Last Call: Anniversary Hues
Pleszczynski, Wladyslaw
LAST CALL WLADYSLAW PLESZCZYNSKI Anniversary Hues THE YEAR WAS 1955, I wasn't quite six, and for the first time I learned what a major anniversary was. No, not exactly the 10th...
...they wouldn't have come to America...
...I hope that's not the skill that got him into college...
...My parents went on to celebrate their silver, ruby, and golden anniversaries in similar fashion: same spot, same time, same quality of friends...
...LATELY IN WASHINGTON I've witnessed some of the other satisfactions that only longevity and accomplishment can bring...
...One older couple I especially liked brought their Boston terrier with them...
...If they sat it was on folding chairs at what were probably card tables, but nicely covered in linen, flowers, and real china and silver-ware...
...for me, during a break in the action, he played a special rendition of "Davy Crockett" ("king of the wild frontier...
...A high roller took my cousin, sister, and me for a quick ride to East Beach in his cream Cadillac convertible...
...Later this month, William F. Buckley, Jr., turns 80...
...there wouldn't have been me...
...No, not exactly the 10th marking the end of Word War II, but something that went hand in hand with it: my parents' 10th...
...Except the older everyone got, the less likely it was anyone would be up for a quick drive to the beach...
...President Bush was the keynote speaker...
...Whether personal or historic, they affect more people, reflect significant events, recognize genuine achievement...
...Two years ago the thriving Intercollegiate Studies Institute marked its 50th with a huge dinner at the National Building Museum...
...Charlie was his name, and there was much consternation when the neighbors' black cat Jet scratched him in the nose when he paid an unannounced visit...
...Already I knew that if they hadn't been liberated by the Allies they wouldn't have met and quickly married...
...Around August 1 they threw a big anniversary party in the spacious front yard of our old Santa Barbara house...
...And now, uniquely, a birthday will surpass an anniversary in momentousness...
...At his grandparents' 50th, for example, my older son at age ten helped tend bar for the first time...
...LAST CALL W L A D Y S L A W P L E S Z C Z Y N S K I Anniversary Hues THE YEAR WAS 1955, I wasn't quite six, and for the first time I learned what a major anniversary was...
...Last month National Review took over the National Building Museum on the occasion of its golden anniversary...
...Last year the American Conservative Union hosted a gala at the downtown Marriott on its 40th...
...Back then National Review had no Washington bureau, there was no Weekly Standard, and Washington National Airport had yet to be renamed...
...THERE'S ONE MORE MILESTONE to go this year...
...Scores of newly or soon-tobe naturalized family and friends came up from Los Angeles, bearing gifts...
...DESPITE WHAT THE FRENCH CALL BIRTHDAYS, I found out early that anniversaries are much bigger...
...In the main, the major satisfaction we've derived from being Inside the Belt-way is that we've never liked this area the way we did southern Indiana, thereby confirming that every-thing we said about Washington two decades ago re-mains no less true today...
...Much more modest was the Weekly Standard's anniversary reception two months back—but then it has only turned ten...
...I think we got back just in time for the toasts, the women tossing my father in the air, the men my mother...
...there wouldn't have been my sister...
...He bade his farewell to Washington at the National Review 50th...
...The party was an endless affair of spirited commotion...
...But I noticed the new chil82 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 2005 dren present would develop their own indelible impressions...
...President Reagan was the keynote speaker—alas, on video only, from his appearance at NR's 30th anniversary dinner...
...On November 17, he will be honored at a special dinner in New York City...
...The spectacle of countless adults laughing, drinking, eating, in constant, friendly, affectionate animation—all because of my parents—proved eternally dizzying...
...A neat trick, regardless—proving, if only for one bright shining moment, that history can indeed stop if the right people stand athwart it...
...An accordionist provided the music...
...There was a special dance floor constructed near the magnolia tree...
...LOST IN THESE HEADY COMMEMORATIONS was The American Spectator's own little anniversary this past August marking 20 years since our move to the Washington area from Bloomington, Indiana...
Vol. 38 • November 2005 • No. 9
