Tribute

In April, I am going, with Doug’s wife Susan (Wheeler, HHS ’74) to a blues festival (how fitting) where the whole town is paying another tribute to Doug. Note the hammer in the Festival logo: a tribute to the man they called Capt. Doug, whose carpentry skills made him everyone’s go-to guy. Also note the Boy Scout emblem. Doug, whose love of hunting was nurtured in the rat barn, was a Golden Eagle and a Scout leader whose three sons also became Eagle Scouts.

 
I thought you might enjoy reading about the tribute Doug Walter’s son created:

http://www.gsusignal.com/campus-life/on-yonder-mountain-an-art-exhibit-by-chris-walter-1.2716623#.T2nGKvF5mSM

When I read this, I remembered seeing some of Anthony Fisher’s work in which his relationship with Alan figured prominently. Chris Walters’ exhibit, however, is not one of us processing the death of one of our parents. It is one of the next generation paying tribute to one of us.

Farewell

Doug Walter, who moved across the street from me when he was in sixth grade, was my blood brother. In a more innocent time, before people started donning gloves before picking up a bleeding child, Doug, John Chesley, Shelley Fisher, and I sliced our fingers and bled into each other’s lives.

Doug Walter was my brother in faith. Before we knew it was less-than-holy to enjoy the Lord’s Supper apart from the church, we shared Communion in his living room one New Year’s Eve.

Doug played the role of big brother for me. He moved from Hampton to Wooster, Ohio, after he graduated from high school. Since I went to college there, I still saw Doug’s family even when he was off in the service. When Doug was home on leave and learned that I was dating someone from Wooster, he showed up at my future husband’s house in uniform. He took Chuck out to eat and firmly told him that, if he broke my heart, he’d have to tangle with an armed soldier.

One day, Doug’s yard on Green Valley Drive developed a sinkhole. From Harts Run Road, the ground opened up swallowing more and more of Doug’s yard. Doug is gone, and we stagger, witless, around the sinkhole.

Wendy's Top 5

Unfortunately, Michael and I were able to attend only half the reunion, so I thought a Top 5 list would be more appropriate. So, in reverse order:

5. Square dancing, and seeing Michael's picture in the paper the next morning. As I said to some of you, a wonderful moment was seeing two teenagers walk in and having the lightbulb go on immediately--"Oh, John and Shelley's kids, obviously!"

4. Seeing GVD for the first time in 35 years; seeing how it has changed--ALL THOSE TREES!!!--and at the same time, how it has not changed. It's still a nice neighborhood, and that's comforting. (An ancillary thrill--driving around the area so easily, automatically putting the turn signal on at the right time, even after all these years.)

3. Going through our old house with Trish. This was a bittersweet episode, since as you all know some serious damage had been done to the property, but it was nice to know the new owners love the place and are working to resuscitate it. I was thrilled to hear that my Dad's daffodils are still popping up in the woods every spring!

2. Seeing Don and Pat Seidel. That brought tears to my eyes, reminding me that my parents are gone. And honestly, Don doesn't look a day older than when I last saw him!

1. Saturday night singing--and sitting next to Trish for that. Oh, you all were so good. (And Trish and I were SO bad all those years ago.) But it was wonderful how, as David said, everyone knew all the words, and joined in in full voice.

Regrets: First: that we couldn't stay for Sunday and Monday. Second (and this is a very close Second): I somehow didn't get to eat any chipped ham! How did that happen?

Bill's top 10 reunion moments

O.K. so here are my top 10 moments in no particular order:

Meeting Dan and Walter for the first time
Seeing Meagan and John... I have seen everyone else in recent history... it has been many years since I saw them.
Slides at Seidels. At first I thought is was surreal then I realized it was as if no time had passed. We were just hanging at Seidels like we had been doing it forever.
Meeting all of your children... What great kids we have spawned. :)
Singing with Dan and everyone else.
My daughter Alissa freaking you all out with her throat sound.
The brutal weather... NOT!
Just the fact that we did it and it was GREAT!
The Shady Tree. Difficult but memorable.
Sitting with Mr. Seidel at the Pirate Game. I loved talking with him.
Honorable mention--- teasing Linda about being in charge. :)

So, you got 10???

Musical Reminiscing

Most every day I peruse the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on line to keep in touch with the old home town. Thursday's edition had a interview with Eric Burdon because he is headlining tonight (July 24) the Pittsburgh Blues Festival at Hartwood Acres. Those of you old enough may remember him as the lead singer of the 1960's group the Animals. The Hartwood connection, the demise of the Civic Arena and the on-going email discussion of music and the reunion reminded me of when I saw the Animals on June 25, 1966 at the Civic Arena. There were only two groups playing that night; the Animals up first and the Rolling Stones. It is hard to call the Animals a warm-up group especially since they almost stole the show. We (Dave Graham, Ken Vistein, Steve Bulick and myself) dressed in our best madras outfits and sat in the 9th row which is just far enough back so that you were almost level with the stage. Both groups were really sensational but two events happened that made it hard to forget. During the Animals' set, Hilton Valentine, their guitarist broke a string in the middle of a song. This is a fairly uncommon event when playing electric guitar with steel strings. The Rolling Stones' set was also interrupted when Mick Jagger got shocked by one of the microphones. He was taken off stage for a few minutes but then returned and finished the set. All in all it was a memorable evening.
This was the second of three times that I saw the Rollings Stones. They also played the Civic Arena on November 24, 1965. This was an all day affair with lots of groups: The Byrds, We Five, Bo Diddley and others I no longer remember as well as the Rolling Stones. The last time was at the University of Illinois Assembly Hall on November 15, 1969. They were backed up by English blues guitarist Terry Reid and the amazing BB King. Believe it or not, on the first Rolling Stones tour of the US, they also played in Pittsburgh at Westview Park Danceland on June 17, 1964. I really wanted to go to that one as well but you had to be 21 to go.

Summer Reunion-AUGUST 2010

Our summer reunion will take place August 12-16 with a full overlap expected for Sat & Sun. Some of the ideas currently being considered are: Touring some of the houses on the street, kick ball on the flat top, field trip to Giel and the boy's ballfield, hike in Lawrence's, a tour of Hartwood mansion, a square dance, pasta dinner at the Fisher's, a custom-made Green Valley trival pursuit game, a "talent optional" nite, Pirates game, Heinz Historical Museum, dinner at Hartwood Inn, a secret event after dark,lunch at the shady tree and more but I forget everything.
Come one, come all. No invitation necessary.

Merry Christmas from the Beales

Here are Meagan, Peter and I in the our "Game Room," with its chilly floor, on Christmas morning. (Several of you have mentioned how nice and cool that floor was in the summer--as indeed it was--but it was a little less welcoming in the winter.) Peter got a chemistry set that Christmas, I got an art set (which had no impact whatsoever on my artistic talent) and I think Meagan got a pink fridge and sink. My sister-in-law Lori found this and 80 other photos among my Dad's things, and she put them on a disc for us. In the year this photo was taken, we only had one tree, down in the game room, but in future years we had two--one up in the living room, one down here--so we could display all of Dad's ornaments. I still have a number of his special ornaments, but I have to admit to having a fake tree. (My argument is, you can display the ornaments better on a fake one.) Among Dad's papers Lori also found a lovely note from Linda to my parents remembering our Christmas tree and detailing her attempts to replicate that tree with her own family. So Happy New Year to you all. We are looking forward to seeing you in August!