Roaring, Romping and Rippling

Yes, I've finally reached the letter R in my alphabetical list of possible duplicates. I got through Q pretty quickly despite a lot of music related titles beginning with the words Quintet and Quartet.

As usual, summer is passing by too quickly. It is roaring, romping and rippling through my life. Also, as usual, summer has been very busy. There was a 3 day trip to Lenox to see Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew performed by Shakespeare and Company. They always do such a wonderful job.

An added bit of pleasure during the Lenox trip was lunch with an old friend. H and I worked together at UMass/Amherst when the library was in Goodell. We weren't great pals, didn't hang around together, but were friendly at work. Several years later, when I was Head of Technical Services for the Western Mass. Regional Library System, I attended an OLAC (Online AudioVisual Catalogers) conference. H introduced herself and reminded me of our shared employment many years earlier. We spent some time together at the conference and went our separate ways.

Then a few years ago while M and I were in Provincetown, waiting in line to see a Tennessee Williams play, I spotted H! There was a flurry of "Hellos" and "How are yous" before entering the theater. She also told me that a mutual librarian friend of ours, R, was also at the TW festival. During the next few days, we kept running into each other and catching up in bits and pieces. It was fun to actually sit down with her and spend some un-rushed time together. We'll both be at the TW festival at the end of September with our spouses and may have another lunch date.

M and I have lived in our home in Hatfield for 21+ years and have talked repeatedly about hosting a street-wide (or is that street-long?) party. Two of our neighbors have done so in the past and it's fun to meet the people you live close to but only see as you're driving by. We live at the far end of the street, so we see everyone else's houses, but only one other couple, the one who live beyond us, ever sees ours. There's not a lot of turnover on this street, but there is some.

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Two of the newest people will be coming along with others we've met before. Weather forecast is for hot and humid with a slight chance of showers. M and I try to have parties (small and large) on a regular basis. It motivates us to keep the house and yard looking good and is the incentive we need to tackle all those little projects on the "to-do" list.

The little pond/waterfall sprung a leak last year. Guess what? It's FINALLY fixed and running.

The Last Time I Saw B.

Everyone knew B. He was a celebrity during the time I worked at Harper and Row (now HarperCollins). He was one of the highest grossing sales reps, though he was rather unorthodox and nontraditional as sales reps go.

We began hanging together at one of the national sales meetings and kept in touch via phone and mail. In 1982, I wanted to make a road trip to visit friends who had moved away from Massachusetts. I outlined my route, then contacted B and asked if he wanted to do any part of it with me.

After I spent a couple of days in New Jersey and a couple of days in Indiana, B and I met in Denver. We visited my friend, visited some of his friends, camped out near Aspen, and generally had a great time touring around Colorado. Then I headed for Missouri followed by Buffalo, NY.

A couple of years later, I got tired of being a publisher's sales rep and went back to being a librarian. In 1986, I attended the American Library Association conference in NYC. I had told B when I'd be there and, sure enough, he showed up. We met with some of the H and R editors for drinks, went out to dinner and took in some of the sights.

The following year, the ALA conference was in San Francisco. I stayed on several more days to visit my younger sister, Wendy, who was living in Berkeley. B joined us for a short time and then headed off on other adventures.

The next summer, I was at the ALA conference in New Orleans. I had told B I'd be there. I expected to run into him on Bourbon Street, but I never saw him. For whatever reason, after that we lost touch. Those couple of days in Berkeley was the last time I saw B.

I've been thinking a lot about Wendy and remembering our time together in Berkeley; the only extended time she and I ever spent together as adults. Though it wasn't a long time, I got to know a lot about her. And having someone else there for part of that time, someone from outside the family, gave additional dimensions to my picture of her.

Thinking about Wendy and those days in Berkeley, I can't help but also remember it was the last time I saw B. I wondered what ever happened to him. Lo and behold, he's on Facebook and is now one of my Friends. He remembered Wendy and our time in Berkeley.

Wendy died last week. I'm very sad. Communicating with B, having him remember her, is a link to Wendy that I find comforting.