Caracas in the 50’s – The Tampa Reunion – June 18-20, 2004

Harry Baya's Report

There were about 72 people at the reunion, wandering in and out at different times.  An attendance list is given at the end of this document.   I know there were a lot of activities and stories that I did not know much about (e.g. Tennis, golf, shopping….), but I hope to catch the main ones, and a few of the smaller ones in which I took part, in this report.  Please send me any suggestions, additions or corrections.

If you would like to report any of your experiences, a brief vignette, or a longer report – please send it to me and I will post it here.

I was born in Tampa and have family there.  Elaine and I arrived on Thursday night, June 17^th,  and had dinner with  my sister, Madge, and my cousins that evening.

Prior to the reunion Harry Sasson and I had discussed going to Tarpon Springs while we were in Tampa – and Friday turned out to be the ideal time.  We ended up with three cars of people and went over for lunch at Pappas restaurant,  after about 45 minutes of shopping in the tourist shops of the old Greek village.  Tarpon Springs was a sponge fishing center, populated by Greeks, in the early part of the 20^th century.   I had been there many times because my father’s brother, Uncle Joe, lived there with his family.   Though it was absurdly hot, it was still a lovely outing.

Harry Sasson and Jane Fast had ridden over with Elaine and me, but switched cars to keep Elena company on the way back.  The others went back to Tampa, I assume, but our two cars went to the Salvador Dali museum in St. Petersburg.   We got there about 45 minutes before closing time but had just enough time to see everything their at least briefly.   I enjoyed reading the detailed history of Savlvador Dali displayed with the paintings.   Then it was back to the hotel for the Friday night reception.

There were five people at the reunion who had been in my class, the class of 1957, at one time or another at Colegio Americano.  Fred Hill, Harry Sasson, Rudy Van der Bijl and I graduated together.  Dan Peters was in our class from Freshman year through Junior year, but his family moved away before his Senior year.  I had been good friends with Dan’s older brother, David, who was a year ahead of me in school, in my sister Madge’s class.  David and I had started a paper route in Las Mercedes, El Rosal and adjoining neighborhoods when the English speaking weekly “The Caracas Journal” became the “Caracas Daily Journal”.  I found out from Dan that David had died in a car accident about 20 years ago.   It was sad news.

Other sad news this year was the death, in Frebruary, of Bob Van der Bijl.   Bob was in my graduating class at Colegio Americano.  Bob and Harry Sasson had stayed close over the years and he, Harry and Fred had helped plan the Phoenix reunion.  I got to know Bob again in Phoenix and found our friendship was stronger than ever.   Bob’s brother, Rudy, was in Tampa for this reunion.  Harry Sasson, Rudy, Fred Hill and I met at the bar in the Columbia restaurant to remember Bob.  Jane Hougen Fast joined us and we each shared happy memories of Bob in Caracas, and in Phoenix. Click here for a pictures of our meeting to remember Bob.  Rudy was with Bob when he died in Quito and filled us in on his last days.  Bob asked that his friends gather after his death to celebrate his life and Rudy told us about how impressed he was with the number of friends who came to that celebration and the love they showed for Bob.

The reception Friday night lasted till midnight when the  rental of the reception room ended.  In the middle of it Elaine and I went out for supper at a pancake house with Christian Garsault and his wife Maria.  I enjoyed getting to know each of them.

Each morning Elaine and I would go down to the hotel restaurant and join others from the reunion for breakfast.   These informal gatherings were, it seems to me, an important, and fun, part of the weekend.

I spent part of Saturday visiting, and shopping with my sister and cousins.

Saturday night was the main event of the weekend and went well.  Maria Filos-Wilkes announced that the next reunion would almost certainly be in a top hotel in New Orleans next July.   The dates are not yet set.  Maria was a key organizer of this reunion, especially in relation to planning and organizing the two evening events and the Columbia lunch. She earned our gratitude. 

I sang my Caracas song again, for the third reunion in a row.   I had handouts of the words and could hear a lot of people singing with me.   Bonnie Bullock Hodkinson was with us in Houston and she and her husband, John, brought their Hawaii to Houston by mixing a huge batch of Mai Tais for one of the gatherings there.   Her husband is a big energetic Brit.  He had a bad accident after they returned to Hawaii and is still recovering.   Bonnie sent us the following poem about the experience and it was read at the dinner:

Gravity Sucks

My darling husband is living proof
That men over fifty should stay off the roof
It rained and rained and rained some more
The whole house dripped with leaks galore

So he decides, in all his glory
To climb on up to the second story
With fix it goop and a ladder so tall
His challenge was to repair it all

He says he saw the gutter go by
That’s when he found he could not fly
Down and down and down he went
It seemed his luck had all been spent

The words he said, so softly spoken
“I’m not sick but I think I’m broken.”
An ambulance, doctors, nurses too
Three and a half weeks in ICU

Broken bones and lungs all shot
Didn’t matter, on he fought
Had his visits from the dead
Took weird trip all in his head

They all said “He won’t survive”
But that tough old bird is still alive
With stiff upper lip he carries on
And, oh yes, the ladder’s gone

Bonnie Joyce Hodkinson, 2004

Though Fred Hill and Tanya did not speak at the banquet (we will be sure that they do next year) I am sure that they know how grateful we all are for their work to make the Tampa reunion a great success.

I wanted to have good music for the dancing on Saturday night.  There is still room for improvement.  I had an MP3/CD with 121 50’s songs that Mike Louder (who could not make it this year.. but was there in spirit)  had made for the reunion but no way to play it.   I bought an MP3/CD player at the local WallMart and arranged with the hotel staff to attach it , via a “mixer”,  to the sound system in the room.  That worked out fairly well.   We would have benefited from (a) pre-selecting a preferred play list of 50’s songs and (b) having a similar CD, or set of CDs, and play list,  for the latin music.   I switched back and forth, on request, between latin and 50’s five or more times during the evening.   We really needed  a DJ with  preferred lists.  Next year I hope to arrange for something like that.  Mary Filos wanted a Marengue.   I had not a clue as to how to find one.

I may or may not get around to writing up the other events of the weekend.  The main one not covered in detail here was a lovely lunch at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City.  I had gone to, or been taken to, Ybor city since my early childhood and we usually went to the Columbia restaurant.   I thought the Aroz con Pollo was excellent… though I heard that some people thought it was too dry.   I guess I thought it was supposed to be that way and I loved it.  We went from the hotel to Ybor city, and back, by bus and that worked out well.   We even took turns as tour guides and raconteurs over the bus sound system on the trip.

On Sunday evening there were 15 to 20 people in room 910, our lounge/party room for the weekend.   I offered to go out for Cuban Sandwiches (a popular favorite in Tampa ) and with Elaine, Carol O’Neel Stiller and Connie Finch Ritter  set out on this quest.   I drove us by the house on the Bayshore where my grandparents, parents, and sister had lived and then ended up at the “Havana Village” ( under a large sign stating “Home of the Cuban Sandwich”) where we bought 16 Cuban sandwiches (heated, to go).  We had been gone well over an hour and our return with the sandwiches was greeted with enthusiasm.

Everyone seemed to like the sandwiches – though they had more meat than I felt should be in a true (“Classic”) Cuban sandwich.

The Water Ballet !

Later in the evening someone (who?) suggested that we all go swimming and  around 10 to 12 of us made it into the water.  Most of the others formed a small gathering of observers at the North East corner of the pool.  There was a lot of laughter and frolicking in the pool and at one point Elena left the observers and waved me over to inform me that she had a comment from the observers.  The comment was “The children are having so much fun”.   I was much amused by this.  It became more-so.

Several of the Colegio Americano people at the reunion had participated in a water ballet show held at the Tamanaco, probably during the 1956-1957 school year.  The girls had learned,  rehearsed, and performed, several Ester Williams-like choreographed water dances and the boys put on a clown show – pushing each other off the diving boards and diving in strange (imagine an upside down frog doing exercises) ways.  I was one of the clowns.

I had asked Connie earlier whether she had been part of the Tamanaco Water Ballet.  She said “No, I kept getting water in my nose” – but, she said, Carol O’neel was one of those who did particularly well in the original show.   She did it again!

Somehow the “girls” in the pool, now in their 60’s, or close to it, got organized enough to try out some synchronized swimming maneuvers.   I was aware of Carol doing most of the directing.  My wife, Elaine, got into the swim of all this and I could not tell whether there was real bonding or just raw giggling energizing this group.  Probably both.

My favorite moment of the weekend occurred when I was on the side of the pool watching the ladies swimming, with more or less synchronized arm motions.   The pool area was not well lit  and I don’t see well without my glasses – so the scene had a kind of sur-real Monseratt feel to me.  I recognized each of the swimmers as they swam by my side of the circle and came within my 3 to 4 foot range of vision.   I had known several of them when they were in high-school and had some happy memories of those days.  Entering the mist of my vision the next swimmer came into focus.  It was a walrus like apparition – with the correct arm motion.  The creature probably weighed close to twice that of the other swimmers, had a bushy mustache and a swarthy complexion.  It was Harry Sasson, performing as well as any of the others – but to me, totally incongruous.  I laughed out loud and I have laughed about this many times since.  I laughed as I wrote this.  Thank you, Harry, and supporting cast, for a wonderful moment. Click here for a view.

A few minutes later all the men in the pool were integrated into the circle (boy-girl-boy-girl) and we did a few more numbers.  For a grand finali we swam, 12 wide I think, the length of the pool on our backs without using our hands.

At this point the someone from the hotel staff came out to speak to us.  I was in the pool but I gather that they had two messages for us.  One was that the pool was closing in five minutes at 10 PM so we should all start getting out.  The second was that our noisy rowdiness was disturbing some of the other hotel guests.  

It was a delightful experience!

Please send me any thing about the Tampa reunion you would like to share with others!

Harry Baya, July 12, 2004

	Who Attended the Tampa Reunion
	Arnie Allen Harry Baya    Elaine Baya Madge Baya Jon Benedict Mike Benedict Art Blackstone    Arleen Blackstone Mercedes San Roman de Bullos Carlos Bullos Tina Gardner Coates Bobbie Cruz Ray deSola Helen Disario Tanya Lopez Duchild Bob Duchild Jack Eskanazi Jane Hougen Fast Mári Wilkes de Filos Marcos Filos Charles Finch Nancy Finch Christian J J Garsault Maria Garsault		Lockie Gary Karyn Gary Willard Grant Letitia Grant Betsy Bain Hickman Fred Hill Mike Huisman Shirley Huisman Jennifer O'Clery Ilowiecki Tom Ilowiecki Graham Johnson Janet Johnson Tom Jones Teresa Jones Sande Karsten Gayloyd Turner Lorenzsonn Susanna Pfersdorf Lunsford Toni Beals McDuffie (Sat. nite) Maria Luisa Rivero Niño Luis Niño Terry O'Neel Anna Palenzona Mario Palenzona		Mary Ellen Kibby Payne Bob Payne Dan Peters Grace Peters Diana Gillett Reinhard Andrew Reinhard Connie Finch Ritter Tony Sanpere Ellen Sanpere Salvador Sanpere Jeanine Cabet Sanpere Harry Sasson Bruce Schaefer Renee Beck Bobbie Beals Shapiro (Sat. nite) Karl Sooder (sunday lunch) Rex Spivey Nancy Spivey Carol O'Neel Stiller Bobby Taylor Rudy van der Bijl Marijke van der Plas Bill Wilkes Patty Wilkes Chris Wolcott