Hello again, today is January 12th and I thought I’d bring you up to date on my travels. On January 3rd, I drove to Philly and met Joe Stoutzenberger and John Bohrer and on Monday, the 4th, we flew to Miami, Florida. We met there with Dwight Birket and Roger Menting and boarded the Carnival ship, Imagination for a cruise to Key West and Cozumel, Mexico. All of us were seminarians together in 1964 at Mt. St. Paul Seminary in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Over the last 45 years, some of us have gotten together and we keep in touch but this was an opportunity to have a mini reunion and we had a ball. We laughed so much, our stomachs hurt. Three had never been on a cruise so they didn’t want to be too far out of sight of land in case they were sick and wanted to fly home. Fortunatey, John was sick but only for a short time and once he got the “patch” he was feeling fine.
We were met in Key West by another former classmate, Paul Clayton. He treated all of us to a wonderful trip around the Key on the Conch train, where we saw Hemingway’s house, the winter White House of President Truman, and many other unique sites. It was a great visit, although I think Paul was disappointed that the weather was cool – it was in the 50’s – a rarity in those parts but as Roger had come from Wisconsin, Dwight from Kansas, and the rest of us from the freezing Mid-Atlantic states, we though it was balmy!
Cozumel was in the 90’s and even when we returned to spend an overnight in Miami, it was in the 60’s and we thought it was tropical – especially to arrive back in Philly to -5 degrees.
We also sent and received email from Steve Bleistine in New Jersey, Denis Gavigan in Grand Rapids, and Dave Haas in Detroit, Michigan, all former classmates with whom we have re-established contact recently. By the by, none of us can remember if Father Gordon’s name is his first or last name. We just called him “Fr. Gordon” or “Flash Gordon”. Does anyone out there know?
Now, after a few days at home, I leave to give a retreat in Achorage, Alaska. Please no comments! Our Savior said to his disciples, “Go now to the ends of the earth”. Some people take that as a suggestion. I have taken it as a command and so I am off to see Alaska, which I visited last summer, but need to see it in the winter. The kind lady who arranged for the retreat, asked if I would like to go anywhere else in Alaska. I said, “I had such a great time on the train trip from Fairbanks to Achorage one summer, that I’d like to see that same area in the winter, so maybe I could take the train north?” She hesitated and then said, “Monsignor, remember how you had 17 and a half hours of daylight when you were here in August? Well there will be 17 and a half hours of darkness in January. Maybe you should fly to Fairbanks.” So I am. I will be home on the 19th. I will be praying for all of you at the retreat; please keep me and the retreatents in your prayers as well.
I sure was verbose, so I will close for now.
Affectionately,
MO
Ps. I just noticed that it says you can’t make comments so I will contact the person who helped me to set this up and get that changed. I want to get your comments. mo