Quiet

Today has been quiet. Not much new to report. I slept late after a restless night, ate bfst about noon. I've been working on taxes, even though the deadline is extended. Lots of time available, so I might as well use it. Ellen took a little walk with Eliza and the girls.

I realized that what Tristan Crockett has been reporting on re family members is a DNA testing site called "23andme." So evidently he was tested and has been hearing from dad's relatives who have also been tested. That brings some people out of the woodwork that we might not otherwise have been aware of. Interesting! Maybe more will emerge.

One person he heard from was a daughter, Jane, of J. Carl Williamson (son of dad's sister, Annie). I knew about Jane - I had  met her at the Williamson Family Reunion. I was able to send him a slide dad took of J Carl (and me and mother and one of J Carl's children) back in 1946! It was taken on Lookout Mountain, TN - a fairly short drive from Bremen, GA where we were visiting for Grandma Crockett's funeral:

J Carl Williamson, a grandchild?, me and mother, 1946.

Scrabble!

Ellen and I played Scrabble this evening - not online but with an actual board, the old-fashioned way. Ellen had my usual luck with tiles - she got all the vowels. I got the Q, J, Z, and tho I won (292-252) it was not by that huge a margin. So she did better with what she got. It was a strange game too in that it was very condensed in one quarter of the board for a long time. Here is the final board:

Reaching out to cousins

I've been doing some reaching out via the Internet to family I've not been in touch with for a while - like southern cousins. I re-established contact with Frances Gardner via Facebook and got her email address. She is 92 and lives in Mississippi.  She is the daughter of my father's sister, Annie Williamson. I first met her in 1946 at my grandmother Crockett's funeral in Breman, GA, and more recently saw her at a Williamson family reunion in Florida about 10-12 years ago.  She is my favorite cousin, but I had lost her current address and hadn't gotten a Christmas card from her recently. But I got an email from her -  she still drives!

I've also reached out to Wiley Crockett whom I may have met back in 1946, but have not seen since. Wiley is the son of my father's younger brother, Bernard.  I haven't heard back from him yet.

Meanwhile, Tristan Crockett, my grand-nephew, had been doing some family research and had heard from a Lily Jinkins who turns out to be a descendant of my father's younger sister Otsie Maude. I had never heard of Lily before, but I was able to find a photo of dad and Maude and provide Tristan with  other information on dad's siblings.
                                                                                                  I

My dad's family in 1946. I am the 13-year-old boy in the next to back row fifth from the right. My mother is just in front of me to my right. Cousin Frances is two to the left of mother (or two down on her right) in a plum-colored suit jacket.

Maude Crockett with my dad, c. 1924. I think this was taken at Piedmont College, GA where they overlapped a year.

The Williamson Family reunion. Cousin Frances is almost center in the first seated row, white hair, and wearing a white blouse and black vest.  The three older folks to her right are all first cousins to me - Etta, Randall and Clyde. I'm in the back row, second from left.

A beautiful day

Today is gorgeous!

Ellen is giving our bed quilts a good airing and sunning. Yesterday I went out,  and coming back up the driveway, for the first time, I got stuck with the car. We had not been plowed out and it was just icy and watery enough to make it impossible to get up the final little bit. Fortunately I had my ice grippers for my shoes and my ski poles with me and I walked up the last few feet to the house. I called Zach, and in a  few minutes he came up and got the car up to the house. Today he came up and back-bladed the drive and cleared  the snow and didn’t turn up the mud. Ellen just went out and it’s fine.

Airing and sunning

Stewart Letter #20

Letter # 20, March 25, 1945

 25 March  45

Dear Dad,

            In three months, I will be eighteen years old, and then if I am still in the ASTRP, I will have to wait for another month and a half to go by before I can find out what the active-duty man has to put up with. If, however, I am not in the ASTRP  then, I will have to go right away.  If I find that I cannot go to language school, and cannot have a furlough either, I believe that I shall obtain a release from the ASTRP so that I can be home for a while.[1] I might not have a furlough if the remaining members of my section are transferred to another university. Since there will be less than ten left in my section at the end of this term, and 10 are needed to make a section, there will be either someone shipped here, or we will be shipped out. The last section that was transferred that way did not get furloughs. Meanwhile I will try to learn as much as possible while I am here.

            Since I have come here, I have gained more confidence in the water. There is a nice swimming pool in the coliseum here, and we are given an opportunity each P. T. period to use it. My endurance is not very great, however, because I am not used to it yet. I can swim on my side and float on my back most easily. Also I can dive head first into the water for the first time.

                                                                                                                                   (cont[2])
                                  V ...- 3 Mail

---

[1] It isn't obvious, but future letters will make clear that at this point, Stewart was very unhappy with his situation at Lincoln and was seriously considering withdrawing from the ASTRP program. Such a withdrawal, however, would have had negative consequences for subsequent choices in the Army.  A short time after this letter, he will go through a very down time but ultimately will be persuaded to stay in the ASTRP and he will be transferred to South Dakota State University at Brookings, SD, where he will be much happier. All that will be made clear in Letter #21, dated May 30, 1945.

[2] This letter is incomplete - the reverse side did not get copied for some reason.

[3] The three dots and a dash after the letter "V" are Morse Code for "V."  "V" for Victory.  It was very common back then to sing these using the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony - "dah-dah-dah DAH!"  It was sort of a mantra during WW2.  This V-mail form was a  special light-weight, low postage Air-Mail letter widely used during WW2 for letters to servicemen.

Zoom

We just had a zoom session with several members of the Dummerston church that was organized by our pastor, Shawn. About seven people participated, including John. There will be another one on Friday, and Shawn is hoping it’ll grow each time.

Today I digitized a service from July 6, 1997 at the Guilford church, on the theme “do not fear.”  It was Fourth of July weekend, so elements had to do with that theme. But it was still pretty relevant for our own time today. An element of the service I had completely forgotten about was that I sang a solo – Zarastro’s song from The Magic Flute. It sounded pretty good! The text of the song fit the theme of “do not fear” very well.

Life goes on!

Looking out the west living room window at the snow this morning

Some big decisions

As the pandemic develops, I’m making some big decisions. First, I’ve decided to put on hold my visits to physical therapy appointments. I’ve had four visits so far, and I have exercises I can do at home. I don’t have their equipment at home - the squishy discs to stand on, etc. - but I think I can make progress. I have a dental appointment coming up in April, and I called the dentist office and learned they were closed until the end of March. Since the appointment is just for a cleaning, I think I’ll call them later and postpone that appointment as well. I also have a podiatrist appointment in early April. That needs more thought, because walking is painful, and I would like to be able to take good walks. I wonder if he would be willing to work on my foot out in the parking lot with me in the car.

What all this adds up to is that I feel I need to stay secluded until there’s a vaccine available. I really don’t want to get this virus, and I don’t think it’s going to go away anytime soon.  I can see a reasonable life staying at home, going out for walks, going out in the car, but staying away from other people, staying away from public places. That could conceivably go on for another year or so! Those are the lines I am thinking along right now, but obviously  it will have to be reevaluated every week.

I realize that this might be a God-given opportunity to do something I’ve wanted to get done for years and that is digitizing the cassette tapes of Guilford church services from the 80s and 90s, when Shirley and I were pastors, of which I have over 400. Being able to pass those on to the church as CDs rather than tapes would be great.

Meanwhile, we got a lot of snow last night. I think we got probably seven or eight inches at least. I’m not sure if Zach will be able to plow it though, because it’s pretty muddy underneath. We’ll see.

Ellen had a successful Zoom  session with her knitting companions yesterday, I think Zoom will turn out to be a very handy way to stay in touch with people. We couldn’t have done that with the old iPhone. It has too old an operating system.

New fallen snow 

A lovely walk

Today (Sunday) we live-streamed the Guilford Church service which this week was led by Peter Amidon and a small choir. It was all about seeing everything anew in this strange time. Then after a lovely late breakfast of pancakes and sausage, we took a walk out of Dummerston Center - a cool (37 degrees) but bright, sunny day: perfect for walking. We are doing well. Katie Shay has been furloughed from her job for 90 days. She doesn't want to stay in Brooklyn all that time and may go to Boulder. Julie and Jerry may end up on the front lines of caring not virus victims, but that hasn't happened yet. Our lives are relatively untouched compared to many and there are many who are suffering.

I've had a lot of thoughts about what is happening.  Some of it makes sense and some does not. I think even the "experts" are flying blind. This is a truly unprecedented  time even though it was entirely predictable. I'm not sure, for example, what meaning a 90-day furlough has. The virus will still be around 90 days from now. I don't know how businesses are going to survive, not to mention colleges. I am very curious to see how it will all play out!

I found a prayer in Be Present Here (the collection of Shirley's prayers I published a few years ago) which seems appropriate for the times. Ah - it's on the other computer. I'll post it later with some photos.

A whole new life

Our daily lives have changed pretty dramatically in just the last few days - as have the lives of many, if not most, Americans, and much of the population of the world! Who says change is impossible! Most of the events that give shape and rhythm to our lives have been cancelled. Rehearsals and concerts - all cancelled. Church services at Guilford have become "virtual - a small group conducts a service which is filmed and posted online. Dummerston services - and thus choir - cancelled. In many ways this is a wonderful life! Lots of free time at home for reading and doing projects at home. A sad little sideline though: we have lost TV. VTPBS - Vermont Public Television - changed their transmission last week and we no longer get their signal through our roof antenna. We can get the PBS Newshour on the phone on YouTube. Oddly, when I rescanned to find NHPTV, a new channel showed up I had never seen before whieh is all old movies - it comes in badly but we watched Rebel Without a Cause  (1955) yesterday which neither of us had ever seen before - James Dean and Natalie Woods -  very young looking.

This feels like a time when Americans can take stock of how they live their lives. What is really important.  Kathy Leo sent us this poem:

 LOCKDOWN

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighborhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbors in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.”
.
We did go out last evening: we went to Katie & Savanna's and watched Bernie and Joe debate. I was disappointed in the tack Bernie took - playing "gotcha" with Joe's past voting record.  The important thing is not the past - it's what do these two intend to do now and how are they going to get it done if elected President? Not much was said about that. But the whole political realm has been thrown into chaos. Who could possibly predict what will happen in November? Will there even be political conventions this year?

One ironic note - the Heels had such a bad season, they were not going to get into the NCAA Tournament - "March Madness." But it was cancelled! So what difference will it make that they had a bad season ? Virtually none!

Uncertain future

I went to River Singers tonight and although no decision has been made as yet, Mary Cay made it clear that there is a good chance our concert will either be postponed or cancelled. The Atlantic has published an article titled Cancel Everything!  and she feels it is pretty persuasive - based on the way the virus has spread in Europe. On the top of that, they have called Michigan for Joe Biden, so probably Bernie has no path to the nomination. Jim Clyburne is saying close down the primary tonight. Can Biden defeat Trump? Not at all certain. Plus, the economy is reeling and could go south due to cancellations, etc. Oil prices are plummeting. In a crisis, will the American people decide to stick with Trump?  Will he pull a Putin and get Congress to give him another 16 years?  I can't remember quite so uncertain a time - although 1942 was pretty uncertain because it wasn't clear that the US could win the war. I guess there was a point where it looked like Hitler might conquer the world. But I was only eight years old then, and was sort of oblivious to all that.

The Corona Virus -a powerful little creature!

A bright Tuesday

Well, I slept a bit better last night and got up around 10am instead of noon! I guess that can be considered progress. I had my usual breakfast of a smoothie, cereal and a dish of stewed prunes, cleaned up, and now am sitting on the couch with John, each of us with a laptop in our laps (where else?). John is monitoring the output of his solar panels. They are not performing quite up to snuff and he is wondering if some component is not working properly. Today is a sunny day. A bit  cloudy, but right now the sun is shining brightly. He is able to use the computer to monitor the output of each panel and each inverter, so that is what he is doing. Sort of amazing that he can do that. He will have to take a number of readings over time before he'll have a sense of whether something is not performing properly.

Today I have a physical therapy appointment at 2pm. River Singers is this evening. I may get to the pool in between.  So the day will go by pretty fast.

Ensconced at John and Cynthia's

I have made the move from Andy and Robin's to John and Cynthia's. I came over Sunday afternoon and spent my first night here last night. J&C bought a new futon mattress and installed it on their glassed-in (but unheated) porch, which is right off the kitchen. I wasn't sure if I would be cold on the porch, but I was plenty warm last night. However, it was very mild outside. I'm not sure what it would be like if it was cold and windy outside. I don't think it will be very cold while I'm here. I'll move back home on Wednesday, because Ellen will return late Wednesday night (actually after midnight).

I got a NYTimes yesterday and worked on the Spelling Bee (C+TAHIPR)  in the evening and this morning. I also emailed it to Ellen, but I suspect she doesn't have much time to herself. I haven't found the 3-pointer yet, and am only a little over "excellent" in the scoring so far. You need 30 points to be a genius this week. 

I slept intermittently during the night, so I made up by sleeping late this morning. I had a late breakfast, went over to the house, did some cleaning up, paid some bills, got the mail and went to the pool. They were taking precautions there re the corona virus, wiping everything down with sanitizer. There is one reported case in Vermont so far - in Bennington. But there could be unknown, "invisible" cases around.  I don't feel particularly hyper about the virus, but I am washing my hands more. Who knows what the future holds.

We just had a lovely supper prepared by John - a veggie stir-fry on rice, nicely seasoned with ginger, etc. It's really nice to have some time here.

My bed on the porch

 Things are going better than expected in New Mexico. Ellen and Susie both feel ok about Ellen returning on Wednesday. It has been really good that she has been there. I can't wait for her to get back though.

Just in time

Ellen arrived at Charlie and Susie's home at about 5pm Thursday afternoon, and Charlie passed away at about 5am the next morning. We grieve his death, but no one can grieve his being spared extended hours/days of suffering. Ellen and Susie got little if any sleep during those twelve hours, but both were deeply grateful that Ellen arrived when she did. Now she is there to accompany Susie on her journey into a new and strange life without Charlie. I hope both are able to get some sleep tonight.

Charlie

                                                                Rest in Peace, Charlie!

Meanwhile, I had come up to the house late Thursday morning and had borrowed Andy's cell phone so that I would have some way to call for help if I needed it. But it turned out his phone didn't work up at the house. But not long after I got there, the mail arrived and I got the sim-card I had been looking for. When I went back to the Davis' for  supper, their son Arthur was there, and he easily installed the sim-card. So I now have a working cellphone with a new number. Ellen has the new cell phone with our old number.

Friday, I went up to the house again and got things ready for the Dummerston Church choir rehearsal that night. Several were not able to make it to the rehearsal, including our organist and accompanist, Mary Westbrook-Geha. So I sat at the piano and played parts. We had no altos at all (Ellen is our key alto), but we had two sopranos, two tenors and a bass besides myself. Everyone learned their parts and we sang the piece pretty well in 3-part harmony while I played the fourth, alto, part on the piano so everyone could hear how it fits in. We'll have Mary W-G to sing alto on Sunday. So I think it will go well.

I don't think I mentioned earlier that on Tuesday, March 3rd, Ellen and I went to Town Meeting, our annual New England ritual of democracy-in-action.  About 150 people showed up for the meeting, which was truncated this year because normally it is in two parts - one for the town budget and one for the school budget - but during the last year the state forced us to merge our school board with three other towns, because of declining enrollments, and the meeting for that unified district of the four schools (where Dummerston has only two representatives) is not until March 17th. So on the 3rd, we had only the town portion of the meeting. This is a real loss, and it is all being challenged in the state supreme court, but for now that's the way it is. We voted in the Vermont Democratic Primary on the 3rd - Super Tuesday. Bernie won that election, with about 350 votes in Dummerston. Joe Biden got about 160 votes in Dummerston and Elizabeth Warren was third with a few less than Biden. I think Bloomberg got about 50 votes and the rest were scattered. A Brattleboro Reformer photographer took a picture which has Ellen and me in the foreground, and a friend, Brownie Towle, the focus of attention. It was published in Wednesday's Reformer!

At Dummerston Town Meeting

Today, Saturday, I plan to finally take down our Christmas tree!   The needles are not falling at all, but it is pretty droopy. In the evening, I plan to have supper with the Bergh's (it's Eliza's birthday), and watch the UNC/Duke basketball game, the last game of the season, which could be exciting - after losing 7 in a row, UNC has now won 3 in a row. When they played Duke a few weeks ago, they were winning until the last seconds. So who knows? That's assuming the game will be held - at some point, the Corona-virus may cause games that put 25,000 people into one room to be cancelled.

An errand of mercy

Ellen has long-standing friends in New Mexico - Susie and Charlie. Susie is an artist, Charlie is a musicologist. They used to live in Pennsylvania, where Ellen first met them. She and I visited them years ago in Taos. Now, Charlie is dying of pancreatic cancer and Ellen offered to come out to Taos and be there to support Susie in this very difficult time. So that is where she is now - she left Bradley this morning and I hope she has arrived safely by now. Rather than stay at the house alone, I am staying with friends, Andy and Robin, at night, and going up to the house to do things during the day. This weekend I will move to John and Cynthia's house and spend the rest of the time there till Ellen returns - next Thursday as it now stands. I will be leading the Dummerston choir this Sunday, with a rehearsal Friday evening. I am fortunate to have options.

One of Susie's watercolors in a series called Mountains and Rivers

Another in the same series

 These paintings are inspired by the thirteenth-century Zen Master Dogen's Mountains and Rivers sutra.

My bedroom at the Davises

Fantastic birthday bash!

Last evening, Ellen put on a huge 87th birthday party for me at the Dummerston church. It was a “1950s church potluck supper” concept, followed by hymn sing. It was a spectacular success. 67 people came, the food was awesome and very popular with everyone and got almost entirely eaten up. Ellen made a huge three-layer carrot cake as the birthday cake which was really awesome, and there were several other cakes as well including a gluten-free almond cake.The hymn sing was really wonderful: very robust singing! People loved singing the old hymns. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. One special feature was that Robin Davis had made 87 candle cards which people could draw and write on and she hung them on a clothesline. It was really amazing. Another special feature was that there were people there from different parts of my life who didn’t necessarily know each other: my family, Ellen’s family, Guilford church people, Dummerston church people, River Singers, Hallowell, etc. That gave a special feel to the whole occasion. They were even four people there who remembered me when I was the minister in Dummerston 60 + years ago! Wow! Huge thanks to Ellen for pulling that off! I am one blessed guy!  😋

Eliza helping to set up the food buffet

Getting ready

People making candle cards

The cake table

A Sampling of candle cards