Perhaps it was 2002 or sometime around then. We were sitting on our front porch having a beer, deep into the importance of spontaneity.  That’s not to say having a beer with Dress was a spontaneous thing, though I guess it probably was in some cases; it’s more to say we were discussing how much space our lives had for spontaneity and whether that was a good thing or a not-so-good thing.  Mind you, this was a conversation between two grown men twenty years apart in age so it should not be surprising that we had different points of view.  

Surely that was not the first sharing of different opinions, but this time it turned up an idea that we both found appealing: What if we had a dinner.  And at the dinner there are a bunch of upstarts (“Dress, that’s you and your friends.”) and a bunch of “old farts” (“Claude, that’s you and your friends.”) and the whole idea for coming together is to have a conversation.  And what if you had to sit next to someone who is older or younger than you and the conversation could be about anything, absolutely anything, so long as it had something to do with sex, politics, or religion? What do you think?

And that’s how OFUS dinners came to be.  Usually about twelve of us would sign up for a dinner of free flowing ideas.  All of us at one table with the goal of holding one conversation. 

To engage in a lively discussion, to be passionate, to listen, to learn, to push an idea to its boundaries, to enjoy friends, to be curious; how many times do these come to mind when we think of Dress?  Oh, and to have fun.

We had a bunch of dinners. They were a blast. These dinners were so Dressler. All things considered, we should have had more of them.  I am tempted to suggest there is a universal lesson here, but I think we are all far beyond that.  What I can say for myself, and for so many of us, I am sure: Dress was inspiring and will always be. We are blessed to have him in our lives. Truly blessed.