Cathy Eaton - first eighteen years
I lived my entire childhood on a Shorthorn cattle farm in Northfield, Ohio between Cleveland and Akron. Our address was 626 Houghton Road. Our farm was called Arrow Cottage after Indian arrow heads that were found in beams in the house, which was over 200 hundred years old. There were about 300 acres. The farm adjoined my grandfather’s cattle and horse farm, which had about 500 acres and was called Acadia Farms. In the park he had a small lake constructed and a tunnel that went under Route 8 so the horses didn’t have to cross the road. We started riding horses early and even hunted foxes. I eventually became a whipper-in. Grampa moved to Acadia Farms in the summers with his children around 1928, right around the time he and Nana divorced. She lived at Arrow Cottage. My parents were involved going to Perth, Scotland, to buy cattle for Grampa, and my brother Cy raised calves for 4-H and worked on the farm. All of us children rode hunters (English style) competitively. I feel disappointed in myself that I never worked on the cattle farm and actually know nothing about cattle.
Our farm was a marvelous place to grow up on over 300 acres of rolling fields and wooded areas with streams to splash in, fields and barns to play hide and seek in when we were younger and a swimming pool and tennis court when we got older. We hunted crawdaddies in the creek, played endless games in the pool, and rode ponies and horses all year round. In retrospect, I wish we had more friends to come visit and enjoy our wonderful pool and tennis court.
As a toddler, I loved to eat green and rotten apples off our apple trees. At two-years-old I accompanied my brothers and cousins to visit our grandfather at Deep Cove, Nova Scotia, which began my love affair with Nova Scotia. We traveled by train to Boston, boat to Yarmouth, car to Deep Cove. Early baby sitters were Eleanor Duckworth (later Piaget’s assistant and Harvard professor) and a teen named Ann. Later we traveled on the C & O plane, which was DC3. An early memory of me in Deep Cove is putting on my dress for traveling home and twirling around to show off my dress and realizing that I wasn’t wearing underpants. Also, I remember packing playing cards and crayons in a little round suitcase. My favorite book was Blue Berries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. We slept in the girls’ dorm on the third floor. During the day, we canoed in the cove, fished off the dock or on the boat Margy, swam in the chilly water, picnicked on the islands of Mahone Bay, climbed the Mill Stream at the end of cove to Pick blueberries, and hiked along the cove. We ate our meals with Grampa and Grananne, which were served by Raymon Bourque and Mabel Schnare and cooked by a chef named Jack.
In my 40s I wrote a novel Curse of the Pirate’s Treasure, which takes places in Deep Cove, but the name is changed to Boulder Cove. I sold about 800 copies of this self-published young adult novel over the years but never marketed the book.
I attended Lee Eaton School (named after Dad’s oldest sister who died when she was 40) for kindergarten in Northfield, Ohio. Toosie (Margaret) Brown was my best friend. Two Scottish girls lived next door. From 1st through 12th grade I attended Hathaway Brown School on North Park Blvd. in Shaker Heights, Ohio. It was a private girls’ school. The school motto was “Non Scholae Sed Vitae Discimus.” (“We learn not for school, but for life.”) We had about 20 students in the primary grades and about 50 students in the high school grades. Mom, who taught at Hawken Middle School, carpooled with the Mischlers who went to Beaumont School. In later years Willie Charron sometimes did the driving. My favorite activity was the school carnival in which all the students worked together to raise money for United Way. In the primary school we had games and contests with a little merry go round in the kindergarten room. We had a used book sale, bake sale, plays, variety shows, and dances. In third grade we repaired dolls for disadvantaged kids. My teacher Mrs. Leuser (sp) later was one of the judges my senior year when I won the Raymond Short Story award for my short story “Annya’s Herritage” which also got an honorable mention in Atlantic Monthly contest. In 4th grade we made our own puppets and gave puppet shows. I sewed a little boy and a crocodile. This was the year I became an avid reader. I still remember getting stars for each book I read. I was proud of those stars after my name. From 5th through 8th grade we wore ugly brown jumpers and yellow short sleeve blouses for our uniforms and brown bloomers and yellow shirts for our gym outfit. Luckily, there was no uniform in primary school or high school. I wonder if wearing dresses for 12 years of school influenced my not wearing dresses since I’ve had children.
I loved school and worked very hard on my studies. Spelling and foreign languages were particularly hard for me, but Mom helped me study those. Math was a challenge.
It bothered me that I always felt my classmates were smarter, but by my senior year I was in all A sections, had a B+ average, and was ranked 12th in my class. More important to me than academics were sports. My favorite time of day was gym every day all the years I attended school. I participated in every sport and was on first teams in high school (field hockey, basketball, volleyball, softball, tennis). I was goalie in field hockey for three years and then switched to center half or right inner. One time I cleared a goal and knocked out my best friend Adele Wick when a ball I kicked smacked her in the head. We also had gymnastics. Although I lacked artistic talent, I loved taking art and took it every year except my sophomore year.
HBS memories and highlights.
1st grade: My teacher was Mrs. McMullen. Curious, but I remember nothing about first grade. I probably had my first communion that year at St. Barnabus and we had party at the Mischlers. Mom took us to the Bedford Public Library every week, and often she treated us to ice cream at the M& M store.
2nd grade: I walked Elizabeth to nursery school in a separate building. My teacher was Mrs. Johnson. I have no memories of second grade either.
3rd grade: We repaired dolls. My teacher was Mrs. Eleanor Luseur. I loved it when the upper classmen game to our class and helped us get ready for carnival. I rode Sparky in local horseshows. Mr. Breshnif taught us riding. Some times, we had had Sunday dinner at Grampa’s.
4th grade: We made puppets and had puppet shows. I competed in Madison Square Garden as one of the youngest competitors in an ASHA class on my pony Mr. Fox. Ray and Jan Francis were our coaches. My teacher was Miss Helen Kylin. I believe this was the year that John was diagnosed with Nephritis and was hospitalized. For two years he couldn't do sports, and he looked pudgy. Dad built a pool and tennis court for us at Arrow. My closest friend was Adele Wick. Jane Wierdsma remembers playing hide and seek in the barn full of hay. I stayed with Farley in the annex at the guest house when her family lived with us.
5th grade: My sister Elizabeth (in 2nd grade) ran away from school after they posted her math grade. She walked several miles before she ran into Mom at shopping center. Middle school: I was on the Gold team and we always competed against the Brown team. I remember tying Paula Frohring’s and Adele’s shoelaces together during a gymnastics demonstration. I also remember that Adele and I were the smallest kids in our class and had to lead the entire Prep Department for graduation exercises where students were lined up by height. We were still at the front of the line in 8th grade. I was always on top in pyramids when we had gym with the eighth grade. My teacher was Mrs. Gregg. She was from England and had a wonderful accent. Aunt Dibbie and our cousins, Austin, Farley, and Little John, lived in the guest house next to us, and the 7 of us kids played and fought together. I loved the crafts Aunt Dibbie invented for us to do. At some point, Rusty Lincoln and Julie North lived with us due to troubles at home. Cy had a great party where they set up obstacle course in field behind Chalet.
6th grade: I was 4 feet six inches and weighed 62 pounds. Our homeroom teacher was Mrs. Ecclestone who taught us math for three years. Cy III ran away from home to Nashville, Tennessee and changed his named to Seth French. Later he went to live with Aunt Sue and Uncle Tim Morley in San Jose, California. He had a sign on the back of his 1956 Ford that said “California or Bust.” John, Elizabeth, and I competed in the Washington National Horse Show. My nickname was Shrimp, and I got bigger, it was Shrimbo for jumbo shrimp. Mrs. Carmichael (Marnie) chaperoned us as we traveled east to horse shows in Pennsylvania. Connecticut, and Massachusetts. I was quite oblivious of the privileged life we led.
7th grade: Our class doubled in size. I was host to new student Kate Dykema, who spent many weeks in the hospital so I sent her numerous cards to cheer her up. Miss Jenny Jensen was our English teacher and 7th grade homeroom teacher. John went away to boarding school to Kent School in Connecticut as a tenth grader, where he competed in crew.. Again I competed at Madison Square Garden and won a first with Flying Mouse. We rode with Julie North, Pam and Brooke Carmichael, Leslie and Pam Sayle, Drew Davenport, and Judy Fogg. I had my serious fall and trip in an ambulance to the hospital when I fell off Leonka and landed on my knee at the Chagrin Trails Horse Show. That summer Heidi, daughter of Jack Russell Terriers Chips and Mingles, joined our Weimaraner. WE bought her for $24. John bought the middle.
8th grade: Carnival Theme was Mythfit. Our class performed an original America myth play that our classmates wrote for carnival. Just before the curtain was raised, our headmistress Miss Anne Cutter Coburn announced to the audience that President John F. Kennedy had died from assassination bullets. The show and carnival continued, but we cried through most of the performance. For our eighth grade trip we traveled to Washington DC and toured the monuments. I remember seeing the flame on Kennedy’s grave. Two classmates got in trouble for waving to sailors from our hotel window. We took a bus to Cedar Point with our 8th grade graduation class. We typically rode on both days of the weekend and once or twice in the middle of the week as well as most days of the summer.
9th grade: Mom and Dad traveled around the world and went to India. Elizabeth and I stayed at the dorm for a month. Barbie Stell, a dorm student, became a special friend. I grew taller than five feet and reached five feet two inches. Our class expanded again and dorm students joined our class. I started studying Latin as well as French, English, Algebra I, gym, and art. Ann Worthington and I were mice in Alice in Wonderland variety show. I did after school sports four days a week, and since Elizabeth had to wait for me, I agreed to play whatever she wanted when we got home. Our family friends were the Carmichaels. We always went to the Barretts for trick or treating in Cleveland Heights. They spent a lot of time with us in the summers, and Newt often went on trips with us.
10th grade: I took driver’s education, and in the summer I took typing with Susan Barrett at Cleveland Heights High School. I studied English, geometry, Latin, French, and ancient history, and gym. When Ken Bracey from US school invited me out, Willie Charron had to drive me. I remember another time we went to see MacBeth at the Van Aken shopping center during a snow storm, our car got stuck on the rapid transit tracks, and a large black man lifted the car and shifted it all by himself. I was in bad car accident on way to pick up Granny Stephens. A man crashed through a red light and smashed his car and Mom’s car (a Vista Cruiser Oldsmobile) to pieces. I know I accelerated too fast through the green light. It was a game I used to play. How very dangerous and stupid.
11th grade: I studied English, Algebra II, French, Biology, Art, and gym. I was disappointed that I didn’t get accepted as AFS student abroad or wasn't allowed to host an AFS student at our home because the farm was too far away from our school. I failed my final French and Algebra exam (based on trigonometry) and was afraid I wouldn’t get into college. In biology I raised honey bees in a glass observation hive with Jen Coppins. I had a few dates with Dick Lightbody and Peter Griesinger. I was much more interested in sports than boys. During the summer I attended in Maine for field hockey and lacrosse. for one week. Although I focused on goalie playing, I changed to forward and halfback my senior year so I could run more. We went to Ellicottville, New York to ski with Ann Worthington, the Triggs, and Jen Coppins.
12th grade: I studied American history with Miss Jermayne, chemistry with Mrs. Roha, English with Mrs. Paisley, and Latin with Mrs. Wensil., art with big Miss Downing, and gym. I was very disappointed that I didn’t get to be a member of our school newspaper or yearbook. Chemistry was particularly hard for me, and Adele used to make fun of me. I was vice president of the Athletic Council, and Jennie Jordan was president. Toni Dolan stayed with Elizabeth and me while our parents traveled to India and China. I remember the 17-year locusts came and swarmed all around the house and yard. We needed a broom to swish in front of us as we ran to the car. I played an old man named Adam in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. I opened the play by tottering with a cane down the center aisle and no one recognized me. I accompanied Margo McCreary and Ann Worthington to look at colleges on east coast. I fell in love in the train conductor, the guy that checked us in at the hotel, and the philosophy professor that interviewed me at Wheaton. I applied and was accepted to Skidmore College in New York, Jackson College in Boston (the women’s part of Tufts), Wheaton College in Massachusetts, and Smith College in Northampton, MA, where I attended. Mom had attended Smith and I had a fun tour with Julie North whom I had ridden horses with. My college essay was about how when one door closed, a window would open. It was based on a bad accident I had on Carol W, my horse, in a jumping competition for the USA finals of AHSA. I never competed again, and she never jumped again. Some years later she died having her second set of twins. I turned down Jackson College because I was worried about having to take French again. Aunt Helen was horrified when I asked if college had one or two Ls. Woops. I dated Peters Tolls, who was the older brother of Elizabeth’s friend Kathy Tolls. He was four years older and went to Vietnam when I went to college and then in the summer to Australia with the Experiment in International Living. I won the Raymond Short Story prize and Atlantic Monthly Short Story Honorable Mention Prize for “Ánnya’s Heritage.” I remember working with Mom on the short story, which was based on Anne Tompko, a woman who worked for us at Arrow Cottage.
Summer 1968: I spent the summer at Alford Lake Camp in Union, Maine, where I took the junior and senior CT courses and helped supervise a tent of 8 years olds. For Junior Maine Guide I lit a wet log using a hatchet, a knife and lots of matches. In sailing I crashed my dock landing and did a flying jibe. I learned my swimming strokes and took life saving. Some of my fellow CTs were Debbie Marshall, Kathy McMullen, Ann (Sunny) Sunderland, Carol. Elizabeth and Joan Marshall were campers and Elizabeth was one of the old ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace. We had Church in the Pines, very peaceful spot overlooking the lake. We visited the Marshalls in Camden, Maine, on days off. I remember one day being attacked by a huge swarm of mosquitoes near the beach and racing to the car where the mosquitoes crashed into the window. Mrs. McMullen was the director of the camp and told me I would make a good administrator. One day ,Debbie Marshall and I snuck into a house, which we thought was deserted. Were we shocked when we found a current newspaper.
Our farm was a marvelous place to grow up on over 300 acres of rolling fields and wooded areas with streams to splash in, fields and barns to play hide and seek in when we were younger and a swimming pool and tennis court when we got older. We hunted crawdaddies in the creek, played endless games in the pool, and rode ponies and horses all year round. In retrospect, I wish we had more friends to come visit and enjoy our wonderful pool and tennis court.
As a toddler, I loved to eat green and rotten apples off our apple trees. At two-years-old I accompanied my brothers and cousins to visit our grandfather at Deep Cove, Nova Scotia, which began my love affair with Nova Scotia. We traveled by train to Boston, boat to Yarmouth, car to Deep Cove. Early baby sitters were Eleanor Duckworth (later Piaget’s assistant and Harvard professor) and a teen named Ann. Later we traveled on the C & O plane, which was DC3. An early memory of me in Deep Cove is putting on my dress for traveling home and twirling around to show off my dress and realizing that I wasn’t wearing underpants. Also, I remember packing playing cards and crayons in a little round suitcase. My favorite book was Blue Berries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. We slept in the girls’ dorm on the third floor. During the day, we canoed in the cove, fished off the dock or on the boat Margy, swam in the chilly water, picnicked on the islands of Mahone Bay, climbed the Mill Stream at the end of cove to Pick blueberries, and hiked along the cove. We ate our meals with Grampa and Grananne, which were served by Raymon Bourque and Mabel Schnare and cooked by a chef named Jack.
In my 40s I wrote a novel Curse of the Pirate’s Treasure, which takes places in Deep Cove, but the name is changed to Boulder Cove. I sold about 800 copies of this self-published young adult novel over the years but never marketed the book.
I attended Lee Eaton School (named after Dad’s oldest sister who died when she was 40) for kindergarten in Northfield, Ohio. Toosie (Margaret) Brown was my best friend. Two Scottish girls lived next door. From 1st through 12th grade I attended Hathaway Brown School on North Park Blvd. in Shaker Heights, Ohio. It was a private girls’ school. The school motto was “Non Scholae Sed Vitae Discimus.” (“We learn not for school, but for life.”) We had about 20 students in the primary grades and about 50 students in the high school grades. Mom, who taught at Hawken Middle School, carpooled with the Mischlers who went to Beaumont School. In later years Willie Charron sometimes did the driving. My favorite activity was the school carnival in which all the students worked together to raise money for United Way. In the primary school we had games and contests with a little merry go round in the kindergarten room. We had a used book sale, bake sale, plays, variety shows, and dances. In third grade we repaired dolls for disadvantaged kids. My teacher Mrs. Leuser (sp) later was one of the judges my senior year when I won the Raymond Short Story award for my short story “Annya’s Herritage” which also got an honorable mention in Atlantic Monthly contest. In 4th grade we made our own puppets and gave puppet shows. I sewed a little boy and a crocodile. This was the year I became an avid reader. I still remember getting stars for each book I read. I was proud of those stars after my name. From 5th through 8th grade we wore ugly brown jumpers and yellow short sleeve blouses for our uniforms and brown bloomers and yellow shirts for our gym outfit. Luckily, there was no uniform in primary school or high school. I wonder if wearing dresses for 12 years of school influenced my not wearing dresses since I’ve had children.
I loved school and worked very hard on my studies. Spelling and foreign languages were particularly hard for me, but Mom helped me study those. Math was a challenge.
It bothered me that I always felt my classmates were smarter, but by my senior year I was in all A sections, had a B+ average, and was ranked 12th in my class. More important to me than academics were sports. My favorite time of day was gym every day all the years I attended school. I participated in every sport and was on first teams in high school (field hockey, basketball, volleyball, softball, tennis). I was goalie in field hockey for three years and then switched to center half or right inner. One time I cleared a goal and knocked out my best friend Adele Wick when a ball I kicked smacked her in the head. We also had gymnastics. Although I lacked artistic talent, I loved taking art and took it every year except my sophomore year.
HBS memories and highlights.
1st grade: My teacher was Mrs. McMullen. Curious, but I remember nothing about first grade. I probably had my first communion that year at St. Barnabus and we had party at the Mischlers. Mom took us to the Bedford Public Library every week, and often she treated us to ice cream at the M& M store.
2nd grade: I walked Elizabeth to nursery school in a separate building. My teacher was Mrs. Johnson. I have no memories of second grade either.
3rd grade: We repaired dolls. My teacher was Mrs. Eleanor Luseur. I loved it when the upper classmen game to our class and helped us get ready for carnival. I rode Sparky in local horseshows. Mr. Breshnif taught us riding. Some times, we had had Sunday dinner at Grampa’s.
4th grade: We made puppets and had puppet shows. I competed in Madison Square Garden as one of the youngest competitors in an ASHA class on my pony Mr. Fox. Ray and Jan Francis were our coaches. My teacher was Miss Helen Kylin. I believe this was the year that John was diagnosed with Nephritis and was hospitalized. For two years he couldn't do sports, and he looked pudgy. Dad built a pool and tennis court for us at Arrow. My closest friend was Adele Wick. Jane Wierdsma remembers playing hide and seek in the barn full of hay. I stayed with Farley in the annex at the guest house when her family lived with us.
5th grade: My sister Elizabeth (in 2nd grade) ran away from school after they posted her math grade. She walked several miles before she ran into Mom at shopping center. Middle school: I was on the Gold team and we always competed against the Brown team. I remember tying Paula Frohring’s and Adele’s shoelaces together during a gymnastics demonstration. I also remember that Adele and I were the smallest kids in our class and had to lead the entire Prep Department for graduation exercises where students were lined up by height. We were still at the front of the line in 8th grade. I was always on top in pyramids when we had gym with the eighth grade. My teacher was Mrs. Gregg. She was from England and had a wonderful accent. Aunt Dibbie and our cousins, Austin, Farley, and Little John, lived in the guest house next to us, and the 7 of us kids played and fought together. I loved the crafts Aunt Dibbie invented for us to do. At some point, Rusty Lincoln and Julie North lived with us due to troubles at home. Cy had a great party where they set up obstacle course in field behind Chalet.
6th grade: I was 4 feet six inches and weighed 62 pounds. Our homeroom teacher was Mrs. Ecclestone who taught us math for three years. Cy III ran away from home to Nashville, Tennessee and changed his named to Seth French. Later he went to live with Aunt Sue and Uncle Tim Morley in San Jose, California. He had a sign on the back of his 1956 Ford that said “California or Bust.” John, Elizabeth, and I competed in the Washington National Horse Show. My nickname was Shrimp, and I got bigger, it was Shrimbo for jumbo shrimp. Mrs. Carmichael (Marnie) chaperoned us as we traveled east to horse shows in Pennsylvania. Connecticut, and Massachusetts. I was quite oblivious of the privileged life we led.
7th grade: Our class doubled in size. I was host to new student Kate Dykema, who spent many weeks in the hospital so I sent her numerous cards to cheer her up. Miss Jenny Jensen was our English teacher and 7th grade homeroom teacher. John went away to boarding school to Kent School in Connecticut as a tenth grader, where he competed in crew.. Again I competed at Madison Square Garden and won a first with Flying Mouse. We rode with Julie North, Pam and Brooke Carmichael, Leslie and Pam Sayle, Drew Davenport, and Judy Fogg. I had my serious fall and trip in an ambulance to the hospital when I fell off Leonka and landed on my knee at the Chagrin Trails Horse Show. That summer Heidi, daughter of Jack Russell Terriers Chips and Mingles, joined our Weimaraner. WE bought her for $24. John bought the middle.
8th grade: Carnival Theme was Mythfit. Our class performed an original America myth play that our classmates wrote for carnival. Just before the curtain was raised, our headmistress Miss Anne Cutter Coburn announced to the audience that President John F. Kennedy had died from assassination bullets. The show and carnival continued, but we cried through most of the performance. For our eighth grade trip we traveled to Washington DC and toured the monuments. I remember seeing the flame on Kennedy’s grave. Two classmates got in trouble for waving to sailors from our hotel window. We took a bus to Cedar Point with our 8th grade graduation class. We typically rode on both days of the weekend and once or twice in the middle of the week as well as most days of the summer.
9th grade: Mom and Dad traveled around the world and went to India. Elizabeth and I stayed at the dorm for a month. Barbie Stell, a dorm student, became a special friend. I grew taller than five feet and reached five feet two inches. Our class expanded again and dorm students joined our class. I started studying Latin as well as French, English, Algebra I, gym, and art. Ann Worthington and I were mice in Alice in Wonderland variety show. I did after school sports four days a week, and since Elizabeth had to wait for me, I agreed to play whatever she wanted when we got home. Our family friends were the Carmichaels. We always went to the Barretts for trick or treating in Cleveland Heights. They spent a lot of time with us in the summers, and Newt often went on trips with us.
10th grade: I took driver’s education, and in the summer I took typing with Susan Barrett at Cleveland Heights High School. I studied English, geometry, Latin, French, and ancient history, and gym. When Ken Bracey from US school invited me out, Willie Charron had to drive me. I remember another time we went to see MacBeth at the Van Aken shopping center during a snow storm, our car got stuck on the rapid transit tracks, and a large black man lifted the car and shifted it all by himself. I was in bad car accident on way to pick up Granny Stephens. A man crashed through a red light and smashed his car and Mom’s car (a Vista Cruiser Oldsmobile) to pieces. I know I accelerated too fast through the green light. It was a game I used to play. How very dangerous and stupid.
11th grade: I studied English, Algebra II, French, Biology, Art, and gym. I was disappointed that I didn’t get accepted as AFS student abroad or wasn't allowed to host an AFS student at our home because the farm was too far away from our school. I failed my final French and Algebra exam (based on trigonometry) and was afraid I wouldn’t get into college. In biology I raised honey bees in a glass observation hive with Jen Coppins. I had a few dates with Dick Lightbody and Peter Griesinger. I was much more interested in sports than boys. During the summer I attended in Maine for field hockey and lacrosse. for one week. Although I focused on goalie playing, I changed to forward and halfback my senior year so I could run more. We went to Ellicottville, New York to ski with Ann Worthington, the Triggs, and Jen Coppins.
12th grade: I studied American history with Miss Jermayne, chemistry with Mrs. Roha, English with Mrs. Paisley, and Latin with Mrs. Wensil., art with big Miss Downing, and gym. I was very disappointed that I didn’t get to be a member of our school newspaper or yearbook. Chemistry was particularly hard for me, and Adele used to make fun of me. I was vice president of the Athletic Council, and Jennie Jordan was president. Toni Dolan stayed with Elizabeth and me while our parents traveled to India and China. I remember the 17-year locusts came and swarmed all around the house and yard. We needed a broom to swish in front of us as we ran to the car. I played an old man named Adam in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. I opened the play by tottering with a cane down the center aisle and no one recognized me. I accompanied Margo McCreary and Ann Worthington to look at colleges on east coast. I fell in love in the train conductor, the guy that checked us in at the hotel, and the philosophy professor that interviewed me at Wheaton. I applied and was accepted to Skidmore College in New York, Jackson College in Boston (the women’s part of Tufts), Wheaton College in Massachusetts, and Smith College in Northampton, MA, where I attended. Mom had attended Smith and I had a fun tour with Julie North whom I had ridden horses with. My college essay was about how when one door closed, a window would open. It was based on a bad accident I had on Carol W, my horse, in a jumping competition for the USA finals of AHSA. I never competed again, and she never jumped again. Some years later she died having her second set of twins. I turned down Jackson College because I was worried about having to take French again. Aunt Helen was horrified when I asked if college had one or two Ls. Woops. I dated Peters Tolls, who was the older brother of Elizabeth’s friend Kathy Tolls. He was four years older and went to Vietnam when I went to college and then in the summer to Australia with the Experiment in International Living. I won the Raymond Short Story prize and Atlantic Monthly Short Story Honorable Mention Prize for “Ánnya’s Heritage.” I remember working with Mom on the short story, which was based on Anne Tompko, a woman who worked for us at Arrow Cottage.
Summer 1968: I spent the summer at Alford Lake Camp in Union, Maine, where I took the junior and senior CT courses and helped supervise a tent of 8 years olds. For Junior Maine Guide I lit a wet log using a hatchet, a knife and lots of matches. In sailing I crashed my dock landing and did a flying jibe. I learned my swimming strokes and took life saving. Some of my fellow CTs were Debbie Marshall, Kathy McMullen, Ann (Sunny) Sunderland, Carol. Elizabeth and Joan Marshall were campers and Elizabeth was one of the old ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace. We had Church in the Pines, very peaceful spot overlooking the lake. We visited the Marshalls in Camden, Maine, on days off. I remember one day being attacked by a huge swarm of mosquitoes near the beach and racing to the car where the mosquitoes crashed into the window. Mrs. McMullen was the director of the camp and told me I would make a good administrator. One day ,Debbie Marshall and I snuck into a house, which we thought was deserted. Were we shocked when we found a current newspaper.