In Honor of George and Abe...

Happy President's Day! In the past year, I read (or listened to, actually) 1776 and A Team of Rivals, both of which I recommend, and learned quite a bit about both of these men. They weren't perfect, they made mistakes like the rest of us, but they were intelligent and wise and dedicated to the cause and to this country. The things that go on in politics these days are not new, everything just moves faster and in a bigger scope because of the communication capabilities we have today, plus a whole lot more people to pass it around to. Anyway, I'm grateful for the day off and a chance to relax a little. It's really a little vacation for me, because Paul is also away on an ice fishing trip until Tuesday. It gets lonely around here when he's gone, but it's nice to not have to cook if I don't want to, and to have control of the remote and the computer all to myself :-) Actually, I have two computers to myself now, since we finally went wireless and have the old computer in the basement, which somehow seems to be working pretty well again - who knows?

We finally got a good taste of winter this past week. Wednesday and Thursday brought us snow and ice and some slippery driving conditions. It's nothing compared to what some of you in other parts of the country got, I know, but it presented us with some challenges. The University of Maine closed on Wednesday, so Paul and Toby had a day off, but the Belfast Free Library was open, so I made the slow drive to the coast. We closed at 3, so I was able to get home before dark. By Thursday morning the roads were pretty good, but the big job was getting the car doors open, all the ice off the car and getting the car out of the driveway. That took 45 minutes. What a way to start a day. Well, enough whining - it's kind of fun to complain, but I really enjoy the winter and am glad things are as they should be again.

This afternoon, I'll be heading down to the univ. to see Toby's play. I'm not sure I mentioned this before, but he is in "Bat Boy: the Musical " which opened Friday night, and I haven't been yet. We'll be going next Saturday with some friends, but I usually try to see his shows a couple of times. It sounds like it is really good, with good music, but a little gory. I'll give a review later.

Time for another picture I think. I've got several from the same night as the one of us all lined up on the couch. Here are a couple of us all sitting around having a slide show. That was something we did fairly often as I recall. If we ever get another family gathering organized, I think a slide show should be part of it. I'm sure we all have lots to share.

'nuff said.

Later, Betsy

Uncle George's Camp

Hi everyone,

It's been a little quiet here lately. Hope this post will inspire some of you to make a comment. (Thanks, Dana, for keeping it going :-)

A few of the slides that I scanned were from the camp at Park's Pond. That camp was fun in summer and winter, outhouse and all (at least the walkway to the outhouse was covered. I liked the big porch on the front and the little nook off the kitchen area. I especially liked the swing and spent many happy hours with aunts, cousins and grandmothers, pulling the rope to keep the swing going. These pictures are all before my time. I have some more recent ones somewhere, but of course there's that scanning problem.

This first one is of the great grands in front of the camp.

They look pretty dapper, don't they. Grampy Dubay died in 1948, and I would guess this is not too long before that.

This one is of a whole gang. I'll identify those I can and maybe someone else can fill in blanks. I can also ask Aunt J. when I go visit.

Ok, in the front we have Uncle Bernie, ?, ?, and Uncle Ken. The next row is easy, Aunt Jeannette, Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Mill. Next row, Uncle Gene, ?, a studly Uncle Frank (woo-oo) and Uncle George. Tucked behind them are Grammy holding either Wayne or Dana, and Papa. The next row has one of the great uncle's wives I think, then my mom and her cousin, either Roland or Bernard- Im leaning toward Roland. Next is Uncle Leo, Grammy D.(I think, though it doesn't look quite right,) Rick's other grandmother, Ann Clement, who dated Uncle George for many years, and Uncle Chick. The last row has another great uncle wife, Aunt Lil, Aunt Sue and Uncle Archie. It must have been 1950 or so. I have quite a few of these type of group photos. One batch was taken when my other grandparents and Aunt Anne came to visit from Maryland. They are great pics but often include people who are hard to identify.

This one is a little light, but I really like it. The cute little guy is big brother Rob, and the others are Uncle Kenny (also pretty cute,) Aunt Jeannette, Mom and Aunt Mill. Mom seems to be wearing the same shirt that Aunt Mill was wearing in the previous photo. Since this photo is a little earlier, perhaps it was a hand me down?

Sadly, the camp no longer exists. Aunt Jeannette and Aunt Lil sold it shortly after Uncle George died, and the person they sold it to tore it down and built a house. That would have been around 1974, I guess. So what are your memories of the camp? One of the things I liked about going there was that there were often relatives there, that we hadn't met before, or didn't see very often. There was always lots to do, lots of good food to eat, and lots of attention from people who loved us. What could be better than that.

Time to get to work on my resume. Even though I love my job, I'm thinking of applying for a new one with the state library. It would be a step up and a new challenge - scary but exciting. I'll let you know more as I progress through it.

More later.

Betsy

We were so cute!!

Well, I finally have some images to share with you, thanks to an elderly patron and friend who let me use his scanner to scan some slides that I found. I'm going to put a couple on here to start with. I've got one with older cousins and one with younger.
So there we all are lined up on the couch, Wayne, Dale, Roger, Me, Franny, Gary, Peter and Rob (looking like he's really thrilled to be there.) I'm not sure why Dana isn't in the picture. Perhaps he was visiting his other grandparents?

In order to include as many cousins as possible, here's another taken at a later time.

Darn, this one's pretty blurry. But it includes Kathy (sort of), Heidi, Karen, John and Bernie in the front row, and me holding Julie (of course), Terry, Sheila, Billy and Kenny in the back row.
This must have been Christmas, so no Scott, but where's Ricky? Well, it's a start.
I'm at work, but couldn't wait to get something on here for you. I'll give you more later.
Betsy