October 2018

Presidents’ Message. Can we try something different: whatever else life has given us (and on the whole, we seem to be a blessed group, living our lives where people come to be on their hard-won vacations), we all have memories we cherish dearly of moments in our lives that can never be taken away from us, that cause us to smile and feel better about and for the world every time they pass through our consciousness. And we have other memories that, even if harsh, even if unpleasant, are etched into our minds and become a core part of who we are. Do we write these memories down, to share, for our children and grandchildren, for our friends? Probably not, but maybe yes. If not, could we do so? Yes, of course we could. And we might be better for the effort. So, a thought: could we encourage each other or ourselves to sit down and share some of these memories, either as fact or filtered as fiction, or even in the form of poetry. Could someone come forward each month and provide a piece of his/ her life for the Newsletter. Wade Sayer, who teaches writing at CCCC, has given us permission to use a memory piece he wrote for Veteran’s Day last year as a test. We thank him for that. Can we get some volunteers for future Newsletters? Enjoy the weather and the uncrowds before it is uncrowded for a reason. Kit and Mike Sullivan

FIRST MEETING OF THE SNN WALKING CLUB UPCOMING ACTIVITIES FOR SEPTEMBER 2018 NEW MEMBER MEET AND GREET: FIRST MEETING, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3

On the first Wednesday of every month (or as necessarily adjusted), there will be a meeting to welcome new and prospective members to the Club to give an overview of our organization, and to discuss upcoming events. All are welcome to join us to share coffee, conversation, and ideas. Our first meeting will be held at 11 AM on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, at Rosi Holcombe's house, 3 Great Hills Drive, East Sandwich. Please email either Rosi at sparkyhol@ gmail.com or Marsha at [email protected] to let them know if you plan to attend.

PRIVATE TOUR: BOURNE FARM, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18 Let’s get out and enjoy the crisp fall air during a private tour booked at the Bourne Farm on October 18th at 10:30 AM. Afterwards we will enjoy a lunch near the farm at one of the local restaurants chosen by those who are going on the tour. (Suggestions: Mezza Luna, Lindsey’s, The Lobster Trap?) Please email Marie Luck if you will be joining us for this tour at:[email protected]. THE GREAT DEBATE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23

Jack Stanton (D) Randy Hunt (R)

The political season for the November General Elections is heating up even here in Sandwich. Join us on Tuesday October 23rd for an evening of both Democratic and Republican points of view from our local State Representative candidates for the 5th Barnstable District. Incumbent Randy Hunt (R) & Jack Stanton (D) will be with us and have an opportunity to speak to us, answer questions from our moderator Ed Collupy, rebut one another, & respond to what’s on your mind.

We’ll be meeting in the large back room at the British Beer Company (46 MA-6A, Sandwich, MA) at 6:30pm (it’s 2 for 1 pizza night) and the program will get underway at 7:00pm and wrap-up around 8:30pm. Please feel free to bring a friend or neighbor along to what will certainly be an interesting and lively evening. Although not a requirement but to help the restaurant with planning, let Ed ([email protected]) know if you’ll be joining us.

Editor’s Note: That we have both candidates for the State office closest to our lives coming for a special presentation for the SNN membership is an honor to us (and a tribute to hard work by Ed Collupy). Please make every effort to attend. We certainly want the candidates to be impressed by the crowd. With that in mind, friends and neighbors are more than welcome.

ANNUAL HALLOWEEN WINE SOCIAL: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 7:00 P.M.

One of our most fun events of the year. Come toooo the Halloween Party, wear a costooome, bring fun foooood appetizers or desserts, beverage of your chooooosing and try to find out whoooo is behind those other crazy masks.

Rosi and Bill Holcombe will host this festive celebration of the Eve of All Saints at their home, 3 Great Hills Drive, East Sandwich. Call Rosi and tell her you want to spoooook around at 203-313-4438 or email her at [email protected].

Please join us with or without a costume...... it's fun either way!

SAVE THE DATES

Museum of Fine Arts Exhibit: " French Pastels - Treasurers from the Vaults" - Thursday, November 8, 9:30 a.m.

On Thursday, November 8, a trip to is planned to visit the Museum of Fine Arts and specifically the exhibit, French Pastels - Treasurers from the Vaults. "This exhibit provides an exceptional opportunity to see firsthand nearly 40 seldom-shown masterworks by artists including Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Jean- François Millet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Odilon Redon, and Pierre- Auguste Renoir. "

Once we know the attendance, we will make arrangements to carpool together. We will have lunch at one of the several excellent restaurants at the Museum.

Please contact Anne Sayer if you are planning on joining us at [email protected] or 774-413-5242.

Cape Cod Symphony: December 2, 2018

We have reserved tickets for this year’s Symphony’s Holiday Pops Concert on Sunday, December 2, at 5:00 PM. There are only 6 tickets left. The seats are $49.60 each and are in rows E and F in the center orchestra section. Let Beth Houliknow if you would like her to hold a ticket for you. ([email protected]) She will request payment at a later date. Profile

Annie Adler, Membership Director

She loved the sound of her ski tips chattering across the flat ice, almost music making, anticipating… Turning at the ledge and heading down the steep slide of the bowl. This was why skiing the Rockies, skiing ‘powder’, was so much more fun than skiing in the east…or even the Alps of Switzerland or France. Her skis dove into the powder with a soft shussing sound. Felt the explosion bursting through snow banks. Then there was the speed downhill, traversing broad fields, jumps to the next ledge and long looping runs. The bowls of the Rockies were above the tree line, so the rock formations created jumps and bumps. Aspen was the best… And then long runs down to the trails at the trees and on… traversing the trails. Shifting weight, adjusting feet and knees, gliding over ice fields. Aspen had challenging trails for everyone, all skill levels. Her favorite place. This is Annie, loving challenges and enjoying life.

Annie grew up in her earliest years in Western ; West Stockbridge, Pittsfield. Her mother and father had moved to the U. S. from France, having suffered greatly during the Second World War. Her parents had been married at the beginning of the war, and her dad was in the French Army. He was captured early in the German occupation and was a prisoner of war for nearly five years. During that ordeal her mom stayed in Paris and survived the bombings hiding in the shelters on a regular basis. In 1948, they moved to Pittsfield, MA. because one of their friends knew of a job. There were few opportunities for work in Europe. Scraping to get by, they found jobs in the Albany, New York area. Her dad settled in working as a florist. Annie learned both French and English at home. She continued her education at the College of St. Rose in Albany earning a B.S. in Education and completing her Master’s Degree in Reading at the State University of New York at Albany. Annie taught various levels at the elementary schools of the Shenendehowa District and switched to teaching history at the middle school for the last 5 years of her 35 in the district.. During those years she participated in a State Department school exchange with a sister school in Nouakchott, Mauritania in northwest Africa. But her love was still skiing in the high mountains. Active with her local skiing club, She planned weekly ski trips to nearby Vermont mountains, trips to Canada, three or four weekends in the Rockies; Aspen, Steamboat, Vail. And usually one trip per year to France or Switzerland. She enjoyed the camaraderie of her friends and organizing weekend trips, and soon became President of the group. She spent much time in the mountains. She was able to take a year’s leave of absence from her job so she to moved to Colorado. Working on Snowmass and qualifying for ski patrol made her year there unforgettable . She thought this would be her dream fulfilled, but after a season in Aspen, she returned to her teaching in Albany, her real love. (and the job that paid the bills, she said) She met Prentice through the ski club, and they were married in 1988. They both loved skiing and traveling. And she expanded her love of cooking, especially French cuisine. Her mother was a good cook, and she followed her footsteps. She loves baking and entertaining. Their travels took them to France, Italy, Russia, and to their favorite place; on safari in Africa. They went to Victoria Falls, Botswana, Zimbabwe and to Kenya and Tanzania to see the migration of the Wildebeests. They have traveled the Nile from the Pyramids to the Suez. Additionally, they took up SCUBA diving, that took them diving in the Caribbean, to Tahiti and on to Bora Bora. South America as well, to Patagonia mountaineering. Annie and Prentice moved to the Cape four years ago after retiring from teaching. And that brought her closer to her nieces who live in the Boston area. They have a boat that they enjoy, and have made many friends. Actively involved in the Sandwich community, they are now happily involved in Newcomers. We wish them well as they take off for yet another trip, a working ship traveling the fjord coast of Norway from Bergen to the Arctic Circle and back… Long sunsets and short days. Maybe they can ski a glacier while they’re there. Bon Voyage!

Wade Sayer FROM OUR SEPTEMBER EVENTS

WALKING TOUR OF SANDWICH

Bill Daley shares his knowledge of Historic Sandwich The Wine social

MARTHA’S VINEYARD BIKE TRIP

WATERFIRE

ACTIVITIES

The Women’s Daytime Book Club meets 2nd Tuesday of each month at 10:00AM. New members are welcome. Coordinator is Patty Williams , ([email protected])

Men’s Poker Group meets first and third Tuesdays of the month at 7:00 PM . Coordinators are Paul Pronovost ([email protected]) and Henry Jablecki ([email protected])

Girl’s Night Out: Ladies go to early movie, and then supper at local restaurant. Contact Anne Sayer, ([email protected])

Special Events (maybe with lunch or dinner): Contact Marie Luck with any of your ideas.([email protected])

Mah Jongg: If interested in playing Mah Jongg and forming groups, please contact Jennie at [email protected])

Kayak Caucus: Sliding Quietly through the Cape’s bays, ponds, marshes and rivers. All levels of Kayaking welcome. Please email Coordinator Ed Houlihan at ([email protected]) to confirm you want to be included on the Kayak Caucus list. Please include your email address and the phone number where you can be reached on the day of the scheduled kayak trips.

Biking: Riding the pathways and the rail trails of the Cape, lunch at a local favorite. Patty Williams, Coordinator, ([email protected]) Fishing: Surf casting for blues and stripers in the bay or the canal. Welcome to beginners or experienced anglers. Seeking a new Coordinator.

Guy’s Get Together: Guys meet for coffee-breakfast and discussion of issues, large and small. 2nd and 4th Wednesday every month at the Marshland Too . Coordinator: Wade Sayer, ([email protected]) or 774-413-5242 Next up: TBA by Wade. Stay tuned.

MEMORIES

Flying into Bien Hoa Airbase in November 1967, our flight captain told us that the base was under fire and we should be prepared for a firefight as soon as we touched down, unloaded our vehicles and exited the plane. Weapons locked and loaded, we drove our trucks and trailers off the C-I41jet transport at the ready. We were wearing helmets, flak-vests, carrying M-16s and 5O-pound packs of ammunition and supplies. The Army and Air Force personnel on the ground met us wearing cut-off shorts, T- shirts and baseball caps, bandanas around their necks, pointing at us with their fingers and laughing. Ha, ha, ha. A good joke on us. Ha, ha, ha.

Fifty years later, I still get steamed about their “joke." Some joke! Our first moments in Vietnam in a war zone, and we were "punked" by a couple of pilots and a ground crew. Many of our airborne troops were destined to leave Vietnam in body bags or in boxes. Not so funny.

Fifty years. I can still remember the smell of the diesel fuel on the red clay dust. The smells of Vietnam; pigs and chickens walking around the villages, the smell of artillery fire and cannons, the sound of choppers overhead, truck convoys. ARVN soldiers standing around on street corners, local students hanging out during the day, working for the Viet Cong at night.

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have produced a wonderful historical documentary that describes how events unfolded from the view of national and international leaders, the historians, generals and the presidents. It is not the view of the guys I was with in the fox holes. We had patrols in rice paddies, elephant grass, up and down jungle hills and mountains, and packing our buddies onto med-a-vac choppers. We were sent out to the field to find the enemy, to have them shoot at us. Looking out for ambushes that killed soldiers, we were decoys drawing the enemy's fire. We drove through the City of Hue on the morning of Tet, only to have the city taken and held for 25 days by the North Vietnamese Army that same afternoon. We were in the DMZ and cut off from support. The coordinated attacks by the NVA and Viet Cong were across 150 cities, towns and military bases that Americans and their Vietnamese partners could not foresee.

We watched and read about our brothers, sisters and friends being beaten up by cops after Martin Luther King was shot, after Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, when college students sought to have their voices heard at the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

Fifty years ago, President Richard Nixon was elected to bring an end to the war in Vietnam. We were lied to, and lied to, and lied to some more. And then we were told that somehow it was our fault. Fifty years ago, and I remember every minute.

Wade Sayer

Board of Directors

Co-Presidents: Kit & Mike Sullivan. [email protected] [email protected]

Vice President, Ed Collupy [email protected]

Secretary, Marge Foster [email protected],

Treasurer, Jack Sample [email protected]

Publicity, Candice Murphy [email protected]

Special Events, Marie Luck [email protected]

Membership, Annie Adler [email protected]

Newsletter, Prentice Adler [email protected]

Wine Socials, Anne Sayer [email protected]