I have to admit that it was rather enjoyable. I signed up to join and paid my membership fee. I don't recall exactly, but that may have been about 7 years ago. I've attended very few, maybe 3, meetings since joining, but I do maintain email contact with the secretary. She lets me know when to pay my dues and sends the monthly meeting notes.
The last meeting notice I received indicated that Anne-Marie from my first grade class at the Savage Elementary School back in 1947 was going to make a presentation. The title of her presentation was "FROM THE HALLS OF SAVAGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI".
When I got to the meeting, Anne-Marie was there as was Donald, who was also in the same class. I hadn't seen either of them since our high school days. Quite a few other members of the SHS were there. Needless to say since I wasn't a regular, a few of us were unacquainted. Nice bunch of folks though.
I have to admit that while I was interested in hearing about Anne-Marie's tour in Libya for the State Department, I was much more interested in her stories from the Savage Elementary School days. Her presentation was very good and prompted a spirited discussion of the current Libyan situation. I'm not gonna kid you here, I pay little attention to the world outside the BToS and couldn't contribute.
Anne-Marie was kind to augment her presentation with some neat fotos and other memorabilia from the ol' Savage Elementary School. In all, it was a fun evening and nice to revisit a bit of my youth and catch up with a couple of classmates.
One of the photographs Anne-Marie shared was our first grade class foto. Fortunately I had scanned the same foto and cropped the images of Anne-Marie, Donald and myself from it. They are displayed here.
This is our first grade photograph at Savage Elementary School.
Anne-Marie from class foto.
Donald from class foto.
Dewey (BToS JD) from class foto.
Those old fotos sure are cute!!!
Ponder your old days fondly too,
JD
PS - The first comment is from Anne-Marie, which I posted for her.
PPS - Anne-Marie's displays:
3 comments:
"I enjoyed seeing Dewey's blog with photos of our Savage Elementary School first-grade class and his comments about my presentation on Libya -- my first post during my career wth the U.S. Department of State. On December 2, 1979, the American Embassy in Tripoli was overtaken by Libyan militants intent on taking us hostage. We escaped as they entered the building, which they ransacked and set on fire. The next day we were flown out of the country, then back to the United States.
Galen Menne and Helen Suter Rushing extended an invitation to me to share my memories of Savage School and my experience in Libya with the Savage Historical Society on April 18, 2011. I am delighted that the members enjoyed my presentation. -- Anne-Marie Gabor"
I neglected to thank Anne-Marie and especially her chauffeuring husband Essam for taking the long drive from their home in northern Baltimore to the Big Town of Savage.
I'd also like to commend Essam for his excellent, insightful comments during the Libya portion of the discussion. He's originally from Egypt, where he and Anne-Marie met and married while she was on State Department assignment. He's now an American Citizen.
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