Page 128 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

I was surprised to learn that my weather programs and reputation were mentioned as an
example of what a weather program should contain. At one of my first Conferences, I
often heard consultants to remember the KISS method, Keep It Simple Stupid.

There were memorable family trips as well. In 1976, I drove my wife, Virginia, and our
daughter, Wendy, in our Ford Granada up I-75 and Canadian highway 401 to an AMS
meeting in Toronto. On the day that the brand new CN tower opened, we rode the
elevator to the observation level as a thunderstorm passed over the city. We drove back
to the U.S. where we viewed Niagara Falls and spent the night at the Holiday Inn by the
falls. We then drove to New Jersey where we spent the night in a motel in Lakewood,
NJ.

After eating breakfast in Toms River, we visited Pine Beach where my brother and I
were born. The large house was vacant and the parts of the picket fence had collapsed.
I remembered watching my grandfather twenty years earlier mixing concrete and
pouring it into molds for the posts. I picked up one of the posts and placed it in the trunk
of my car for a memorial at my house. I walked into the Lamp Post Inn and inquired if
anyone remembered my grandfather who had built the establishment. No one knew
about him!

We then drove about 18 miles farther south to my maternal grandparent's homestead in
Mayetta, now owned by my uncle and aunt, Clinton and Eleanor Cranmer. We watched
my uncle hoe potatoes in his garden and went inside to talk with my aunt. We spent a
few days catching up on our lives. I was particularly interested in learning more about
my father who had taken his life when my brother and I were teenagers. The main thing
I learned was that he was a very nice man. After leaving Mayetta, we spent the night in
Washington, D.C. and visited Williamsburg, Virginia before returning to our home in
Jacksonville.

In 1998, we flew to St. Louis with our granddaughter, Sarah. We rode the elevator in
the Gateway Arch and Sarah enjoyed the Museum exhibit of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. She had just played the role of Sacagawea, the Indian guide, in her school
play. Returning home, we saw smoke covering the Okefenokee Swamp and much of
northeast Florida.

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