A reunion the way it should be

In the end, bail money wasn't necessary.

I'd joked in the newsroom that I might have to have some set aside when I first heard that Steve Ehle and Bruce Fordham were going to be rolling into town.

Steve was my right hand more than 30 years ago when I was just starting out as editor. He was also one of my best friends at the time.

Bruce was among the handful of artists hired by what was then the Jay County Arts Council under a federal jobs program grant when the arts organization was just getting its footing in the late 1970s. He was also a character.

It was Bruce who created the "foodscape" that used to adorn the north wall of what was then Ludwig's Supermarket in Portland. It was Bruce who, working with a bunch of guys from Portland Forge, who created the wacky sculpture, officially titled "18.5 Knots," out by WPGW on Ind. 67.

Bruce was also known for more than his share of tomfoolery. I own a couple of his more sedate sculptures, which I got in trade for an old barber chair that I had in the garage.

(Why did I own an antique barber chair? Who knows? It was the 1970s, and we were all in our 20s. It made sense at the time.)

These days, Steve's editor of a magazine called "Wood Digest" and is involved in woodworking vocational programs in schools around the country. He and his wife Jennifer, a social worker, live in the same region of Wisconsin where they grew up.

Bruce tried the artist's life in New York for a bit, worked on museum exhibits in the Cincinnati area for awhile, did some day-trading of stocks, wrote a self-published novel about his Vietnam experiences as a Navy gunner on a river boat on the Mekong, and now lives in Bloomington, where he takes care of his mother. (As I said, he's an interesting guy.)

The impetus for our reunion was a cover story Steve wrote in his magazine about Pennville Custom Cabinetry. I'd suggested the piece about a dozen years ago when Steve briefly passed through Jay County.

It took awhile, but it was worth the wait.

So the Ehles figured that now was a perfect time to come back for a visit, and if they were coming back it made sense to get Bruce back up here - for the first time in 30 years - to share stories, reminisce, and catch up.

That's what we did all weekend.

Friday night we hosted a dinner for the three visitors and our friends Eric and Pam Rogers. Eric had hired Bruce all those many years ago and had plenty of stories to tell about the early days of the arts organization.

In fact, as we all traded stories - with varying degrees of accuracy, exaggeration, and embellishment - I realized that we probably needed the bail money back in the day, not today.

Much food, much wine, much talk, and much laughter.

And Saturday night, there was more.

My good friend Mark Goldman, president of Pennville Custom Cabinetry, wanted to cook dinner for the Ehles and Bruce as a way of thanking Steve for the coverage in a national trade magazine.

And, boy, can Mark cook.

It was a feast. More food, more wine, more talk, and even more laughter.

How much?

Steve e-mailed me Monday that his jaw still hurts from laughing so hard.

Now, that's the way a reunion of old friends ought to be.[[In-content Ad]]