1944

Some of us may have a new set of teeth, a hair-piece, or a new Caddy, but Dan has a new grandson, Dave has a new dog, Greg has a new translation, Bud had a new address, and Maryann has some new heart parts.

Also, Wemo had some new goosepimples. He went hiking with a bear.

Dan Donovan is still in Rye, N.H., but contemplating a move from his nine-room house to something considerably smaller in Darien, Conn. He has a son there and a brand-(non)spanking new grandson name of Adon Henry Donovan. Adon is Daniel in Gaelic, and that seems highly appropriate. Dan himself has rheumatoid arthritis and sports a cane. Other Donovan kids are in upstate New York, Washington, D.C., and Manhattan.

Dave and Lois Ferguson's new puppy, out there in Denver, is a Lakeland terrier, and he had to stay home and mind the ranch while Dave and Lois, with season tickets, hoot and holler for the Colorado Rockies baseball team. Dave, a retired banker, also manages a self-storage business; and he and Lois buzz east to Kansas every month or so to check up on family farm holdings.

Greg Rabassa's newest translation from the Spanish is A Message from God in the Atomic Age, by Irene Vilar, the granddaughter of the Puerto Rican nationalist who let loose a spray of bullets in the U.S. House of Representatives in March 1954. Ever-alert and thoughtful Don Burnham sent me a copy of the book's review.

A Hear Ye! Hear Ye! postcard from William C. "Bud" Welch announces a change of address to 1014-D Lookout Trail, Dayton, OH 45449, and he exuberates: "Please keep in touch!!!" Bud, John and Marilynn Berry, and Bud and Nancy Coith were among the locals who attended Twitch Miller's memorial service July 30 in Cincinnati.

Don Pfeifle's wife, Maryann, had heart surgery this past summer, a couple of patches and by-passes, but says she expects to be in shape for Dartmouth's fall football season.

Wemo Epply, in an early August postcard: "I was climbing Cannon Mountain last week and around the bend in the trail I spotted a good-sized adult bear about 100 yards up ahead. It's a good thing he wasn't any closer because I had been hiking for two hours in the hot sun and if he had caught wind of me it possibly would have killed him."

Not many sights or sounds of Bob Blair over the years, so it was a treat to talk to him and Jean in Hudson, Ohio. Bob retired from a steel and wire company some 10 years ago, but they keep their hands in via a restaurant they bought in Cleveland, Becky's, now managed by daughter Becky; 690 acres in North Carolina which they are slowly developing; and overseeing their own former farm in Hudson, now down to 50 acres.

John Weeks spent six of same (weeks) this past summer driving the backroad blue highways, from Hanover to Seattle and back, visiting kids and friends. "Oh, this country has some beautiful geography," he says.

Bill McGrail died in August, Harry Carey in September. Our sympathy. That's it. Blessings.

P.O. Box 24, Lovejoy Hill Cornish Flat, NH 03746