Some Observations from the Hill
by H H "Hub" Brown

  Just recently we lost a member of what we call Joe's Coffee Club. This used to be a small group of mostly retired people who came into the Parkview to drink coffee and for companionship. Lew Bradley was a member of this group and I used to wonder if he liked being called Brad, for that's what most everyone called him. For he was an educated man, a teacher, coach, and a principal. But it turned out that he must have been like the man quoting the young boy who said, "Mother calls me William, my father calls me Will, my sister calls me Willie, but the fellas call me Bill."

 According to the piece that he wrote shortly before he died that he really enjoyed being considered one of the boys. His wife Imogene says that he would call time spent at Joe's as time in the office. Cancer of the liver must be a very painful thing and I don't think there's much hope of getting over it, but we never heard him complain. The piece that he wrote that is framed and mounted near the counter in Joe's would indicate that he enjoyed being there and the company.

 Had a pleasant surprise this weekend. First Ag's niece Judy and her husband and their son Scott and his wife Terri. Judy doesn't hunt but the other three did and Scott got a good-sized doe. We're glad to get rid of any deer, they are way too plentiful here. Then Jim's younger daughter, Jaime, and her husband and their two sons came in from Troy and then a lot more of Ag's relatives came in, each bringing some goodies. Judy's sister Sandy and their brother and his wife from Wilmington and Tony and Judy's daughter from Georgia. Her husband had come up to hunt but had to leave, John and Marty from Wilmington don't hunt but they always enjoy any family get-together. Luckily my grandson John was home. He's a long distance trucker and his brother, Tom, who helps me but he hunted most all day.

 Thanksgiving Day was quite a day. Daughter Pat and her husband Fritz Rudin and I had been invited up to my daughter's Norma's at Skaneateles and she only had 26 people for dinner. Norma's daughter from Idaho, who had just missed a chance to work in Antarctica until March. She had signed on for the job, was even on the plane and ready to start when she became violently ill. They called a doctor who gave her different tests and could find nothing really wrong. They decided it was nerves but they wouldn't let her go. 

 Her daughter Jessica pilots one of the big rafts on the Grand Canyon summer times. When a party has signed up for a trip, let's say a 14-day trip, Jess works out a menu, buys the supplies and cooks for the group. Sometimes they travel in the big rafts or they can go in dories. They can sleep at night in tents or out in the open. These groups must enjoy themselves for she says at the end of a trip they sometimes will give her several $100 tips. Then in the off season she likes to spend time in another country, usually one of the Central American countries.

 I forgot to mention that Norma's eldest son, Rob, missed the big family meal for he was in Texas seeing his son who was leaving for Iraq. Ryan had attended a military school for some time so it just seemed to follow that he would join the Army.