Peace on their minds

A mock four-way wedding was part of the 25-year anniversary celebration. At times, the reunion was something like a low-key Burning Man — a Glowing Man, perhaps.
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Sixteen-month-old Zasha Erickson joined her parents at the reunion. There would be campfires, singalongs, yoga classes, slide shows, trips to town, and quiet moments when middle-age marchers with kids and mortgages would reflect on what spurred them to trudge on.
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Gordon Polatnik and his daughter Sophie, 6 came from New York for the reunion.
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Part of the group gathered after dinner to read memoirs and writings about the Great Peace March, which set out from Los Angeles on March 1, 1986.
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Peace march veterans prepare dinner at the Ventua gathering. For days, they swapped stories about the epic trek, which ended in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 15, 1986.
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Darius B’Alexander, right, gives Marek Parker a shoulder massage at the reunion. More than one camper wryly noted that one of the punk-clad young anarchists who bristled at authority along the march route now teaches second grade.
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Barbara Cone Milazzo and James Knight hug at the reunion. The 47-year-old Milazzo, who runs after-school programs in Mariposa, Calif., has never attended any of her high school reunions. But she seldom misses get–togethers for the peace marchers, and the 25th -- drawing a crowd from around the U.S. -- was a must.
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An American flag and a “no more war” star form part of the tableau at the reunion. Some participants attended a memorial on Saturday, the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
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Reunion participants gather around a campfire to sing. Whether a group like this could pull off a cross-country march today -- even for the same cause -- was an open question. Some said the atmosphere during the Cold War was warmer. “We’d be seen as enemies of the state,” said march veteran Barbara Cone Milazzo.
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