In Bartlett, IL

DAY FIVE-SIX: We arrived in Bartlett Monday at about 6pm and now it is about 10:30pm on Wednesday. It has been very cold and tonight especially. We had hoped to get in some walking here but that hasn't happened. But we have had a good time. Yesterday we went over to "Whitewood" which is what the family calls the the 140-year-old house at 445 South Street in Elgin where my brother Stewart and his family lived for several decades and where his daughter Rebecca is living now. It had sort of fallen into disrepair in recent years, but in the last few months it has been spruced up both outside and inside, and the work has revealed its attractive lines.

Rear view of Whitewood

Living room at Whitewood

After our tour of Whitewood we had lunch with Becky at Al's Cafe in downtown Elgin - which has the very nice ambiance of old law offices.

The fireplace at Al's Cafe

Becky and Ellen at Al's

Tuesday evening some of the Elgin Crockett clan gathered at Maggie and Jerry's for pizza supper and we celebrated the first birthday of Declan Costello (in absentia) -  my great-great nephew.

The gathering of the clan

 Becky is still going through piles of papers at Whitewood and often comes up with little treasures. This time, among other things, she found some 94-year old Sunday comics! Hawkshaw the Detective, Andy Gump, The Captain and the Kids and Mr. and Mrs. The paper is very brittle and torn, but it's pretty cool looking a comics from February 1, 1920. I'm sort of puzzled by just who saved them and why. My parents were not exactly Sunday comics fans!

Captain and the Kids comic from 1920

Today, we had lunch out with Carol Plagge, my brother's dear friend, who suggested we go to Alexander's Restaurant in Elgin, which has been newly renovated, and a good choice it was - the food was excellent and well presented. We had a good visit.

Alexander's

My favorite college basketball team, the North Carolina Tar Heels, pulled out an 85-84 win over NC State in overtime tonight.  They've now won ten in a row. Go Heels!

We head down to Columbia, MO tomorrow and will be taking in the True/False Documentary Film Festival over the weekend. There will be lots to tell from that I'm sure. And I hope it's a bit warmer there.

Oberlin to Bartlett

DAY FOUR: We got up fairly early this morning and met Arthur Davis for breakfast at the Main Street Diner. We had a great conversation about his course work at Oberlin, and he also modeled a vest for us that he had just woven for himself.

Arthur modeling his vest

Pointing out the seam

Arthur is tapping Maple trees on the Oberlin commons and hopes to make a gallon of maple syrup back at the kitchen in his coop housing unit (called "Tank").  He is the food buyer for his coop. He is an environmental studies major and is taking a fascinating course on Systems Modeling. Here is the course description:
Computer simulation models are powerful tools for organizing information, gaining insight into underlying dynamics, and predicting the behavior of complex systems. Students will design and construct models as a means of building understanding of a variety of biological, physical, social and environmental phenomena. Models developed will cover topics ranging from physiology to community dynamics to large-scale flows of material and energy. These examples will provide students with systems-thinking skills and a library of analogies that can be broadly applied to problems in the natural and social sciences

He is also taking a course on the Book of Job, taught by OT professor, Cindy Chapman. Dr. Chapman is also a lecturer for The Great Courses. Arthur is enjoying her course very much. He is also taking Chemistry. We were impressed with the education he is getting.

Dr. Cynthia Chapman

Looking at the local bookstore, my eye was caught by a book titled The Organs of Oberlin, by Stephen Schnurr. Browsing in it, it became clear that Oberlin is a pipe organ mecca, including several Flentrop organs (contemporary organs built on principles of the organs of Bach's time). There are also two Estey organs in Oberlin (made in Brattleboro). A quick visit to the Conservatory office revealed that commencement weekend in May would be a fine time to visit Oberlin and hear several organ recitals. I've put it in my calendar. (I can anticipate a problem finding a motel room however).

A Flentrop Organ in Warner Recital Hall

The Flentrop organ in Warner Concert Hall is a three-manual instrument with 44 stops and four couplers. Its 3,400 pipes are housed in a painted case made of hand-crafted solid African mahogany, with the Prestant pipes of each division comprising the facade

We left Oberlin somewhat reluctantly. It is a very interesting place. But we left about noon and headed for Bartlett, IL and had an essentially uneventful trip, arriving about 6pm. Along the way I read aloud from a book titled A Layman's Guide to Protestant Theology, by William Hordern, published in 1955. Hordern was on the faculty at Swarthmore back in the 1950's, and this book is a very lucid exposition of the theological ideas that were sort of "in the air" my first year of seminary and the year Shirley was a Danny Grad at Kansas State Teachers College. It provides sort of a backdrop for the letters I am reading right now - letters Shirley and I wrote in 1954-55. Reading helps make the miles fly by.

So here we are in Bartlett, visiting, Ellen is knitting, I'm blogging. Jerry is knitting using a knitting frame:

Jerry knitting

Tomorrow evening part of the Crockett clan will gather for supper. Stay tuned.

In Oberlin

DAY THREE: We had a fairly leisurely morning at Wallace's - I working on this blog and Ellen her "snail blog"-  and got on the road at about noon. We drove back to the pothole we hit last night, but there was no sign of the cowling that dropped off  - though the area around the pothole was a graveyard for several hubcaps! Then I realized that the cowling is missing from the left side, whereas we hit the pothole with the right front wheel. So maybe we lost it elsewhere. Anyway, it's gone, and I don't want to think about what a replacement will probably cost.

What's missing from the front bumper.

We drove the Pennsylvania Turnpike from north of Swarthmore to the Ohio border, and then I-76 and I-80 to just north of Oberlin. There was a stretch of bad weather - fog and snow - but it didn't last. Mostly it was fine. We came down to Oberlin and had a late supper at our favorite restaurant, the Aladdin Eatery, and then came to a Days Inn just a few miles north of Oberlin in Amherst, OH, where we are now. We're meeting Arthur Davis for breakfast back in Oberlin at 8:30 tomorrow. Arthur is a student at Oberlin and son of Andy and Robin Davis, friends back home. Tomorrow we'll drive to Bartlett, IL.

DAYS ONE and TWO

DAY ONE: We left on our trip on Friday, February 21st, mid-day. It was lightly raining and very close to freezing, and there were foggy patches, but we made it okay to Manchester where we stopped to see our friend Mary Anderson. Twice in the past week we had been prevented from seeing her by snow storms. Our dear friend, John Nissen, Mary's husband,  died last October. We went to lunch together at Seasons, in Manchester, where we had a chance to talk a bit, and we got a draft of a letter that Mary wants to send out to friends which I will format and print out and send back to her. Mary has some big decisions to make, including where she will live in the coming months and what "stuff" to dispose of and how. Not easy!

Seasons Restaurant

On to Swarthmore, PA!  We took Route 7 out of Manchester down to Bennington, over to Route 22 and down to the Taconic Parkway. We missed the turn to the Tappen Zee Bridge (I was reading to Ellen a fascinating account of the turmoil in the Rockingham Free Public Library Board of Trustees, written by Jeff Potter,  the Editor of The Commons, our local Brattleboro "alternative" newspaper, and she got distracted), so we went down the Henry Hudson Parkway and over the George Washington Bridge instead (all lanes were open!), and onto I-95 down to the PA Turnpike and on to Swarthmore. It was pretty close to 11 p.m. by the time we got there, but it was a good ride. Along the way we made just one rest stop at a plaza and got some rice and red beans at a Popeye's there to supplement snacks in the car.

Wallace, Ellen's friend, graciously offered her home as a place to stay even though she herself is in California visiting family. We thankfully fell into bed and were glad for an electric blanket (which, however, became too warm for me during the night. I love electric blankets just as you get into bed but I wish they would automatically turn off after an hour or so. I have a heating pad that does that which  I use for my cold feet when I go to bed at home).

DAY TWO: Saturday,  we spent the entire day with Sarah and Harry, old friends of Ellen's and now my friends too, who live in Lansdown, PA, about a half-hour from Swarthmore. We had a lovely late breakfast of "Scott's Emulsion" (as in Scott Nearing) - uncooked oatmeal, bran, nuts, yogurt and fruit and other possible things all smooshed together - and then later a light lunch of salmon and cream cheese on Harry's homemade bread, and then in the evening a roast lamb dinner! Wow! Thank you Harry!

Here is a short bio sketch about Sarah:

Sarah Van Keuren majored in art history at Swarthmore College, studied printmaking at the Philadelphia College of Art, and has an MFA in Photography from the University of Delaware. Since 1980 she has taught non-silver printmaking processes at the University of the Arts where she is now an adjunct professor. She is author of A Non-Silver Manual, and has taught workshops across the U.S. and in Finland. She is represented by Schmidt-Dean Gallery in Philadelphia.

Sarah will retire later this spring, and she is about to mount a show which will be a retrospective of her work over an almost 50-year period and she showed us the show on her computer. Here are two examples of what is a very diverse body of work:

Sarah's closeline

Scene from Sarah's window

During the day we took a walk in the neighborhood that took us into a huge cemetery, Holy Cross Cemetery, in Yeadon, PA. I regretfully did not think to bring my camera, because it was fascinating and in many ways beautiful: the brass doors on the mausoleums, the figurines, the ivy engravings on tombstones, etc. I did some research online later and learned that there are over 88,000 persons interred in that cemetery, including Frank Hardart, of Horn & Hardart. We saw a mausoleum with a piece of plywood where brass doors should have been and learned that they had been stolen. The thieves were eventually caught - they were former workers at the cemetery, who had removed and carried the doors by hand (500 lbs each), and lifted them over the wall and made their getaway! The doors were valued at $38,000, but they cut them up with a blowtorch and got $660 for them as scrap metal!  A lot of work for not much change! Plus jail time.

A typical mausoleum

Typical brass doors

We got back to Wallace's about 10pm. A nice day!!  Along the way home we hit a huge pothole. This morning when I went out to the car I saw that a part of the front bumper is missing and the left front fender is partly dislodged! It must have happened when we hit the pothole. Bummer!

Waiting

Well, here I am, sort of stuck in the Subaru waiting room while they do a 4-hour, 30,000-mile maintenance on our "new" Impreza. Not sure why it will take so long. Ellen is on a trip to fabric and yarn stores in Center Harbor, NH today, with two gal friends, so she's having fun!  Actually, I'm not really "stuck"  here - I can go for a walk anytime! And of course, I have internet access, which is unusual;  thus, this post!

This past weekend was our "Divine Chemistry" event - we recorded all day Saturday and gave a concert yesterday afternoon. The concert, in Centre Church, Brattleboro, was very enjoyable from my side of the event - and the audience, which filled the church, was very enthusiastic in its response. The recording day, I did not feel quite up to par, so that was more exhausting for me personally. I hope Susan and Paul Dedell get a good CD out of it. Recordings can be cruel.

Yesterday, I led the Guilford Church Choir, something I do not normally do, but all the usual leaders were unavailable. I love leading a choir, and I got some nice comments on the music. Tonight is a Dummerston Choir rehearsal. So these three days are music-filled days. Tomorrow we'll have lunch with John & Cynthia at their place - that will be really nice. Wednesday we hope to spend some time with Mary Anderson-Nissen in Manchester, VT. Friday we start on our trip.  I am very much looking forward to the trip - it will have a lot of discovery in it.

We've had a lot of snow, and more is coming tomorrow. It has also been steadily very cold. But our wood supply has held up well, Zac is plowing our road well, so we are actually pretty fortunate and I have enjoyed the winter. My only regret is that it has been too cold to do any snowshoeing. But maybe later today I can go out for just a bit -  it is in the 20's today.

Revving up

This blog is primarily a "trip" blog - mostly because on a trip we usually have more access to the Internet than we do at home. But we are beginning to get ready for another big trip, so we should be seeing some activity here in a few weeks. Meanwhile, we are involved in a recording project, among other things.  Paul Dedell, the husband of the director of the Brattleboro Concert Choir, wrote a cantata four years ago called Songs of Divine Chemistry, which was performed at that time. The texts combine the work of Sufi and Christian mystic poets with the writings of contemporary neuro-psychologists. Paul has gotten financial support to produce a CD, and we are part of the group that will be doing that - aiming at an all-day recording session on February 15th and a concert performance the next day.

Our trip will include the True/False film Festival in Columbia, MO, Katie performing in an opera, The Crucible by Robert Ward, a visit to Pittsburgh State University, KS, where Shirley was a "Danny Grad" (a campus religious counselor sponsored by the Danforth Foundation) in 1954, and a visit to the Ransome Center Library in Austin, TX which houses the Knopf Publishing Co. archives - to do research on Ellen's father's manuscript that he was contracted to publish with Knopf. And, of course, our usual stops in Bartlett, IL with the "Elgin gang" - my brother's family - and  at least ten days in Wyoming with Paul, Jenny and Max. After Wyoming, we'll return to attend a performance of the Missouri University Singers - of which Katie is a member - at the Kauffmann Performing Arts Center in Kansas City. So it will be a full, rich, trip. And who knows what surprises may be in store.

Shirley and me in Pittsburg, KS, March 1955

Kauffmann Center in Kansas City