One group of alumni is noted as the one which, corporately, has made an unusually high-profile impact on today's world. They graduated in 1964- 1966, in the midst of war protest and civil unrest, established the Binghamton Stepping on the Coat Tradition (even making a video about it), and now are returning for a reunion. What sparks of wit will fly in the UU East Lounge, their headquarters for Homecoming Weekend.
"Our culture centered on sitting around our coffee and talking," said co-organizer Bob Freeston '65. "It's a phenomenon with our class; people just want to talk to each other."
Freeston said that for the last reunion in '96 which he helped organize, he set up a band in the Susquehanna Room, but people drifted out of the setting and gathered informally under the esplanade, away from the noise. They just wanted to talk.
According to co-organizer Jeanette Lasansky '65, "Reunions are opportunities to renew ties, catch up, as well as reflect on opportunities realized and missed, as well as to enjoy a knowing laugh and remembrance with others who shared experiences at a crucial point in our lives."
What makes this reunion different is the unusual, hard-to-define nature of the group's experience at Binghamton.
"I do think there was a sweet refugee mentality that prevailed among our classmates. We might have been at more prestigious institutions, but somehow preferred being where we were," Richie Walter '65 said.
"Maybe it had something to do with the nature of the '60s," Walter added. "It was an era of profound creativity in art and film and music and literature, but there was also a lot of poison and nonsense. The paradigms were torn up and thrown away and re-imagined. Amazingly enough, our group for the most part, notwithstanding all the heavy mishegas, lived sweetly, wretchedly traditional lives. Most everybody got married and stayed married. I guess you could say our group had the best of the '60s (music and movies and protest and fun) and none of the cholesterol (drugs, disease, death.)."
Andy Bergman '65, added:
"I think the fact that Harpur was the only liberal arts school in the state system attracted a particular type of kid--really smart and somewhat academically underachieving lower middle-class people, wildly creative and ambitious in the way that the children of broke parents can be. And it was just a petri dish of creativity and wit."
Lasansky adds: "The '60s was a turbulent and dynamic time. Harpur was a place with many great teachers and mentors. We became empowered then. We thought we could change the world and in different ways, many tried and some did. Service to others, inventiveness, as well as social and political awareness came out of some of the shared '60s experiences."
What brings this group of mid-60s alumni back?
"(It) is very simple--an opportunity to hang out with old pals en masse. The vibe is always the same; at the 90 reunion, it seemed that everybody still seemed to mesh, that the old shorthand was still in effect, and Sharkeys was still Sharkeys," Bergman said.
"I'm a hopeless nostalgia freak; I love'em (reunions)." Walter said.
The last reunion made quite an impression on Robert A. Baron, who wrote about it in the "Mid-60s Alumni Reunion Newsletter:" "I want to tell you how wonderfully enjoyable I found this enchanting weekend. I found it quite moving. The legendary Harpur camaraderie (an axiom of dubious truth) seemed to electrify and excite nearly everyone. There was throughout a mystical magnetic, as it were, at work overseeing this regrouping, this assembly of founders."
Walter commented: "Founders? Is that what we are? I guess so. Our freshman year, '61, was the first year that all classes were held on the new Vestal campus; previously the science classes were held at the old Triple City College facility in Johnson City . Founders? Oi! I'm still too young to be a founder of anything." Lasansky said, "Bob Freeston and I did it together 9 years ago and people seemed to really enjoy the fruit of our efforts."
Freeston embraced this reunion as well, energetically contacting classmates and putting together and printing the "Mid-60s Alumni Reunion Newsletter." "I am a bit of an organizer and I understand it is important to give back."
He has been involved in class reunions from the beginning. He said that only a couple of classmates were at the 10 year reunion, then the class did nothing for 15 years. A campus Vietnam retrospect brought a number of classmates to campus in the early 1990s, since "It was important stuff to our class," Freeston said. From that event, they decided to do something big, and in 1996 they had a reunion that attracted 150 people.
Freeston adds: "Even then, we had people sneaking in; that's just the way our class is."
He works hard at getting his classmates onboard: "I do a lot of calling, to people I know and people I don't know. I make sure that they have the opportunity to come, that they know about it."
Lasansky and Freeston also believe that their innovative approach to defining the classes for their reunion works well:
"We were pleased to work with Rose in the Binghamton alumni office who was open to the cluster concept for a reunion which we felt is more meaningful than stand alone years set 5 years apart. It works!" Lasansky said. About their venue in the University Union East Lounge, she added: "It is great to have a dedicated gathering place and some events just for our reunion group."
"The Union , the old snack bar (Susquehanna Room), that's the only place we still know on the campus," Freeston said.
See the detailed schedule for the Mid-60s reunuion
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