Washington Area Lunch - May 11, 2012

Pictures were submitted by Dave Carruth

Last Friday, May 11th, 2012 thirty three Classmates and widows gathered at the Pirate’s Cove restaurant in Galesville,MD which my GPS says is 38 miles from my house. Betty and I with Bob Pyle and Rosemary Hogg drove over. The day was one of those which the Lord doesn’t make many of and after we got off the Beltway all of us were thoroughly enjoying the scenery and the weather. I was enjoying it so much that despite the lady in the GPS best effort I missed two turns; however, she gave me an instant recovery and we still arrived at the restaurant at the time predicted when we left the house. The beauty of the day was even more impressive looking out the windows of the restaurant at the water and the many sail boats anchored there.

Those in attendance were:

From Annapolis

Fay Barnes

Don & Marion Buhrer

Roger and Amante Carlquist

Phil and Patsy Rogers

John & Toni Fry

John & Peg Holland- they actually live in Timonium, MD

Leila Holstein

Jean Lochner

Charlie and Marguerite Heid

Bob & Helga Smith

Nancy Reams

Bob & Judy Flood

Bill Bass and Carol Manganaro

From the Washington area

Warren Graham

Dave & Betty Carruth

Bob Pyle

Rosemary Hogg

Bill Bartow

Tony Duncan

Charlie & Jean Mertz

Bing & Anne-Marie Sisson

The restaurant gave us a choice of steak, crab cakes, or chicken. Most of us ate the crab because the restaurant does a very, very good job on those cakes. Bill Bass ordered the steak and I guess the restaurant had overestimated the orders for steak because they gave him two (he took one home). Everyone was quite happy with the meal.

Since I’ve mentioned Bill Bass, he is The Flasher (see the pictures) He is showing the lining of the Blue Blazer which Carol bought for him at the midshipman’s store. I’ll be in Annapolis on the 23rd for a meeting of the reunion committee and just may go buy myself one of those.

Our speaker was our Head Coach, Ken Niumatalolo. He told us how happy he has been for the 15 years he has been coaching the football team at the Academy. He said the Big East decision was only made after a great deal of research, and discussion by all concerned and he recognizes that Navy has bitten off a big challenge. He is convinced that the team will make a very good showing in the upcoming season starting with Notre Dame in Ireland. He commented that our stadium is the prettiest and best of all stadiums he has seen and the expansion by 4000 seats will make it even better. Nancy Reams suggested that during the expansion they consider adding more railings on the steps so that us senior citizens have greater safety going up and down. Coach was very happy to get that input and said he would bring it up with the Athletic Director the next time they got together. A question from the floor asked about other teams like Ohio State and Notre Dame paying Navy to play them. Coach said it is not uncommon for schools to pay other schools to play. He also made a comment that his job is, of course, very much in the public eye as are many other leadership positions; however, no one has any qualms about coming up to him and asking why he went for the yardage on fourth down. He laughed and said the others don’t get approached and asked similar questions. He is comfortable with it and appreciates that people are seriously watching the games and that when they recognize him they feel free to greet him and want to talk about the games.

Warren told us that Bob Ghormley has a very rare form of leukemia and is terminal so please keep Bob and Nancy in your prayers.

The trip home was also enjoyable, at least until we got to the beltway.