The 1969-70 IES Vienna Group40th Anniversary

2010 Boston Reunion

1© 2011 Copyright Lily Mazurek

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Created by Lily Mazurek with contributions and input from Karen Schmuckli Booth, Mike Mullane, Virginia Meagher, Tom Finnerty,

and Barbara-Anne Steegmuller Johnson. Special thanks to Russ Gonnering who put so many of us in touch to begin with!

It all started when Lily traveled from Florida to visit Marcy in Boston in August of 2009….a reunion after 30+ years…Among other things, the former roomies went to a concert at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA, a favorite concert spot for both…hmmm, thought Lily as she saw Strauss on the following summer’s concert roster a week or so later…might be a good occasion for a reunion, eh?

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Preparation for the reunion, as well as the reunion itself was one of those crazy experiences…like a Celtic knot…it meandered here and there…was pulled off track dozens of times, misinformed, diverted, turned back upon itself,

but somehow, it always came back to center and turned out perfectly in the end.

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Karen, another former housemate, offered to help out when things got crazy. After a while, when something didn’t go as planned, Karen and Lily just howled with laughter. It was like a huge hand reached down from

above and kept saying, “That’s lovely, but that isn’t what I want. THIS is going to happen instead.”

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Friday, July 23, 2010

The day started off innocently enough, people arriving, getting their hotel room at Club Quarters…..

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Then in the afternoon we received a phone call that Paul DeStefano, who had

just come all the way from California, had an emergency and sadly had to

leave right away. He came to say goodbye to us at the hotel and

rushed off to the airport….We missed you Paul….!

We originally had about 20 people coming…numbers dwindled during the last 2 days to 11.

But we knew it would still be a wonderful reunion. It just had THAT feeling to it.

In the evening we had cocktails at Top of the Hub

with a panoramic view of Boston….

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…well…not exactly, haaa… it rained and the view was mostly foggy for the first part of the evening… but not

a problem. We had so much fun we all decided to stay for dinner, too. Here are 3 roomies reunited:

Karen, Lily, and Marcy.

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Everyone was so generous…Henry brought Mardi Gras beads from New Orleans

which Barbara-Anne and Lily promptly put to good use…

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Barbara-Anne gave everyone a copy of her award-winning

documentary, SUPERPOWER, a very shrewd film that

goes behind the scenes of America’s national security

apparatus and military actions.

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Terry O’Donnell won money several times in Lottery scratch

offs and paid for group cab fares and drinks a few times…

talk about the luck of the Irish! Thanks Terry!

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We also had an anonymous donor from our group who covered

our entire drink tab for the formal dinner for Saturday.

We came to call this person the Beverage

Benefactor. A big THANK YOU from all of us! We lift

a glass to your kindness and generosity!

Friday night was also when we recreated…or updated?... our infamous

Trafalgar Square photo…

Funny thing… both Mike and Lily had the same idea…so Mike brought the birdseed and Lily brought the pigeons, haaa…and here’s the results from then and now…

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1969…with Laurie, Mike,

and Lily

2010…as reenacted by Karen, Mike, and

Lily

It was good food, good company, good stories, good service…a wonderful evening. In attendance were…

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L to R: Karen Schmuckli Booth, Lily Mazurek, Mike Mullane, Virginia Meagher, Henry McCarthy, Julie Sygiel (Virginia’s daughter), Barbara-Anne Steegmuller Johnson, Marcy Murninghan, Terry O’Donnell (absent from photo)

Henry and Barbara-Anne look at some of the memorabilia that was passed around…lots of memories restored…

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A special moment with Daughter and Mom…Julie and Virginia…

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and a great shot of Julie and Karen…sporting the Mardi Gras beads of course…

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Henry also told us about how he and his family survived Hurricane Katrina while living in New Orleans….

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Let’s see that happy group once again….

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The next morning Barbara-Anne, Terry, Virginia,

Karen and Lily had breakfast

next to the hotel at the Elephant & The Castle…

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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Then, for the 5 hardy mateys that were left, it was off to Boston Harbor …

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L to R: Terry O’Donnell, Virginia Meagher, Lily Mazurek,Barbara-Anne Steegmuller Johnson, Karen Schmuckli Booth

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Cruisin’…

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…on our way…

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Land ahoy….

29Naval Museum

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Ship ahoy, mateys!

31USS Constitution: Old Ironsides

And there she was…what a

beauty!

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Captain Who? is steering this ship…??

And the story goes that she was called Old Ironsides because…

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she seemed impervious….

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to cannonballs…

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The “four graces” had lunch afterwards at the popular Jacob Wirth restaurant, known for its beer, schnitzel & atmosphere…From L to R: Lily, Karen, Barbara-Anne, Virginia…

The saying above the bar, “Suum Cuique” indicates “To Each His Own”…and we certainly did….

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In the evening it was off to the “castle” as we called it: Smith & Wollensky’s restaurant.

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A few more IES alumni joined us and a grand time was had by all…

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From L to R: Terry O’Donnell, John Meissner, Henry McCarthy, Lily Mazurek,Karen Schmuckli Booth, Marcy Murninghan, Mike Mullane, Rosemary Mullane (Mike’s daughter), Barbara-Anne Steegmuller Johnson, Virginia Meagher, Tom Finnerty.

Lily gave a speech thanking all who came and all who assisted with the reunion and calling us a “tribe”… we certainly felt like one.

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Virginia led us in singing “Edelweiss”…and Henry sang a solo of “O Tannenbaum”… the patrons didn’t know what hit them, I’m

sure, but they broke out in applause for our musicale…

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Some special moments from our reunion dinner…

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And some more posing for posterity…

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with smiling faces….

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deep discussions…

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and of course, the grand finale!

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While some of us were busy checking out other watering holes afterwards…others were at the hotel dealing with a fire, smoke, and evacuation…

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

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Everyone left town by Sunday so it wasa lovely day for the two reunion planners to just kick back and relax….

So we did a little cultural

sightseeing… at the Institute for Contemporary

Art, on the waterfront…

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And had some lunch at the Barking Crab…

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And what happened to the Tanglewood plan, you say?

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Well, remember the Celtic knot? ….As Robert Burns said, “The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew”….

So due to circumstances beyond our control, our Tanglewood outing was cancelled. But not to

worry, it’s waiting there for another reunion at another time. Any takers?!!

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In the meantime, look where it got us!...to a wonderful time of rebonding and reacquainting

and old and new friendships! …

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We hope to see you at the next reunion! Possible location: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, or…?

Time: You tell us when!

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Any planners out there who would like to plan the next reunion? Please contact: Lily Mazurek

or Karen Booth. We look forward to seeing you all and having more fun times together! Thanks for making our first reunion so enjoyable!

Auf wiedersehen!

57© 2011 Copyright Lily Mazurek