After the 9/11 attacks I heard an account of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania that claimed the small group that stormed the cabin to thwart the hijackers was a group of college friends on an annual junket somewhere. What better way to show your dedication to alma mater and each other than to defend your country?
My classmate Jim Evans and I had been talking for years about going out East to see college buddies, yet we had never done it. Kids, family—the usual excuses.
But after that plane went down in Pennsylvania, we decided that if we never got these guys together, we would always regret it.
So that year 11 of us gathered on the East coast. It wasn’t particularly patriotic and certainly not heroic. We Midwesterners got to visit Boston, then Cape Cod, then returned to Fenway to watch Pedro Martinez pitch against Ichiro Suzuki as the Red Sox took on the Mariners. But we caught up on one another’s lives and had a great time and plenty of TWR.
Since then a few of us have reconvened on more than one occasion. A few have rekindled close friendships.Last spring we lost one of our original travelers when Terry “Yo” Endsley ’77 passed away. Our gratitude for that first get together deepened as we recalled those days spent with him.
We truly would have regretted not having taken that first trip to Boston with Yo, and that is what our get-together is about—no regrets.
