Did you ever wish that you could go back in time to a period of your life and re-live it with the people that lived it with you? Have you ever thought of a group of people that you interacted with on a daily basis at one point in your life and wonder how they are? Has there ever been a time when you thought of old friends long gone and wished you could see them again? I was lucky enough to have that experience recently when I went to the Marketeer Reunion.

The Marketeer is Brooklyn’s largest “pennysaver” publication – and in 1995, was my place of employment. I was the Editor of the News Department and my duties included writing “advertorials” or merchant spotlights, updating the Community Calendar, and writing articles of my own on various topics. This was my first full-time journalism job and I held it until June of 1996 when I left the Marketeer to become a Legislative Aid to City Councilman Howard Lasher.

Besides loving the job, I loved the people I worked with. The staff of the Marketeer were hard working, having to put out dozens of different papers each week. From the sales team who sold the ads to the art department who designed them – they are the reason the paper became the largest in the borough.

When I worked there, I did not know much about computers. I knew how to use programs like Word and Internet Explorer, but had no idea how to design ads. After getting to know some of the members of the art department – they taught me how to use PageMaker and Photoshop and how to create my own articles and community calendars. I am very well versed in those programs now and am able to layout an entire newspaper by myself – and I owe it all to them for teaching me how.

The reunion was held at Lola’s Bell, which is located in Bay Ridge and is a gorgeous wine bar where bottles of good wine and shelves of great books line sconce-covered walls in a dimly lit room full of beautifully dressed tables and matching knick-knacks. The reunion was arranged by Wendy, one of the heads of the art department who still works for the Marketeer. I went there recently to see Liza from Home Sweet Homes about Fillmore ads and bumped into Wendy, who invited me to the reunion. After I accepted, I was put on the reunion e-mail list and sent the details. On September 2nd, three weeks before the reunion, Wendy sent out an e-mail with the subject, “Memories...Can you name these people?” that contained at least thirty pictures of so many familiar faces – including mine wearing a Christmas hat of all things. As I looked through the pictures, I was instantly brought back to when I worked there. So many memories of the fun times I had working there flooded my head – and I was very eager to get to the reunion.

I arrived at the reunion with my friend Peter who I worked with at the Marketeer and ironically now work with at Fillmore Real Estate. After we got there, we stayed outside so Peter can smoke a cigarette and saw the first of the familiar faces arrive. It was David, the former manager of the art department. As soon as he saw us, we hugged and began to reminisce – and then watched the room fill with the rest of our former colleagues.

As I made my way around the room and said hi to everyone, I was amazed at how many years it has been since I have seen them – and how far all of us have come since the last time we stood in a room together. When I worked at the Marketeer, I was twenty-three years old, I had hardly any journalism experience yet – and I was married. My life has come so far in the last nine years from where it was then, and I am happy to say that everyone else’s has as well. Besides the fact that everyone looked great, everyone is also successful, healthy and enjoying life. Some of my former co-workers are now married, have children, or are retired, some work for themselves or have changed careers – and some have even moved out of state and were unfortunately not able to come to the reunion.

At one point during the reunion, I asked for everyone’s attention and said how happy I was to see everyone and how grateful I was to Wendy for bringing us all together. For one year of my life, I spent eight hours a day working closely and becoming very good friends with those great people, and to be able to see them again was very heartwarming. I am sure that now that got together for the reunion, we will be getting together again soon – and I look forward to it.