On Friday afternoon we crossed Henley Bridge for a stroll through the village. One thing about the relaxed atmosphere at the Regatta is that if you miss a few races, there will always be a few more when you return. If there were any significant changes in the village since 1962 or 1989, I didn't find them.

The Parish Church -

The Red Lion Hotel -

The High Street, Henley -

The Angel Pub where we had enjoyed our first meal after arriving in England in 1962. Alice is admiring the colorful flowers that are so evident throughout the village -

The boat tents with the Stewards’ Enclosure beyond, as viewed from the village side of the bridge...

...and that famous view straight down the race course, as seen from the village.

Other Henley legends are imported from the United States of America. Pictured here on the left is Harry Parker, the remarkable Head Coach of Rowing for Harvard University.

Parker came to Harvard when I was still a student at MIT! Over these forty-five or forty-six years, as reported by a London newspaper while we were there, Parker's crews have compiled the best record, by far, in college rowing, including over twenty seasons when Harvard was undefeated. Although Harvard was our traditional nemesis, one has to give credit where credit is due. Harvard offers no athletic scholarships and their admission standards are not compromised for athletes. Simply stated, there's a good chance that straight-A students rowing at the high school level will set their sights on Harvard so they can row under Harry Parker.

Harvard's Crew competed in the Ladies' Challenge Plate, the event most frequently entered by university heavyweight varsity crews. Here's Harvard getting ready to leave the dock for their semifinal race, with Parker seeing them off at the end of the dock.

Harvard went on to win the "Ladies" with relative ease in the Sunday afternoon Finals, here winning Saturday's Semifinal by open water over Brown University.

Friday's festivities came to an end with a return visit to Wargrave, a small village about eight miles from Henley where we had stayed with Ken and Lila Spence in 1962. During our ten days in England we ate our evening meals at The St. George & Dragon, a pub/restaurant just a hundred yards or so from the Spence's Napier House. We chose to have our Friday Reunion dinner back at the "Dragon."

The restaurant prepared a special menu for us with this greeting:

The best part of the evening, however, was the return of Judith and Chas Bruggemann. Judith, though clearly in pain, was a wonderful sport throughout the Regatta (front, right and left):