I can’t believe it is Christmas time once again — already?? Time seems to fly by too fast, but perhaps that’s because its been such a busy and fulfilling year.
As you can tell, I am now writing my Christmas letter on the ‘new’ computer I got last Dec.; but you are not going to get the ‘prodigious production’ I promised last year. I’m still a real novice and have had too many problems with the computer to get fancy yet. The scanner I got was very bad, went back immediately and I still have not replaced it. I will someday when I have become more computer efficient. Just 3 weeks ago, 2 computer whiz students in my speech class spent 2 hours here, found the glitch in my computer configuration, put in new software, and got me on the Internet — FINALLY — after 11 months!! They still have to help me get proficient on E-Mail. You can E-Mail me at huntcr@MSN.com and it will probably go thru. Tests with my Munier cousins in Las Vegas have been successfully sent & received, but I guarantee nothing. Joseph, age 13, is also teaching me! I have successfully sent and received faxes on my separate 2nd phone line for the computer: 662-0911. Remember that free lifetime internet access thru U.C.? I installed the software last Dec. and have never gotten on or thru their system. They have something like 150 ports for 50 or 60 thousand people!!! I gave up and signed up with Microsoft Network (MSN). I’ve used the computer a lot this year for word processing for UC and other projects, but have been far too busy otherwise to play with it much.
Last January I came to the conclusion that my long adhered to policy of delayed gratification had reached the point of no return! And so, tho I joined the multitudes having high credit card and line of credit debt, I am thoroughly enjoying the fruits of my extravagance. Next year I’ll live ‘at the foot of the cross’ as my mother used to say.
In Jan. & Feb. I worked with Paul Brunner, my wonderful builder (and now friend), to complete many unfinished projects around my house. Things I would have to do anyway to sell it, so I figured I might as well enjoy them myself first. Then in March we started on a 6×15 ft. addition to my Indiana cabin. We just got the new roof on when, in May, a terrific storm speared a 4” limb right thru the roof, allowing rain to flood the inside. Paul fixed it immediately & we got it all cleaned up, but that was a bad week! The next day, on the way to teach my Clermont College speech class, I had to wreck my car to avoid a terrible collision. I climbed a 9” high curb at 35 mph to avoid crashing into a truck that suddenly turned in front of me. I was fine, but the tires, wheels & suspension on my car were destroyed. Hassles with the truck’s insurance company and my repair place kept me in a rental car for a month.
Sept. ‘95 to Sept.’96 was a wonderful year for singing. Besides my fall ‘95 programs, I sang 2 more duets with Glenn Coven, tenor, 2 solos, 2 oratorios, and went to Europe with the Cincinnati International Chorale (CIC) again. All during Feb. I commuted to Dayton, Ohio to sing my very favorite oratorio, Verdi’s Requiem, with the Dayton Philharmonic Chorus in March. That was a truly thrilling experience.
My teaching work for this year has been both frustrating and fulfilling. In March, I accepted a call to teach a speech class at Clermont College, a 2 year branch of UC on the far east side of town. It was similar in content but very different in student ability and attitude from my Evening College speech class. There were a few really good, nice students, but most complained and were unwilling to do a lot of the work, wandered in 10 to 20 minutes tardy – or had excessive absences, and, worst of all, were smart mouthed and openly challenging in class. It was a worse culture shock than going from Skidmore College to Courter Tech H.S. 35 years ago! Back then I worked thru my problem in one year and became a model teacher demonstrating special techniques for these classes citywide. But now, the 65 mile round trip 3 times a week for the low salary (not to mention my wreck) made this a very unprofitable venture. “I don’t have to put up with this stuff any more!” It was very satisfying to tell them not to consider me for any future classes there.
On the other side, my ILR and Evening College classes are extremely fulfilling and fun. ILR stands for Institute for Learning in Retirement and the ‘students’ are 55 years old plus – even into their 70’s+. What wonderful, fun people. In my class, The Play’s the Thing, we choose 3 or 4 plays, assign parts and read/semi-act out the play in class. A short report of the author precedes the reading, and a lively discussion of ideas generated by characters and theme of the play follows. No real homework, no tests, no pressure — just learning for FUN! Although the ‘job’ is volunteer, the pay in personal satisfaction is far greater than the negative job for pay at Clermont. And positive satisfaction makes the dollars well worth it at my Evening College speech class, as I start my 31st year in January.
From an overfilled and stressful spring, I moved right in to a packed summer schedule. The first of June, Bill Giles had a true family crisis. I had gone to Huntington in April to see Bill’s dad, who had alzheimers, and Beulah, Daddy’s wife. Then the first of June, Beulah had a heart attack Sun. at 3PM, and Bill’s Daddy, William F. Giles, died at 5AM the next morning. Fortunately, Beulah’s double by-pass surgery on Tues was successful and she is fine now! The memorial service in Huntington, which I attended, was postponed til mid-July, but it was a tense week in June. The following Monday, I started jury duty for 3 weeks. I sat on an aggravated assault case for 2 defendants that lasted a full week. The facts of the case were gruesome and unpleasant, but it was an extremely interesting experience. (Yes, we found them guilty).
All spring my bulldog Hecuba’s health had been declining, but no one was willing to help me decide and say “Yes, she should go.” It’s so hard to tell when you live with them every day. Finally, when Tom Grooms came to care for the dogs at noon during my jury duty, HE was kind enough to be honest and say it. Hecuba left this world with a peaceful shot on Friday, June 14, cradled in my arms. Tootsie, who is now totally blind, had a rough summer adjusting to Hecuba’s loss and to a different home in Aug. while I was in Europe. In Sept, I thought she, too, was going; but she rallied and is now doing very well for a 17 year old blind dog.
The last 2 weeks of jury duty were light enough to let me clean house and prepare for the arrival July 1st of my cousin Fred & family (Robin, Joseph, 13, & Suzanne, 10). For almost 3 weeks I was a ‘family of 5.’ We traveled around the area house hunting and vacationing together for a week. Then I said “OK, you are no longer ‘company”-you ‘live here’ now.” The arrangement worked perfectly and we all had a great time and nice visit. One real highlight was taking Joseph and Suzanne to see Verdi’s Otello, their first opera. Yes, they really liked it!
Paul finally finished the cabin in July & I luxuriated there one weekend before preparing for the trip to Europe. That involved trying to solve a health problem. In June, 1995, I joined a national osteoporosis study of the drug Roloxifin. I knew immediately that I was not on a placebo because of interaction with another drug I was taking at the time, which I had to stop. In Nov & Dec I got severe bursitis attacks in my right knee and hip, and in Jan some other side effects. The hip pain would not stop and cortizone couldn’t touch it and I really wanted to quit the study.
In January I learned that the Dayton Ohio Philharmonic Orchestra was going to perform Verdi’s Requim, one of my favorite pieces of music. I joined the chorus and for three months I drove over 100 miles each week to attend rehearsals. As Bill Giles and I always seem to gravitate to the best music, I found out he was also doing the same thing, driving from Martinsville. The final rehearsal and performance week in April, I made 4 trips to Dayton. Singing the performance was one of the highlights of my life, especially singing the “Dies Irea”. I was in heaven. My whole being was swelling with the joy and beauty that was surrounding me. The orchestra, the singers, the music itself, rising to a glorious, glorious climax, filled my being. And then bing! My bubble burst. I suddenly got a damned hot flash. I had to put up with this health problem in reality at the exact moment of my highest transcendence. Oh, was I mad. Okay, that does it! I’m quitting the Reloxifin study NOW. Actually, that’s when they convinced me to go 2 more months, through June, so the data from me would complete one year and be valid.
They convinced me to hang in there 2 more months to give them a year’s data, which I did. I wrote up 4 or 5 detailed pages about my reactions to the drug and then stopped it. While they admitted to the validity of the other side effects, they kept denying joint pain as a possibility. 2 days after I stopped the pills, the stabbing pain in the joint went away. By July the pain had returned, but it was completely different – more general in the whole hip area & running clear down my thigh and calf muscles to my foot. Sometimes I could hardly walk, so I got a series of exercises and another shot before I left for Europe. All that helped, but walking, standing still 40-80 minutes (when we sang), or sitting hours on the bus were all less than comfortable or really painful at times.
THE LAST CHORALE TRIP – HOLLAND & BELGIUM
So now let me take you with me to our Cincinnati International Chorale (CIC) trip to Holland, the city of Cologne, Germany, and Belgium. In addition to the 2 week CIC tour, I went along with Glenn Coven to visit his daughter Denise and her husband, David O’Dell, in England for another week. Gee! That all sounds wonderful. How was it?? And my stock answer is: “Other than ‘that’ Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play (tour)??”
Luckily, Glenn & I booked our own uneventful flight over and back on Delta. The tour flight was a nightmare of mechanical delays, long layovers, and unrestricted smoking on the Martin Air Flight overseas! We were in Europe 12 days – and had 16(!!) singing gigs (double of any previous CIC tour)! There were 10 booked performances, 3 long rehearsals, & 3 short spontaneous performances of our spirituals in churches we visited. The very best and most moving of these was singing Deep River and Hush in the Dom Cathedral in Cologne, Germany. The sound quality and reverb literally sent chills up your spine! The singing was wonderful; and doing it in all these different places — mostly churches, but also Het Loo Palace Chapel (where our audience had to stand, too, for our entire 40 minute concert); Kurhaus dining room (an upscale resort hotel on the beach where our pay was dinner and dancing) and the medieval square (with the flower carpet that is there only 4 days once every 4 years) in Brussels, Belgium –it was an unparalleled experience.
But the down side was that we had no time to see much and even less time to truly enjoy and savor what we did get to see. For instance, the enclosed picture from Holland (your personal post cards from the trip) was taken at an “open air” museum of homes and windmills brought to Zaanse Schanz and reconstructed for preservation. We went in ONE building, a ‘tourist trap’ (nice) shop where they demonstrated how they make wooden shoes. (It is template machines like we make duplicate keys). Then we had to take a rush walk thru the rest of the grounds with no time to go into any other museum homes before getting back on the bus. Total time there – a little over an hour. On to Volendam for a wonderful lunch but no time to appreciate the town, back on the bus to Amsterdam for a 3 hour rehearsal, dress in our ‘black and whites,’ and ride to Haarlem for a performance. After a ‘sound check’ and a quick look at the inside of this wonderful old church, we got ‘one whole hour’ to get a bite to eat on our own and take in what little we could of this marvelous old town and its square. Our full performance was 80+ minutes with a 15-20 minute intermission. Then, immediately back on the bus to go to our hotel. Younger and hardier souls went on into the night and early morning experiencing the pleasures of Amsterdam’s varied night life, but not I. The first Thursday there, we did get to savor Gouda (pronounced HOW’ da), its church and town square, for 2 hours while John Leman, our conducto , rehearsed the orchestra. At 1 PM we listened to a 45 min. organ concert in the church, and then we were supposed to have our FIRST rehearsal with the orchestra. But someone announced on the town square (which was packed for market day) that we would be singing, and a huge audience showed up – one of our largest! John arrived from lunch almost late – and was he shocked!! We all took a big gulp and went thru the program with no real perceptible glitches. It was scary, but also exhilarating.
In Amsterdam, I took 2 canal boat tours (one at night), saw the Rejksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, but did not get to the Anne Frank House again (I saw it in 1965), which was a real disappointment. We had an extensive tour of the canals & new polders (the fields enclosed by the dykes) with in-depth information on how they were constructed and worked. Other towns we ‘skimmed’ were the Hague, Delft, Utrecht, Apeldoorn, and Maastricht in Holland. Then on to Cologne for one late afternoon and evening. The next day we left Cologne and drove for 5 hours thru the Ardennes on our way to Brussels. Elliot (who books these tours) had scheduled NOT ONE pit stop in 5 hours!! Finally, the top deck of the bus revolted and Ivan, our bus driver, found a place in the bushy woods of the Ardennes to stop along the road. Men and women poured off the bus and headed for the bushes to relieve themselves!!
In Belgium we had ‘bus drive-thru tours’ of Liege and Brussels, walking tours of Brussels’ Medieval Square, Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp. My second picture is of the medieval square in Bruges. These gabled houses from the 15th & 16th century are typical of those found throughout Holland and Belgium, though these are more brightly painted than most. Typical, too, are the myriad bicycles that you, as a pedestrian, are responsible to keep clear of! Bicycle hot-rodders are ubiquitous and dangerous to naive, unsuspecting pedestrians and tourists.
For the first week of the trip I fought my painful hip. As good exercise and the shot began to make it feel better, by the 2nd Thurs – I (along with several other people) picked up a very severe sinus infection. I was so sick, I could not sing our last concert in Antwerp. Monday, Glenn & I flew to England & on Tues. morning I was experiencing the British Socialized Medical system. Both the doctor and the cephalexin at the ‘chemist’ were FREE! I was really sick! Used up 2 giant boxes of tissues in one week, slept in the car all the way to Bath and to Wales, managed only 3 hours to tour the Roman Baths & 4 hours at St. David’s Cathedral, and that was it! Friday, the O’Dells walked us all over London (British Museum, Charing Cross Road, etc.). We finally got a bus to Victoria Theater where I happily sat down for a good dinner – and then saw the musical Jolson, a great show. Saturday I sent Glenn & Denise into London alone while I stayed in bed, missing a chance to see the new Globe Theater. A wonderful direct flight home to Cincy on Sun. ended with my getting my large, primary suitcase back completely smashed and mangled!!
A bad hip, poor tour planning, overbooked singing, a severe sickness, a smashed suitcase —”Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln……” No wonder these negatives overshadowed the good experiences! I was sick for 4 weeks plus, antibiotics notwith-standing (as were all the others). I got well just in time for UC and ILR to start in the fall. Also this fall I was Chairman of the Drama Workshop Playreading Committee (PRC). We held meetings almost every weekend for 2 months and I read about 50 or 60 plays. During that time I had to catalogue & ID my 23 rolls of film before the Oct. 26 picture party. On Oct 6, CIC did a performance of our program for the Presbyterian church in Worthington (Columbus) Ohio from which about 1/2 of our tour chorus people came. By that time, I was rested and well and sang better than I ever had, which was very satisfying. Our tape of that performance is beautiful and very professional.
So now the pictures are finished and in their albums ready for viewing, PRC is finished, ILR fall term is done, and UC speech class is over December 9. The best news is–my hip–so intensely painful in October again after the shot had worn off, and with even stronger debilitating pain in November — suddenly, magically?, became pain free the third week of November! Right on schedule 5 months after stopping the study.
So, as we enter this Christmas season, all seems right with the world. I certainly hope is is for you, too.