Summer into Fall

Dinner before the play overlooking the Hudson

What do I remember of mid-summer? Players from the Shakespeare on the Hudson striding in 17th century costumes towards us on the meadow between the theater and the river. Eleanor Roosevelt's home nearby. The Chester ferry. Huddling with my fellow poets at our now annual Chester Conference. Gilmanton, Loon Pond, always the same. Kayaking across the center of the lake.

Lighthouse near Mukilteo ferry landing

Before we knew it, fall had arrived. I volunteered for my 45th Stanford reunion as co-social-media-coordinator (Holly and I monitored the Facebook page!), and wrote a memorial poem for the class book. We decided to "add on" Seattle and Portland to our trip west for the reunion. Stayed with Cindy and Doug in Bellevue, got to see Corinne and walk the UW campus with her, stayed with Peggy and Bill in Portland. When we got to Palo Alto I discovered it was the night of our old poetry group's workshop, so I went to that, too. Holly had us Branner 3C corridor mates to her home for cocktails, and the dinner I arranged at Vaso Azzurro for Italy XIV went off splendidly.

Morristown Presbyterian Churchyard

Got back to Lawrenceville and soon my sister arrived! Lots of planning on my part to figure out just the route we should take--she appreciated how we avoided the major highways, stuck to the countryside. Lunch at the Bernards Inn, stops in the Mendham and Morristown churchyards the first afternoon, and dinner at the Madison Hotel where we stayed. The next day we found our great-great-great grandmother's tombstone in Fairfield, stopped in at the Van Ness house and the Sandford-Stager house (the latter is for sale!). Earlier in the day we went to Montville, saw two houses there (Hyler and Parlaman), both owned by our ancestors. Lunch in Montclair at the Red Eye Cafe. Found great-grandfather Fillmore's home on Roseland, across the street from the Robison house, both in good shape. All our relatives found in the Prospect Hill Cemetery (Fillmore, Ida and Everett, Stephen J. and Catherine, Charles S. Simonson and Emma Winans, Henry Winans and Mary Hotto, Ann Sanford and Isaac Simonson. Don't think I'm missing anyone. Couldn't find anyone at the First Presbyterian Churchyard, graves too hard to read, although our folks were listed in the books they had in the office. Mother's house looked great, the owner was just leaving or she would have shown us around again as she did for me a few years ago. Russell's house still there, and their father Charles' and the store with "Simonson 1909" in the brick. Also Fillmore's older home on Bloomfield, Everett Field, Overlook Cottage. Back home in traffic on the Garden State, but in time for dinner with Bill at the Blue Bottle in Hopewell.