Quadricentennial—Oopses

So I called the estimable Willard Platt, my surviving contact in the Berkshires, and he agreed to carry the proposal to his former colleagues on the Sandisfield Town Board of Selectmen and, if they approved the project, to adorn the stones of Grandpa Benjamin and Grandma Rebecca. Next, I placed an order for five medallions with Kevan Barton, the Historian of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in Utah; he put my name on the package and we arranged to pick them up at the Society’s semi-annual banquet meeting in May. Then COVID struck, cancelling the banquet; Kevan kindly put the medallions in the mail to me, and I wrapped up two of them and sent them off to Willard.

Willard and Norton, at the Hurd graves

Called Willard, who sounded distinctly unwell; I haven’t been able to reach him since, and I fear he may have fallen prey to the contagion. Still trying, but it’s not at all clear what has happened to him or to the medallions.

Grandpa Benjamin

Next, I called Walt Terry, a childhood friend from San Bernardino, and one of Mammy’s Seminary students. Walt expressed enthusiasm for the project but had discouraging news to impart. It seems that civilization in San Bernardino has declined since our younger days, to the point that anything with any cash value has to be locked up or bolted down, lest it be transmuted into drugs in the hands of our homeless brethren and cistern. So, I didn’t send Walt the medallion I’d intended for Mammy’s grave. I’m hoping he’ll follow through on a suggestion (of his) that a wooden or plastic replica might substitute adequately, conveying the honor we wish to pay to our beloved ancestors and the grateful commemoration we’ve sought to express. More later; for the moment, I’m zero for three.

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