Babysitting, Book Buying, Leaf Peeping, Shopping, and Lunch Out

Update - October 21 – October 27

-- Paige Visits to Help with Baby Olive

Paige Wright

My niece Paige has no college classes on Tuesday, so she asked if she could come over to the house each Tuesday to help care for Lucy and Olive. Patti and I agreed that it was a good idea and have encouraged her to come any time she wants. This Tuesday, Paige stopped by and immediately began helping with feeding, bathing, and rocking Olive to sleep. She also spent some quality time with Lucy including some effort guiding Lucy with coloring within the lines.

As Patti has spent over 40 years in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at UMass Memorial Hospital, she has the ideal technique for instructing anyone who wants to know how to care for an infant. In a mere moment, she can make any fussing or squirming by Olive turn into smiles and gurgles. Changing diapers, preparing formula for the bottle, and proper cradling for feeding are made easy for all. Paige has a light college schedule right now, so she has the time to visit and spend time with Lucy and Baby Olive. I know she enjoys it and it's always helpful to have additional hands around when one baby wants to sleep and the other wants to be outside trying out the bicycle. 

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READ my Blog "The Books of Richard F Wright" (Books, Bookstores, Writing)
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-- A Visit to Gale Library Book Cellar Yields New Treasures

Anything Named Olive Must be Great

Lucy has a large appetite for books, as I do, so I try to add one or more to her collection each week. At the public library bookshop, I can buy children’s books for 50 cents apiece; sometimes less. So, I keep my eye open for anything I think Lucy will like. This trip found two books; one was the Bunny Rabbit’s Assistant and the other was Olive and the Embarrassing Gift. I could not resist a book with “Olive” in the title. I read it and decided it was a fun story with a good life lesson, so I picked it up.

I also bought several other books for my own reading: Bridge of Spies by Giles Whittell; The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick; Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky; The New Russians by Hedrick Smith; The Yom Kippur War, edited by Moshe Davis; and Jerusalem by Karen Armstrong. My total investment, including the children’s books, was $12.

-- Learning About the Wachusett Reservoir

Patti and Old Stone Church

Patti had Friday off, so we decided to make a run to BJ’s Wholesale Club where we could find things in boxes and bags big enough for someone running a restaurant, or for our household lately. Why buy 10 rolls of paper towels when you can buy 24? I guess I’m still low on the learning curve as far as the value in bulk buying for a mostly retired couple.

As part of the run to the wholesale club, we included a stop for some further leaf-peeping and photo-taking. We stopped at the Wachusett Reservoir near the Old Stone Church to get some shots. I also took the time to read about the newly completed irrigation and run-off system installed around the reservoir to cut down on pollutants draining off into the reservoir. The whole concept and design were impressive and I’m glad to see that it was done in a manner that allows it to be instructional for visitors to better understand how the reservoir is being protected.

-- Lunch in Shrewsbury at Burton’s Grill and Bar

Lunch at Burton's

I was in the mood for fish tacos and Patti was hungry but didn’t know what she wanted. So, Burton’s Grill and Bar was a good choice. They have a big menu, so I knew Patti would find something she liked. It turned out to be the Mediterranean Chicken Risotto and I got the “street” tacos. Very good. She got some exotic drink and I got a glass of wine. We agreed we liked the service, the atmosphere, and the food, so it was a good visit. Burton's is in the complex of residences, businesses and retail services that took over space where Spag's used to be. It's sad that Spag's is gone, but I'm happy to see the area upgraded this way. 

-- Bonus Visit from Olive and Lucy on the Weekend

Lucy and Paige; Artists

Olive Helen Perras

Corinne had an appointment for Saturday afternoon, so, even though Patti had to work, I agreed to take both granddaughters for the afternoon. Paige volunteered to help, so she came over in the afternoon. It was a fun day for everyone. When Baby Olive arrived, she was at the peak of interest in being fed. So, I took charge of giving her a bottle feeding while simultaneously pulling out the potty seat for Lucy to take into the privacy of the guest bathroom. I literally had my hands full; first with a squirming, hungry infant, and second with a squirming, desperate, four-year-old looking for some relief.

Paige, Lucy, Lilly, Marna, Olive

Things settled down when Paige arrived so that between us we could keep everyone occupied. Lucy really enjoyed the attention she got from Paige when it was time to draw. Together, they worked at the table creating various bits of artwork to share with everyone.

When Paige was dropped off, her sister Lily and her Mother, Marna, stopped in for a while to visit with Olive. Lucy requested that everyone pose for a photo - with her in the middle (naturally). So the photo is included here so that she knows her Papa will comply with reasonable requests.

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Reading Update: I picked up "A Safe Haven" by Allis and Ronal Radosh quite a while back at Yes Books, a used bookshop, in Portland, Maine, but only just got around to reading it. I have always been struck by the fact Harry Truman was President when I was born and as the years have gone by I have come to realize he was actually a very good President. This book deals with the issue of how Truman coped with the pressures on him, the country, and the world as the Jews tried to establish a homeland in what has become Israel.

Despite a lot of promises made by many over the years, it was to finally land on Truman's desk to make the final push that allowed Israel to join the family of nations. The book reads like a fast-paced novel with intrigue, deception, bitter conflict, and recriminations that if it wasn't all true would seem like preposterous myth-making. It's no myth, Truman made the choices at the time that went against political expediency and international trauma, to finally help Jews around the world find a "safe haven."

Used Books, Cataloging, and High School Reunion

UPDATE - September 9 - September 15

-- More Books for Lucy

It used to be my weekly practice to visit the library every Thursday evening on my way home from work. The Book Cellar, in the basement of the Gale Public Library, is a treasure-trove of used books. Many of the books are from the library's collection, now being removed. Others are books donated by local citizens who want to contribute to the library. These donations offer a great opportunity for finding great used books. The prices at the bookstore run from 50 cents to two dollars. It's hard to beat that.

Some recent new titles for Lucy

Lately, I have been able to also visit on Tuesday, during the day, when the store is open from 2PM to 4PM. My more casual personal schedule makes this easier than hazarding the commuter traffic at the intersection of Route 122A and Rt 31 in downtown Holden. Not that this compares to Kelly Square in Worcester, but it is a source of certain backups from time to time.

Lucy has developed a "surprise" syndrome, part of which is our fault. She expects surprises when she visits, so it's always good to have a backup of "new" books for her. Many of the books are kept here although occasionally she asks if she can take some home for her Daddy to read to her. That's always a request we honor. The more she reads, here and at home, the happier we are for her.

-- Film Research Continues

I spent quite a lot of time continuing to scroll through the old 8mm movie film to see if I could find footage from my days in the Air Force. There was one section of footage where I could clearly identify a half dozen of my fellow airmen. The problem with the footage is that I can't tell exactly when it took place and where we were going. The C-130 was clear enough on the runway, but there is no destination footage to indicate if it was the Pentagon, the SAGE headquarters in Montana, or some other TDY location that we went to during that period. I will keep looking at film.

-- Cataloging Continues

-- My other working project is the cataloging of my Father's newspaper columns. I continue to look for a method to catalog them without overdoing it. No one is going to want to cross-reference them to any great degree. But, I am trying to find a way to select a group of them that I might compile into a publishable collection. I will keep working on it.

-- 50th High School Reunion on Saturday

Cake Makes is Offical: 50 Years

It was hard to believe that High School was 50 years ago. But, on Saturday, we held a class reunion at Indian Ranch in Webster, MA, which was well attended. Patti and I drove to Webster not quite sure what it would be like, but it turned out fine. Ray and Nia were there and so were a lot of old friends that I hadn't seen for a very long time. I spent a lot of time reintroducing myself to a lot of long-lost characters and I'm sure glad we got to go. I have come to realize that high school friends unless they have really stayed nearby, were really easy to lose touch with. The same can be said for the college and Air Force friends as well. We stayed in touch with so few as time went by that it's hard to find them now. With today's access to connected access such as social media, it will be much easier for the current generation to maintain contact in the years ahead.

Autographed 

Reading Update: More than once I have found autographed books for sale at the library. A recent find was the war memoir Inside the Battle of the Bulge, A Private Comes of Age, by Roscoe (Rocky) C. Blunt Jr. The book was written in 1994 over 50 years after Rocky endured the hardships of being a foot soldier during World War II. Rocky later became a well-known newspaper reporter for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. The copy I found had an inscription by Rocky, "To Charlie Hugo: Frozen feet in the Orient hurt as much as frozen feet in the ETO. Warmest regards always! Roscoe C. Blunt Jr. 16 Dec '94.

The book is relentlessly candid about his feelings, his behavior, and his evolving attitude about the war, himself, and life in general. There is a gritty detail to his daily interaction with fellow soldiers, enemy soldiers, and the army superiors that he had to deal with as he crossed France, into Belgium, and into Germany. I have discovered that he wrote other books so I will be on the lookout for those too. Based on incomplete research, Charlie Hugo could have been from Holden MA and passed away in 2005. Rocky passed away in 2011.