Monday, August 30, 2010

A small world

Today I was invited to play for someone in a Bridge Tournament. I think there were four or maybe five tables. The affair was held here at Park View Villas, my home address, and before we played, we had lunch in our dining room. It was interesting, for I do not eat there normally and my thinking lately has been, Why don't I eat there? I don't know how much it would cost to have two meals a day there, but I think maybe it would be less than I spend in the grocery store. After todays lunch I am glad I still have my independence. We had soup and a sandwich and grapes and for dessert a small container of ice cream. When I see my MD and he compels me to go on a diet, I may feel it would be a good way to lose weight to eat in the dining room.

Something very interesting happened at the table. The conversation around our area of the table turned to 'Have you read'? It was fun hearing what people were absorbed in, and I took a few notes. Suddenly I heard the woman across from me say, Have you read a book called The Daily Coyote? No one responded. So she went into great detail and took a lot of time describing the Vespa Story and the fabulous photographs. When she finished, I said, 'Who was the writer? She searched around in her head, and out came Sh, Shr Shreve Stockton. And then a light rose on her face, and she said 'Is that a relative of yours'. I brushed my nails on my vest, and said.... She is my Grand daughter.

Then I turned my attention to the person sitting next to me. She was talking about a book titled something about a house on a beach. The beach was located in Liberia. I asked, if the author mentioned, had dealt with how her parents or grandparents had settled in Liberia. She said Yes, and that she had gone into great detail about how freed slaves had been allowed to leave USA to go there. I said Commodore Robert Stockton had been instrumental in getting the people who wanted to emigrate from USA to Liberia the passage they needed for the trip. And then I told how Martha Alderson has written a book about that historical chapter. And who is Martha Alderson? Her middle name is Stockton and she is one of my favorite three daughters.

7 comments:

mss @ Zanthan Gardens said...

What a proud mama and grandmama you got to be today.

Arinn said...

Small world indeed! You must be so proud of your family.

Anonymous said...

How exciting! I love it!

musingegret said...

Wow! Everybody talking about the Stocktons---predecessors and current-day. How wonderful for you!

Can't wait for you to get back to the stories of your earlier life. How did you wind up in Port Angeles?

I used to work in Poulsbo and lived in Hansville so I hang on to every word and description about Peninsula life.

How are you adapting to the walker? How did the bridge games go? When did you last see Shreve?

Wishing you the best. Thanks for writing.

musingegret said...

Followup: Went to visit "The Daily Coyote" and followed the links to Shreve's new site. Learned something new!

http://honeyrockdawn.com/2010/08/the-awesome-ayate/

Having decided to eliminate paper towels from my life and use old, clean dish towels/hand towels, I'm now on the search for ayate when my last kitchen sponge is gone!

pogonip said...

Small world, isn't it?! I have to tell you how much my in-laws loved Shreve's book--they're sharing it with everyone they know!

coralrenee said...

I've been checking the Daily Coyote site since right after she started it. I bought her book, and check her other blog daily. Congrats on having a badass family. ;)