On with the show!
Thursday October 24: Us with Les Reid and Chris and Jeff Garcia. Just arrived from Columbus, and winding down at Springfield Brewing. Les is Math professor at SMSU, we've known Jeff and Chris since the mid-90s when they owned and operated Residential Lawn Service.
Friday October 25: Pete and Belle Cockrill. Belle lives across the street from our Catalpa St home. Doesn't look 80, does she?
Friday October 25: Just us. At Belle's house, she took this one.
Friday October 25: Us and Dana Randall. We've known Dana since his days managing the Springfield Symphony; now he's a financial consultant with A.G. Edwards.
Friday October 25: Us and Kathy Kneedler. Kathy works at AAA Travel Service, and made Nancy's travel arrangements during her years as a consultant.
Friday October 25: Pete with Mel and Rose Foster. Friday evening "beer" at Springfield Brewing. Mel was SMSU Computer Science department head from 1992 until his retirement in 1998. He and Rose are avid golfers, and raise incredible turnips. Sam Lynch on the right is a retired Math prof.
Friday October 25: Pete with Shelby Kilmer and his wife Olga. Shelby is an SMSU Math professor and fellow home brewer.
Friday October 25: Pete with Eric Shade, Cameron Wickham and Les Reid. Eric and I both came to SMSU computer science in 1991, fresh from graduate school. Me from Pitt, he from Penn State. Cameron and Les are SMSU Math professors.
Friday October 25: Us with Bruce Adib-Yazdi and Joyce Eiken. After dining at Chardonnay's. Nancy and I first met Joyce through Jazzercise soon after moving to Springfield in 1992. She got us involved in the MS 150 bicycle tour, and soon we were riding for the Endorphins. She met Bruce at about that time and they soon married. If you live in Springfield and ride a bicycle, you will hear from them some day about joining the Endorphins if you have not already!
Saturday October 26: Us with Dave and Marion Painter. Marion is our favorite Jazzercise instructor, and Dave, who we met way too late, is the best rock guitarist in Springfield. We're standing in their new family room addition -- love it!
Saturday October 26: Nancy with Pauline Baldwin. Everyone knows her as "Peenie". Pauline is our dear former neighbor on Catalpa St. She's 92, still dresses sharp as a pin and loves to sweep the sidewalk. Her father owned and operated Rogers and Baldwin Hardware on South Street downtown. This building, which once also housed an opera house, has recently been purchased for renovation. If you look closely from the square, you can still see the Rogers and Baldwin name painted on the north side of the building.
Saturday October 26: Pete with Frances Smith. Everyone knows her as "GaGa". She is Pauline's baby sister and they have lived together pretty much their entire lives.
Saturday October 26: Nancy with Carol and Jim Murrow. Carol was in Nancy's first class when she taught at Webster, and also sold Nancy her Mercedes convertible. They are standing in the living room of Carol and Jim's new loft downtown. They bought the building, and renovated the first floor for retail space (Maria's).
Saturday October 26: Us with Carol Murrow.
Saturday October 26: Nancy with Anne Johnson and Nicola Gilardi. The purpose of our trip west was to celebrate Anne's upcoming marriage to Burl Brown. We met for dinner at Gilardi's, in the carriage house behind the greystone building on E. Walnut St. Nancy and I were early (pre-Brad Pitt) diners there.
Saturday October 26: Us with Anne Johnson and Burl Brown. This picture was taken just after a wonderful meal prepared especially for us by Nicola as a chef's dinner.
Sunday October 27: Pete with Jamil Saquer, his wife Huda and their son Naseem. Jamil is an SMSU Computer Science professor, the only one I recruited during my brief time as department head. Huda is an English major at SMSU and is a quite talented artist. She's also a great cook, and we very much enjoyed her homemade baba ganooj and falafel before heading off to the airport for our flight home to Columbus.
You can see from these photos that we have many dear friends in Springfield. We were grateful for the time we had with them and regret that we did not have more time for them or other friends with whom we did not get a chance to visit.