End of a Week
Last Saturday I posted pictures from the Amherst Farmers’ Market. On Thursday I got an email from Casey at Old Friends Farm asking if he could use some of the photos in the farm’s weekly newsletter. I was more than happy to oblige and went into heavy negotiation mode. Pictures for flowers; quite a good deal for us both.
Earlier in the week I went to watch Cris teach an undergrad class in one of the UMASS School of Ed. buildings. The class meets in a now-closed elementary school auditorium. Down a hallway and behind a set of doors with a “NO ENTRY” sign was this school gymnasium. I can remember being a kid at the East End School in Meadville and being in a similar gym (they all look pretty much alike). I especially like the climbing ropes and the cargo net.
Today we drove to Williamstown to meet up with Peggy Ross, her husband Peter, and their friend Pierette who is visiting from France. We met at the Williams College Museum of Art and then walked into town for a beer. It is a lovely small New England town with 2 great museums (the other being the Clark, which is a gem).
Driving back along Route 2, I was compelled to stop and grab a few shots of the Deerfield River.
I hope to have the willardsuitcases.com site up and running tomorrow. I am so excited and will post an update as soon as it is online.
Guest check
My dad was a very interesting guy. He died in August of 2007, and my mom died in March of 2009. Cleaning out their apartment in Meadville was difficult in the obvious ways. It wasn’t until July of ’09 that we finally had everything out and divided up. It was very cool the way my sister, brother and I settled on who got what. No hassles at all. Since I was the last to leave Meadville, I had lots of odds and ends to bring home. The boxes ended up in my family room and have sat there since. My plan was to go through them and divide the remaining items between the three of us. It has been hanging over my head since that July, but I finally started opening boxes on Tuesday. Dad had saved some intersesting little items. / After he retired from Allegheny College, he read to school children at my old elementary school and volunteered to teach English as a second language through the Meadville Public Library. A family named Lee moved to town from China to work at the Chinese restaurant run by Mr Lee’s brother. They came speaking no English, and my dad became their teacher and mentor. He poured all his heart into that family, and they really loved him in return. The boys were Jamie and Danny, and Jan was their mom.
Our son Peter was born 5 weeks early in January of 1989. He weighed just over 3 pounds and had a very rough start, staying in the NICU at Floating Hospital in Boston for what seemed like forever. When I was going through the boxes from Meadville, I came across this envelope.
I realized right away that it was from the Lee’s. This note was inside.
Oh, man.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
1 comment