1957

Down the Cape Cod Canal we came with the ship's pipe blaring "Scotland the Brave" as the Massachusetts Maritime Academy T/S Enterprise returned home from its 52-day sea term and docked at State Pier in Buzzards Bay at 1300 e.s.t. Aboard were 490 cadets and 90 officers and crew including your secretary. The voyage made stops at Fort Lauderdale, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Fort de France, Martinique; and Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

The teaching approach at Mass Maritime is learn, do, learn. Students go from the classroom out into the real world of ocean shipping. In my major (international maritime business), we taught export documentation in the classroom, then made the documents meaningful by visiting a manufacturer of golf balls, seeing a shipment packed for export, following it to the Port of Boston and touring the Port of San Juan to view the receiving process. Another subject in the curriculum was maritime security in response to new U.S. Homeland Security requirements. Cadets also learn the value of teamwork by performing watch and maintenance duties.

While in Tortola I visited Jim Howe and Diane. After a tour of T/SEnterprise, a visit to a marina to see their sailboat and a luncheon at a favorite .local spot (chicken roti, a native dish), Jim and Diane took me to their home in a small fishing village by the sea where they have lived for more than eight years. Jim originally came to the island because of a medical condition (neck muscles) that has been greatly helped by the warm temperatures and botox. As I stood on their deck overlooking an almond tree and, beyond that, the Caribbean, I again had to marvel at the wonderful diversity of our class. Jim and Diane spend a lot of time sailing (just finished race weekend in Tortola). Jim teaches online part-time at the University of Vermont and Diane telecommutes to Champlain College in Burlington (recent project was accreditation). They still summer in Vermont so the island is home from only October to May.

Here's some more in our grandparents' series. Three years ago Bill Breerand Margaret took two grandsons to a multi-generation ranch near the Grand Tetons for a week. "Fabulous," they said. Two years ago they took another grandson on the train from Denver to San Francisco, sightseeing there for two days, including a Giants game with first baseline seats. Last year they took two granddaughters to New York on the train, stayed at the Waldorf, crawled all over Manhattan and had tea at the American Girl Museum on 5th Avenue.

Bob Copeland and Alta are fortunate in having all grandchildren living nearby and all make it down to their place in the country outside Washington, D.C. The best weekend is the Fourth of July, when many generations of the family and their friends spend several days together.

P.O. Box 3328, Pocasset, MA02559; (508) 564-6484; fphowland@aol.com