Thursday, May 8th and Friday, May 9th we were excited to have a visit from Bill and Mary Berner. Bill is a college friend of Frank's from their undergraduate days at Saint Joseph University in Philadelphia. They'd driven across the country from Philadelphia as a road trip. We have not seen Bill and Mary in over a decade, maybe longer, so it was fun to catch up. They have been married over 50 years, a mark we hit this September. The four of us sat around and enjoyed the conversation about the past and the present. Past... both Bill and Mary were heavily into the field of education: Bill as a teacher and as a set-up tech for college physics classroom demonstrations, and Mary as a teacher and private Catholic girl school principal. Bill is a devout collector of antique and unique scientific equipment. Present... they were out here in northern California to take their nephew to a wedding and to pick up antique museum quality computers.
Beside academics, St. Joe's is famous for its basketball team and in particular its team mascot The Hawk. Bill Berner has the prestige of having been selected as The Hawk for 2 seasons in 1969-70.
The Hawk is the mascot of Saint Joseph's University. The Hawk is known for continually flapping its wings, even during halftime, throughout every basketball game. It is estimated the Hawk flaps about 3,500 times per game. This act is often associated with the University's motto, "The Hawk Will Never Die", which supposedly was first shouted by fans during a game with Villanova. The Hawk, who debuted in 1955, is one of the most decorated mascots in college sports. It has been named the best college mascot by ESPN College Basketball Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and The Sporting News.
We went out for dinner both evenings: Thursday at the local corner Italian restaurant Strizzi's and Friday night at the local corner Chinese restaurant the Yin Yin.
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