Hi, everybody:
A very merry Christmas to you all. I'm off to work, to change some backup
tapes -- and use the T-1 line ALL by myself! My children and I exchanged
gifts day before yesterday, and my son has flown to visit his mother in
Phoenix. My daughter is recovering from working the last few days, and will
spend the day at friends, whenever she decides to get up. We have a
BEAUTIFUL white Christmas here in the Chicago area, although most of the
native Illinoisans are tired of winter already. Still, it reminds me of
home in Vermont. I think I'll take some pictures outside at work, too. The
property has a small forest preserve on two sides.
This is the first Christmas since the early 1800's that the old Dutton
farmhouse in the Dutton District of Springfield, Vermont will not have
anyone living in it. Since there is nobody to carry on farming there, my
aunt has done the only sensible thing and sold it. My grandfather and
great-grandfather were both born in that house. . . . I can still taste the
doughnuts my grandmother cooked on the old wood stove there. She could
regulate the temperature on that thing to a tenth of a degree, I think, and
she wouldn't give it up even though my grandfather asked her many times if
he couldn't buy her a gas stove. I think he may have been trying to get out
of chopping wood <grin>. I realize now (having been exposed to Dunkin
Donuts and Krispy Creme) that if you put three of grammie's doughnuts on a
rope, you could anchor a rowboat with them; but what I wouldn't give for
the taste of one now, and a view out the farmhouse kitchen window toward
Mount Ascutney.
Just rambling, and getting a bit misty eyed. I would like to remind
everybody, not that you need it really, that this is the time of year that
brand-new computers get hooked up to the Internet and many newbies decide
that this is the time to "do their family tree", expecting to get it all
done by New Year's. We know how hopeless that task is, but they may not. .
. . Have patience and mercy, and put up with their foibles in the same
spirit as the One who started this whole Christmas thing by sending us the
most precious gift possible, in spite of our attitude toward Him.
And a happy New Year, new century, and new millenium to all as well (no, it
WASN'T last year <big grin>).
Darrell
Rootsweb List Admin for VTGEN, VTCALEDO, VTLAMOIL, VTORANGE, VTWINDSO,
FELCH, FORBUSH, LAMSON, LOWER, ROUSSEAU, and RUSSEAU
darrellm(a)sprynet.com