September 2014 • Volume 32 • Number 3

Carleton-Willard Villager

september 2014 • Volume 32 • Number 3 T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d Editor’s Corner Villager Published quarterly by and for the residents and administration of Carleton-Willard Village, an ac- credited continuing care retirement community at 100 Old Billerica Road, Bedford, Massachusetts 01730. n selecting “By Chance” as the theme for this Iissue, none of us could have foreseen that our Editor indomitable editor would dramatically epitomize this theme by breaking a hip! Sadly, Jim Stock- James I. Stockwell well is no longer with us. As president of the Residents’ Association, the Men’s Breakfasts, a Assistant Editor Nature group, as well as many ad hoc commit- Mary M. Cowham tees, he contributed greatly to the general better- ment of the Village. Best of all, he loved working Editorial Board on the Villager. Edwin Cox • Henry Hoover During his eight years as Editor, Jim always Peggy McKibben • Alice B. Morrish contributed light-hearted items, and was ever Anne Schmalz • Mary E. Welch ready to help others in polishing up potentially interesting articles. He also spent countless Cornelia (Neela) Zinsser hours on the Internet searching for suitable il- lustrations, and checking the accuracy of vari- Production Staff ously stated facts. Kathy Copeland Proof of his tireless efforts to prepare a worthwhile magazine, despite his failing health, Circulation is evident in Jim’s September 2014 file. It con- Ruth Y. McDade, Chair • Arlene Connolly tains about seventy percent of the material that Ardelle W. Janes • Janet Kennedy is in this issue, including Face First, the last Mary Waters Shepley • Sheila Veidenheimer item he ever wrote. My fellow board members and I are therefore pleased to publish it as the opening item in this issue, as a final tribute to Carleton-Willard Village Administration Jim Stockwell – a man of many talents with Barbara A. Doyle many friends, who will be greatly missed by ev- President/CEO eryone at Carleton-Willard.

Mary Cowham Assistant Editor

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 2 Contents

Cover – Up Close at Motif No. 1 by Constance (Connie) Hanley Sketches – by Anne Schmalz Inside Front Cover Editor’s Corner • Mary Cowham 2 From the Chief Executive Officer •Barbara A. Doyle 3 Face First • Jim Stockwell 3 Could We? • Shea Smith 4 Florence, By Chance • Sue Hay 4 Deeply Mist • Edith Gilmore 5 The Curved Stone Bench • Harry Hoover 7 Welcome New Residents 7 At Your Service • Louise Curtis 7 A Telephone Memoir • Bill Stern 8 Profiles • Ruth Custance, Mary L. Devoe, Richard Cohen, Stephanie Rolfe, Dorothy Hart Rand, Jacqueline R. Berwick 12 Village Happenings • Edwin Cox 14 Chance Encounter • Peggy McKibben 14 The Freedom of the Sparrows • Mary E. O’Meara 15 For Want of a Roommate • Esther K. Braun 15 By Chance • Ara Tyler 16 Teenage Mountain Adventure • Bob Sawyer 17 Home Invasion • Janet Kennedy 18 In Memory 18 Backyard Insurrection • Alice Morrish 19 Going to Seed at Carleton-Willard • Anne Schmalz 20 The Black Hole • Neela Zinsser 21 Facts from the Stacks • Katherine F. Graff 22 Among the Newest • Katherine F. Graff 23 Recent Library Acquisitions • Katherine F. Graff

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 1 From the Chief Executive Officer

“Look before you leap.” “Don’t leave anything to chance.” “Better to be safe than sorry.” I can remember these adages and more taught to me by ever-watchful adults.

It’s understandable, instructing a child to be cautious, to play it safe, and my lessons certainly stuck. Anyone who knows me knows I am one to carefully think things through before making a big decision. But there are times—we all have them—when doors are unexpectedly opened for us. We’re offered a glimpse of new possibilities, along with the opportunity to walk on through.

I’ve always been inspired by those who boldly struck out in a different direction, often against the howl of skeptics. Inventors, explorers, artists, giants of industry, the history books are full of them. What was their secret to success? Foresight? Destiny? Perhaps. But more, I think it may have been a matter of summoning the courage to cross the bridge between what is and what could be.

Have you ever seen accomplished jazz musicians in concert? Everyone is confident and well-rehearsed, a master of his or her instrument. And though they may be playing music a half century old—you may have heard “Take Five” or “My Funny Valentine” a thousand times before—there’s a sense that anything might happen. The apparent randomness and chance of jazz is actually a response to those opening doors. Jazz musicians are keenly aware of possibilities, the different places the music can go. So when an opportunity to explore a new direction presents itself, they fearlessly jump at the chance No debates, no hesitation. Risky? Definitely. Exciting? Yet bet. Worth it? Absolutely!

As Alexander the Great said, “Fortune favors the bold.” I’ve written before that our Village was born at a time when the continuing care concept had not fully materialized. We had a sense of what might be and we were fortunate to have very dedicated people determined to see the process through. But in so many ways, we were in uncharted territory.

It’s how these things go. You can sit on the sidelines waiting for absolute certainty, or having prepared yourself well, you take a leap of faith.

That’s the kind of chance always worth taking.

Barbara A. Doyle President/CEO

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 2 Face First Could We?

n a beautiful fall day several years ago I ne of the most memorable events of my life Owalked alone along the Perimeter Path, not Owas a two and a half month trip through the a journey I would take today. After marching UK and Europe following graduation from Wis- with care over the somewhat loose boardwalk consin University in 1938. In my freshman year, from Southeast to Northwest, I came to a sec- two of my Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brothers tion of the dirt path covered with recently fallen and I began to talk about the possibility of taking brown leaves. You guessed it. I tripped on a tree a grand tour of Europe following graduation. root hidden under the leaves and fell flat on my We talked so much about it for four years that face: no broken bones, no severe bruises, and we were determined to do it. In our senior year, no glasses. When I hit the ground my brown a friend from another fraternity heard about it rimmed bifocals took off to parts unknown. Have and asked if he could join us. He owned a car, you ever tried to find your glasses in a pile of we said “Yes,” and ended up using his car for the leaves when you don’t have your glasses on to do transportation from Madison, Wisconsin, to New the search? York, then through twelve countries in Europe I have had years of experience on wooded and back to Madison. For all four of us it was the paths in my pre-Carleton-Willard residen- longest, most marvelous vacation of our lifetime. cies and after a fruitless search in the leaves I As it turned out, it was the last year we could marked the scene of the accident with a couple have done it because of World War II. of fallen branches, hoping that no other adven- We drove from Madison to New York and on turous resident would come along and acciden- June 24 put ourselves and auto on the Holland tally crush my only pair of glasses. I retraced American Line’s Statendam. Seven days later my steps to 43 Concord Court, picked up my we landed in Plymouth, England, and began the hand rake, and returned to the accident scene, drive to London, stopping off in Exeter on the raking all the leaves within an eight foot diam- way. From London we visited several cities on eter circle into a big pile. Then came the real the way up to Scotland. We then went to Belgium, challenge. Down I went on my somewhat shaky Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, knees and separated the big pile into many Austria, Hungary, and on to Venice, Florence, smaller piles and “Yes, by chance” the next to Rome, Genoa, Monte Carlo, Verdun and Paris, last pile furthest from my fall yielded a precious and finally came back to New York on the reward. With a rush of triumph I plucked the Statendam. glasses from their hiding place and rose stiffly The entire trip cost each of us about one from this arduous search. thousand dollars. I briefly considered purchasing some orange- framed glasses for future walks in the woods, Shea Smith but decided instead to accept the present of an adjustable walking pole from my next door neighbor. Now my rule is to try and stay upright and bring along a companion for any further Perimeter Path excursions in the fall. I also have a backup pair of bifocals in case lightning strikes twice.

Jim Stockwell

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 3 Florence, By Chance up a package for me to take home (including gifts for my family) thus saving postage and nexpected adventures seem to happen when duty. I still have some of the embroidered pieces Uabroad, especially when one is a young and she gave me and treasure them, along with my inexperienced traveler. So it was when I found memory of a supper in Florence. myself in Florence, Italy in late afternoon with Sue Hay six hours to “kill” before the train to Paris. This was because I had gotten on the wrong car on the train from Venice to Paris, found myself on •••••• the way to Lake Como, and had to back track to Florence and begin again. What to do? I remembered that I had the name and address of a friend of my mother’s: Deeply Mist Baroness Renata Rapisardi de San Antonio. Wow! But never mind, I found the phone number and The Squog is four feet tall (and wide), called. A nice woman answered. Yes, she remem- his eyes are red and glary. bered my mother and my grandmother. I must His teeth are dirty pointed tusks, come to supper. Her daughter was home and she he’s hideously hairy. would love to have me. A taxi took me to a Palazzo in the Old City. It was very elegant. The Baroness was charming On foggy days he slinks behind a handy hedge to lurk there, until he spies a passerby, and then he goes berserk there.

He rushes, roaring, on his prey, in vain is all resistance. No use are shrieks, entreaties, tears. The Squog (with victim) disappears far in the foggy distance.

What happens next I won’t describe. It’s simple, but it’s gory. and her daughter was my age. After a delicious and surprisingly informal supper they insisted You don’t believe this tale, you say? I go up in their tower and look at the view. The Well, if you meet the Squog one day, sun was setting and all of Florence could be I hope you make your getaway. seen. The river, the bridges, the Dome, and the city walls were spread out beautifully below us And please remember to admit, just like a postcard. I will never forget the sight. When ready to leave, it turned out that, by “She told a truthful story.” chance, I could do a favor for the Baroness. She had a business. She helped ladies of her district Edith Gilmore sell their lovely Italian embroidery and she had many customers in the United States. She made

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 4 The Curved Stone Bench hour layover in an unknown city, six hours to kill with three young children. What to do? emember to call Mrs. Littlefield the day I remember two things she did. Somehow “Rbefore you pick up your eggs.” she found a movie theater. Eyes glazed over, we The car hurtled east along the river toward watched “Kansas City Kittie,” with (since you Boston’s South Station. The late afternoon sun asked) screen immortals Joan Davis and Bob framed the heads of three small children in the Crosby. Coming out from under the marquee, back seat. The soothing practical advice came blinking in fierce sun, we crossed the street and from our mother, looking over at father behind went deeper into Savannah, with its checker- the wheel of our 1940 Plymouth. Traffic was board park squares, distinctive statuary, mani- heavy. Best to keep one’s eyes on the road. Good, cured gardens, and historical architecture. too, for another reason. Eyes well up. It’s hard to We walked into our first park. A large stone say good-bye. bench faced the green. We slipped from mother’s By 1944, wartime shortages of building hand and raced over to it. We devised a circuit materials and manpower had compelled father where us kids would run along the seat of the to reinvent himself from a residential architect bench, up the curvy left arm, along the raised working out of his home in Lincoln to an indus- back, down the ornate right arm, and back along trial designer crammed in a cubicle in Waltham. the seat. Again. Again. Again. I like to think It wasn’t easy driving on three gallons a week, mother smiled, sighed, relaxed. Perhaps she or transitioning from the poetry of light-filled sat down on the bench if there were room. I do living rooms and terraced gardens to the prose of think our new granular friend had gestured to us designing housing for shipboard radars. Mother to come and play. had finally decided to take “us chillun” (she was Out of breath we boarded the Cairo train. a Southern lady and “us,” the kids in the back Grandma was there to meet us on the platform. I seat, my identical twin sisters and me), out of remember Mellie Powell Jones hugging Lucretia, father’s hair to her parent’s home in southwest her youngest daughter of five children, the one Georgia. I don’t remember, if I ever did know, who ventured north to join her brother studying how long we would be in Cairo. ’Til the end of at Harvard, later to meet and marry his friend. the war? Who knew when that’d be? Mother (“Lucretia, honey, I’d like you to meet Herb would decide when to leave and return to Lin- Hoover.”) coln, a decision typically drawn from deep intui- It turned out we were just four months in tive wells. We would go when it was time. Cairo. The war was by no means over when A nine-year-old, much less his seven-year-old we returned to Boston. I like to think that our sisters, might not recall a parental embrace, but mother, who dearly loved her parents, and who he savors still the image of the old train easing loved coming back to Cairo, had had all she around a curve just south of Washington, DC., could reasonably take of the circumscribed, and through a streaked window, the George confined and immutable life of a South Georgia Washington Masonic Memorial Tower in the town. Granddaddy was a gentle man. But he mauve dawn, a conjured talisman of good tidings could also, at rare times, assume the disturbing for the uncertain times ahead. and unprepared-for persona of a curmudgeonly The Atlantic Coast Line ended at Savannah. Confederate. His face darkened if one of us inno- To continue on to Cairo, one hopped on the cently let issue “one of them Yankee songs” from Montgomery local to emerge three hours later class or playground. It was the face of one who onto a bright, dusty railroad platform intersect- had carried water to butternut-clad troops being the main street of court house, movie the- hind the lines of the Civil War (or at Granddad- ater, barber shop, and two traffic lights. But the dy’s insistence, “The War Between the States”). It schedules of the two trains were not coordinated. was the face of a Sherman-hater, all of ten years Confronting mother, in other words, was a six- old when Lincoln was assassinated.

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 5 At dawn, while we slept in Grandma’s home, will explore the city. It’s early. Here’s hiccup- the itinerant Methodist minister and pecan ing cobblestone streets, sun-mellowed façades farmer would quietly scuttle coal from the pile graced with grillwork, Spanish moss oozing from behind the barn over to the little glowing stove bowing oaks. Tracks from forgotten streetcars. by the kitchen, loosening the chill from the Lichened statuary strutting in dappled parks. early-morning rooms. Grandma would soon be A jaunt to River Street is a must, the old churning - thump, thump - butter out on the slave quarter, gentrified with galleries and gelato, back porch. teeming with tourists. We grab a packed lunch But mother also thought of her children. We and wander back to one of the city’s twenty or so liked Cairo, while uncomfortable with its dif- park squares. We look about for some shade to ferences, worlds away from Lincoln. We felt the eat our lunch, walk over and sit down. We un- warmth of our grandparents’ home, a house so pack. I remain standing. close to other houses, all of them set primly back Eyes look up at me. “Do you remember long from the slow-moving two narrow lanes of North ago, when .... My voice trails off, my question Broad Street. Mom’s older sister, Aunt Margaret, hanging. The lunch wrappings are off, goodies lived next door, her playful brood of cousins leav- passed around. City noise. No one hears me. “I’m ening our nagging discomfort. We walked a mile going to explore a bit, skip lunch. I’ll be back in, to school, never seeing the “black” school across um, twenty minutes.” town. We weren’t allowed to play on Sunday. We The first square I come to is a little bit couldn’t change clothes after church. Some kids neater, greener. I look around. I don’t go too far went barefoot to school. You drank water from a afield, lose my way back. Waste time. One more certain fountain, not that one. square. That’s it. If nothing, turn back. Most importantly, mother kept her own I cross the street. I pass through a low hedge counsel. That wasn’t our father sitting over there neatly clipped, walk into the park. Oglethorpe’s on the squeaking porch swing reading the Cairo on the pedestal. Founder of Georgia. I know. Messenger. He was 1,300 miles away. A wonder- Sweep the square. A squirrel runs, stands on ful parent with three chillun to watch, to enter- haunches, expectant. Man walks a bicycle. Turn tain, explain, correct and comfort, all without the corner. Now on the far side. Keep going. One her spouse and life-comfort, she bore her mighty more leg. Okay. Have to return. Round a tree. task with resource and resilience, imagination The form is grayish, stony. Two people, a and bravery as she guided, nurtured and loved large woman and a young girl, sit on the far end. us. My feet move. But my body seems oddly still. It was time. Like being carried forward, upright. Eyes fixed. Sixty-two years later. A lovely spring day. We Narrowing. stop in Savannah on the way to Ponte Vedra. Our By chance.... dear Cairo cousin has a small white house in After a minute or so, the two women slowly north Florida with green shutters and a breezy rise, walk off. I close in. Slowly, gently, I run my porch. Maggie’s the only one left of my mother’s hand over the arm’s ornamental ridges rising, extended southern family, which is one reason curving and then falling in their little rounded we’ve kept closely in touch. We love Maggie. Her journey of completeness. I lift a foot to walk southern drawl flows like honey into a deep pool along the seat. But I choose not to. Don’t do of memory, where our mother and her friends that. I wouldn’t make it up the raised back, then still smile broadly, holding mimosas, and walk over and down. across the room with outstretched plates of local Mom. We loved you, too, very much. pecans. We’ll make Ponte Vedra tomorrow by sunset. Harry Hoover Meanwhile, my sisters and I and their spouses

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 6 At Your Service

he date was Wednesday, November 29, 1944. I Twas twenty-two and my wedding was planned for Friday, December 1, at a fighter base in Louisiana. Bus and train reservations were not available and gas rationing ruled out driving. I stood in the ticket line at Grand Central Station in New York City and Welcome was told that there was only one seat on the single New Residents train to New Orleans and it was a deluxe drawing room with private bath. The price took all but one dollar in my wallet. I wrote a telegram to my Dad, gave Dorothy Hart Rand, 215 Badger Terrace the porter my last dollar, and got on the train which from Westford, 5/2/14 was due in New Orleans at midnight on Thursday. Antoinette Neal, 216 Willard Hall I ate my half package of Lifesavers and finally walked through the train, crowded with service from Waltham, 5/2/14 guys. All of a sudden I recognized a face. There, by Donna Mary Kaye, 209 Willard Hall chance, was Barry, an old boyfriend, on his way to from Littleton, 5/6/14 his base in Charleston, South Carolina. He bought me dinner and breakfast. By the time the conduc- Jacqueline Berwick, 106 Badger Terrace tor came through the dining car he had a money from Bedford, 5/16/14 order from my Dad. Wow! At midnight Thursday we got to New Orleans and I boarded another train George Herlihy, 112 Ross-Worthen jammed with soldiers—most of them pretty drunk. from Arlington, 5/20/14 (That was usual in those days). I sat with a lone lieutenant with his leg in a cast who had a bottle of Joan Stockard, 110 Llewsac Lodge whiskey and he cried for the entire five hour trip. from Lexington, 6/4/14 He was the only survivor of his last mission. I finally arrived on Friday and only a little Anne Ash, 209 Llewsac Lodge late for my wedding. from Concord, 6/10/14 Louise Curtis Lillian Finer, 225 Willard Hall from Bedford, 6/12/14 A Telephone Memoir Ruth Nilssen, 205 Willard Hall from Newton, 6/24/14 n the late 1930’s I lived at a fraternity house Ion Beacon Street while I was a student at Virginia Wood, 254 Caswell Hall MIT. One day an alumnus (of the Prohibition from Walpole, 6/25/14 era) came by and we chatted and I showed him around the house. We had one pay phone in the Sandy and Glee Wieland, 77 Essex Court basement boiler room and there were many tele- from Concord, 6/27/14 phone numbers that the brothers had scrawled on the wall by the phone. When the alumnus Edward and Leslie Lowry took a close look at the numbers he delightedly 303 Badger Terrace pointed to a particular number and explained to from Bedford, 7/17/14 me that that was the number of their bootlegger. Bill Stern

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 7 Acting on the recommendation of her daughter, who is a nurse, Ruth is happy to be a resident at Carleton-Willard, where she has made many new friends and is looking forward to enjoying the activities in our community. F I R O L E EC P S Ruth Custance Mary L. Devoe 218 Llewsac Lodge, September 2013 233 Llewsac Lodge, December 3, 2013

uth grew up in Stoneham, Massachusetts, ary came from the Lahey Clinic for recuper- Rwhere her father was a policeman. One of Mation in Carleton-Willard’s Nursing Center her early memories is riding home from school and then made the happy transition to Llewsac in the sidecar of the motorcycle driven by her in 2014. She was born in Boston, lived in Milton, father. After graduating from high school, she but moved to Dorchester in the Depression. After studied at the Boston School for Blind Babies graduating from Dorchester High School she and became a nurse. She worked as a companion went to the Massachusetts College of Art, and in to young mothers, going to their homes to assist 1949 she received her Master’s degree in Educa- in the care of their children. tion. Her first job was at the Perkins School for Ruth lived for many years in nearby Lexing- exceptional children in Lancaster, Massachusetts. ton, where, with her husband Robert, she raised Later she became a teacher at the Perkins School a family of five children. They had three sons for the Blind in Watertown. and two daughters. Her husband and sons were In 1950 Mary married Charles L. Devoe, Jr., all fully engaged in the family construction busi- whom she met shortly after he had completed his ness. The many Custance-built homes and com- service with the US Navy. They settled in Lexing- mercial buildings in Lexington and surrounding ton and raised three children. A growing family communities testify to their fine craftsmanship. led Mary to give up fulltime teaching but she con- The family carries on the business in and near tinued part time teaching arts and crafts. Charles Plymouth, New Hampshire. graduated from Boston College in 1951 and be- During her married years in Lexington, Ruth came a consultant electrical engineer with MIT’s was active in the First Baptist Church, serving Air Force Cambridge Research Labs. He was also a on many committees. She was president of the high school teacher in the Boston Public Schools Women’s Auxiliary of the Baptist Home, and system, who later earned his Master’s at Columbia worked with the Red Cross soliciting donors University and his Doctorate at the University of during blood drives. She also became a vounteer Massachusetts. at the Dana Home, a retirement home in Mary has belonged to St. Brigid’s Church in Lexington center. Lexington since 1956, where she taught Sunday Ruth has been an active traveler. She and her school, was a member of the Ladies Sodality, and husband traveled through the United States with St. Brigid’s choir for many years. She also joined the Masons. Their foreign travels took them to the Decorative Arts Guild of the Lexington Arts and England, Scotland, and Switzerland in Europe, Crafts Society, volunteered with the Red Cross and and Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tahiti in the the Lexington Historical Society, and worked at the Pacific. Throughout her adult life Ruth has sum- polls during elections. With her husband she trav- mered on Squam Lake in New Hampshire, and eled to Hawaii, The Holy Land, Egypt, and Europe. for the past thirty years she has spent the winter Mary’s daughter, Suzanne Devoe Newton, is months in Sarasota, Florida. a retired Army colonel. She has three children,

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 8 and is currently a teacher and Girl Scout leader has it. The family business involved buying used in South Carolina. Mary’s son, Paul R. Devoe, is a clothes in huge quantities, grading them accord- retired marine engineer, and he and his wife live ing to condition, and then marketing everything in Warrenton, Virginia; and her youngest, Mari- “down to the last sock.” Some clothing may be anne, attended Rhode Island School of Design exported to foreign countries; worn items may and is now deeply involved in studio work and find a new life as cleaning cloths; what appears volunteer teaching. to be beyond use will be sold as fiber, ending Mary still loves to play the piano, often encour- up as roofing material or a mat under the car- aging others to sing, and enjoys tending her indoor pet of your car. At one point, offered hundreds jungle garden, attending knitting and watercolor of leather jackets, Richard, with Susan’s help, classes, and visiting with old friends and new. opened a business selling hippie clothing. After some growing pains, they turned one wing of the MEW factory building into a retail store selling both new and used clothing, including hundreds of new leather jackets. Buyers came in great num- Richard Cohen bers for over twenty years. 46 Concord Court, January 22, 2014 In quite a different arena, Richard and Susan were not happy with the rigidities of the Brock- ntering 46 Concord Court, one could be par- ton public school system for their two daughters. Edoned for thinking it an art gallery, evidence Their solution: rent a room in a local church, of the delight Richard and his late wife Susan took invite some other children and open their own in seeking out artistic mementos of their travels. school, emphasizing “creative learning.” Susan’s job with a program at Lesley University In 1975 Susan decided to study at Lesley involved speaking engagements far and wide and University for a master’s degree and the family “Wherever she went, I went too,” he says. moved to Brookline, buying a two-family house Richard was born, the elder of two brothers, close to a fine elementary school for the girls. In in Brockton. Hard of hearing from birth, school 1987 Richard was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s was always difficult but eventually he found lymphoma. Extensive chemotherapy made him his way to a teacher of lip-reading in Taunton an “opportunistic host” leading to pneumonia; which made life and learning easier. Following side effects of medication left him a diabetic. high school, Richard went to Nichols College With their two daughters grown, Richard in Dudley, Massachusetts, receiving a Bachelor and Susan sold their Brookline home in 1990 of Business Administration degree. He did one and moved to a condo in Allendale in Chestnut year of graduate study at the University of Massa- Hill. By 2000 Richard had limited his activities chusetts and in 1964 joined the family business to brokering, just buying and selling but not which had been started by his grandfather. handling any product. At this time they moved to Meanwhile he had begun dating Susan in Dover and in 2010, not long after her forty-fifth 1959, a girl he had known a long time as both Smith reunion, Susan began to show signs of Al- attended the same temple as well as the Young zheimer’s disease. Richard cared for her at home Men’s Hebrew Association. Susan went off to for some time but eventually she was moved to a Smith College, majoring in English literature. memory care unit. When he scouted retirement They were married at the end of Susan’s junior communities for himself, he knew Carleton- year and she returned for her senior year, gradu- Willard was the right place for him. Sadly, Susan ating in 1965 and having the first of their two died only a few weeks after he moved here. daughters in August of the same year. Richard’s two daughters are not far away. Richard describes himself as an entrepre- Lisa lives in Medfield and is CEO of a financial neur: “one who organizes, promotes or manages wrap firm in Connecticut. Jen, who lives in an activity of any kind,” as Webster’s dictionary Acton, is a partner in a motivational group called

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 9 Seven Stones Leadership, also based in Connecti- administrative director of Thoreau Day Camp. cut. Richard has three grandchildren. While living in Lincoln she founded Open Studio, Richard’s entrepreneurial spirit still rules: he con- a group of twenty women who paint together. Her tinues his business from an office in his home and he apartment is brightened with their work and a attributes his success to exceptional persistence. selection of her own paintings, mainly watercolors. Stephanie has been interested in mental health for ABM many years. She was a founder of the Case Aid Pro- gram at the former Mental Health Association of Massachusetts. She loves gardening and will share Stefanie Rolfe this and her other interests with her neighbors as 12 Andover Court, April 23, 2014 they welcome her and her great sense of humor.

ndover Court is delighted to have a new CPZ Aneighbor. Our latest arrival is still in the process of cleaning out her recently sold house in Lincoln where she lived for more than fifty years. Dorothy Hart Rand Stephanie and her husband, Edward, searched out 215 Badger Terrace, May 2, 2014 a retirement location and were both taken with Carleton-Willard’s atmosphere, but Edward died ot, now ensconced in Badger Terrace, grew several months before they could make the move. Dup in Southbridge, Massachusetts with her Stephanie is very glad to be here and is particular- three siblings. She went to Middlebury College, ly impressed with the foliage all around her. She a family tradition, and received her BA degree in feels as if she were living in an arboretum. zoology. It was there that she met Charles Hart, Stephanie’s father was a lawyer in Warwick- a chemistry major, and upon their marriage they shire, England, and she grew up there, attending began a peripatetic journey, going wherever his Kerr-Sander’s Secretarial College where she be- work took him. came interested in pursuing a journalism career. Following graduation, Charles chose to join the Her first job was with Condé Nast Publications, Coast Guard rather than be inducted into the Army the source of Vogue magazine. World War II and the young couple spent two years on Seguin changed things for Stephanie and she became a Island, Maine manning the lighthouse. They had WREN, the women’s branch of the Royal Navy. no electricity; milk and mail were delivered once a She served as an office worker at an air station in week and once a month the Coast Guard took them Scotland, and also in Hamburg, Germany. to the mainland for shopping. While on the island, Edward was an engineer with several special- Dot achieved the fifteen minutes of fame to which ties and he had various fellowships, one of which we are all entitled. Acute appendicitis necessitated involved a cross country trip for him and his new transportation by naval helicopter to Boston for bride throughout the United States in a house surgery. On arrival, reporters and flashing cameras trailer. Stephanie also reports trips to France, recorded the drama though Dot was too uncomfort- Denmark, Venezuela, Mexico, and Canada. able to enjoy the scene. Stephanie comes from a musical family, with After two years the couple went to Ithaca, New father, husband, and grandson all violinists. York, where Charles pursued a master’s degree at She is a pianist and her daughter, Wendy, Cornell. A job with the Rohm and Hass Chemical performs as a well known flautist and teaches Company (which pioneered the use of chemicals in early music at Berklee College of Music. She has tanning leather) took them and the two young sons performed here at Carleton-Willard. they now had to New Jersey, and then to Wisconsin. Stephanie has been board president of the There followed a posting to Brazil which they greatly Greater Boston Youth Symphony and has many enjoyed. They returned to the Wisconsin office of the Concord friends from the years when she was company, then back to Ambler, Pennsylvania. There,

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 10 made ill by the chemicals he worked with, Charles later moved east, near Presque Isle, and Jacqui died at the age of forty-three when the boys were a attended high school at St. Joseph Academy in freshman and a junior in high school. South Berwick, Maine. Dot stayed in Pennsylvania and, realizing she When her mother was at the Lahey Clinic in needed further qualifications to get better jobs, she Boston, Jacqui came to Brookline to live with an obtained her MS at Hahnemann University. She aunt and uncle and through a cousin met her worked with Big Sisters of Philadelphia, Women future husband, Al, who worked for H.P. Hood in Transition, and was Director of Public Educa- Company. She remembers the date, March 29, tion for the Hahnemann Trauma Center. There 1940, because they were married exactly a year she worked with several age groups: with teens later to the day. Al did not serve in the armed about the dangers of drinking and driving; with services as he was working to produce frozen seniors about preventing falls; and with parents milk products sent overseas as part of the war ef- and grandparents about making sure that pills that fort. Jacqui went to work for GTE when her son look like candy are kept out of children’s reach. entered high school, retiring after twenty years. In 1996, at the behest of her sons who live in Al and Jacqui had three children, Dr. Martin Carlisle and Concord, Dot moved to Westford to Berwick, now deceased; Sandra B. Crowley, a be near them and the six grandchildren. In 1998 semi-retired linguist with the US Government, she married Robert Rand. They divided their who lives in Virginia; and Christopher L. Ber- time between Westford and Brandon, Vermont, wick, a mechanical engineer with a pharmaceuti- where he had a home. Bob now suffers from Al- cal company and living in Louisville, Kentucky. zheimer’s and is in a facility in Acton where Dot Jacqui has six grandchildren, and it was her visits him frequently. grandson, Zachary Berwick, who was so helpful Dot is active with the American Association of to her upon the death of her husband in January University Women, having been the branch Presi- of 2014, and with her move to Carleton-Willard. dent and Vermont State President. Currently attend- While they lived in Bedford for sixty-two years, ing a Congregational church, she has previously travels took them to visit children and to Califor- been a Ruling Elder and a Deacon in the Presbyteri- nia, Alaska, England, France and many parts of an Church. She also trained in the Stephen Ministry the U.S. Summers were spent at their cabin on (established by the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Sebago Lake in Maine. Active in Bedford over the church) and did one-on-one pastoral work. After her years, the Berwicks were co-presidents of the High condo is sold and all her possessions are with her, School Associates and active in the PTA. Jacqui Dot looks forward to involving herself in the fitness has long been a supporter of the Council on Aging programs, Knit-Wits, and other activities. and founded the friends’ group that sponsored the Crafts Benefit for that organization. This was held ABM at Carleton-Willard, introducing her to our village. Al Berwick was ill for some time and was here in the Nursing Center when he passed away. They had Jacqueline R. Berwick agreed years before that living at Carleton-Willard 106 Badger Terrace, May 16, 2014 was in their future, nevertheless leaving their home and entering a new community was as much a chal- long-time Bedford resident who has come lenge as for those who come from further away. A to Carleton-Willard, Jacqueline, or Jacqui, Jacqui’s apartment on the first floor of Bad- has fond memories of Jackman, Maine, where ger Terrace has a patio filled with plants and her she was born. This is a remote little town in the organ has found a home in the living room. Be- Maine woods near the Canadian border. They ing among old friends from Bedford has helped were a French-speaking family, and the day she her adjust to a new life. went off to school she began to learn English. APS Her father was a telegraph operator and they

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 11 Village Other Lights John McConnell, architect, painter and teacher, This is a selected summary of events that were enjoyed by brought us a provocative talk on “Other Lights: residents of Carleton-Willard Village in recent months. Alternatives to Impressionism in 19th Century American Painting.” In a richly illustrated presenta- Emerald Necklace tion, he described such schools of painting as the Residents enjoyed a tour of Boston’s Emerald Hudson River (Cole, Durand, Church), Luminism Necklace on a beautiful summer day. Designed (Gifford Heade, Kensett), and Tonalism (Inness, by the noted landscape architect Frederick Law Harrison, Gifford). In contrast to the impressionists, Olmsted, the Necklace is a series of waterways these painters developed alternative ways of and green spaces, including the Fens, Riverway, capturing the effects of light and atmosphere on Olmsted Park, Jamaica Pond, Arnold Arboretum canvas, often a more spiritual way. We have a new and Franklin Park. A highlight was a short walk appreciation for these artists, and will look at their through Kelleher Rose Garden in the Fens. After works with fresh eyes in the future. lunch at Doyle’s Café in Forest Hills, famous as a gathering place of Boston politicians, and for the Kess Trio debut of Sam Adams beer, we continued our ride On an early spring evening we were treated to a on Columbia Road through Dorchester and along concert by three sisters, Katrina, Emilia, and the shore of Dorchester Bay to the end of the Simonida Spasojevic. Using their initials, they Necklace at Pleasure Bay. have named their group the Kess Trio. All play the piano, while each also plays a second instrument – violin, cello, or flute. Their program included works by Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Boccherini, and Beethoven. They spoke briefly about the pieces they performed, and their choice of instrument. Natives of Serbia, the sisters live nearby with their parents and study at the Indian Hill Music School in Littleton. The audience found them charming and remarkably talented young ladies aged thirteen, ten and eight! Solar Winds On a delightful spring evening we enjoyed an Trexler Garden Tour all-French concert by the Solar Winds. Self- On a moist, overcast day in May, a group of garden- described as a “traditional woodwind quintet,” ers and nature lovers visited the garden of John the members played flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon Trexler, a nationally recognized horticulturist and and horn. The group, all active performers and creator of the nearby Tower Hill Botanic Garden, in teachers in the Boston area, performed works by Boylston. For his own garden, Mr. Trexler blended Poulenc, Ibert, Bozza, and Milhaud. The com- flowering shrubs, tall but narrow deciduous trees posers were contemporaries, all working in the and conifers, sculpture, and water features into a early and mid-twentieth century, with their work delightful acre of private beauty. Many were rare or showing many signs common to the music of exotic specimens gathered from around the world, the period. In the concluding work, the winds but suited to the New England climate. We ad- were joined by the piano in a rousing sextet by mired Mr. Trexler’s collection of bonsai, especially Poulenc. one growing in moss surrounding a rock.

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 12 Happenings World War II Museum They are samples of the ongoing activities planned by our Residents, including many who took an active Learning In Retirement and Off-site Programs offices. part in the war, visited the World War II Museum in Natick. This museum, the most comprehen- sive in the world, displays artifacts from the Borneo war, including maps, correspondence, official Photojournalist Barry Pell took us to one of documents, weapons, uniforms, posters, commu- the world’s most mysterious places—BORNEO. nication equipment, and munitions. We heard His pictures revealed a collage of lush jungles, the recorded words of world leaders as we read muddy rivers, resplendent temples, tattooed letters and documents signed by Churchill, men, shawled women, rare orchids and bizarre Roosevelt, Hitler, Stalin, and more. Memories wildlife. His commentary was rich in historic were stirred and fear and anger aroused once details, native customs and ethnic diversity, and again. Fortunately, we relaxed over lunch. remarks about the island’s amazing abundance of plant and animal life. Borneo’s average annual rainfall exceeds one hundred inches. Headhunt- ing has all but ceased on the island. The “wild man of Borneo” is actually the orangutan or “the man of the forest” in the native tongue. While Borneo is losing its historic ethnicity and natural environment due to industrial develop- ment and human migrations, it remains one of the most exotic places in the world.

Southern Rail Concert Boston’s Three Parks On a warm summer evening an enthusiastic Residents were treated to a first-hand account of crowd was treated to a concert of Blue Grass the history of three of Boston’s most important music by the Southern Rail. This quartet has public spaces, when Henry Lee was our guest. found fame among lovers of this ‘down home’ Marshlands were turned into the Boston Common music and won many awards and rave reviews beginning in1684 when Boston took possession for their renditions of old favorites as well as of the forty-three acres abutting the Charles River original songs. Jim Muller, the lead guitar and Basin. After serving as a training ground for militia vocalist, added to everyone’s appreciation with and an event site for about one hundred years, his references to the work of Bill Monroe and the State House was added and the Common other composers. He is joined in Southern Rail flourished as a location for celebration and relax- by his wife, Sharon Horovitch, on bass; Richard ation. Unfortunately, neglect turned the area into Stillman on banjo; and John Tibert on mandolin. a trash and crime site by the 1940’s. Henry Lee The group blended their voices as well as im- began enlisting cooperation from abutting neigh- mense instrumental skills in taking us to the bors to police the site. Under his direction the land of the Blue Grass for a foot-stomping good Friends of the Public Gardens now finance most of time. the upkeep costs and restoration of the statues for the Common, the Boston Public Garden, and the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, and are advocates for their continued preservation. Edwin Cox

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 13 Chance Encounter her the name of his small Italian village and then started to laugh as she told him she had been oon after my husband, Gordon, retired from his childhood girlfriend in that town. She recog- SThe Boston Globe he was recruited to write a nized him, she said, because he looked so much history of the Gillette Company to be published like his father when they were both children.” by the Harvard Business School Press. He greatly There followed many laughs and introductions enjoyed researching and writing that book which to each others’ families. he titled “Cutting Edge: Gillette’s Journey to I loved that story of a chance encounter after Global Leadership.” so many diversions around the world, but I have While researching the book he traveled to to admit that I secretly thought, “I bet his wife several different countries where Gillette had goes along on any more trips he takes.” sales and production facilities. One of his trips was to South America: Buenos Aires, Rio de Peggy McKibben Janeiro, and Manus. To my great joy I got to go along. It was in Buenos Aires, a beautiful city, that this story takes place. We had been invited to dinner with some officials of the Gillette opera- •••••• tions there. At first I felt a bit awkward since no other wives were along, but the men were most congenial and put me at ease. One man was es- The Freedom of the Sparrows pecially interesting to talk to and told us that his parents had emigrated from Italy to Argentina On the many occasions my husband and following World War II. A close-knit family, he I went to Bermuda we always stayed at Cam- told us, he and his siblings often gathered at his bridge Beaches in Somerset, a lovely spot on the parents’ home for Italian food and talk. turquoise water. Of the memories I have, one Later on the same man asked us where we frequently occurs. That was the freedom of the lived in the Boston area and when we told him sparrows to fly in and out of the open-sided din- Lexington he said, “Oh, we lived at Fiske Com- ing room, alighting on tables to scavenge what- mon for several months. Gillette owns a con- ever tidbit appealed, with no timidity of people. dominium there.” This wasn’t too surprising At one point this brought out the poet in me. to learn since Gordon had told me that Gillette employees from around the world were brought A sparrow from Somerset skies to Boston for management training. Fiske Com- with an insatiable yen for French fries mon is a lovely Lexington condominium area on a table did perch, where some current Carleton-Willard residents the white cloth did besmirch, once lived. and left without a goodbye. “Funny thing happened while we were in A Somerset sparrow will fly Lexington,” he continued. “My wife and I invited twenty miles for a tasty French fry. my parents to come for a visit, but my mom If he hops up to grab it wasn’t feeling too well so my dad came alone. don’t hinder his habit While here he usually accompanied my wife on lest he ruin your strawberry pie. her errands. One day they went to a dry cleaner. While my wife was waiting for her order, an older Mary E. O’Meara lady who had been sitting in the back of the shop came forward and started addressing my dad in Italian, asking him where he came from. He told

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 14 For Want of a Roommate By Chance (A Variation on a Theme*) oving to a new town in a new state is a ecently I received an email from my son, Da- Mchallenge. Starting over presents many new Rvid, in which he reported on the delightful opportunities. It pushes shyness and reticence reunion he had with his college roommate, Bill. aside if one is to integrate into the new com- They had not seen each other for many years. munity. One such opportunity occurred when They reminisced on how they met and became we moved to a condo in Clinton, Massachusetts roommates their sophomore year. Through years ago. We knew no one and were unfamiliar chance, that ultimately led to David meeting and with the town and its people. Where to begin? marrying Ruth. This is the chain of events that Our first thought was to seek out the senior led to a happier version of the well-known saying center and the telephone book supplied the cited below. address. We located the center by slowly driv- In his freshman year David met Bill through ing down the main street. When we entered Jay, an elementary school classmate, friend and the building it was clear that its shabby appear- fellow freshman; Bill was one of Jay’s room- ance needed some remedial work. At that time mates; Bill and David decided to room together funds were not available for any type of interior the next year; Bill enjoyed playing pinball ma- decorating, and so began an incredible project chines in the basement of his freshman dorm that changed the lives of many people simply by with another classmate, Chad; through Bill, chance. Chad and David met and became good friends, a Where to begin and what to do? Almost every friendship which has continued to this day. Many town has a school system and Clinton was no excep- years later Chad and his wife decided to intro- tion. Each school system has an art department and duce her good friend, Ruth, to David. Ruth and a call to the Superintendent of Schools elicited his David have been happily married for many years approval of the project. With an introduction to the – all for the want of a sophomore roommate. staff member responsible for art efforts within the Hearing Bill’s name brought back many high school the project was off to a good start. So memories for me. Of course, he came to our was a lifelong friendship with the Superintendent. home with David, especially for special occa- The walls of the senior center could not be sions. He rarely returned to his family in Hong painted, but the youngsters could paint murals Kong while an undergraduate, nor did his family that would decorate the walls and accomplish the same result. While the immediate answer visit him. When graduation time came, they did was “Yes,” I was not prepared for the students the next best thing. They had Bill order a genu- thinking they needed to do travel poster-like pic- ine Chinese banquet at Joyce Chen’s, a popular tures. “Do you want us to do the Eiffel Tower?” Chinese restaurant on the Charles River in one student asked. “No, look about your beauti- Cambridge, and invite all six Brauns. That was ful town: the incredible public park, the building a memorable experience! It took many hours built here years ago by the mill owners and kept to enjoy an endless array of courses of delicious in good condition, and the Wachusett Reservoir food, although some of the dishes were a bit too and its stone dam. These are all worthy subjects.” exotic for some of us. The kids did their part and the pictures were I have Bill to thank for that special memory, beautiful. I was unprepared but delighted after and especially for a wonderful daughter-in-law, the project was complete to have some of the all for the want of a sophomore roommate. artists stop me in the street and ask if I was the lady who had given them such an opportunity to Esther K. Braun solve a problem, all by chance.

*For want of a nail the shoe was lost... Ara Tyler

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 15 Teenage Mountain Adventure narrow gauge track wound through one hundred and twenty-seven curves in four miles and crossed ecently I came across an April 1966 Ameri- eighteen trestles, one of which was almost a com- Rcan Heritage magazine that had a story that plete circle. The Line operated for over forty years triggered memories of an adventure from my but a series of fires, windstorms, and landslides days at an aircraft technical school I attended eventually destroyed all of it. in Los Angeles just after I graduated from high That is the territory where my adventure oc- school. The article was about old streetcar lines curred when I was a student in 1940. An Army that were extended into remote areas for extra aircraft had recently crashed in the mountains revenue in the 1890s. Amusement parks were near the Pacific Electric Line. The newspapers one of the most popular destinations and many reported that there was a trail to the crash site streetcar companies had an “Electric Park” or marked with ribbons and the remains were cov- other attractions. Pacific Electric was one of ered with brush to conceal the plane. A couple of several companies described. It developed several friends and I decided it would be fun and profit- surprising California destinations including the able to go to the site and try to salvage instru- world’s largest bathhouse and salt water plunge ments from the plane. at Redondo Beach, and an auto race track near We left early one sunny day and found the Playa del Ray. But, according to the article, “Its cable railway and the trail, but we soon lost great tourist attraction was the famed Mt. Lowe the trail as the ribbons had been removed. We Line originally built in 1893 by Professor Thad- climbed over ledges up the mountain, wondering deus S.C. Lowe, the Civil War balloonist.” if rattlesnakes were sunning themselves on the handholds above our heads. Soon we came to the site of the narrow gauge railroad. We found some men there with an old Chevy truck attempting to salvage old transformers from abandoned railroad equipment. They were continuing on to one of the old hotel sites and we asked to go along. They agreed to take us but only on condition that if anything happened to us they would deny saying “Yes” to our request. That didn’t stop us. We started off and reached the circular trestle which was built out from the side of the cliff with nothing below. Some of the men took a shortcut around the trestle and we soon realized why. The truck had dual wheels and the outer dual wheel The Mt. Lowe Line carried riders from Los was off the trestle, hanging in space. We soon Angeles up into Rubio canyon in the mountains came to another washed out trestle, replaced above Pasadena to a hotel, dance hall, and re- by two old telegraph poles laid across the space freshment stand. Continuing on, the Great Cable with planks on top. We all walked this one. We incline carried them to the top of Echo Mountain also realized why the truck cab door had been where two additional hotels, hiking trails, bridle removed—so that the driver could jump out if paths, a zoo, a museum, and an observatory were necessary. We spent time at the burned out hotel located. As if that wasn’t enough, a narrow gauge at the end of the line and had lunch. We never “Alpine Division” carried the excursionists through found the crash site. On the way back the truck spectacular mountain scenery to Mt. Lowe Springs bucked and stalled and had to be restarted to keep where yet another hotel was built eleven hun- going. We thanked the truck crew and left them at dred feet below the summit of the mountain. The the top end of the cable car track.

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 16 Home Invasion

t must have happened during that cold snap in Imid-May. A surreptitious entry into our dining room took place, unnoticed by the two people in residence or, as far as we could tell, the resident cat and dog. A few weeks later, behind the semi- transparent curtain at the patio door, a shadowy presence was perceived. A lifting of the curtain revealed an individual of the species which we have been battling to keep from taking over the entire surface of the patio, namely, English ivy. This little ivy plant had apparently drilled through the floor and insinuated its tendril through the fibers of the rug. At first, immobilized by shock and awe, we did nothing. When we considered our options, we couldn’t decide who to turn to for help. Security? Landscaping? Housekeeping? We continued to do nothing, but observed with interest and curiosity. Back at the forty-five degree slope of the cable By the time little Miss Ivy had reached yard- track we tried skating down the incline on the long stature by growing about four inches a crushed rock ballast in which the ties were laid, week, she but quickly discovered that our shoes were being had touched shredded and would not last for the rest of the our hearts trip. I remembered a story of people sliding down with her Mt. Washington Cog Railroad on planks. We put valiant jour- old ties across the cable tracks and slid down, ney down kicking the embedded ties to slow our descent. “a road less All went well until we got to a trestle where the traveled.” ties were three feet apart and we were moving at We are almost uncontrollable speed. Somehow we finally impressed managed to slow down and we got back safely to by her inde- the area where we had parked our car. I found out pendence. later that the “plank” used on the Mt. Washington She doesn’t railroad was really a well made sled with a brake. rely on us It rode on greased planks astride the linear track for food or on which the cog wheel of the engine engaged. water. We do We did not manage to salvage anything, but arrange the we all lived to tell about our mountain adven- curtain so ture—over and over again. that she can bask in the Bob Sawyer morning sun. We are now considering asking the Woodworking Shop to custom-tailor a little trel- lis so she can avoid being stepped on by the cat.

Janet Kennedy

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 17 Backyard Insurrection

ince my arrival in 2008 I have enjoyed a peace- Sable coexistence with backyard wild-life. I’ll go beyond that and admit that I am especially fond of chipmunks. I eat an excessive number of cherries since being told how much they like the stones. Maria Shaheen June 3, 2014 Judging by the number of “doors” around the perimeter of my patio, I think they must have built a Brady/Bundchen style estate beneath. Joan Reddy June 4 More controversial is my affection for the grey squirrels, not shared by more discriminating folk. Elizabeth Allenson June 7 Yes, I realize they are rodents, greedy and destruc- tive but I admire their problem-solving approach Hazel Palmer June 22 to life and their persistence. My admiration may be bolstered by the fact that they have yet to get into my bird feeder. One attractive fat fellow sits Manuel E. Lopez July 3 on his haunches at the back door, nose to glass, eyeing my dog inside, also nose to glass, till one James I. Stockwell July 14 of them stares the other down. Each walks away, assuming an enviable insouciance. On only a few occasions, have I had a visitation from a sleek and Ralph R. Ragan July 15 shadowy black squirrel. This spring, disruption! I first noticed the F. Sheppard Holt July 19 arrival of a charming little red squirrel taking a nibble at the fallen seed and felt as pleased as if Katharine Lawrence July 30 I’d been awarded a Michelin star. Occasionally he brought a companion though clearly he thought of himself as numero uno. Then today his true purpose was revealed: a takeover. When Grey at- tempted to join him at table, much smaller Red drove him off and continued munching, keeping a victorious beady eye on the vanquished Grey who sat a few feet away, his front paws folded across his white belly. Two cheeky chipmunks came to have a look but skittered away at great speed. In sole possession, Red appeared to stuff himself for many minutes till he lay on the grass, rotund and still. I opened the door and yelled that he was a greedy grinch which sent him fly- ing up a nearby tree. I’d like to know what interventions might be appropriate. “Boots on the ground” isn’t an option; what sanctions might be effective? I don’t think I have the requisite skills for mediation. Please advise. Alice Morrish

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 18 Anne Schmalz

Note: Obviously, no attempt has been made to draw to scale.

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 19 The Black Hole glasses. I searched the house, got out the backup glasses (that are the wrong prescription for me o doubt you are familiar with the words in these days), cased the Carleton-Willard library, Nthe title above, from articles such as the one the message center, and of course the front desk, in a recent National Geographic magazine which only to find the glasses lying neatly folded on the promised on the cover “The Truth About Black floor at the foot of my bed. The beloved Black Holes,” or from “The Black Hole of Calcutta,” Hole had both taken and returned, and I was a phrase that refers to a place where a British truly grateful as the backup glasses gave me a regiment in India was slaughtered by suffocation headache. when all its men were imprisoned in 1857. I lost my driver’s license recently. Not My personal Black Hole is a mysterious and because of any infraction of traffic rules, but a powerful reality; something like the tide in because my wallet was too fat for my evening an ocean which moves restlessly in and out of purse. So, wanting to be law abiding, I whisked my life. It picks up things when I lose them and the license, a few bucks, and a credit card out takes them far away for a time. Then magically, of the wallet and left it on the hall table. Fast in its own inexorable tidal way, it returns them forward a few hours to the end of the evening to a totally unlikely spot. The Black Hole has when I reached into the fancy purse to restore the amazing capacity to both take away and give the credit card, cash and, presumably, the back. Would that we human beings were as able license to the wallet. I couldn’t find my license. to give and take as readily as my Black Hole. I I looked in every pocket, under the car, on the am really glad that this secret force has been floor, on the hall table, and every nook in my revealed to me because it has become something unit, and I even found out how to get to the of a comfort, a reassurance to me in my old age nearest Registry of Motor Vehicles. I rested on that I don’t have to fret about losses which I the Sabbath, praying that the license would know are going to be temporary. surface. The Black Hole has worked to my advantage A day later I happened to glance at a bowl recently. Besides rising and falling like the tide, full of old Christmas cards on a shelf in my liv- it adapts itself to different kinds of spaces. It can ing room. There I found my face in the plastic sneak into your house, reach for objects long sheen of my license, looking up tentatively, lost under a bed, or focus its power so minutely and I realized once again that the lost had been as to creep into your wallet and drift away with found. How else could it have been returned the receipt that you know was in there when you without the intervention of the Black Hole, an left CVS. The Black Hole seems to love the varied entity with a mind of its own, returning the lost pockets of a lady’s modern handbag, or the folds in its own time, reassuring me that as the tide of a raincoat, and it travels in your car wherever goes out, it also comes in and bears treasures in you go. Hence, the Black Hole can remove the its wake? gloves you know you’ve put in a raincoat pocket. When a search of the pocket fails, and you have Neela Zinsser looked everywhere the gloves might be, you stop at the reception desk to report their loss, and check if they’ve turned up. Back in your apartment you find the gloves lying neatly in front of your car, or on the carpet inside your door. The alarm is over. The Black Hole has graciously returned the gloves to your safe keeping. A stunning example of the generous reci- procity of the Black Hole was the time I lost my

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 20 “In life, night comes. In literature, the sun always rises.” Jill Lepore

The Life Cycle of a Book in the Weeding Throughout the year a team of volunteers enters the CWV Library circulation of books into the library computer. Every May a report is printed showing the book circulation e receive many questions about our work in over a three year period, one report for regular print Wthe Carleton-Willard Village library. How do books and a second report for large print books. we choose books? Do we accept donations? How Then the members of the library committee get to do we track circulation? How do we know when work. Each committee member is responsible for it is time to remove a book from the collection? one section of the collection. Every book is checked What do we do with the books that we remove? against the three-year circulation report. If it has Here are the answers. not been taken out during the last three years it is a candidate for removal. Torn book jackets are Choosing books removed to make the shelves neater and more at- The members of the Library Committee meet once tractive, and all books are checked to see if they need a month to choose new regular print books. Each mending. Removal decisions are very subjective. It member of the committee presents two books is important that we offer a wide variety of reading for consideration, after reading a variety of book materials: new books and classics; light reading and reviews. We choose an average of sixteen books, informational reading; current affairs, biography balanced between fiction and non-fiction, and we and history; art, poetry and drama; nature, science, agree to preview any books about which we are un- travel, sports, computer information, reference, and certain. We order the books from Amazon. A small even humor. Once removals have been chosen, the sub-committee is responsible for choosing seven catalog cards are removed from the card catalog and large print books each month. They are ordered the books are deleted from the computer catalog. from Cengage Learning. Another small sub-committee reviews any possible donations. Donated The final step books must be current and should have appeal for Many of the regular print books that we remove our residents. They must be in good condition, go downstairs to the staff room, where they are with not too many pages and with print that is not eagerly awaited, and the staff is invited to help too small. Approximately thirty books are added to themselves. The large print books are taken to the collection every month. As they arrive, volun- the Health Center and put into the library on teers process them, type the catalog cards and add Willard Hall. Books are also taken to the Bed- the titles to the computer catalog. They are then ford Public Library and to the Bedford Council placed on the shelves of NEW books. on Aging. Every book finds a new home. By the end of every summer, over three hundred Shelf life books have been removed. The shelves now have Books remain on the NEW book shelves for six some “breathing room” and another year in the months. They are then transferred to the regular Carleton-Willard library is ready to begin. We are shelves of fiction and non-fiction. This process re- very proud of our library, and our thirty volun- sults in the addition of over three hundred books teers work hard to keep it neat and attractive, full over the course of a year. The shelves fill up and of wonderful reading opportunities. we begin to run out of room. Then it is time to “weed” the collection. Katherine F. Graff Chair of the Library Committee

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 21 Among the Newest

The Gardener of Versailles by Alain Baraton The Widow’s Handbook A poetic history of the gardens of Versailles told Edited by Jacqueline Lapidus and Lise Menn in a memoir by the gardener-in-chief. An anthology of poetic reflections on grief and survival by contemporary widows. The Map Thief by Michael Blanding The story of a rare-map dealer who made The Reef by Iain McCalman millions stealing priceless maps. A history of the Great Barrier Reef and a call to action to prevent its vanishing. Missing Microbes by Martin V. Blaser, M.D. A critically important and startling look at the The Bees by Laline Paull harmful effects of overusing antibiotics from A novel of the activities within a beehive, told by the field’s leading expert. an unattractive bee who is given the hive jobs that the other bees do not want to do. American Spring by Walter Borneman A vibrant new look at the first months of the Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty American Revolution. A presentation of the long term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr the prospects for economic growth. A moving novel of the parallel lives of a German boy of extraordinary technological ability and a The Story of the Jews by Simon Schama sightless French girl during the Nazi occupation The author traces the experience of the Jewish of Paris. Their lives intersect during the allied people across three millennia, from their liberation of France in the summer of 1944. beginnings as an ancient tribal people to the opening of the New World in 1492. Reinventing American Health Care By Ezekiel J. Emanuel, M.D. Mr. Owita’s Guide to Gardening by Carol Wall A look at the past and the present of health A memoir by a woman, at a crossroads in her life, care in the United States, with predictions who notices a dark skinned African man tending of important changes. her neighbor’s yard and garden. His work for her changes her life. The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith A novelist has disappeared and private A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren investigator Strike is called in to investigate. An unlikely political star tells the inspiring story of the two decade journey that taught her how Washington really works and really doesn’t.

Katherine F. Graff

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 22 Recent Library Acquisitions (* indicates Large Print)

Art Fiction Park, Edwards Treasures of the Smithsonian Ackroyd, Peter Three Brothers Barr, Nevada Destroyer Angel Biography Binchy, Maeve Chestnut Street Bird, Kai The Good Spy Brown, Rita Mae Nine Lives to Die (*) Bird, Kai The Good Spy (*) Camilleri, Andrea Angelica’s Smile Brokaw, Tom An Album of Memories Cussler, Clive & Ghost Ship (*) Chang, Jung Empress Dowager Cixi Brown, Graham Dees, Morris A Lawyer’s Journey Doerr, Anthony All the Light We Cannot See Dolma, Kunsang A Hundred Thousand White Donoghue, Emma Frog Music Stones Fairstein, Linda Terminal City (*) Dudgeon, Piers Maeve Binchy Flagg, Fannie The All-Girl Filling Station’s Eaton, Rebecca Making Masterpiece (*) Last Reunion Ehrenreich, Barbara Living With a Wild God Furst, Alan Midnight in Europe Ferris, William The Storied South Galbraith, Robert The Silkworm Johnson, Paul Mozart (*) Gerritsen, Tess Last to Die Lively, Penelope Dancing Fish and Greene, Christopher The Headmaster’s Wife Ammonites Grimes, Martha Vertigo 42 Mayes, Frances Under Magnolia (*) Grimes, Martha The Way of All Fish Wall, Carol Mister Owita’s Guide to Kent, Hannah Burial Rights Gardening Johnson, Deborah The Secret of Magic (*) Warren, Elizabeth Fighting Chance Leon, Donna By Its Cover (*) MacInerney, Karen Death Runs Adrift Current Affairs MacNeal, Susan Elia The Prime Minister’s Secret Emanuel, Ezekial J. Reinventing American Agent Health Care Malliet, G. M. Pagan Spring Greenwald, Glenn No Place to Hide Marra, Anthony A Constellation of Vital Jin-Sung, Jang Dear Leader Phenomena Piketty, Thomas Capital in the 21st Century Mayle, Peter The Corsican Caper (*) Michaels, Fern Kiss and Tell (*) Drama Moore, Graham The Sherlockian Bloom, Harold Shakespeare: The Invention Moore, Lorrie Bark: Stories (*) of the Human Nemirovsky, Irene Suite Francaise

T h e C a r l e t o n -W i l l a r d V i l l a g e r • S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 4 • V o l u m e 3 2 • N u m b e r 3 23 Palmer, Michael Resistant (*) Rausing, Sigrid Everything is Wonderful Paull, Laline The Bees Sammarco, Anthony A History of Howard Payton, Brian The Wind is not a River (*) Mitchell Johnson’s Penny, Louise How the Light Gets In (*) Schama, Simon The Story of the Jews Perry, Anne Blind Justice Sloan, Cliff & The Great Decision Perry, Anne Death on Blackheath (*) McKean, David Prose, Francine Lovers at the Chameleon Vaill, Amanda Hotel Florida Club, Paris 1932 Zoellner, Tom Train (*) Sanders, Neal A Murder at the Flower Show Miscellaneous Sandford, John Field of Prey (*) Johnson, Richard A. Field of Our Fathers Urquhart, Rachel The Visionist Staudohar, Paul, Ed. Baseball’s Best Short Winspear, Jacqueline The Care and Management Stories of Lies Wyld, Evie All the Birds, Singing Nature Zevin, Gabrielle The Storied Life of A. J. Baraton, Alain The Gardener of Versailles Fikry McCalman, Iain The Reef Zevin, Gabrielle The Storied Life of A. J. Kassinger, Ruth A Garden of Marvels Fikry (*) Poetry Health and Wellness Lapidus, Jacqueline The Widow’s Handbook Blaser, Martin J. Missing Microbes & Menn, Lise Lerner, Barron H. The Good Doctor Oliver, Mary Dog Songs (*) Mahoney, Rosemary For the Benefit of Those Who See Smith, Fran et al Changing the Way We Die (*) (* indicates Large Print)

History Katherine F. Graff Ambrose, Stephen E. The Wild Blue Bailey, Catherine The Secret Rooms Blanding, Michael The Map Thief Borneman, Walter American Spring Hall, Andy Denali’s Howl Helman, Scott & Long Mile Home (*) Russell, Jenna

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