Lolla Page’s beautiful new poem from Tent Row ’66 is a love letter to Lake Aloaloa, Council Ring nights and the friendships that have held fast for sixty summers and more. As you read their words about threads unbroken and “The Spirit of Nakanawa,” let it nudge you to reach out to your own Tent Row and make sure you’re registered to come back, sing together and keep those TIES strong at this year’s reunion events.
Sixty summers circle back
to one bright place in time—
Tent Row ‘66, still standing
in the echo of our rhyme.
Pensacola gathers us again,
not just to reminisce,
but to feel the threads unbroken
in every laugh and kiss.
Sixty-five years of friendship—
a lifetime, and then some—
woven through Lake Aloaloa’s shores
where we first became “we,” from “one.”
Amazon fierce, Valkyrie strong,
we carried banners high,
not just in games or victories,
but in the way we tried.
Council Ring beneath the stars,
hands joined, voices clear,
where stories shaped our younger selves
and still draw us back here.
“The Spirit of Nakanawa”—
our anthem, bold and true—
not just a song we used to sing,
but a promise we still do.
Time has weathered, softened, changed,
yet something holds us fast—
a lake, a song, a circle wide,
where present meets the past.