Special Celebration

This past weekend Trish and I made a little trip to Asheville for a special celebration and also a little personal break.

The real occasion was to mark the fiftieth wedding anniversary of one of my best college era friends, Ellis Finger.

We were all masked for socializing and then widely separated for dinner.

Ellis and I met where we were both working at Lake Junaluska, NC the summer before we entered Davidson College.  His father was at that time President of Millsaps Colege in Jackson, Mississippi.  At the end of the summer his parents returned to Jackson and he stayed on at Junaluska to be taken off to college with me by my parents.

We were good friends all through our college years and even returned to Junaluska each summer.  In 1964, Skipper ( as he was known then) and I made a summer-end trip together to Nashville, Tennessee.  That summer his father, Ellis, Senior, had been elected a Bishop in the United Methodist Church and the family moved from Jackson to Nashville.  I took Skipper home to their new city and we went to the Grand Ole Opry at the old Ryman Auditorium and explored Nashville in general.

Phyllis and Ellis, looking better and better after fifty years.

After graduating from Davidson, Skipper (who was becoming Ellis by now) and I both went to graduate school at Duke.  We rented the upstairs of an old house in Durham and shared living there for our first year at Duke.  After that year I got married and he went to study in Germany.

In 1970 it was my privilege to be asked to be in his wedding when he was married to Phyllis, again at Lake Junaluska in the Memorial Chapel there.  That was really our last time together for fifty years as he went on to a career teaching German at LaFayette College and later becoming Director of the Williams Art Center.

Five of ur from the wedding were here to propose a toast the Phyllis and Ellis for fifty successful years.

It was a delight to be back with a dozen friends from a half century ago to celebrate, with care, this anniversary.  I don’t think we will remain out of touch for another fifty years.