Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
A Reunion Story: High School Bonds Beyond Differences
Leslie and Angella take you through their emotional journey at the Brooklyn Technical High School 45th reunion. This isn't just any school gathering – it's a celebration of one of America's premier STEM education institutions and the diverse bonds that have endured nearly half a century.
The most remarkable aspect? Watching a room filled with people from different racial, cultural, and political backgrounds leave their differences at the door and simply celebrate their shared history.
This heartwarming episode reminds us all that while time marches forward and our numbers gradually diminish, the connections formed in our youth can provide lifelong strength, joy, and perspective.
Join us for this celebration of friendship, diversity, and the enduring spirit of the Brooklyn Technites!
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Hey Ange.
Angie:Hey, Les how you doing.
Leslie:I'm doing really well. A little tired, a little sore.
Angie:We've been Brooklyn Tech-ing.
Leslie:This is the. It was the All Tech Weekend, so this is the All Tech Podcast episode of Black Boomer. Besties from Brooklyn Welcome.
Angie:Welcome.
Angie:I'm Angella and that's Leslie, my best friend of almost 50 years, and we are two free thinking 60 something year old Black women and we come on here to just share some deep insights on the way that we see life, and we do bring a lot of joy, a lot of insight into your lives.
Angie:So, before we get started, we just want to make one thing clear we are technite s. We're not techies, we're not all the. technites and we are tech engineers. So we don't have blue devils, we don't have dragons, we don't have Vikings, we don't have bears, we don't have tigers we don't have. We are engineers, tech engineers, technites for short. Anyway, we just wanted to clear that up because there's a lot of foolishness going on in terms of how people identify us as graduates of the premier high school in the looking at their webpage, and it says that Brooklyn Technical High School is the nation's largest specialized public high school for STEM education, so if, during this episode of the podcast, we start acting a little bit more like high schoolers than we typically do, just forgive us.
Leslie:The weekend is over. We are just unloading from about six months worth of planning our 45th high school reunion, the gala right. Yeah, the gala, so it's homecoming weekend.
Angie:It was homecoming weekend. It started from Friday and it culminated for the class of 80. And our classmates Kay Moore-Benjamin, sherelle, henry Taylor Domville, shelly Holder and Cookie Her real name is Arlene, but Cookie or Cook Britt we're all members of the class of reps for Tech 80, and we have been planning the gala Leslie Says Gala for the last six months and we'll talk to you about it. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves because there's so much that we want to talk about. Listen, we may go long because there's a lot. There's a lot, so we may go long.
Leslie:So just a warning up front this institution has formed who we are and I just want to say, as you were describing, that we are the planning committee for the reunions and we have been since we graduated in 1980. So every five years or so we plan a big thing. We've planned a boat ride, we plan over 100 people gala. We had about 130 people gathering here in Brooklyn from 45 years ago In fact. I'm going to make it a little more real and do this.
Angie:Leslie, she always has a prop, always has a prop.
Leslie:It ain't over, it ain't over, maybe I'll wear it. On my flight back tonight I wore my hat and ang looked at me and was like wait, maybe I need to wear my hat. What do you think? What I really wanted to say is no, don't wear your hat. But you know, I had to listen because she's so competitive so now. So that's why I wanted to be the only one wearing that hat.
Angie:So now you have the extra, but it's a takeover. So what does that mean to you? Only you, only you, really. No that's not how we. I'm not going to allow you, I'm not going to allow you to be small minded. I'm not going to do it. That's how much I love you.
Leslie:So let me just when did it all begin? It all began this weekend, when well, I was born in Brooklyn.
Angie:I was born a poor black child.
Leslie:Where did it all begin?
Angie:Let me say Whoever knows that reference, put it in the comments. If you guys know where that came from, what movie that came from and who said those words, put it in the comments for us, please.
Leslie:What should they get for knowing I was born a poor black child?
Angie:They will get much love from us. It's worth all.
Leslie:It's invaluable, not a Brooklyn Tech button or something.
Angie:No, because then you know we got to ship. Everything has to be digitalized or digitized. We'll send you a picture of a button, we'll send you a picture.
Leslie:So, anyway, this year's homecoming weekend started actually Friday night with what they called the Pier 57 Tech Takeover.
Leslie:The all-class tech takeover, right. So I'd say several hundred classmates not just from 1980, were told to meet at New York City's Chelsea Piers and there's food courts and lounges and rooftop things and bars and restaurants. So we all met there and of course, we're going to add the pictures. It was just amazing seeing people and people had their tech t-shirts on and it was. We met new people from new from different places and it was just, it just kept getting better and better because as the evening went on and we would move from one venue, let's say from the lounge area to a bar, to this, and started talking to people. It's like, wait a minute, oh my gosh.
Angie:It's like you get these levels of Different layers Deepness, yeah, yes, but I'm going to say one thing though, les, that you wouldn't even have noticed, because I don't live in New York or close to New York. I don't live in the tri-state area, I live in North Carolina, and so it started getting exciting for me as I started seeing the New York skyline. As I started, and it was like Leslie, well, I know, downtown there are all these new buildings, and so, except for some of the iconic New York buildings like the Empire, State.
Angie:Building, chrysler Building, things like that. There's so many new skyscrapers and I was starting to feel it from then For you it's, like you know, regular jagular but that's when I started to feel it. So anyway, the skyline certainly has expanded. You know regular jagular, but that's when I started to feel it.
Leslie:So anyway, yeah, the skyline certainly has expanded, you know, over the years. And I knew and it's funny because as we were driving there you're like, oh wait, what's that? I said that's lower Manhattan. And now what's that? That's Midtown. And you were taking pictures, like you were a tourist and I'm like, okay, take the pictures. We're going through the.
Angie:Lincoln Tunnel. Now it was great. I remember that feeling because when I went away to college it wasn't that far right, I was at Penn in Philly. But whenever I drove back to Brooklyn I would tear up. When I would see the skyline I would really tear up because I really, I really I love New York.
Leslie:I do, yeah, yeah. So it's like the whole. I'm going to try to be specific about Friday night. Like the whole, I'm going to try to be specific about Friday night, but the whole weekend was so layered and very emotional. There were several people here that had never gone to a reunion before. You know, obviously, we've been there every banner year, every five years or whatever. So we have been in touch with many of the people that we graduated 45 years ago and, as you all know, because we talk about it all the time, we still many of our core circle of best friends we met at Brooklyn Tech 50, nearly 50 years ago. So many people we see and speak to, but the people that their first time or we haven't seen them in 20 years catching up, finding out how's the family doing, and I got to tell you, the fact that people are still with us is becoming more and more significant. Yeah, more and more significant. Yeah, we'll talk about that a little bit more later, but the list of our friends who are no longer with us is expanding.
Angie:Yeah, and you know I was responsible for making the program and one of the things things isn't it nice one of the things that I had to list is the list of our classmates who are no longer with us. So every time, adding to the list, adding to the list and some people you don't even know until you hear, you know, um, because we're, we're, um, we're also connected on facebook a lot of us, us and you hear through Facebook oh my gosh, you know they passed away last year and it makes it for us, the class reps and the planners of the reunion galas, it makes it that much more a labor of love for us.
Angie:Yeah, it makes it that much more a labor of love for us to make sure that those of us who are still able are brought together in this way. Right, because it's not easy to do this type of thing. It's a lot of a lot of moving parts, and you know you start and people say yes, and then you know the day before we're supposed to do something oh, sorry, I can't. You know those types of things. There's a lot of pivoting and adjusting, and but that's the reason why we still come back to plan these things, because it's you never know who's not going to be there next year Right.
Angie:Yeah, yeah, and I should say next time.
Leslie:Yeah, yeah, and over the years it's. You know you hear that term labor of love, but as we approached the weekend and started seeing friends, our hearts really started swelling and becoming emotional. So many happy feelings. But if you think about it, it also means that in time our lives are transitioning to different states and different periods in our lives. You know many people. Now we talk about retirement. Back in the day, at some other reunions, we would talk about our families and you have children, and now we talk about the grandchildren?
Leslie:Yeah, we talk about grandchildren, are your parents still with you? So by attending these events, we get to see a measure and a mark of time, as time is going by and it's becoming more and more precious, and we get to see that.
Angie:It's a good way of putting it. Les, Will you be my?
Leslie:co-host. Thank you, okay, I think I will. You know me, I heart you.
Angie:Oh my gosh, she's so corny, she's so corny, so can we talk about our outfits?
Leslie:Before we talk about the outfits. Okay, yeah, let's talk about the outfits, because we have to put some pictures up about that.
Angie:Yes, okay, we'll put some pictures up. So Leslie is a planner, I'm a planner too, but her plans are specific. This time, this date, who's going to be there? I need that. I plan like let's going to be there, what that type of stuff? I need that.
Leslie:I need that in my life.
Angie:I plan like let's go move abroad.
Leslie:Yeah, yeah, and let's do it this year and just be an umbrella person.
Angie:Let's do it this year, and you know, maybe milestones, but Leslie is the detail person, so anyway, she had picked out her outfit well in advance. She had ordered our. I helped to design the commemorative t-shirts for this reunion. They were only available online and you had to have a lot of lead time to get them in. Leslie did that. I was ready.
Leslie:Leslie ordered the t-shirts and t-shirts, because I knew I had to order one for you, because I knew you would not be ordering one the T-shirt that you designed.
Angie:Right, okay, listen, we all have our gifting, exactly. I'm just stating the obvious.
Leslie:Okay, my gift.
Angie:I hooked you up. Okay, helpful Harriet. Okay, so, anyway. So she had these like sequined pants, right, you'll see them Fabulous, and the T-shirt and everything looked great. I didn't have an outfit planned. I had a few options that I had still not nailed down, and so the day before, I dropped Leslie.
Leslie:It was the big scramble and run around.
Angie:There was no scramble and run around. This was alignment. There was no scramble. If you call it scramble, that means you're not recognizing god's move oh, okay, there was no scramble? Honestly, there was no scramble. I knew it was going to work out, but I didn't know it was going to work out like, but it did, and you guys will see pictures.
Leslie:You'll see pictures.
Angie:But what happened is so I dropped leslie off at work because she wanted me to have use of the car, and on the way back I know, I know, I know On the way back, I was going oh, I was going to go to Sally's because I thought, oh, let me put some color in my hair. And I was going to put some, you know, temporary color in my hair. What did I see? There was a Macy's. I ran into Macy's and I found a skirt that matched her pants.
Leslie:What, my size Exact match.
Angie:Exact match and I'm going to tell you even more.
Leslie:I went up to buy it Quickly please, because I want to talk about the visit to the school.
Angie:I went up to buy it, it was marked down from a high number to like $9 and change. So they said, do you want to round up? So I said, sure, I'll round up to $10. They did the thing, a thing. Then they're like oh you have a $10 credit from where I don't know. I'm not a shopper. I told you guys there was a $10 credit. It was zero, it was zero. So the outfit that you will see me wearing to coordinate with Leslie was not planned. It was just the way that things often roll with us. This is what God does. He just makes things look, he just takes it to another level, and you will see those pictures.
Leslie:So you're telling me you got a free t-shirt, yes, and a free skirt.
Angie:Okay, everything was free. 99.
Leslie:I love it Free 99. Oh my gosh. So the people that we met remember I told you it was an all-tech takeover at the pier. We met people from different years and at some point we're going to have a few of them come on our podcast because the revelations and oh my God, you're that person was just crazy. You went to tech. What? What year did you graduate?
Angie:So, anyway, it's just incredible, you'll see, because, as you said, we're going to invite some of them. You're going to be shocked.
Leslie:Like tech, You're tech too. You know that kind of thing. So, anyway, that Saturday was the day visit at the school. Now picture this a nine story building that takes up the entire block in Fort Greene, Brooklyn takes up the entire block in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. I did tell you that Brooklyn Tech is the largest high school in the country and it probably has the largest student body. I think currently there are more than 6,000 students. When we were there I thought they were closer to 7,000 students and in our class were about 1,700, in our freshman and class of 80.
Angie:Our graduating class. George just said it was like 1340 something. So we had one of the largest graduating classes in tech, because the year before, I think, was in the seven and the year after was in the seven. So it was one of the largest graduating classes because, you know, it's 80.
Leslie:And Brooklyn Tech recently celebrated their 100th anniversary, I believe a year or two ago, and we were part of that celebration. Wow, I actually forgot the other thing that I was going to diverse, but it was generationally diverse. There were intergenerations, so a lot of the current tech students performed. There was a dance performance, the band played.
Angie:A step show, a jazz band, yes, so.
Leslie:So we got to see some of the current students that were there, so they were very involved in mingling with the people and I just want to.
Angie:Oh wait, and the cheerleaders remember, as we came in, there was like a line yeah, they greeted everyone and it was like yay, it was so, it was, so, it was so good, it was just yeah, yeah, my heart was filled.
Leslie:I just want to mention, among the many people, one of the people that I met there. That was he was they called him out actually in the audience Dr Paisel Jackson. He and I don't know if I'm saying his first name properly, but he's an African-American man, and the speaker said that this former tech student, tech grad alum she checks in on him every now and again to make sure he's doing okay. This man graduated in the class of 1949. Wow, and he and I started chatting and taking pictures, of course, and I said to him Dr Jackson, how old are you, if I may ask? He said I'm 93 years old. He was there by himself, walking around the school, chatting with people, and at one point he spoke to our group and said you know? I said I'm sure you have a lot of stories to tell. He said I would love to sit with a bunch of you and just talk to you all. I said really you want to talk?
Angie:to us.
Leslie:Immediately I went into podcast co-host mode.
Angie:Have we got a platform for?
Leslie:you Exactly so. We exchanged cards and he agreed to come on our podcast. That's awesome, so you've got to stay tuned to hear what an African-American man, his experience of Brooklyn Tech, of New York City perhaps at the time, and I just think that he's going to, in his mind, carry a whole lot of history. That will be fascinating, so I'm really looking forward to that.
Angie:And you know, what is significant about him being a Black man is that, as with all the schools here in America, there was segregation, and by race there was also segregation. Women were not allowed to go to tech until, I think, in the 70s.
Leslie:I think we were. We entered in 76. We were the fourth or fifth graduating class of women.
Angie:Early 70s. So you know, these people who break barriers, they always have a story to tell. You know, they always have a story because, outside of what might have been going on in school, they were also living in a world where these barriers were still up, some were coming down, and so we are really excited about having him on as a guest, especially since he wants to talk. We're going to have him talk and that should be a really special episode that we'll have for you soon.
Leslie:So can we talk about the evening of the gala.
Angie:Go ahead, go ahead.
Leslie:So all right, so picture this folks Picture this I'm 63 years old with a bad left knee. Let's just start it like that. I went to work on Friday, raced home, changed into my silver lame. We went hung out in the city until 2 am Friday night, hurried up, got home, slept about two hours and jumped up again preparing for the day at Tech, then the evening at this wonderful Diker Heights Golf Club. And it was like this oasis in the middle of Bensonhurst or Dyke Heights.
Angie:It was just kind of this carved out oasis grass and this old beautiful building and it was a perfect place. I'm just going to insert here when we talked about how the planning and the pivots another God thing that showed up Because we had other venues that we had thought that we secured and the last minute two venues didn't work out- and so we found out about this one and it was better than all the others.
Angie:All the others could not have done what this venue could not have done what this venue and shout out to the coordinator and the maitre d and the people who helped, because they really made it a great, great experience for us. They certainly did yeah shout out.
Leslie:So when we walked in, they had all of the tables. They were dressing the tables, the bar was being put together, the dj that we, which was amazing, triple Alliance DJ, what I have. Never I haven't heard music like that so good, probably for just a number of years, so anyway so when we got to the venue we set up, set about decorating the tables and putting the centerpieces together and all and just making sure that it was pretty funny.
Leslie:I recognized that decorating was not my ministry. They sent me away because all of the flower garlands I was just leaving petals instead. Because I'm moving fast, I'm like, come on, we got to get it done. It's like Leslie, walk away from this task.
Angie:And see, this is how we. You know this idea, we have that, leslie's this and I'm that. My role in this was I'm like look, there's a lot of stuff to coordinate. Let me figure out how to do one and then I'll tell you guys how to do the rest. And that's kind of the way it's like're not all one thing right. So I was the one. Leslie was getting really frazzled. I'm like you, you're, you're not helping. You're like walk away, just walk away, go find, because there was tons of other things to do there were. This wasn't her ministry. Yeah, I got this. Anyway, they turn out looking beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, and probably 15 minutes. Actually, we sent you to go and get ready.
Leslie:Yeah, you did so we wanted you to come out. Yeah, you had to exactly, exactly so and even in that task I kept walking away. I would like I would have a drink, and and and and. I got so tired of sitting and standing at the table so I stood there. But but every time someone came I would say hey, and then go hug them. And other people are coming. There's nobody at the table because I walked away to start chatting. Maybe that wasn't my ministry that wasn't your ministry either.
Angie:Maybe you're the greeter. You're not the administrator at the table.
Leslie:So yes, okay had to come in and cook. I'm admitting now people may have walked in without getting checked in. Kay didn't hear that. We've had a couple of potty crashes.
Angie:Compliments of Leslie I just had to keep being redirected, redirect.
Leslie:Leslie, go back to the table. Go back to the table. Were you relieved yet? Back to the table. Go back to the table. Were you relieved yet, leslie? No, go back to the table.
Angie:Oh my gosh, it was so, it was, it was.
Leslie:I had the best time ever. I wore the perfect shoes, the perfect dress. I didn't have to take my shoes off for like three hours, only at the end, for like four three hours, only at the end. And we can't, in this venue, talk too well about the music that was playing, mostly from our generation. There were about, let's say, 130 people there and we're in our sixties and I would say, at any given moment, 80% of the people were on the dance floor constantly we jammed ain't no stopping us now the conga line, the whole thing.
Leslie:We did it all we did it all. We did a little step to the right criss cross everybody clap your hands with the hop. I was looking at her like don't go hurting yourself, so I was voluntold to do the welcome.
Angie:I did the voluntolding.
Leslie:Voluntelling, voluntelling. Yes, so I did the welcome remarks and it was fun. She did a great job, it was a little funny.
Angie:She did a great job. Maybe was a little funny, she did a great job.
Leslie:Maybe we'll post that too.
Angie:Yeah, she did a great job, but yeah, yeah.
Leslie:It was wonderful when a group of dedicated people get together regularly. For six months, I would say in the last couple of weeks it was multiple times a day, with Zoom meetings and phone calls, and we had to check in. There were people of the group who were dealing with the finances only. Some of us were just the communications people. Some of us were I don't even know what role I had. Now that I think about it. I don't think I had a title. I just kind of sat back and said yes, I agree.
Angie:No, but one thing that you did when you were always kind of the next, when we had to coordinate with the alumni committee and any other vendor.
Leslie:All right, I was a liaison, yeah.
Angie:We wanted to have more than one person there and you were always.
Leslie:you know, you were kind of the common person at all of those things, yeah, among other things, you know you did. All right.
Angie:So, but I wanted to. I know that you wanted to talk about kind of the makeup of the people who are in the room and what was kind of special and worthy of talking to our audience about just what our class makeup was. So you want to go into that, or you want me to.
Leslie:So our class, Brooklyn Tech's class of 80, I would say was roughly a third white, a third Afro-American or Caribbean and a third Asian. Uh, I would say.
Angie:Yeah, right, and not precisely that, but anyway, it was that, it was that mix right. It was that mix.
Angie:We don't know the numbers, but it's that mix and you know so this this gala represented um of a very diverse not only racially diverse, culturally diverse group of people. And you know, as you, as you look at the dance floor, there are tons of videos that were taken and we've been kind of looking at them over the last day and a half or so and you see people coming together in this way. You know you can't help but have a sense of hope that we can come together like this in other spaces as well. And we're not like magical thinkers, it's not like we think we just, oh, this gala is going to like, but, um, we have kind of thought about how we could um kind of create, using um experiences like this to create spaces where we can have dialogue across differences and and really kind of move the needle right.
Leslie:Move the needle.
Angie:That's it. We're not trying to have anyone do a 180, or some people say 360, which is not what we want. We want a 180. We just want to move the needle a little bit in whatever direction and it you know, being able to kind of step back and see, because we're observers of this thing that we created and see this going on. You know what I mean I want to dance with Lorraine. I'm going to pull her. You know what I mean.
Leslie:And we just had a great time and what? What we noticed? And Ange and I had the opportunity to have this conversation afterwards, for a day or two after, actually, because we were observers and we could see and experience the camaraderie and the love between diverse groups diverse culturally diverse, racially, diverse, politically. Yes, for this night. Yes, we left all of our differences at the door. That's right.
Leslie:For this night, the trust that we have in each other and the trust that we've cultivated for 45 years and the love that we've cultivated was the only thing that was in the room with us Saturday night and what we pondered was whether or not an opportunity like this, or if these can be recreated, to break down barriers and meet in the middle and come up with understanding between groups that are diverse and don't think alike and groups that have had difficulty understanding each other or listening to each other. Opportunities like this. When I go to the annual holiday meeting with members of this group. We differ politically, but when we meet at Carmine's every December, we don't talk about politics, we talk about our love for each other and we talk about our days at Tech and we talk about what our lives are like right now and our families.
Angie:Yeah, and you've heard us on other episodes talk about the fact that it's so important to have people who are different from you in all the varieties of difference, how important it is to have them as a part of your social group, right, the more that you do this, the more that ideas and memes and little hot topic type things become less penetrating, less of the story when you have other people in your circle right, and so I do think that we see some opportunities there and you know we're going to explore how we can do that. It doesn't mean that the other stuff doesn't go away, but it means that this is as real as that, right. The love that we felt, you know, on Saturday night was as real as the vitriol, and so the vitriol doesn't have to win. It doesn't have to. It's there just like the love, right.
Leslie:And so that is also the real. What do we want to concentrate and what will move us forward during difficult or trying times or fearful times? It's the love that was in the room. It's so funny because Brooklyn Tech as a whole and the room at Diker Heights Golf Club Saturday night was so indicative of so many larger things, and that's why Ange and I one, we think the school is such a special place. But that's also why we chose to spend some time talking to you all about it, because we're convinced that it can be done just a cohesion and bringing people together. We're not necessarily saying that we're going to do it because Ant and I are on our way out of the country, we're going to be watching the stuff from abroad, but anyway, we may, we may get, we may, we'll see.
Angie:We may get. Anyway, we may, we may get, we may, we'll see we may get. You know, you put things out there and we'll see how God aligns things. But the fact that we're talking about it means that we're thinking about it Right. It means, you guys know we're deep thinkers. It's important to us, it's important to us and we know the importance of moments Right Of pivotal moments. We know the importance of moments right of pivotal moments.
Leslie:We know the importance of that, and so it's an idea, and so it might be an idea that does take root and we're hoping that we can contribute to that. Yeah, yeah, that's well said, and before we end this podcast, I just want to say thank you to a few people that some of our subscribers, some of our classmates. I just want to pull them out In addition to the planning committee. I'm sitting here sipping on not red wine, I'm sitting on sipping on sorrel, and one of our classmates, charles, has a company, has had a company for many decades now, called Nature's Coolers, and Charles graciously bought his truck and supplied natural juices to all of the classmates at the place.
Angie:As they left, they went to the children's garden. So I am drinking his sorrow and actually charles charles um has um, he's still his company, is still there. He still has his company. Someone else is kind of managing the day-to-day, but he's moved to ghana and he flew from ghana. It was a surprise, we didn't think yeah, we didn't know he would make it and he came in from Ghana and so a part of the program we had people who were the who came in from the farthest and someone said he came from Africa he came from Africa.
Leslie:It's like I know we came from Africa, but no, he just came from Africa.
Angie:So Charles, we really appreciate that. That was a great way. Can I also?
Leslie:talk about our friend Lorraine yes, lorraine oh, matt, you still have yours. Listen, listen. We were in the car eating. Lorraine made these delicious, as she does every, every reunion. She made 140 of these chocolate-dipped pretzel packets.
Angie:And what was the round?
Leslie:one the round is a dipped Oreo and she made these tags and presented it in the school colors and these were part of the grab bags for people as people left. So Ange and I were hungry when we left the place at about one a little after one in the morning and we couldn't find any place open so we were digging into food and eating the pretzels on the drive home. So the next day I said to Ange I got my pretzels, we ate yours last night, so yes, I still have mine, thank you.
Angie:Lorraine, Lorraine. Next time don't make the knot so tight, girl, I couldn't get the damn thing open.
Leslie:She made 140 packets for us and these were gifts.
Angie:These were gifts we have, the most generous. I mean we had Classmates sponsor the DJ, sponsor the photo booths by the way, we had the 360, we had the standing photo booth. We had upgraded bar. These were sponsors. We had people sponsor tickets so that classmates who could not or did not have the means in this moment to pay these were $165 tickets and we had sponsors sponsored tickets.
Leslie:Yeah, people would buy one or two extra.
Angie:This is a special special, special group, but I know there's someone else you want to mention Before I forget.
Leslie:I want to mention Twana, because she made flavored popcorn for everybody in packets.
Angie:I do not have those left because those were gone already. Those are ripped apart.
Leslie:Yes. So I just wanted to mention them because we are not the only ones that feel this way about our brothers and sisters that we met 45 and 50 years ago. Yeah, you know, everybody steps up to make this a mat and made this a magical evening and event, and we just pray that the same crew was here. When we do it in five more years and we'll be it'll be our 50th anniversary. We'll join the Silver Club I thought it was. The Silver Club is 50 and the Diamond Club is after that. So that's the Diamond Club.
Angie:We'll see about that. There's no silver, I bet you I'm right.
Leslie:No, what Excuse me?
Angie:There's no silver. We go like 50 is silver. No, ma'am, we will be going into the Diamond Club, but we will be rowdy. Listen, we have a rowdy, rowdy class. We're loud, we are. We hug everybody.
Leslie:Don't give me your hand, bring it in here, we would. We hug everybody. Don't give me your hand, bring it in here. We were, I think, the biggest class represented there.
Angie:Yeah, because I think we were one of the biggest classes to graduate. So, but anyway, before I close.
Leslie:you put together a little jingle in advertising. I think it was our 40th reunion and it happened to be part of the program. They made me do it, Do you mind? Do you mind doing that? It was a video a whole video she did. You don't want me to read it?
Angie:Okay, so this is a setup. This was not discussed prior, but this was like a little rap that I made up, but I'm going to read it. I'm not going to. You don't have to sing it. We don't mean to brag, we don't mean to boast, but we are like hot butter on breakfast toast. We've made smart, cool and diversity rule, true, blue and tight like glue. We could teach the world a thing or two. And when people ask us why there ain't no stopping us now, after 45 years, we say it's more than a feeling. You see, we are the champions, my friends, and we'll keep fighting, loving and supporting each other till till the end.
Leslie:Aww, I got a little emotional as you read that. Thank you, you're welcome. So this was the Brooklyn Tech edition of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn.
Angie:Brooklyn.
