Family History 1975 to 1981
1975 – Elizabeth worked on the crew of the Blue Bird filmed in Russia. She gave Zemoya to Mom and Dad. We planted live Christmas tree. Cathy Morley got married. John and Bill Barney went camping in Sierras, California. I lived on 3rd floor of house on Capital Avenue alone. I went to Breadloaf School of English, near Middlebury, Vermont and met Michael Murphy my very first week at Texas Waterfalls. We took three classes in American Literature together and started hanging out although I was dating Rick Greenberg who was doing medical studies at Dartmouth for the summer.. John got job in Huston. Elizabeth moved to Paradise, California. Cy and Toni separated. Nathaniel and Toni came to Arrow at Christmas. Elizabeth did some weavings. Evelyn Kopchak, who worked for Dad for 14 years, left for a more secure job. (See letter from her 8.12.1975 in which she explains moneys owed to Cy and the other kids.)
1976 – Michael and I lived together at Breadloaf School of English. Mom graduated from Case Western Reserve University. The whole family came home to celebrate. Nathaniel and Cyrus hitchhiked across country. We flew kites. Jim Fawcett held Nathaniel upside down. John and Newt acted as hosts for Mom’s graduation party. The film The Blue Bird did not do well. The constant observations of my teaching ( Nine in ten days) was stressful and traumatic. I lost job (contract not renewed) from Kingswood-Oxford, and Michael got hired and got two of my courses in English and also taught in history department. Michael had second job at wine store. One of our favorite haunts was bar run by Cussie (Micheal’s Polish brother.) We lived in log cabin on Lake Garta in Burlington, Connecticut near Farmington. Chuck Henry often visited us. We had our first annual Yahoo party at the cabin with darts, chocolate cheese cake, tennis, canoeing, feasting. I wrote family history on Dad’s urgings. Adele and I went to Deep Cove in August.
1977 – Martha Brown had bridal shower for me. Uncle Harvey & Aunt Connie had engagement party for us. Great photo of Connie throwing pillow at Harvey. Michael and I continued at Bread Loaf and then came home to Northfield, Ohio, to get married outside on very hot, humid day on August 17th. I gave Michael a Clipper ship that Raymond Bourque built. Chave McCracken (sp?) married us, and about 60 guests attended.
Family members who came were Dad, Mom, Cy, Caroline, Nathaniel, John, Elizabeth, Casey, Aunt Dibbie, Farley, Uncle Harvey, Aunt Connie, Aunt Helen Uncle Harvey, Lib & Chuck, John & Dibbie Bellamy, Millie, Steve, Stephen, Aunt Mary, Uncle Fay.
Michael’s friends from NYC: Paul Razo, Fred Axelrod, John & Meredith Banderob, Jackie Donevan
Our friends from Kingswood-Oxford: Suzanne Nolan, Hat Thomson, Fred, Todd & Betsy Rosenthal
Smith friends: Gail Bongiovanni, Karen Kell & Mark Hartman, Michel Johns, Betsy Dice
Special high school friends HBS: Adele Wick, Ann Worthington, Adele Wick & Rick Miller, Mr. & Mrs. Wick , Margo McCreary, & Missy Marshall, Cathy Tolles & husband
Ed & Linda Slabey (Ed took wonderful wedding photos), Willie Charron & Eva Boley (who both worked for us)
People stayed at Grandpa’s and guest house. Cy and Caroline came and Nathaniel was our flower boy. Elizabeth and Casey came as did John. Skinny dipping and mooning. Michael, Suzanne and I drove back to Connecticut, then Michael and I had our honeymoon at Deep Cove, Nova Scotia with Grandpa. I started work at Westledge, West Simsbury, Connecticut, teaching 7/8th grade, 10th grade, and coaching field hockey and softball. Wally and Daryl Wilson moved to Portland, Oregon.
1978 – I taught at Westledge (1977-1978), but when school went bankrupt, I took job at Loomis-Chaffee (1978-1979) in Windsor, Connecticut while Michael continued to teach at Kingswood-Oxford.. We studied at Oxford University with John Wilders and I was member of graduating class of sever students at Lincoln Chapel. We lived near the Bear, played lots of Squash and jogged near river. We traveled to Wales with John and Kim Niles, went to plays at Stratford and London, visited the Lake District, the Cotswold’s, and stayed ten days in Paris at Jackie Donevan’s apartment. Went to Versailles, climbed the stairs at Notre Dame and had great big hot fudge sundae, Michael brought croissants and hot chocolate and cheese for breakfast. Also stayed a week at Clara Reece’s (Day) apartment in London.
Upon returning home, we lived in a small log cabin on Lake Garda in Burlington, CT near Farmington, CT. Elizabeth and Chip Dickson helped us clean and move in. Michael taught at Kingswood-Oxford, teaching history and English and coaching football, track, and cross country skiing. A huge blizzard crippled the east coast
“Snow slammed on top of me, and the plow zoomed by, scraping the fluffy piles of coconut down to dirty, speckled, gravel. Swirling rice slapped my face and slipped down my back: spots of cold. My glasses fogged. A five foot drift blocked my way. I tried to push through it – to wide. I tried to climb over it, but it was like trying to run up an escalator slowly descending, gobbling up my feet. Some minor god sifted tons of flour that steadily covered every frozen ice bank, stalled car, mail box. Trees clowned and twirled in the blasts of win, plucking twigs and flinging them on the ground. Branches leaned on telephone wires, which sagged like ancient sad women, ever so tired from backbreaking work. White was everywhere, it was so white, so thickly white that there was nothing to see – snow blind.”
In that blizzard, Michael and Kingswood-Oxford friends stayed at school, played basketball, took hot tubs, skied to pick up beer, and Michael never made it home the first day. At our cabin, we were running out of oil and I needed to chop wood for the wood-burning stove (hatchet too small, maul too big, not have an axe.) Michael made it home second day.
Michael and I studied Shakespeare with John Wilders at Lincoln College, Oxford, England. I was awarded my BreadLoaf degree at Lincoln College with 7 other graduates including Ray Bird, John Niles and John North. I saw wonderful outdoor version of Alice and Wonderland that used natural landscape as their setting. We stayed in Paris, France, at Jackie Donavan’s apartment, traveled in Wales with John and Kim Niles and Ray Bird, drove around England and Scotland and Ireland, doing some camping and staying at B & Bs. We went up to Perth to McGillivray’s where Mom and Dad bought Shorthorn Cattle. We got concertina for Jim Fawcett at music store in England. We camped at first but decided to stay in B & B’s. We took ferry to Ireland and Michael got concussion. Drove small Mini. We went to Inverness and Edinburgh, Scotland.
1979 – John and Beth Ferree got married in Wellesley, MA and Elizabeth married Casey at his sister’s in Santa Cruz, CA. Michael got fired by Warren Baird, the man who fired me. We moved to Ohio, lived with Mom and Dad a bit, and then bought house on Randolph Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I taught English, study skills, and reading to 7th graders at Laurel School, a girls school K-12th in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Michael got his Real Estate license and went to work for Smythe Cramer on Lee Blvd. in Cleveland Heights. Mom was teaching at Hawken School and was head of the Reading Department. Mom and I were both faculty advisors to Spin Drift, a four-school literary magazine. We returned to Bread Loaf inVermont where Michael got his degree.
1980 – I continued to teach at Laurel. Mom and I were both advisors on Spindrift, the four school literary magazine. This may have been the year that Michael and I traveled to New Orleans to visit Adele and Rick, to Puerto Rico with Gail Bongiovanni to stay at her father’s company’s house, and to the Dominican Republic to stay at the Casa de Campo, a very ritzy establishment. We were right on the ocean and went out on a boat to go snorkeling. There was a bar in the pool. I had no idea about the poverty just on the other side of the island, Haiti. We returned to Oxford University as Assistant Directors and lived in Lincoln College right below the bell tower. I wrote the school newspaper, The Penniculum, which is in the Bodleian Library. We traveled more in Scotland and had wonderful time at Mrs. Fox’s B & B. We played squash and went to lots of plays and took another course with John Wilders, probably the Shakespeare histories and continued to act out scenes.
1981 – We moved to house on Washington Blvd, Cleveland Heights. Before we moved in, we painted the whole interior of the house, which was painted in brown, orange, and pink with really bright children’s wall paper. Jeremy Foy helped us paint house. He, Mary Rule, and Nancy Smekal all taught at Laurel. Jeremy, Michael, Mary and I played bridge. We made friends with Rob Kelly and Judy Herbert, also Rob and Pat Mullen. We hung out with Michael’s friends, Bill and ? and Dennis and Jan who built houses. We also spent time with Alan Shinbach, who was a doctor, and his wife Linda and Ann Axelrod’s cousin Doug Ripkin and his girlfriends (1st Debbie and then Cindy .) We went back to Oxford as assistant directors and again traveled in Scotland. Our favorite place was Mrs. Fox’s B & B. I had surgery because I couldn’t get pregnant. When I came home from hospital Michael gave me the famous jade plant, that has traveled to all our homes.
1976 – Michael and I lived together at Breadloaf School of English. Mom graduated from Case Western Reserve University. The whole family came home to celebrate. Nathaniel and Cyrus hitchhiked across country. We flew kites. Jim Fawcett held Nathaniel upside down. John and Newt acted as hosts for Mom’s graduation party. The film The Blue Bird did not do well. The constant observations of my teaching ( Nine in ten days) was stressful and traumatic. I lost job (contract not renewed) from Kingswood-Oxford, and Michael got hired and got two of my courses in English and also taught in history department. Michael had second job at wine store. One of our favorite haunts was bar run by Cussie (Micheal’s Polish brother.) We lived in log cabin on Lake Garta in Burlington, Connecticut near Farmington. Chuck Henry often visited us. We had our first annual Yahoo party at the cabin with darts, chocolate cheese cake, tennis, canoeing, feasting. I wrote family history on Dad’s urgings. Adele and I went to Deep Cove in August.
1977 – Martha Brown had bridal shower for me. Uncle Harvey & Aunt Connie had engagement party for us. Great photo of Connie throwing pillow at Harvey. Michael and I continued at Bread Loaf and then came home to Northfield, Ohio, to get married outside on very hot, humid day on August 17th. I gave Michael a Clipper ship that Raymond Bourque built. Chave McCracken (sp?) married us, and about 60 guests attended.
Family members who came were Dad, Mom, Cy, Caroline, Nathaniel, John, Elizabeth, Casey, Aunt Dibbie, Farley, Uncle Harvey, Aunt Connie, Aunt Helen Uncle Harvey, Lib & Chuck, John & Dibbie Bellamy, Millie, Steve, Stephen, Aunt Mary, Uncle Fay.
Michael’s friends from NYC: Paul Razo, Fred Axelrod, John & Meredith Banderob, Jackie Donevan
Our friends from Kingswood-Oxford: Suzanne Nolan, Hat Thomson, Fred, Todd & Betsy Rosenthal
Smith friends: Gail Bongiovanni, Karen Kell & Mark Hartman, Michel Johns, Betsy Dice
Special high school friends HBS: Adele Wick, Ann Worthington, Adele Wick & Rick Miller, Mr. & Mrs. Wick , Margo McCreary, & Missy Marshall, Cathy Tolles & husband
Ed & Linda Slabey (Ed took wonderful wedding photos), Willie Charron & Eva Boley (who both worked for us)
People stayed at Grandpa’s and guest house. Cy and Caroline came and Nathaniel was our flower boy. Elizabeth and Casey came as did John. Skinny dipping and mooning. Michael, Suzanne and I drove back to Connecticut, then Michael and I had our honeymoon at Deep Cove, Nova Scotia with Grandpa. I started work at Westledge, West Simsbury, Connecticut, teaching 7/8th grade, 10th grade, and coaching field hockey and softball. Wally and Daryl Wilson moved to Portland, Oregon.
1978 – I taught at Westledge (1977-1978), but when school went bankrupt, I took job at Loomis-Chaffee (1978-1979) in Windsor, Connecticut while Michael continued to teach at Kingswood-Oxford.. We studied at Oxford University with John Wilders and I was member of graduating class of sever students at Lincoln Chapel. We lived near the Bear, played lots of Squash and jogged near river. We traveled to Wales with John and Kim Niles, went to plays at Stratford and London, visited the Lake District, the Cotswold’s, and stayed ten days in Paris at Jackie Donevan’s apartment. Went to Versailles, climbed the stairs at Notre Dame and had great big hot fudge sundae, Michael brought croissants and hot chocolate and cheese for breakfast. Also stayed a week at Clara Reece’s (Day) apartment in London.
Upon returning home, we lived in a small log cabin on Lake Garda in Burlington, CT near Farmington, CT. Elizabeth and Chip Dickson helped us clean and move in. Michael taught at Kingswood-Oxford, teaching history and English and coaching football, track, and cross country skiing. A huge blizzard crippled the east coast
“Snow slammed on top of me, and the plow zoomed by, scraping the fluffy piles of coconut down to dirty, speckled, gravel. Swirling rice slapped my face and slipped down my back: spots of cold. My glasses fogged. A five foot drift blocked my way. I tried to push through it – to wide. I tried to climb over it, but it was like trying to run up an escalator slowly descending, gobbling up my feet. Some minor god sifted tons of flour that steadily covered every frozen ice bank, stalled car, mail box. Trees clowned and twirled in the blasts of win, plucking twigs and flinging them on the ground. Branches leaned on telephone wires, which sagged like ancient sad women, ever so tired from backbreaking work. White was everywhere, it was so white, so thickly white that there was nothing to see – snow blind.”
In that blizzard, Michael and Kingswood-Oxford friends stayed at school, played basketball, took hot tubs, skied to pick up beer, and Michael never made it home the first day. At our cabin, we were running out of oil and I needed to chop wood for the wood-burning stove (hatchet too small, maul too big, not have an axe.) Michael made it home second day.
Michael and I studied Shakespeare with John Wilders at Lincoln College, Oxford, England. I was awarded my BreadLoaf degree at Lincoln College with 7 other graduates including Ray Bird, John Niles and John North. I saw wonderful outdoor version of Alice and Wonderland that used natural landscape as their setting. We stayed in Paris, France, at Jackie Donavan’s apartment, traveled in Wales with John and Kim Niles and Ray Bird, drove around England and Scotland and Ireland, doing some camping and staying at B & Bs. We went up to Perth to McGillivray’s where Mom and Dad bought Shorthorn Cattle. We got concertina for Jim Fawcett at music store in England. We camped at first but decided to stay in B & B’s. We took ferry to Ireland and Michael got concussion. Drove small Mini. We went to Inverness and Edinburgh, Scotland.
1979 – John and Beth Ferree got married in Wellesley, MA and Elizabeth married Casey at his sister’s in Santa Cruz, CA. Michael got fired by Warren Baird, the man who fired me. We moved to Ohio, lived with Mom and Dad a bit, and then bought house on Randolph Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I taught English, study skills, and reading to 7th graders at Laurel School, a girls school K-12th in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Michael got his Real Estate license and went to work for Smythe Cramer on Lee Blvd. in Cleveland Heights. Mom was teaching at Hawken School and was head of the Reading Department. Mom and I were both faculty advisors to Spin Drift, a four-school literary magazine. We returned to Bread Loaf inVermont where Michael got his degree.
1980 – I continued to teach at Laurel. Mom and I were both advisors on Spindrift, the four school literary magazine. This may have been the year that Michael and I traveled to New Orleans to visit Adele and Rick, to Puerto Rico with Gail Bongiovanni to stay at her father’s company’s house, and to the Dominican Republic to stay at the Casa de Campo, a very ritzy establishment. We were right on the ocean and went out on a boat to go snorkeling. There was a bar in the pool. I had no idea about the poverty just on the other side of the island, Haiti. We returned to Oxford University as Assistant Directors and lived in Lincoln College right below the bell tower. I wrote the school newspaper, The Penniculum, which is in the Bodleian Library. We traveled more in Scotland and had wonderful time at Mrs. Fox’s B & B. We played squash and went to lots of plays and took another course with John Wilders, probably the Shakespeare histories and continued to act out scenes.
1981 – We moved to house on Washington Blvd, Cleveland Heights. Before we moved in, we painted the whole interior of the house, which was painted in brown, orange, and pink with really bright children’s wall paper. Jeremy Foy helped us paint house. He, Mary Rule, and Nancy Smekal all taught at Laurel. Jeremy, Michael, Mary and I played bridge. We made friends with Rob Kelly and Judy Herbert, also Rob and Pat Mullen. We hung out with Michael’s friends, Bill and ? and Dennis and Jan who built houses. We also spent time with Alan Shinbach, who was a doctor, and his wife Linda and Ann Axelrod’s cousin Doug Ripkin and his girlfriends (1st Debbie and then Cindy .) We went back to Oxford as assistant directors and again traveled in Scotland. Our favorite place was Mrs. Fox’s B & B. I had surgery because I couldn’t get pregnant. When I came home from hospital Michael gave me the famous jade plant, that has traveled to all our homes.