49th Reunion
The 49th Reunion took place on August 9, 2025 from 2:00PM - 6:15PM at Picnic Area 3 at Jacobus Park.
Notes On the Event - Gene Hanson
A 49th reunion was really never in the works for the simple reason that the huge 50th reunion would be just another year away so I feared there wouldn't be enough interest. But there seemed to be enough interest and doing these picnic reunions is not a lot of effort for me. And though I always get compliments about doing them, it is the event itself which is so satisfying when I see everyone who comes so happy to be there. But the 49th reunion ended up just a bit different because the venue was Jacobus Park. My intention was to have the reunion again at Hoyt Park as it's just a great location and familiar to probably to everyone in our class, I was unable to get a reservatio at any of the 4 picnic areas at Hoyt. I immediately went to secure a site at Jacobus Park as I had scoped out the areas there a couple of years ago and all the picnic areas were available. So holding this particular picnic reunion would give me an indication that it would be a great area for the 50th reunion should I not be able to secure the two areas that would be needed.
However, one shortcoming of Jacobus is that the park is not familiar to everyone in our class. I think of Jacobus as a hidden treasure. Getting to the park itself is not that difficult, but finding the picnic area was definitely going to be a challenge. So I needed to have very specific directions and from the feedback from the attendees those directions were very good. The venue was fantastic and will suffice as a backup for Hoyt. The only problem we faced was the very hot weather (90 degrees) and a high probability of thunderstorms that I knew would thrwart many classmates. But the event went on and it was a great time for all who came, though there were many comements about how hot it was and how come they can't go into the wading pool?
The weather forecast was disconcerting 3 days out because of a predicted high of 91° with only a 20% chance of some rain. Debbie and I drove past Jacobus 4 days before on a trip to Milwaukee and I was euphoric that there was a large enough shaded area to help keep us cool because otherwise I would have been forced to cancel the event. But on Friday the rain forecast was no thunderstorms and that meant some might not come who otherwise would. But at that point I felt committed and the reunion would go on, even though the attendance might be low and it might end earlier. Because of the real possibility of rain sometime during the event we had a couple of tent canopies set up along with a couple of umbrellas, all courtesy of Paul "Ike" Eisenhauer. and almost exactly to prediction, the rain came at 5:00, but it was short, and the reunion continued. But by 6:15 the huge cell that we thought would be just north of us started hitting so everything was quickly taken down. Little did we realize that storm would be epic. The Menomonee River overflowed past the village and most of Hart Park was under water. Our picnic area was also under water as well!
Jacobus Sign taken at 1:00pm as Gene Hanson arrived for the picnic.
Jacobus Sign the next day. From an article on patch.com
As was the case for the 48th, we started at 2:00PM, but we ended early with the last of the attendees leaving by 6:15PM. Our total attendance was 36 - 28 classmates and 8 guests.
