CLASS 57 EVANSVILLE 2016
On June 12, 2016 six creaking old gentlemen set out for Evansville from their homes. It was the beginning of a class reunion that has been going on for about 34 plus years. They are celebrating the 59th anniversary of their ordination at the Pontifical College Josephinum. I started to attend their reunions in 2008. They treated Eva and me so well that I figured that I owed it to them to host one of these reunions.
The first to arrive was Msgr. Joseph Schumacher by plane from his home in Dallas. We waited for about another hour for Msgr. Carson LaCaze to arrive from Shreveport then another hour or so for Fr. Joseph Weber to arrive from Scranton. There was plenty to talk about since I had not seen them since 2014. While Schu and I waited I received a phone call from Fr. Al Camp who was driving north from his home in Madison, MS. He wanted to tell Schu that he left his phone in the terminal in Dallas and a kind hearted lady found it and called Al because he was the last call Schu made. His phone was mailed to him by this kind lady and will be waiting for him when he gets home.
Our headquarters for the next 3+ days was the La Quinta Inn in Evansville. Soon after we four from the airport arrived and checked in Msgr. Eugene Kohls and his co-driver Kay Gowan arrived from Louisville after they had flown there from Jacksonville. Not long after them Msgr. Phil Heslin and his driver and caretaker Alyson Helenius arrived after their two day drive from Superior with a overnighter in Rockford. Fr. Al Camp was on his way driving from Madison , MS but didn't expect to arrive until Monday around noon since he had a late start because he had a Mass on Sunday morning. So with the gang all here except for Al we sat around and got caught up with what had happened since we last saw each other.
Monday morning started out with bad news- the 15 passenger van I had reserved from Enterprise did not get sent to Evansille and we would need to convoy 2 or 3 cars around on our tours. With 4 in each car and the second car with GPS we did very well except for a couple incidents that came up latter. About 9:30 we headed out to tour Evansville. The first stop was the Oaklyn Library with its wild flower garden roof (seen in picture above). I thought we would just drive by, but every one wanted to see the inside and we finally asked everyone to reboard and continue our tour.
Next stop was the Catholic Center of the Evansville Diocese and again I thought we would just go in and look around but we ran into Mary Gen Wittschau, a Judge for the Diocese of Evansville and Secretary Cannon Law Society of America. She gave us a tour of the first floor of the building and introduced us to her staff. She was able to connect with a couple of the guys who had held similar positions or worked with the judges in their diocese.
While we were driving around Joe Weber said had forgot to pack his medicines and needed to get them filled locally. I stopped at Target and while the others shopped Joe and I talked to my pharmacist, Kris, and she was able to contact his doctor and have him fax a new temporary prescriptions and fill them for him for his stay. Thanks Target North Park Pharmacy.
The next was Bosse Field, the third oldest in use baseball field in the country ( Fenway and Wrigley are older.) Bosse was built in 1915 and is presently the home of the Evansville Otters, Independent Frontier League. The Service gate was open and we could walk in and look around. The movie "League of Their Own" was partly filmed here and Eva sat as an extra in the stands one day.
The plans called for us to drive though a tour of downtown but due to all the construction detours we skipped that and headed west for lunch at the Gerst Haus (pictured above). Meanwhile we had our first encounter with the "non GPS Al Camp". Al had arrived at the hotel and I gave him what I thought were easy directions how to get to the restaurant, but he ended up missing the Wabash Ave turn off and was able to see lots more of the west side. We finally got him on the right street and he found the Gerst Haus thanks to the "porch" front. I warned them all that the portions were rather large at the Gerst and they soon found I was correct. We polished off a couple pitchers of beer and then everyone got in three cars now and all going the same direction.
This stop was at German Township Fire Department. Since I was a former active member Chief Bretz gave the staff permission to give the members a ride on a fire engine. Firefighter Phil Craig drove us around the area while I gave a running talk to the "crew" as to what was going on. Everyone enjoyed the ride.
We convoyed back to the hotel and did not lose anyone. The hotel had a happy hour with two free drinks so we sat around and talked about the day. Everyone went to bed early and day one went into the records.