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We do
Reunion Record Book surveys as we did
college papers and exams. There were the
earnest and early followed by the steady
and timely. A final flurry was
expensively assisted by Federal
Express. Two New England women know
whose late submissions appeared December
5th and 6th. One stressed participant
observed: “This
feels just like the dorm before finals:
everybody running to make coffee and
sweating the time and comparing notes.”
But the surveys are now in hand by
electronic magic or otherwise. One
hundred two classmates checked the
short-answer “Snapshot” by hand, while
155 invincibles clicked choices on-line,
where 123 also tapped in their
“Portrait” essays for Survey Part Two.
From the combined sources, it is no
surprise that most praised the role of
marriage, children, grandchildren, and
friends in our lives. Half will
celebrate wedding anniversaries of 45
years or more in 2008. In that same
happy vein, many of us (79%) consider
our health good. Less expected was a
bloc of almost the same size (78%) who
thought the Iraq War was wrong from the
start, one unsparing soul adding: “But
that’s from hindsight.”
And is there momentum from the final
question? From a list of 15, a certain
Wellesley graduate was named by 39% of
us as the person we expect or would like
to vote for in November 2008. A Harvard
Law product trailed in second with 15%.
We should mention two or three fervent
write-ins for New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg.
Thank you for sharing your impressions,
opinions, and memories with us. We wish
every word could be in the final tome,
but familiar constraints of size and
money require selection. Still we hope
you find the essays on our mothers as
moving as we did, and that you’ll shake
your fist at what enrages us. Your work
contributes to a unique Reunion Record
Book and will make our gathering in June
the best ever.
Ann McCormick Scott
and Jane Swanson Sanderson
Reunion Book Anonymous
Questionnaire, Co-Chairs |
