Late summer evenings

This is just a quick impression...I went outside to water the hydrangeas after dinner this evening, and it was just that time of day that I remember as being a sort of bonus play time when we were kids. Dinner was over, dishes were done, and we got to go back outside as the light was fading and the air was actually starting to get a bit cooler. I don't recall that we saw the kids from the front of the street after dinner--usually it was just us from around the bend. In the early years, I seem to remember that we would congregate up on the flat top, and often even our parents came out and, I guess, hung out as we rode around on our bikes or tried out our roller skates. Some of the littler kids might even have been out in their pajamas, having already had their baths, and I suppose their Mothers wanted to savor those last few days of delightful weather, recognizing it wouldn't last for long.

By the way, Happy Birthday today, Tom and Trish!

Letters to Linda

Linda's parents unearthed a box of old letters. Even the stationery evoked memories of the era:

I found several letters about Jackie’s birthday party. I remembered making the vases as favors for Jackie's party, but forgot that my big brother helped with that. Please disregard my commentary on the brother’s vase. Must have been something I heard someone say (won’t say from whom) since I can’t imagine I had any categories for Freudian vases at that age:

Here’s one about decorating the pool:

For those of you who don't like reading in the round, it explains that we were helping to prepare for the big birthday party and somehow ended up swimming instead. I remember the day’s science lesson about air within the balloons heating and coming into contact with cooler water. I remember getting those balloons out of the pool and carrying them into the house, but I had forgotten that we repeated that whole process several times.

I remember that guests were to draw pictures of Jackie’s inner self. The pictures lined the walls going up the stairs. Here’s mine. Please disregard the bit about worms and realize that I was trying to capture Jackie’s nurturing spirit:

Below you will see precedents for street marriages and for writing a book together:

One thing that comes through in all our letters is how hard it was for all of us to leave Green Valley:

Here's a bit more on the interaction across age differences:

Chapel Gate Swim Club

When I was back in Pittsburgh last week, one of the places that I revisited was the Chapel Gate Swim Club . Our family were members of Chapel Gate for many years. I, too, was briefly on their swim team but swimming was not really the reason that I went there. I went to play bridge. I went even on rainy days because the life guards still had to be there and it was mostly the life guards that I played with; the McCrady brothers, the Taylor brothers, Melanie ? and Jennifer ?. It was the perfect arrangement. The life guards would play during their off time. They rotated in and out of life guarding and bridge playing. Many of them came to the club on their off days. The person that had the dummy hand would take a quick swim to cool off and then come back for the next hand. I remember the year that I worked in the steel mill in Oakmont that I would not even go home when I was done at 4 o'clock. I would go to Chapel Gate to take my shower and get some swimming and bridge in before dinner. Often I would return after dinner for more of the same.

As you can see from the picture, Chapel Gate does not look all that different. The clubhouse is much bigger and tennis courts have been added where we used to play volleyball ( I remember that many times the 'old' men would play against us young guys and kick our butts consistently). The high diving board is gone and the entrance to the club is now almost totally hidden from Glen David Drive by trees. There is just one small stone pillar with a sign that says “Chapel Gate Swim Club”. Other than that, it looks pretty much the same. The club was not open at the time I took the picture so I could only get parking lot shots. Anyway, it brought back many fond memories.

There was a Thompson family reunion on Friday & Saturday, which automatically brings together a large number of GV folks. Tom (or Bob to some) & his wife Pam; Trish & her husband Ed & their son Chris with his wife Maru; Ellen & her husband Bill (both GVers) with their 4 children David, Rebekah, Ben (with his girlfriend Christina & their puppy Bella) & Alissa; Nancy & her husband Chuck; Flip (or Dan to some) & his wife Kelly with their sons Dan (whose new bride Alicia was on call & couldn't come), Matt & Michael. Check out my face book page for some pictures. Then Sunday morning, Shelley Fisher Chesley visited us briefly. Sadly, she's in Pittsburgh cause Jackie is in the hospital. We're hoping for good test results.