The summer of 1971. Early August, perhaps. There is scant online record of dates the WV State Fair in Fairlea was held in 1971, but for reasons I can't recall I went to my dad and asked if he'd mind my riding the Greyhound from our home in Charleston to Lewisburg for the fair. I'd concluded my Junior year at GMS and summers at home seemed empty compared to loafing around in Lewisburg. Dad was used to my wild hair to see the world, so he had no objection. A few hours later I was walking aimlessly in downtown Lewisburg, an unnoticeable tourist taking in the sights on a warm afternoon. In a heartbeat my solitary wandering became a reunion. On the sidewalk ahead of me I saw Scott Murphy (Whatwhat), Robt Crawford (Bobbie), and John Rosenfield (Rosie) whom I knew from the Brier.

They'd driven down from Columbus, OH. in Bobby's car (forgive my memory but a Dodge Dart with slant six, that would later play into this story) and they were looking for friends and something to do. We struck out together, excited, and planning for a great weekend. We reached out to a town girl, Terri, who lived near the General Lewis. She knew a guy, Andy, who lived south of town off of Washington St whose parents would be away for the weekend and was willing to hook us up. Now that we had a plan, things were looking up! We all drove out to Renick and went swimming at Blue Hole. The Greenbrier River is spectacular in the summer and we had a blast until late, and drove Terri home. We then drove out to the fairground and basically slummed around all night.

We felt grubby after all our hijinks, so in the morning we decided to crash GMS to clean up a little. Co D was open, so we went in and helped ourselves to a shower, drying off with some mattress covers and headed back to the car. (Thanks to the cleanup crew and sorry we didn't leave a tip.) Those were days of another era in America; we might have walked uninvited into most homes in Lewisburg for a shower and walked away clean! Afterward, we went to Andy's where we were his guests for the night. It was a great night, drinking some of our host's beer and talking up a storm. The next day we drove back to the fair, only to have Bobby's radiator crack off at the hose. Luckily, we all had a few dollars and could pool our resources for a spot weld. The guys had enough, and chose to leave and drive back to Columbus right then. I went on another day, and hitchhiked a side trip to Alderson and back for incidental reasons. Caught the Greyhound back to Charleston, none the worse for wear, and was really stoked for my senior year.

My first GMS reunion with three guys who never to my knowledge attended a second.