Breakfast at the Farm

Our hosts last night, Skip and his wife Judy, live less than a mile away from the farmhouse and have a barn which Skip--a repository of knowledge about California history-- remodeled into a kind of hunting lodge/man cave/bar. There is a real bar--a beautiful wooden one complete with stools. Several animal heads and big fish watch the proceedings from the walls and lots of old pictures and newspaper clippings of people and the area take us back to earlier times. A big table dominates the middle of the room and my favorite touch--two Christmas trees (no decorations) provide a forest-like backdrop. This was the perfect setting for the gathering of RGang--high school buddies and their partners.

Skip initiated this tradition ten or twelve years ago with a barbecue in his garden. At some point in the evening, the power went out. We were all congratulating ourselves that we were not much affected, since we were outdoors cooking over open flames. Skip, who retired from the power company, professed to be very glad that it was no longer his responsibility to worry about such things. However, he kept disappearing "to call a guy" to see if he could find out what was going on. As the evening wore on and the power didn't come back, only one real problem developed. The water from the well was was delivered by a pump which was not getting power. Not a problem either until the toilets ran out of water for flushing purposes.....The men were instructed to use the olive orchard leaving non-flushing toilets to the ladies.

In the end, it turned out that it was a massive West Coast grid failure which took many hours to bring back online and many months of rehashing in the press. Skip and Judy took the whole thing in stride, and it was a memorable evening in many ways, and the first of many years of reunions.

The "gang" assembles from all over--Idaho, Santa Barbara, Arizona, Tahoe, and the Bay Area. Glenn brought his mother, a darling 93 year old lady who claimed she still remembered all "the boys" who once hung out at her house after school. Claire is an honorary member since I'm pretty sure she didn't hang out with them then, but she did go to San Rafael High School and she hangs out with them now!

A caterer barbecued steaks outside and served them up with gnocchis and an array of vegetables, many of them from Judy's bountiful garden. Judy has a really green thumb and grows everything from fabulous begonias to heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and squash. We all had a grand time catching up and moving on from where we left off at last year's gathering.

This morning we all convened at the farmhouse for coffee and pastries. I had no idea where were going to put everybody, but I needn't have worried. Everybody found a spot and carried on from where they left off last night. I caught the three in today's blip looking a bit like they were at a tea party. A far cry, I suspect, from the "good old days" of high school.

It's nice to see friendships which really stand the test of time.