radish times

Once Grandpa learned to use e-mail, communications flourished. I probably knew grandpa better than any of my other grandparents for this reason. Below are his e-mails to me over the years.

RECEPTION, JANUARY 8, 2003
Judy - After you E-Mailed me that you would be coming home on the 20th, I checked to see about the reception planned for you. Larry, Jan, and I, of course, are excited. Others include:

1. The City of New York is placing a blue candle in each of the thousands of windows in the Empire State Building - for your homecoming.
2. The Airport Commission has ordered 3,000 feet of rope to hold back the crowds when you land.
3. George Bush is sending the vice-president down.
4. The president of William and Mary could not come, but someone from Columbia will be here.

Don’t worry about it. All you need to do is smile and wave.

So welcome back! You can help plan Peter’s reception.

Grandpa

CHRISTMAS, DECEMBER 24, 2002
Judy and Peter - I wish you both a wonderful, wonderful Christmas! And I hope you will make a beautiful New Year for all of us by coming back to our town, sometime.
Larry called from Seattle. They are fine. Grandpa

BAKING POWDER, DECEMBER 3, 2002
Judy - Your E-Mail about baking powder makes me think there is something about it which you should know.
The Great Wall of China was started in 422 BC. China men shoveled for 500 years and built the wall up to one half of its height. Few people know that they finished the second half in three days.
This was done by sprinkling baking powder over the bottom half and whoosh - did it rise! When you use baking powder at home, be sure to have the windows open.
We had a good time when Tony was here. Abby is a beautiful girl. Grandpa

TRIP, SEPTEMBER 16, 2002
Judy and Peter - This is a wish for you. May your trip back here be beautiful, your visit wonderful, and your trip back to Prague safe and
Good. People here are excited about your coming. Grandpa
(My computer capitalizes the first letter of every third line. Like in
Good above.)

GRANDCHILDREN, AUGUST 18, 2002
Paul and Amy, and Peter and Judy,
Paul and Judy - I would like to evaluate what has happened to your home town since you left, but my point of reference is not good. According to the World Almanac, your town, New York, has a population of 16,640,000. My home town was Monmouth, Illinois, which had a population of 10,000. So yours was 1,660 times larger than mine. And times were different. I carried the Monmouth Review Atlas, which sold for 3 cents. The NY Times sells for much more.
And two packs of cigarettes sold for a quarter. In NY now one pack
sells for $7.00. About all I can say is that New York is still here. I have not seen that place on east or west End.
I would also like to tell you the news here at Sky View, where I live, but nothing much happens here. We get ice cream for dessert
on Wednesdays and Sundays, which is about the newsiest thing that happens. Except -
Larry comes out here on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and Jan comes along every Saturday. Without them I could not get along. With them things are going along fine.
We, of course, hear about Microsoft all the time. And Prague was front page news here during the flood. My sister, Marion called from Minneapolis last night to see if Judy was all right.
I look forward to meeting Amy and Peter when you all get back here to visit. Grandpa

JUDY 2, AUGUST 9, 2002Judy
I am fighting this new machine. I sent you an E-Mail a moment ago and I think it sent only poART OD

JUDY, AUGUST 9, 2002
Judy and Peter - Thanks for the E-Mail. I figure it covered the approximately 3,000 miles from Prague to New York in about 10 seconds, which is equivalent to:

Miles

Per second 300
Per minute 18,000
Per hour 1,080,000

I understand that in addition to E-Mail people are trying to develop E-People.Then you

THE NEW YORK STORY, AUGUST 7, 2002
A month or so ago, my son Larry sent E-Mails to some of my friends in my Address Book to tell them that I had moved from Minneapolis to New York and that my E-Mail address had changed to minnrobert.com. This letter gives some of the details which may be of interest to you.

Why I Moved

I had been living in Minneapolis for six or seven years in a beautiful condominium for retired persons, known as 7500 York. Life there was great, partly because my brother and two sisters were living there.. Things changed. First, my brother Vincent and his wife Alice had to move out and into an assisted living and nursing home. They moved to one in the Minneapolis area partly because their daughter and her family live in the Twin City area. Also, Marion’s husband died, leaving one more fewer of us. Secondly, I was facing the problem of growing one year older as each year went by. I was within several weeks of becoming 86 years old, an age at which it is difficult to run your own household - like shopping, driving a car, and all the rest. And for several years I had been having a lung problem. Although probably not serious, it has slowed me down quite a bit. So one morning about six weeks ago, I awoke without the ability to do much of anything. Because I had no children in the area, my sisters called my oldest son, Larry, who lives in New York. He brought me back here, and found a care center which could take care of my needs.

Life at Sky-View

This letter becomes the story of my life at Sky-View Health Center. My address here is:
Robert Lorimer, Unit 418A
Sky-View Health Care Center
Albany Post Road
Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520
(914)271-5151
My personal telephone number is (914) 271-1469.

Location

When people hear that I have moved to New York, they think I am living in a congested city-like atmosphere. This whole area is a heavily forested place with trees growing all over and with villages smaller than Galva, Illinois. The city part of New York is 30 miles south of here. Larry lives 20 miles from here in another part of the forest. Houses are about a mile apart and the villages remind one of George Washington’s times.

The Building

Sky View is a beautiful, relatively new, building sitting on top of wooded hill immediately on the Hudson River. The river here is more like a lake - being almost a mile across. The river is outside the window of the room in which I live. There are approximately 300 to 400 elderly people living here.

Services Offered

The building has five floors. They are used this way:
Floor 1 Lounges and dining
Floors 2 & 3 Complete nursing home facilities
Floors 4 & 5 Assisted living quarters

I live on the fourth floor, which is part of an “assisted living” program, and not a full nursing home deal. Services I get are like these:

1. All meals in the dining room.
2. A nurse on the floor 24 hours a day.
3. Scheduled checks for blood pressure, pulse rate, temperature, food consumption, and immediate reviews by a doctor on the staff.
4. Oxygen facilities and other mechanical devices I need.
5. Administering of complicated drug programs , which most of us need.
6. Providing daily activities of all kinds to pass the time.

There is no way one can get all of this short of such a facility.

How I Enjoy it All

Life here is good and I am thankful for such a place. Of course I miss having a car and traveling around and visiting with all of my old friends. Larry and his wife, Jan, visit me twice a week and I try to keep in touch with others by phone and E-Mail. Send me one when you can.

Bob

TELL PETER, FEBRUARY 18, 2002
Judy - Greetings from this country here. We are all watching the Olympics tonight. Czech is doing great in hockey - you are in the quarter finals, I believe, and could play us for the gold.

I enjoy getting your E-Mail. The languages you are studying, I do not know. In school I studied German and can say things like: Du bist eine gut fraulein. (You are a good young lady.) If I do not get it exactly right, it is because I last studied it 65 years ago. It is my feeling that you are really enjoying life, and that you are learning a lot.

I talk to Larry each Sunday at 4:30 in the afternoon. He and Jan seem to be getting along fine. Say hello to Peter, and you can say he is fortunate to have some one as special as you.

Grandpa

BIRTHDAY, JANUARY 11, 2002
Judy - I write to wish you a Happy Birthday! It must be wonderful to have a birthday way over there in Prague. Things are quiet here in Minnesota, but I have two sisters to watch over me.
I enjoy your E-Mail. By the time you get back I will know more about Prague than I know about my own town. Say hello to Peter. Grandpa

SMALL WORLD, DECEMBER 27, 2001
Judy and Peter - Yesterday I got an E-Mail which reminded me that this is rather a small world. Between 1934 and 1938 I went from my father’s home in Denver, Colorado, to Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois - a thousand miles away. While there I hung out continuously with my cousin, Barney. In the 1940’s I was back in Denver starting a family, and Barney was doing the same in Des Moines, Iowa. He had a number of children - one of whom was Ann. Ann married Robert ( I do not know his last name) and they had a daughter named Justine.

The E-Mail I got yesterday was from Barney. It came from his home town of Knoxville, Tennessee. He wrote, “We spent last evening with Ann, Robert, and Justine in nearby Fountain City. Robert has been working in Prague for the past several months designing and developing computer training programs for a subsidiary of PepsiCola”. So, Judy, it is a small world. All the while you have been living there in Prague you have had a relative living down the street doing the same kind of work as Peter. And I am sure that he speaks English! I would guess that Robert is about the same age as your father, Larry.

And you are lucky being so close to home. I believe you can fly home to New York in about seven hours. It took me twenty hours to get home from Rock Island.

I hope you both are having a wonderful holiday season.

CHRISTMAS, DECEMBER 25, 2001
Judy and Peter - This is the night (8 pm) of Christmas Day. I hope you both had a very good Christmas! Mine has been quiet compared with the Christmases when Larry, David, Don and Jane were hanging around. Things have been quiet in the U.S. - I suppose because of all the holiday activity. Mostly we read about and see pictures of New York’s mayor. As you probably know he has been selected as Time magazine’s person of the year. We feel kind of left out because we have Jessie Ventura - and he can really fight, too. Thanks very much for the pictures. They come out beautifully on my printer. Now I can see more what Prague is like.
Grandpa

MISSING YOU, DECEMBER 16, 2001
Judy and Peter - Thank you all for the E-Mails about Prague and all the different kinds of languages people speak. I sit back and wonder what being there would be like.

News here is tremendous -

1. This has been the warmest fall and early winter in almost fifty years.
2. The Vikings (our professional football team) are having a terrible time - something like 4 wins and 8 losses.
3. The price of gasoline has gone down to 98 cents a gallon.
4. Things at the World Trade Center continue to weigh us down.
5. I got a Christmas letter from a dog named Daisy. I think that someone must have helped her write it. (The dog belongs to Liv Benson and her husband.)

I talked to Larry a few minutes ago. He has kind of a cold, but everything back there seems to be OK. They look forward to Paul’s coming home for the holidays.

I will probably be E-Mailing to you before Christmas. You know that I wish you all a very good Christmas and New Year. Although I never saw much of you when you were here, I still miss you very much because it is Christmas time.
Grandpa

CARRYING, DECEMBER 3, 2001
Judy - Thanks for the E-Mail. While I was reading about your problem in carrying four cats to Prague, I happened to read about one just about as difficult. Yesterday a twenty- nine year old woman from Moorhead, MN, carried five unborn children the 200 miles to Minneapolis - using no carriers - and when she got here she delivered them safely. She had three sons and two daughters, and like kittens, they weighed about three pounds each. According to the Start-Tribune, the odds of having quintuplets are one in 3.4 million births - which might be about the same as safely carrying four cats from West End to Prague. Congratulations to both of you!
So your beautiful days in beautiful Prague have started. May they all be good for both you and Peter - together. Grandpa

YOUR TRIP, NOVEMBER 24, 2001
Judy - Thank you for the smile! I am sure that it will be appropriate in this new big change in your life. It will be great to be with Peter again, and people who know much about Prague say it is a beautiful town to live in. If you run into people who cannot speak English, maybe you can teach them. And if you run into any of my friends over there, say hello.

Do me a favor. When you get there send me an E-Mail just to say Hi. Then I will know you are there, that E-Mail works, and that I can use your E-Mail address shown on the thing.

This is Saturday here, and a quiet one. Things are fine. I will miss you, but I figure you will be only about five seconds further away by E-Mail.
Have a great trip! Grandpa

CZECHOSLOVAKIA, NOVEMBER 11, 2001
Judy - I send a few words to hopefully ease your feeling of loneliness. Just think what you have in store - and in only a few weeks. You will have Peter, Prague, and the winding Vltava River, and you can always run over to Charles University and read all about Czechoslovakia. And by air, you are only a few hours away. Where else in the world can you have all of that?

As years go by, I feel you will remember your short Prague diversion as a real special time!

Things here in Minneapolis are quiet. You see, like you, I do not have a job to go to, nor anyone waiting for me at home. I have been doing it for twenty years, and have even come to like it. And you have only a few weeks and you will be back in your own heaven again. So smile! Grandpa

PRAGUE, OCTOBER 30, 2001
Judy and Peter - I hear that Peter will be headed for Prague this weekend, so I hasten to write a few words.

It seems to me that when things change, they keep getting better and better.

I graduated from college during the depression (1938). After looking for a job for three months I got one as accountant for the Clear Creek Consolidated Mining Company in Idaho Springs, Colorado (mountain
country). After three months the officers of the company were arrested for fraud. And Change 1 started.

Then I got a really good job with the Department of the Interior, in its National Bituminous Coal Division in Denver. The job was so good that I got married. Because at that time, especially during the depression, a woman when she got married was almost forced to quit her job, I became the sole support of the family. After less than a year, the Supreme Court ruled that the National Bituminous Coal Division was not constitutional and we were all fired on the same day. So another change started.

Then I got a job with Colorado Fuel and Iron in Pueblo, Colorado, and we had a son named Larry.

And as changes came, things got better and better - except once when I had three children and I had to go to the Navy.

So you all have run into your first change - and it sounds like a great one. And if things keep getting better and better, you will someday be in charge of the world. Congratulations!

And you are not that far away from everything. When I went to college in Rock Island, Illinois, the trip home to Denver took over 20 hours. There were no airplanes in those days. You should be able
to fly home from Prague in about 7. You will practically be neighbors!

From all I hear, it seems you both will have a great couple of years over there. Judy, if you have any questions about languages or Europe in general , just ask me. I spent a week over there once. When you get an E-Mail address let me know.
Grandpa

PRAGUE, OCTOBER 16, 2001
Judy and Peter - I was surprised to hear that you all are moving back to Prague. But then I looked up Prague and the European Union in my World Almanac and figured the place must really need computer skills to bring fifteen languages and fifteen kinds of currency together into one Radio Free Europe. Sounds like a real challenge.

And then I thought about your current place in downtown New York and all the things you have been through since September 11th. It might make Prague look friendlier. So maybe you are doing the right thing.

Judy - if you have trouble learning fifteen different languages, maybe I can help. In high school I had two years of Latin and in college, two years of German.

The World Almanac shows that the time in the Czech Republic is six hours earlier than in New York. So you will be about 4,000 miles away. As long as the telephone and E-Mail work, and airplanes can fly it in eight hours it will seem a lot closer than when Columbus discovered America.

I still hope that someday our paths will cross. Grandpa

WELCOME HOME, OCTOBER 8, 2001
Peter and Judy - I have just been reading in Reader’s Digest about flying in airplanes. It says:
“Every takeoff is optional.
Every landing is mandatory.”
We are so glad that your mandatory part worked out so well!
Welcome home! I hope your days here are as beautiful as they were over there.
As you probably know Tony is getting married Saturday. His birthday is tomorrow - Columbus Day. He will be 28 years old. I hear that he met his finance in Italy, and they are going to spend their honeymoon in Hawaii.
People do not stay home much anymore. Grandpa