A young man with his new born son – my husband Ian and Baby James – our first born – April 1969

My father had 4 siblings – 2 brothers Roy and Dana and 2 sisters Ruth and Myrtle. I did not know this side of my family very well. My grandfather died when my father was very young, about 8 years old. And his brother Dana died tragically long before I was born.

My father’s home was in Newark Ohio

See my previous blog entry Give Thanks

When I last wrote I got as far as Los Angeles in my account of “how I knew my friend Rachel”

To continue the story, I tagged along with two of my friends from Northwestern to travel north to San Francisco where they had friends. So with friends and friends of friends I went camping up in the mountains on a lake. We camped for about a week if I recall correctly.

Returning to San Francisco, I thought why not continue on north to Seattle and visit Rachel. I took the scenic route north via Greyhound Bus and proceeded to visit Rachel in West Seattle. Again, a turning point developed. Fortune had its way and I subsequently spent 8 months in Seattle.

In June of the following year, Rachel and her parents and I drove together, in 2 cars, to return to our New England roots. I think the highlight of that trip was visiting Yellowstone National Park and witnessing Old Faithful’s hourly eruption.

The years passed – Rachel went to teach in a U.S, Army school in Heidelberg Germany. I went to work for Arthur D. Little, a management consulting firm in Cambridge Massachusetts. I had a combination business and vacation trip to Europe. Rachel suggested meeting in London. We agreed to meet at the Cheshire Cheese near St Paul’s Cathedral. We met at the appointed time but Rachel was in a bit of a flap as she was temporarily parked illegally nearby. It was unusual for Rachel to be fussed but we scurried off to her little Volkswagen beetle and hurried away to our lodgings.

We spent a few days in London together and then went our separate ways to Heidelberg and Zurich. After my business week in Zurich, I went to Heideburg to spend a few more days with Rachel.

Rachel’s next teaching post was in Lexington Mass – we shared an apartment. in nearby Cambridge, along with a mutual close friend Lucy. Soon, Lucy and I were the bridesmaids for Rachel and Jim’s wedding.

Rachel and Jim moved to Colorado. I moved to San Francisco/Berkeley and then to Nairobi Kenya. On the way to Nairobi from San Francisco, I stopped in Colorado to visit Rachel. She had given birth to Phil and I remember being given a demonstration of how to change a diaper.

The years passed……..the next installment of this saga will be forthcoming in Part 3

Rachel, a close friend has passed away, I give thanks for her life and the joy of knowing her for many years. We first met in our freshman year at Middlebury College in Vermont. We lived a few doors apart in one of the Freshman dormitories – Battell North. Come Sophomore year we both lived in the Chateau, again a few doors apart. In our Junior year we were Junior counselors and we shared a room in Battell South. And in Senior year we lived a few doors apart in Forest West.

During our 4 years at Middlebury we shared many activities, both academic and extra curricular. Rachel’s home in Gardner Massachusetts, not too far from my home in Belmont Mass. Our families got to know each other. And there were even points where the 2 families intertwined (one of Rachel’s uncles was the law partner of my sister’s father-in-law.)

After we graduated from Middlebury, Rachel went far away across the Country to Seattle to teach 6th grade in an elementary school in West Seattle. I went only part way across the country to attend graduate school at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago.

I earned my Master’s Degree in one year and then travelled in Europe in the summer of 1959. When I returned from Europe I went out to Chicago/Evanston to attend another Middlebury classmate’s wedding. In Evanston I contacted some of my classmates from the previous year. That was a pivotal contact. Three of them were driving out to Los Angeles. They were leaving within a few hours and had room for an additional passenger. Well, I was footloose and fancy free and had been thinking of possibly looking for a job in San Francisco, Seattle or Denver.

To cut a long story short, I seized the opportunity to go with my Northwestern friends – on Route 66!

To be continued

I can’t remember exactly when this was sent. It would have been a summer between 1995 and 2010.