Stepping back into time to June

I am back again. I finally was able to get some pictures of Gene's graduation at Norwich in June of 08" on the laptop. I found the camara card and the pictures where still on it so I was able to download the pictures from there. I am dividing the VT trip up. This part is going to be just school week and graduation. I post pictures of our site seeing next. To begin:

We stayed in a very nice bed and breakfast just outside of the college it took maybe 10 minutes to get there from where we staying if the traffic was good. I did pretty good driving there. Here is Gene on day one, I told him to smile but he wouldn't his mind was else where he said.

He is a picture of the middle of Norwich where the band practice and people hang out. The building is a dorm. Don't remember which one though. The trees where beautiful up there and the grass was soft and thick to walk on.

Here is Gene standing in front of the class building where he went to listen to different people's presentations. He is standing in front of a statue of Alden Partridge. Not sure who he was I was probably told several times but he has something to do with the school!

Here is Gene and a fellow student, Joe Mann. Joe is active Air Force. Joe lives in WA state. Gene and Joe where in many seminars together. Joe was in Korea for part of the class! Just a tidbit

There is a neat musem attached to the library at Norwich. He has alot of neat stuff in it all of it pretaining to the school. This is some special jeep from wwi I think, Gene was in love with it. We must have 10 pictures of just this machine. I don't think I would want to ride in it. It didn't look too comfortable. They only made a few of these and the Army stopped using them. Again I was told all about this jeep but I seem to have forgotten! OOps.

Again here is Joe and Gene posing in front of this Canon. I think this canon was from the civil war. Don't hold it to me, it has some cravings on it and I think it was suppose to be used to defend a post where the school use to be before it came to VT. The think around Gene's neck is what I called his school dog tags. He couldn't go anywhere without it and he hated wearing it. Then so did everyone else. As you can tell I was the camera person. But then it was Gene's week!

Thursday night was Karkoe night. At first we wheren't going to go but then he decided we would and he had a ball that night. Here is Gene and Joe and some fellow classmates. Gene is drinking an Odel's Nonachol drink, Joe on the other hand was partaking of an Adult brevage, the glass next to Gene's was mine, That might have been my second Cosomo, over ice of course. These guys where a hoot.

Okay where are you Mona, You would have loved this shirt. The back was the same as the front. This is Dr. Wintermeu. I doubt if I spelled that right. He was one of the teachers for Military History and he loves Elvis and is something else.

It took some pushing and encouraging but here is Gene, Joe and Tom singing Karkoe, they where sing a Jimmy Buffet song. I laughted till I cried. This is way and I mean why out of character for Mr. Gene. I love Buffet music, Gene on the hand can take it or leave it mostly leave it but he is slowly coming around. It was good seeing him come out and enjoying himself for once.

Here is Gene getting what they call his Hoodie for Military of History. It was this white drape thing, one side was white for history the other side was marron for Norwich, which is the school's color. He is getting ready to shake the Dean's hand and next to the Dean is Dr. Broome. Dr. Broome is a very neat person, he is scholarly but yet he cares for his students and enjoys having fun.

In front of the Unknown statue is the 3 guys. The one on the end is Mike, he is in the Army also and was working on another Master Degree while he was up there so he didn't hang around much. Joe and Gene where smiling ear to ear, Mike was tired. Should be.

After class on Wenesday the guest speaker who was also the speaker for graduation was General Richard A Cody. The General was the Vice Chief of the Army. General Cody retired a few months ago and was from the town Norwich was in. Gene use to serve with the General before he became a General. Gene was surprised the General remembered him and the General gave Joe and Gene one of his special coins. That's a big thing from what I am told! General Cody gave two very good speeches. They where from his heart and I really enjoyed listening to him.

Getting down to the wire now. Good thing my brain is going and my fingers keep hitting the wrong keys. This is graduation day. This was the front they had flags from all over the worlk around the American flag along with all the state flags. The building was hot as you know what, no air, no air condition! We had our programs for fans! Once all the students got in there it was horrible. I had gotten there 3 1/2 hours early to get a good seat, when it was over I was soaked! I had a sleeveless dress on but it stuck to me! At least I had my knitting with me and got all sorts of weird looks but I kept knitting away! The service lasted about an hour and a half 2 hours! Too long for us all. The poor students had their gowns on!

Here is the Man of the hour smiling for once. I told him to take a short sleeve shirt but he was afaird it was going to be cold! They happen to have a heat wave the week we where there. He couldn't wait to get it over. He had been at the school since 10 and graduation wasn't until 4! Long day.

And here are the boys, we couldn't find Mike. They are holding red tubes that their dipolmas where in. Two very happy fellows and Me! After this I went outside to cool off, find some water, then we went to this nice Italian restraunt in town. Good wine! Good food. Long line.

This ends the saga of graduation. I had many more pictures put I couldn't post them all and it was hard to pick out which ones to post. Hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures. Gene worked very hard to get that dipolma and I am very proud of him. Now he is on to get his PH.D. Thanks for stopping by. Will post another part of the trip tomorrow.