Like many of you, I cannot believe it's been 25 years. Just seems like yesterday I was in Leeds, England, participating in the Vanderbilt-in-England Exchange Program, or attending Wesley Fellowship meetings, or cheering on the VU football team on a rainy Saturday after Thanksgiving, when we defeated UT. What a great four years it was. I look forward to reunion in October, and, as co-chair--along with Julie Sommers Neuman--of the Fundraising Committee, I hope members of our class will take a few minutes to make a contribution to support the efforts of our alma mater. Let's do all we can to make the VU experience as special for future generations of students as it was for us!

Stuart Gulley

No WAY it's been 25 years!

Just looking through the posts that you guys have put up already reminds me that:

1. It really will be a blast to see you guys again -- this will be my first reunion!
2. We really ARE getting old. Rick's and my daughter, who's a freshman at Georgia Tech, says something nearly every time we talk to her that reminds me of the wonder, confusion and just plain fun of being a VU student. What a fantastic, unique time in our lives!
3. But we're not so old that we can't learn new tricks! Look at us, blogging away. How did we ever survive college without the Internet, let alone Facebook??!!

Looking forward to catching up with -- yes, Martha Ray's right -- "old" friends and meeting new ones.

Betsy

Homecoming

Hi Class of 83. WE have a good group planning on Reunion 2008. I am bringing my father(Med 1953) hopefully for one last visit to Vanderbilt. Pray that he can make the trip. Pray also that he can keep up with the KE's. Life is good in east Texas. Laura and I have great memories from Vanderbilt. Too bad it is so hard to get into now. Our kids will likely stay in Texas. Will keep in touch, and look forward to seeing many old friends.
Randy

jumping in the pool

Greetings to all fellow members of 1983. I gave myself a furtive blogname and of course will choose a great time for a "grand reveal". All is well on this end. Married a lovely lady from Houston ( that I was lucky enough to meet in La Jolla ) , went to grad school at Rice and stayed here. Have one great son - age 11. will stay in touch and post regularly. Hope to see you in October.

Remember all of the great things-
Cheeseburgers on french bread at Rotier's
Pitchers at Joensey's
happy hours at Spat's
late , late nights at Faison's
Thursday nights anywhere
comeradery of your freshman hall
very difficult freshman chemistry class - a 44 usually was a "B" on a test
rites of spring = a lot of fun

take care rh

Martha Woolbright Ray

Okay, I'll say it first -- 25 years?? How old are we anyway? This is going to be a huge and FUN reunion, and it will only be made more fun if everyone comes. Please don't think that you won't know anyone -- our past reunions at Vanderbilt have been so surprising -- you reconnect with people you haven't seen in ages, and you meet some wonderful new people that you never knew when you were in college. So you really do make some new friends while seeing the old ones (but, I guess it being our 25th reunion proves we're all really "old" friends after all -- ha). The reunion committee has already been hard at work, and it really promises to be a fun weekend (and you get to see Vandy play Duke, too). And y'all, think about it -- we'll never be younger.
I, for one, am hoping everyone makes a big effort to be there -- I can't wait.
Martha Woolbright Ray

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Welcome to our Blog

Hello Class of '83. I'm sitting here on the last day of Spring Break in a condo on the beach outside of Tampa, trying to cheer myself up after witnessing the disappointing loss of our Vanderbilt men's basketball team to Siena. The week started out in Atlanta, where our hotel was hit by the tornado. We witnessed room shingles and debris flying by our 15th story hotel room next door to the Equitable building before evacuating to the stairwell to the sounds of breaking glass and rattling doors. Our room was fine, but the rooms all around had the windows broken out, and our next door neighbor received cuts to his face. We were ecstatic to find that the first round of the NCAA was in Tampa, so we drove down Monday to wait on the beach until the team arrived. Guess we'll be routing for the women's team and baseball now.

It has been a long time since graduation. I have many fond memories of Vandy - John (my husband) and I met the third day of school our freshman year at Barefoot in Branscomb, and we married 2 weeks after graduation. All of our (cheap) dates were football and basketball games, so after a 7 year stint in Philadelphia for medical school and residency, we were happy to return to Nashville where we could cheer our team on in person. Our oldest son, Andy, is now a junior at Vandy and will attend medical school there upon graduation.

Ralph Davis, our reunion chair, Martha Woolbright Ray, our attendance chair, and I (party chair) met in February with all of the other class chairmen planning their reunions. We got to hear from then interim, now Chancellor Zeppos, and I think you will all be pleased with Gordon Gee's replacement. He has a great sense of humor (when asked if Vandy was trying to get rid of Greeks with the Commons, he replied, "Well, first of all, I'm Greek"), and hehas been at Vanderbilt for quite a long time. Please go the the class page link and go to Dores2Dores to get your friends' email addresses and encourage them to come to reunion (and to blog). I think the biggest thing that keeps people from coming is that they are afraid they will go to the reunion and will not recognize anyone! Reunion is paired with a home football weekend, and instead of scheduling a team that will beat us, they actually scheduled us to play Duke (so don't wear blue). The class party should be fun, not stuffy. We will have stand up tables and tons of food, so don't worry that you will be stuck at a dinner sitting by someone that you don't know as we want everyone to be able to move around and visit. We will also have a DJ instead of a loud band, as some classes have complained about the music being so loud in the past that they couldn't talk. The band will be at the combined party after the class parties. I will post a blog for you to list songs that you want to be played at our party. We chose not to have a cheesy theme like disco or mardi gras, but to go with the simple "Black and Gold" as that is what everyone is coming for. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let us know! Laurie Alsentzer lalsentzer@comcast.net

Remember When

Our freshmen year we saw the Vanderbilt and Peaody College for teacher merge July 1, 1979, Ted Kennedy speak at Imapct, the students coming together to save Old Science Hall, KA's "Old Soouth " days bring ctroversy to campus, the building of the new Vanderbilt Hospital, Blair school of Music, a new outdoor track, and Dudley field renovations; concerts by the Allman Brothers, carla Bonhoff, Ray Charles, Dixie Dregss, and the Nashville Jazz Machine. Our sophomore year we saw the merger with Blair School, Owen ground breaking, basketball suspensions, $50K of long distance charged to VU by students with the new northern Telecom phone system; football players moved from Carmichael East to the Holiday Inn when the air conditioning went out, visits by President Carter, Eudora Welty, Hugh Kenner, Wendall Berry, Vincent Price, George Bush, and Eugene McCarthy, the reelection of Reagan, Time Magazine devoting its "Americana"section to Vanderbilt, the Agrarians, and the symposium, the Homecoming PIg Chase on Alumni Lawn, concerts by Dizzy Gillespie, Elvis Costello, Eddie Money, and the Nashville Symphony, a $10 million renovation of Dudley Field, and a move into the new hosptial in a single weekend. Our Junior year saw McTyeire become an International House for American and International students, the revelation that Vandy students paid 25% to 33% more than wholesale for textbooks, Professor Elizabeth Langland's last year due to denied tenure and the ensuing lawsuit charging VU with sexual discrimination, many undergrads tuned into General Hospital,Sandra Day O'Connor becoming the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, the first black alumni reunion with 100 returning alums, the retirement of Chancellor Heard and appointment of Chancellor Wyatt, a letter bomb in the Computer Science department, undergrads wearing Izod, Tretorns, and Ralph Lauren, visits by Ralph Nader and Gary Hart, and concerts by Emmy Lou Harris and U2. Our Senior Year saw beautification projects at Kirland, Old Science, and Old Central, women on the second floor of McGill Dorm, VANDERBILT FOOTBALL BEATING TENNESSEE AND A WINNING FOOTBALL SEASON, the opening of the Arts Dorm and Confederate Hall, Concerts by the Talking Heads, Return to Forever, and REM, camping out at Alumni Hall to sign up for campus interviews, and speakers Coretta Scott King, John Cappalletti, F. Lee Bailey, and Charlton Heston. (Thanks to the alumni office for going through the yearbook and getting this list together!)