Grandot's Blog - Scottie & Louis

Dorothy Louise James Cochrane 1918-2008

2008-09-21T12:44:00.027-04:00

Memorial Service for Mom
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Davidson United Methodist Church

Family photos at the reception

Will & Adam

Eric, Pris, Joe, Stokes, Nathan, Gary

Thos helps Porter, Chrissie in foreground, Leland in background

Amber, Cheyenne, Adam

Linda, Will, Scottie

Betty, Aunt Maxine, Candee, Amber, Uncle Jack, Scottie

Donna & Jim

Bob & Donna

Nancy Kay, George, Myrtle

Bridget & Joe

Scottie & Will

Saturday, August 2, 2008 BBQ supper at Mom's house for family & friends

Will, Jama, Jake, Donna, Matthew

Mike, Katie, Pat, (Kathy, & Candee with their backs to the camera)

Betty, Bridget, Scottie

Jake

Kay, May Frances, Bridget, Scottie, Mr. Overcash

Scottie, Cheyenne, Jake, Porter, Eric, Jim w. suspenders

Dorothy Louise James Cochrane

June 30, 1918 - July 6, 2008

Memorial Service Remarks

August 3, 2008

Lynn Scott (Scottie) Cochrane

First, I bring you heartfelt thanks for coming this afternoon to join us in celebrating our Mother’s life. I’m Scottie Cochrane, her elder daughter, and I’m the designated speaker on behalf of my sister, Nancy Kay, brothers, Jim and Eric, their spouses, AND Mom’s seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. As you’ll hear, it’s become a large group, just as she wanted and delighted in. My mission today is to tell you a bit about Mom’s long and productive life and to leave a record for her progeny.

Dorothy Louise James was born June 30, 1918 just off Tuckaseegee Road on the west side of Charlotte, in the house her grandfather had built using his own hand-made, sun-dried bricks. She was the first of three children born to Andrew Jackson James and Alene Holcomb James. For six years she was the only resident child in the large household of her paternal grandparents, Thomas Jefferson James and Virginia McKee James. From the beginning she was surrounded by a large and loving extended family, and that blessing set an example for the rest of her life. She carried on the tradition for 90 years and six days.

In 1924, when Mom was six, Andrew and Alene moved the family to Jonesville, in Union County, South Carolina, to live with Alene’s mother, Ada Scott Holcomb. Again, there was a big extended family. The following year her brother, Robert Jackson James, was born. By age 12 Mom was driving her Great-Grandpa, John Wesley Scott, and his wife around the county. When she was 14, her sister, Maxine Adair James, was born. Dorothy always loved having a baby nearby, and she usually managed to have that, too.

In 1933 Andrew moved the family back to Charlotte to get Mom away from a boyfriend he didn’t approve of! Mom graduated from Derita High School in 1935, having met Ralph Porter Cochrane there. She desperately wanted to attend college, and though she had been accepted at what is now UNC-G, the depression, plus Grandaddy’s view that women didn’t need a college education prevented that. Fortunately, Mom did take a bookkeeping course, which provided her a profession and a decent living.

At 7 a.m. on June 21, 1939, at Williams Memorial Presbyterian Church on Beatties Ford Road, Mom married Ralph Cochrane on his 21^st birthday and just nine days before her 21st. That day they launched their 50 years of life together with a one-night honeymoon to Linville Falls in the mountains of North Carolina.

Their first child, James Irvin Cochrane, was born June 22, 1941. He and Mom followed Dad around the country during World War II, living in Summerville, South Carolina; Biloxi, Mississippi; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Denver, Colorado; among other places. Though Mom wanted to settle in Denver after the war, Dad insisted they come home to Charlotte, where he felt they had family responsibilities.

I was born March 23, 1947, nine months to the day after Dad came home from the war on my brother Jim’s fifth birthday. With several other veterans, Dad soon launched Electrical Contracting and Engineering Company on North Graham Street. He eventually bought out the other partners, and the company grew and prospered for more than 40 years, especially after Mom returned to work in the late 1950s as bookkeeper, office manager, and later Vice President. But before she did that, she brought us Nancy Kay Cochrane on May 20, 1950, and Eric Ranson Cochrane on January 13, 1956.

The rest of this story is one of endless hard work, care-giving, perseverance, joy, some sadness, not-quite-enough travel, professional fulfillment, and MOST IMPORTANT to her, a growing list of progeny – all of us charged with living out the huge dreams of Dorothy and Ralph Cochrane. The other twelve direct offspring include:

Her grandchildren:

o Thomas Irwin Cochrane, born July 30, 1970

o Jama Elizabeth Cochrane, born February 7, 1973

o Adam Stokes McClellan, born September 21, 1974

o William James McAuley, III, born July 18, 1975

o Joseph Matthew McClellan, born August 12, 1978

o Andrew Holland Cochrane, born March 17, 1986

o Nathaniel Scott Cochrane, born October 9, 1989

And her Great-grandchildren:

§ Cheyenne Leigh McClellan, born August 11, 1996

§ MacKenzie Mary Cochrane, born December 25, 1998

§ Matthew Lee Willbanks, born on Mom’s birthday, June 30, 2001

§ James Porter Cochrane, born February 3, 2003

§ Jake Kieran Willbanks, born August 9, 2004

§ Thomas Cooper Willbanks, born February 21, 2006

Mom also forged strong, supportive relationships with her childrens’ spouses - Donna Harry, Stokes McClellan, Priscilla Davis, and Louis Middleman. I think I can safely say her strong influence in their lives was a blessing most of the time, just like it was in those of her biological children, and I can definitely say it was never boring. In fact, Jesse Brooks, one of Mom’s caregivers at the Oaks, told me recently that whenever she got a little restless or bored at work, she’d just go see Ms. Cochrane. Mom was lively and engaged, reading and talking, until she fell three days before her death.

Mom and Dad taught all of us to work hard, to make something of ourselves, and above all, to behave ethically in all things. At first I was going to say they told us to try to behave ethically, but in fact they did not say try, they said do it. One of the most memorable things Mom ever told me was that in maturity she finally learned to act according to her own conscience, and not to worry about what others do or don’t do. I quote her, “In the end you have to live with your own conscience, no one else’s.”

Last year, Mom told Cheyenne and me, that it would be o.k. to cry for ourselves when she’s gone, but not to cry for her, because she’d be ready to go when the time came. It worked out exactly as she hoped it would. She also asked me to be sure to say “She was a good wife, a good mother, and she loved people.” That’s easy to say, because it was so obvious to everyone who knew her.

Mom was the center — the bedrock — of our family, and she will be sorely missed, but we’re grateful she lived such a long, rewarding life and she didn’t suffer long at the end. In closing, I want above all to honor and thank our sister, Nancy Kay, brother-in-law Stokes, our cousin, Kathy Auten, Cheyenne, and the loving staff at The Oaks, all of whom gave Mom the kind of attention and superior care she spent her life giving others.

Mom’s legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of her family and the legion of people she befriended. We are strong because we stand on her shoulders. That is her ultimate gift to all of us.

Bleu's (Will's) new album with The Major Labels

2008-07-03T12:47:00.005-04:00

Noise Trade is a new way of publishing via the web. Check it out.

Back to Athens for two nights before flying home

2008-06-20T11:55:00.015-04:00

When we arrived back in Athens for two nights before returning home, we found it VERY hot. Therefore, we decided to take it easy and enjoy the special hotel we'd chosen to end this trip - the King George Palace Hotel at Syntagma Square, the center of Athens and Greece. Parliament House is right across the street. It was a relaxing, pleasant way to bring an end to this special trip. Louis swam twice in the pretty indoor pool, and I enjoyed the whirlpool. We'll hope to come back in a few years, when we have more time to spend here. We'll choose autumn or spring, when it's less hot and less crowded.

Acropolis hill at night from Benaki Museum terrace, where we had dinner

Acropolis hill from the Benaki Museum terrace. They're open 'til midnight on Thursday and serve a beautiful dinner on their terrace (3rd floor) overlooking the city and Acropolis hill. The dinner crowd was all Greek, mostly our age or older, very elegant and chatty. It was great fun to observe and be small players in. Our next trip here will definitely include a Thursday night!

Benaki relics from 4,000 BC! I'll take the gold necklace in front. It's gorgeous and could've been crafted yesterday.

Major protest in front of the Parliament building 6-19-08 as we made our way to the Benaki Museum to see exhibits and have dinner on their terrace. Streets were closed and police everywhere.

Topkapi Palace-home and administration for Sultans from 15th-19th centuries, Ottoman Empire

2008-06-18T14:26:00.026-04:00

The Topkapi Palace dates to the 15th-16th centuries and commands the strategic spot on the hill overlooking the confluence of the Sea of Marmara (NE end of the Mediterranean), the Bosporus strait connecting the Marmara and the Black Seas, and the Golden Horn (a formerly swampy area emptying the interior of western Turkey, etc.). The Harem was huge and ruled by the Sultan's mother and black eunuchs trained in Egypt after capture as children, mostly in Ethiopia. With hundreds of concubines, all of whom hoped to ascend to wife status with the birth of a son, it was a big operation. Chief wives had their own quarters, where they lived with their children and servants. Young girls were brought to the palace to train as concubines. I'm sure there's lots more to learn about this system, which I'll try to do soon. The day was hot, but there are plenty of cool, shaded areas to rest, and lots of fountains and water sounds to add to the cooling effect.

Topkapi entrance

Harem entrance

Sultan's toilet in the Harem

Ahmet's library niches

in the Sultan's suite

view to the Golden Horn

typical summer pavilion overlooking the gardens and the Bosporus

cooling pool with water spouts where everyone refreshed themselves

throne pavilion

kitchen wing-they sometimes prepared food for 10,000 to 15,000 people at once, note the smokestacks at the top.

earlier porcelain vase

Japanese porcelain 19th c. brought along the silk road

Women in full covering-some including only the eyes showing - in this heat, it makes me marvel that they put up with it, the long coats are heavy (denim, khaki) and the black ones absorb the sun completely. sigh.....

Dolmabache Palace-19th c.-Sultans moved here from Topkapi

2008-06-18T14:06:00.020-04:00

We spent the day at the Dolmabache Palace - built by the Sultans in the mid-19th century emulating European palaces, with lots of crystal chandeliers, gorgeous Turkish rugs in a more European style, etc. Right on the Bosporus, it gets cool breezes all day, and allows easy access by water.

crystal staircase (Baccaharat)

skylight and chandelier above the crystal staircase

Baccharat crystal spindles on the double staircase

Library

Sultan's bath

diplomatic reception room

china treasures

table covered in tiles

tile stove

caterers preparing for a wedding in the evening-thought of Tina & David Dennison

A day on the Bosporus ferry, then the Grand Bazaar

2008-06-18T13:27:00.021-04:00

The Bosporus ferry (public) takes about 6 hours total, and is a gorgeous trip. The breeze off the water is cool, and the scenery exotic and beautiful. One of my favorites is to see the Yalis, summer homes of Istanbul's wealthier folks.

breakfast in the hotel courtyard before departure

the Yali on the left was featured in Architectural Digest. It has a pool on the right side and a pool house.

typical Yali (summer house) next to the Bosporus

lunch beside the Bosporus at the end of the ferry-

lots of shipping here, and VERY strategic location between east and west

End of the ferry line on the European side, where we had lunch and climbed up near the fort. We were about 5 km from the entrance to the Black Sea.

GRAND BAZAAR

Bigger and brighter than we expected, all under roof, with arches, and 4,000 shops

gold merchant

Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Ancient Cistern

2008-06-17T15:54:00.015-04:00

Ancient Cistern

Ancient cistern that stored water and supplied the early city

Medusa column in the Cistern with her head down to eliminate her powers

Hagia Sophia-7th century Byzantine (E. rite Catholic) church

Hagia Sophia was built on the ruins of an even earlier church.

Blue Mosque - built in the 17th c. by the Ottomans

The Blue Mosque was built by the Ottoman Turks in order to compete? with the Hagia Sopia church nearby.

The Blue Mosque is called "Blue" because of the classic interior Iztik tiles made here in Turkey.
with our guide, Akim

Famous Blue Mosque

Istanbul arrival

2008-06-17T15:41:00.006-04:00

Istanbul is the ancient Constantinople, which straddles two continents - Europe and Asia. It's huge, but not as overwhelming as some big cities, because it's low-rise and spread around the confulence of the Sea of Marmara and the entrance of the Bosporus Strait that connect the sea to the Black Sea. Sea traffic is huge and endlessly fascinating.

View of the Bosporus at dinner at Ocean 7 restaurant, near our Empress Zoe Hotel. We're in a perfect location in Sultanamet, just downhill from Hagia Sopia and the Blue Mosque. The hotel was created from an ancient Hamam (bathhouse), with a charming courtyard - a oasis of cool and quiet in a crowded city, a roof terrace that has fantastic views of the Bosporus Strait entrance and the Sea of Marmara, and the city the other direction.The rooms here are simple, but well furnished, including marble baths with both western showers and Hamam basins you fill with water and use a silver bowl to pour water over yourself. Lucky can hardly begin to describe our good fortune.

Last Day in Bucharest 'til next time!

2008-06-17T15:37:00.003-04:00

We've loved our time with Alina, Chuck, Christie, and Andrei. By June 14, Chuck had left for his office's annual retreat at the Black Sea. We hope he'll drop by Granville on his way to San Francisco in the Fall. Can't wait for more visits with our family in Romania.

Remembering Dr. Liviu Librescu, hero of the April, 2007 Virginia Tech disaster

2008-06-13T09:17:00.008-04:00

Louis and I visited the University Politehnica of Bucharest to pay our respects to Dr. Liviu Librescu, an alumnus of that school. When I was head of interlibrary loan at Virginia Tech's Library, our department worked closely with Dr. Librescu to get his research materials. He was a gentleman every day--kind and grateful for our efforts. We met with Vice Rector of the University, Dr. Corneliu Burileanu, who knew the Virginia Tech story well, and avowed that he felt proud to be a Romanian that day (with a clear implication that he's not always so proud, similar to the way we feel about being Americans). He also told of a Bucharest earthquake in 1990 when he, too, had to keep his head and help his students survive. He was humble about this event in comparison to that of Dr. Librescu.
The following information about Dr. Librescu is from the Va. Tech web site.

The revelation that Dr. Liviu Librescu blocked the door of his classroom in Norris Hall on the morning of April 16 so that his students could escape through the windows came as no surprise to his family, friends, and colleagues. The renowned aeronautical engineering educator and researcher had demonstrated profound courage throughout the 76 years of his life.

As a child in Romania during World War II, Liviu was confined to a Jewish ghetto, while his father was sent to a forced labor camp. After surviving the Holocaust, Liviu moved forward with stalwart determination to become an engineer.

During the rise of the Communist Party in Romania in the 1960s, Liviu earned his undergraduate aeronautical engineering degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest and completed his Ph.D. at the Institute of Fluid Mechanics, Academy of Science of Romania. He achieved academic prominence, but in order to have his papers on aerodynamics published anywhere except at the academy during Communist rule, he had to work in secrecy and—at great risk—smuggle papers to publishers in other countries.

Dr. Librescu and his wife wanted to leave Romania for Israel, but obtaining the requisite visas was a difficult and lengthy process. After three years—and with the help of the government of Israel—the family finally was allowed to immigrate in 1978.

After serving as a professor for seven years at Tel-Aviv University, Dr. Librescu accepted a one-year position as visiting professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM). The family decided to settle in Blacksburg in 1985, and Liviu became one of Virginia Tech’s most respected educators and researchers in the field of aeronautical engineering.

The roster of his publications, awards, and honors is remarkably long and international in scope. Among recent honors were his selection as a member of the Board of Experts of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Scientific Research, and his election as the Foreign Fellow of the Academy of Engineering of Armenia.

“Professor Librescu died as he lived, devoted to his students and to his profession,” said Dr. Ishwar Puri, head of the ESM department at Virginia Tech. “He loved his position as a professor. A prolific researcher and wonderful teacher, he devoted himself to the profession, solely for the love of it.”

“It is a question of pleasures,” Dr. Librescu said in 2005, when asked why he continued to work so hard. “It is not a question of organizations or calculations. If I had the pleasure to do this, then I will put time aside to do this. It is personal freedom. If you are limited, then you miss the freedom. And I—I would like to be fluid. I would like to be free as a bird and fly everywhere.”

Dr. Librescu is survived by his wife, Marlena, and his sons, Joseph and Arieh, who reside in Israel. During his funeral in Israel, Marlena was presented with the Grand Cross of Romania, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in honor of her husband’s “scientific achievements and heroism.”

University Politehnica of Bucharest Administration building

Dr. Corneliu Burileanu, Vice Rector of the university and Scottie remembering Dr. Librescu

Romanian Village Museum in Bucharest

2008-06-13T08:55:00.009-04:00

This museum compound on a lake in Bucharest started in the 1930s as a sociological project with peasants living here and being on view all the time. It was around the same time as the Williamsburg, VA project of John D. Rockefeller. The museum barely survived WWII and the Communist era, but it seems to be thriving today. They brought traditional ethnic houses and crafts from various regions of Romania. Given how fast the traditional aspects of rural Romania are disappearing now, it will be even more of a blessing in the future.

Louie with the single board of siding that's about 3 feet (1 meter), typical of these houses.

last day in Baia Mare, a thunder storm at Lake Boti

2008-06-13T08:26:00.011-04:00

Awaiting the overnight train from Baia Mare to Bucharest (11.5 hours), and me in our sleeper cabin. We slept surprisingly well, awoke refreshed, and enjoyed the entire experience.

This storm was LOUD, and it included 1/2" hail!

Christie enjoying a sunny swing ride, but all of a sudden, a big, black cloud appeared. We ran for cover in the lodge. Andrei was asleep in the car with Grandmother Victoria (they call her Mamai) and never roused once.

Louie in a traditional gentleman's hat worn in Maramures villages. Alina says they serve no purpose other than to be sexy. Whadda ya think?

Maramures--Sighetui Marmatiei

2008-06-12T16:28:00.029-04:00

Sunday in Maramures provided an absolutely perfect early June day for our drive over one of the Carpathian passes to Sighetui Marmatiei. This area retains the most traditional culture and architecture of any place in Romania (and, indeed, in most of Europe). I'm thrilled we got to see it under such fine conditions with tour guides having unsurpassed knowledge.

a tiny wooden roadside church not far from Surdesti

prepared for winter (next door to the famous Surdesti wooden church)

Interior of the Surdesti church with typical embroidered scarfs as decorations

local citizens keep up the church, replacing the wood shingles on the spire every 30 years!

the cemetery is beautiful, if overgrown

Mama hen had all these chicks under her wings as we walked up, but they wriggled out.

entrance to the famous Surdesti Greek Catholic church (1721, 72 meters high -second highest wooden spire in Europe). We saw the priest, who holds daily services for this tiny farming community.

typical entrance gates to a Maramures home - Alina said they often cost as much or more than the house.

Elie Wiesel (holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace prize author, and peace activist based at Boston University) birthplace memorial in Sighetul Marmatiei. The area of Maramures went from 35,000 Jews in 1910 to 48 in 1992. Wiesel lost most of his family after they were "arrested" in 1944. The authorities were frantic to exterminate as many Jews as possible, before the Allies arrived. Sigh.........

a late afternoon snack next door to the Elie Wiesel birthplace memorial. There was a christening party going on with much dancing and music-never saw the infant, however

courtyard of the Sighet prison museum, which features the tortures under the Securitate (secret police), but also the resistance movement

wall honoring victims of the Communist regime in Romania-unlike the Vietnam memorial in DC, this one is below grade with a confined feeling reminiscent of being in prison

June 7, 2008 we arrive in Baia Mare to meet Alina's family

2008-06-11T04:38:00.008-04:00

Then up the hill to Victor's (Alina's father), big 10-year old house with a huge garden and orchard behind the house just at the foot of the mountains.

The BEST sweet, dark cherries you can imagine.

FIRST we had a fantastic, all home-cooked Romanian meal with Victoria, Alina's mother. Her top-floor apt. in the city of Baia Mare (it means 'Big Mine' for the ancient gold and other heavy metal mines going back to Roman times) has views of the Carpathian mountains. This was a strategic center for millenia.

s hopping mall (Chuck helped develop) to break up the drive

Sighisoara, June 6, 2008 second overnight toward Baia Mare

2008-06-11T04:14:00.014-04:00

We celebrated Alina's birthday in the charming, early town of Sighisoara. As picturesque as any in Europe, its fame today rests largely on being the birthplace of Vlad Tepes (made famous in the 19th c. by Bram Stocker as 'Dracula'), though the house to which that honor is attributed was built long after his birth! Dracula fans don't seem to mind this tiny discrepancy...

Alina's birthday cake. We ate in the pretty courtyard of the Sighisoara Hotel.

Louie at the top of the student steps, built in 1642 to serve the hilltop church and school. It's quite a hike at 172 steps!

Scottie at the bottom of the student steps near our hotel.
Given winters in these mountains, it's such a sensible idea.

The lower, more modern town

Alina, Christie, Andrei at the top of the Clock Tower overlooking the higher hilltop church & school

Our room at the Residence Fronius-recently renovated, gorgeous 1609 house

courtyard of the Fronius Residence

June 5, to Peles Castle and Brasov overnight, first leg to Baia Mare

2008-06-10T15:41:00.019-04:00

The Kolping Hotel in Brasov sits on the hillside above the city and will forever be a family story because of the bear who greeted us when we returned from dinner. He'd found a garbage can with a loose lid, and was having fun in the driveway when our car pulled up. It created huge excitement, not only from Christie & Andrei, but Louis, too, who'd never seen a bear close-up and outside a zoo. I had memories of the Great Smoky Mountains when Mom & Dad would cringe at the way people put their little kids next to the roadside bears for photo opportunities.

View from our room

Walking down into the old city

Brasov's famous Black Church got its name from the black appearance after the great fire of 1689. The church was started in 1385 for the German Saxons who settled here early on. Today, it's a German-speaking Lutheran community church. In ancient times, local merchants started bringing back Turkish prayer rugs (Muslim) to decorate their homes and church. It's gorgeous.

old town gate (entrance in the original fortification walls) to Brasov

Old Town Hall at the Central Plaza-Brasov

Ice Cream lunch to celebrate Alina's birthday

Peles Castle near Sinaia

Our first stop on the journey north to eventually reach Baia Mare, Alina's home (12 hours north of Bucharest), was Peles Castle. Really a palace more than a castle, it was built by King Carol I, the first king of a united Romania in the 19th century . It's in a gorgeous mountain setting near Sinaia.

Why do dandelions have these feathery, silky seed pods?

Chuck and Andrei

June 4, 2008 Bucharest

2008-06-10T15:15:00.008-04:00

After a relaxing morning of laundry and lunch of leftovers at the Vernon's apt. (after Christie & Andrei had gone to school), we met Alina at her office in the center of the city for a couple of quick museum visits, dinner at a bistro behind the museum/memorial to Enescu (Romania's most famous composer/violinist), then The Barber of Seville at the National Opera House. A terrific day.

Fantastic performance of The Barber of Seville, for 1/10th the price it would be at home

National Opera House

early supper at Bistro Athenu behind the Enescu memorial and before the opera

Enescu (violinist & composer) house/memorial (his wife was rich!)

Athaneum with topiary in front

Bucharest-our first morning with Christie & Andrei, Chuck & Alina

2008-06-03T16:49:00.011-04:00

Andrei's owl will go to school with him today.

Two silly boys

Andrei must eat an egg before Coco Puffs.

Christie & Alina discuss the merits of brown vs. white bread with the truly fresh eggs.

Chuck, Alina, Christie, and Andrei live on the top (4th) floor of a nice apartment block in a close-in suburb of Bucharest. Across the street is a huge park with a lake, amusement park, restaurants, and green space that's all too precious in this city of 3 million. They bought and renovated this 3 bedroom, 2 bath flat when Christie and Andrei were babies. Since it has been two years since we saw the kids, we thought they might be shy at first. NOT so! They were thrilled to see us and gave us huge hugs right away. Don't get no better than this.

Delphi, where the Oracle prophesied in the Temple of Apollo, June 1, 2008

2008-06-03T16:07:00.020-04:00

Model of Delphi in its prime. Temple of Apollo in the center with the city-state treasuries surrounding it.

Charioteer

Hadrian's boyfriend, Antinoos, a gorgeous Greek boy

Delphi's fine museum features this Sphinx.

up the hill from the Athens Treasury

Temple of Apollo, where the Oracle breathed "medicinal" smoke from laurel & bay leaves before feeling faint and giving out prophecies.

Reconstructed Athens Treasury where loot was stored to pay for the very expensive prophecies from the Oracle. All the major city-states had treasuries at Delphi.

Gymnasium (meaning exercise training in the nude!) ruins down hill from the Oracle's home

Arachova half way up the mountain - now a major ski resort

Mountains begin beyond the ancient (now modern) city of Thebes.

Athens, Greece, May 31-June2, 2008

2008-06-03T03:40:00.019-04:00

We're trying to use up our remaining USAirways points and then avoid the declining airline forever. So, we upgraded our outbound flight from Philadelphia to Athens to business class. That made all the difference in the ease of the overnight and the smoothness of our arrival in Athens on Saturday morning. The 30 minutes from touchdown to when we were inside the taxi made this the easiest and quickest arrival of any trip we’ve made abroad. The legendary Athens traffic was also light and easy on a Saturday morning.

The Athens Cypria Hotel is a small, mid-rise on a quiet, tiny street, centrally located in Syntagma near the Parliament House. Our fifth floor room is modest, but surprisingly large, including a balcony with a view of a very old, tile-roofed, tumbling down Greek house inhabited by lots of pigeons. The view includes lots of newer, taller buildings, but the old one is charming, somehow.

Diogenes Cafe just above the Monument of Lysikrates

Monument of Lysikrates, which became a Capuchin Monastery and housed Lord Byron on his trip to Athens

with Melina Mercouri near the entrance to the Plaka neighborhood (lots of restaurants & shops)

Hadrian's Arch at the entrance to the temple ruins - that guy got around (York, England to Greece and beyond!)

Olympian Zeus Temple ruins we stumbled on near the National Gardens

FYI.
This trip was undertaken on behalf of our dear friend, Christie D. Vernon (who died May 19, 2002), to visit her Romanian grandchildren. Oh well, it's REALLY because we want to have a chance to be surrogate grandparents for little Christie (5) and Andrei (3).

But, hey, since we were coming this far, we wanted to see some other places we've never visited before. That's how we ended up with the following itinerary spread over 3 weeks: Columbus-Philadelphia-Athens-Bucharest-Istanbul-Athens-Columbus, with some auto travel in Romania to visit Transylvania (yep, Dracula) and Alina's family in Baia Mare up near the Hungarian border.

Spring, 2008 in Ohio

2008-05-26T07:08:00.018-04:00

Hi, Mom,
It's been a nice spring in Ohio, with visits to the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus for the annual butterfly exhibit, Easter with friends in Granville, Louis's birthday May 7th and our anniversary later in the month in Cleveland.

Garfield's home in Mentor, OH

THE most beautiful, peaceful cemetery I've ever seen - Lake View, where James A. Garfield is buried in a huge mausoleum. Garfield was President of the U.S. for only 200 days in 1881 before dying of wounds he received from a disgruntled job-seeker assasin. The monument sits on a huge hill overlooking Cleveland and was built from public donations in an elaborate, Victorian style. John D. Rockefeller is also buried in Lake View, among many other well-known 19th century industrialists, educators, etc. The Wade Chapel has the most gorgeous Louis Comfort Tiffany window as its centerpiece, along with glass mosaics along both side walls.

Louie's 63rd birthday the day after he had outpatient knee surgery. Friends, Jamie and Gill, brought over a surprise dinner and champagne for his celebration. It was a fine evening, and the patient is recovering well.

Easter lunch was appropriately beautiful and yummy at Jack's house with a long table of friends and "ex-pats" from one place and another.

Spring Break in New Orleans with Rene, Mar. 11-15, 2008

2008-03-30T14:54:00.022-04:00

crepes for breakfast at Petunia's our last morning for this visit. YUM!
Rene at the Presbytere Mardi Gra museum
Jackson Square in bloom
with Oscar, a jewelery artisan at the French Market, recommended by my colleague and NOLA expert, Star
beignets and coffee at Cafe du Monde - a tradition
Here I am with Bayona chef/owner Susan Spicer, whom we've been following for 20 years. Rene not only treated us to the best of dinners, but also bought me her new (first) cookbook for my birthday, and she graciously signed it the next morning.
An early birthday celebration of my birthday at Bayona

Best quarter I ever spent! I'd seen a little boy on this jiggle machine, and couldn't resist!
Audubon Zoo - Hello, Mr. Toucan. The day was perfect for visiting the zoo, and mid-week, it wasn't too crowded. They're recovered nicely.
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Scottie & Louie at the entrance to Longue Vue House and Gardens. It's the gorgeous 1920's home of the heiress to the Sears fortune and her wealthy planter husband. The house wasn't seriously damaged by Katrina, though some gardens were. Unfortunately, several weeks without electricity and air conditioning did cause moisture damage that they're still dealing with.
mid-afternoon oysters at Cooter Brown's at Riverbend
Scottie & Rene on the St. Charles street car going to Riverbend.
Rene's father, Robert Dupuy, was a pilot in the Army from 1939 throughout the war. He was still in service, stationed at Tucson, when Rene was born in 1956. The museum exhibits were engrossing, and the oral history videos were especially revealing.
Scottie at the World War II Museum sitting in front of one of the famous Higgins boats made in NOLA during WWII for troop landings - including Normandy.
Dauphine Street
Rene's birthday March 11th at a fine French bistro, Luke, by chef John Besh
At our door on the Dauphine Orleans Patio courtyard, right next to our long-time favorite restaurant, Bayona

Not having been to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, we decided to go down for a few days over Denison's spring break. Happily, Rene decided to join us. The weather and food were just gorgeous - with azaleas and red bud in bloom, sunny skies and temps in the 70's. The French Quarter and Garden District look much the same as when we were there last in January, 2002. The St. Charles street car is now open again all the way to Riverbend. The food and friendliness are as fine as ever. Nevertheless, you don't have to look far to see evidence of the devastation, such as a half-empty Jax Brewery building along the river near the bottom of Jackson Square and boarded up businesses on the edge of the Quarter and downtown.

We loved it, as always, and will go again when we can, despite the growing frustration with flying on U.S. carriers. We flew Northwest this time, and the trip to Louisiana was ok. Our return, however, was another in a long string of airline disasters.

We'd chosen to return Saturday, hoping to avoid crowds and delays. No such luck. We got to Memphis for our connection to Columbus without incident and even shared a fine early supper BBQ meal at Interstate BBQ in the new terminal. Arriving at the gate for our Columbus flight was another story. After several posted delays, as we suspected, NW canceled the flight. The first tale they told was "weather in Charlotte, where the flight was coming from." That, of course, would've meant NW didn't have to put us up overnight or provide food. Having just talked with Kay in Charlotte, I suspected the weather excuse wasn't true. Sure enough, after much toing and froing, NW did put us up in the airport Holiday Inn in Memphis. Quite a comedown from the Dauphine Orleans, but much better than sleeping on the floor in the airport!

Since they couldn't get us home in time Sunday, we knew we'd miss the ballet we had tickets for in Columbus (postponed from the previous weekend because of the 2 foot snowstorm)! The good news is, upon landing at Columbus Sunday afternoon, we drove to the box office and were able to trade the tickets for the 5:30 pm performance of "Aladdin." We were sooooo glad we made the extra effort to see this new ballet, because it was spectacular, and mercifully short (given our level of fatigue). Lots of beautiful little kids in the audience and on stage, and impressive performances and music by all concerned.

We'll keep traveling as long as we can, because it brings us such joy, but we're well aware that the days are numbered.........stocking the pond with vivid memories seems our best strategy for now.

San Francisco, February, 2008

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Tadich Grill (oldest restaurant in SFO, 1849), old world, fab food and service. We ate there Friday and Monday nights. They had fresh Sand Dabs by Monday. Hoooray!

Michael Mina is now the signature restaurant at the famous, old St. Francis Hotel on Union Square. Our meal and service were top notch. Here is one of his habitual tricks of serving the same food three ways - in this case Sea Bream.

We had forgotten it would be Chinese New Year's, so the Union Square streets were closed. Since we were on foot, it worked out fine. We entered the St. Francis from the back door. No problem!
The 'new' DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park was built after the last big earthquake destroyed the previous one. It's huge, with an excellent collection of art. We met Carol Edlund and her friend, Bill, for brunch in the cafe, followed by lots of chatting while looking a a world class exhibit of art glass and Asian rugs.
totally glass sculpture, just beautiful

Scottie & Carol at the top of the museum tower for the panoramic view of the Bay area.

I had a meeting of the Academic Library Advisory Committee of the Council on Library and Information Resources at the University of San Francisco Feb. 25th, so Louie and I spent a wonderful weekend in the city before the Monday meeting.

Feb. 16, 2008 Franklin Park Conservatory & Handke's for dinner

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We ended a perfect day with Valentine's special dinner at our favorite restaurant in Columbus, Handke's

The Franklin Park Conservatory had a huge orchid show. I was so annoyed with myself for forgetting our camera, when Louie said "Scottie, your phone has a camera!" Voila.

Groundhog Day Party for the Library Staff 2-2-08

2008-02-05T16:09:00.000-05:00

Since the holidays get way too crowded with parties, we started hosting a Groundhog Day party for Library staff instead. This is the third or fourth year. Louie and I provide ham, turkey, and roast beef sandwiches, plus sodas, beer, and wine. Guests bring a side dish. We don't have sign-up sheets, people just bring whatever they want. It always turns out great, and this year was no exception. Plenty of salads, veggies, and desserts. We enjoy having something to look forward to in the doldrums of the gray, cold, Ohio winter. Next month, SPRING!

Nedda, Keith, and little Alistair read a book

Gannon enjoys the Windsor chair in the library

That piano does come in handy!

Calm before the storm.....

ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia, January, 2008

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The American Library Association Midwinter meeting in Philadelphia was professionally and personally rewarding, as always. I gave a talk on the unusual work Denison and Kenyon College are doing in combining the technical services (back room) library functions. We're now able to do more to make ditigal resources available to our users, clear up long-standing backlogs, and generally provide job enrichment for our staff. We had fine meals with Mort & Julie, Carol Parke, and other friends. and LOVED being next door to the Reading Terminal Market with its fresh food stalls, produce, bakery (the apple dumplings were especially divine), and more!

Regina Carter, impressive jazz violinist, plays and tells us about her life for the Arthur Curley Lecture

Carol Parke shared a fine Vietnamese lunch with us

Christmas, 2007 with Will & Stacey in Los Angeles

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Getty Villa and Center in Malibu

Will imitates (below) the statues on this fountain in the Getty Villa courtyard

Yamashiro in the Hollywood Hills above L.A.

Will and Stacey Christmas Day

Candycane Lane for Christmas

1482 Shenandoah St. Los Angeles

We returned from Kauai to L.A. on Saturday, Dec. 22 for Christmas week with our kids. It was the best!

Sunday, Dec. 23 we met at their charming apartment on Shenandoah St. off Pico in a wonderful ethnic (primarily Jewish) neighborhood. After appetizers, we went to see Johnny Depp's new film version of "Sweeney Todd," followed by dinner at Sushi Roku.

Christmas Eve, Louis and I spent the morning wrapping presents. Then, having heard on NPR about the shortage of food at shelters for the needy, we went to the SOVA food pantry down the street from our hotel . Louis found out what they needed (dry milk, peanut butter, Spam, Vienna sausages, Matzoh, tuna fish, etc.), and we had fun shopping at Ralph's market. The big surprise was that Louis went to Peabody High School in Pittsburgh with the husband of the founder and director of the SOVA agency. A bizarre coincidence. After that we went up Beverly Glen Dr. to Mullholland Dr. to Dragon (rare) Books for ogling, browsing, and visiting with the shopkeeper. It is a gorgeous wood paneled shop, designed after Trinity College's library in Dublin. We bought a few children's books (in the under $20 range, obviously not rare), but it was treat to see the first edition of Moby Dick, price tag=$48,000! Later, we met Will and Stacey for Mexican food, followed by a trip to Candycane Lane, where the Christmas lights are massive and amazing.

Christmas Day we opened presents at the kids' apartment, then visited friends of Stacey's who share her Polish heritage. Ivana was Stacey's roommate in Boston, but grew up in the L.A. area. The party was at her grandparents' house. The crowd was large, loud, friendly, and festive. Little kids chasing each other throughout the house, adults visiting in every corner, the whole scene. The food and fellowship were just great - a beautiful day with all generations represented.

The 26th was to be devoted to Japanese food at Stacey and Will's choice -Yamashiro, in the Hollywood Hills. Sadly, Will had come down with a serious cold and toothache. So, Louis and I spent the daylight hours at Childrens' Book World to buy books for the SOVA program, which gives books to needy children along with the food. After that, we wound our way up the hill above Sunset Blvd. to enjoy the sunset with L.A. lighting up below. Yamashiro was spectacular in every way - view, food, drinks, service...all of it. We were so sorry Will and Stacey couldn't come, but we gave a full and complete report the next day. Later on, they can go up there any day for drinks and appetizers to take in the view and the experience for a modest price.

Thursday was the Getty Villa and Museum in Malibu. The Villa, a re-creation of a country house in Herculaneum, just re-opened after almost 10 years of renovation. Louis and I had been there years ago, but it's much larger now, and focused on the antiquities collection J. Paul Getty began acquiring when his fortune grew to massive proportions. The luncheon food was delicious, though the setting in the huge new building was not nearly as pleasant as the old days when we ate with Christie beside the Villa's courtyard pool. Up the hill is the Getty Center, a truly massive art museum on the top of a hill overlooking the valleys and ocean in the distance.

Friday, Dec. 28th, Will spent at the dentist, while Stacey took the two of us to the L.A. County Museum of Art. It, too, has a large new addition, and was mobbed with holiday visitors waiting to get into the Dali exhibit. We chose to visit the permanent collections, where we renewed our pleasure in the European and American art and crafts this museum is famous for. After dinner at a neighborhood Thai restaurant, we bid farewell to Stacey and Will until summer, when we plan to meet in Huntersville for Mom's 90th birthday celebration.

Kauai, Dec. 15-22, 2007 Scottie & Louis

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Beach House Restaurant in Poipu -
our last night in Hawaii (This trip!)

Minehune Fishpond near Lihue

Wailua River

Blowhole in Poipu

Bubba's in Kapa'a (they really are the best hamburgers in the world!)

Hanalei

Limahuli Garden

view from our hotel room

Waimea Canyon

Once again, as in January, 2005, we got lucky and were able to trade our timeshare in Boston for a week in Hawaii. This time we returned to Lihue, Kauai. We'd visited here for 3 days in 2005 and loved it. Kauai is the oldest of the islands, known as the garden island because of its lush greenness. There was a short rain every day, usually in the early morning or at night. Camelot, for sure. It was a thoroughly quiet and relaxing week. Perfect weather, pleasant accommodations, fine food....couldn't possibly ask for more. Who'd thunk we'd fall in love with Hawaii, Kauai specifically? Not me, but there it is!

Thanksgiving with all the little ones in Huntersville

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One of Donna's gorgeous turkeys

Mom enjoyed watching the kite-flying from the porch

Thos learning to knit, Betty, Uncle Jack

Presentation on Thailand at The Oaks

Leland Park, Scottie, Mom at the presentation

Louie tells the little ones the Herman story.

Donna & Chrissie

Louis and I drove to N.C., arriving Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 20th, and went straight to see Mom at her new digs at The Oaks. The one-storey building is behind the old hospital, and it has all the bells and whistles, with a bathroom that is the biggest improvement over her previous one. Wednesday meant cooking (pecan & chocolate pies) at Kay's, and lots of visiting with Cheyenne, Thos, Chrissie, MacKenzie, Porter, Jama, Donny, Matthew, Jake, Tom, Donna, Jim. The kids had fun flying the kites we'd brought them from Vietnam last spring.

Donna handled all the organization and cooking for this big crowd, everything delicious and beautifully presented. Wed. night was spaghetti and Thursday had every imaginable T'giving delicacy. Even with the addition of Andrew & Nathan and a friend of theirs from UNCC, we ate only about half of the food, so that meant no more cooking for the rest of the weekend! Mom had long asked me to give a talk at The Oaks about my time in Thailand, so I did that on Friday. My good friend, Leland Park, retired director of the Davidson College Library, came too. It was fun, with good questions from the audience. On Saturday, we had an easy drive home, getting off I-77 in Parkersburg, WV, and going across Rt. 50 and up through the Hocking Hills towns and Lancaster, OH. It was a fine time to be thankful for a loving family, health, useful employment, and joys too numerous to recount.

Oct. 17-22, 2007 Our time with visiting Thai librarians

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Columbus Museum of Art & Franklin Park Conservatory,
Oct. 21, 2007

Sat. Oct. 20th at Denison and in the village of Granville

OCLC in Dublin, OH
It's a major, international consortium of tens of thousands of libraries and a database of their information resources. OCLC started in the late 1960s as the Ohio College Library Consortium to share library catalog records on a central computer system.

Minneapolis with Julie & Dan Huiskamp Oct., 2007

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Scottie with Julie & Dan Huiskamp (and Mary Tyler Moore)

Purcell-Cutts House, 1913, now a house museum of the Minneapolis Institute of Art

Louie & I flew to Minneapolis on Friday, Oct. 12, for my annual Oberlin Group meeting of liberal arts college library directors. Dear friends from northern Iowa, Julie & Dan, drove up to have dinner and Saturday morning with us before the meetings began. Dinner at Lucia's Friday was terrific (all of us had day boat scallops, YUM), as was the tour of the Arts & Crafts house designed by an architect, Purcell, for his own family in 1913. It's not huge, just two bedrooms, but it is full of beautiful craftsmenship and clever space-saving ideas. WHY he and Frank Lloyd Wright insisted on flat roofs in northern, snowy climates is a mystery to me, but the house is lovely. The built-ins everywhere are especially appealing for us today. They had a central vacuum system built in, too! Not much new under the sun, eh?

The meeting began Sat. night at the Windows on Minnesota restaurant at the top of the IDS tower. Louie & I had Walleye pike. Another fine meal. Sunday noon 65 of us drove about an hour south to Northfield, home of Carleton and St. Olaf colleges. This is one of my favorite professional groups, and this year's meeting was another big success.

The horrible and typical airline delays (both ways this time on American Airlines) threatened to force us to stay overnight at O'hare in an exorbitant hotel room, but we got lucky. A sympathetic counter agent found us a direct flight from Minneapolis to Columbus on Northwest Airlines....thank heavens. That solution was available from the beginning, but the first 2 or 3 agents didn't offer it. Geez...........

As planned, the 12 Thai librarians were in Ohio by the time we returned. I'll put up a blog of their visit here in a few days. Right now, we're busy as one-armed paper hangers!

Much love,

LSC

Chicago overnight Sept. 29 with Chuck Vernon and his colleagues from Romania

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I know this photo is fuzzy, but it's the only one we have from the top of the John Hancock Building. It's Chuck Vernon, his two office managers/attorney colleagues Maria and Diana, plus me. Christie would've approved us raising a glass of champagne to HER!

We flew on Southwest to Midway for an overnight visit with Chuck Vernon and his two attorney colleagues, Maria and Diana, from Romania. They were in town for a conference of international law firms which finished around noon Saturday. The weather was perfect, and all flights were on time and efficient. When air travel works right, it's just great.

In the afternoon, Chuck & the ladies took the architecture boat tour, while Louie and I had lunch at one of the places Christie and I went to many times, Bistrot 110, then saw an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art - "Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967." Will & Stacey would've LOVED this, so I took a few photos to share with them.

Despite a long line, we went to the Signature Lounge at the top of the John Hancock building for champagne and the terrific view before dinner. This spot was also one of Christie's favorites, so we raised yet another glass to her. Louie and I are so grateful she left us Chuck, Alina, Christie, and Andre. And now we get to add their friends to our circle, as well.

The high point of the trip was dinner at Topolobampo, one of our long-time favorites. We've been visiting here for years with librarian friend, Bob Daugherty of Univ. of Illinois-Chicago, who also knew Christie. Chef/Owner Rick Bayless is the premier American chef for Mexican food. He has a show on PBS, and actually cooks in his restaurant most of the time....rare for celebrity chefs.

After a quiet morning Sunday, we met at Mother Hubbard's for brunch and NFL football - Green Bay vs. Chuck's favorite Minnesota Vikings - on huge screens, with good junk food and draft beer. Sports bars and US football are rare in Romania, so Chuck just loved this, and we had lots of fun, too. Home in time for an early-to-bed.

Louie visits State College Sept. 21-23 to see Dick O'Keefe and the Roths

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Hi, Mom,

The start of school has been extremely busy this year, thus the gap in a new post to your blog. I hope to catch up today on a hot, quiet Sunday at home. The sheets are on the line, and breakfast was yummy and filling.

Last month, I decided to stay home for a quiet weekend, while Louie went to State College to see his old friend, teacher, and colleague, Dick O'Keefe. Dick is retired in State College now, having taught English and written poetry at Carnegie Mellon and Penn State his whole life. His apt. is in a nice, new building for seniors just down the block from where I lived in 1970-71 at Holiday Towers on Beaver Ave.

Louis and Dick were joined by Ted and Jane Roth, dear friends from Pittsburgh when Teddy and Louie were in grad. school together at Pitt. They've long lived in Connecticut, where Ted teaches and Jane is a musician (bag pipes, etc.). The foursome hadn't seen each other in 30+ years, but picked up the conversation where they'd left off. They had a fine visit, and we hope to repeat it before too long when I can join them.

North Shore of Boston, Cape Ann, Ipswich, Essex

2007-09-12T16:17:00.001-04:00

Monday, after a good breakfast at the hotel, we drove up the North Shore of Boston through Cape Ann, Glouchester, Rockport, Ipswich (see the Clam Box - the sweetest clams I've ever eaten - truly YUMMY!), and Essex before returning to Manchester, NH to fly home. It was cloudy, but quite pleasant, and we loved taking the quiet, back roads past perfect villages and the ocean.

We particulary sought out properties owned by the SPNEA (Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities) - Cogswell's Grant (the peach colored house), Spence-Peirce-Little Farm, and the Coffin House. At the farm we saw the sheep and the goat peeking around the barn, and we passed an alpaca farm on the lane coming into the farm. That was lots of fun. Nothing was open on a Monday, but we'll hope to come back on a weekend to go inside.

Wish you could've been with us, Mom, but hope these photos bring back some happy memories for you.

Cambridge Sunday, September 9, 2007

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Sunday, we went to the Cambridge farmer's market outside the Charles Hotel, followed by a cooking class and lunch with Chef Jody Adams of Rialto. She's a longtime favorite of ours, so we try to eat with her everytime we come to Boston. Antipasto, fresh cheese ravioli, stripped bass with corn & tomato sauce, spice cake. It was terrific. After that we bought a Boston Globe, clam chowder from Legal Seafood, and chocolates for dinner at our hotel. A relaxing day.

Bleu performance, Boston, 9-8-07

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We had a easy flight to Manchester, NH, on Southwest Airlines, where we picked up a rental car for the easy one-hour drive to Cambridge. We checked into the hotel, changed, then took the T (subway) over to the concert venue, the Bank of America Pavillion. Will asked Louis to bring along his tuxedo, in case one of the band or choir members forgot theirs, so we dropped that off before dinner at Salvatore's across the street. It was very hot, so I think he regretted his big idea to wear the tuxes, but they DID look nice. The young lady in the black baseball cap is Kiku, our friend from Tokyo who comes to Will's concerts several times each year. She's a trooper. There were about 5,000 people at the concert by the time Will's set ended. It was fun and exciting. So glad we could come east for this one.

Welcome students back, Evan's book, Westcott House

2007-09-02T08:59:00.000-04:00

A busy, gratifying week..........classes started Monday, Aug. 27th, and we hosted a Library welcome-back with lemonade and cookies Wednesday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. The big hit this year is plastice ice cubes with a changing, colored light! Activated by two metal tabs on the bottom, it lasts up to 60 hours. I'd seen them at a conference, and Peggy was able to order them with "Denison Library" printed on top. Wayyyy cool.

Friday Louis and I drove to Springfield/Yellow Springs, Ohio for a celebratory dinner with our dear friend and mentor, Evan Ira Farber, College Librarian Emeritus at Earlham College and the modern father of library instruction. The book is a compilation of his writings over a 45 year career, including some important unpublished works. The project started in 2003 when I conducted an oral history with Evan about his life, ideas, and achievements. Pulling together the publication from so many excellent possibilities was a huge task, and fortunately, David Gansz, then Director of Wilmington College's library, took that on. The final piece of the puzzle was getting it published, which Earlham's current library director and premier Evan protoge, Tom Kirk, achieved through the Earlham Press. It's an important contribution to the professional literature, and we're all just thrilled with it. The celebration in Yellow Spring, OH (home of Antioch College and half-way between Granville and Richmond, Indiana where Earlham is) included Evan, Tom and Betsey Kirk, David and Regan Gansz, Louis and I. A highlight of the decade.

We took time in the afternoon to visit a newly restored Frank Lloyd Wright home in Springfield, OH. Ohio's only FLW prairie-style house, Westcott House was built on Springfield's millionaires' row, High St., in the first decade of the 20th century for an industrialist and early auto manufacturer and his wife. The street and the house eventually fell on hard times. Westcott house was broken up into apartments for decades and suffered terrible structural damage, until the FLW Conversancy bought it in 2000 and subsequently sold it to a local foundation. The foundation spent $5.8 million and 4 years to restore it. There was also LOTS of volunteer time, expertise, and in-kind donations, explaining the relatively low cost of such a massive project. The street is also coming back now, thanks to a wildly successful Cincinnati financier who remembered his home town in his substantial will.

With hesitation I say that "things will settle down a bit" this week, because with the second week of classes there's a semblance of routine. Probably won't be too calm, though, if life goes on with its usual pace......Fine by me.

School starts once again

2007-08-26T12:13:00.000-04:00

I started my 8th year at Denison on Wednesday, Aug. 22 with new faculty orientation in the library. The 12 tenure track ones look younger and younger, and the 30+ part-timers are of all ages & types. Denison's increasingly generous sabbatical and leave programs, plus a new teaching load of 5 courses per year (one less than before), means we rely on part-timers more than when I arrived in 2000. Thursday night we inducted about 600 First Years (no longer called Freshmen) in a convocation where faculty march in robes. Now that's OK when the temperature is moderate, but at 95 degrees in that gym, it's truly miserable, if mercifully short at 45 minutes. Friday night I was among several senior administrators who helped serve food in the picnic buffet line. Again, it was miserably hot, and I was wearing plastic gloves to dish up barbecued beef from a tray above a sterno burner. Geez........I just tried not to sweat into the food!! You KNOW how much I enjoy hot weather.

Happily, by Saturday the heat broke and our docenting at the Robbins-Hunter Museum was unusually pleasant. We sat in the new front porch rockers, and lots of visitors and locals stopped by to chat or take a tour of this magnificent 1842 pure Greek-revival house built by a local builder from Minard Lefever's pattern book. Some photos show the house's additions. They were wisely placed to the rear of the "Temple" section, that has been restored, but otherwise has gone blessedly undisturbed. There's a popular doll house exhibit closing soon, so several people are coming in to see it before it closes. You'd love it, Mom.

Mid-afternoon we drove over to Columbus to Barnes & Noble to get a couple of travel books to help us plan our proposed trip to Romania next spring after Commencement. We want to visit the Vernons before Christie and Andrei get too grown-up. Christie will turn 5 and Andrei 3 in April. Then we saw "Broken English" at our favorite neighborhood theater, the Drexel East, followed by dinner at Guiseppe's Ritrovo, another fave.

Today's weather provides another perfect Sunday for cooking (by Louie, of course), laundry, reading, and steaks on the grill for supper, along with corn, tomatoes, and grilled baby eggplant. WISH you were here, Mom!

Aug. 18-19, 2007 Granville at its best

2007-08-19T14:20:00.000-04:00

A thoroughly beautiful weekend, the last before students return and the busyness kicks in big time. Fortunately, one of the best things about our life is its rhythm. Just when I'm ready to scream or strangle someone, the students finish exams and disappear, and most faculty with them. Just when I'm missing them, they turn up again. It makes life predictable in the most pleasant way. Students and faculty will be back starting this Wednesday, so all is gearing up once again. I love it.

The library is open year 'round, but during breaks the hours are 8:30-4:30 weekdays, vs. 8:30 a..m.-2 a.m. during the terms. We get our projects and planning done during breaks, and the pace is different.

Linda & Mark Cain, good friends from Cincinnati, visited us for dinner and overnight Saturday. It was almost 24 hours of fine food, drink, and best of all, conversation. The weather has been perfect, so the house is wide open, and lots of porch sitting going on. Linda is a retired library director/later senior administrator in the Provost's office at the U. of Cincinnati. Mark is Chief Information Officer at Cincinnati State College.

There's a photo here of me sitting in one of the new rockers on the porch of the Robbins Hunter Museum, a perfect Greek revival mansion built in the 1840s, where we're docents several times every summer. The RHM is next door to our public library, so you'll also see the construction for the new addition going up. It's going to be much better. Good.

Aug. 11-12, 2007

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We're remembering Cheyenne and Joseph on their birthdays. Woke up to a big limb down outside the kitchen bay window. Must've been a mysterious wind over night.

It's been a most beautiful and quiet weekend here. Yesterday, after the Farmer's Market, we drove about 25 miles south to Lancaster, OH to see a fine quilt exhibit and a movie ("Hairspray"), then dinner at Shaw's. Kay and I had dinner there a few years ago. It's a traditional dining room in a small hotel, with good food and friendly professional service. We shared chicken with mango salsa and fried oysters. Yum. The ride in the TT through corn fields and horse farms was just perfect.

For breakfast today (Sunday) I cooked stone-ground grits (1+ hour, stiring frequently). We bought them years ago at Hoppin' John's in Charleston, SC and keep them in the freezer. That, with bacon, cinnamon toast, & sliced tomatoes made a fine, filling breakfast. Lasted us until suppertime.

a few snaps of Louie & Rene's trip to France last month

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First, Mom's 89th Birthday Photos

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Mom enjoying chicken feet brought to her party by her friend, Cindy, from The Oaks, as well as having her children and some grandchildren around for the weekend. Everyone had a great time!

Summer Weekend in Granberry

2007-08-04T13:19:00.000-04:00

Today's corn haul from the Farmer's Market. You'll taste it at Thanksgiving!

Early walk to the Farmer's Market at Main and Broadway for 16 ears of sweet corn, glads & zinnias to brighten the house, tiny eggplants and beets to cook on the grill tonight along with steaks. We'll eat two grilled ears of corn tonight. With the rest we'll make creamed corn to freeze for Thanksgiving in Huntersville.

I put the just-washed sheets and pillow cases on the line outside, which I love, but don't often get to do. They are so crisp and sweet-smelling after being outside in the sun all day. I remember you hanging tons of diapers on the line at home.....glad I never had to do THAT!

After that we took the TT convertible to McDonald's for gravy biscuits (not as good as Hardee's, but really ok), then picked up fresh pies to deliver to our retired friends in nearby Newark who can't drive any more.

It's hot and dry here, but really quite beautiful this summer. We rock on the porch many evenings after it cools off a bit. If it's cocktail night, we almost always have those on the porch, along with cashews or almonds or Graeber olives (the big, green, buttery ones in brine, not vinegar, that Caroline introduced us to years ago). Obviously, life is REALLL good, and we're enjoying every minute. Raise a glass to you, too!

We just got word that Louie's Uncle Leo, 98, died in West Palm Beach, where we'd visited him and Aunt Rose last year. At that time he was still playing tennis and softball! A retired engineer at Koppers in Pittsburgh, he'll be sorely missed. Remember when the two of them came to Louis's 50th birthday party in DC? Louis will fly down tomorrow for the Monday service and return Tuesday.