Monday, May 5, 2008

Just wanted to let you know

If you're getting this in an e-mail, it means I've added your name to the distribution list, so any time there's a new post, you get it by e-mail, too. But I just instituted this, so there are other posts you won't see unless you go to the blog. If you don't want these to come by e-mail, let me know.
Doug

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Talk about Connections!

So, you all know I went to C.B.'s memorial. One of the speakers is the new owner of H.O.B. Hill (what H.O. and Hannah Burdick reserved for themselves, after donating land for Camp Harley Sutton), Sheila Flanagan. In her remembrance, she spoke of having been C.B.'s student back in 1975, as a freshman at A.U. This all was after Cathy had told me she knew Sheila as an A.K.O. sister, but I had not yet met her (unless I did back in 1975-76, when I was a freshman at A.U., also).
I talked with Sheila after the remembrance formalities were done, and she told me how C.B.'s sons, Peter and Chris, and daughter Anna, would have just thrown almost all of her things away. Sheila told them to just put most of them at the farmhouse. She agreed to show me anything that might be of value to me, after I told her of our family connections. We got along famously, immediately. We weren't sure that we remembered each other from our freshman year, but agreed about everything we discussed.
The next day, at the burial of C.B.'s ashes, I read a poem I had composed (and is posted here at the blog), and chatted with Anna and Peter and C.B.'s sister, Judy. Then Dan Seiss-Rain, who I remembered being a student in Environmental Studies right after I graduated from A.U., came over to talk with me. Since my poem had mentioned connections to C.B., he asked if I might know where his grandfather and other family members were buried. I inquired who they were, and he told me his grandfather was Addison Scholes, and I told him he had been best friends with our Uncle K. when they were young. With some help from Keith Rogers, I took him to the Scholes graves and left him alone, but I had gotten his e-mail address and so on.
Next, I went with the other folks from C.B.'s graveside service, to Ben and Robin Howard's house, which most of you would remember being Gordon and Helen Ogden's. I chatted with the Burdicks and few others, and then Ben engaged me, at length, in conversation. We had always had warm conversations before, but always brief. This time he told me that he had learned quite a bit from my Bergren Forum presentation on Alfred S.D.B. history, and it went from there. As a result, I may begin going to his Zazen sessions, and we agreed to take a walk up the hillside to look at the property currently owned by our church, that I had suggested might be a nice spot for a Zen temple. It's above the end of Green Street, up behind Kappa Psi, which I understand has been purchased by Alfred State College for use as a welcome center, and has no street access. It has a nice view, and might be just fabulous for Ben's group.
All of these connections have helped my sagging spirits, so I wanted to share them with you.