Gloucester April 2012

Here we go with the Gloucester 2012 Report (I feel like Zazu in Lion King giving the daily report to Simba!--I wonder if I could sing this?)  We had a great trip.  The weather was "good" (not great and not awful).  "Good" is Uncle Tim's new way to describe almost everything (not great and not awful).  You see a few of the highlights here in this show.

The very first morning we were there, we went down to Dunkin Donuts and ran right into Uncle Peter.  He stayed and spent some time telling us stories and catching us up.  He looked great.  Two stories that were especially interesting involved Aunt Bud (their Aunt Violet Ryan) and the other Grampie.  Peter remembers riding his bike to Georgetown from Gloucester to visit with Aunt Bud.  We think this might be about 25 miles.  The first time he did this, his mother followed in a car (driven I think by either June or Ethel from the house behind theirs)  to make sure he got there safely.  Some things haven't changed as much as you might assume.

Anyhow, Peter remembers going to see Aunt Bud with Dad one time.  Remember there is a fair age difference between Peter and Dad of 13 years.  Pete said he asked Dad one time just how old he was and Dad got mad at him.  He thinks he was about 10 at the time he asked this question.  This visit to Aunt Bud with Dad took place a few years later when Pete thinks Dad was either home on leave or from St. Bonaventure.  Aunt Bud went into another room and came back with an engagement ring that she said was for Dad.  Peter describes that Dad tried to refuse it but Aunt Bud insisted.  Dad just broke down in tears and Peter left the room.  He knew something private was going on.  Tears came to Pete's eyes as he was relating this almost 60 years later.  It must have been very moving then to keep that emotional baggage on board all these years later.  He doesn't know if there was more to the story about this ring, but we all remember that Mom wanted it to stay in the Ryan family so it went to Chris.  Makes that act even more meaningful I think. 

Another story Pete told us was in response to my question about what he might know about a shooting accident in the family.  Tim had hinted at such a story and I've been trying to track it down.  I believe I've found it (another blog post) but that's not what Pete remembered.  He recalled that Grampie went into the package store one day and walked right into an attempted robbery.  One of the two robbers had a shotgun which Grampie took a grab at.  The ceiling was the victim of the ensuing struggle but the robbers took off and were later apprehended.  It's a little hard for me to picture the Grampie I remember doing something like this but it does fit in with Tim's other tales of Grampie's various activities like rum-running!

It was a great conversation with Peter and it was great to spend some time with him like that.  He says he's stopped drinking because he knew it would make him feel better to do so.  He spends lots of time on the golf course and with Petey. 

We were able to spend some alone time with Julia and with the twins.  It was great.  We did kindergarten homework with Julia--writing 6 sentences.  In kindergarten.  Wow.  We climbed all over Stage Fort Park (an amazing place once you get down in there near the water) and went in search of lighthouses.  You wouldn't think a lighthouse could hide from you, but we had quite a time finding this Annisquam lighthouse in the pictures.  I spent research time in the library and am still sorting out what I found.  We also spent significant time in the cemeteries--and there's another future blog post.

So stay tuned to the blog for more news that's fit to print.