Some Observations from the Hill    By HH (Hub) Brown of Owego

Last October, brother Bob and I decided we'd get my daughter Norma to manage a trip to Minnesota for wife Ag, who had never been out there, and she and Bob and me. Bob and I had attended funerals out there the two preceding years and had been invited to come out under more cheerful circumstances. Ag doesn't walk much without her walker, but Norma, whose youngest daughter, Norine, and her husband, Steve Castle, and their four daughters out there, had made the trip quite a few times. Norma managed to get us real reasonable rates for plane tickets and of course when people at the airports see anyone walking with a cane, they get you in a wheelchair right away. Bob, who is only 96, drove down from his home at Maine, New York, and picked Ag and me up the afternoon before our flight and took us to Skaneateles to stay overnight with Norma and her husband, Ray Raczkowski, who have a home right on the lake there.

The next morning, Ray got us in Bob's car and drove us to the Syracuse airport. We took off about 10:00, changed planes in Chicago, and landed in Minneapolis late in the afternoon. Norma and Steve went and rented us a car and Steve drove us to my youngest sister's place. Lucille is just about 10 years younger than me but had had trouble with her hip so she also was walking with a cane. Her apartment is large enough so that she could offer Bob a single bed and Ag and me a room. Norma, of course, had to go to her daughter's house where four granddaughters vied for her attention. Kim, Lucille's daughter, with help from Alexandra, her daughter, had prepared some wonderful dishes as well as Norine so we had a real feast that evening. Kim's husband, Nicolas, who came from France, is an artist and when on assignment if it is quite some distance from home, will stay where he is painting till the weekend. All four of the younger people have jobs, but when free, took us places of interest and to their favorite eating places.

Norine's two older daughters wanted Bob and me to visit their grades in school. One was in the third and one in the fourth grade. When we went in the principal's office to sign in and get our name tags, we had decided to both go together, the principal came in and asked, "What have these two boys done that they have to see the principal?"

We visited the fourth grade first and found the kids to be friendly and well behaved. The teacher asked if we were going to make a speech. Bob told her that we weren't speech makers, we'd answer questions. They wanted to know about our school days, what farm houses were like and did we travel with horses and wagons? Bob told them how he quit school at age 16 and went to work in the shoe factory so for his advice he told them to get all the education they could.

When we went to the third grade we found these kids to seem fond and respectful of their teacher just like the fourth graders. She had a computer set up and showed the class how to find the Community Press and locate my story. We talked some on this and then they wanted to know more about our schooldays. Bob told them how it was an honor to be asked to go and get a pail of drinking water and how if you had to go to the toilet in the wintertime, you didn't stay long for there was no heat there. I told them to be satisfied to be kids while they were young and Bob added don't think you have to have a car right away. To which one little third grade boy said, "I've got the money for a car already!"