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Volume XIII

Number 8

August 18, 2008



Remembering

The Beach

 


 

 

 

© 2008 by Bob Dean

 

 

 

Circulation Last Issue: 130           Year 2008: 967   
Our 532nd Issue

BEACH WEEK: 2008

Well!  We did it again.  A week at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina--this time at a nice big 4-story house (with elevator) called "Time Out" on Sound Side Drive.

Home Away from Home

This is the house, with the big blue Jitney parked out back.  It's the vehicle used by the management to drive big groups to the ocean for dips in what turned out to be quite turgid waters for the entire week.

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So lots of time was spent at the local swimming pool--viewed here from a third floor window of our summer estate.  For more views of "Time Out," readers may wish to click here 

 

Indoor Activities

During the hot, hot weather much of our  time was spent indoors, pursuing a variety of hobbies.  We played Scrabble® (The Old Man won, in a close and disputed tournament), read lots of books,  and snuck in little naps along the way..  Free time was also spent with one or two of the five computers we brought from home.  Here are Jim and Josie, puzzling over their email and/or a variety of on-line games...

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...and here's much of the crowd, absorbed in TV and conversation in the massive surround- sound living room.

 

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Bruce and Liz puzzled their way through a jigsaw we purchased for $1 at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop.  Two pieces were missing.  We didn't take it back.

 

 

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Paul's room was the frequent scene of impromptu musicales by aspiring and proven musicians.  


Anna, Bruce, Smith, Paul and Nick take their music seriously

.Sights and Sounds

 Traditionally, Beach Week includes a trip to the North Carolina Aquarium , just down the road from our vacation house.

 

Here's Liz, explaining natural wonders to her two grandsons (left) and Anna, Smith and Nick whooping it up at the fish pond.

On Friday, the Dean boys rented a pair of sea kayaks and ventured out for a couple hours of paddled exploration.  Here are Jim and Nick (l.) and Bruce and Paul (r.) making their way into the Sound...  

 

...and paddling away for a visit to islands full of pirate treasure (perhaps).

While their anxious mother and grandmother worries away the time until their safe return:

The next day, on another exploratory tour, five of us took the ferry to our favorite vacation town of Oriental, to remember our old home site and check out the vast "improvements" in and around the remembered village.


Bruce, Nick, Jim, Liz and Our Editor,

We had to tilt the camera ever so slightly, to get the true spirit of the old Wits End.

Celebrations

Most of our Beach Weeks include a Birthday or two, or a celebration of something else.

 

Here's Anna, spitting towards her 6-layer cake.  The cake had been carefully prepared by her Father and was cited as one of his "best yet."

 

And here's Anna with two of her favorite gifts: an American Girl Doll named Mia which her mother bought for her on a swing through Chicago on their way to the beach.  She also received a new dress for her, and another for Mia (a doll), painstakingly made by Grandma Liz in the days before the Big Week.  The buttons on Anna's new dress (l.) are identical to those on her Grandmother's dress in a photo from long, long ago (r.).

 

People

Every year since our Beach Week tradition began, we've attempted a group photo for use in The News and in the Annual Dean Family Christmas Card production.  This year, we went for a panoramic view of the whole crowd, staring at us from the "Jitney."  It may not make it to the Christmas card, but we wanted to show to our faithful readers, anyway.


         Nick   Paul         Liz        Chloe Jim    Josie Bruce  Anna  Smith  Bob

Memories

The Turner Family, owners of  our "Time Out" vacation home, left a memory book, where several people who had stayed there before us wrote their thanks for their respective Very Nice Times.  This is our entry: 

"From C-O and N-C, I-L and L-A
We came to the sound side for Time Out and play.

Thus, Bob, Liz and Paul; Bruce, Jim and two wives;
Nick, Anna and Smith had the time of their lives

We sunburned our faces and sanded our knees;
Read books and did puzzles--whatever we pleased.

And now, as we fly back to work-a-day scenes,
Our thanks to the Turners--from ten relaxed Deans!"

 

A PIECE OF THE PAST

From the August 10,, 1998 edition of 
The Poland Place News

Ten Years Ago

Faithful readers will remember last week's Challenge as:

"Write a Haiku about some aspect of Poland Place."

And here are the heartfelt entries, from all over the continental United States:

Raleigh I will miss,
Books, spiders and Liz, and yes,
Bob and cam'ra, too.
Josie Freschi,
Steamboat Springs, CO

In one doggy door
Through the porch and in again 
That's it...ahhhh..Ker-plop.
Seiko,
Somewhere in Colorado

Toys in the playroom.
Outside playing flashlight tag.
Long live Fort Courage!.
Bruce Dean,
Steamboat Springs, CO

Now is the best time
For visiting Poland Place
To watch Butterflies.
Kitty Pickett,
Charlottesville, VA

 

A POLAND PLACE NEWS BOOK REVIEW 

Fiction

WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES BY David Sedaris (Little Brown, New York, 2008, 323 pp.) 

David's sixth book of essays brings us 22 more of the musings that made him famous--and that keep him on the lecture tour.  We enjoyed most of these, though some of the early ones read like David imitating David.  The last one is too long, taking more than 80 pages to combine David's withdrawal from smoking with his 3 months in Tokyo getting his mind off smoking.

There's a thread running through these essays, proclaiming that David Sedaris isn't poor any more.  He travels well, lives in many countries, and buys whatever he wants.  It's a good life, producing lots of ideas for this and the next several books.

 

HEALTH TIP OF THE MONTH

Our alert proofreader caught this on Katie Couric's CBS News one night last week.  We were quick to harness the power of TIVO® and Closed Captioning to bring our readers this critical advice:

(The rest of us are more likely to live forever?)

THE POLAND PLACE CHALLENGE

Last Month's Challenges

Language Exam:   

What one three-letter word can be added in the blanks below to make a word in each case?
___ ion
___ able
___ ice
___ ed

Answer: "not"

Math Exam: 

Find the five-digit number in which the first digit is two more than the second, the third and fourth form the sum of the first and second, and the last digit is one more than the fourth and two more than the third. The sum of all of the digits is 18.

Answer: 75123

And our winners are:

  Geoff Armstrong, Rick Fox, 
David Wilkinson, Bruce Dean, Al Friedrich, Bill Brothers, Larry Katzin,
Denise Friedrich, Tom Galgano

CHALLENGE NUMBER 414

Language Exam:   

What would you call the “memory” button on a telephone? (The answer is a palindrome.)


_ _ _ _ _ _ _

(Hint: This phone doesn't have one)

Math Exam: 

A kindergarten class has twice as many girls as it has boys. Ryan, one of the boys, has seven more female classmates than he has male classmates. Sally, one of the girls, has five more female classmates than she has male classmates. How many girls and how many boys are there in the class?

 (Hint: There are no more than 20 kids in the class; and our photo is inconsistent with the answer.)

Send us your answers by Clicking Here

 

LICENSE PLATE OF THE MONTH

Spotted by David Wilkinson On a Silver Toyota Sierra
 on Route70

As which of us would not?

 SOCIAL NOTES 

Lloyd Trafton and Lois Raymond are enjoying a fortnight of travel from their homes in Washington State.  Beginning August 6, they're visiting:

Missoula, Bozeman, Yellowstone Park, Cody, Laramie, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Cheyenne Mountain, Steamboat Springs, Salt Lake City, Bonneville Salt Flats, Boise...and home to Seattle.

There's a reason for every one of these stops.  Details on request.


Lloyd and Lois, encountering a little chilly weather in the mountains of Colorado

The Poland Place Monthly

Bruce Dean and His Mother celebrated their birthdays under separate circumstances on August 17: he for the 44th time, she for an even more impressive number of occasions.   Bruce's mother sent him this handmade shirt full of cellos--modeled here by an unidentified local celebrity.

 


The Poland Place Monthly

Faithful readers Larry Katzin and Jim Grimes  were married on June 19 at San Francisco City Hall -- Day 3 of marriage equality in California.  They spent Part One of their honeymoon at Emerald Isle in late June on the Annual Katzin Family Beach Vacation, and Part Two in Camden, Maine with the Annual Grimes Family Vacation.  More wedding pictures can be enjoyed at  http://www.jim-larry.com/wedding.html

The Poland Place Monthly

Will Holly's mother, Pat, sent us this photo of Will departing for NYC, where he'll be seeking his fortune with auditions on or about Broadway.  We last saw him on  stage at The Lost Colony late last summer.   We wish Will well; we'll be following his career on the pages of The Poland Place News.

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The Poland Place Monthly

Bruce Dean performed with the Strings Music Festival on August 9, in the new Strings Music Pavilion in Steamboat Springs.  

The program featured a night of Beethoven by the first 46-member orchestra to perform on the Strings stage.

The Poland Place Monthly

While Bruce was in Steamboat Springs, preparing for the Strings concert, the rest of his family stayed in Raleigh for a group swim at the North Hills Club.   Here are the three ladies who accompanied the three children in an invasion of the "Big People's" pool:

We also managed to capture a few photos of our brave grandchildren:

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Here's Nick, lost in the vapors of his departure from the giant water slide.

 

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And here's his cousin Smith, emerging from the slide...and  swimming to water's edge to receive congratulations.

Only a few moments later, Josie left the children with her sister-in-law and slipped into the bar for a few moments with her father-in-law, the well-known Editor.

Josie and her two (possibly homesick) youngsters flew back to Steamboat Springs on Monday afternoon.  We miss them already.

The Poland Place Monthly

Thursday Dean (a cat) spent three possibly exciting days on her own last week, voluntarily returning to her Ruby Square family in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on Thursday (of course) at 11:58 pm.  

E-MAIL TO THE EDITOR   

From:  Bob Salias
Subject: New Bathing Suit

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"Thanks for showing us your proofreader in last year's swim suit.  But I think she'd look better in the one her near-contemporary is wearing this year at the Olympics."

{We certainly agree.  But, of course, we think she'd look good in almost anything}

 

 

 

The Poland Place Monthly

From:  Al Baxter
Subject: Big Gun Game

"Here's a chance to fire one of the military's sophisticated cannons. Good fun but addictive. Go ahead. Make your day."

{Al's quite right; this one took us back to the sport we enjoyed in the 50's.  Check it out by clicking here}

 

The Poland Place Monthly

From:  R. Hunter
Subject: Your Editorial Policy

"Have you ever withheld a story because you thought it was beneath the dignity of your publication?"

{Now and then.}

 

THE COMIC SECTION