Dawn Seams is a vivacious person to begin with and she relished being able to tell a little story to about 160 people Saturday night at the Duncan Center in Dover.
She said that when she was a little girl she saw photos round the house with her mother and father in them, all dressed up along with aunts and uncles and other people.
She asked: “Why aren’t I in those pictures?”
The explanation: They were photos of the wedding of her parents, Sylvia and Don Crews.
Even that long ago, she told the crowd, she got the idea that one day she would get married and hold a 25th wedding anniversary party at the same time as her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.
And that is what the Saturday night party was – a happy celebration of her parent’s 50th wedding anniversary at the same time that Dawn and her husband Wally were celebrating their 25th.
A slight alteration of dates was necessary. The actual 25th anniversary was on Aug. 6 and the 50th actually happens on Nov. 2. But Oct. 12 was close enough to the middle, and the party was a fitting and fun affair for the couples being honored,
We enjoyed the evening very much along with everyone else, including the several out-of-town guests who came to congratulate the two couples at this unusual and very special affair.
Some childhood dreams do come true.
*****
Mary and I were fortunate to be at Dover AFB last Wednesday, along with about 400 other civilians and military personnel, for the arrival of the last of the C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to be assigned to the base.
The full complement of 13 C-17’s, built by Boeing, joins the 18 C-5 Galaxy cargo planes at Dover, with all of the latter aircraft to be modernized with new avionics and engines over time. The first of the refitted Lockheed Martin C-5’s is due in a few months.
While the C-5’s can carry a larger load and fly farther and faster, the newer C-17’s can use shorter and less accommodating landing conditions.
Congressman Mike Castle, who attended the ceremony along with Lt. Gov. John Carney and Sen. Tom Carper, said that the melding of the two cargo planes operations at Dover “was a good solution for the nation.” Proponents of the two types of aircraft had competed vigorously.
One factor favoring the fight for the C-17’s is simply that its components come from 42 different states, giving the Congressional office-holders from those states reason to push the C-17. That is not to say that the C-17 is not a good airplane. It is. But in the constant jockeying among states for federal money to be spent in their backyards it helps if the sources for parts are spread widely.
While the welcoming ceremony was well done all around, what impressed us in particular was the singing of the national anthem in duet form by Stephanie Harrison and her father, John Pickens. Both of them have excellent voices. Perhaps others have heard the anthem sung as a duet. We hadn’t.
*****
George and Gladie Frick stopped at our table on Sunday at Niko’s Restaurant while we were having lunch. We hadn’t seen them for a while and I missed playing golf with George in June at the Blue/Gold tournament at Maple Dale Country club. He wasn’t up to it at the time.
Still very much interested in sports, George commented about the great reception Sen. Joe Biden got when he visited the University of Delaware football game last Saturday in Newark. Unfortunately the flurried arrival of the vice presidential candidate with his accompanying Secret Service protection didn’t help. Delaware lost to Maine 27-10.
*****
Do you suppose we are seeing the beginning of the end of the two-party political system? Delaware seems to have more candidates’ roadside signs than ever, but from my casual observation most of them don’t identify the party the candidates seek to represent.
The introduction to a 2008 book called “Declaring Independence”, by Douglas E. Schoen, includes this sentence:
“Ours is fundamentally a nation of moderates who want non-partisan solutions to serious problems.”
Does anyone get a sense that the current national slug-fest is non-partisan and is concentrating on national problems to be solved?
*****
Becoming a Paul Harris Fellow as a Rotarian is something that all Rotarians prize. In the case of Horace Çook, a tireless force within the Dover Rotary Club, his efforts on behalf of Rotary have now earned him a third Paul Harris Fellow award from his club. He was presented with this rare“ Sapphire” award last week, and well deserves it.
*****
Patient: “What’s wrong, Doctor? You look puzzled.”
Doctor: “I can’t figure out exactly what’s wrong with you. I think it’s the result of heavy drinking.”
Patient: “Well, then, I’ll just come back when you’re sober!”
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Dawn Seams is a vivacious person to begin with and she relished being able to tell a little story to about 160 people Saturday night at the Duncan Center in Dover.
She said that when she was a little girl she saw photos round the house with her mother and father in them, all dressed up along with aunts and uncles and other people.
She asked: “Why aren’t I in those pictures?”
The explanation: They were photos of the wedding of her parents, Sylvia and Don Crews.
Even that long ago, she told the crowd, she got the idea that one day she would get married and hold a 25th wedding anniversary party at the same time as her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.
And that is what the Saturday night party was – a happy celebration of her parent’s 50th wedding anniversary at the same time that Dawn and her husband Wally were celebrating their 25th.
A slight alteration of dates was necessary. The actual 25th anniversary was on Aug. 6 and the 50th actually happens on Nov. 2. But Oct. 12 was close enough to the middle, and the party was a fitting and fun affair for the couples being honored,
We enjoyed the evening very much along with everyone else, including the several out-of-town guests who came to congratulate the two couples at this unusual and very special affair.
Some childhood dreams do come true.
*****
Mary and I were fortunate to be at Dover AFB last Wednesday, along with about 400 other civilians and military personnel, for the arrival of the last of the C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to be assigned to the base.
The full complement of 13 C-17’s, built by Boeing, joins the 18 C-5 Galaxy cargo planes at Dover, with all of the latter aircraft to be modernized with new avionics and engines over time. The first of the refitted Lockheed Martin C-5’s is due in a few months.
While the C-5’s can carry a larger load and fly farther and faster, the newer C-17’s can use shorter and less accommodating landing conditions.
Congressman Mike Castle, who attended the ceremony along with Lt. Gov. John Carney and Sen. Tom Carper, said that the melding of the two cargo planes operations at Dover “was a good solution for the nation.” Proponents of the two types of aircraft had competed vigorously.
One factor favoring the fight for the C-17’s is simply that its components come from 42 different states, giving the Congressional office-holders from those states reason to push the C-17. That is not to say that the C-17 is not a good airplane. It is. But in the constant jockeying among states for federal money to be spent in their backyards it helps if the sources for parts are spread widely.
While the welcoming ceremony was well done all around, what impressed us in particular was the singing of the national anthem in duet form by Stephanie Harrison and her father, John Pickens. Both of them have excellent voices. Perhaps others have heard the anthem sung as a duet. We hadn’t.
*****
George and Gladie Frick stopped at our table on Sunday at Niko’s Restaurant while we were having lunch. We hadn’t seen them for a while and I missed playing golf with George in June at the Blue/Gold tournament at Maple Dale Country club. He wasn’t up to it at the time.
Still very much interested in sports, George commented about the great reception Sen. Joe Biden got when he visited the University of Delaware football game last Saturday in Newark. Unfortunately the flurried arrival of the vice presidential candidate with his accompanying Secret Service protection didn’t help. Delaware lost to Maine 27-10.
*****
Do you suppose we are seeing the beginning of the end of the two-party political system? Delaware seems to have more candidates’ roadside signs than ever, but from my casual observation most of them don’t identify the party the candidates seek to represent.
The introduction to a 2008 book called “Declaring Independence”, by Douglas E. Schoen, includes this sentence:
“Ours is fundamentally a nation of moderates who want non-partisan solutions to serious problems.”
Does anyone get a sense that the current national slug-fest is non-partisan and is concentrating on national problems to be solved?
*****
Becoming a Paul Harris Fellow as a Rotarian is something that all Rotarians prize. In the case of Horace Çook, a tireless force within the Dover Rotary Club, his efforts on behalf of Rotary have now earned him a third Paul Harris Fellow award from his club. He was presented with this rare“ Sapphire” award last week, and well deserves it.
*****
Patient: “What’s wrong, Doctor? You look puzzled.”
Doctor: “I can’t figure out exactly what’s wrong with you. I think it’s the result of heavy drinking.”
Patient: “Well, then, I’ll just come back when you’re sober!”
