Just a little bit of culture.......

Went down to St. Cecilia's church yesterday to hear Paula sing with the SouthWest Florida Choir at one of their Stained Glass performances, and just really enjoyed it. Their singing sounds exactly like finely tuned instruments, and the acoustics were just great. They use no amplification, and you can hear even the lowest notes even at the rear of the auditorium.

Sure did enjoy seeing Paula again, after all these years, and she is still the same sweet lady that we remember from Milburn Lane in Bowie. She lives two doors down from her son, Dr. Tom, whom we last saw when he was two years old. We kidded him about he and his brother breaking the windows in our house (after we had moved) with their toy swords, and asked if he was ready to "settle up". He disallowed any memory of any such actions. He is a really laid back guy, good sense of humor just like his mother. I'm sure he must have an excellent bedside manner. His brother Johnny is a lawyer who lives in New York.

Sadly, Jack,their husband and father, died at a very early age in 1988. He didn't live long enough to enjoy his son's success, but they say he sees them from above.

Paula took us to a party at one of her Choral group's house, and we enjoyed the food and good company for a few hours. We retold the story many times of how we had tracked Paula down thru the internet, and would have never found her if she hadn't been first in line to get a flu shot, and the Ft. Myers newspaper published her picture and interview.

We learned that she is retired from the Foreign Service, and spent a number of years in Russia and Czechlosovakia. She worked the summit meeting with Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev during the 80's. Her parent's and grandparents were Czech immigrants back in the 1920's, and settled on a farm near Vale Oregon (near the Idaho border). She couldn't believe that we spent the night in Vale one time when we went to visit Linda.

Today I made a big mistake.... I took Shelby to a Dillard's department store that we saw yesterday. She fell in love with it, and burned up one credit card in a couple of ours. Fortunately, there are no Dillard stores in Maryland.....