Picnic, Dinner, TWOB, and Decompression
 |
 |
 |
 |
Top, Picnic from SUUSI 2003, Teens Way Off Broadway with their Artizans Bizarre.
Bottom, Dining at D2, Rev. Morris Hudgins and John Hochella at Decompression
Party
Here are some of the other pieces of SUUSI that help make it a good experience. On Friday we had our usual picnic in good weather. The upper left photo above shows the picnic of 2003, which was held behind Peddrew-Yates Hall. This year it was held in the open area behind Owens and Eggleston, a long walk from the place where we disembarked after nature hikes on Friday.
In 2003 we ate at Dietrick Hall, which was a huge, good, but somewhat boring facility; nevertheless, it accommodated all of us nicely with room to spare. Virginia Tech decided to renovate it, so in 2004 we ate at Owens, which turned into a madhouse. In 2005 we came back to Dietrick, with changes. The old cafeteria lines have been replaced by open court establishments with rather strange offerings; for example, Gaucho's offers scrambled eggs. There is much less room than before, and the place became crowded. But nevertheless we got to meet each other at Dietrick for the most part and enjoy fellowship. And oh, yes, they renamed the place D2. Some of us wondered where was R2, and others wondered where was D1. Virginia Tech has created a sphinx for us, the riddle of D2.
The ultimate riddle of all was the answer to life the universe and everything. Some theme talk presenters had their own solutions. Rev. Melanie Morel-Sullivan said the answer was New Orleans,Rev. Suzanne Meyer said the answer was making best use of your failures, and Rev. Steve Crump said the answer was love, and maybe jazz. A computer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, said the answer was 42, the number of little white circles on two dice. And if you click on that hyperlink, you will see that Google agrees. But Teens Way Off Broadway, held at Lyric, a local movie theater, had a different idea. With its Registration, Artizans Bizarre, nature waivers, info office and everything else, TWOB made it unquestionably clear that the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything was SUUSI! That is it! THE ANSWER. Come to SUUSI and find out for yourself.
Of course, SUUSI has to come to an end, but some places hold decompression parties afterwards. Richmond, Virginia was one of these. The party was held at the home of Rev. Morris Hudgins, the new minister at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond, who has been to the past few SUUSIs, and a picture shows him with John Hochella, director of this year's Fun Run/Walk. By the way, my time was 12:26 and I came in 12th at the age of 58. Behind me was number 14, Zimri Putney, five years older, showing that one can still run fast at these ages.