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.

Spring break

This week from Daytona, Florida.  We missed the big college spring break and a bigger bike week, but we just returned from a wonderful and wonderfully warm week with John and Marilyn in their new home outside Daytona.  It's a carefree, relaxed lifestyle they have built in a community with a pool and lots of stuff to do.  Free stuff too.  

We went down last Monday after Easter Sunday here with Annie and Dan Boyle.  We did our traditional Easter dinner at the Red Lion Inn (anyone want to join, come on up).  Annie had come up Thursday in a truck with Greg hauling furniture they were going to store for a while.  Greg left Saturday, and we took Annie to the train Sunday evening.  The Easter bunny came, ate some carrots and got into the Scotch before leaving a few goodies for Sunday morning.  Anyway it was a wonderful weekend, and nice to see Dan, who is teaching swimming in New London.  Mary also is volunteering to teach swimming, to non-swimmers.  Very rewarding to see people go from fear of the water to confidence.  

Since Mary had the week off from school, and my one class had been canceled, we decided to check out John and Marilyn's new digs.  We picked a great week, for the weather.  We never wore socks or long pants, shorts and tee-shirts the whole time.  We went to the beach three times and lost track of time on the boogie boards.  Great waves, long rides.  John and Marilyn were great hosts, taking us up to St. Augustine for one day to sight-see and showing us the local scene.  It was odd, being on vacation, since there we're retired, but we embraced being on vacation from retirement.  Mary went to the local YMCA to get in her laps a couple of times, and found it was the home pool for Ryan Lochey, the Olympic medal winner.  That's excitement.  

One of the reasons she went swimming was we kind of fell way off our diets, and happily so given our Lenten no-sweets fasting.  Marilyn even found a recipe for David Eyre's pancake and surprised us one morning.  We'll have to find it ourselves, cause it was a real treat.  Trivia - where did we live when we were making David Eyre's pancakes on Sunday evenings? 

We just go off the phone with Margaret who is in Lancaster PA with Andrew putting some final touches on their big day in a few weeks.  Joe was also traveling this past week, going back to St. Andrews for the first time since he graduated.  And, he has a new job, back in Washington n the China desk for Treasury.  He'll be returning in mid-June.  ​ 

Some of you may know that Paula has been taking painting classes. This Friday her work is going to be exhibited -- congratulations!  

I had to change the e-mail for posting since at least one of you noticed last week that our site had an unwelcome addition.  I'll send around the new e-mail for posting.

And happy birthday to Peter!  Wonderful.

That means it's almost the end of April and its showers, so we're looking forward to seeing a few flowers, without snow.

Love from over here.  

How do you know it's spring?

When it's not. So sad