Joe, Bob & Joan at the beach

I see that you have a date on this - 1980 - but then where is Kate? she would be 11 years old and in the picture???

I think 1980 may be correct because my father died in 1979 and my mother sent $1000 to each of the kids from Dad's will. She told us to use it for something and we decided that a trip to the states with all of you would be a good idea. You did meet many of the relatives at a gathering at the house in Hamburg where my mother was living at the time. Jim had an office in the basement and Joe and Betty Pracitto (my sister and husband) and family lived down the road.

We are at a beach in Maine where there was an amusement part and rides etc. We had camped out down the road near Kennebunkport which was the summer place of pres Bush the elder. We had two tents, a blue one and an orange one. Notice the straw hat in my hand. That also appears in a picture of all of the Wall family at my grandfather's summer cottage but Joe is wearing it. I have a blown up version of that picture on the shelf here in the office.

I'm having trouble getting any firm recollection. We were on our way to the states I think in the station wagon. We camped at a number of places along the way and eventually went to Virginia to see your mother's parents in their trailer by the swamp. That same trip we stopped at a motel in Maryland and I recall seeing pictures of Joe and Joan in a swimming pool at the motel.

You will notice that Joe has obviously been in the water whereas Joan, true to form, has only wet her feet. Notice that I am also dry. Lifeguarding no doubt...

It has now been over ten minutes and the photo still hasn't finished loading so I don't know if it ever will. On this trip we spent one night with George McVey and his family and then with the (ooops_ name just jumped out of my head) Delano's - Grace and Harry and kids David and Paul and ???.

Coming back from Virginia on this trip we found a going out of business sale in Fredricksburg Va. and bought a huge suitcase to put all the things in that we bought at the sale. I tied the suitcase on top of the car in front of the luggage rack which was already full. Then it rained as we were going north to visit Hugh Duckwall and his family. Luckily they had a dryer for all the things inside the suitcase and we used a hairdryer to dry out the inside of the suitcase. Oh,!!!the important memories.

All told the trip cost about three times what my mother sent but it was a fun trip for all...I think. I just checked and the upload box says that there were errors during the upload. So, Joan, you may have to do your magic and put the picture in here. Sorry for the randomness of the thoughts.