Moving

Linda and myself are selling our Norwalk home and buying a home in Fitchburg, MA. Our main reason is to be closer to family and friends. We have enjoyed our 7 years in Norwalk. We have been able to see many things in the area as well as NYC. I will stay in Norwalk and Linda will establish our home in Fitchburg. If all of the financial things fall in place we should we in our new home late July or early August. We have agreed to a home that is located at 119 Will Thompson Way in Fitchburg. I will be renting an apartment in Norwalk and traveling on weekends and vacation time to Fitchburg.I am looking forward to regaining contact with friends in that area. We recognize that being apart will present some issues but the distance is not that great (3 hour trip) that it will make it impossible.

Red Sox

My favorite sport's team is the Boston Red Sox. As a youngster I lived and Died with how the Red Sox did. As you probably know I was 57 years old before they won a World Championship. In "67" with Yaz and Lonborg they had a miracle run to the American League title and then a defeat by Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals. That year they were in a neck to neck race with 3 other teams and they defeated the Twins on the last day to win the title. The last month of the season saw Yaz drive in winning runs or throw out a runner in a late inning or he made a great catch to save the day. Probably the greatest month by any player ever. The "75" team had Yaz and a few young up and coming players. Cinn Reds won in 7. I did get a chance to see one game in center field stands. Fisk's homerun is famous but they lost again. In "86" they won the league championship. Everyone knows the Buckner story and that was how our beloved Red Sox seemed to tear our hearts out every ten years. The joy of 2004 cannot be explained unless you have lived with all of the misery of Red Sox failures. Number 9 was my sports hero and I had the opportunity to see him at Fenway Park when I was very young. Even in Little League my number was 9.

Falling Waters

On one of our Boy's Trips we had the opportunity to go to Fallingwaters outside of Pittsburgh. Fallingwaters is the name of a very special house that is built over a waterfall. Frank Lloyd Wright, America's most famous architect, designed this summer house for his clients, the Kaufmann family. Fallingwaters was built between 1936 and 1939. It instantly became famous (LIFE Magazine front cover 1938) and today it is a National Historic Landmark.

Mountain Climbing

 

Baxter Peak

In my early twenties I had the opportunity to climb a few mountains in the New England area. I went on a Labor Day hike with my cousins (Sally and Carl) and Sally's boyfriend Ernie (future husband). We walked about 50 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Western Massachusetts. My cousins suffered a great deal because they had brought brand new boots and they had several blisters over the 3 days of hiking. Our backpacks weighted about 40 pounds at the start of the trip. The weight went down very quickly because we were very hungry and much of the weight was food product. I ended up hiking many more miles than the rest of them because of their blisters. I would go ahead and then backtrack to them. We had to follow trail maps that indicated where to go.
One of my friends Robbie liked to hike mountains and he invited me to climb with him. We climbed one of the mountains in the White Mountain range as well as Mount Kalahdin in Maine. Mount Kalahdin is the northern terminus of the 2160 mile Appalachian Trail. It is the tallest mountain in Maine at 5246 feet. The trip was very strenuous and took over four hours to reach the peak as well as four more hours to get back down. The mountain has a steep rocky terrain that leads to the summit which is Baxter Peak.

Brookside Elementary School at Carnegie Hall

ConnCAN: Brookside Elementary School, Norwalk, CT

Reading with a Pig

Brookside School Disc Golf

Daisy The Pig

I challenged my students at Brookside School to read at least 10,000 books during the months of January to March. If they reached their goal I would kiss a pig named Daisy (Datu). The students ended up reading over 12,500 books. Farmer Minor and Daisy ll was scheduled to visit Brookside School in early April. Daisy and Farmer Minor ended up doing a wonderful assembly with Farmer Minor telling his story about his "reading pig" and how he travels around the United States. Near the end of the talk I was called up to get a kiss from Daisy. Farmer Minor had me put a small piece of apple in my lips for Daisy to eat from my lips. Daisy gave me a little nibble on my chin and ate the apple piece as I gave him a kiss. It was a wonderful day and the kids enjoyed their time with Daisy the Pig.

Plymouth Road Runner Commercial 1968

RoadRunner 68

In 1968 I asked my father if I could cash in my Mutual Funds which totaled about $4000. I  was interested in buying my first car. I found a brand new model that was a Plymouth. It was called a Road Runner and it had the cartoon Road Runner decal as well as the horn would beep-beep when sounded. The car was fire engine red and was a 383 cubic inch engine with a 4 speed stick on the floor. It was voted the car of the year for 1968. It was part of the muscle cars that were produced during the late 60's and early 70's. The sound of the engine when idling was very loud. The car was extremely fast and it had an anti sway bar that allowed it to corner at a high rate of speed. I once was driving behind about ten cars on Ashby State Road. There was a straight stretch and I decided to pass the 10 to 12 cars. I was soon approaching about 100 mph as I got near the lead car. I noticed that my parents were in the front car and I had to make a quick decision - continue or slow down and let all the cars catch up with me. My decision was to continue as I went by them at 100 mph. I nervously awaited their arrival at home. Funny thing, they never said anything. I guess the red blur going by them was not recognized.
Beep-Beep