47th Reunion Info

The Medicare Reunion

The 46th reunion event is now just a fond memory. It was a nice gathering of 41 classmates in attendance at the Hoyt Park on September 10th, 2022. To see photos of the events, click/tap here. Due to the success of these gatherings, we decided to do it again for the 47th (aka Medicare) reunion.

The reason for the odd-year reunion is a variety of factors:

• This reunion is basically a repeat from the 45th and 46th reunions. Same venue and nearly the same day of year. From our experience from the past two years the venue was as perfect as could have imagined.
• COVID is for all intents and purposes is over. We understand it is still out there, but even hospitals don't require a mask. And, of course, a lot is mitigated because this is an outside event.
• Some of the participants from the 46th asked us to put on another event this year, and a number of others these past several months asked specifically if we could do one this year.
• As was the case previously, we received quite a few regrets from classmates who wished they could have attended, but had prior obligations.
• Post reunion we discovered that many of our email announcements were never seen by too many classmates! The problem was determined to be a spam filtering and blocking. We continue to battle this problem so we get better mail delivery and hopefully not in our classmate's spam filter.
• Finally, we're donoting this gathering as the Medicare Reunion as by the end of the year everyone in our class will have signed up.

 

Save The Date: September 9, 2023

We will be holding this event on Saturday, September 9th. A good reason for this choice was that it corresponds with Tosa Fest which occurs on Friday and Saturday. We expect many will want to attend both events. The venue of Hoyt Park was overwhelmingly preferred our poll for the 45th and our experience from that event and last year's confirmed what we thought.

We have reserved Picnic Area 2 in Hoyt Park for our scheduled get together for 2:00PM thru at least 6:00PM (times still a bit tentative). A great aspect for this venue is the close proximity of the pool area, now known as the TOSA Pool at Hoyt Park. This offers us a number of amenities: 3 concession stands (with 2 different menus), a stage which we expect have music from 5-8 that evening, 50 large picnic tables, and restroom facilities. Of course, in the picnic area it is wise to bring your own food and drink, but it is great to have this alternative. After sundown we will migrate over to The Landing area where there is lighting and picnic tables.

Our Reservation Document

Details and Miscellaneous

Weather can be an issue. If it looks like it might rain we are asking for anyone who has one to bring a tent. However, staking is not allowed.

Because we have a permit for our picnic area, we are allowed to have beer (cans or bottles) at our picnic site so bring what you'd like. This also means that you can also purchase beer at The Landing and bring it back to the picnic area.

There are no longer grills in any of the county parks, but you are permitted to bring your own. There is a container available on our picnic site for disposal of hot coals, although they do request that they be dowsed in water beforehand.

It might be a good idea to bring camping chairs and possibly camping tables. 

Amplified music is not permitted. But we will probably hear the sounds of the band from The Landing as the stage is fairly close. But it won't be too loud because those bands don't play very loud and the stage is pointing away from our picnic area.

Parking is available along Menomonee Pkwy or in the Hoyt Pool parking lot.

Here is a link to the Milwaukee County Park picnic policies.

This is free event! That means the only cost to our classmates will be for their own food and drink. The only hard cost is the picnic area reservations and that has been donated.

No RSVP Required! Though we like to hear if you're coming for planning purposes, you can simply show up. We'll have plenty of space.

To the left is a photo of one of the two concession stands that serve both the pool area and the outside areas. There is one on the women's side and the other on the men's side. Note: there are no alcoholic beverages! You will need to go to The Landing concession for those items.

Click/tap here to see The Landing menu which includes beer and wine.

We have a whole page dedicated to the Hoyt Park venue which you can see here.

As updates become available and other get togethers decided, we will update this page, but also look for announcements via our email list.

 

What's An Informal Reunion?

To answer that question it is helpful to define a Formal Reunion. That is the typical reunion where there is a lot advanced planning. We rent a hall, provide a meal, hire a bartender, and sometimes hire a band or disc jockey for entertainment. All of this incurs a cost which can be considerable which in turn requires we charge a fee to those attending. For the 20th and 25th reunions they were held at hotels while the 30th and 40th were held in the Mueller Building at Hart Park. A huge issue for a formal reunion becomes the problem of numbers. We need to predict ahead of time the approximate attendance as that will dictate the size of the venue and the amount of food we need to purchase. It also guides us as to what the event will cost our classmates and guests.

An informal reunion is one where we simply provide a gathering place (usually public venues) and decide on date and time. There is no need to know exactly who's coming although it is always great to know. The whole class is invited and whoever can make it, make it. There is no obligation and can literally be a last minute decision. Every formal reunion has at least one other informal activity such as:

• Tosa Fest
• Tosa East tour
• Colonel Hart's (Pep's Place)
• Summerfest
• Hoyt Park

In other words an informal reunion is simply a formal reunion without the formal event.