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| Pam and James on the Michael S. Van Leesten Memorial Bridge Providence Rhode Island -- May 9, 2025 |
As shown on last year's post, we started our 38th year of wedded bliss at Kripolu, a lovely retreat in the Berkshires. We remember that fondly and we shall return! Pam, in fact, did go back briefly with a friend during the year.
Looking over the calendar, we find that the next significant event was the building of TWO sheds at Whaling House in Fairhaven. This was the first tangible step in what became a year-long project of transition that is hinted at by the title of this post. Putting the sheds up allowed us to empty the garage of our weekend house -- one shed for tools and the like; the other for firewood. This gives our 0.31 acres the feel of a tiny compound!
Our first adventure of the year was a Mammoth Walk -- our first (and maybe last) time as participants in a series of one-day hiking challenges. Having succeeded in two 10k walks across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, we thought that a 20-mile walk in the woods would be in reach. We were mistaken, but we are glad we tried and that there was a nice bail-out vehicle at Mile 11 (that's 17K).
Our year overlapped almost entirely with Pam's Dragon Year (to do with her reaching her fifth Year of the Dragon in Chinese Zodiac terms). This was mostly a literary journey for her, but we read some dragon books together and did other dragon things. Most notable was our visit to the Roger Williams Zoo in Rhode Island for a special dragon exhibit -- dragons and other mythical creatures were represented by dozens of sculptures and figures throughout the zoo.
The transition in our housing began officially on June 10, when we vacated our weekend home (Whaling House) in Fairhaven, with interior demolition beginning that morning. We put everything we were keeping at the Fairhaven house into the bedrooms and the aforementioned sheds. The rest was stripped back to the studs and rafters by Quinlan & Company.
Later in June, we attended the wedding of our friends Brendan and Ruth in a beautiful ceremony in Falmouth, on the lovely grounds of one of Cape Cod's first mansions. While there, we had a scrumptious dinner at Romeo's, a restaurant that had recently been opened by the son of James' rowing friend Barbara Pontolilo.
We enjoyed a wonderful reading and musical performance by the Cape Verdean musician and writer Candida Rose. James had the privilege of catching up with her again just a couple of days before writing this post!
June 30, 2024 was Pam's official retirement date.
One lunch date is pertinent to the theme of this year. Amy Lecuyer visited our Bridgewater home for a lunch and long conversation on the back deck. (We cherish the many lingering meals we enjoyed on that deck.) Amy is a credit-union manager James had met almost a decade before, when she noticed our address on a transaction and went on to tell us about the ghosts that haunted the kids in her family when she was growing up there. Back at that time, our son Harvey shared many stories with her -- their memories of the ghosts lined up remarkably, though Pam and I never saw or heard a thing. During that lunch, Amy told us many stories of the house and her own family's experience. When we later put the house on the market, she was able to bring a childhood friend to see their old haunts. It had apparently been an important place of refuge for that friend when they were growing up.
We listen to a lot of audio books -- one of them, entitled All's Well by Mona Awad -- was an engaging novel about a production of Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well. Neither of us had seen or read that play, and indeed Pam had not heard of it. So she set about looking for performances and found that it was playing in Ithaca, home of our dear friend (and James' former professor) Hillary Lambert. Not only did we have a wonderful stay with her, but we also got a chance to visit one of Harriet Tubman's historic sites and to revisit the "gorges" city of Ithaca. Moreover, the local production of the play was both marvelous and eventful, as a child was lost (and thankfully found) in a chasm off stage left during the performance.
In August we visited family in Maryland and killed invasive lantern flies while dining with our friends Marga and Ed on a restaurant deck in a leafy corner of Catonsville. Most of the flies were on James' head and shoulders, and everyone had a turn swatting them.
Not nearly as large in scale as the Chicago Architecture Boat Tour but just as enjoyable is the Providence version. It was a great opportunity to learn local history in general and architectural history in particular during a daytime excursion on the waters that host the nighttime Waterfire events we have enjoyed so many times over the years.
After swearing she would never work for the university again, Pam caved (because her friend Cynthia asked nicely) and worked on a part-time basis in the fall semester until a new librarian was hired in her stead.
Apple falling not far from the tree updates: our son Harvey took a part-time job with our friends at Equal Exchange, stocking coffee and tea in more than a dozen Market Basket stores in southeastern New England. Even better, he aced his first year as a graduate student in library school at the University of Rhode Island. He excelled in his classes and also became involved in campus governance. He also continued whaleboat rowing and working as a Wrangler in Project EarthView.
He also started dating Luke, a wonderful young man who grew up on the water nearby. We have enjoyed having him in our home regularly this spring.
Speaking of EarthView: after 16 years and about 130,000 students served, James stepped down from leadership of the giant globe program in area schools. It continues to be the most significant outreach program at Bridgwater State University and the most significant geography outreach program in North America. This is possible because we transitioned the program to Courtney Sutcliffe, an extraordinary alumna who first came to geography because of the program.
We successfully completed our third Bay Bridge 10k walk, which ends near Bob and Teresa's home on the bay. Sadly, Bob was not able to join us this time because of serious mobility problems that emerged earlier in the year. We did enjoy a visit with them at their home.
The end of the year was challenging in a few ways. Just as we were starting to become frustrated by the very slow progress on Whaling House, we had significant health problems. The first was an ambulance ride for Pam as she was struck by diverticulitis. This was a proverbial wake-up call for both of us and began a switch from somewhat healthy eating so much healthier eating. We were both sick with respiratory illnesses right after that, and recovery was slow. The holidays were not so much fun, especially for Pam. But as of this writing, we are fitter and becoming even more so!
We were grateful that we were both healthy enough for a fabulous Broadway outing. We took the train to Manhattan and stayed right on Times Square just a couple days after the ball had dropped -- we could still see the ball from our hotel window! Another audiobook we had recently read was Tom Lake by Ann Patchet -- another novel about community theater. In this case, the fictional company had put on Thornton Wilder's Our Town. When we found that the actual play was coming to Broadway with an amazing cast, we read Wilder's book and got ourselves tickets to the show. Jim Parsons, Katie Holmes and Richard Thomas (John-Boy Walton) did not disappoint. We also had dinner in the city with an old friend, Debbie Rodriguez whom we had not seen since 1988!
Another literary note: during the year we had finally read Innocence Under the Elms. We had heard about it for years but had not gotten to it. Amy (at the lunch mentioned above) talked about how our house was mentioned (not directly, but close). It is the memoir of a woman who had been a young girl in our very neighborhood a century before. It was a perfect thing to read during our final year in town. And it was timely to have finished it just before seeing Wilder's play. Author Louise Dickinson Rich had apparently read Out Town, because her opening chapter matches the cadence and style of that play's opening lines.
Westport Rivers is our favorite winery, located just a few miles from our seaside home in Fairhaven. Given the climate, it specializes in white wines. Given climate change, it is starting to work with some success in red wines. We had a double-date with our friends Kendra and David a the vineyard for a members-only barrel tasting of some of these new wines. Perfect for some nerdy oenophiles!
As our Fairhaven renovations finally seemed to draw closer to a conclusion, we put our Bridgewater home on the market in early February and made preparations to begin moving. We took up full-time residence in Fairhaven on Valentine's weekend. The transition was long and a bit complicated as we consolidated the two households and our contractors worked around us on lingering details.
In March, James went to the Association of American Geographers meeting in Detroit, mainly because it gave him an opportunity to revisit a city that we have been to only for one day, but about which James teaches a colloquium each year. It was a very rewarding experience, with a full week spent in a hotel inside GM headquarters with colleague Rob Hellström.
Courtesy of Buzzards Bay Coalition, we took a voyage to Cuttyhunk on a seal and seabird cruise. It was VERY cold but beautiful. James also set sail with New Bedford middle schoolers on the historic Schooner Ernestina/Morrissey -- a dream many years anticipated. He will be working with Buzzards Bay as that program continues and develops. (Year 39 spoiler: the whole family went on the ship a few weeks later.)
We finished our 38th year with a small bridge adventure. Having crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge three times and the Cuomo (Tappan Zee) over the Hudson once, we had our eye on a small pedestrian bridge in Providence. We decided to make that part of our anniversary celebration this year. We booked a room at the Graduate by Hilton, better known as the historic Biltmore, and walked a loop in the rain to cross that bridge. The raincoats shown above are about to be retired, as they were not up to that adventure!
This was our first (and it is to be hoped only) time selling a house and it has not been fun. As of this writing, we are still a couple days away from closing. Then we shall exhale!
Losses
We had some very sad losses this year as well. One was that James' father took a serious fall while James was visiting him in January. The purpose of the visit had been to help get him ready for transition to Bob & Teresa's house. This changed suddenly in many ways as he broke his hip and never returned to his own apartment. After several months in various kinds of rehab, he is now in that home by the Bay with his other son and our wonderful sister-in-law Teresa.
Tom St. Thomas had been our friend during our entire time in Bridgwater. He was a friendly, goofy, modest guy who was also very handy. He and his wife Sue had painted most of the interior of our Bridgewater house, room by room, over the years. He and his friend Barry had done significant projects there most notably a small upgrade to the bath, a major upgrade to the kitchen, and a perfectly marvelous back deck. They had also done some major projects at Whaling House, including the "reading room" that currently serves as Harvey's ADU. He was helping us with a ceiling leak in the middle of the year when James noticed he was walking unevenly. It turned out he had some neurological problems that had just been identified, and his health failed quickly after that. Our church has never been fuller than it was the day of his memorial. Everyone there was a close friend.
Even closer to home, we lost Judy, Grammy, the Judester. Pam's mother Judy Helbing had texted with Pam one day and became seriously ill the next night. Fortunately, Pam and Harvey were able to get there quickly. She died three days before her 84th birthday with all of her children and grandchildren at her side. We were all saddened very much. Similar to Tom, she saw the best in everyone, and many counted her a close friend. James took a full week off teaching and needed it. He watched old British murder mysteries in her honor.