Christmas Memories of Allan Hale - aka Like it usta be.

At this time of year when many are decorating and gifting I turn to a memory from my youth in Norwich Connecticut. It was in the early Fifties and the world I knew was prospering and mostly at peace. We could go to the local A&P and get a large paper sack of groceries for less than $5. We were members of the United Congregational Church that met in a historic building in downtown Norwich. I was approaching my teens and developing my impressions about important things of life. I attended Sunday school and learned the Old Testament stories of Joseph of the multicolored coat, Moses and the Ten Commandments, Solomon the wise king and the other inspiring stories. I also learned the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

In our congregation we usually celebrated this season with an annual Christmas Pageant and this year I was participating as a shepherd. I was costumed in a bathrobe; a towel draped over my head tied with a piece of rope and carried a crooked stick. I remember kids playing angels dressed with a sheet draped around them; a tinsel halo over their head and cardboard wings attached to their backs. The three wise men wore fake beards and pieces of cloth wrapped like a turban around their heads carrying decorated boxes representing their gifts to the Lord. 

I mostly remember a peaceful reverent spirit in the sanctuary created by the singing of carols about the Christ child’s birth.

Everything was focused on the small family situated at the center of the tableau, a boy dressed in a bathrobe like I wore, standing by a pretty girl clad in a robe. They were gazing into a wooden cradle where a doll represented the most wonderful gift that Heavenly Father could ever give us, the Savoir of the world even Jesus Christ.

The strongest part of this memory is of the Spirit that filled me testifying of the divinity of that little boy who would live a life with out sin. Who, over his thirty years, communed with Angels and other messengers from his Father preparing for his ministry. Who then established His Church upon the Earth and then finished his earthly mission by giving his life as penance for our sins.

In this time of commercialism and pile building around a decorated tree that memory lives on in me as my first testimony of the humble birth and divinity of Jesus Christ. It reminds me that the true meaning of this season is to remember His birth and mission.

We have received many blessings this year including a trip to Florida in April to baptize Michael; two new sons-in-law, James Steed to Melissa in July; and Wayne Finlinson to Kristen in September who is blessed with their first child due in early July; during the time of Kristen’s wedding I also was privileged to ordain Michael an Elder. In November we connected with a granddaughter Ali (Alexandra) Townsend whom we thought was lost to us. We welcome them into our family.

We love and appreciate our family and friends. May you too remember the original purpose of this time and season.

Allan & Marilyn Hale

The final resting place of my father, W. Stanley Hale

W. Stanley Hale April 5, 1936 Lewis Field, Durham N.H.

My father chose to be cremated.  His ashes are spread at the base of a tree he visited many times on the wooded slopes of Mt. Hittie in Newry, Maine.  I will try to share what I know about why he chose this beautiful place as his final resting place.  But to help you really understand this, I'll need to include some memories from his own personal journal and from other family members...

I was not involved in dad's decision process to be cremated and where to spread his ashes - it was a decision between Mom and Dad. (I personally believe that economics was the primary reason.) However, with that said there is a lot more to it. Dad loved Newry, Maine.

My sister, Joan, shared some insight:

"Pa love the woods and mountains. So when he retired they traveled for several years until Pa's health wasn't good.  Then they were able to buy a piece of property in Newry, Maine. He had been going hunting in this area since before I was born. In fact, after staying in a hunting cabin for years he began staying with the family that owned it all. So it was like going home to him. They built this cute house that was high enough up to look off at the mountains. Everyday (weather permitting) he would go out doors and walk. He cut wood and planted gardens etc.

In fact in the winter he would build snowmobile trails. He belonged to a club that would go trail riding with Gramma Hale standing on a sled in back of his snowmobile. Can you imagine? Remember he was young when he died so these could be done when he was that age. He just had a bad heart.

Now, on the years Gramma Hale went with him they would go and he would carve their initials and the year on this tree. That was way back in their younger days before they moved up there. We saw many of his initials and dates on that tree.  So it was Pa's desire to have his ashes spread around this tree on the mountain he loved.

Stan's tree in Newry with most recent family visit by his daughter, Joan, marked (2000)

The year we went (as you can see from the photo) was 2000 and the tree was still there. It's quite a trip up there. You can drive so far in a 4 wheel vehicle and then walk a ways.  The family hoped the tree would stay but most of the older family members are now gone. We haven't been up there since 2000.

It is a beautiful part of the country and I see why my parents (especially my Father) picked that place. It really has a special feel when we go up there.  Every year I say I'm going back, but haven't."

My oldest son, Eric, had a very poignant observation:

"Regarding Pa's cremation.  I remember a very vivid conversation with him when I was young teen visiting in Newry.  He told me that he did not want a grave because there are better things to do with the land.  Future generations will need it.  It seemed very poignant considering his background in agriculture.  When I asked him “what about people who might want to visit your grave?”  He said "They can come here and visit me."

That's how I remember it."

Dad first started going to Newry, Maine for hunting trips. Here is an excerpt from his journal: 

"An event that started out quite small shaped the way for a change in our lives much later. In the fall of 1947 Tilford Cocks, who was a 4-H Club agent, went to Maine for deer hunting. He took his wife and son Lewin, who was eight years old. They drove up to some cabins where Tilly had stayed in previous years. The proprietor said there were no vacancies. He suggested that they drive up the road about seven miles where a farmer named Fred Wight had some cabins and he might have one for rent. They did and a cabin was available. They rented it.

In 1947 was a very dry year in Maine and there were some terrible forest fires. The town of Bar Harbor was burned and much woodland around Bridgeton was also burned. Because of this the State of Maine ‘slapped a ban on’. This meant no hunting. Tilly stayed as long as he could, hoping that the no hunting ban would be lifted but he had to come home. When he came back into the office he said he hoped to go back and I said I would like to go with him.

When we heard that it had rained and the woods were again open we called the Wights. They said their cabin had been rented to some one else but they had a room in their farm home and although they didn’t take in ‘sports’ we would come. So we drove up and came to the Wight’s home. The room we slept in had been their son’s room and he was in the service.

I well remember that first evening. We were rather ill at ease, not knowing each other. Mrs. Wight wanted to know what we did. Tilly told her he was a 4-H Club Agent and I said I was a County Agricultural Agent and that broke the ice. Mrs. Wight was a 4-H club leader and active in Home Extension. Mr. Wight had taken part in agricultural work and was Community Committeeman for the Agricultural Conservation Program. We stayed there about a week.

I had one incident in the woods that was real amusing. Tilly and I were standing near together and we saw a deer. Tilly raised his gun and fired. I aimed at the deer and jacked all the shells through my gun and never pressed the trigger! That was what is called ‘buck fever.’ I did not get a deer that year but Tilford did.

Following that year Tilford and I went up there again and for several years and then I took Doris up. Joan and Marcia went on one trip. We began to form a friendship that just built up. Fred and Ida were in their 60’s and they had four sons. Willard was in the Forestry Department. Paul worked on the state highway and Owen the youngest, was attending Gould Academy in Bethel. Following a hitch in the Army he married Sue Brook, who had been widowed and had three small children. George, the oldest son died of cancer.

We became quite close to the family and they ‘adopted’ me. I helped Fred with an income tax problem and as a result he became eligible for Social Security. Later I again helped him with another problem—an inheritance. These helps gained me the confidence of the sons for Fred was becoming blind.

The Bear River Valley in Newry, Maine is located about 15 miles from the New Hampshire line. At the west end of the valley is Grafton Notch, a pass through the mountains and the road passes Lake Umbagog—one of the Rangely Lakes. This pass has been made into a State Park.

We fell in love with the area and bought some land on which to build a home—but that is another story."

The “other Story” dad talked about comes also as an excerpt from my rendition of his travel journal:

Winter 1975/1976

"Hale's Hill" - Homestead in Newry, ME

"This winter snow bird trip was a down and back just to get out of the cold. They were gone from 8 December to 31 March. It was at this time that Mom and Dad sold the 37 Mulberry St, Norwich, CT., house. It had been home for 25 years but they had plans. During their last trip north to Newry the Wights offered to sell them a nice piece of property which had a beautiful southern view of the valley in northern Newry right on the edge of Grafton Notch State Park. Their property was adjacent to Step Falls and was the last place before the park.

Dad contracted with a local builder to build their house and dad bragged that the contract was a handshake and a check for $25,000 as a down payment. Dad indicated that it had W-truss for roofing 16 inches on center (very heavy construction) 6” wall, double paned glass and they heated it with a 3 log Jotul stove in the basement. They had 4 wonderful happy years in this house."

Newry Community Church

Dad in his usual manner became involved in the town. He was appointed Civil Defense Director for Newry. I remember him showing me a Geiger counter that he had stored at the house in Newry.
He and Mom became involved in the Newry Community Church. When any of the grand kids came to visit and remained over the weekend he would bring them early to church and they got the ring the bell that announced services. It was a large bell and could be heard for miles up and down the valley. Dad would unlock the door and right inside the entry was a rope that hung down from the bell. It took a couple of pulls to get it going but the kids really got a thrill to be able to ring that bell.

A write up in the Lewiston Sun Journal was written by Rodney Hanscom who later became the lay minister for Newry Community Church and he preached the eulogy for dad. Find it at http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=z8QgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3mkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1565,4810038
 
 Behind their house in Newry was Mt Hittie. Dad purchased an old Ford 4 FWD pickup truck with a 4 on the floor and it was so old that it had a manual choke. It would not pass an inspection but when he went to register it he told the people at the Registry that it would never be driven on the highway as he only intended it to be used to bring firewood back to the house. There were holes in the floorboards and the fenders flapped when you went over a bump. The big deal was that when the grand kids came he would pile them into the truck, start it up and put it into 4 wheel drive and shift into the lowest granny gear. He would pull out the choke a little and then off it would go. He even let the kids steer. The road was unimproved so it was rutted and bumpy but the old Ford just would creep along and the kids were thrilled.

Mt. Hittie (named for an old woman once lost on the mountain)

Up on Mt Hittie was a special Beech tree. The Beech tree retains its scars and Dad had scratched his initials in the tree one of the times he was up there hunting and they still showed decades later. He would have the kids scratch their initials and a date. I personally never went there but Eric and Amy and Greg, Tim and Jason all have their initials on the tree. This place was dearly loved by Dad and this is where his ashes have been scattered.

Why I joined and made the Navy my career.

Me in my Navy Blues, after Boot Camp

Observing Veterans Day stirs a bit of Patriotism. Technically I am a veteran however, to my knowledge, I was never in danger of some one looking to kill me but then that is not a part of the definition of Veteran. I joined the US Navy on 10 October 1957, retiring as an Electronics Technician Senior Chief (Submarine Qualified) 20 years 2 months and 5 days later on 15 December 1977. After boot camp and ET school my service started as shore duty at the Sub Base Groton, Connecticut and finished with a patrol on the USS Sam Houston SSBN 609 Gold Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine based in Hawaii. I served the Submarine fleet the whole time plus another 11 years as a defense contractor.

The thing that is bothering me today is that my joining the Navy was never a thing of “In defense of my country” or other patriotism which is the appearance of all the lauding of military personnel today. With just a high school diploma I did not see much of an alternative. It was a way to get a good trade. VA school benefits were vaguely a possibility but …nah! I was not sure I had what it takes. School required work. It required hard work and setting goals and that was not really my thing. I was in the go along to get along mode and did not have any plans for the future. In retrospect I now feel patriotic about my service.  Growing up if I needed money I went to my father and petitioned him to fund what ever I wanted or worked to earn my own way. Often the answer was “We cannot afford it.” That phrase gave me a false impression that College was not a possibility in my life. Besides, my grades were not very impressive. Mom and Dad arranged for a tutor because my math grades were weak and I was in danger of not passing for the year. I do not ever remember Mom or Dad assisting me with my home work except to inquire about it occasionally. There was kind of a blasé attitude about school and goals etc. I didn’t know that mother went to college and Dad never discussed his education efforts. It just was never mentioned.

Bleacher Crowd (GREASE)

I would begin the school year doing well but motivation tapered off after a few months and my association with the “Bleacher Crowd” was not real motivating. The bleacher crowd was those portrayed by John Travolta et al in the movie Grease. It was also the only place on campus where you could indulge in my habit of smoking at the time. Very few of the kids headed for college hung out there. I even wore a black motorcycle jacket. Realize that this is 20/20 hind sight and trying to be brutally honest. I also do not remember either Mom or Dad asking about my friends except after I joined the Navy and then they liked Dick McNeely whom I brought home often.

USS Nautilus Launch
at Electric Boat

Because of the “we cannot afford it” attitude and more significantly never a mention of college as a goal, I settled on joining the Navy. I was working as a salesman of women’s shoes at Reid & Hughes department store in downtown Norwich. Fitting women for a pair of shoes got me a view of some interesting legs but there was no future there. The main employment in the area was at Electric Boat 15 miles away in Groton. EB was the premier builder of submarines in the World. I could go there and get a job but I had no training other than my High School Diploma and I figured that didn’t really qualify me for anything exciting. They probably would train me in something but that was not even interesting to me. There also was Pratt & Whitney in Manchester, Connecticut where they build jet engines but that was 45 miles away and again I had no training.

Norwich Post Office

Norwich Free Academy

My military service intentions began with visiting the recruiting offices out of curiosity as a teenager. Their offices were at the opposite end of the hall from my father’s office in the basement of the Norwich, Connecticut post office. I would stop by to see Dad on the way home from Norwich Free Academy which was across town from our home.

I checked out the different services and determined that the Navy had the best training to offer me. Besides that, walking long distances, carrying a heavy pack and a rifle and then trying to shoot someone else did not appeal to me. I definitely was not a jock. That kind of war was a bit too personal for me and the chances of me getting shot did not impress me. That eliminated the Army and Marines. The Air Force training seemed to me to be too job specific in that what you became trained on became your job. IF you trained to be a B57 tire changer that basically was your career. The Navy training seemed to be much broader. A Navy ET had many more options from working on all kinds of communications equipment to working on the different ships radars making it much more interesting to me.

Bank Street, New London, CT

I really did not have a clue as to what day to day life as an enlisted man was like. I did not realize that the junior enlisted guy was the guy that washed dishes, swabbed the decks, and all that other unattractive grunt work like cleaning the toilets. Being brought up 12 miles from the Sub Base in Groton, Connecticut also had little to do with the decision. I never interfaced with the base or the sailors except to be aware of the seedy reputation of Bank Street, New London with its tattoo parlors and bars (They were cleaned up in the early 60s as urban renewal.)

I did get a tattoo at age 16 but that is another story. “Join the Navy, See the world” did have appeal. I knew a guy who had enlisted and gone to Japan on a carrier and he regaled me with stories of his adventures ashore. That did have an influence. Being on my own to indulge in those storied liberties in foreign exotic ports was enticing. Being 18 and having raging hormones also had a part in the decision.

My re-enlistment ceremony

I realize now that I never involved my parents in the decision process to join the Navy. I wish I had. My dad embarrassed me at my last re-enlistment ceremony. I thought he and Mom would be impressed with a re-enlistment ceremony so I invited them to witness the ceremony. During conversation with my CO Dad told him that they had always hoped that I would go to college. Frankly I do not ever remember college being mentioned as I was growing up. I realize now that if I wanted my kids to go to college that I should have started when they were small and even then establishing savings accounts tagged for school. Start discussing college early in life. If it is expected it has a much greater chance of happening. I will pass this on to my children as they interact with their children. I did go to college but it took me 10 years to get a BS and my grades reflected that it was not my first priority in life. But it does indicate that I could set and attain a significant goal in life. No one has ever asked for my GPA (2.54 but that too is another story)

I do not regret the decision to enlist but it could have been much different if I had gone to college. My earnings would have been better, my life in the Navy much different. An enlisted man is a second class citizen, there to do the bidding of the officers. The officers do the planning, and make the decisions. The enlisted carry them out under the direction of the senior enlisted who are the supervisors of the military. By necessity senior NCOs do make on the spot decisions but are little involved in the long range planning and especially in the tactical military planning. That is a significant difference.

Navy Dolpins welcome
you at Sub Base

I took the Navy entrance exam three times, the first time was as a lark at age 14 and the second as a practice about 6 months prior to the real one just before enlisting. I passed it the first time but the third time I really scored high which qualified me for any basic school that I wanted. One big thing this did was to get me out of the basic enlisted grunt stuff of mess cooking (washing dishes/peeling potatoes) and other grunt work. I looked through the ratings book and decided that Electronics Technician the best kind of schooling that would be marketable when I got out in 4 years, so when I enlisted it was as Electronics Field Seaman Recruit which guaranteed me a school in that field. So right after boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training center I went right back there for ET school.

During Boot camp I got separated from my company and approached an officer to ask if he knew where they were. He chewed my butt for daring to speak to an officer. That formulated an opinion of officers that tainted my naval experience until after I joined the Church and got to know some officers. They were human and not a......s (the nice word is jerks). Because of that I did not take advantage of the enlisted to officer programs that were available. Oh Well. Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda. Spit in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills up first.

Aerial View of Naval (Submarine) Base in Groton, CT

Barracks at Groton Sub Base

 My first duty was shore duty at the Sub Base and I lived in a barracks. I was in a room shared with 30 other guys and there was a community bathroom that all on the floor shared. The life style was ok as I got 3 square meals a day, a bunk, a blanket and a locker to lock up my personal stuff. But privacy was something for the Navy in the future. When I got transferred to the Fulton I slept in a compartment with racks 3 high with over 100 other guys. Again no privacy! The bathrooms there were much more cramped than the barracks but adequate. Because it was a ship that did get underway there were no provisions for housing for junior enlisted. Married guys did have a dependants allowance and could get Comrats (commuter rations, a stipend to cover meals not eaten on the ship). Some of the younger single sailors did get together and establish civilian apartments ashore. Four of us guys did establish an apartment downtown New London over a store that was a dive shop in the summer and a gun shop in the winter and that is another story.

The USS Fulton
a sub "Tender" boat I served on

I had planned on just staying for just four years and even had a short timer’s chain of beads that represented the days left until I got out. However, on 13 August 1961 the Berlin wall went up and the Navy told me that I was in for the duration of the Crisis plus six months. I was on the USS Fulton AS-11 a submarine tender fixing and calibrating nuclear test equipment. I was bored with that work and IF I stayed in the Navy I was due for a transfer. One day the division officer mentioned that they wanted two guys to go to Virginia for a school I jumped on it. I knew nothing more than the school was NDT62-5 and was for about seven months long. No other description however, it got me off the tender! But it required shipping over for at least four more years. But I got even with President Kennedy and shipped over in the STAR program for six years receiving a guarantee for a Class C school. That is a school of at least six months in duration and this school in Virginia qualified. This decision made me a lifer. I had crossed a bridge and could never go back. The Navy became a job, a career, a means to a retirement check.

NAVDAC training in
Virginia Class C school

This school in Virginia was great. The prep school taught me the basic building blocks of computers, how it worked at the component level. I was having fun! Prep school prepared students for four different tracks of school and I started training on the NAVigation Data Assimilation Computer (NAVDAC). As I was taking the first exam the instructor held up the answer card. It had little punched holes in it so he could grade the answer card. I could see the first four answers were not what I thought the answers were so I went back over the questions. I had jumped on distractors that were close to the correct answer but not quite right. I changed my answers and because of that got an 85 on that first exam. The next closest student got a 65. I found that I was smart! I could learn this stuff! I started spending more time studying. I graduated first in class on that computer. But, I carried that grade over into the next computer class which graded a little less severely but we got a new guy in and he scored a little lower than I did but not having the lower average I had from the first computer class his composite was higher than mine and he came in first and I came in second. But I had proven to myself that I could handle advanced learning.

Me with Mike and Aaron in Hawaii

The Navy way of life was fun, for the first 14 years. But then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came into my life. I soon realized that the two ways of life were incompatible and that living the life of a “sailor” was not for me. I still had two years to go on that enlistment and then it was only four more years after that to earn the retirement so I stayed. The separations from my family really wore on my marriages and played a part in two divorces. Again with 20/20 hindsight if I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know now, it would have been much different.

Looking back on my experience as a member of the crew of a Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine I realized that if we did fire missiles that two things had happened. First, home probably was no longer there as the base where I lived was a target for the bad guys. Second was that when we started shooting off missiles we instantly became the target and our survival was probably nil. Our real mission was to be the deterrent in the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) world policy at that time and if we did fire we had failed our mission.. The movie “On the Beach” would possibly be an ending.

Lessons learned: (Not in any special order)

1. Set goals that are high enough to require one to stretch oneself outside of your comfort zone. Do it while you are young as it gets much harder to accomplish later and you have a lot fewer distractions such as family and job.
2. Live your life in the today. Do not save that fancy shirt or suit for later or it will only adorn your corpse. Enjoy the good things of life. Fill it with Joy (which is much different than fun). Work your Bucket list!
3. Do good every day. There is a life after death and what we do today will enhance that life tomorrow. We will have to account for how we live our life.
4. Be a good parent/spouse. Your material accomplishments are only for this life. You need to prepare for Eternity. As I now say about my missionary service, “The pay is peanuts but the retirement plan is Heavenly.”
5. Listen to your parents. They have experiences that have shaped them with wisdom but are not infallible. Remember that they love and care about you. Use them as an input to your decision making process but make it your decision. Always involve your Heavenly Father in your decisions.
6. It ain’t over til it’s over. Repentance is a process not an instance. There is very little in your life that cannot be repented of or changed. However, that said, small sins require small repentance and large sins get much more involved. It really is much better to live a Christ like life as much as possible. BUT, He did pay the price for you and you CAN repent. Remember life always has consequences.
7. Choose your associates wisely. You learn from your associates, and you will marry some one that you date. Choosing good quality people to associate with or date can improve you. I was once told “Choose your mate carefully. Select some one that you to not have to pull up because if you have to pull someone up they just might pull you down.

family

I am getting old and cannot do what I used to do. In fact it takes all day to do what I used to do all day.
Back in April Marilyn and I visited Michael and family in Palm Coast, Fl. It was a great two weeks but I mainly sat around the house and read a book. The main exciting thing was to baptize Mike. We also got to shoot a couple of his guns and created a yen to own one for me. Oh Well it is too expensive.

Mike has done a turnaround on me. I had a sprinkler head break and flood out the basement and then the sprinklers were left on and it flooded again. Well the Adjuster was marveled at our immediate attempts to abate the damage and was generous in his adjustment. Mike came from Florida and has been installing tile in the basement and it looks great. Marilyn and the girls and I will finish up the job but the tiling is just beyond us. We have the basement about 2/3 completed and Mike extended his stay to assist. I will take some pictures and will post them in a couple of days. I had no idea what went into the job and am amazed at what quality work that he has done. Nathan, his son, came out Sunday morning and he is helping too.

So the real thing is family. These children of mine are serving me in my near dotage. I will be forever grateful to Michael and Nathan for their kindness in helping us.

We were in a family counseling situation and was told by the counselor that Michael really loves me. I am truly grateful for that love and assistance. I could not have done it my self and was told that the quality of work would have at least 50% less. We will paint and wainscot to finish it up and maybe the girls will assist in that but.

I am so grateful for the assistance.

I absolutely love my family, my wife, my children and my grandchildren. I am a very lucky man.

The Walter Augustus Hale Chldren

The Walter Augustus Hale Children

From right to left and in order of age, is Amy Eliza Hale Golder born 8 March 1888. Amy is the daughter of Walter and Lillian Eliza Burnap. The story is told that Amy and Walter came down with Typhoid fever and Lillian nursed them through the sickness and then contracted it her self and consequently died. Another story is that Amy was in the congregation of Arthur Lee Golder and was well liked and known by his then wife Mary Grout Golder. Mary died and I believe that before she died she kind of pointed out Amy to Arthur or something like that. She married Arthur in 1929.

The next from the right is Walter Stanley Hale born 1 June 1912 to Walter and Eula Florence Jones Hale. He was known in his adult life as W. Stanley Hale to somewhat differentiate him from his father. Stan was born in the Fitchburg Hospital in Fitchburg Mass. This being the first pregnancy of Eula it appears that Walter wanted to be extra careful to ensure that the delivery as successful as the rest of the kids were born at Bolder Crest their home in Rindge, New Hampshire. He married Doris Isobelle Smith the big sister of his best friend Leon Smith. The story is told that Leon wanted to go on a date with his girlfriend who live 40 miles away and needed transportation. Doris had a Plymouth so Leon “fixed” Stan and Doris up and the rest is history.

Wilma was born 30 June 1913 and outlived the rest of the family living to be 95. She married David Jewell who was a true New England trader. He always had to get “To Boot” on any deal he made. She was a successful school teacher and even earned her masters degree later in life. They raised 6 kids and their names all started with D.

Next is Rachel Eula Hale born 16 January 1916. She married Albert Ritchie and he was quite a character. As I remember he claimed to be a professional wrestling promoter. He was bald and used an electric razor to keep himself that way. I remember that Aunt Rachel crocheted him a doily like cover for his head and he bragged about the sunburned pattern on his head. They were the first couple to be married in the Stone Chapel at the Cathedral of the Pines on 3 Dec 1948.

Howard Augustus Hale was born 26 Feb 1918 and married Mary Dale in 1941. In 1962 I went to a family reunion in I believe Hampton, New Hampshire and drove up in my snazzy 1962 Ford convertible. Uncle Howard had a Pontiac and challenged me to a drag race. I knew that my ride was a wimp so chickened out of it. I always remember him as a young in spirit person.

Francis Towne Hale is the youngest born 10 November 1919. He married Joan Wade in 1947 and I remember going to the wedding and attending the reception at her folks home in Massachusetts. I also remember Francis and Arthur French stopping by our home in North Franklin while they were on the way to overseas duty in WW II. We had meat potatoes and peas and he urged me to eat all my peas because they were Germans!

These are some of my memories. What are yours and if you’d like a copy of the picture let me know.

From Marcia:

Allan Hale’s Blog

Dad: (W. Stanley Hale)

Fun times:

• Sitting at the dinner table and he taking out his teeth and smiling.
• Him grabbling me with his toes.
• Him calling me skillybootch and asking what I wanted to do with the money I was asking for.
• Him filling the side yard with water so we could ice skate.
• Him saying he and mom had christened each room in their house in Maine.
• Him sitting in the den doing crosswords.
• Him asking for a piece of cheese and a cracker with his ice cream.
• Him making a place for my baby chick which I bought for Easter one year even though he was against it.

Aunt Rachel

• Visiting her in Boston.

Aunt Wilma

• I mostly remember the kids. I was very close to Debbie. I visited there one summer and did chores in the garden and hiked up Mt. Monadnock.

Uncle Howard

• I mostly remember him just being in the background. Not a talker.

Uncle Francis

• He always had a sense of humor. He and Aunt Joan always took time to be nice and talk with us. He was a lot like dad.

Aunt Amy

• I do not remember much about her.