Help Your Children with Their Dreams…
My father was not the type to openly express his love — at least not to me. So, I have few fond memories of the two of us.
However, one of the best of the few was Pop taking me to visit one of his friends — a gentleman who had made his own telescope. Pop knew I was interested in astronomy, probably helped along by my second-grade teacher, Grace Hathaway Meline, who’d written Maria Mitchell, Girl Astronomer. Mrs. Meline would have evening sessions with her students to observe and learn about the stars and planets we could see.
The trip to the DYI telescope was to bring out the phenomena I could not see just by standing outside at night. The remarkable thing was that Pop recognized my interest. He also saw that I was interested in all types of science — my own telescope, a microscope and a chemistry set were all presents at various Christmases.
By the time I was entering my teens I expressed the idea I might want to be a doctor. Pop didn’t say anything but then we both learned from our own physician, Dr. Wingfield, the amount of education, time, and cost that would take. Pop did not encourage me on that course.
Instead, one year before going into high school, I found a Royal portable typewriter under the Christmas tree. It was a sly encouragement for me not to take the “academic” courses but to choose the…
