Category Archives: Friends

In Which Jeremy Paints the Garage Doors

In 1977, shortly before he was to head back to England, my then boyfriend Jeremy, painted a North Woods scene on our garage doors in Elgin. It was his interpretation of the scene out the window of our vacation home in Hazelhurst, Wisconsin. The local paper even picked it up and for weeks people would slowly drive by the house to get a peek at the garage doors.

I’m not entirely sure the house was even built when Jeremy painted the garage doors — this might have been how he imaged it would look from inside the house. A fun follow-up is that Jeremy recently recreated the garage door images on a much smaller scale as a gift for my brother who now lives in the house. He even included portraits of our Mom and Dad on each door. I’m grateful we still have a connection with Jeremy. The paintings he made are priceless.

The article below, is not completely true. Jeremy did have a place in mind when he painted the image. It’s definately the view from the property.

It’s hard to see the bunny in the lower left corner on any of the photos of the complete door, but when Mom eventually had the doors painted over (we neglected to put any kind of weatherproofing on the painting) she left the bunny. Here it is with a real live bunny and a detail from the painting Jeremy made for Kevin.

Here are the paintings Jeremy created for Kevin.

Card from Cindy from Montana

Thanksgiving weekend, 1990. Dean and I, along with Paul and Kelly, traveled to Long Island, NY to spend Thanksgiving with Kelly’s parents, Bunt and Ann, who were renovating a house there.

Also at the house that weekend were Bern, Kelly’s brother, and his ex-girlfriend, Cindy.

Cindy and I hit it off right away and talked the entire weekend. We had quite a few things in common: birding, Wisconsin (her parents lived in the same small town a family friend was from), reading. Together we decorated a birthday cake for Paul (I think it was for Paul) to resemble a golf course littered with Canada geese and geese poop. It was pretty funny. I thought I’d found my new best friend.

She wrote sent me a Christmas card with her address, I know I wrote back, but the letter was returned to me — not at this address. I could have easily asked Paul and Kelly for her address, but never did, I think, because they teased me a bit about being in love with Cindy.

Summer, 1998. Dean, the kids, and I visited Paul and Kelly in Los Alamos, New Mexico. At dinner one night in Santa Fe they told us that Cindy had died in a tragic accident earlier that year. She and her boyfriend were canoeing and were caught in a sudden snowstorm. He jumped out of the canoe to seek help but she died of hypothermia while she waited. I think he also died.

I’m a little confused by her note though. I don’t remember going rafting with her. So it is possible this Cindy is alive and well and still living in Bozeman, although I have no idea who she is.

Two Menus from the RMS Queen Elizabeth

My friend Frances Lide journeyed on the RMS Queen Elizabeth in 1957. She gave me a dress she wore when dining with the captain of the ship. I wore it once, but it fell into disrepair. Clare has it now. She also gave me two menus from that voyage.

I think it would be fun to recreate the “Suggested Menu” someday. Maybe on the anniversaries of the luncheon and dinner.

Click the images below to enlarge them.