All Hail the Granulate!

Yes, I do know how to spell "Graduate". Anyway, this past month our nephew Joe received his BA from Franklin and Marshall College. And, guess what? After four years of playing football and some pretty hearty partying, he still managed to graduate Cum Laude.

We went to Lancaster PA, the site of F&M College, with Joe's Mom and Dad, his sister Melissa, and his grandparents Frank and Helen. We all stayed at the "Lancaster Arts Hotel" which I described in the post on Joe's last football game. The graduation was on Saturday, as I said, but we stayed from Friday until Sunday for the general festivities.

Friday night, a group of parents of Senior football players got together for a dinner at a local restaurant. We attended with Joe, his Mom and Dad, his sister Melissa and his grandparents. The dinner was nice but the highlight came at the end when Joe gave a video presentation made up of photos taken over the years of himself and his buddies on the team. The photos ranged from some of the guys as kids to their wild ski trips as teammates and of course, the climactic last win against Gettysburg College last November.



The next morning we headed to the F&M campus for the graduation itself. We were joined by Joe's girlfriend Eileen, who had flown in late the night before from Massachusetts where she teaches high-school history. It was a nice day, partly cloudy with a mild breeze and not very hot - perfect for an outdoor graduation.



There were the usual honorary awards given and so on which I won't go into here. However, the commencement speaker was very interesting. He was a gentleman by the name of David Greene who is the National Public Radio White House correspondent. It happens that his mother had been a professor at F&M and he grew up right in Lancaster, so he was delighted to be asked to speak there.



Mr. Greene told a number of interesting anecdotes about the White House assignment and also spoke of things which happened while he was on the campaign trail following Clinton, Obama and McCain around the country.



Finally came the awarding of the undergraduate degrees which were handed individually to all 450-odd seniors. We were pleasantly surprised (though not too surprised) when Joe's degree was awarded Cum Laude. He received a BA in Business Organizations and Society with a minor in Economics.

Joe and Eileen

Joe with his Dad, Mom, and Melissa

Afterward, we went to lunch with a group of the football parents and then returned to our hotel to get ready for an evening cocktail party being given by the parents of another of Joe's buddies.


At that point Joe's Mom and her parents had to head back to New Jersey so they could attend their granddaughter's College graduation on Sunday in Connecticut.



We attended the cocktail party with Joe, Eileen, Joe's Dad, and Melissa. Afterward, we went to a party at Joe's frat house for a while, but then us old folks were pretty much partied out and wandered back to the hotel.



One funny thing that happened was on the way from the cocktail party which was in a pub in downtown Lancaster to the frat house, Michelle, Melissa and Eileen rode with two of the parents who had their car, while Joe, his Dad, and a couple of his buddies were transported in style in the back of a U-Haul truck by another of Joe's friends. It was pretty funny.



The next morning we went for breakfast and then we went to Joe's house to pick up his belongings to bring home to New Jersey. Fortunately, we had three SUVs and a car, so we were pretty much able to get everything back.



And so, another young person enters the real world.

An Ernest Hemingway Day

What is an Ernest Hemingway Day? It's one that turns out better than you expect or hope for and has lots of fun, adventure, and little or no unpleasantness. I guess it's the kind of day ol' Ernie would approve of and I think he would have approved of the one we had a couple of weeks or so ago. While it did not involve bullfighting, it did involve the manly American sport of football, along with much drinking and camaraderie.

Michelle has a younger brother who has two kids named Joe and Melissa. Joe has been playing football since he was in Junior High School. He has played all the way through High School and for four years of college. The particular day in question was the last game of his Senior year at Franklin and Marshall College and effectively his last football game ever. To make a long story short, they won. They won against a team, Gettysburg College, who was favored to beat them. F&M won 56-38.

Since Gettysburg had made a field goal early on in the game, that meant that Joe's team won by three touchdowns - and in the fourth quarter no less.

And that was just the start of the day's fun.

(For readers who are football fans, a detailed description of the game can be found at the F & M football site here: http://godiplomats.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/111007aac.html )

Michelle, Sue (Joe's mom), Joe, his dad, and yours truly on the field before the game. They had a nice ceremony for the seniors and their families. I kind of like the Dorothy Parker hat Michelle wore that day.

After cheering ourselves hoarse right through to the last second of the fourth quarter, we repaired to the parking area (set aside especially for team parents) and commenced partying while we awaited our "conquering hero". Since it was the last game of the season and the last game for the seniors period, the parents went all out. People had feasts catered by fancy New York City delis, whole turkeys, filet mignon, whole wheels of Brie, gourmet cupcakes from "Crumbs" (an upscale New York bakery) etc. etc. It also goes without saying that the booze was flowing pretty heavily too.

Well, among all the gourmet excess our girl Michelle brought along three big racks of Costco spareribs that she had slow cooked the night before and which we reheated on her brother's portable propane grill. They were the hit of the of the party. People we didn't know kept coming by and mooching ribs from us. When Joe arrived from the locker room he tucked into a plate and declared them delicious. His buddy "Sparks" declared them the best ribs he ever ate. Michelle was happy.

The tailgate festivities went on until well past dark with music and dancing and fire pits, and proud parents and siblings crowded around the players, shots of tequila and Captain Morgan's drunk to the victory and everyone generally enjoying themselves. Finally, however, it was time to take a break and go check into our hotel. And what a hotel!

We were booked into a place around the corner from the college called the "Lancaster Arts Hotel" (http://www.lancasterartshotel.com/). It was probably one of the best hotels we've stayed at in a long time. It occupies what was once a tobacco warehouse that has been been completely redone into an amazing contemporary hotel while retaining the original brick walls and wood floors. It is what Michelle describes as a "boutique" hotel - if you've ever watched the show on the Travel Channel with the young woman named Samantha, it's the type of place she often stays at for her show. Anyway, the bed was extremely comfortable, there was a wall-mounted flat screen TV, modernistic track lighting and many other neat touches.

However, after a short bit of recuperation at our hotel, it was time to continue the celebration. This was to be at the official student "dive" of the F&M football team: a bar called "Hildy's". This was a short walk from our hotel (from here on no cars were involved due to the anticipated alcohol consumption).

At Hildy's we met up with Joe and his buddies and some of the other parents. There we consumed serious quantities of beer by the pitcher and again did numerous shots. I felt like it was forty years ago and I was back at old Stevens Tech in Hoboken.

Next, we were informed that we were invited to a frat party hosted by Joe's fraternity (he is the chapter president) and found ourselves in a small apartment in a converted loft with about a bazillion dancing and drinking students and a live band crammed into a minimal space along with numerous kegs of beer. After a while though, us old farts were getting worn out and decided to call it a night. Joe ran blocking for us through the impenetrable crowd (always useful to have a nose tackle along) and we made our way back to the hotel.

The next day we dragged our hung over bodies out of bed and headed home to Jersey.

Like I said: an Ernest Hemingway Day.