February, 2021 CARLETON COLLEGE CLASS of '59 2021 NEWSLETTER
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February, 2021 CARLETON COLLEGE CLASS OF ‘59 2021 NEWSLETTER INTRODUCTION Hi, '59ers, Here it is. Whazzup with those you know ... and some you don't. What they are doing. What they are thinking. Who is around them. Their joys. Their health. Their wry humor. All this in the following pages. Keep the newsletter in a convenient place so you can pick it up from time to time and absorb more of its wonderful stories. At the end of the newsletter we honor our classmates who the College reports have passed away since the 60th Reunion. Then the observation that you can take them out of doing the newsletter but you can't take the newsletter out of them ... Martha and Andrea have eased the transition in producing this one. Some of you have included photos with your stories. Rather than appearing in the newsletter itself, the photos are posted separately on our Class of '59 web pages of the College's website. To view them: 1. Use your browser to go to go.carleton.edu/1959; sign in as needed. (Problem signing in? Click on "Username/Password" link to the right of green "Sign In" action button.) 2. In the list on the left, click on the tenth dark orange row, titled "Class Newsletters". 3. Click on the link titled "2021 Newsletter (photos)". Worth exploring is other information contained on our Class of '59 web pages. To view the 60th Reunion Directory for our class, click on the ninth dark orange row, titled "Class Directory". Also useful on the College website is the Alumni Directory with perhaps more current information for contacting friends. Know that one way to contact the College is via our Class officers, Jay and Carol Jo Kent. And be aware that you may receive a call from John Wilder, Carolyn Cade, Wayne Penn, Lew Pollard, or other classmates who are simply promoting connections from 61 years ago. May the newsletter stir up good memories and even inspire you to reach out more to our Carleton family. Our best wishes, Beth and Don CLASSMATE NEWS Peggy (Fritzemeier) Bailey [email protected] News is hard to come by these days! It's been a different sort of year to say the least. I have spent pretty much all of it at my farm in south/central Pennsylvania. It's beautiful here year round! Our calving season has just begun. It's my favorite time but a lot of round the clock work for the man in charge. When it's all over we should have 64 calves! I was able to spend six weeks in California over Thanksgiving and Christmas visiting my youngest and my oldest and their families. Not a lot going on there either but it was great to be together! Jay Kent and I are trading handmade specialities. My stained glass window is gorgeous!! I still have several more hours of stabbing before my needlepoint is finished. My youngest grandson figured out that I will have poked my needle through the canvas 196,000 times when it is done. That's a lot. I think of all of you often and hope you are in good health. It's a blessing! George and Judy (Hanna) Batson [email protected] John Heusinkveld, son of Karen Knudsen Heusinkveld Coffin, lives in Tucson two blocks from Karen with his wife. The couple is restoring an old ranch consisting of a main house, outbuildings, and a casita. We have traveled to Tucson many winters to visit but in 2020 we were invited to enjoy the comfort of the casita and the use of the old pickup truck some of the month we visited Tucson. We were instructed to leave the hood of the truck raised when parked over night so the pack rats wouldn’t set up residence and chew wires. Wonderful experience! Our only other travel was to a VRBO in Allegan MI in August with as many of our kids and their families as could join us. We didn’t do any of the usual sight seeing, eating out, etc. except for a pontoon foray into Lake Michigan. All of our family enjoy cooking so we entertained ourselves with cooking, swimming in the pool and the channel at our dock, puzzles and games, and pickle ball for the younger set. Judy is enjoying reading The Three Lives of James Madison by Noah Feldman. It will probably require a second reading as there is so much history to absorb in one pass. She took time out to make a Christmas tree from the stash of broken shovel, rake, pitch fork, and push broom handles she has “made” over years. A needle-less tree is a challenge but it can be entertaining. We continue with the other challenge of trying to keep fit at our age. George has physical therapy adapted to his Parkinson’s and Judy uses the technique of alarm clock and journey to the gym before one can wake up and think about it. We miss being able to help out in the community, or go to church, or see our family whenever we want, or play bridge. This winter our entertainment is involved with a huge pile of rotting firewood that our neighbor has no use for. We spend many evenings burning the wood and old histories from our file cabinets. We also delight in the amaryllis and orchid plants on the kitchen table with their promising buds for the future. Ted Borman [email protected] Pam and I are in our lovely retirement home in Harwich on The Cape of the Cods. One of our classmates visited a couple of years ago but I'm afraid that my memory has failed me: he, his wife, and daughter dropped by for a lovely visit. As someone once said, "Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most!" We are joined by our son Geoff, who bailed out of NYC when the sirens arriving at the nearby Queens hospital kept him awake, so he abandoned his theater work and joined us. I now have two wonderful cooks who alternate making my dinner - he's making chicken piccata as I write. We are joined by 3 year old Finnegan, a cockapoo, who keeps me young and shapely by walking and ball chasing 3 miles at a time four or five times a week. With only three small bandaids on my belly which enabled same day surgery excision of my gallbladder (bad memory requires me to think of Green Bay when filling out health forms asking which organ I lost: G---B-- ---) I was able to walk to the car three hours after arriving. Now we are watching Mr. Trump wriggle as he approaches his departure from the WH, his arrest and, hopefully, imprisonment. When I can control my anger about his misdeeds, it's fascinating to watch. My good liberal arts education allows me to stay home and watch the terrible perversion of democracy as history unfolds. My daughter, who works from home in Boston, husband, and five year old grandson will join us for Christmas after cleansing themselves for the required internment. We see no friends - too cold to sit outside. Strange world! Best regards to all. Stay home, wear masks, and stay healthy! Linda (Lindquist) Bradford [email protected] Dear Friends - Thank you to Andrea and Martha for their many decades of producing and disseminating the class newsletter! You are heroic! Thank you to Beth and Don for picking up the responsibility for the missives! I have recently moved into a retirement community, Covenant Living of Colorado, in the Denver area. After a long search investigating possible retirement locations, I finally came to the realization that there is no perfect place. There is only the place with the fewest defects. I settled here in late 2019, into a half duplex. This place has many good features, including many activities (now mostly canceled because of COVID), decent food, friendly residents, a huge park abutting our property, lots of trees and birds, shopping nearby, etc. The main defect for me is that it is distant from everything I used to do in the part of Denver area where I lived starting in 1965. I have a car and a garage so I can get to my old haunts, but it takes time. But little by little I’m adjusting. I’m in good health and am striving to stay active and cogent. My four children, now in their 50’s, are thriving. (Oldest is a CC graduate.) My five grandchildren range in age from late 20’s to early teens, and they are all doing well in spite of the economic difficulties and online schooling. I am in Zoom groups with family, friends, painting group, and church choir, all of which are OK but not as good as real life, as I’m sure you know. I look forward to reading your newsy words for the class newsletter! Linda Lindquist Bradford Dave Burns [email protected] Heartfelt thanks to Andrea and Martha for their decades of newsletter service, and now to Beth and Don for resuming it. Sad to start with losing Barby to stroke in December. 59 years of a great love affair, and putting up with my love affair with railroading. I have much to be grateful and live for, but those of you who have sustained a similar loss know how momentary grief creeps in at the oddest times. Still teaching history classes at our continuing care facility, tutoring GED at a Resource Center for homeless kids, and continuing to learn right along wit them.....plus the novelty of doing both remotely.