David Drake

Hi Kevin,

I always enjoy reading your well written messages!

I hope you have a Happy Birthday and a Happy Thanksgiving later during this month of November!

Dave

Deborah Davis (Sturgis)

 Kevin,

Thank you for the memories.. For many years, my extended  family gathered  for Thanksgiving after freezing at the Needham vs Wellesley football game.  I  recall the excitement over my siblings and friends returning from college for the holiday.  Of course this was leaf raking season.   No lawn companies came and hauled out leaves away.  My father commanded our childish labor and we raked the leaves into huge piles by the side of  the road.   At dusk we lighted them and watchied them burn.  I still recall the the pungent smell of those leaves burning. and the excitement of being out after dark with my father.   I think we were fortunate to have these simple pleasures in our lives and to live in a community that offered such a sense of belonging.  

Gunnard Johnston

Ah, yes, November!   The great transition time, when leaves rapidly meld from brilliant gold and radiant red to burnished leather!   I would only add one memory:  on the football team getting ready for the Needham-Wellesley game wearing the same uniform and undergarments as when we started in the sweltering early September.   Needless to say, the warmth provided was not adequate in those relatively minimalist underclothes, as I witnessed the upper classmen adorned in waffle-textured long johns and gloves, launching me into a fit of envy!       Ah, the ignorance of youth.

Linda Gudas (Sayler)

Thyanks, Kevin.  Your posts down memory lane are always fun to read.!

Howie Appel

Reading all these posts do remind me of NHS buddies.  Kevin, I've been reading your posts too.  I miss New England for the fall.  I do not miss the snow.  I live outside of Orlando, Florida (yes, 45 minutes from WDW).  Far enough away from the tourists yet close enough to pretend I'm one from time to time.  Keep these posts coming.  Hoping to return next Fall to Needham area again.  Meanwhile, to all my classmates, Happy Thanksgiving. 

Kevin Tracey

Learning To Fly
Here in the frozen north we had 4-6” of fresh snow on the ground until rain and warm weather hit overnight. Next morning the snow was gone. All that was left was maybe 2” of ice covering the tennis courts where I live. I walked out on the court, carefully, and thought about skating, thought about learning to fly. The progression from the strap on quad runners, to double runners and finally real skates. Days spent at Rosemary Lake, hours at Tabor Rink. As for flying, two memories stand out. First, if it was windy enough and the wind was at your back, arms out the wind would take you across Rosemary.  Second, when kids would form a whip at Rosemary or those Friday night open skates at Tabor. If you were lucky enough to catch the end of the whip, you’d just hold on and fly, fly till the whip broke and the skaters went cascading around Rosemary or into the boards at Tabor. 
I’m sure that whips have been banned, that skating at Rosemary is now restricted to “safe” areas. No kid learns to fly now. 
We did. 

Paul King, MD (King)

Just a delayed thank you to Representative DeFazio for his many years of service.

Peter DeFazio

Thanks Paul!  36 Years - 65th longest House service in our history. I got my major objectives done within my Committee jurisdiction and it seemed like a good time. 

Now I will be able to slow down and post - Thanks Kevin f;or your reminiscences. Peter

John Halbrooks

Peter,

Let me add my congratulations for your long and dedicated service to our country. I've followed your work in the NYT and often wondered at the experience it must have been to serve in Congress during these tumultuous years. A memoir? Look forward to seeing you again at a post-Covid reunion.

Enjoy retirement. 

John

Jane Weihe

Thank you, Peter, for being such a strong progressive voice in Congress all these years. You will be missed there!

Peter DeFazio

Jane and john:  Thanks for your kind words about my service. My District was greatly improved in redistricting from a Republican plus 2 to a democratic plus 4 so another Dem can hold the seat and there is a great experienced candidate who I will support. Peter

David Drake

Peter,

I also want to add my congratulations on your great career. I also have followed your career in the papers and on your facebook videos and appreciate all the work you have done on behalf of your constituants and your country.

Dave

Peter DeFazio

Dave:  🙏🏻 It has been an interesting Lon run. 🎉🎄‼️

Russell Provost

Watching "Downfall :The Case Against Boeing" on Netflix.  US Representative Peter DeFazio featured prominently in his dogged House investigation into the 2 Boeing crashes  Congress will miss you  

Peter DeFazio

Russ:  🙏🏻  I changed the way FAA certifies aircraft so this won't happen again. But I am still pissed that the CEO left with a $63 million golden parachute he started and drove the whole thing and now the former chair of the board during the entire debacle is CEO.  The culture hasn't changed they ruined  the formerly best aerospace manufacturer in the world in the chase of the Almighty Dollar. P

Kevin Tracey

    My Windows

How many?
How many windows have I looked through?
Thousands?  Tens of thousands?  I wouldn't begin to hazard a guess.
How many hours spent looking?
Thousands?  Tens of thousands?  Again, I wouldn't begin to hazard a guess.
 I'm leaving out all those hours spent looking out of car windows, train windows, plane windows.
 Just those windows that came with a home I once lived in.  Old windows, windows that frost formed on, that the wind would whistle through,  that let the heat out and the cold in. 
There are a few, a handful that if I close my eyes, I could reach out and touch.  I could tell you with certainty what color they were painted, which ones were chipped, what the shade looked like, whether the glass had any ripples or cracks, what they smelled like, felt like.  I can hear the noises they would make when the wind blew.  The noises they would make when I opened or closed them.  I could point out the tracks they moved in, the ropes holding the sash weights, the locks.  I could tell you which ones stayed open, which ones needed a stick to keep them open.  
They all have those old green shades, no pull cord, just a piece of wood fed in through a sewn in slot at the bottom to grab.  Shades that never stayed where you wanted them to.  Shades that would roll up on their own.
I liked my old windows.  I liked that they weren't perfect.  I liked that they made noises, that not all the locks worked, that screws came loose, that they required maintenance to keep them working.
 I'd like to go back to those rooms again, to those windows. 
 

Jeanne Mahoney (Leffers)

Missed some messages along here--but Kevin, really like this reflection on the simple notion of our windows.  Also, add my thoughts to huge congratulations to Peter Defazio for his long and important service to our country as a representative to Congress.  Thank you! 

Carolyn Campbell (Kay)

Kevin,  Thank you for your short reflections on life. Each one that you've published here is a treasure. Each brings back memories for me too. Thanks again.

Gunnard Johnston

Kevin's Way-Back Machine.    All aboard!!

I, too, find myself reminiscing about my youthful experiences.   A lot more than ever before.   Why is that?  Could it be that our physical life is running its course, step by step???

Peter DeFazio

Kevin:  Thanks for your reflections as always. I have spent way too much time looking out airplane windows the last 36 years on transcontinental flights - looking forward to more time with windows I can open. Thanks Jeanne for the kind words. Peter DeFazio

Kevin Tracey

Its me again.

Read some of the posts for Russ Norton, the nostalgia involved, the whistfulness expressed.  Russ, for me, was one of those guys you passed in the hall and said hi to.  I always thought he was a good guy.  Same goes for the guys that posted on his In Memory site. What they wrote made me think of how important those friends from our youth were, as we moved down that path from childhood to adolescence to adulthood.  How we eventually go down different paths and lose touch.  One day they are just gone, gone from our lives. Those friends from our youth knew the hand you were dealt.  They understood you better then the friends you have made as adults because of that shared youth, shared promise, shared pain.  They were more likely to forgive you, less likely to judge you and could make you laugh even in the worst of times.  I've tracked down a few of my childhood friends, my first love.  What I found was they knew you when your life was still ahead of you, full of promise.  Their mere presence can give you back some of what was taken, lost in time, if only for a little while. When you are with them, in contact with them, you're not old.  

I miss them.  I miss all of you.

Carolyn Campbell (Kay)

Kevin,  Thank you for your insight. I have one friend from childhood that I've stayed in touch with. You're right of course. We are connected just as we were in the '50s and '60s. It's a treasure.

Gunnard Johnston

Everybody, don't worry.   We'll all be able to meet again.   Today, tomorrow, forever.   Life doesn't end.   We keep what we make of ourselves forever.   God be with everyone, now and forevermore.

Gunnard Johnston

Douglas Chamberlin

Gunnard, Amen. 

Carol Salvaggio (Beals)

Though it saddens me to hear of classmates passing, I enjoy reading the posts and reminiscing about the good old days. I, like Carolyn, am still in touch with my "old" best friend, Cheryl Smuth. Thanks to our previous class reunion, we were able to find each other again and get together quite a lot. We seemed to never miss a beat from those teenage years til now. Thinking fondly of you all.