I have never in all my 38 years and 19 days had so much fun.

Because my roots in the Philippines go back over 3 generations, I met and remet fathers, mothers, sons and daughters of the families my grandparents, parents, brother, sister and I have talked about for generations.  I met friends I never knew, who became my friends for life just because we attended the same school at some time in history.  The Johnson family is but one example.

I learned, through life-long family friends, more about my past and the past of my family.  I never knew that Mr. Schworer was planning to marry my father's sister before she died in Santo Thomas Prison in the Philippines.  Now I know, a little more, why these two families are so close; why I, as the #1 son of the Gewald family, was promised to marry Anne Schworer, the #1 daughter of the Schworer family.  I could go on and on with examples, but to do so would require pages and pages.

I lost over 19 years for those 2 nights.  All the boring things that must be done to make a living are now and will be to me, only a fleeting moment in history because I have my past, my youth and the life-long friends that you have reintroduced to me during the '85 Reunion.