Hit the pause button

This week, walking back from the lake with Mary, in the evening, in the fullest of summer, I wondered why there wasn't a pause button.  These great days are going by too fast, and we need to spend a little more time right here.  She is, as I write, driving back from dropping Annie and Greg off at the train station (an hour-plus away.)   They had come up for a weekend in the country, away from the city.  They are both having pretty intensive internships this summer and getting a lot out of them.  

They packed it in, with only a weekend to get it all done.  Yesterday they hiked almost ten miles, joining a friend along the Appalachian Trail.  We picked them up and went to Jacob's Pillow that does a free, outdoors dance performance each Saturday and had a small picnic.  After that, we returned home for 7 seconds, and then they (I went to bed) went up Mt. Greylock for a stargazing event.  Today, was quieter: waffle breakfast, canoe ride, shopping and then back to the train.   Wonderful to see them.  They also got a chance to see John and Marilyn who stopped by today after their golf game.  They had spent a few days on the Cape this week with two of their grand-daughters, Natalie and Sage.

Oh, and we had a week-late birthday celebration, on Friday evening.  For her birthday, Annie had a day at a bar, with people stopping by throughout the day.  Margaret and Andrew were two of those people, as they had come up from DC for the occasion.  And Johanna also stopped by to celebrate.  It's a far cry from the pool parties she used to have.

The big news is Joe is back on this side of the Atlantic.  It sounds like he has had a whirlwind couple of weeks, leaving and then settling back in.  He is full-time now on the China desk at Treasury.  Not much to do there, probably.  Actually, for all that involves, it looks positively tame compared to Ukraine, Syria, Middle East and Iraq.   We long for the days when China currency valuation was the big news.  Anyway, it's nice he's back, but he was fighting a bad cold, probably from all the extra effort to wrap things up at the end of an assignment.

I spent some time on the phone with brothers this week, mostly to make plans for our weekend in Cincinnati in early September.  Andrew got tickets behind the Reds dugout for one game, and behind the Mets dugout for the other   Andrew sounds like he has a long list of things to do for retirement, including unpack boxes that he brought back from Meadow Lakes with him a couple of years ago.  Peter sounds busy at work (sorry).  David is unable to join us as he is getting ready for a presentation at a seminar on worker compensation fraud the following week with the New York attorney general's office.  He and Paula are also eagerly awaiting the arrival of young Donald, just a couple of weeks away.  I imagine so are Tina and Matthew!  And Oliver!

Our garden is coming in, and we have stopped buying lettuce and blueberries.  Got a few more weeks before tomatoes and beans and squash come in.  We even have a bumper crop of raspberries, at least ten times more than last year.  That means we have had about 30 raspberries total. Mary has been expanding her flower beds, which are looking great, even if the deer have chopped off a few of her perennials. 

She has also started her summer tutoring job, working with three Ghanaian boys who have had interrupted schooling.  There is quite a growing group of Ghanians and West Africans in Pittsfield.  Surprising, especially given the cold.

I am frantically working on a couple of history projects.  This week, I completed a video for a presentation, on the preservation of the old library in town.  You can see the 7 minute video by searching for "Preserving the Old Athenaeum in Pittsfield" on youtube.  I am also working on a website tour of the mills in Pittsfield, which is still under construction: milltour.org. Hope to have it done before the end of July.  And, I finally got my thesis approved from UMass this week - I had been correcting some formatting issues that the graduate school thesis committee caught.  

On a final note, I got for my birthday a National Geographic DNA analysis, and the results came in recently.  I will try to put together a synopsis for this letter - but here's a little teaser:  remember those pictures of Pop at his wedding when he looks a little Italian?  Turns out he has a fair amount of Mediterranean in his background, much more than Grandma, who is almost all northern European.  Mary, on the other hand, is 97% British Isles.  Go figure.

Well, happy July.  Enjoy these great days.  Love from up here.   

Happy 4th!

Dateline:  Green Lake, Wisconsin.  It really exists  Green Lake, I mean.  It's not just a figment of Andrew's imagination where Bobby Kermey lives.  It's a real lake, large, clear and full of fish, jumping out of the water, and birds swooping down and getting the fish, and boats and weather changes and docks and swimming.  A place for a real vacation, just to sit and unwind.

That's pretty much what we've done since we arrived, a few days ago.  Andrew and Lur, Claire and Daniel and his friend Satchel had been up here for a few days already.  Andrew had just heard that his request for separation had been accepted, and so he's finished with work.   At Merck anyway.  He's going to take a few months to assess the situation and then maybe look for something part-time.

Claire has had what looks like a very good first year of college, very busy with courses and music extracurriculars. We've seen Hope shirts and water bottle bottles and bumper stickers.  Daniel is unrecognizable, tall and fit.

We've watched a few of the World Cup games, and played dominoes and had some great barbecues.  A real vacation, and it all ends tomorrow.  Sigh.  Reminds us a little of those great beach vacations in Rhode Island.

The trip out was fairly easy, since we took it in a couple of legs, stopping first in Fairport to see David and Paula.  We went out to eat at a great restaurant on the Erie Canal, and were joined by Matthew, Tina and Oliver. (Thank you David and Paula)  Oliver, too, is unrecognizable, growing too fast.  Tina looks as if she could have the baby any minute.  They have, by the way, decided to name their son Donald Franklin, after their grandfathers.  We saw Jeff and Melodie for breakfast the following morning.  They had come up from DC for a baby shower for Tina and to register their car in NY.  That proved not so easy, as we hear they had to stay on for a couple of extra days to get repairs before it could be registered.  David helped me get my never-before-used fishing pole set up and ready for action at Green Lake.  (Caught a few small ones off Andrew's dock.)

From Fairport, we headed for Toronto and stopped off at Niagara on the Lake which we had missed when we lived in Canada.  Lovely little town with a Shaw theater festival each summer.  In Toronto we visited with foreign service friends from our training who were in Mexico with us as well.  We then headed for Wisconsin, by way of Lake Michigan, on a ferry, instead of driving through Chicago and Gary Indiana.  Highly recommended, as was the cute little town of Luddington Michigan.  We gave Andrew and Lur a day off, and took a day trip up to see a Peru friend (Jennie Burns) who we had visited in Wisconsin probably 12 years ago.

Before we left, we celebrated Marilyn's birthday with her children and grandchildren at a brunch with too much food and too much good food.  You know what that means.  Time for another cleanse.  

As we write Annie is on her way to the Adirondacks for the weekend, and we suspect there are a few more get-togethers in DC and in New Jersey. We know David and Paula are having a crowd come over as well which we won't be able to make due to the long ride home.  

Summer time seems to be more than just warm weather and greenness.  It seems to be the season of catching up.  We come out of our winter hibernation and check in and check up on family and friends, after hunkering down through the cold winters.  All very wonderful.

Hopefully, you all are enjoying the summer in these special ways.  Love from out here.

  

Did Someone Mention Father's Day?

There are many great things about Father's Day, but the phone calls are the best.  We catch up on a lot of news. And they always have lots of news.  I bet there's a lot of news from their cousins as well.  (Hint, hint - share)   We'll get to the news in a minute, but back to Father's Day.

One of the many articles on fathers in the papers this weekend was one that said the problem with Father's Day is that it was not Mother's Day, where there's flowers and kisses and hugs.  Father's Day, the author said, was more like an annual employee performance review.  How'd he do this year?  Hmmm.  Takes the shine off my favorite holiday.  

Back to the news.  Here's the really important item - John and Marilyn put their house in Pittsfield on the market.  They had wanted to downsize for a few years, so they made the leap.  Perhaps it was the fact that it's been so cold up here, colder than it was in Florida in March.

Joe told us his date for coming back to the U.S. is July 14 (Bastille Day - time to get out of Europe)  He is trying to take advantage of his final few weeks with easy travel, and spent last weekend in Lisbon which he said was wonderful - cheap, historic and hospitable.  He's looking for trips to Wales, Ireland and the Lake District before departing.  

Margaret and Andrew have been married a month, as of tomorrow.  Time flies.  Next thing you know they'll be celebrating their 40th wedding wedding anniversary (Happy anniversary David and Paula, and Peter and Janet - belated!)   Margaret has been taking African dance classes and is having a performance this coming Saturday.  Her summer session class ends this week, and then she's off.

Meanwhile in New York City, Annie is enjoying her internship at Bank of America.  She and Gregg went to the beach yesterday, Coney Island -  a first for Annie.  The photo here is from a few weeks ago when we climbed the "mountain" in Pittsfield State Forest.  

Things are slowing down for both Mary and me, which is good.  Her tutoring work ends this week, but she has been stepping up her swimming to prepare for the big meet in Montreal in August.  You should hear her workouts  Not even sure I could walk that far. We've both been putting in a lot of hours in the garden, but Mary has about eight different flower beds, and I have just the one veggie garden.  Her flowers look great.  My project in North Adams is winding down, so I'm off on my next adventure preparing a tour of Pittsfield's historic mills.  I chaired my first Historic Commission meeting this week, which saw the demolition of two buildings.

Out in Chicago, we hear Daniel is out of school and at a basketball camp.  Claire is home for the summer and helping out with chores around the house.  She has a volunteer project teaching music at a school for autistic children.   Andrew is nearing decision on his request to retire.  Next week.  

Summer's approaching and we see a wonderful time ahead, looking forward to spending time with so many of you.  And then I know it's going to end, but it's too soon to think of that.

At church today, we heard a few prayers for fathers who are no longer with us.  How lucky we all were.  

Love from up here.   

P-rade at P-ton with P-ter

That Time of Year!

I always enjoy Reunions. In part that's because nobody does it like Princeton (it ain't bragging if it's true), but also because I get to see classmates, teammates, former students, and new friends, too. Over 20,000 alums return each year, all wearing orange and black garb in all sorts of themes.

This year was very special. On Friday, I attended a total of four panel discussions all of which feature detailed examinations of issues by alums and faculty. Topics: Climate Change (scary), Living the Arts (hopeful, and one of my former students was on that panel), Privacy and Secrecy (scary) and Too Big to Fail? (Scary, Pop's classmate Paul Volcker was on the panel and is very pessimistic). I spent some time after with Pop's classmate Brendan Byrne and hitched a ride in his State Trooper driven car down to the Class of '49 dinner. Pop's class had its 65th Reunion, and in Princeton lore that's your last as a separate Reunion, after this, you're just part of the "Old Guard." I spent some time chatting with some of Pop's and Mom's dear friends. Only 250 of the original 820 remain. On Friday night, Janet and I did some serious dancing.

Each "major" reunion class (i.e., those whose years out end in 5 or 0) has its own site, and off-year classes two years before and after share that site (for free, too!) So this year's 40th was the class of '74, the year after me, and the real treat here was all the soccer players who were juniors when I was a senior. I haven't seen any of them since I graduated. It's fascinating what you remember and what others remember about the team. I heard all sorts of stories about things I had long since forgotten. Factoid: over a nine year period, I was the only goalkeeper for Princeton soccer who did not become a doctor. I also got to see a few of my former students.

The centerpiece of Reunions (well, other than the Friday and Saturday night parties) is the P-Rade, a huge festive affair in which all the classes march through the campus dressed up in their orange and black costumes. The route is lined with classes waiting to march. When the Class of '49 came through, all the members were in golf carts (too far to walk). The first was Brendan Byrne and the second was Judge John Kern, for whom I clerked after my first year of law school. I chatted with both. When my classmates asked who they were, I said "my first two bosses." That evening Janet and I went to the University Orchestra concert down by the stadium and enjoyed the spectacular fireworks that are now part of Reunions, and then danced the night away to the sounds of a band which did great covers of 50s, 60s and 70s songs. As we always do, we closed the place down. An added bonus was seeing a play the next day in Trenton.

You can see why this weekend is so special for me, because it covers such a large span of my life. Pop's class includes two people I worked for, and who gave me very important boosts in life, and he was and still is much adored and admired by his classmates. They often remind me that he had three jobs as a student and yet graduated in two and half years. He was Class Agent and President and head of the entire Alumni Council. Then there are those from my era, including in some cases new friends I did not know then. And then there are the ten plus years worth of students from my teaching days. Add in the panel discussions and the parties and it's hard to think of a more meaningful weekend. I am not the least bit sentimental about my time in college, but it was certainly influential and continues to be influential in all sorts of ways I couldn't foresee. It's a very large part of my very good fortune in life.

June, so soon?

Nice name for a song, but perhaps after our winter, "June not soon enough."  Except that it doesn't rhyme.

We've been waiting for warmer weather.  And it's here, at least sometimes.  But enough to do some firsts for the season - first bike ride, first gardening, first tour at Arrowhead and first ride on THE KAYAK!  Wonderful - and thank you once again.  Maybe even first fishing this week, if I can get organized.

And a first for Annie this morning who is off to her summer internship at Bank of America.  Good luck.  Annie had spent a week or so up here relaxing and doing some school work after her semester finished and after the wedding.  She helped out with gardening and got her mother on Facebook.  Look at social media, it's about to get a lot more social.

And a first for Bubble, the cat.  A chipmunk.  Stay away critters!  

Mary is wrapping up her school year, but will work with the same boys from Ghana in the month of July.  She has also signed up to swim in the world master's championships in Montreal in August.  This past week, she helped a friend do all the flowers for a wedding.  It was a nice insight into how elaborate and extensive such work can be.  The final result was exquisite and elegant.

Speaking of weddings, it sounds like Margaret and Andrew are back to the work and school routine.  Margaret has started her summer class sessions.  Off on their adventure.

Joe went back to London after a week off in Washington and is busy wrapping up details for his return in a few weeks.  We're looking forward to having you closer, Joe.

John and Marilyn are closer as they closed up their winter quarters and drove back to sweatshirts and long pants for the first time in months,  They came over for a welcome home pizza dinner with Colleen and Pauline.  They were a bit exhausted as they had a litter of 10 Borzoi pups born over the space of two days and nights last week.

We're planning our summer trip, destination Wisconsin with stops in Rochester, Toronto and Georgian Bay.  It will be fun to see Green Lake, that has been such a big part of Andrew and Lur's life.

Saw a good photo of Peter on Facebook at Princeton reunions.  Looks like too much excitement.

My refrain about retirement is that I'm busier than I want to be.  I took on a part-time job helping a firm do a survey of historic buildings in North Adams.  Lots of deed research which can be pretty detailed.  UMass has asked me to stay on and help out with their scholarship advising so I go over there a couple of times a week.  And last week I was named chairman of Pittsfield's Historical Commission.  All I really want to do is mow the lawn.  And go kayak-ing.  I'll figure this out.

That's all from up here.  Love you guys

​

Wedding Bells in Lancaster

​​Weddings are happy occasions, and guess what?  That's what Margaret's and Andrew's wedding was.  Happy, fun and exhilarating.  And not over.  We are looking forward to the reception in Washington on October 25.  

It's hard to believe how much the two of them packed into a few days.  Their ceremony started at a Bruce Springsteen concert on Wednesday in Hershey PA that Annie rushed to get to, after finishing her last exam. All weddings should begin with a Bruce Springsteen concert.  On Thursday, the rest of us arrived in time for a dinner accompanied by a trivia game (team Margaret, team Andrew, and team parents) which was won by (drum roll) team Andrew.  We then moved to some memorable karaoke singing, highlighted by Margaret and Andrew's rendition of Proud Mary (Ike and Tina version), Andrew's singing of Amish in Paradise (Weird Al, meaningful in Lancaster) and then an encore of Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al.  So much fun, some of us even were able to stay awake til midnight, and beyond.  For Joe, who had flown in from Poland via London, it was an all-nighter, but we did manage to spot some an empty bottle of "5-hour energy" near his beer.

The next day, the girls did their nails and hair and all of a sudden it was time to go to the courthouse.  Andrew's aunt, the judge, did a really good job of calming everyone's nerves, and the ceremony was meaningful, sweet.  A few tears, and many more smiles.  Margaret was a beautiful bride, with an elegant dress, hair and flowers, said the proud father, who never looks at the nails.  Andrew was the prince and knight, with a pair of fancy shoes. 

We re-enacted a foreign custom of the family pursuing the newlyweds around town taking photos, before a wonderful dinner.  Yes we took a photo of their shoes, and of all of us taking selfies with our phones.

Lancaster's an interesting town, actually a surprisingly sizable city.  Another surprise was its obvious large manufacturing base, at least at one time with many old brick factories and warehouses.  They have done a good job re-storing and adapting many of them.  Our hotel was an old converted factory, and quite nice.  

When nerves ran high, we reminded ourselves that weddings are about stories to share for many years.  Margaret and Andrew have a few, but they're better re-told in person.  

Other things happened during the week, but they pale in comparison with this life event.  Congratulations you guys.

From Lancaster with Love.  

  

May celebrations

A lot to report this week, so we better get right to it.  We have birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, Mothers Day, end of semester and retirement - all in one letter.  We should space these out a little more during the year.  

            The photo included here (that looks like an updated version of the Beatles at Abbey Road) is Margaret's bachelorette party this past weekend in DC.  Very happy occasion and so glad that Melodie, Johanna, Kathleen and Annie could all be in the photo (along with Emily from Wesleyan and Julie from South Africa).  It sounded like a smashing good time, that included dance lessons, dinner, karaoke and then a club.  (An aside on these photos - Pop's Weekly Letter is getting scooped by Facebook, but that's okay.  The more places we see these photos, the better)

Mary and I had driven down to DC with Annie to see Margaret one more time before the wedding.  Mary resisted going to the event herself, so we all took vicarious pleasure in hearing about the fun.  We had our own fun with Andrew and Margaret and Annie at a barbecue on Friday evening and then again on Sunday morning, probably too early for their taste.  We missed Johanna, who was staying with Jeff and Melodie, but did get a chance to see Kathleen, as we drove her to the airport on our way home.

We stayed with Gerry and Dennis, and had our own celebration and late (for us) evening made possible through a rousing game of dominoes.  A word to the wise - we intend to pick up this game in a serious way and challenge all comers who end up in Pittsfield.  We also drove by our old house in Bethesda to see a gaping hole in the ground, to be filled with a big mansion in the next few weeks.  We did get a chance to stop by and see our old neighbors who helped us shovel through some terrible winters.

Our summer is filling up.  Happily.  Peter had a great idea to go see the two best teams in the major leagues this September, out in Cincinnati.  We're also heading out to Chicago and Wisconsin by way of Rochester in June.  Speaking of Rochester, we had a nice long chat with David and Paula, and heard about Paula's art and David's trip to NYC on insurance fraud matters - not his, but some mighty big schemes.

Other major news is Andrew's impending retirement.  Can you hear the ovation and laughter and jumping for joy.  Yes, you can hear jumping.  Congratulations, big guy.  He intends to find contract work here and there, and hopes it will come into effect this July.  

Andrew wrote this about picking up Claire last week at Hope:  "We are now officially one down, three to go with Claire at Hope. Lur and I went up on Thursday and packed her up yesterday to finish the year. While packing the car at one point, on the street outside her dorm, I turned to go back to get more stuff, and was faced with two cops, one with pistol drawn and huge German shepherd, the other with an assault rifle. Needless to say, it was a moment of distress. They moved on looking for someone. On the way out of town, Claire got a text from her roommate that a local bank two blocks away, was robbed. Just in time for the start of the annual tulip festival. One does not think of Holland, Michigan having this sort of action."

            It's also the end of school term for Margaret and Annie finished this week.  Sean must be finishing up as well.  Tina?  And, of course, I finished, and have been celebrating every weekend since March - thank you Mary.

            We went to Boston last weekend to my college roommate Steve Tobolsky's 60th birthday party.   We saw his mother and brother for the first time in years, maybe since our undergraduate commencement.  We stayed with Cliff and Sheila and discussed hiking in Maine and New Hampshire this summer. 

            Happy birthday to Sean and Matthew and happy anniversary to Peter and Janet.  Soon we'll have another May anniversary for Margaret and Andrew.  We're off to Lancaster PA this week, and the big day is the 16th.  

Joe will be coming home for that big day.  He is in Poland this week for an annual European banking meeting.  He said he had a great trip up to Scotland to visit St. Andrews.

Oh and did someone forget to say Mothers Day?  Not me.  Hope all the mothers had a wonderful day.  I know one who certainly did.  

It was wonderfully warm in Washington, with leaves on the trees and the azaleas in bloom.  We'll get there.

 

Love to everyone from up here.