High School Reunion
Early this year I received an invitation from the Directorate of the Budapest High School Vörösmarty Mihály Gimnázium and the Student Association to attend the graduation ceremony of the graduating students, along with the "old boys" who graduated fifty and sixty years ago. It was an uplifting experience; we were greeted by the school director and the head of the student association, we walked through the decorated classrooms and corridors of the school and the young boys and girls were singing, playing music and applauding as we marched among them. We uttered a few encouraging words to them. After the ceremony we went to the "Apacuka" restaurant nearby where we had lunch and beer and reminisced about the "good old days", telling stories about our experiences fifty years ago in the school and laughed a lot about them. We also exchanged information about our careers and life experiences. Our class had 29 students back then, 22 survived so far and all of us had great careers; there have been three medical doctors, dentists, several engineers, one lawyer, one photo artist, one English language professor, one film director, one police colonel, an air foce lieutenant, business people and IT technicians. Three of us came from America and we met here in Budapest after 50 years. I would not have missed this event for the whole world. Pictures can be seen here.
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At the Dentist
My ex HS classmate and friend Attila is a dentist and offered an examination in his office. He filled two cavities that the American dentist wanted to cap with crowns, costing at least 500 dollars each. He did some cleaning also and charged only 50 dollars, (obviously at a discount), a fraction of what it would have cost in California. Afterwards he invited me to a nice fisherman's restaurant next to a beautiful fishing lake. You can't get a better treatment!
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The Laci Haris Experience
I had the honor to meet Haris Laci, my HS classmate and friend in his home in Budapest and get acquainted with his work as a photo artist. After an introduction to his kind wife who served us coffe and refreshments, Laci showed us some of his work, his lab, his photo and computer equipment (Apple!) with a state of the art Epson plotter. We were amazed at the pictures he took in November 1956 during the Hngarian Revolution as a 14 year old boy when there was a lull in the fighting. It was a dangereous undertaking. He gave us a copy of our choice as a gift. The long afternoon passed as quickly as a minute it seemed. The memory of this experience will last for a long time!
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