Ireland At Last!

Beth and I finally made it to Ireland in late April 2024, a Road Scholar trip. It was very exciting landing on that green island that so many times I had flown over, on the way to England and other places in Europe, without stopping. We stayed for three nights in a grand hotel in Ennis, The Old Ground Hotel. Our first day we had glorious sunshine in Galway, learned its history, walked up its High Street, and later visited Coole Park, its Autograph Tree, and a small museum about Lady Gregory, friend of Yeats. That night we heard a mother and her daughters play haunting ballads in an old forge. Our second day we explored the Burren area, saw Celtic crosses in Kilfenora, and got a brief moment of clearing at the Cliffs of Moher before a giant rainstorm blew in. Our third day centered on two castles, Bunratty and Blarney. We skipped kissing the Blarney stone, Beth and I being responsible in our lives for too much gab. 

We stayed three nights in Kinsale, at the Trident Hotel. The day after arriving there we drove along a river til we got to Bantry Bay, then climbed over Caha Pass and later Molls Gap. In the afternoon we visited Muckross House, a sumptuous mansion built by an Irish couple who actually lived in Woodside, California (the estate called Filoli) and bought the home in Muckross for their daughter and new son-in-law. Our last day in Kinsale Beth and I took a boat ride around the bay. We lucked out with full sunshine, blue water, green hillsides, churches and forts, and a smooth, comfortable ride.

We left the next morning, stopped in at the Cobh Emigration Museum. Then on to Dublin, with a planned stop in Kilkenny, Kilkenny being the only place in Ireland that had a family connection for me, as it was where my great-great grandfather came from. So Beth had been amused that I talked about this fellow with the same name as my great-great grandfather (Patrick Rafter), and who was also a violinist from Kilkenny. I was hoping to connect with him, even though he was quite famous, playing with many major orchestras. But it was he who first contacted me in a genealogy forum,

asking if we might figure out how we were related. So I had his phone number, and he had asked for mine. And we emailed. I told him we had this 2-hour window of lunch in Kilkenny, and about 20 minutes before we arrived there, my phone rang: Patrick Rafter calling! So we met at a great cafe in Kilkenny with Patrick and his mother, a wonderful encounter (we would return to Kilkenny at the end of our trip). Patrick's mother stared at me and said, "She looks just like baby George....!"

So now we had three nights in Dublin, two . On the first day we had a helpful bus tour to orient us. I took off to visit Sweny's Pharmacy, which James Joyce knew and put in his novel Ulysses as a place his character Leopold Bloom briefly stops. It is now a mini-museum, and the proprietor sings you a song, plucking his guitar. He recommended lunch at Kennedy's Pub across the street, which was perfect. Other places I visited that day were the National Library, the National Museum of Archaeology, and Oscar Wilde's house. The next day we were to see the Book of Kells, but Trinity College was entirely shut down because of protests over the Gaza War. So instead we visited the Museum of Literature, and had a lovely walk across St. Stephens Park. We spent the afternoon in the National Gallery.

The tour was over, and Beth and I then headed for Kilkenny, so I could explore my family's beginnings. We got there by train, and the very first taxi driver we engaged, who drove us to our hotel, turned out to be a gem. He said yes, he could certainly arrange to drive us to Callan (where Patrick Rafter was evidently born and went to school) and anywhere else we'd like, for a reasonable sum, and he'd pick us up after lunch! So this was really a dream, I wasn't sure I could pull it off. There I was strolling up and down the main street of Callan, looking in at Patrick's school (the priory), and we even visited where he went to college in Kilkenny, and the graveyard where his brother was known to have been buried. A great beginning for our visit. Sipping a Bailey's Irish Cream in Rafter Dempsey's pub (owned by present-day Patrick's cousin) was nice as well.

The next morning we explored the neighborhood where (the original) Patrick's three sisters lived near the Friary, then walked up to Rothe House, a house museum with a beautiful garden, and finished off the afternoon with a visit to Kilkenny Castle. That night we showed up at Kytelers Inn to see a show. It was part of a "country" music festival I had read about, so I purchased ahead tickets for us to see and hear Sam Outlaw, who had once lived in Los Angeles and was actually terrific. I ended up on the dance floor with a

couple we met there, great fun. Our last morning in Kilkenny we took a relaxing boat trip up and down the River Nore. Flew home a day later from Dublin.

Can't really top this trip, except for seeing Elio in California! That was part of my sister's fun 90th birthday celebration at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in June. All 23 of us in the family showed up. A great place to catch up with the family, and take turns getting our pictures taken with Elio. A slight mishap, one day after I had bragged to my nephew Kent, the orthopedic surgeon, that I had never broken any bones, I slipped and fell near the pool and managed to break three little toes on my left foot!

During the summer we stopped on our way to New Hampshire in New Jersey, to visit with Maxine and her husband Jay. Jay passed away a few months later. No Chester gathering this year. Drew Farm packed with all the Radoses and dog Phoebe. On the way home we stopped in Middlebury where Clare was beginning her sophomore year. A scenic drive home, the Fort Ticonderoga Ferry, and down the Hudson.

Back to California we flew in October for my Stanford 55th reunion. Enjoyed seeing Holly, Cindy, Audrey, and other class of '69 pals. Some very nice lunches at our class headquarters, some excellent lectures including one about Mississippi Summer, and a fun class party where there were only Cindy, Betsy and Marlene and I up on the dance floor, until they started playing Louie Louie (my request) and about thirty more people streamed onto the floor. The last night was our traditional Italy XIV dinner at Vaso Azzurro in Mountain View. Some new people came we hadn't seen since 1967! The last morning of the reunion Holly, Betsy, and I showed up for the Class of '69 Authors event. Although it was mostly just our friends and relatives (an exaggeration, the audience numbered about 7...!) we had a great time. On Sunday night we stayed at an airport hotel looking over San Francisco Bay, and flew home on my birthday.

Thanksgiving was really special this year. My second cousin, Kathy Hopps, whom I had probably not seen since we were children, found my article about Patrick Rafter on the Internet and wrote an email asking if I was her cousin? Then it turned out that while we both thought the other person must still live in California, where we were born, we lived not that far apart, me in Annapolis and she in Silver Spring. In trying to figure out a time to get together with her family, she proposed having us come for Thanksgiving. We had a lovely day with them and seem to have made new, lasting friendships.

As they say in Wordle, having just completed this by the end of the year, Phew!

My How Time Flies!

Hard to believe it's been almost a year since the last post. Last summer in Chester, Connecticut we finally had all of our members together for a long-overdue poetry conference. At its conclusion we rushed off to New London to pick up very special arriving passengers, Corinne and Owen, who visited Drew Farm with us our first few days there. 

In October I got my birthday wish to return to Chestertown and the Great Oak Manor, where we had stayed way back in 2007. It was picture-perfect fall weather. We hadn't planned anything but happened to be there during Tall Ship weekend. There was also a Halloween parade downtown for which we were able to grab frontline viewing from our lunch spot. And later we were sitting on a bench near the river, and got talked into boarding a boat for a one-hour tour past all the tall ships that were anchored there for the weekend, a perfectly easy way to view them.

Late October, October 31 to be exact, arrived the newest member of the family: Elio Maro Marangi, born in Berlin, Germany. Photos of him come frequently, so we almost feel like we are watching his steady journey from day one to the arrival of his first curls. We are looking forward to seeing him for the first time in June, when we travel to California for my sister's birthday.

In December we had a quiet Christmas, but a few days later my sister arrived, her first visit to us since we had arrived in Annapolis. She seem positively impressed with BayWoods. She got to meet quite a few of our friends over lunch in the Bistro. Dinner was at Jalapeños, then I stayed with Janet overnight at The Graduate, and the next day we drove her back to DC, stopping for lunch at Harvest Thyme.

In February I was busy rehearsing for the three acts in which I was involved in the Variety Show. One was a skit I re-wrote so three of us could perform the famous "wall scene" from Midsummer Night's Dream. The second was a goofy dance our aqua class did to the tune of the 60s song "The Swim." I was most proud of my (almost) flawless performance of a line dance called "Seduced." Got to dress up a little and swing our boas.

In March I went with a BayWoods excursion to hear a group called The Suits, who sang 60s-80s doo-wop, Motown, and disco tunes. At one point they asked for a volunteer to come up on stage with them. There were hundreds of us in the audience, and I was in the second row. Behind me I imagined lots of people with their hands up, so I stuck mine up, too. It turned out I was the only person volunteering! So of course I went up on stage, introduced myself, and sat on a stool as they took turns singing to me different verses of "My Girl." The audience thought I was singing, too, but I was only mouthing the words, as it was one of my favorite songs. They say I danced, too, but that was only briefly...

Today I happen to be off to Ireland. Road Scholar trip with my friend Beth, staying near Galway, in Kinsale, and Dublin, finishing off with a private trip to Kilkenny, where my great-great grandfather Patrick Henry Rafter came from. So stay tune. This blog should become more timely soon!

Springtime and a Lowland Fling

Word reached us in mid-March that Tyler and Kathi had tied the knot in Denmark, and photos came showing their lovely wedding in a lighthouse, just the two of them, so romantic. 

In April my friend Beth and I took off north in her car. She dropped me off in Princeton so I could do some work with my research buddies George and Dory in Princeton, at Rutgers, and later in Newark and NYC. Then I took the Metro North up to Milford where Beth put me up in the cottage behind her old home (now belonging to new owners). We walked on the beach and explored Milford, and then the next day I showed her my favorite places: the Trolley Trail in Branford, Stony Creek, Chaffinch Island Park, and the Foote-Ward cemetery. She also got to meet my friends Gordy and Andrea, and Lois back in New Jersey.

Back at BayWoods I was running for a seat on the Board of Directors. In the first week of May I learned I had won, joining two incumbents. So this will add a load to my life at BayWoods, we shall see what transpires. In mid-May Bill and I took off on our long-awaited trip to Scotland and England. We flew to London where the first night we ate dinner at our favorite restaurant, Margaux, on the Old Brompton Road. The train ride to Edinburgh was quite lovely, especially along the coast. We finally arrived at North Berwick, home of our friend Dave Berry, who had invited us and myriad other friends for what he called A Lowland Fling. We had a great room overlooking the High Street. There was a welcome dinner, a city walking tour led by Dave, and a wonderful party Saturday evening at the local pub, where Dave played

the drums with his old mates he had gathered together. A half pint of Guinness Stout and I was up there dancing to Sweet Caroline and Gimme Some Lovin. Sunday was the boat trip to four islands, each with their different birds, one with a lighthouse built by Robert Louis Stevenson's family which might have been the inspiration for Treasure Island. We hated leaving, but Monday left for Edinburgh and spent the afternoon at the National Gallery, meeting some of our new friends for lunch. On Tuesday we went to Glasgow, highlights were the Transportation Museum and the Willow Tea Room, but unfortunately I came down with a cold. Back in Edinburgh we discovered Howie's, which served excellent Scottish food in an historic building with windows all around. Later that week we took the train to Beverley, where we attended a concert in the beautiful church St Marys performed by the Early Music group The

Ministers of Pastime. The next day Bill came down with the same cold so we had to cancel the next night's concert, The Tallis Scholars. But the hotel was comfortable and we got a lot of rest our last couple of days. 

Back at BayWoods I hardly slowed down, went to an event at Quiet Waters Park and then a few days later went on a "pedalling" boat cruise of Baltimore Harbor. The summer beckons, we're planning our annual trip north to Gilmanton, with my Chester group meeting the last week of July. Oh, and Beth and I signed up for a trip to Ireland in April/May 2024!

Where Does the Time Go

One of the results of a busy life is that one doesn't have time to blog. Notice it has been more than a year

Tyler and Kathi

since there has been an update. Many of the details of our lives repeat every year: Chester poetry group in late July (in 2022 only 3 of us met but we're hoping for a full group in 2023), and Gilmanton in August. Because of Covid, long-distance travel by air was not desirable, but we decided we would go to California for Christmas in December 2022. We flew to Santa Barbara, which has a charming airport, and hung out with our friends Roger and Fran. Second stop, Pasadena, visiting with Kirk and his family. Got to spend a little time with Tyler and Kathi. Third stop was Laguna Beach with my sister. Came back home, thankfully no Covid, ready to start the new year.

One small trip I did make in October 2022 was to Princeton to read with my fellow Cool Women Poets for a launch of our latest anthology. Came back after a 3-day trip, back in my own bed Sunday night October 16, was woken up at 3 a.m. by the fire alarm. Unfortunately it was a real fire. The good news is that our building is very well built (steel and concrete) so the fire, which was on the next floor up from us, did not spread from one apartment. The bad news is that the sprinkler system worked (I know, that sounds like good news), causing damage to at least 30 apartments. Ours did not have any water damage but water ran down within our walls, so we had to have 2 feet of drywall removed from 5 walls in our apartment so that insulation could be removed and the interior dried out. It has been 3 months since that was done and we are still waiting for the drywall to be replaced. No comment.

Beth, Sharon and Michael

In December 2022 we lost one of our closest friends here at BayWoods. His name was Michael Kurtz. He and our friend Beth had become very close in the last year. Michael was our neighbor across the hall. He had an illustrious career as an archivist, serving as the top non-political officer in the National Archives from 1996 to 2011. He also did incredible research on the efforts to find art stolen by the Nazis during World War II, and his work became the inspiration for the 2014 movie "The Monuments Men" directed by George Clooney. But these achievements do not begin to describe what a wonderful friend he was, a gentle soft-spoken man, but strong as iron in his convictions, and always ready to act upon them.

The two genealogical projects I was working on last year continue to take up my time. The Friends of the Van Ness House learned in December 2022 we had achieved 501(c)(3) status. And the Cedar Grove Cemetery project has received much good publicity, last week we were featured on WNYC: https://www.wnyc.org/story/researchers-aim-show-cemetery-final-resting-place-enslaved-people-who-helped-build-nj-town/

Our biggest plan comes about in May, a trip to Scotland to see our Scotsman friend Dave Berry. Hopefully you'll be reading about that in the next post. I almost forgot, I was in 3 different acts in the Variety Show here at BayWoods, see some of the highlights here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/t3AnbkS4kaWaRt2BA

Settling In

 So it's taken me a little over a year to report again on this blog. As promised, we moved in to Baywoods of Annapolis on March 3. Baywoods has had a really good record during the pandemic, no one in the independent living quarters dying of Covid. Rules have been strict here. We moved in when there were no dinners being served in the dining room, so we got used to dinners arriving in a bag. Instead of cooking we now reheat dinner in a microwave! We also learned how to order from local grocery stores, and ventured out to our favorite espresso bars and a few restaurants when it seemed safe. In May 2021 we took a fun day trip to Easton, Maryland on the Eastern Shore (also got my car registered, lines were shorter there). We've made very good friends here so far. I joined the staff of the Breeze newsletter, and one of my specialties is interviewing new residents. Earlier this week on Valentine's Day we participated with three other couples in a "newlywed game," came in second. Over the year we've gone on a few excursions with small groups to the outdoor sculpture garden in DC, the Baltimore Museum of Industry, and earlier this month to the African-American Museum. As I write this things are slowly opening up more. Dining room serving again, even happy hours. I take a swim exercise class twice a week. 

Eddie, Bill and I in Jávea,
Spain, in 2009

Last summer we managed to drive all the way to Gilmanton, stopping along the way to visit friends in the Princeton area, in Brooklyn, and Guilford, Connecticut. We stayed at the Jersey City Hyatt and were given a room with a view overlooking the Hudson. We were able to use the PATH and Lyft to get to Brooklyn to see our friends Ruthie and Eddie Lemansky. As I write this we've just learned that Eddie died of a heart attack yesterday, February 15. He was one of Bill's oldest friends so we are glad we were able to get to see him last summer.

Last October we were lucky there was a small decline in covid cases, so we boarded a plane at BWI and
flew to California so we could attend my great-nephew Riley's wedding to Michelle in the wine country. We went to all the wedding festivities, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding in a vineyard, brunch the next mroning, all in one fast weekend. And of course we got to see all of my family in one place, together, true luxury.

Recently my genealogical "career" has picked up. I not only published the second of two installments of my Captain Sandford article, I have become involved in two unrelated but somewhat connected projects in New Jersey. One is an attempt to collect all known information about the Cedar Grove community (of which my Simonsons were one family there) in a project to develop a possible museum featuring the cemetery there. The other one is to try to save the Peter Van Ness house in Fairfield, New Jersey, this campaign has just begun in earnest, and I am on a committee of three planning it. So I work with four different men on these two projects, and some of them know each other, so I am juggling to remember what I've said to who about what...

Our next excursion will be to New York to hear Jordi Savall at Carnegie Hall, and see Jenny, Phil and one or two grandchildren. Perhaps I'll be writing here more frequently. Hard to believe I've been so busy but I guess retirement can be like that.

Surprise Move!

This will probably surprise the heck out of anyone actually reading my blog. We are on our way to Annapolis. Let me back up and catch you up from the last post of June 6, 2020. Soon after that I was a featured reader along with Doren Robbins for a Poetry Center San Jose zoom reading (June 9). The regular events were changed slightly, my Chester group met for a week via Zoom in late July. We decided going to New Hampshire would work fine, pandemic-wise, as the levels of infection were very low there. So we drove up to Guilford, had dinner (masked, socially distanced) with our friends Gwen and Norm, and then arrived at Drew Farm on July 25. The first week we were there with Clare and Lucy only, then the rest of the family came. Going to the pond was easy, people stayed away from each other enough so we all felt safe. Bill and I even shopped at the market pretty regularly, how daring! We stayed until mid-August, then drove home stopping at Wallingford, my new Connecticut discovery where I'd stayed with Juditha the year before. Bill liked it very much, especially the Library Bar and Bistro for dinner. 

All of the regular activities took place, except via Zoom, like my various book groups, the Cool Women, the Chester group. In fact, it was nice to meet with the Chester group once a month instead of the usual once-a-year gathering. The first part of my article about John Sandford/Sanford/Santford, the three Revolutionary War soldiers, came out in September (and then part two is soon to arrive in March 2021). 

But the real excitement came around October when I convinced Bill we should go down to Annapolis and take a look at some of the apartments at BayWoods of Annapolis, the retirement community we had researched and which was beckoning to us. So we drove down on my birthday, staying at Country Inn and Suites, found the good espresso place there (Ceremony Coffee), found a beautiful park by the bay (Quiet Waters), and had dinner outside (tented) at Vin 909 to celebrate. The next morning, after breakfast downtown outside near the docks, we showed up for our tour with Jim Harrington of two of the two-bedroom apartments that were available. Unfortunately, both were on the north side, not as sunny as the south side. But it all looked good. We spent some time also at a wonderful bookstore/coffeehouse and had lunch in Eastport in a sandwich place, sitting outside looking out over the harbor.

So then we mulled it over for awhile...! Genevieve and I arranged a Zoom 80th birthday surprise for him with friends from all over the country wishing him well. Thanksgiving came and went, quiet, just the two of us. Christmas came and went, quiet, just the two of us. We decided maybe my niece Karen could help us out, since the Covid cases were particularly high around the end of the year. So she went to BayWoods on January 9th, toured an apartment newly available on the south, sunny side, took lots of photos and talked to Jim Harrington. The apartment looked great, was on the fourth floor, had a view of the water, and so we decided why go down again to look at it, since the two-bedroom plans all had the same layout, and we had seen the facility. We had looked into at least 30 or so other places, ranked them financially and by amenities, and this place just seemed the best fit for us. We had only visited Annapolis one other time (back in 2007) but the visit in October revealed a town with a lot of excitement, and the fact that we would be right on the Chesapeake Bay just seemed very exciting and relaxing at the same time. Also nice to be near D.C. and all of its activities, as well as Karen and Elena and Marina being nearby as well. And friends Anne and Fred, and Hiram to boot.

I am writing this as we are in the throes of moving. Many boxes of books. Backaches, packing exhaustion. We are looking forward to being in our new place, that's for sure! Next post will have more news about our adjustment to the retirement community and life further south. At least I don't have to worry about my not seeming to be much of a Jersey girl. All I have to be now is a decent Annapolitan.

Long Days at Home

Cooperstown Public Library

The last post ended with a recap of whirlwind activities involving my new book, a train ride across the country, my 50th college reunion. Soon after that reunion Bill and I drove to Buffalo for Thanksgiving. On Sunday we planned a leisurely drive across the state to Cooperstown, to spend a night there as we had done a few times before. Unfortunately a storm was also planned for that day. We thought to ourselves, how bad could it be? Well, it was pretty daunting, took us all day to reach the turnoff for Cooperstown, the thruway full of cars creeping along in slush, our windshields pelted with pellets of frost. At the turnoff it was already dark. And a steep hill was on our route, unbeknownst to us the rather locally famous "Vickerman Hill." Cars to the right of us, cars to the left of us had spun out, but my Volvo soldiered on, only balked once, steady pressure to the gas and we made it to the top. I am becoming an accomplished winter driver. Still not there yet, though, another hour or two when it normally would have taken less than an hour. And minimal visibility, luckily very few cars on the road. We finally reached our destination, an old Victorian in Cooperstown, the Landmark Inn, and were fortunate one restaurant in town was still open, Mel's at 22, and it was warm and cozy with delicious food. The b&b let us stay an extra night of course, who else would be coming with several feet of snow? So we darted in to the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame the next day (we had to take turns because parking seemed to be prohibited everywhere...). We discovered Alex's World Bistro for a late lunch, then ordered takeout for our dinner back at the room (a bottle of wine purchased at the liquor store next door...seems liquor stores never close in inclement weather). So this is rather a long-winded description of a two-day event. Not to worry, there won't be much to relate for the next series of months...

I seem to remember a reading the Cools gave at the New Brunswick Public Library, and Gretna, Maxine and I having a great pizza lunch afterwards. That was March 7. Then the world started closing in. The pandemic had arrived. Events began to be cancelled. Frances Mayes' reading in Doylestown. Gray Jacobik's long-anticipated reading at the FDR library in Hyde Park. Bill and I navigated getting groceries delivered, and ordering takeout from places that allowed us to pick up at the curb. Masks acquired. The kindness of neighbors, some of whom shopped for us when online delivery was interrupted.

My great great grandfather Patrick Henry Rafter
becomes a citizen

Staying home is not as difficult for old people like us who are somewhat introverted and like to spend time on the Internet. I finished an article that I sent off to my editor at the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey. Threw away bags of papers, files, photos. Started more genealogical research. Wrote some poems. Was interviewed by the Guilford Poets Guild. Zoomed with my poetry friends, Gilmanton folks, Bill's family in Buffalo.

But watched in horror as the president of our country seemed to become a more and more frightening and dangerous individual. And George Floyd was murdered. That is where this blog is at this point in time, June 2020. People rising up. So many helpful commentators. Trevor Noah, for example, on the social contract. What good does it do, he asked, if the people in charge have broken the social contract, why should the oppressed continue to obey it?

Bill and I plan to go to New Hampshire in late July. That is about the sum of things here. Be well and stay stafe. And listen to the voices of change. What do we want, justice. When do we want it, now.