Monthly Archives: May 2013

I understand how love of family and of home motivated certain people to do loving things.  My Uncle Jim drove (from Marblehead, Massachusetts to Schenectady) nearly every weekend for about eighteen months, to help our family cope with my mother’s … Continue reading →

As teenagers, Dad and his older brother Jim spent many summers at the lake helping their uncle repair docks, riprap shores (a technique of protecting shores from erosion by constructing rock walls at the water’s edge), and generally absorbing the … Continue reading →

After graduating from V.P.I. in 1940, my dad took a job with the General Electric Company and moved in with his uncle (also a G.E. engineer) in Schenectady, New York.  Dad never did move back to Virginia (but lived, instead, … Continue reading →

I remember trying to milk a cow (with careful supervision and encouragement from Aunt Minnie), learning how to draw water from the well, watching in amusement (and some fear) while the cows came over to our car and tried to … Continue reading →

I grew up hearing all about these pioneer ancestors.  Mary Draper Ingles’ story survives, not only within the family, but through many books and plays written about her.  A huge interstate highway bridge over the New River, near Radford, Virginia, … Continue reading →