Soule: College Reunion Sure Beats Farm Work

It was an event that occurred once in a lifetime. I'm not talking about the June 24th lining up of five planets and the moon for the first time since 1864. This is far rarer. Unique, actually. It was the Principia College classes of 1972/73 combined reunion held on the college campus in Elsah, Ill., where over 200 septuagenarians lived in college dorms for five days, ate delicious cafeteria food, and tried to remember whom we dated.

Principia, a college for Christian Scientists (no connection to Tom Cruise or Scientology), is perched on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. The campus, with quaint dorms designed by Bernard Maybeck, may have looked like a Shakespearian village, but for me, it was an oasis in my desert of responsibility and work.

The reunion also reminded me of skydiving with six classmates, including classmate and ex-Vietnam vet Chip Ostenberg.

We carpooled to a Missouri airfield where, after a half-hour of training, we suited up and climbed into a plane flown by a former Vietnam helicopter pilot who flew the single-wing Cessna to 3,000 feet. The pilot had been a lead helicopter pilot in Vietnam whose job was to fly low and fast to draw fire so that the bigger gunship following could see the ground fire and shoot at it.

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Carole Soule is co-owner of Miles Smith Farm in Loudon, where she raises and sells beef, pork, lamb, eggs, and other local products. She can be reached at carolesoule60@gmail.com.