February 15, 2019. Madison, Mississippi. Tom and Carolyn.

The next time you see Tom and Carolyn, try to get Tom to tell you how he survived and thrived in the military. Tom got drafted. He is not an athlete but he is very funny. The stories of how he managed to get through basic training was hilarious 50 years ago when he was telling his adventures. And I am sure they would be funny now. But you must ask him. I met Carolyn at work at the medical center when Carolyn was a social worker in the new wing of the psychiatric ward for children while I did recreation therapy. Tom was completing his PhD at the U.of Houston and they were dating. Ken and I and Tom and Carolyn went to the beach together, often taking dinner with us. We had no children and they were not married. Shortly after they married two years later, we had two boys while they moved to Virginia. We four had a lot of fun together in Galveston. Ken and I went with them to visit Carolyn's parents who lived in Baton Rouge. In fact we visited them more than once. We soon moved to Maryland and when the boys wee young, we visited them at Hampden Sydney and camped on the property of their rental home. I still have a picture of the boys sawing and chopping wood. They were 3 and 4. At that time we had three big dogs. Once they got away and went running. Carolyn called the radio station to ask for people to look for them. Much to my surprise it worked. Soon we were called to tell us where the dogs were running. The dogs were delighted to jump in the car when we caught up with them. They had children, two boys too. And they visited us in DC several times. We are good friends but recently we have not seen them much. They are a bit older than us and they also have grandchildren. I have not seen them since our 55th anniversary in Texas. They were in Nova Scotia too for our 50th. This week we caught up with our family news. The interesting thing about voices is that they do not change. Carolyn sounds exactly the same as she did in 1964 when I first met her. They still live in the same home on the University campus. And they visit their children and grandchildren. Now I am trying to convince them to come to Nova Scotia. Last year was the first year since they married that they did not visit Maine, which was Tom's mothers home. So perhaps I will get to see them, these good friends of many years.