The Lunch Bunch

Since December of 2007, a few friends from my high school class and I have been meeting for a nice, leisurely lunch at a nearby restaurant. We meet a Key Largo -which is about six miles from where I live at noon on the last Thursday of the month.

Well, that's our scheduled time and place although back in March of this year, we did venture out and tried the food at the Hotel 1921, a new restaurant in Philipsburg, on the first floor of the what once was the lovely Hotel Philips many years back.

We had talked about trying out some other locations from time to time and in March, when another classmate of ours (who was living in Louisiana until Hurricane Katrina blew into town and destroyed her home ) and who has been residing in the condo she and her husband have in Destin, Florida since then, had contacted me that she would be coming north to bring her Mom back to PA for the summer months and it just so happened that her arrival here coincided with our lunch meet-up. That month, we ended up having two lunch meetings though.

Although our friend from Florida ended up having her flight into Harrisburg the day before our lunch canceled, but another classmate was coming up from Carlisle, PA and that girl's sister was coming in from Cleveland for the occasion, we had that meet-up and then, the following week, after the girl from Florida finally made it up here, we met again then with a few others too from our class.

It's been, from the start, a really nice, laid-back way for the four-five of us who have been getting together for the past year and a half now a great way for us to stay connected with each other, and also, because some of us are related to others from our class or surrounding classes, we can kind of keep "in the know," so to speak, with other old friends and acquaintances too.

Another classmate of ours, with whom I keep in touch via e-mail correspondence, had written about five weeks or so back to tell me that she and her husband would be starting their vacation on June 19th, leaving their home in Georgia and heading north in their RV to take in lots of sights along the Atlantic coast and even up into Canada too. Because they both have family still in this area, the first leg of their vacation was going to be spent camping at a very nice state park near here -Black Moshannon State Park -and she wondered if perhaps our group could make arrangements to meet at a time during the week they would be here.

Well, things worked out beautifully because the week they would be camping near here was also the week with the last Thursday of the month and therefore, our scheduled Monthly Lunch Bunch Meeting.

And so, today we gathered -six of us from our class, plus two friends of one of the other attendees for a really fun visit together. The two new folks are members of a bowling team of one classmate -one who was totally new to all the rest of us but the other lady just happens to be married to a classmate of ours and all the rest of us there already knew her quite well too.

Unfortunately, two of our regulars were not able to make it here today. I don't know what happened to Carol, as she usually writes to let me know if she'll be attending or not but I didn't hear anything from her. And Rose, well that lucky pal of ours is vacationing right now in Mexico with her sister!

But anyway, I succeeded in getting a couple pictures today of our mini-reunion group and here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

Here are the six of us -classmates who graduated together in May of 1962 from the Cooper Center West Branch Area High School, Cooper Center. From left to right going around the table there's yours truly, Betty Veres Boron, Linda Wertz Payne, Kate Nelson Eyerly, Doris Thompson Malinky and Arline Anderson Stover.

Above -Betty Boron Veres (the only member of our group still working) and Linda Wertz Payne.

Here's a closer shot of Kate Nelson Eyerly and Doris Thompson Malinky.

And finally, here's a picture of Doris Thompson Malinky and Arlene Anderson Stover.

Arlene is our classmate who now lives in Georgia and the other five of us still reside in this region.

The really nice thing about our lunch today was that it was a nice special reunion for Doris, Betty and Arlene as those three were like the :Three Musketeers" -always together, usually talking and giggling back then too. And today was the first time since graduation that Arlene had seen Betty! How's that for making the event just a bit more special?

We're hoping that at some of our future lunches meetings, so girls from other classes around ours might be visiting in the area and able to join us too. So if you're reading this -Gracie and Margie -let me know when you plan to be back home for a couple days and I'm sure we can pull something together then for another extra-special kind of lunch meeting!

Nothing like some good food and lots of laughter and fellowship between some old friends to make for a great day.