Off to College

This boy came to our town as a five-foot tall freshman in high school. He was a scholar in our local chapter of the ABC Program. Such a journey!Back at the start of his time here I used to bring him over to Harvard for to bone up on his Italian with my nephew Matt. Matt was a freshman there at the time but time passed as time will do.Matt is now a senior at Harvard - and as of yesterday Rayvoughn was a freshman at the University of New Hampshire where he will study Computer Science.Even at 14, Ray was good with computers. Shortly after he arrived, he was already the go-to guy at the ABC House for PC issues.He networked all the computers and set up the wireless printer. And anytime anybody got a new Smart Phone - and we all know the Smart Phones are smarter than we are - Ray had it set and synched it up in a matter of minutes.I felt lucky. As a volunteer and then the head of the Student Life , I got to see him all the time, starting when he was just over 5 feet tall and stood up at the big Fundraising Dinner and all unbidden said what it meant to him to be part of this wonderful program.I remember when he began wrestling and found out he was good at it.That was the same time of year he wrote his History paper on the symbolic import of the Brooklyn Bridge in the years just after the ruinous War Between the States. I still have a video clip I made of him discovering all the material .But time keeps moving; we all know that. He began working for PC Quick Help and grew almost a foot and graduated from Winchester High School last June, making both his dad and his mom and the host family who sheltered him for four years very proud.

both as a 15-year old...

...and as an 18-year-old

And yesterday it was my privilege to bring him to college.And yesterday it was my privilege to bring him to college. Four trips up those stairs and my car, whcih at 10 am that packed to the gills, by 2:00 was once again empty.So shine on Rayvoughn Shion Millings! You have a world of support behind you!

Me and the Cows

It was a five-guy day field trip for me Thursday because I had charge of the little ones and looked to the big ones for help. We went to the Y first where the big ones joined revolving teams of players scooting up and down the court, their sneakers barking like seals and I thought I couldn’t feel any hotter -  until an hour later when we went to a pool in whose Ladies Room I bent to within an inch of the slimy floor to pull some very small shorts off a very small person and thought I was going to pass out and die.I was as miserable as the kids were happy with the heat. Then, as we sat at the table ordering food I suddenly knew rain was coming. It was as if the news had telegraphed itself to my every pore. Or maybe my ears sensed a sudden dip in the barometric pressure.“Did you feel THAT?” I said to my five companions. “It’s going to rain - hard! We’d better get home before it does.”“Rain?!” said Mr. Italian Ice here, pointing to the enamel-blue sky. “The weather guys were wrong if they said rain for THIS day!”But it did rain, 90 minutes later and trees went down all over the county.It’s not that I smelled it. It’s not that I saw it either unless it was that moment when the wind did a quick ten-second somersault and the leaves all went pale and threw their dresses over their heads. Mostly I just ….. sensed it. Games of basketball and Marco Polo may be behind me but I'm good at other things. Unlike these guys below, me and the cows, we feel that rain a-comin' and we just want to go lie down.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d24UopdMuKw]