Winter 1962-63 #1

Josip Marcan's recent comment about Ponce De Leon, Florida brought to mind the occasion the winter of 1962-63 when Barbara and I drove down from Hugo to that city for a brief visit with her mother who was in charge of Bill Green's animals and appearing at a local park. It was on this occasion we learned she had just purchased 25 acres of land down around Tampa while visiting another daughter Hope and planned to settle there. She eventually built a home there on 5 acres and then sold 5 acres to Hope who did likewise, a third daughter Billie settled on 5 and I blissfully arise each morning on the remaining 5, just across the street. I might add that Billie's surviving husband Gordon Messer, with whom I chat at the mail box every afternoon, swears we are related since my father's real name was Messer, having been adopted by the Woodcock's of Hot Springs, Arkansas in infancy.