that same address in Bangor. “I sell no junk,” he said as he mentioned the lines of furniture he carries. He and his wife, Anne, used to summer in Wells and winter in West Palm Beach, but now live in a home he built in Bangor. He said, ”It doesn’t hurt to marry a younger woman.” (Anne is 76.)
Bob Hunter ’62G and his wife, Nancy, of Scarborough, along with their children and granddaughter, completed the Dempsey Challenge for cancer survivors in Lewiston last September. Bob is a survivor and also a survivor of an out-of-state accident in 2014 when he was struck by an SUV while walking across the street. Nancy said Bob didn’t want to use a golf cart, just a cane, walker, and their help. Great, Bob!
Trudy Harriman Metzger, who winters in Titusville, FL, and summers on Westport Island, ME, truly loves to celebrate birthdays. For her 85th, she went whitewater rafting on the Kennebec; for her 86th, zip lined at Sunday River; her 87th, on the ocean with her nephew in a 17-foot Whaler in the middle of a pod of finback whales who were feeding; and for her 88th? Maybe the Mt. Attitash alpine slide in New Hampshire. Go for it, Trudy!
In closing, it was sad to hear of the death of Fred Robie, of Orono, on January 18. Always smiling, he was a familiar face at reunions, along with his wife, Thelma (who died in 2015). He is survived by his four sons and their families. When I asked if there were any daughters, son Bruce said his father would say he had “four, five-star sons and four, five-star daughters-in-law.”
I’ll see you at our mini-Reunion in Freeport in August!