One of the joys of teaching is the extended family a teacher develops, peopled with the many students who pass through a program and its productions year after year.  Few disciplines, if any, offer the opportunity for developing close ties as does the theatre.  Thus it was an especially joyous occasion when Tom Bloom and the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences put together an event that reunited a goodly number of the New York area extended family.  I happily joined the group on Sunday, January 15.

As they have so generously done in the past, Peter Webb and his wife, Pat Galloway, hosted all of us in their spacious apartment on West End Avenue.  Peter has always been an excellent host and something of a party animal.  Some of you will remember that it was Peter who, as a student,   came up with the annual Spring Promenade.  The first of those memorable occasions was held in the Rotunda as a fund-raiser for a Drama Building still in the planning stages.  It was also Peter who declared that, by God, this would be a formal affair in the truest sense of the word, with black tie required for the men and long dresses for the ladies.  Quite memorable, wonderfully successful.

When I arrived at Pat and Peter's a few minutes after 2:00 the party was already well under way—perhaps that says something about how much we all enjoy getting together.  A steady stream of "members of the family" continued to arrive all afternoon.  I wish I could bring to mind all the folks who attended, but there is no question that I enjoyed seeing everyone from my days with the Department, as well as a few   who arrived since I retired.

It was an unexpected surprise to see Martin Gardner, definitely the eldest of the group and one who was with us in the early days back in Minor Hall.  But our clan spanned quite a few years, and minutes after arriving I was chatting with Skipp Sudduth, Allen Fitzpatrick, Paul Ames, Richard Bryant, Juli Cooper, Mary Creede, Debra Dumas, Jack Gwaltney, Mary Pat Walsh and Mark Hattan, to name a few.   I was also delighted to see Ann Hould Ward.  She and a couple of others from her era joined in a good chat, playing, "Have you heard what so-and-so is doing?"

Though the event was to end at 5:00, it was well after 6:00 when the last of us departed. It was a wonderful occasion and I went away feeling a lot of nostalgia and more than just friendship for all these kinfolk.  We are, indeed, still, and always, a family.

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