Well, I went to the St. James Gala last night and there were some positives--but lots of negatives, I'm afraid. The bottom line is I'm glad I went, but it could have been so much better.
A.C. was incredibly crowded. I hadn't been "uptown" on a Saturday night for years and, boy, was the traffic heavy and the going slow. Got there about 6:45--cash bar and appetizers were to be at 6:30--and stood in line another 15 minutes. Instead of dividing the alphabet into A-F, F-L, M-Z or something, there were three woman with the same list, a typically less organized system. Got in, found my table, and saw the F.'s weren't yet there, so I went to get a drink--that took at least 15 minutes, too. At that point, the only one I had seen that I knew was Lily McB. and Alice W. The F family got there and it was good to see Margaret, Irene, Eugene, and Tom, both of whom are monsignors.
The food was mediocre: a bag-type salad, about 3 oz. of chicken with phony grill marks, a teeny, tiny scoop of mashed potatoes and so-so frozen string beans. No rolls or butter or any other sides. Dessert was a little muffin-like cake with some kind of sauce. Well, the coffee was good. Of course, what I was looking forward to was seeing and chatting with my classmates and others I had known some 56 years ago; unfortunately, as far as I know, there was only one other '50 grad, George W. I did see--fleetingly--several of Frank's '48 fellow grads, but there was almost no time to talk. Only an hour was allotted to Happy Hour and by the time I actually got a drink (a Coors light, which was $5.00 and I gave the guy a $2 tip), dinner was being served. Accompanying it was an incredibly loud live band, so it was impossible to talk much even with the F.'s. The idiot musicians finally left for a break--not soon or long enough--when we were almost finished the main course. Okay, we could circulate and chat with people, right? NO! The program of presentations, talks, speeches, and jokes then took place and it was interminable--they introduced everybody but the wait staff, and it took more than an hour. Even worse, the sound was so bad, you couldn't hear every third or fourth word--well, maybe that was a good thing. By the time the talks were over, it was about 10:30 and the horrible band started again for dancing. I was exhausted, what with the hour and the bad cold I've been fighting, so I left, walking out with the Halpins.
Today, I read the program and found that I was listed as a member of the gala committee--geez, I didn't know that. I also didn't know they were selling ads and would have asked my sibs to go in with me. The program was--I'm beginning to wonder who in hell writes their stuff--full of both grammatical errors and errors of omission (they listed pastors and priests at St. James over the years, and neither Monsignor Moran, THE FOUNDER, and Father Duffy were mentioned!). Don't know if there were errors of fact, but I wouldn't be surprised.
It was really disappointing not to know who was there. I wish they had printed some kind of attendance list and/or asked people to gather under a banner for certain decades of graduation, maybe. They also might have recognized who had come farthest, and so on. The problem was, I guess, that the whole thrust here wasn't "reunion," it was "fund raiser."
But okay, I'm still glad I went. The other bottom line is that everybody I saw whom I had known at St. James looked so damn old! It's funny that I don't look any different at all, but the rest of them--wow!