A Little Slice of Heaven

By Barbara Groark

This early evening I was driving home on Route 38 from the Amendolas’ beautiful home and I noticed three hot-air balloons floating above the shorn cornfields. There was also a full moon showing before sundown. This seemed an apt close to the famous Holy Cross High School Class of 1968 40th Reunion Weekend in Ocean City, New Jersey, based at the Flanders Hotel, during which there was a feeling of floating slightly above the earth as we all enjoyed each other’s company, met some brave spouses, heard some new stories and went to the beach in weather almost unbelievably beautiful. There’s a joke about hot air in there somewhere, but I can’t find it.

Dan Turygan has already sent some photos. I need to process them a little, so I won’t be including any at the moment. I think reviewing the weekend will take several blog articles. I also need some processing time on the photos and digital video – assuming the video did not show up black due to poor lighting. Hey, I’m just a home movie kind of guy. I’m good at wedding showers and family parties.

A fine time was had by all. I may be shooting questions by email to some of you to verify story facts and to remind me of your spouses’ names (brave spouses). I danced with people I never danced with in high school. I also noticed many people who just looked a lot happier than they did in high school. This is a good thing, no?

We had a surprise Saturday afternoon visit from one former teacher, Mr. John Murray – pictures later – who taught Algebra at Holy Cross for one year only, our junior year, but who really wanted to see Joanne Nowakowski and Michael LaRocco particularly – and who happened to see our blog. He had an amazing story concerning Joanne and her opinion of his alleged ‘sexy elbows’ and their scandalous correspondence for several years. I came up on the last half of this conversation, so would Nancy Mahony please fill me in on the beginning? Unfortunately, Joanne had to cancel attending because of a sudden illness – hope you are OK by now, Joanne – hey, maybe you should fill us in on the true facts of this case.

The reason I missed the beginning of that conversation is that I was recording the full immersion in the Atlantic Ocean of Mike LaRocco. He was the only one participating in the full reunion triathlon, but he was determined to do it. He reported that the water was not really very cold, but that the brisk breeze was colder. Pictures later.