My friend Clare had her annual between-the-holidays soup party today. It usually starts at noon on a weekday and goes as long as people hang around (which, since we’ve mostly all got families and kids, isn’t much past mid afternoon).
She always fixes two big pots of soup — one with meat, one vegetarian — something different every year as I recall. She adds some crusty bread, opens a couple of bottles of wine, and puts a big cooler in the corner of the kitchen for cans and bottles of whatever we bring. We also supply various desserts, cookies, appetizers, and what have you.
Then we all stand around slurping soup and talking, talking. Occasionally a few of us gather around the dining room table, but mostly we congregate in the cozy heart of the house, the kitchen. Clare and husband Tom have beautifully rennovated one of those big ol’ Heritage Hill homes, and I mean no detail on the main floor has been overlooked.
The invitees pretty much all have one thing in common: at one time or another we worked at Sefton, a (now defunct) local ad agency. Most who come to this party worked at the agency at the same time — during its "heyday" in the early and mid nineties when it boasted three offices in three cities, plus several Best-of-Show awards in the local addys.
I look forward to this party all season, because even though we have one or two other get togethers during the year, it’s a sure bet that all the people you really want to see will show up at Clare’s. An APR (that’s an accreditated public relations professional) with the gift of social grace, she always was and still is the glue that holds this group together.
Of course there are always the regulars: Kevin and his wife, Van and his wife (who never remembers my name, bless her), Chris, Keash (no Art this time), Gary and Tina, Lisa Mac.
Catlin and Dolly showed up; they’ve been a now-and-then presence. Larry was there, who I haven’t seen in two years. Leah came down from Beulah. Then there was Lisa, who I hadn’t seen in the seven or eight years since I left the agency. And former owner Gary, who I’ve only talked to once in all that time. There were others, too, that I’m not remembering.
Most of them freelance now, although some, like me, went the corporate route. Leah is a marketing VP for an up north hospital, Lisa hates her new job, Larry’s been out of work for several months now, and Van (didn’t I go to his retirement party?) is driving a floral delivery truck.
I was trying to express to one of my writer friends the other day just what it is that makes this group special. I suppose part (most?) of it is nostalgia. But not all, surely. Copywriting was a second career for me after teaching high school English became an impossibility. I cut my teeth in the business at this agency and with these people. I’ve never seen a more talented, smart, on-the-ball group of professionals (account guys and creatives alike — hard to believe, huh?). And I’m sorry to say it, but on that score corporate life doesn’t quite measure up. It tries really hard — and I love the folks I work with now. But the edge just isn’t there. I think it’s a fact of corporate life.
So I’m thankful for Soup @ 60 College and for people like Clare who remind me that there still is an edge out there — and I can come walk it if ever I want to, even if vicariously.
Joy of the season to all of you, my friends from the past — and present!
