Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Penny University, 40 Years On

The discussion group that I've mentioned here every once in awhile is one that I've attended with varying degrees of faithfulness and regularity for quite some time. The Penny University, in any case, has been in my life for longer than it's been out of it, and that by a long ways. I wasn't there at the founding but it wasn't so very long afterwards that I found my way down to the coffee shop where it was held, and in some ways it marks my continuous connection to Santa Cruz better than anything else. Old leaders have passed on to that great university in the sky, and even the location has changed a few times, but the Penny remains its quintessential self.


Some day perhaps I'll record my own impressions and recollections of the group over time, but the fortieth anniversary of the group was observed about a week and a half ago, and a friend told me that she had seen an article in our local paper about the celebration, so I just remembered to look it up. It's a pretty good account of what the group is all about, so I thought I'd give you a link to it HERE. If you're looking at the first picture, I am at the very  far left back, and fortunately, you can't see me at all.

Here's a photo I found from back in the time when one of the original founders, Mary Holmes, was still alive, sitting with our current leaders, professors Jim Bierman and Paul Lee.

 

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing these pennies for your thoughts.

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  2. And thanks for being interested in them.

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  3. I have always envied you for belonging to a group like that.

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  4. Sometimes I get annoyed at people sounding off, but mostly I know that I am very lucky.

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  5. That;s the best of all worlds: stimulating discussion, and a supply of people about whom you can complain.

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