a birthday

Dorcas had a birthday and we all had cake.  Leah helped to blow out the candles.

Off to the UK

Dorcas left our house at 2:30, bound for Newark where her study tour group gets a British Air flight to London.  Here she totes her shoulder bag.  We've put the one--and only one--suitcase in car.  The tour is a three-credit seminary course towards her M. Div. degree.  After this course she only needs three more to complete the degree.  She leaves June 18 and returns the 28th.

inside the seminary

I followed her inside. After checking her mailbox in the catacombs-ish space, she gave me the tour. In the soaring cathedral-like space we saw the lit tree from the other side and through the windows I enjoyed the pastel blue mountains in dawn's early light and the reflected light and the cross in the window overhead.

discovering Dorcas at seminary

Monday I drove to Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Va., to see Dorcas go to school. It's 7:45 a.m. Behind her is the cute cottage. Above her is the Christmas tree amid the arches of the seminary building.

Dorcas birthday

Joel fires up the grill on Mary Street and puts on the red snapper and fillet; Dorcas gets gifts, including a wrist watch, and blows out three candles for 62--well, not too far off. When the Barnstormers shoot off the Labor Day fire works the sixsome settles on the back porch to cap off a rich evening. (Dorcas photo by Joel)

school again

Two schools are making an impact on our family this week. Today Lancaster Mennonite begins as photo shows. Thursday Eastern Mennonite Seminary begins and Dorcas will move her allegiance there for a semester. Photo by LNP.

June weekend

This first June weekend I start out alone. One couple is biking in NYC. The other is weekending in Niagara Falls. And Dorcas goes to a class reunion in Maryland with three classmates.

30 years together

What to do on your 30th anniversary? A little poetry in flowers at daybreak.

Dorcas gets 15-year recognition

Last evening Lancaster Mennonite School honored Dorcas for fifteen years of service.

college friends

Dorcas graduated from Hood College, Frederick, Md., in 1970. Last weekend three of her friends stayed here. Seated beside Dorcas is Cindy, from this area. Left is Candy of Connecticut and, right, Paulette, of Vermont and Long Island. A great bunch.

school building

Here's a scan of an offset of a photo. Don't try that at home. A request for the original file is in the works. In the meantime I had to show this pic. That's Dorcas, second from left facing camera, at the Dec. 2 ribbon cutting at the dedication of the new Rutt Academic Center at Lancaster Mennonite School.

outback wakes up in Monterey

For the first time in 12 years, the sun rose on Monterey without a Dodge caravan in our drive. Now it's a Subaru outback. It got Dorcas to work and she reported: "On my first drive to school, I really like the outback. Could be that it fits me better than any other car we've had since I drove my superbeetle to my first job over the mountains in snow." Not quite new at 34K miles. How to say good-bye to 216,000 caravan miles?

new office for Dorcas

Friday at dusk I helped Dorcas move into her new office at Lancaster Mennonite School. It's wider by three feet. Top photo is the last peek before we stripped the walls and everything else. Below is the new office with the things moved but not set up yet, mirror on floor. Each room has the same single window

Dorcas turns 60

That kind of achievement calls for special gifts. First the supper of crab-stuffed flounder, succotash (local, fresh), tiny, new potatoes (our garden), salad, and topped off with rose and white--sides of ham baked in crust and Italian meatballs over macaroni and cheese.

The gifts started at the table with the dutch oven, the red, high design, desk-top organizer, the orange hedgehog paper clip holder, massage gift card, hand-made jewelry and more. Then it was upstairs for the unveiling, literally, of the piece de resistance--the corner desk, with 3 drawers in front and 3 out the side, to say nothing of the little ones and locked compartment.

In Dutch we call it schnupp. Thanks to Joel, Steph, Sarah, and Ryan for all the fixin's and the special occasion. Photo right by Joel.

salmon supper

Last evening the Waterfields had supper with us. Anna, second from left, beside Dorcas, ends a six-year mentorship. Continuing clockwise is Chuck, me, Sue, and Maria.

Let's pull in a close-up of Dorcas and Anna. At church every youth gets paired with an adult just to be friends until high school graduation.

boldly on to e-bay

Cupboard raids can yield treasures, too. Dorcas found the creamer and sugar bowl with lid on Good Friday.

No cracks, no hidden defects. Showing some use on the gold trim. She acquired this set when the girls home in Long Island was closing down. Let me guess about 1978. They were left behind and she rescued them.

We used them in the era when grandparents, Ivan and Della, Lester and Elva, visited our home at 542 East Orange. Mikasa Rosetta, if you like names. Give them to re-uzit?

I put them on e-bay kind of for the fun of it and to keep in practice. It's been a year and a half since I put something on e-bay.

camer hides the crack

Looks like a creamer in perfect condition. The back, however, suffers a bad crack and spots of super glue which tried to repair it.

Cleaning one of the cupboards on her day off, Dorcas chucked it. It had no family history. Well, Dorcas remembers her regret when she dropped it. Well, the family of the person who made and painted it.

Seems too bad.

last hurrah of the suitor's coat

Here's me, wearing for the last time what we called my Russian coat, heavy enough to tough out whatever chilly tortures nature had in store for me in New Hampshire or Grantsville.


Bought during my first church job, in Exeter, N.H., at a rummage sale for (do I remember correctly?) $2.50, it saved my life, kind of, during my first, solo trip to Grantsville, New Year's Day, 1977, in a green VW bug with a totally useless heater. In this coat, coasting on a sled on a hill near Mapleshade Farm and probably on Dorsey Hotel Road, Dorcas thought, she tells me now, that maybe things will work out with this guy. I was already hooked.


The rest is history. She was right. I was right. Over 110 trips to western Maryland later, time to junk it. I'll put it on one last time.

The first year we were married, travelling again in the VW with no heater and by now a rust hole in the back floor, this coat helped me survive. At Chambersburg at midnight we stopped at a Howard Johnsons along I 81 and warmed up in the lobby. The graveyard shift clerk was either apprehensive or afraid, but what could she do as we stood over the hot air vent. If I were superstitious I might call the coat a talisman. The coat did hold me when the big moment came--choosing Dorcas.

Actually, it's that beauty by my side that did most of the keeping warm.


After about 15 years of just hanging in the closet, it's time to put it down.

Real birth hero

Here's Dorcas, r., and one of Dr. Rutt's nurses. When it comes to birth, there's no hero but the mother. There are some attendants. In our case including the father. But Mother's Day doesn't come often enough to show the life leadership of mothers themselves.

family doctor retires

First you go to Gordonville. Then you wait in line. Then you finally chat with Dr. Rutt, left. At right are his two totally successful births, Sarah and Joel. Back to camera is Dorcas, who really did the heavy lifting in 1981 and 1984. Center is Steph, soaking in the family history.

Dr. Rutt had a solo practice close to Gordonville, specializing in births in the birthing room in his office. With both births, Dorcas and I were able to drive to the office in the wee hours when no one else was there--except for Dr. Rutt, who had given up a night's sleep to usher in the blessed events.