Reunions Remembered

by Richard Magat Although the November 20 reunion was a wonderful event, it lacked some of the exoticism of earlier gatherings. There was the reunion held at the historic National Arts Club on Gramercy Park, for example. LAFF members and their guests arrived to confront a picket line. Marching were Puerto Rican activists protesting cuts in social services by Mayor Giuliani. The Mayor, as it turns out, was a sponsor of another event being held at the club, a fund-raiser for the Mayor of Jersey City. Although we outnumbered the Jersey City contingent, any thought of physical combat was dispelled by the heft of the Jersey Cityites. In any event, the club arranged to move us to another space in the building. Although we were ready to have the next reunion at the National Arts Club in 2003 the club was no available. It seems that some of its officials were embroiled in legal matters involving misuse of funds. Further the club was feuding with its neighbors about the fate of trees in the park. After a search for alternative sites, conducted mainly by Pat Corrigan, the cavernous Seventh Regiment Armory, at Lexington Avenue and 67th Street, was identified. It turns out that the Regiment rented its top floor to nonprofit organizations. Another floor housed a shelter for the homeless. Riding to inspect the premises, Pat and I shared an elevator with two women residents of the shelter. As the creaking elevator mounted, one of them said to the other, “When the hell are they going to fix this f------ elevator,” whereupon her friend admonished, “Mary, watch your language, there are two gentlemen in the elevator.” The dining room and its menu proved quite satisfactory, and it had an academic aura since it was used by the Civil War Roundtable, headed by the distinguished Columbia historian Eric Foner.