FennyFest 1999 convened in Jay's swimming pool on Saturday, July 17, and after a minor break for sleep and recuperation, resumed on Sunday. Attending were Jay Fenwick, his youngest daughter Melanie, his friend Moira and her daughter Shannon. Paul Gibson and his wife arrived from Virginia on Sunday afternoon. Bob Paxson, who also lives in Arizona, showed up as well. Bob's wife Paulette was able to join us for dinner that evening. Sandy Sorkin and Kathy were the first to arrive and the last to leave. Actually, their schedule correlated quite closely with the presence of food and drink. Where else, but at FennyFest, will you find 20 oz wine glasses?

You can see from the pictures that Jay lives in a very nice home in a very hot place. Note the thermometer in one of the pictures, it reads 100 degrees which is about as cool as it got for the two days. Apparently, our schedule brought us to Phoenix between major dust storms, so that we might experience the monsoon season. This is when they get a lot of rain and the fabled low humidity rises to as much as 50% on some days. (It's hard to be concerned with their humidity when you live in New Jersey.) We were comforted by Jay who told us not to worry about the dust. And I quote, "It's a dry dust."

In addition to the festivities that centered around swimming, eating, and a dog named Pebbles, Jay recited some of his poetry from the original Penncrest High School FOLIO publication. Who can ever forget his musings on love?

What is love? Let us talk about it,
Is this thing short, or is it big,
Greater than a casket, or a bread basket,
Large as a tree, or small as a twig.

Does it smell like a boy who has been playing for hours,
Does it lay around like a donkey in June,
Has it the odor of fresh picked flowers,
All of these questions I will answer you soon.

Love is bigger than a giant tree is,
Love smells like the track team before their shower,
Love is smaller than you or me is,
Love's odor is that of a bunch of beautiful flowers,
All of these things love is for sure,
I only wish that I knew the cure.

Jay Fenwick

I want to thank Jay for permission to reprint his work. Hopefully, he will eventually give permission to reprint the classic "Bus Stanzas." I especially enjoyed the "donkey in June" metaphor. If any other budding authors from the premier issue of FOLIO will give permission, we can publish their early works as well.

If anyone else wants to arrange a mini-reunion, please notify me so that we can publicize it properly.

Paul Gibson has done a tremendous job of finding the lost members of our class. He appreciates any assistance you can offer in the search. Remember to notify us if you move.

Just a reminder: if you use the Amazon link from Penncrest site, all of the proceeds will be used to offset future reunion costs.

Two other Penncrest classes have asked about being added to this site. If they elect to join us, our home page will change slightly reflecting the high school and a few notes. The page will be structured with links to the other classes. If any other class already has a home page, we will create a link for them as soon as they request it.

A note that appeared a few months ago on the message board questioned the finances of this web venture. We have not asked anyone to contribute and all of the expenses of hosting the web site have been absorbed by those that think this is a good recreation activity.

We need more bio's. It would also be nice to see updates to the existing bio's now that many of you have had the opportunity to rethink your lives since high school. We need a few more good stories of the type that make everyone from the 60's proud.

Some of you should start worrying about your bio. Rick Hevner has started writing bio's for those who have failed to do so voluntarily. They are actually pretty good. They include tales from the South Pacific, the Balkans, African safaris, ship wrecks on deserted islands, and good times in Media. Remember you always have the option of writing your own.

Updated on 12/11/12