We headed out of DC pretty early, sans coffee. That is always trouble for the two of us! We finally got some coffee at a pretty off-the-beaten-path gas station, along with breakfast biscuits (tasty but not so healthy; turns out they are made in Ohio!). Not a bad morning, in all – the sun was shining and we were ready for a twofer; lunch in Philly and nighttime cocktails in New York. Jill (the GPS unit) was fed our Philly location and we were off!
Except that we were clearly headed deep into the city; apparently there is a Valley Forge street in North Philly. Oops. Matt took over driving for a tired Ashley and we pointed north to the suburbs, where we arrived right at the scheduled time.
We had a really nice turnout of recent and older alums at Valley Forge pizza. Michael reconnected with Lindsey Short ’08, who will be back at Wittenberg in the fall to run a study in his lab – it is funny how these academic connections can last past the tenure of a student! We had lunch with Lamar Kilgore ‘55 and his partner Pat, who were delightful. Lamar told stories about being adopted by the class of ’56, about his design of Pat’s shoes (please see the video!), and about coming to a new life passion at the intersection of animal rights/welfare and peace studies.
The drive to New York was uneventful, but there was a lot of traffic. Ben steered us in the right direction, and we headed to unload at the apartment of Jon Stewart ’06. Michael’s former student Bekah Stewart ’08 was there and it was fun catching up.
The beginning of the New York event was two parties in one; Pier 66 was really full, we had no guaranteed seating, and we quickly split into two groups – one to meet people and redirect to a new location (Chelsea Brewing) and one to stay and meet people who were already in the large crowd. While we were still at Pier 66, Mike Falcone ’01 regaled us with stories, and told us about his brief appearance in an upcoming Tucker Max film. Then we all came together at Chelsea.
What fun! Wittenberg graduates are strikingly easy to talk to, on such a variety of subjects. Michael spoke to James Horst ’99 quite a bit – he was really clear on how John Ritter’s classes shaped him. Heather, Lauren, and Kelly Eggers ‘09 spent the better part of an hour knee-deep in conversation discussing the value of media analysis and interdisciplinary work!
We had to get to the airport for our plane trip home, so we gathered our stuff from Jon’s and cabbed it over to the LaGuardia area around 1:30 am. A late night snack of, what else, Domino’s pizza, and then time for some much-needed rest.
Back home in Ohio, our garden is overgrown after only a few days away, and we’re missing WittNation already!
- Michael and Heather
