Gathering at the Mall: June 13, 2007

It seems appropriate that this first article is written on Flag Day ... after all, one of the earliest sponsors for the Saints (and scads of other corps from our era) was the American Legion -- specifically, Post 324 in Edison, followed by Post 471 in Iselin.

As kids, we probably all hung at the mall, be it Menlo or Woodbridge. After all, it's where many of us grew up, not to mention practiced for how many years. Meeting at the food court at Menlo Park Mall last evening "worked" on so many levels.

We took over a whole section of the food court, amazing passers-by who must have thought we were having an AARP meeting or something similar. They may have seen a bunch of 40- and 50-somethings hanging out, but our hearts all beat as young as they did in shared cadence over 30 years ago.

Not much (any?) planning happened for the 40th Anniversary reunion, except a sense of urgency that we've gotta get it done ... a couple of ideas were tossed around, and there will be more to come as we gather again to plan in earnest as soon as we can.

Many thanks to:

• our photographers (Rocky and Stoney besides me);
• Althea, Ferd, and everyone else who brought lots of stuff to look at, scan, and record (I still can't believe Karen's baton case and some of the stuff written on it, but that's another story);
• Darlene's multimedia entertainment;
• all who shared old and created new memories all evening.
  

Here's a list of those who joined us, in mostly alphabetical order:

• Mark "Rocky" Chiocchi (webmaster extraordinare)
• Linda (Burke) Andel
• Joyce (Skibo) Andrechick
• Patty Antol
• Jackie Bodzas
• Pete "Peaches" Chesnovitz (and by phone, Al "Goober" Chez)
• Kenny "Pebbles" Chiocchi
• Jim "Stoney" Comprido
• Denise (Normandia) Dube
• Ken Durrua
• Darlene (Stover) Dziowgo
• Dawn Fair
• Maureen Fastuca
• Marty Guare
• Kenny Kadash
• Althea Mazar
• Billy Meyer
• JoAnne Parente
• Karen Parente
• Barbara (Jackson) Piccolo
• Jim "Pic" Piccolo
• Rich "Ferd" Ponik
• Lorraine (Fastuca) Ravino
• Mark "Peanuts" Scotto
• Marty Straka

All for now -- corpsdially yours from jo!