In one or two other posts here I have mentioned this box of stuff I found in the basement that was full of treasures from my youth. I was down in the basement again today and took a look through that box again and found the letter my Grandpa & Grandma wrote to me and my brothers on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary. It was written on a typewriter (so very typically Grandpa) and I scanned it but I’ve also transcribed it here:

Anniversary

October 4

1922-1972

Dear Jerry Peter & Philip

In view of our approaching 50th wedding anniversary and since you are a member of our family, we are asking you to bear with us for a few minutes while we hold forth on the well-worn subject of “Time”. It intrigues us just now because we are especially aware that we have used up quite a bit of it, possibly not in all respects in the best way, but perhaps in just about the way our limited talents permitted us.

We wish that our past fifty years had been full of noble or notable accomplishment. But only a few people seem to have been that able or fortunate. We have tried with considerable success to enjoy our lives together and to do well in establishing a family. We are happy about the results.

The passing of Time has been celebrated, regretted, recorded, and otherwise treated with great and enduring interest since Time began. In fact, we would not have Time if it did not pass. It never stood still despite fairy tales to the contrary. Without Time, we do not exist. Imagine anything existing before Time began-or after it ended!

Man has always been concerned with Time, for example, the time taken by the Earth to rotate on its axis and its orbit, the time taken by the Earth to evolve from its probable beginning, the time taken by man to become what he is, and the time between events in history.

Time engages man continuously from his birth to his death, from the rising to the setting of the sun and the beginning to the end of his undertakings, Time has been a favorite of poets who have mentioned its wing and its habit of fleeting, its capacity for being wasted, it ravages, its corridors, it footprints, its value, it healing, and humorously, what the Walrus said about it in “Alice”.

Our concern with Time is all of this and more but our special concern just now is the fact that fifty years of it have been enjoyed in our happy marriage. We are celebrating this happiness by giving a token like the enclosed to each member of our family. Please use it and enjoy it.

We hope that none of you will send us any gift in return since we have more possessions that we can manage.

Thank you for scores of happy incidents in our lives!

And remember us with the same love we send you!

Grandma & Grandpa

I just have to smile at how Grandpa is talking about Physics and Time. Gee I guess the nut, this nut, didn’t fall from from that tree. Did it?

For as long as I can remember Grandma & Grandpa came up from their home in St. Petersburg, Florida every summer to spend the summer months with us at our home in Chappaqua starting from the summer of 1958 when Mom, Dad, and I moved from Baltimore to New York.

I can still fondly recall watching the second rocket in NASA’s Mercury Program, Liberty Bell 7, launch on TV with Grandma. I remembe it because as it took off I went running out the back door to see the rocket going up into the sky and she then had to explain to me why I couldn’t see it. I still smile when I think of that.

They would come right after the school year ended and then leave, drive back home shortly before it began again.

The summer of 1972 was different though. Grandma & Grandpa would stay until their anniversary in October so that they could celebrate it with thier daughter, her husband, and the Hayes grandchildren. Grandpa took us all to (the original) Emily Shaw’s Inn in Pound Ridge for the celebration. I even remember my dad asking the waiter or waitress if they had hearts of lettuce and I remember having steak.

Sometime either the next day, or maybe a few days later, Grandma & Grandpa would pack up the old Olds Delta 98 and head south for home.

October 11th they arrived in Naples Florida south of their home in St. Pete just to visit and see it. They went for a walk on the boardwalk or quayside that evening and met a young newlywed couple on their honeymoon and chatted with them telling them how they had just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary only a few days ago.

That night my Grandpa, my dear loving Grandpa went to bed for the very last time. He would die in his sleep that night.

Grandpa’s “Time” with us had run its course.

The Speedy Little Munchkin

By Philip L Hayes Jr., age 8

My Cousin Ann was over to my house for a sleep over. After a long day of playing, we fell quickly to sleep.

(Poke. Poke) Stop. (Poke, Poke) Stop it Ann, I said. Much to my surprise, I poked a leprechaun in the eye. (Poke, Poke).  “What?  A leprechaun?” I rolled off the bed and crushed the leprechaun who was sitting on the floor.  I got up off the floor and saw the leprechaun in his real form. The leprechaun had a smile upon his face.  He has  a black belt in Karate., but his suit is as green as grass.  The leprechaun said “play”.  “Alright” I said. “Let me get dressed and eat breakfast”.  I put on my blue jeans and got my red shirt on that had “Go Yankees” printed on it.  I went downstairs to the kitchen and split my pistachio muffin with the leprechaun. “I will name you ‘Hamburger’”, I said.  “Hamburger… do you want to play hide and seek?”  He is as small as a kitten, so he was hard to find as he ran around in the kitchen.

#$%&# CRASH #$%&#

A frying pan hit him in his head as he crawled around in the kitchen cabinets. I could see that he had stars circling his head.  I went over to him and said, “Lets not play that game again”.

“What is that noise?” Ann said as she came down the stairs a bit groggy and scared.  My leprechaun, Hamburger, said, “Play”.  Ann was shocked as she looked at the leprechaun. “Play” he said again.  “Yes, lets play chase the cat” I said.   The leprechaun had to be the cat, because he was the size of a kitten and was as fast as a speeding bullet.   He was so fast that Ann and I decided to make a trap to catch the speedy little munchkin.   We put a dollar under a box that was propped up with a stick that had a string attached to it.  When he went to grab the dollar, we pulled the string and the box fell over the speedy little munchkin. He was caught.

We removed the box from over our friend and there he stood, holding the dollar in front of his face.  We then asked him to take us to his pot of gold.  He said… “OK, but it is very dangerous”.  He gave us a shield and a bronze sword.  We set off in search of the pot of gold.  After a couple of miles we came across a fire-breathing dragon.   I swung my sword furiously and cut of his three heads.  I said “Yahoo!”.   Then a bird came down and started pecking me in the head.  I screamed in pain and started swing swinging my sword at the bird. The bird picked me up by my shirt as Ann and Hamburger held on tightly to me.  He flew us all the way to the pot of gold.

The Leprechaun said, “You passed my test. You earned the pot of gold.  Good work!”  Ann and I decided to take only half of the pot of gold, leaving the rest for our friend.  But our friend said that he wanted us to take it all, because he was going to stay with us for now on.  Hamburger told the bird to pick us up and bring us back home. And so he did.

The end.

Funeral Information

Relatives and friends are invited to attend a Funeral from the Crapo-Hathaway Funeral Home, 350 Somerset Ave,.( Route 138 South) Taunton on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011 at 9AM followed by a Mass of Christian Burial in St. Ann’s Church, Raynham, at 10AM. Visiting hours on Tuesday from 6-8PM. Interment St Joseph’s Cemetery.

GROOM:
Groom: Harry G McNeill
Address: 257 Merrimack Street, Manchester, NH
Occupation: Cigarmaker
Father: Irving McNeill (Deceased)
Mother: Esther Louise Sanborn
Mother Address: 257 Merrimack Street, Manchester, NH
Mother Birthplace: Manchester, England

BRIDE
Bride: Jane Josephine Hayes
Bride Address: 35 Front Street
Occupation: Brushmaker
Father: John J Hayes (Deceased)
Father Occupation: Watchman
Father Birthplace: London, England
Mother: Jane B Keelty (Kelty)
Mother’s Address: 35 Front Street

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There have been thousands of pieces of artwork submitted and hers was chosen from entries from around the country. You can vote every twenty four hours if you want.

There are prizes for the student who receives the most votes in December.

Click the link below to view all the contestants art and to vote for your favorite.

https://www.artstamps.com/collectibles.php?page=2

Merry Christmas!!

Ridge’s law career was distinguished both as a judge and trial lawyer. He was a member of the three-judge panel that disbarred V.P. Agnew for “deceitful and dishonest conduct” and found him unfit as a member of the Maryland bar.

The class extends its sympathy to Ridge’s entire family including his sister, Elizabeth, widow of Don Patterson. We will miss Ridge.

The Class of 1940

A homemaker, she loved to travel and read, and was a member of St. Anne’s Parish and the Hamilton Street Club. Her husband of 55 years, Donald H. Patterson, former publisher of The (Baltimore) Sun and president of the A.S. Abell Co., died Dec. 2, 1997.

She was the sister of the late Judge Ridgely P. Melvin Jr., Augusta Melvin Torgerson and Mary Melvin Clark.

Surviving are two sons, Donald H. Patterson Jr. of Virginia Beach, Va., and Timothy C. Patterson of Annapolis; two daughters, Elizabeth P. Langslet of Montvale, N.J., and Susan P. Davis of Annapolis; one brother, John B. Melvin of North Carolina; 14 grandchildren; and three greatgrandchildren.

Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Monday at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, 199 Duke of Gloucester St. Burial will follow in Christ Church Cemetery in West River.

Memorial contributions, in lieu of flowers, can be made to Hospice of the Chesapeake, 8424 Veterans Highway, Millersville, MD 21108.

Born in Manchester, NH, a daughter of the late Harry G. and Jane J. (Hayes) McNeill, she had lived in Smithfield before moving to Coventry. She worked for many years at Uniroyal, formerly in Woonsocket and for several years for Narragansett Knitting, formerly in Woonsocket.

She is survived by her three daughters Jane A. Goldberg of Coventry, Judith C. Lamoureux of Pascoag and Joan F. Blanchard of North Smithfield and six grandchildren. She was the mother of the late James W. Wowk and sister of the late Mary Melvin.

A private prayer service and inurnment in the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Exeter will be held by her family. Information and condolences at www.carpenterjenks.com.

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