Memory!

     Margaret's comment on the blog brought back a memory. While Ed and I were stationed on Okinawa in 1961, our battalion was shipped to Japan for cold weather training. It was near the city of Gotemba. For about six weeks we lived in a tent camp on the lower slopes of Mt. Fuji. Typically, we didn't do training on the weekends. One weekend Ed and I took the train to Tokyo. Another weekend we trained to visit Margaret's family.

    Margaret's parents, Oliver & Judy, (Oliver is my cousin) were missionaries in Shimzu, Japan, which wasn't far distant from the tent camp. Having a weekend off Ed and I had made arrangements to visit them. Arriving in Shimzu by train the only clue we had to their location was an envelope from Oliver which had his return address. Leaving the train we went to the nearby taxi barn. Showing the envelope to the taxi drivers and pointing to his address a group of taxi drives huddled around the envelope. Much conversation ensued none of which we could understand. Shortly we were motioned into the back of a taxi. After a bit of a drive we were brought to Oliver & Judy's house.

    At home with their parents were the two youngest children, Bryan and Naomi. The two older children, Margaret and Phillip, were away at a boarding school.  It was a rare privilege to spend a weekend with this cousin, with whom I grew up, be with his family and glimpse his work. 

Takk for alt,

Al

With Oliver, Judy, Bryan and Naomi: Unfortunately Oliver died soon after retiring and moving back to America and Judy died some years later.