Severn School Salsa, Chili Cook Off and Facebook Meet Up in Davidsonsonville MD Saturday August 28, 2010 aligned some 70's Severn School Alums for great Admirals fun! It started with Ann Wallace Rieffe and Geoffe Rieffe's decision to enter the Annapolis Tomato Festival Homestead Gardens Chili Cook Off. Then they mentioned it to Anne Chandler who mentioned it to me. Ann Wallace facebooked Susan Snyder who said she may drop by. John Norton facebooked me and said he was driving across the country and that he would like to reconnect with some Severn Alums. I facebooked back again and asked if he was in the area yet, and if so, could he drop by Homestead Gardens? It went down kind of like that. The Severn School Seventies stars just kind of aligned some Seventies Alums with a little Facebook NUDGE. It was a little extra dose of that Severn Serendipity I have mentioned before.
Now you know the Homestead Gardens parking lot for one of these events is HUGE. So, I had sent John a message and said GREEN Jeep, RE/MAXX tags, purple dress, see you there. Figure the odds of me pulling up right next to John Norton's Green Jeep with Severn tags. It was the Severn tags that got me. Anyway, after laughing about the odds of this, we walked in to find Ann and Geoff's booth. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, their chili contest entry was over the top. Yes, there was a tried and true Severn Connection, but it shined on it's own merits. Anne Chandler joined us and while Ann and Geoff fed the masses, we strolled around and checked out the competition. We voted and no we did not stuff the ballot box. The Severn School Honor Code still exits. We could not find any contenders we felt had the competitive edge. Anyway, all of a sudden, I noticed Mrs. Snyder and Susan and Susan's tall Texas Beau over by the doorway trying to get our attention.
Now I know where I was the day Elvis died just like I know where I was with President Kennedy and with the Challenger milestones. I know clearly because I had just spent a few days in Rehoboth Beach Delaware with the Snyder family. I had turned on the radio as I left to head home. The trip had started my lifetime love of Rehoboth Beach. This was one of the last few times I clearly remember talking with Mrs. Snyder. I do remember seeing her for a split second at Claudia Clanton's Celebration of Life but she vanished in moments. I think I saw her once or twice in the interim but it was a very long time ago. Anyway, I still make the Elvis connection. I also remember as kids she had served fresh strawberries and pineapple at a skating party and I think of her to this day when I slice them up together. Those Severn memories are alive so it was great fun to walk over and chat with them as a complete surprise. The Severn School Seventies friendships have lasted a lifetime so they can pick up where they left off without a bump in the three to four decades highway since Severn.
Then Anne, John and I decided to check out the Salsa and Tomato entries in the adjacent tent. John's son has developed a gourmet ketchup so he has extra experience taste testing and following food news. Per the PROUD Papa:
"My son's ketchup company is Sir Kensington's Gourmet Scoping Ketchup(http://sirkensingtons.com) and it was chosen as one of the best new items at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. The bottle design is causing a stir in design circles as well. My son Scott and his two partners took business courses in college and then took business seriously. Sir Kensington's Gourmet Scoping Ketchup is in gourmet food stores such as Dean & Deluca and Hunt Valley Catering. Oh, and the product photography on the web site is my work."
So when I dragged them to a booth with this fabulous lemon salad dressing now being sold at Whole Foods, you can imagine my surprise when John observantly said he had noticed the article about the Salad Dressing in the Capital. Nope, it must not have been the addition of girls to Severn that added to the grade point average at Severn. Anyway, the Salad Dressing "Mom" had developed the salad dressing to get her three sons to eat their veggies. One son figured they were really on to something when one of his buds came over to his house and raided the frig and swiped the salad dressing. John picked up the literature but I know I can find it at Whole Foods and of everything at Homestead, it was my second favorite entry. No, it did not have a Severn School Connection.
Our day in the sun included 6 Severn Alums who had not been in the same location in 35 plus years, one JUDGE and PEOPLE's Choice award winning Severn Classmate Chili Cookout Entry (Yahoo!@#&...and I hear they are bringing their chili to the Severn Homecoming Chili Cookout Event) and lots of hugs and laughter and memories in the end of summer sun....right before another Severn School year is about to begin.
Contact Cheryl Ritchie at www.Facebook.com/GoldenResults or email GoldenGirl@GoldenResults.com for an invitation to the PRIVATE Severn 70's site open to ALL Severn Admirals. Also, Ann Wallace Rieffe is organizing a one day seminar at Anne Arundel Community College for small businesses on April 23, 2011. I will be speaking on Social Networking for small business for an hour for Ann and already Anne Chandler and also John Norton, who has a video production company called deClarity, have decided to sign up. I'll be throwing in some tech tips and blogging tools here and there, too!
John Norton's company, deClarity, is a complete communications for corporations through video, web sites, and print. They create corporate image and marketing materials for internal, business-to-business and business-to-consumer purposes. His bioCommunications units, his specialty, creates high-end 3D animations that show how new drugs work on an ultra-microscopic level, for pharmaceutical companies. John's living his lifelong dream of returning to the Eastern Shore by opening an East Coast deClarity branch.
Visit www.declarity.com to catch up with John Norton and also join us all for some laughter and memories and Severn Fun in the Spring! Or slip by the Homestead Gardens train event that Anne says is a lot of fun at Christmas!
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