Friday, September 24: Class Dinner in San
Diego.
To coordinate with the 1 PM football game
against the University of San Diego on the 25th. Optional tennis
or golf at the Del Mar Country Club Friday afternoon. Also, the
Friends of Princeton Football have arranged a major tailgate picnic at the
stadium before the game, starting at 10:30 AM.
Chairmen: Jim Blair
& Joe McGinity
'61's Southern California weekend - 9/24 and 9/25
by
Joe McGinity
Twenty-five classmates and significant others gathered for a weekend of
fun and football on 9/24 and 25 in sunny southern California. Inspired by
the invitation of Jim and Sue Blair, we met Friday night for dinner at
their home in Rancho Santa Fe, overlooking the picturesque Del Mar Country
Club.
Californians present were: our hosts Jim and Sue, Vern and Judy Close,
Parker and Sally Finch, Ron and Barbara Goldman, Chip and Nancy Hatch,
Phil and Kathy Johnson, Paul and Sue Rubincam, Bill and Jacqui Rudell,
George Scheele and Judith Ryland. From out of town came Carol
Wojciechowicz, Jerry and Wilma Ehrens, Art and Stephanie Strasburger,
Maureen and I. Shirley Tilghman was at a gathering in Los Angeles, but
sent her regrets.
 From cocktails to dinner and dessert at the Blairs the buzz was like a
family gathering. Plenty of stories, lots of laughs and friendships
renewed. Bill Rudell led a locomotive for our generous hosts, and we
passed the hat for donations to our 45th reunion fund. It was late when
the last of us left the Blairs, but the fun wasn't over.
McGinity, Sheele, Jim and Sue, Wilma and Jerry Ehrens,
Sally Finch, Judith Ryland, Jacqui Rudell
 Next day we made our way to the scenic campus of the University of San
Diego, where our Princeton Tigers were to play their first game ever on
the west coast. USD was founded in 1949, has 4,800 undergrads, and is a
built in a Spanish Renaissance style, overlooking Mission Bay and the
Pacific, just north of San Diego. The tailgate was well attended and
featured President Tilghman, the Princeton Band, and a score or more of us
in our "1961" caps.
at USD before the game, with Shirley Tilghman
Standing, from left - Kathy Johnson, Blair, Rubincam, Barbara Goldman,
Kurt Hovan '89, Shirley, Carol Wojciechowicz. Kneeling - Phil
Johnson, Sue Blair, McGinity, Lisa Blair Hovan '87
On to the game, which drew a good crowd, and was closely fought. We
jumped out to a 21 point lead in the second quarter, then held on to win
24 - 17. When the issue was in doubt,
Princeton spirits were rallied by a lone bagpiper playing "Going Back
to Nassau Hall." A tall, handsome guy, could have been from the Royal
Highland Regiment - except for his "1961" baseball cap! It was
our own Chip Hatch.* The tiger defense stiffened, threw the Toreros for a
loss, and the game was won. Thanks Chip! [Click here
for complete game details.]
After the game a bunch of us gathered for margaritas and guacamole at
La Casa de Bandini in historic Old Town, to celebrate. Among the revelers
were Chip, Carol Wojcie, the Blairs (and family), Goldmans, Strasburgers,
Closes, Sheele, and the McGinitys. The margaritas were huge, and somehow
we all got home, I think. Terrific time all around.
* from Chip Hatch: "[An] exchange of emails [about the Band making
the trip to San Diego] is how the whole bagpiping-at-Torrero-stadium caper
came to be. Ben Elias [is] the band secretary, as well as a clarinetist.
He was my contact. His particular uniform fittingly was a Princeton kilt,
an orange and black tartan. Between the final whistle and the margarita at
Casa Bandini I joined the band in the traditional end of game set of jazzy
type tunes at the stadium gate. They invited me join in their drum riff
with my pipes. It was great fun. Did I mention that at the time? Probably
got lost in Bandini good fellowship and lime. At the game, by the end of
the first half I was ready to move out of the west facing end zone
section, in which the band and I were melting down, to join you all.
It got a bit surreal sitting next to all the honking and thudding and
clanging (most of it was musical) whenever Princeton made a great
play. I tried complementing their "Going Back" with a
bagpipe version which I rehearsed by myself at the beach last week.
When I came over to your section you all were kind to put up with my
playing. It's my version of "Prairie Home Companion's"
spoof-sponsor Powder Milk Biscuits: You know the bit where Garrison
Keillor says "My, how delicious. They give shy people the courage to
get up and do what has to be done." I don't consider myself a
complete wall flower, but the pipes at least are a conversation piece.
Believe it or not those real musicians in the Princeton band were
fascinated with how the pipes worked. I don't think I knew any band people
when we were undergrads.
Anyway, you get the idea. I started taking lessons in 1986 from a friend
of the family's prodigy teenage son. Chip
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