It is time for my annual Christmas column/letter. All told, I have had a very pleasant year. I did manage three trips away from home. In May I flew to Fort Collins to visit Sara’s family. The trip included attendance at an excellent performance of “Inherit the Wind” in Boulder, a play in which Ian had several bit parts. He is now in his final year at the University of Colorado where he will earn a Fine Arts Degree in Theater. Last summer he was part of a group of thespians who went to Scotland and filmed two short movies as part of their program. While there I also was able to attend an impressive performance of Rocky Mountain High’s choral programs in which Claire (a Junior this year) participated. Nora is in her second year at Oregon State, deep into an Environmental Sciences program. The McCances are looking forward to a big family Christmas in Fort Collins, with Jim’s mother, his brother Steve, and his sister Jennifer.
Sara was here several times for short visits; it is always a treat to see her. Her biggest project this year has been the Department of the Interior Bison Conservation Initiative, an ambitious program to ensure that healthy herds of wild bison prosper on federal land, long into the future. An important key to this is careful management of 11,000 bison in nineteen herds on 4.6 million acres of land by maximizing genetic diversity and minimizing in-breeding. Her responsibility is establishment of a data base with relevant information on each animal in a user-friendly format so herd managers can make the proper decisions when changing the makeup of their individual herds. This is an admirable initiative; we hope the incoming DOI Secretary is as enthusiastic about it as his predecessor was.
I also had a delightful trip to California in October to visit John’s family. They split Lai An’s summer vacation between a trip to Europe and a visit to Victoria’s home in Beijing, returning in time for Lai An to start fifth grade. She is enrolled in an International School with many of her classes being conducted in French. This really puts a burden on her father when he tries to help her with homework. Imagine doing math word problems in a foreign language! I wonder how many fifth graders are tri-lingual. Her spoken Chinese is excellent, but practicing all those complicated characters is really tedious. The addition of Amelia, their English Retriever, to their family has been a major success; she has graduated from being a cute little puppy, to being a big, mischievous puppy in an adult body.
As John’s company continues to grow and mature, it has truly become a global organization with employees in forty-five different countries. To reflect this transition, they recently announced their intention to change their name from Beigene to BeOne, and to move their headquarters to Basel, Switzerland. Consequently, he is required to travel frequently and extensively. I am impressed with how well he manages to do this while still maintaining a strong family life. This past year he stopped to visit me briefly on several of his cross-country flights. His family has greatly enjoyed skiing at the Yellowstone Ski Resort in Montana; Lai An skis very well for an eleven year old.
My third trip was our annual trip to Chautauqua in August with Beth’s family. It was an excellent opportunity to visit with Rachael, as well. She is now a Junior at Bryn Mawr, majoring in French and Political Science. She spent the early part of the summer in a Study-Abroad program in Avignon, France. Beth and Mike taught classes at Chautauqua again, an opportunity they both enjoy. Again this year, we were joined by Sara. She and I had an enjoyable experience taking a course on Popular Music in Hollywood, taught by my friend Phil Atteberry. Each trip to Chautuqua seems to be more enjoyable than the previous one.
Beth was on sabbatical this term, working on a book dealing with the significance of “place” in Japanese drama. She is currently negotiating with an academic press to publish it; by this time next year we hope it will be at the top of the best-seller list for the “Obscure Topics in Pre-Modern Japanese Literature” category. Despite being on sabbatical she didn’t stray far from her responsibilities as Head of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at Pitt. Mike’s biggest excitement was acquiring part ownership of a Piper Comanche with his flying partner Phil. The partnership now owns two planes; the other being a Piper Pacer. One is hangered here, the other in Wisconsin. The partners regularly meet in Indiana and trade planes. He flew the Comanche to New Mexico to visit his brother this Fall.
As for me, I am gracefully but reluctantly, continuing my slide downhill. So far I am still able to live independently, with a lot of help from Beth and Mike. My social life focuses on frequent lunches with friends from high school, Pitt, and Dravo; monthly meetings of our Book Club; weekend visit to Beth’s; and Bridgeville Area Historical Society programs. I did manage to get through a talk to the Society as a last-minute substitute (sitting down) in October. My only health issue this year was a fainting spell at Chautauqua when I got dehydrated on a hot day. Thanks mostly to Beth and my ex-student/long-time friend Kevin Abt, I was able to enjoy numerous day trips to festivals and historical sites. I would sum up my year by parroting Frank Sinatra, “It was a very good year”.
Writing this column is still one of my greatest pleasures. I am grateful to all my readers – your positive feedback keeps me going. On behalf of my extended family, and especially me, I wish all of you a happy holiday season.