October 9 BJ reunion revving up

BJ Reunion update:

Definitely at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9 at a restaurant to be named later. Either at Papa Joe’s or in Chapel Hill, depending on how many RSVPs I get.

So far, 14 say that they will be there. I need to know the number by Wednesday so I’ll know how large a room we’ll need.

COMING:

Charles Montague

Elaine Guregian

Curt Brown

Bob Dyer

Ann Sheldon Mezger

Ott & Ann Gangl

Jane Snow

Betsy Lammerding

Doug Oplinger

George Bing Davis

Bill Hunter

John Olesky

Russ Musarra

 

MAYBE

Roger Mezger (4:30 Bengals game)

Those in departments other than the Newsroom also are passing the word to their former co-workers, too.

 

NO SHOWS

Mark Dawidziak will be celebrating his wedding anniversary in New York or New England.

Sarah Vradenburg will be traveling from New York City to Ohio.

Kathy Fraze

Colleen Murphy Tigelman

Please respond on the Beacon Journal Alumni Facebook page or directly to me via email at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com  and I'll talk to the restaurant manager to make sure he/she can guarantee a room to handle the crowd number that I give them. I won't stop till I have a convenient place where we can all be in the same room.

Thank you.

I'm looking forward to the BJ reunion, open to ALL departments.

John Olesky

 

I received a couple of interesting emails from those who will not be there:

Sorry, please add the following to the not-able-to-attend list:         Kathy Goforth       Charles Buffum       Judge Crater   In August, two of the three of us on the above list  stopped by Sharon and Paul Lorentzen’s posh Akron  Rose Blvd villa during Goforth’s annual cousin’s annual reunion in Richfield and encountered : Russ Musarra, who for some reason, still remembers my middle name [Walbridge, but that’s off the record]; a gruff cartoonist who looks like he should live under a bridge and eat billy goats, but is offset by his lovely helpmate, Lisa, who looks too young to become a first-time  grandparent the week after we left; an unnamed former city editor with the deep background initials Charleen Nevada Krummel, and her artist-retiree hubby — let’s call him “Art” — who apparently did better in his BJ retirement package than I did.  As for us Gobuffs, we still are alive and thriving in the peace and quiet of midtown Manhattan, where the dawn and every damn garbage truck both come up like thunder outside our bedroom window.  I am in regular contact with a number of BJ vets, including Don Winbush, Bill Hershey, Tim Smith, and Dick McBane, the latter who agrees that it was a privilege and a blast to work for the Beacon when newspapers were considered past of lower-case democracy.  Have  a good lunch.  No, have a perfect day lunch — domestic wine only, of course.  Buff And from Dick McBane:

A general greeting to all concerned ---         My wife (Marilynn) and I will not be attending the Sunday evening reunion, but I'll be there in spirit and wish all those attending, and those not attending as well, abundant blessings. It's just a bit too far regardless of how good the company would be.  As I read the local Gwinnett County paper -- four mornings each week -- I think often of BJ glory days of the past. The Gwinnett paper is a very good publication -- well written, well edited, and well aware of the role it plays in the wider Atlanta community. From a quality standpoint I hold it far superior to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The AJC, I believe, fell prey to its own reputation and is so proud of itself that it has become careless about both content and composition. Besides, as a metropolitan paper it has become needlessly expensive. I cut off my subscription very quickly after we moved here -- a decision which was made easier by the fact that the AJC eliminated its Gwinnett County edition .         Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to cover a criminal case in a Gwinnett County court. I wonder, but I'm not about to go off to find out. Bringing in the paper from the driveway, and reading it during breakfast is enough excitement for me. Besides, we have two grandchildren here in college, plus two more here who will soon also be headed for the halls of higher learnng, and two off in Texas who have a few years yet before college beckons. And, I can be proud of the fact that I worked for the ABJ when it was the best newspaper in Ohio. I'd start a list of co-workers, but too many names would be left out, and Ben Maidenburg would raise hell about why I was so careless.          So, to all those at the BJ reunion on 10-9-16, enjoy and rejoice that you've been a part of a great newspaper, working with some of the best in the business, and have rich memories to help keep you warm on some of those cold December mornings in Ohio.         Dick McBane       Lilburn, GA