ES69 NCKU 46-year Class Reunion - organized by Professor WenS and Yaung Hwa (詹文聲教授與伉儷,盧永華)

Pretext

Dallas, Texas was chosen to host the biannual NCKU World Carnival from 10/16/15 – 10/18/15.  It’s the tradition of our college - National Cheng Kung University - world class reunion event.  Exciting!  This year marks the 10^th year for the World Class Carnival and 11^th year for North America NCKU Alumni Conference.

Ben and I have been waiting with great anticipation ever since Professor WenS Chen and his wife, Yaung Hwa 詹文聲教授與伉儷,盧永華sent out their personal and sincere invitation to host ES69s 46-year class reunion.  The thorough documentation sent out a month earlier, detailing from the airport pick-up/drop off, minibus rental, meal arrangement and sight-seeing locations for these four days was awesome.  They make us feel pleasant and appreciative.  We couldn’t be happier because it’s a double blessing for all of us to attend both parties.  Not only is that, but we’re also all going to visit their private hay farm (178-acre Lotus Patch)!   Yaung Hwa’s (永華) 2^nd career jump after her retirement 5 years ago – Her Dream!

I happened to have the opportunity to visit both of them around the same time in October, last year.  Ben rewarded me a retirement trip to free my mind from being a dedicated Montgomery County new retiree and a brand-new grandmother out in California for 6 months.  I understand he was quite lonely for a while.  We explored the state of Texas to visit Shinyee (張心儀), my college roommate and best friend in Houston, made a west-bound trip to Austin where  Chih Cheng Ma (馬志成), Hung Hwey Yang (楊鴻慧), and Pen Yuan Shih(施本源),Hsieu Wang (王修) treated us like a family in their beautiful and comfortable retirement homes.)

 

 

 

Photographs and Memories

Whatever happened to the Class of ES69? 

June, 1969 – NCKU Library.  Does it seem like only yesterday when we bid our farewell at the graduation procession?  Through the four years, remember when somewhere in time we had come across together, either in the library, down the Tech & Academic Road, under that old banyan tree, at the Small Classrooms in Math Department or in Kwan Fu Campus?

I will leave it to you to walk down the memory lane and see if you can still remember the special friends from those wonder years.

Reminiscences & Impressions

May, 1972 – Albuquerque, New Mexico at University of New Mexico. 

Those were the days, the way they were – early-mid 20s, all pretty, youthful, charming and handsome college graduates – I often wonder about the fountain of youth.  We all age naturally as you can see from the photos we shot at this memorable class reunion, but our mind is the source that keeps pumping the creativity we bring to our life.  When we learn how to tap this source, then we certainly defeat the age.  Agree or not?

Yesterday Once More

May, 1984 – Damascus, Maryland. 

When Friends meet, hearts warm.  Both Professor Wen Sheng and Yaung Hwa visited us along with Yaung Hwa’s mother and their 5-year-old daughter, Alice.  Of course, all those unmistakable signs and evidence are everywhere in these photos.  Both Wen Sheng (文聲), imposing and compassionate and Yaung Hwa (永華), resolute and humble are a supportive and loving team building a happy family together.  While Alice was smiling at the camera, my daughter, a year older than Alice could only pout for lacking the center of attention – the typical syndrome of one-child of the family then.  We both later had a son, their Winston and our Eric almost 6-7 years apart. – A coincidence?