September 29 - October 4, 2011 Indiana Trip

This was a trip that Martha & Jim / Mary & Phil took to Indiana to celebrate the Class of 1956 55th Class Reunion. Our gracious hosts were Terry & Linda Trautman. Terry is also a classmate of ours and was chairperson of the Reunion Committee of which "The Twins" were a big part of. This is the story of our trip.

Thursday September 29th ... up at 4:30 AM scales 126.5 pretty darn close to my original goal of 125. A banana as a start to breakfast then it was off to the Tampa Airport with Louie & Lauri Agee. Really impressed with our first time use of the Body Scanner, much better than having a hand pat down. We both breezed thru it with no problems. Found our gate then we finished our breakfast and waited for our plane to Chicago O'Hara. During our layover at O'Hara we had our lunch...my diced peppers had come through security just fine and Phil had a sandwich. Arrived in Indianapolis and found Todd waiting to pick us up with the convertible..cute car but no trunk space. We drove over to where Joyce works. Picked her, Emily and Karley up then went to lunch with them..as we had already had lunch I had some garlic bread and a salad. Outside we asked if we could have the use of Joyce's car as it had a much larger trunk. Was great to visit with them while waiting for Martha & Jim to come in at almost 7 pm. Back at the airport I had a half Mexican burrito and saved the other half for Jim to eat.It was almost 9 by the time we arrived at Terry & Linda Trautman's House for our first night.

Friday, September 30th up at 6:30 Worked on Reunion papers then went out to visit Joseph and shop at Walmart on way home to buy poster board etc. Also picked up some spinach and veggie patties. Back home we all worked on putting together the Poster Boards for the reunion. For our evening meal, the Jansen's treated us all, including classmate, Tom Hilger & wife to dinner at Smiths Row. We all came back to the Trautman house after dinner and sat around visiting until about 10:30 PM.

Saturday, October 1st up at 6:30 at noon we drove downtown to the Visitor Center for a tour of the Miller Home. On our way we happened to stop by the Old City Hall, our Great Grandfather Brockman was one of the builders and has his name on a front cornerstone. We started a conversation with the new owners who are restoring the building to be office space and apartments. They invited us inside for a tour. It was fun to see the inside as neither of us had been inside since High School. We shared with them stories of the building during the 1950's. The tour of the Miller Home was great. Again this was built during our last year of High School and had always remained hidden behind landscaping... a well known architect design it...but then that’s not surprising as Columbus is well known for it's architect and the Miller family always brought in people famous for their designs.

Well I had completly typed this day and was into Sunday when it disappeared... now I have to retype so think I will wait until tomorrow to do this as I am tired. It's 9 AM Friday and I will try to finish this blog up before I go anywhere. Even tho I was really tired last night I still didn't sleep well.

By 3 PM we were off to the New Elks Club to decorate for the Class of 1956, 55th Reunion. By 4:30 people had already started arriving. Myself & Helen took care of the sign in table, Martha was the official photographer and Terry was the M/C. Linda sat with us at the sign in table to sell Terry’s just published book “My Columbus Was Different From Yours”. A good buffet dinner was served and Terry delivered a great program. We were delighted to see that many people stayed around afterwards to check out all the photo boards and to get reacquainted with old friends. We were back home by 9 PM where we continued the evening with more wine and conversation.

Sunday, October 2nd up at 6:30 again light breakfast and off to 8 AM Mass at St. Bartholomew’s. At 10:30 we all 6 went off for brunch, by the Benders, at the Hanger Five Restaurant. By 2 we were off to sister Shirley’s house to spend the rest of the day with her and brother Joseph. Joseph brought his youngest grandson, Tommy, with him as we had never met him... lots of fun with a 2 year old. Also got to visit with old friends Paulette and Donna. This was the first time that Martha had met Shirley’s friend Larry. At 5 we all adjourned to the Red Lobster to for a great meal provided by Shirley & Joe. We thought that we should have treated them as it was Joe’s birthday...but they insisted, so we were gracious and said Thank You. Following dinner we went back to Shirley’s house for cake and ice cream. After which we made our way out to Garland Brook to visit family graves and get a last view of our old house that is due to be torn down soon. Back at the Trautman’s more wine was had with lots of discussion of their upcoming trip to France with the Jansen’s come next April.

Monday, October 3rd up at 7:30 After breakfast we were on our way to visit Gary & Alitza. Gary, Phil and Terry all went for 9 holes of golf while I visited with Alitza. During our visit Alitza and I did get out and walked....very slowly... around the block at her house. After the guys came home we had a quick lunch...the guys played some music while we gals continued to watch TV and talk. At 3 we left for Edinburgh to meet cousins Jerry & Betty Ruth at Ruby Tuesdays for an early dinner on the Benders. Leaving the restaurant we went back to the Garland Brook to get more pictures of our old house before continuing on back to the Traut Haus. They had spent the day planning for their upcoming trip to France and had a late dinner of Steak etc after we returned home. A great evening was had by all as we watched the Colts Football Game and Dancing with The Stars. The top off of the evening was a glass of Lemon Chello......

Tuesday, October 4th up early to finish packing then off to the airport by 10 AM. Dropped off the Jansen’s and continue over to pick Joyce up at her work. Back to the airport by noon..checked in and visited with the Jansen’s while we all waited for our 2 PM flights home. We had about 3 hours layover in Chicago home by 9 and back in Palmetto with Louie & Laurie by 10 PM... only mishap was on the way home Louie went thru the SunPass gate so we didn’t pay our dollar for the bridge.. don’t know what will happen with that.... as we may get a ticket. Martha & Jim arrived in New York without their checked luggage but it did turn up the next day. A Great Time Was Had By All