Almost Caught Up!
At last, I've about caught up, at least up to the final trip home. Catch up posts for Days 27-33 are all listed under July 31st, but you will find a handy index to them here.
New Photo and Post IndexThat just leaves me with Days 34-38, the trip home, but David has already covered some of that. I have to go to work today, but I should be able to finish the rest within a day or two.
--Sally
Getting Back in the Groove
The weekend ended, and I got to work yesterday, after reconnecting with the yoga studio I've abandoned since early May. (Boy, did that feel good! All those sore muscles today...) I started a file system for the research project, and began printing and reading some of the many pages I've collected. Already I know I didn't get enough!
In 1936 or so, Sears struck up a correspondence with one Elsie Cronheimer-- fascinating reading! She'd written him after reading his first book, and they kept in touch for several years. She was trying to write a book of poetry, titled
The Promised Land, but may never have completed it. (I can't find her on google anyway. Any ideas out there?) One of the neat things about Sears was his ability and willingness to listen to people, almost anyone it seemed. No "I've got a PhD and I know what I'm talking about"... he always seemed to enjoy an opportunity to find out what people--any people he encountered-- knew and thought about. Because he lived to be 98, I have a theory that the only way people could stop corresponding with him was to die!
It's nice to be home, but I'm facing huge hurdles reorganizing my home office and well, there is unpacking too. (Best not to rush into it, eh?) And, as you may notice, I'm spending a lot of time catching up on the blog!
DAY 33: More Connections, More Goodbyes…
Sunday, July 23rd: I get it, and it’s starting to wear thin.
The more you say “hello,” the more you eventually have to say “goodbye.”
Sunday was fun, tho—beginning with eavesdropping, early in the day, on Isaac (4) and Jacob (6) discussing what to name the cat. They apparently didn’t like Ladybug, my choice. (And, admittedly, it is kind of a generic endearment in the cat department.) Daughter Jennifer and her husband, Adam, and other son, Jacob, had arrived Saturday night.
Isaac: How about “Tractor”? [on which he was climbing at the time]
Jacob: That’s a boy’s name!
Isaac: Well, maybe…[can't remember] ?
Jacob: That’s a boy’s name, too!
Then we started talking about flowers, inspired by Judy's borders near the shop and sidewalk. Would Petunia work? (No.) How about Daylily (looking around)? No again.
Suffice to say, by the time we took her to Georgie’s, they had thoroughly bonded with little
Zinnia and both boys ended up in tears over the parting!
Sally wasn’t doing much better herself. But Judy and I dropped
Zinnia off, amid reassurances from Georgie, and hurried home for another brief Howe mini-reunion which Judy had agreed to host. Cousin Peg arrived with (still want to say “Uncle”) Dick, shortly before Cousin Jim and his partner Mark came by. Sometimes this whole part of my trip feels like a traveling mini-reunion—and it’s been great! See photos on
Day 38.
But after Jim and Mark left, Peg and I sat around a bit longer, looking out over the huge lawn and watching the boys swimming in the pond-- and the idea of a full-fledged Howe Reunion at this estate raised its head… hmmm… But how much can even good friends take??
And then… I said goodbye! Again. This just keeps getting harder… and drove off toward Rochester, again arriving late in the evening at Linda and Evaristo’s house in Henrietta after a few detours. Time was going to be brief, with a workday ahead for them, but we got in a little visit.
(Hadi called with bad news… and another goodbye ahead was inevitable.) In the morning, David arrived to join me for the first leg of the trip—and that brings us up to date through Day 34 if you follow the link above.
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Please note that David’s Day 2 (posted on Tuesday) describes Day 1 (Monday Day 34 in Sally days)-- due to the early-a.m. blogging we are a little out of sync. But hang in there—it all makes sense eventually!
DAY 32: My First-ever Class Reunion
Saturday July 22nd: Our reunion took place at Catherine Park near Odessa, where about 105 of us went to high school together. Odessa-Montour Central School, more often known as OMCS, was our educational and social center for those four years (1962-66). A few of us hadn't seen each other since; others were "nice that we have reunions, so we get to see our neighbors."
I awoke to thunder, lightning, and a steady rain at 7:30 a.m., but by late morning we momentarily had hopes it would all clear up. That never quite happened. So we gathered close around the picnic tables, undercover, and spent the afternoon chatting, hugging, eating, knocking mosquitos off each other, and just generally getting reacquainted. I think, counting spouses, there may have been 35 or so in attendance.
Here's a view of most of the group, minus the few who'd already disappeared. (Click to enlarge for a better view.) Blaine and I had always said "I'll go if you do"-- and this was the year we called each other's bluff. We both had a great time-- and he was surprisingly chatty, I thought! Although each of us found some good buddies there, many present were folks we hadn't known too well. Between getting acquainted and getting reacquainted, we spent a long afternoon together.
Some people change a lot, others less, but let’s face it—we have all changed, all been through a lifetime of stories. What’s fun is that when you stop and look (and listen!) you find the person you once knew… Here’s a picture (courtesy Daryl) of Priscilla, Daryl, and I… buddies in high school and now reconnected to be buddies again.
DAY 31: Among Friends...
Friday July 21st: A mellow morning and breakfast at Blaine and Judy’s, then we were off for some visiting. Turns out that Georgie, the Humane Society lady, is a neighbor of theirs, so we connected with her and arranged for Ladybug’s future care. Then visited Laurel and Skip’s house in Odessa, and at some point loaded all four of us (me, Blaine, Judy, and grandson Isaac) up for a trip to Corning to tour the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. Blaine was interested in their Ansel Adams exhibit (photography)—and we all enjoyed it immensely!
We picked up “the cat” (temporarily
Ladybug) on the way home in the roomy cage Georgie had provided, and Blaine was kind enough to let Ladybug stay in the garage for a couple of nights. Skip and Laurel, married just a few weeks ago, came for dinner. I'd never met Skip, but it was great to and to see both of them.
Ginny and Verne came over in the evening—another reconnection. They weren’t going to be at the class reunion next day, so that was our best chance to get together, though I missed meeting their fancy chickens. Ginny is into genetics; currently trying to breed golden-laced Cochins. We had a nice time, sitting on the screened porch (safe from mosquitoes), catching up on some of the intervening years.
It’s amazing how much comes back when you see people! Even things you haven’t thought about in 40 years…
DAY 30: From the Lake back to Baldwinsville… and Beyond
Thursday July 20th: After breakfast and a morning walk, Daryl and I took a canoe ride around the lake (I never did get its name!), admiring the white water lilies, the beautiful scenery, the view of their new lakehouse from the water, and so on. I took dozens of pictures but, incredibly, managed to erase them all, even the one of the great blue heron who took off in front of us!
Daryl sent me some substitutes, so here’s a look at the lake and their new place. They have, as you can imagine, lots of company!
Back in B’ville, I surprised Uncle Ted with a phone call, and had a wonderful (but too short) visit with him and Jeanne. My dad’s brother, Ted is 86, but was at the office when I called him! See, work keeps you young! (Doesn’t bode well for my “early retirement.”) We might have had a longer visit, but they’d just been visiting Cousin June in Lakewood a few weeks earlier, so we were already freshly caught up.
Then I picked up Nan and we went to Warners, where my mother and her two older brothers grew up. (The three older siblings were already in college by then, I think.) Nan showed me the house, our grandparents’ graves, and the church. Then we got on her computer and downloaded the photos I'd taken, which made me think the camera was safe to empty, and that’s how I lost the Lakehouse photos! Sometimes I get technologically impaired.
Then it was back on the road to get to Blaine and Judy’s. This time I made it by bedtime, more or less, so I was getting worse again. Maybe though, you’re beginning to see how I put all those miles on the car!
DAY 29: Of Cats and Cousins
Wednesday July 19th: Emma had a problem. There was this cat. Starving, she said. So Sally had a problem. So Hannah and I collected the cat and went to the vet, who was kind enough to see us. Not surprisingly, the cat, 7 months old, was pregnant. Though she was delightful, Miss Personality plus, she was on her way to being a teenage mother with a half-dozen wild offspring, the beginning of a feral colony. I should have taken a picture of her! (I have often wished since that I’d brought her home with me.)
That meant I got a late start for Baldwinsville, connecting with Cousins Nan and Bob just in time for, you guessed it, dinner! They took me to a nice restaurant, Italian and more, north of B’ville and we had a great time talking. AND I got to see their son David—it’s been decades!—and meet his girlfriend, Linda. Once again, no pictures! I’m slipping up!!
Here's a picture of David sleeping on the couch... yes, he's about 6 ft 6 in tall!
But I’d promised to be at the Lakehouse, so off I went, driving north into the night to find Tom and Daryl’s beautiful new place on a lake east of Pulaski. Wow… this is NOT your ordinary “cottage.”
DAY 28: Big Flats Recovery Day
Tuesday July 18th: What I’m recovering from I don’t always know, but it was nice, nay wonderful!, to have a quiet restful day catching up with Cousin Peg. We talked, we laughed, we spent the afternoon with Hannah doing errands, and later, went to Olive Garden with Emma and Dick along as well.
We even (next morning) played a game of Scrabble before I left. I got most of the vowels. Vowels are worth 1 point each. You do the math. (Yes, Peg won, but as Deb reassures me, I just don’t get enough practice!)
DAY 27: Heading West
Monday July 17th: I left Daryl and Tom’s about 12:30 after an oil change, went down the road to Waterbury a few miles for a tire change, then really headed west about 2 p.m. I dithered most of the day about whether I was going to head north—the great circle route around the entire Adirondacks, eventually reaching Cousin Jean at the north end of Lake Champlain—or just hit the southern tier.
In the end, I went west instead of north, Waterbury, Middlebury, Danbury… finally there were no more burys and I was in New York. Ended up retracing part of the route Ashley and I had taken on a soggy day weeks ago… but this time got to angle northwest on 17 instead of being diverted to Scranton. (Guess what, Ashley? It IS shorter that way!) It was a beautiful drive and before I knew it, I was in Binghamton and closing in fast on Schockners. I could still see considerable evidence of the devastating floods that had challenged us on our trip to Yale. Flooded fields, piled remains of trees along the river, and water that was still plenty high reminded me of
Day 7.
In due course, as luck would have it, I arrived at dinnertime and enjoyed a great family get-together and delicious dinner, featuring a variant of Betty’s potato salad. Rick, Rowan, Hannah, and Emma were all at Peg’s house, so though we’d already gotten together once, we had another opportunity to catch up! I took no photos… imagine that! (Well, it was late!)
New Photo Index
Because both David and I, and maybe even Ashley, will be updating old entries with photos you haven't seen, I'm going to start an index to new photos (and just text) here. New being, that is, photos that weren't up with the original posts on the topic.
Day 33: More Connections, More GoodbyesDay 32: My First-Ever Class ReunionDay 31: Among Friends...Day 30: Baldwinsville and the LakeDay 29: Of Cats and CousinsDay 28: Big Flats Recovery Day (no photos, text only)
Day 27: Heading West (no photos, text only)
Day 38: Review (of Days 33 and 34), last day in New YorkDay 2 David's report on our visit to ancestral homestead, Day 33 in Sally days.
Day 3, David's report on our visit to Bucyrus. Day 34. More text as well as photos.
Trip-related haiku at Foothills Fancies (Sally's nature blog), which has been languishing due to attention given here at Eastbound 2006:
A Raft of Haiku, posted July 31.
More Overdue Haiku, posted July 29.
Journey Home, posted July 4.
DAY 40: NO NEW DAYS...
Today the trip is officially over, but the blog won't end quite yet. After all, I haven't met all my commitments nor gotten up all the photos yet, right? So the rest of the posts will backtrack through some of the missing stories, people, and photos. Hope you'll all stay tuned a little longer.
So, here's the final report. We (the research team: Sally, Ashley, and Linda) logged
1,381 photos of pages in Yale's archive of Paul Sears papers. A drop in the bucket, I suspect, as we made it through approximately 35 of the 154 boxes. Can you believe? And that, I'm sure, will be enough to keep me busy most of the winter.
Others have asked for a mileage report. Upon arrival home (the car has been surprisingly sedentary since Friday night), the car had logged a final tally of
6,379.3 miles. I figure Ashley left me after about 2,700 of them...
More later-- Ashley came over to pick up a couple things and we're going to dash off. Turns out I got home just in time for the last day of Lila's famous must-see Barn Sale!
--Sally
DAY 39: HOME SWEET...
This is a long and funny story, but for now I'm just going to do a new post to let everyone know that I AM home! Got in at 10:30 last night, Friday night that is. It was amazing. Though dark, Denver looked vaguely familiar, Morrison looked pretty strange, and the house was quite unfamiliar. Memo: 5.5 weeks may be a little too long. The disconnect was almost complete.
The dogs got the idea ("mom's home!") right away, some of the cats were a little more standoffish at first. Now, though, things are gradually getting back to what used to be normal. Hadi sure looked good!!
With just two notable exceptions, all the plants and critters are alive and well and looking quite robust! Hadi and Karen, his mom, clearly took good care of things in my extended absence. He said last night that "there sure is a lot to do around here!" Not bad for someone who kinda used to think I wasn't helping much... nothing like a long absence to make you appreciate each other.
Rest of the story coming soon... along with those long promised photos, now that I'm back where easy uploads are possible, and I have lots of time...
--Sally
DAY 38: REVIEW
Long-awaited photos are beginning to appear. I'm probably going to be working backward, but here's a start at reviewing events and visits of the last two weeks!
Here's a quick shot of Cousin Jim and Cousin Peg getting caught up.
On Sunday (DAY 33), we were lucky enough to be able to connect with Cousin Jim and his partner Mark, and Cousin Peg and her husband Dick-- all at the same time. And finally got to meet Betsy, Mark & Jim's dog, who turns out to be camera-shy.
Then I had to say goodbye to the Chamberlains after a wonderful visit with the entire family! Here they all are: Riley (background) and Farley (foreground) the two black labs ("there's only one kind of dog," Blaine says, "and it comes in three colors." Actually four, I hear-- why not collect them all Blaine?) Left to right among the humans are: Judy, Isaac, Jennifer, Jacob, Adam, Blaine. The newlyweds, Laurel and Skip, were off on an expedition to pick up their new canine, a non-dog apparently, as they've chosen to bring a boxer into the family.
Monday (DAY 34): As we left Rochester, me for good and David only temporarily, David and Linda waved a breezy goodbye from Linda's front yard. It was great to see the Veras, however briefly.
And now... I'd better get back on the road! Iowa City goodbye and hello North Platte! If I don't drive into the night and there's internet access in western Nebraska, I'll post more this evening.
--Sally
DAY 37: HO-OMEWARD BOUND NOW...
I wished I was, and now I am! Tonight I'm in Iowa City, and pretty happy to have made it that far, even though it's less than halfway and probably means I'll be doing the last little leg of the trip Saturday morning instead of making it in Friday night.
Thanks, Priscilla, for the book-on-CD, which made short work of the last 100 miles or so. Hope I was paying attention to the road-- but all's well that ends well, right? The book is about the difference between our chronological age and our physiological age, and all the things we can do to be younger than we are! Very appropriate for the 40th-reunion set, now that we've checked out how everyone is aging (or not, in some cases that shall go unnamed)... I'm going to listen to the 2nd CD tomorrow, and calculate my physical age when I get home. Or maybe sooner. Will keep you posted.
All for tonight, unless I can get some photos up!
--Sally
DAY 3 (IN DAVE DAYS)
Hi all,
I have made it home safely after many delays at the Indianapolis and Detroit airports. Thunderstorms were the culprits! But I did make it home a bit after 12 midnight. I promise to add more entries and photos in the near future. But for now... off to bed!
Since my DAY 2 entry details the events of DAY 1, I will detail the events of DAY 2 here. From the hotel in or near
Mt. Gilead, we made our way to the city of
Bucyrus (the birthplace of
Paul Sears, the subject of Sally's research project). We first visited the public library there, a beautiful old building, and located the address of Paul Sears parents' house, the Bucyrus cemetery, and the Bucyrus historical society (open on Mondays from 1-4pm -- we arrived on a Tuesday!).
The most notable thing about Bucyrus (for me at least), were the
murals in the central square. I don't think I've ever seen such fine, detailed and realistic-looking murals. I took a few shots of them (see below).
Yes, that's Sally standing in front of the mural. And yes, that 
is a painting not a sculpture!
We did much driving around Bucyrus -- the library, the cemetery, the historical society, Bob Evan's (for lunch). Sally and I walked into the office at the cemetery, and the lady behind the desk asked her if her name was Sally White. Which of course it was. Apparently Sally had left her license at the library, and luckily, they knew she was headed to the cemetery. After snapping a few photos of gravestones, Sally let me drive the car around a bit, so I could get a feel for driving a stick-shift.
Left Bucyrus in the afternoon, and drove to Bloomington, Indiana to meet Sally's friends Sue and her father Richard. Richard and Sally were the founders of the Morrison Natural History Museum, and Richard's son, Vance, is building Sally's new kitchen cabinets. But I should let Sally fill you in on all that. Nonetheless, it was a pleasure meeting them.
Now I should create a DAY 4 entry to tell you about day 3. That will happen sometime soon...
Then we started talking about flowers, inspired by Judy's borders near the shop and sidewalk. Would Petunia work? (No.) How about Daylily (looking around)? No again.
But after Jim and Mark left, Peg and I sat around a bit longer, looking out over the huge lawn and watching the boys swimming in the pond-- and the idea of a full-fledged Howe Reunion at this estate raised its head… hmmm… But how much can even good friends take?? 
Some people change a lot, others less, but let’s face it—we have all changed, all been through a lifetime of stories. What’s fun is that when you stop and look (and listen!) you find the person you once knew… Here’s a picture (courtesy Daryl) of Priscilla, Daryl, and I… buddies in high school and now reconnected to be buddies again.
Daryl sent me some substitutes, so here’s a look at the lake and their new place. They have, as you can imagine, lots of company!
Then I picked up Nan and we went to Warners, where my mother and her two older brothers grew up. (The three older siblings were already in college by then, I think.) Nan showed me the house, our grandparents’ graves, and the church. Then we got on her computer and downloaded the photos I'd taken, which made me think the camera was safe to empty, and that’s how I lost the Lakehouse photos! Sometimes I get technologically impaired.
That meant I got a late start for Baldwinsville, connecting with Cousins Nan and Bob just in time for, you guessed it, dinner! They took me to a nice restaurant, Italian and more, north of B’ville and we had a great time talking. AND I got to see their son David—it’s been decades!—and meet his girlfriend, Linda. Once again, no pictures! I’m slipping up!!
Here's a picture of David sleeping on the couch... yes, he's about 6 ft 6 in tall!
Here's a quick shot of Cousin Jim and Cousin Peg getting caught up.
On Sunday (DAY 33), we were lucky enough to be able to connect with Cousin Jim and his partner Mark, and Cousin Peg and her husband Dick-- all at the same time. And finally got to meet Betsy, Mark & Jim's dog, who turns out to be camera-shy. 
Then I had to say goodbye to the Chamberlains after a wonderful visit with the entire family! Here they all are: Riley (background) and Farley (foreground) the two black labs ("there's only one kind of dog," Blaine says, "and it comes in three colors." Actually four, I hear-- why not collect them all Blaine?) Left to right among the humans are: Judy, Isaac, Jennifer, Jacob, Adam, Blaine. The newlyweds, Laurel and Skip, were off on an expedition to pick up their new canine, a non-dog apparently, as they've chosen to bring a boxer into the family.
Monday (DAY 34): As we left Rochester, me for good and David only temporarily, David and Linda waved a breezy goodbye from Linda's front yard. It was great to see the Veras, however briefly. 
is a painting not a sculpture! 