Dr George Abbott White
A few quick (and tardy) responses before I head outside to what seems like an endless shovel routine. (Three storms in the last week, another on the way this weekend. Nothing like Dearborn days of course, but I caved in yesterday and invested in a semi-monster snowblower.)
Jim Gourd - Like the idea of sharing some of the past(s) we've recovered over the years. For thirty of them, I've stepped outside business trips in Central Europe and tried to track down the very obscure connections in Poland (Galicia); Czech Republic; and, Hungary. Knew she was born on the Lower East Side and - somehow - raised by Nuns around Tappan Zee area. Didn't know it was with her four brothers; they were virtually orphans. Learned my Dad's family not just Maritime (New Brunswick & Nova Scotia) but French Canadian Quebec. Many threads, many stories.
Paul Eisenberger - Ann and I got to Texas a year ago, memorial to an Ann Arbor friend we'd been close to and admired for his decades-long work with adult education and community colleges. (go Tom Hanks!) Am I right you are - or have been - in the Austin area? Wonder what comparisons, if any, with life in a state as large (and diverse) as France with our years in Michigan? Where we live in Boston (Brookline), seems there's a temple every other block. What happened in Dearborn?
Erik Smith - Sorry never to have caught up with you the trips we made to Michigan. Would have liked, then as now, to get your thoughts on the ways in which media, particularly TV/cable, changed and, in what ways. The Tampa/St Pete area somewhat familiar to me, no sense of how that plays out however.
Jim Blackburn - I think I sent some words along about your Mother a while back, certainly the importance of a school's staff to so many of the students considerable and, on many occasions in my experience, even more significant in certain cases than teachers. Last walked the halls of Edsel Ford a few years ago, all too briefly but had a chance conversation with the head Custodian. Perhaps half an hour with someone who had seen some time pass by and was not unaware of who many of the students were and, like us, the impact of the school upon them. On reflection, we were fortunate to have many of the teachers we had, the curriculum they developed and taught, and the exchanges between one another. Did time pass too slowly then, all too quickly now?
|