Richard wants to do a book about Wintersmith Park

Hey Mom, Will you get me started on this?

The very first thing is, “Wintersmith”, a poem by you. All you have to do is remember the “pool”, the “monkey pit”, and the “snow cones”… the idea of “Greater Ader”…. You also may remember the great “Forth-of-July” parties at the Love’s house. Or, Chuck in that Pie-Eating contest….

I do remember going to the “Park” with my first nephew, along with Deb and Charlie… and a duckling…

I do remember “Annie Get Your Gun” as presented in the amphitheater there… And of course, I remember Judy Barker directing…. and all of us doing that play on the grass…

Then there was the Ada Arts Program with Gary and Steve…. And that summer of “Oliver”!

I think that “that” was the most magical of all summers for me. More than anyone else, Gary Kramer changed my life…. From the “King’s Creampuffs” to the summer of “Oliver” – to the “Great Cross-Country Race”, with me, as a stuttering hedgehog… to the horribly realized production of “The Me, Nobody Knows”…. (For “Oliver”, we students of the Ada Summer Arts Program actually made the material that would eventually be made into costumes. “Nancy” actually wore a skirt with a print that I had created during the day, using a “linoleum-block” print…

Wow!!!

When I went back to Ada, now it has been 12 years, I DID go out of the way and found Judy (Bill) Sanford… She and I drove out to Wintersmith Lake… and we talked and talked…. I absolutely love her… she means everything to me. She, and her family, just “adopted” me for a period of time. She and I were inseparable for a couple of years…. And then, we reached the awkward age of “puberty”…My “Coming-of Age” story would always include Judy and her wonderful family. And that would be for another time…

Anyway, write the poem; “Wintersmith!”. I will anxiously a-wait … and will use it to “coerce” the others to participate and contribute