misty memories?

    On the job, I work with names. Names of authors at the moment. Every once in a while a name sparks a memory of someone I know with a similar name. Just now I came across a first name that brought back pleasant memories: Reed. First name in both cases, not last.

    More years ago that I want to count, I attended Heritage Baptist Church in Annapolis, MD. The church had a special outreach to the midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy -- don't judge me too harshly, but that IS why I went attended services there. Of course, there was an outstanding Mississippi Boy doing the preaching, and another good ol' southern gent running the Baptist Student Union. Thanks to my swiss-cheese brain, I can not bring either one's name to mind, though I can picture them both!

    So, it came to pass that in the Spring of 1975, I began to date one of the midshipman (not my first, but the nicest) and luckily for me, he not only was he a First Classman, ie., a senior, but he didn't have a girl back home. See, lots of those jerks, er, I mean fellows, only dated the local girls through the year, on the weekends when they had leave time. Then, when it came time for the BIG dances and especially June Week, The Girl Back Home was brought to Annapolis. Since the jerks, er, I mean fellows, who did this weren't so very upfront about The Girl Back Home it was usually too late when the local girl found out about The Girl Back Home. But, I digress.

    Because of Reed, I was able to experience that which is June Week. All the dances, all the parades, all the receptions, and finally, the graduation, complete with the sea of Navy (pardon the pun) dress white hats tossed into the air. We were never too serious, so I didn't pin on his wings; his mother got that pleasure, as she should have. I was just happy to be there. (My best friend's fiance graduated the same year, though the two guys didn't know each other well or run in the same circles.) I even stayed the week at the cottage on the water his parents had rented, it being much closer to Annapolis than where I lived.

    The internet being the wonderful place that it is, and knowing a little about what Reed did post-Navy, I was pretty sure I could find out something by searching Google. I did! Even found a photo; he still looks the same. He's working at a university in VA, is married with two teenage sons -- so he obviously waited a while to have children, as did I. I knew he was married, and that he was at one time in the past in foreign mission work (hospital administration) with the Southern Baptists.

    Will I contact him? Not likely. But it's a pleasure to see he's 'done good.' Not that I doubted it for a second. Hard-working and dedicated -- which, with what little I have learned online about his accomplishments, is still his personality.

    I'll have to wait until tomorrow to post a photo of us from June Week. The scanner at home is not compatible with XP, so I'll have to do it on campus. Until then, another blast from the past . . . The univeristy has a special collection of children's books, DeGummond Collection, so I also come across books that we had in our house . . . like this one I worked with this afternoon:

back later . . .