Meanwhile, here we are, just into the new year and Wendell ruminates on a whirlwind jaunt back to the family homestead of Madison, New Jersey.
Also, I included another Christmas pic because during a jaunt to my own family homestead of Orleans (to visit my Mom on New Year's), I dug up a few pictures from the time. The above photo is dated December 1961. The dog is Ranger, helping Dad inspect the tinsel.
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We left Orleans the day after Christmas for Madison (New Jersey). After making arrangements for a license (registration expired December 31st, 1961— a fact I hadn’t discovered until the day before Christmas, a Sunday), getting a tarp for the car rack, having the dogs at the vets, we were off from Hyannis about 1:30 PM. It was a clear, sunny day and we reached motel row beyond Providence at dusk and decided to stop at the Sky-View Motel, the same one we stayed in when we moved up last June.
We paid $16 for a family unit, which is two rooms with connecting bath and closet. We always get a good night’s sleep in a motel because after the kids are tucked in bed there is nothing to do but hit the hay.
Arrived (in) Madison about three the next afternoon. The snow of 8 inches that had preceded us by 2 days gave us no trouble except that we had cold, icy weather the whole time we were in Jersey. We saw the Grants on Thursday night, the Pikes Friday afternoon, Grandpa in Tabor Friday, Bob and Anne’s Friday night, Steve and Jesse’s Saturday evening.
Sunday after Sunday school we started back, a foolish time to start, 11:00 o’clock, but we packed sandwiches and at dusk came through Providence, a dinner in Taunton, and arrived home by 8:45 p.m. I think the next time we drive it we’ll make the trip at night when the children are asleep.
Monday night it snowed and we awoke Tuesday to six inches of snow. School had been cancelled for the day so after ten days’ vacation the children got a one day reprieve and their parents a one day extension of their sentence.
During the morning the snow slackened off and gradually the bank of gray clouds moved eastward and out to sea leaving the sky free for a sparkling sun that glittered on the white and tan marsh.
