Berkshire to Buy Out Wesco

I will miss the Wesco meeting terribly! For anyone that never got to go, you can always read the Almanack as the next-best-thing. But truthfully, there will never be a good substitute for having attended the actual meeting. Listening to Charlie extemporize on current events, past successes, and occasional failures, the difference between right and wrong, and smart and dumb, all among highly intelligent fellow congregants (not cultists!) that really appreciated him, was a tremendous thrill. This meeting brought forth not just Charlie's intellect, but also his orientation to life in general - in all, his determination to be an exemplar of curiosity, rationality, morality, and of course, good humor!

I use the word "congregants" advisedly. This meeting had church-like overtones, in the very best sense. One left always with a deeply satisfied feeling - of having been set straight about the world, and of being made ambitious to achieve great things in a respectable way, all with a sense of fellowship. It always doubled the spring in my step!

Alice, I can remember seeing you there at least once. Lou Simpson would also pop up at the meeting, not every year, but on a few occasions at least; one time, I introduced myself to him and we chatted. Peter Kaufman once walked up to me, when I arrived early, and made every conceivable effort to be welcoming and convivial. I enjoyed seeing seeing many of the same faces every year. Once, I chatted up a random fellow shareholder for all of 15 minutes - and thereby unwittingly established an annual ritual. Every single year thereafter (although he could never once remember my name!), he sought me out to say hello and chat for two minutes - like an old classmate you knew only from study hall devotedly reconnecting. A nice thing. The Wesco meeting was a marvelous phenomenon. How lucky we were!

But all good things must end. Now as you point out, Alice, Berkshire is plainly in a mode of gradual transition from the old guard to whatever comes next. Turn the page!