Thanksgiving Pilgramage III - Milton and Beyond

The morning after Jon's wonderful party (and this should teach blog reader's to start at the last entry read, and then move up in order of entries, instead of reading them as presented) Jon, Steph, Jess, and her boy friend Dustin all drove out to Milton to join my brother Walter, his girl friend Judy, and his daughter Rachael for brunch. It was wonderful. Walter felt under a little bit of pressure when he found out that Dustin was a chef, but he did a fine job feeding the lot of us. It was especially nice of him to host us on this particular Sunday morning, as a dear friend of his, and someone quite important in his church's music life, as well as the classical music scene in Boston, had just died, and his life was to have been memorialized in music at church that morning.

At any rate, the kids got to know each other a little, and Walter got to meet Jess, Dustin and Stephanie for the first time, and the food was good, and the setting peaceful and relaxed. Who could ask for more. We let Jon and Jess and Steph and Dustin go about their business, which was I suppose celebrating Jon's actual birthday, his engagement, getting ready for Jon's regular Texas Hold 'Em game, and his Patriots Watching party as well, while I stayed on with Judy, Walter, and Rachael. We sat around a chatted for about four hours, until finally I had to ask Walter for a ride to the bus station, so I could be off on the next leg of my journey, to Albany and a visit to Ted and Marge Fedak. I wish I had pictures from my afternoon stay with Walter, but maybe I can get him to send me some, and I will add them later.

Ted and Marge Fedak were old friends of my parents. Mom and Dad used to call Ted my Dutch Uncle, as he was never afraid to make sure that I was following the right path. Marge stayed a bit more in the back ground when I was growing up, but I remember her as being a good friend of my mother's, and I suspect that much of her Dutch 'Aunting' went to my sister.

In later years, when I was working for the Fulton Schools, Ted and I found ourselves active in the Kiwanis Clubs where we lived, and we played host to each other in our local club's golf tournaments. Ted and Marge also visited us in the Adirondacks one year, and Fran and I stopped to see them several times as we were passing through Albany. We were also thrilled when we were invited to attend their anniversary celebration, at which they sang the Mass, with Marge, and her BEAUTIFUL voice, singing solos that soared through the Ukranian Catholic Church that they have been active in for many years.

They had a fairly serious traffic accident last summer, and Marge is still not able to walk as well as she would like. However, they do seem to stay active, and I had a wonderful two days with them. I even got Ted to get up early on Tuesday morning to take me to the airport, so I could start on the next leg of my journey.