December 10, 2016. Madison, Mississippi. Memory Lane.

I have been going down memory lane.   As I write the Christmas cards I recall each person and their families.  Every one on my list has been important to me sometime over my life so I remember each person fondly and sometimes I laugh.  No one else knows but me the connections, but I know.

For instance, this afternoon I wrote the card to Fairie and Murray Lewin.who now live in Oshawa.  Fairie was the only daughter of Fairie and Edgar Halsey who I have known all my life.  Mrs. Halsey was a Muttant who lived in Calgary.    She was an excellent pianist and accompanied my Father when he played his first trombone sole.  He was a teen and she was but a child.  Then the Halseys moved to Toronto and lived on Davisville Avenue.  Fairie and I walked home together from North Toronto Collegiate Institute.  We always stopped to say hello to Mrs. Halsey before I continued my walk.  I always checked into their refrigerator to see what goodies were in store.   And of course, I ate some of the brownies or cookies.  Happy memories.  Murray I have known since we moved to Toronto in 1953.  We joined Danforth Corps, which Murray attended.  We called him Moose.  I wonder if anyone calls him Moose now?

I wrote a card to Bill and Irene DeGroot, who still live in Galveston.  Bill was in charge of the Pulmonary Lab where Ken did his research.  Irene at that time had two children and when Andrew was born she would invite me with the baby over for afternoon tea.  It was a lovely gesture.  Eventually, she had two more children and I one more so the children played while we chatted.  An of course, her daughters enjoyed playing with my boys.    They had a swimming pool so on good days we took all the children into their pool.  The afternoon with Irene and their children was a delight.

It has been a day of nostalgia.   And I still have half of the cards to write.     I must not stop so long to linger with my happy memories.  Christmas is coming.