I am not including all of the descriptions of the photos at this time. I will wait to put the rest of the captions in after I receive the portrait photos with the names from the official photographer
If you would like me to send you an email when the rest of the captions have been added, please advise me to put you on the list to be notified.

A report of our reunion, by Roger Rieman, roster keeper
and webmaster of the USS Cony Shipmates website.

May 7th through May 11th at the Holiday Inn Resort, 3230 Parkway, Pigeon Forge , TN 37863 was the largest USS Cony reunion, and in Rita & my humble opinions, the best reunion we have attended.

May 7th: Was "Check-In Day" which was a station set up in the hall right outside of a room that was provided by the hotel for our convenience during our stay for the purpose of re-acquainting with old friends and meeting new ones. Being as our reunion attendees were large in number we spilled out into the halls and balcony area and of course in the Hospitality Room that was set up with beverages of all kinds and snacks.
After checking in, Gary Slaughter and his wife JoAnne had another table set up to greet us and present each shipmate with an autographed copy of his book "Cottonwood Summer" which is the first of a series of 4 that Gary is writing (Rita & I have personally read the first two books of the series and they are a real delight).

May 8th: During the daytime (as was every day during the daytime) was free time and every individual had the choice of either exploring around the neat community of Pigeon Forge or just lounging around the hotel spending quality time with friends that we don't get to be with often enough.
At about 6:00 p.m. we boarded busses in front of hotel to be taken to the "Country Tonight Theatre" for a splendid performance of many singing performers.

May 9th: At 4:00 p.m. we boarded buses and headed for "Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede". Upon arriving we were first seated in an area for what was described as the "pre-show". This consisted of some talented performers performing on a raised platform. Our Cony group had a ticket for a complimentary refreshment (being in a dry county, there was no alcohol).
Then we all made our way to be seated in a large arena that was much like you would find at places like "Medieval Times" or "Arabian Nights" The show was great and dinner which consisted of cream of vegetable soup & a cheddar biscuit, a large smoked cornish hen, slice of barbecued pork, roasted potato, buttered corn on the cob, and for desert a hot apple turnover. Also choice of iced tea, coffee, or Pepsi. Needless to say, no one went away hungry unless they chose to do so.

May 10th: At 1:00 p.m. the Cony shipmates all gathered in one of the satellite buildings just off the entrance of our hotel to have our annual meeting. It was brought up by Bill Gordon "FT2, 59-61" that perhaps the Cony Association members should start to consider forming an actual "Not For Profit" organization, with elected officials, but Charles Liken explained that it would not benefit us and the motion was dropped. Charlie also asked if anyone else would be interested in taking over the duties of publishing the newsletter, but there were no volunteers.
Another purpose of our meeting is to determine where our future reunions will be held.
Ken Cox has hosted (along with co-hosts) 4 out of 5 of the last reunions and asked the membership if anyone would like to host the next reunion, but again, no volunteers. Being as it has already been decided for our 2008 reunion will be in San Antonio, TX (which Ken Cox is already working on), we had several suggestions of places thrown "into the hat", and it was overwhelmingly decided by a show of hands that our 2009 reunion would be in Savannah, GA.

At around 4:30 p.m. we started gathering around the pool area to have our portraits taken and then proceeded to the room provided for our "Farewell Banquet" for cocktails and conversation. About 6:30 the shipmates were called to the front of the hotel for "group photos". While we were having our groups photographed, "the girls" were entertained by the DJ having them all go out on the dance floor to line dance.
Our dinner was served around 7:00 p.m. which consisted of a salad, grilled rib eye steaks and a chicken breast, mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, rolls, coffee or iced tea.


After dinner we were treated to a few songs from the very popular 50's - 60's singer Carl Dobkins Jr. If you just can't remember who he was, here is a hint. He was on Dick Clark's American Bandstand 14 times and one of the songs that he sang was "My Heart Is An Open Book". You can view information on him at http://www.rockabillyhall.com/CarlDobkinsJr1.html
After Carl was finished singing he had a table where you could purchase a CD of his songs for $10.00 which he would autograph. Carl did not take a cent for the albums, all proceeds went into the Cony Associations account. Carl and his lovely wife Jan get our vote of appreciation for being such "down to earth" and genuinely friendly people.
For the information of Cony Association members, Carl and Jan were the guest of Ken and Marge Cox. Their attendance was not paid for out of Association funds and were not hired as feathured entertainment.

After Carl's songs, a DJ played songs, and kept the dance floor pretty crowded.

May 11th: Check out day for most of us. This is the hard part. To accommodate the Cony early departures for the folks that had to get on the road early, the Holiday Inn opened our daily provided breakfast buffet at 6:30 a.m. versus the usual 7:00 a.m. This was the last chance for many of us to get together before our departures. From the conversations that I heard, the next reunion will not come soon enough for us to once again be together.