Uncovered history

I continue to be amazed at what is buried out there on the Internet, and what emerges by chance. Lost and forgotten little pieces of one's own life story! E.g., for some time I have been having trouble accessing a particular resource that is available to me as an alumnus of Brown University. Called "Library Resources,' these are huge data banks like JSTOR, which contains 1000's of articles in academic journals. I have been getting messages for some time that I needed to update my "browser." I usually use "Safari" or sometimes "Firefox," though that has had its own problems. But recently I installed Google Chrome which is a more recent browser. Suddenly, things work that haven't worked for a while. One of those Library Resources is called Hathi Trust. It accesses a completely differnt kind of thing from JSTOR, and when I did a search of my own name, which I do sometimes, what should come up but testimony I gave back in 1979 at a Hearing of a Congressional Committee: The Sub-Committee on Post-Secondary Education of the House Committee on Education and Labor. The hearing was not in Washington, it was in Burlington, VT. Vermont's lone Congressman at that time, James Jeffords, was a member of the committee. I was there because I was at that time the Executive Director of the Vermont Higher Education Council, an Independent, non-profit organization representing all 23 of the higher education institutions in Vermont, public and private. I worked with the Presidents of those 23 institutions. Perhaps more than anyone in the state, I had a comprehensive view of the role higher education played in Vermont. I had, for example, initiated a study of the economic impact of higher education in Vermont. There were perhaps 20-25 thousand out-of-state students studying in Vermont colleges and universities. They were spending money in Vermont that would not be spent if those colleges did not exist. And that was just one part of the economic impact of higher ed. I also had a lot of responsibility for both the chartering and the accreditation of higher-education institutions in Vermont. So I had a wide and thorough perspective and I presume that is why I was asked to make a presentation at this hearing. The specific topic was Title I - a federal program that provided seed money for new programs in colleges and universities, especially those that created some kind of relationship with organizations in the local commmunity. I was not an expert in Title I, but I was very familiar with it, and I knew a lot about its importance, especially in smaller colleges, which were the majority of the colleges in Vermont, There were two things in the record: the paper I submitted, and a transcript of my actual testimony. The first is the more acccurate, although I said a few things off the cuff that are not in the paper (such as mentioning that I had lived in Anamosa, Iowa, for the benefit of the Iowa Congressman on the committee). There are also numerous errors in the transcript - things I said that were not understood properly (a machine was probably making the transription). So here is the paper:

You may notice that I mention that I had intimate knowledge of a particular Title I program. That is because Shirley was the Director of that Program, which was a joint project of Windham College and the Brattleboro Women's Crisis Center. This was before Shirley became a pastor at the Guilford Church - about 1975-76.

We've gotten hooked

Today we have been binge-watching episodes of The Lincoln Lawyer, a series on Netflix. It is very gripping. I missed Episode 1, but I've now seen 2-5. Six is on on the screen now. It is about a lawyer, Mickey Haller, who has unexpectedly been handed a bunch of cases that had belonged to a lawyer named Jerry who was murdered a few days before. One of those cases is a murder case which has a lot of complicated features and several mysteries. The lawyer is very likable, and he is very competent. But he has been in a rehab facility to overcome an addiction, and this is his first appearence before a judge for a long time. So a lot is on the line for him. LATER. Well, we ended up watching the whole season - episodes 2-10! Good grief! It was really a page-turner, so to speak.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller and Becki Newton as his para-legal, Lorna.

A lovely memorial

This afternoon, we made about a 18-minute drive to the village of Montague, MA, to the Montague Retreat Center, where we sang with a group composed of members of River Singers and Greenfield Harmony (both led by Mary Cay Brass) at a memorial service for Paula Green, a very well-known and much beloved peace activist. We arranged for Dusty and Dorothy to come be with Savanna while we went to this service, which they were glad to do. However, we told them we would be gone about three hours, and since we had to be there at 1:15 to rehearse before a 2pm service, we had to leave right after we sang to get back in time. So we missed at least half of the service. But the first half was quite moving. Paul's brother, a rabbi, and her husband, both spoke before we sang, and they were both quite eloquent about Paula. We also were introduced by a woman who explained what our music meant to Paula, who had heard us sing many times at the CONTACT program at the School for International Training, where Paula was on the faculty. I doubt that we have ever received so effusive an introduction. Our singing went very well - the space we were singing in was quite nice acoustically. I led Angels Hovering 'Round and managed to stay in tune and remember all the verses. We got back about 4pm, which was a bit longer than we said we would be, even leaving early, but that was ok. Now we have just had a lovely supper of creamed chicken on rice, carrots and broccoli, and Ellen and Savanna are watching TV while I blog. I also did the Spelling Bee on paper.

Montague Retreat Center from a drone

The interior of the building from their website.

Rehearsing outdoors before the service - doing hand motions with the South African Song.

Another section of the group, rehearsing

Before the service began, there was a slide show about Paula Green's life

A shot of the interior as people were gathering***************************** We didn't get to Guilford this morning in person, but we did watch on Zoom. For some reason, the audio was terrible today. We could understand most of what Pastor Eliza said, but the music wasn't very good, simply because something was wrong with the audio system. I wonder if the YouTube recording is the same? I assume it sounded good if you were there in person. LATER I did check YouTube - the recording has fine audio. So the problem was just the live stream. Or, maybe, it was us. Who knows?

Watching the Red Sox

One thing we can do here with Savanna we can't do at home is watch Red Sox games. Tonight they are playing the NY Yankees and they are down 4-1 in the bottom of the 4th. The Yankees got a 3-run home run in the 1st inning. But I think the Red Sox won last night after a 3-game losing streak against Tampa Bay. So maybe they can pull out a win tonight.

Sox at bat********************************************************** Tomorrow we are going to sing with Mary Cay Brass and a group from River Singers at a Memorial Service for Paula Green at the Montague, MA Retreat Center, which is actually much closer to us here in Shutesbury - about 20 minute drive at most. It would be over an hour if we were coming from home. I didn't know Paula Green, but she was a widely known and admired peace activist. She worked at the School for International Training in their Conflict Resolution program, and heard River Singers sing there many times, and "loved our music." So her husband invited us to sing. We will be singing 4 songs: "Mnohaya Lita," a Ukrainian birthday song; "Jovano, Jovanke," a very popular Balkan song; "Dibuligile," a South African song, and "Angels Hovering 'Round," an Appalachian call and response song; I will be singing the call, as I always do before our concerts. ,

Paula Green (1937-2022)*********************************** LATER. Well, it's 8-1 Yankees in the 5th. A Red Sox win is unlikely.

Lunch on the deck

Yesterday was the perfect day to have guests for lunch on the deck: Jim and Pat Haine. It was delightfully sunny and cool, and Ellen prepared a lovely lunch, both delicious and beautifully presented! Jim and Pat had never been at our house before, and they were delighted by our location. They have a lovely place in Guilford too, but it is more enclosed. They have a gazebo, which we often wish we had when the bugs are bad, but yesterday, there were no bugs. So we had a nice time on the deck. It turns out that Jim and I are both "P.K.'s" - Preacher's Kids. His dad was a Methodist minister in Pennsylvania, and like me, Jim moved a lot as he was growing up - his dad changed churches every three years or so. You have to learn how to adapt to new situations, and you don't really get to have long friendships.

The table prepared

Jim and Pat Haine

Ellen's garden

Ellen's garden up close************************************************ After lunch, when the Haines had left for home, Ellen realized she could fit in a Schumann rehearsal at Marlboro, so she scooted off. I stayed home because someone was coming from Friends of the Sun to look over the possibility of installing a propane stove downstairs. And indeed, I just had time to do the lunch dishes before Mike showed up. He looked things over pretty carefully, and I learned some things. There are basically two possible spots where we could locate a stove. We cannot tie into the existing flue from the upstairs propane insert, so the exhaust pipe would have to go directly outside through the wall or the foundation. The spot next to the wood stove where our drying rack now sits would work, but the pipe cannot be right up next to the ceiling, it would be down a bit, and I would worry about a tall person hitting their head on it - it would have to go right across the hallway leading to the stairs. Lots of traffic there. Plus, the outside pipe would come out right where you go up the outside stairs to the deck. The other location would be on the front wall where our wood rack is now. We would have to move the rack, but it could go behind the wood stove and that would work well. The propane stove would fit into that alcove nicely, but it would exhaust near the front door. Mike said he didn't think that would be a problem. It worries me a bit thoough, but as I think about it, I don't think the stove would be running much when either the the front door or the deck would be used. Mostly in cold weather and mostly at night. The cost of stove and installation would probably be less than half the cost of a mini split. We'll get an estimate in a week or two. So, we'll see. Meanwhile, we got a new "have-a-heart" mouse trap, and we put it to use. Voila! This morning, there was a mousie in the trap. I drove it down to West Dummerston and released it near the Baptist Church. Hope it finds a home there somewhere.

Mousie in the trap***************************************************** Later this morning, we got a call from Katie saying that Savanna was doing well, and that she and Brendon would in fact be going to OxBow Lake. So we quickly got our act together - I had done quite a bit of packing last evening, fortunately. So we got off by a bit after noon. And right now I am sitting on the porch while Savanna lies on a couch and is reading a New Yorker. Ellen is stacking wood. It is about 78 degrees - quite comfortable, actually. But it is going to get hot! In the 90's, I'm afraid.

The next few days

We just learned how we will be spending the next few days. We already knew about tomorrow, but starting Saturday, we will move down to Shutesbury for a few days to stay with Savanna while Katie and Brendon go to Ox Bow Lake in the Adirondacks for a week. Tomorrow we are hosting Jim and Pat Haine for lunch on the deck - a date which grew out of our visit with them earlier this week. We enjoy them very much and that will be a nice time. Then later in the afternoon, a staff person from Friends of the Sun will arrive to look over the possibility of installing a propane stove in the basement. This has been an ongoing dilemma as to what we should install as a backup to our wood heat. We looked into a mini-split, but there were just too many potential problems and uncertainties with that option, not to mention a very large initial cost. There is really no ideal solution. Propane is cheaper to install, but costly to operate because of the price of propane gas. But it is a low maintenance system. Wood is the cheapest source of heat at the present time, so we will continue to use it as much as we can, and use propane when we need to. If we could get a Mitsubishi mini-split we might go for it - that's what Jim and Mary have, and they like it very much. But they are not serviced in our geographic area. We would have to get a Samsung, which is what the company offers which does work in our location. But they are something of an unknown as to maintenance, and if John and Cynthia's experience with their Panasonic is any indication, we could end up spending a lot of money on a big headache. It is a hard decision.

A Samsung Mini Split

Meeting new "neighbors"

We just came back from a visit down the road a bit to our friends, Wendy and David Baker, who live just off Kipling Road about half-way to Hannaford's from our house - a ten-minute ride at most. They wanted us to meet their new neighbors, Bruce and Rona Gordon. Before the Gordons arrived, we got a little tour of David's shop. The Gordons have recently bought the house next door to David and Wendy's. Bruce is on the faculty at Yale U and Yale Divinity School. Rona is a Lecturer in the Yale English Department, teaches a course in writing, but mostly is a consultant to academic writers. She grew up in Scotland, and you can hear that in her speech. Bruce is working on a book about the Bible - i.e., about the Bible as a book that has been published for centuries in many different cultures and countries, in many different languages, under very various circumstances and sponsorships, etc. It sounds really interesting, and I know of nothing like it that is "out there." It will be titled The Bible, A Global History. It must have required an immense amount of research, made easier, no doubt, by the Internet, but also probably made more complicated and tricky as well. It also turned out that they, Rona especially, are BIG fans of the "Swallows and Amazons" children's book series, which I am also a big fan of and Rona is also a Quaker in her background, as is Ellen. So it was interesting and fun to meet them! We snacked while we talked, and I never really thought to pull out my phone and take a picture. But I found some things online - good old Internet! I hope we'll have a chance to know them better. They said that this is now their home - they can do quite a bit remotely and will commute when they need to. Sort of amazing!

Bruce Gordon, Titus Street Prof. of Ecclesiastical History at Yale

Rona Johnston Gordan, Lecturer in Yale U English Dept.

Wendy and David Baker's house

A few of the hundreds of violins in David's shop