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Flying out of LA for this year’s reunion, I noted the super fine weather that California was experiencing and smiled, knowing Utah is subject to many of the same weather patterns that hit California, so I knew the Raiders had brought the weather with them once again. What a great way to spend a few days with old and new friends, skiing, drinking, hot-tubing, and doing the shimmy-shimmy-shake to countless PROSITs.
Maybe it’s just me but these reunions don’t seem to lose much luster as the years pass.
First a big round of applause and thanks go out to Carl “Tex” Carroll for the wonderful job he did hosting this year’s reunion. The Marriott in Ogden provided a wonderful zoo for us to hold up in, while the special Raider rate Tex arranged for us made the whole experience outstanding. I’m sure it’s not an easy task and Tex, despite the ulcer he incurred from hosting it, did an outstanding job. Way to go Tex!!
As always Joe Cilenti did a great job making sure the books were balanced, the bar billed paid, and everyone coughed up their dues. He consistently does a yeoman’s duty for the cause and our heart-felt thanks go out to you Joe. This year the job of supplying us with our reunion duds (sweatshirt or wind jacket and pin) was ably done by Kit. It seems I’m wearing the sweat-shirt almost everyday and it’s rapidly becoming one of my favorite fashion statements, way to go Kit.
And can you guys believe the lift ticket rate we got at Snowbasin. With 70+ dollar lift tickets becoming the norm, having to pay 29 bucks was a huge bonus. A hearty prosit and thanks go out to Mike Lloyd and Stu Brown for arranging that bro deal. And what kind of a reunion would it be without those succulent oysters Bongo Bill so generously delivers to us. Way to go BONGO!! Those things are just the best. And again, thanks to everyone who helped in the success of this reunion, danke shoen.
For many of us skiing at Snowbasin, outside of Ogden, would be a new ski experience. It was a sleepy local hill until the Olympics rolled into SLC back in 02.
They needed a venue for the downhill and Snowbasin filled the bill. So after modern lift upgrades, which opened up a huge amount of terrain, and state of the art grooming, Snowbasin became a first class ski resort. The skiing on Thursday and Friday were characterized by great snow conditions, mild temps and nothing resembling a lift line. While on Saturday the crowds showed up, but I think the longest line I waited in was probably 10 minutes at most. Also spending time catching up with whatever old buds I was skiing with made for a grand time. Snow safety trips into the trees became mandatory since the negative effects of Utah’s 3.2 beer had to be offset somehow.
Fun times were had both on and off the hill. Our mandatory post-skiing, therapeutic, hot tub sessions were well attended and quite the introduction to Raider customs for the hot tub Nazi Richard (hotel maintinance king). These soothing sessions have generally been easy on the rules and heavy on the booze. They are great for advanced liver therapy and intimate bonding rituals with whatever lucky females find themselves squeezed in next to hordes of tipsy middle-aged guys. We tend to maximize the occupancy levels of all known spa manufacturers and this one was no different. While packing said tub with sore middle aged bodies and over exercised livers, the official hot tub/morals keeper wanders by, keys a jingling, eyes focused on the writhing, drinking mass of Raiders defiling his tub with our excesses. He told us, in all his official righteousness; that we were exceeding the loading limit of HIS tub and we had better obey the posted limits or he was going to close our little therapy session down. Hmmm, what to do? Well since we are exceptionally well experienced in dealing with this kind of nonsense, our best and brightest jumped to the rescue. With Bazz (go Bazz) leading the charge, we cajoled, corralled, and sang our Raider Anthem to him, him, F#&k him (Richard), where upon he finally admitted defeat and relented. So instead of hassling us, he ordered up more towels, woohoo. We do have a way about us that grows on some folks I guess. Way to go Richard.
As always, one of the highlights of our reunion is the dinner/dance that brings us all together under one roof. It’s a night of dining, dancing, telling tall tales, catching up with old friends and losing more then our fair share of brain cells. This year, we held it on Friday, thereby giving everyone the chance to roll into Saturday’s beer slalom well primed. This year’s bash was simply the best, (but then aren’t they all). With plenty of great food and a dance floor that was pumping with timely tunes by Road Apple. A 35 year old bottle of Sauerfritz appeared courtesy of Mike Toler, which lent a nice touch of Bavaria to the party. Any and all who wanted to mix a little oxygen with their dinner found themselves doing the hip-shake-boogie until those darn Mormon morals cops
shut us down around midnight. But lo, the Raider spirit rose to the occasion and numerous room parties broke out to compensate for our ballroom loss. By all accounts it was a great feed coupled with some aerobicantics. This years Bazz Cup went to its’ name sake Col. Bazz himself. The cup is given to the person who best reflects our Raider ethos of fraternity, sorority and beirology. We salute you brother Bazz, Bazz, Bazz, we love him.
PROSSSSSSSSSSSSIT.
Saturday dawned clear with moderate temps, which of course in ski area lingo means loads of skiers. And that is what we were treated to, even after getting there early. Luckily the will call window line moved quickly and we were soon skiing. The crowds grew noticeably thicker as the day wore on and we moved from skiing the John Paul serviced runs (Olympic downhill), over to the more intermediate runs of the Strawberry area. As always we were tearing it up, or at least we like to think we were. Dave Oswald (boy can SKI), Dirty Harry and his lovely wife Laura, Boyd Colt, Jeff Griggs and Scotty Farrell, were arcing em and having some fun, when out of the blue Scotty is knocked for a loop by another skier and ends up lying dazed in the snow. It scared all of us, since it’s not every day you see Scotty completely encrusted with snow. Luckily he survived and we all skied off thanking our lucky stars nothing bad happened. With our thoughts on our next obstacle we worked our way over to where the Bier Slalom was taking shape.
This year’s beer slalom was courtesy of Mike Coyle and Motchescobi who had taken on the task of setting up our little exercise in skiing and drinking. In true Raider fashion this one had all the hallmarks of previous editions, drinking feats, ski round-abouts, jumps, dips and low-lying obstacles. A bottle of that wunder ski fuel Stroh’s Rum(courtesy of Ozzy) even showed up for the Penalty Shots. Everyone had a blast, including Gail and Patti showing off their fine fashion sense and competitiveness. Dian McGoawn aka Ms. Bunny and Erik Jensen aka Mr. Bear worked up a sweat in their natty duds, dressed for the part.
After the beer slalom, everyone headed for the hotel for a last night of hot tubs, dinner and good fun.
As old Raiders continue to emerge from the woodwork for these affairs, our extended Raider fraternity grows. It’s great seeing the old faces again and this was no exception, and they said flashbacks never happen…HA! What A blast from the past it was seeing Lyle Mundelius, Dave Oswald to name only a couple and what about ole John “Titts” Kaiser, who hadn’t been seen at a reunion for decades and he showed up, even though he slipped out before the official festivities started, it still counts and we will hopefully see his smiling face at next years fete. But the list off the folks who showed up is too long to list here so we have included the contact information along with this small summary of our Reunion.
So as Sunday dawned and people stumbled down to breakfast, red-eyed, with hands shaking for that first cup of coffee, I reflected on what a great bunch of people it was to hang out with. From long shared memories, to the new ones our reunions always seem to generate. I bid adieu to my Raider brothers and sisters, saying Servos, until next time, keep the memories alive and your livers functioning.
This brings us to our next reunion, to be held in Banff Canada. This not so small bit of effort and dedication comes courtesy of Patti Weldon, who some how managed to find the courage to step up to the plate for this arduous task. All bow down to Sister
Patti!!! We should have the information for the 2007 Reunion around July and will get it out to ya’ll ASAP. Also of note for you root bound sorts, while passports are not technically necessary to travel in Canada, it would be beneficial in helping ease border crossing issues.
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