Entry 4

In the old pool at Stowe. Mom always found the pool to be too cold so I got to do kid duty. You kids probably know we honeymooned at the Trapp's in '76 and bought a timeshare there in'85. This year will be our 25th Stowe winter. I hope I get to enjoy this one. The first year it was Mom, Zach, and me. In the early years we'd invite Aunt Dottie and Jonathan. The Randos were also frequent guests. The tradition of bringing a friend was started by Zach. The place got pretty crowded at times. Eventually Dotty and Keith bought places of their own.
There have been so many happy times there. Zach does hold the record for the sledding hill, all the way down to the far fence. O.K. back to college. I entered U. Mass. in the fall of '68, living in Moore House. Yes Jules right next to your dorm Pierpont. I was 17 and never really away from home. I moved in with one suitcase and a Sears stereo. In '68 there was a draft for the war in Vietnam. It was a miserable war half across the world. Since I was a college student I had a deferred status which meant stay in school or carry a rifle. The country was still in favor of the war but that changed in a few years. My dorm floor was all guys. On weekends the guys who did not have girlfriends played cards, drank, and lied about girls they knew. Freshman guys tended to be a fairly pathetic lot:-) I spent my time running, studying, and trying not to be one of those guys. College life really suited me. The openness and challenges were a big contrast to back home. I did well academically, being accepted to the Commonwealth Scholar program during my Freshman year. Now kids there is just something about adolescents that want to test limits. I for some poorly formulated reason decided to take off my Sophomore year. Scroll back to that student deferment category and get a feel of how bad a decision your Dad made that year. I was re-assigned a 1 A draft status almost immediately by the local draft board. This made me eligible to be drafted for one calendar year. My guardian Angel had to work overtime to keep me out of the jungle. I got bored pretty quick back in Peabody and decided to go to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbour on a student exchange program. This is '69 when your Mom, Aunt Dottie, and Aunt Nancy were all attending school in Detroit, just forty-five minutes or so from me. We could have then met four years earlier but its just as well since I was a bit of a jerk then when it came to girls. The University of Michigan was huge, a football stadium that seats over 100,000 rabid fans. It was a great experience and helped me mature, a bit. I did miss my family and by May was eager to fly home. The trip to Michigan was my first plane flight. The rest of my college years at U. Mass. were entertaining. I graduated with an Honors degree in Psychology, Phi Beta Kappa, and Magna Cum Laude. I also did pretty well at track though after college I did not run in a competitive race for decades. The grind of practices, weekly meets, and endless weekend runs eventually made it a job rather then joy. It was in my Sophomore year that I decided I wanted to have a career in Psychology. My first real job was at Danvers State Hospital beginning in '73. Your Mom was going to be entering my life in a matter of months but that awaits you kids in Entry 5. I hope this blog/journal is illuminating for you all. Love you guys, Zach hug EJ for me, Jem shut off the tv and get to bed, and Jules toss those girls out of your dorm room, Dad