I can hardly believe Christmas is next weekend. Time is going much too fast; too much to do, too little time. I am enjoying so much hearing from friends far and near, and look forward to the mail each day. My year has been surprisingly mundane, but very, very busy.
I spent January to April commuting to/living at Bill Giles’ house in Martinsville, Ohio helping him finish the addition to the house he started in 1991, quadrupling the size of his original house. After I helped him get a professional concrete foundation & garage floor and we laid the joists and bottom floor in Sept. 1991, he spent the next 7 years constructing the entire shell including floors, stairs, windows and siding, etc. entirely by himself, getting help only with the roofing. Winter of ‘99 I helped him with the furnace/AC con- tractors. Then, when the local man he hired in July ‘99 to remodel parts of the original house (roof, siding, windows) ended up stealing blank checks and forging them to the tune of $700 in addition to being an incompetent worker, Bill hired me to become his “business manager” and take over complete suipervision of completing construction of the house as well as all his finances. Last Dec. I was lucky to get Paul Brunner, my great builder (now friend) who built my Indiana Cabin & worked a lot on my house, to agree to take on the project.
Part of the deal was that I became a “project manager” of the the job. I planned parts of the job, did most of the purchasing and handling of accounts, etc. so Paul and his workers could concentrate on the actual physical construction work. I also laid 3 rooms of press-in-place floor tiles, stained all the walnut woodwork, and now am slowly chipping away at painting all the white trim/woodwork. (In case you are wondering — NO! I am not doing all this gratis.) Some pictures of the house from when we first bought it in 1978 to its present evolved form in 2000 may be included with this letter.
The construction job was so all-consuming I had to miss a lot of choir rehearsals and Sundays, and drastically curtail my voice lessons. Then in Aug. our wonderful choir conductor, Anne Marie Koukios, resigned. I, along with 50% of the choir, never came back in the fall and I have stopped voice lessons altogether for now. One part of me really misses the singing, but the other part is glad to have the time and energy for other activities that are primary right now; one being theater work, mostly with Drama Workshop. Besides (or because of) being on the Board (secy), I ended up being Co-producer and stage manager of our spring show, “The Last Night of Ballyhoo”. Since August I have been chairman of a special committee enlisting the help of “Business Volunteers for the Arts” (BVA). It is a community based organization which provides consultants to help local arts organizations with specific problems. TDW needs work on audience development and marketing techniques. My expertise is not in these areas, but it is in the ability to assemble a group who is expert, to organize and direct their activities, providing a structure that can then (hopefully) go on without me. I am as deeply immersed in this project right now as I was in Bill’s house last winter/spring. In January I start rehearsals acting one of the lead roles (Bubbie, an 80 year old grandmother) in Crossing Delancey. The play runs Feb 23-25 & Mar. 4-5. Last week (Dec. 7-10) I did staging and make- up for a production of the opera Amahl and the Night Visitors at Mt. St. Joseph College. I still moderate my “Play’s the Thing” class for Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) at Univ. of Cin. 8 weeks each Spring and Fall, and am on the Board for Phi Beta Fraternity.
I need to say a word about my name change (old) and email address change (new); and I have a very big favor to ask of some of you. Way back in 1970 I changed my name, legally, to Carolyn Ruth Hunt – the form I use to sign my Xmas cards. This is not an affectation. That form, or Ms. Carolyn R. Hunt, my legal signature, is all I ever use in print. I never use the first/last name form of ‘Carolyn Hunt’ anymore. Long family story, but, unfortunately, it is like fingernails on a blackboard to me every time I see it. The last few years more and more computers and friends have started using the short but obsolete form of my name. I ignored it at first, while always answering with the correct form, hoping the hint would take. But it is not stopping – it is only getting worse. So I have changed tactics to a direct ‘frontal attack’. Every wrong com- puter printout gets a correction call. And I decided to tell (or remind) friends from long ago to new that I really would appreciate your using ‘Ms. Carolyn R. Hunt’ or ‘Carolyn Ruth Hunt’ when you write my name. (Many, many thanks!) Note I use ‘Ms.’; haven’t used ‘Miss’ for over 30 years. In March, 2000, I changed my email address when I had some problems with the old one. The new email address: <caruhunt@msn.com>
No big trips this year. I still have not finished cataloguing, identifying & arranging the Italy pictures in books! I went to Chicago the end of July with Marienne Skinner to see Sue, the dinosaur at the Field museum and “Pharoahs of the Sun” exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute, followed by an open air Chicago Sym. concert at Ravinia. A perfect day, and way, to celebrate my 70th birthday. In Sept., Marienne came to Cincy to visit and experience our “Big Pig Gig.” We had over 450 fiberglass pigs decorated by school children to world famous artists sitting all over downtown Cincinnati, Covington, Newport, airport, etc, etc. It was really fun & exciting. About 60% were sold at auction in Nov, going all over the United States and some overseas. But a lot are staying around town and will become a permanent part of our landscape.
Also, instead of a trip, I got a new silver Saturn LW2 station wagon in May, and a digital palmcorder VCR camera and a laptop computer. Maybe next year after the play is over I’ll have time to really learn how to use these new ‘toys’. I am happy to report that I am in good health, tho sometimes the endurance, energy, and memory aren’t quite what they used to be. Like Dylan Thomas, I ‘rage against the dying of the light,’ but sometimes brutal reality pulls one up short. I lost 6 friends and relatives in 6 unrelated areas of my life in just 19 days the end of July / first of August, in addition to 3 others spaced out over the year. They will be sorely missed; but it was also wonderful to share good visits in person and by phone with many different friends and family during this year. I hope to do more of that next year. For starters, I fly to Las Vegas the 26th to spend the Xmas to New Year week with my family, the Muniers, before immersing myself in theater work with Delancy for 2 months. Brandy and Cookie are doing fine, and I make it out to my Indiana camp and cabin periodically for a little R ‘n R. In fact, Tri State has changed its name to Drake’s Ridge RNR.
Time, like Santa, to steal off into the night so I can get this letter copied and in the mail before Xmas Eve! To one and all, a Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year 2001.