I think my e-mail system blocked this when I sent it to John on September 23 and I didn’t make it in to FOPAB. But here is what I wrote:
After many years of telling Susan “I wish you could be here” when we went on family vacations, she finally got to go. She found a house sitter to take care of all her animals, plus my Katie while we were gone. Austin (who doesn’t get along with Susan’s cats) stayed with a friend who pampers him beyond belief (scrambled eggs and cheese for breakfast and her two sons take him for walks almost all day long). The trip was a lot of fun and it was great spending time with everyone in the house, at the beach, and by the pool. Susan and I went to Busch Gardens and enjoyed the roller coasters there despite our first try being rained out. Susan even said she’d be willing to vacation with us again!
It was also great to see everyone in Augusta this month. It had really been a long time and I’m sorry if I didn’t get a chance to talk to everyone. I thought it was just a fantastic turnout for FOPAB #1.
Remembering Edward . . .
Edward and I had something very personal in common: our names. As a kid this pretty much meant getting some special attention from Edward. Instead of saying “You’ve grown so much,” he would say “Hello, Edward Joseph Cashin!” Of course he kept me in check by making sure I knew I was an EJC II. In my baby book are two letters from Uncle Edward (Brother Edward at the time) where he gives me advice for later on. He gave me a first day of issue stamp and said I should be a stamp collector (I was a few months old at the time; even when I started a stamp collection later on, I never realized I had that). He also sent me a book of matches from FDR’s desk at the Little White House in Warm Springs. He said I could use some of the rest of the presidential matches for special occasions like lighting a cigar when my Uncle Harry came over. I had no way of appreciating this sense of humor, but 40 years later it is still pretty funny.
I got to know Edward better when we went on the Windjammer cruise. Before we went he got everybody t-shirts that said “Red Clay Sailors”. I always knew he was an interesting guy but didn’t realize how much fun it was to watch him cause trouble. He would throw some kind of comment out intended to get a reaction from his brothers and sisters and look over at me with a gleam in his eye as if to say “Now watch this!” It would be like lighting off a firecracker. When I could, I would try to get over to my parents house if he and Mary Ann were in town. They would travel so much and have good stories about where they had gone. After the Lake Hartwell reunion in 1993, Uncle Bob got canoes and a group of us got to paddle down the Augusta Canal with one of its foremost experts. What a great experience.