Firstoff we had to find this SEE-gar place out on 75th Street somewhere west of where Joe Modaff lives, and buy some quality stogies for the birthday celebration, women included.  Romeo and Juliet SEE-gars, for you affectionados.  Now it was 10:30 Friday morning (when most poeple belong at work) and the traffic was one step short of bumper-to-bumper.  Eventually Naperville will be the hub of a fatal gridlock in this country.  I'm certain.

To make matters worse, there are few road and street names left in that part of town that any of us would remember from the fifties.  Eventually we found the needle in the haystack.

Went by the old high school and the ball fields and worked our way to a Main & Jefferson parking situation and explored upriver along the "roaring" DuPage, west branch to be particular.  Naperville's Riverwalk ... a nice addition to the always dirty, always uninviting DuPage.  Work currently goes on to extend the Riverwalk south, well past the college.  And now the RW extends a fair ways beyond The Beach in the other direction.  I made it as far as The Beach and Pete W & The Pea went back for the van.  The Beach is closed for the season, but it never looked better.  Remember the 1955 aquarama or whatever it was?

And the college (North Central) has just built a stadium almost befitting a Big 10 school.  Same location.  Even looks as if they have premium enclosed boxes.  North Central?  Come on.

Pete W invited us over for lunch at his place in Glen Ellyn where we got re-acquainted with his wife Diane.  After some amiable chit-chat over a sandwich and some more caffiene we returned to the Courtyard for a nap.
That's what happens at 60 you know!
 

10:20 PM - yeh,yeh, yeh, I know ... "back so early"?  Hey, we weren't the first ones to leave.  And the story be told...

Also, I give this Courtyard an "A" in my book on hotels, at least in my price range.
Check it out when you come to Naperville.  Pretty decent!  Jansen helped put it in my price range.

After a late afternoon dip in the Courtyard's indoor pool, which is quite nice BTW, we changed and drove down to Lou Malnati's Pizza on Jefferson Street where the old fire house used to be, across from the old National Tea.  You see, relating to Naperville these days and communicating to your cohorts means saying "where the old ___ used to be" constantly.  If Jansen had sent me for SEE-gars and said "the place is 1/1/2 miles due south of where Cleo Bender's place used to be", I would have driven right to it.  We were the first there at 5:25.  The matre di scooted us along to a trendy prepared outside area in front of the building along the street.  At 5:40 we were getting a bit fidgity as this was supposed to start at 5:30.  Oh I knew Pete Wohld wouldn't be on time :-)

But then ... strolling down the sidewalk, with a western gait befitting his New Mexican attire, ambled George Taylor ...  Looking just like George, perhaps a little "weathered" from the desert living.  Left Amigo at home to spend quality time with his mom.

A couple minutes later in strolled Pete Wohld, looking just like Pete Wohld, like he was lost.  George deferred to Diet Coke, Pete jumped into the beer feet first.

Then, in approximate order, the following classmates showed up (spouses shown with an "S" because I couldn't always remember their names):  Carol McKenna Haumesser (S) and Jack Herring (S), Jim Murphy, Dwayne Chenier (S), Curt Shimp, Bill Magnuson (S), Helen Spinner Koth and Sarah Martin, Cleo (Cleo is getting more like Cher - just one word), Sharon Barkei Campbell, Bob Guler (whose wife passed away this past year), Carolyn Weiner Zurla, Barry Fineout (S), Jim Adams (with girlfriend), Florian Groesch (S), Barb Schmidt Cella (S), Clyde and Joan Uebele, Don Hamman (S), Mary Lanter Halde, Sylvia Boecker Jackson and Mike, Naydyne Burgess Waddell - looking pretty svelte I might add, and finally the Jansens - Bob and Ann.

As the beers, the wine, and the BLAH-BLAH-BLAH-BLAH'S flowed the bunch got reacquainted with each other and had one grand old time.  Occasionally you'd see a tray of pizza ... if you could get it away from "Fish" Herring.  The street in front transcended to kind of a moonlit setting with some special high sreetlights the city has installed.  And NO CRUISING, as signs will tell you along the avenue, and Helen says "they inforce it".

Everybody looked good.  This is not a fib.  Especially Cleo who is recovering from  serious surgery.

About 2/3 of the way along, a small contingent appears on the sidewalk, presents Jansen with a big birthday cake for the class, and whaddayaknow, the Class of '59 was having their reunion nearby, and decided to get us a cake.  Floyd Page, Mary Flanders (yep), Renell Ridley and a few others stopped to gas for a spell and later some of went down the block to their party as well.  Fun (for me) to especially see Sue Eller, Kathy Boecker, Doug Nuckles, and a few others.

When we got back to the hotel I awaited e-mails of regrets from Barb Beckmann Schaaf, Lina High McFadden, Ted Alderman, Bob Heim and Bob Hagemenn.  But Hage got mixed up 'cause he's coming tomorrow.

Just before nodding off ... final score, the highly rated Naperville Central polished off West Chicago 49-7.  Way to go Redskins.  Whoops.