back from Canada

As always one of the nicest things about a conference is getting to see people you like and haven't seen for a while...(in this case, at the Calgary Kaleidoscope conference, Betsy and Ted Lewin)...and also meeting new friends. (Here's a photo of me with writer Betty Birney; we shared a cab to the airport yesterday, she flying home to LA, me to Boston).   I look as if I have antlers but it's because I stupidly stood in front of a picture that was hanging on the wall.

It reminded me of the time I met Carol Otis Hurst for the first time, years ago, in Toronto. We shared a cab to the airport, waited there together since our gates were near each other,  and she was telling me a long story but had to stop mid-paragraph because her plane was about to board. Two days later, back home, I got a letter from Carol, which began mid-sentence, and completed the anecdote.  We became close friends and remained so until her sudden death two years ago.

I also met Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, a close friend now for many years, at a conference...and it was the Calgary Kaleidscope conference...16 years ago.  Three days ago, in Calgary, a woman said to me, "I was here when you were here in 1992, and I've remembered all this time how you described your grandmother teaching you to pee in the woods."  I had to say, "Ah, that was Phyllis Naylor. "  I remember Phyllis telling that story, actually, in the speech she made.  It certainly wouldn't have been my very proper Pennsylvania  grandmother who would never have entered the woods unless she was wearing hat and gloves and was there for a lecture on arboeal botany.

I have to start thinking a lot....this very day....about my Pennsylvania grandmother because on Wednesday I fly to Pennsylvania to speak in the small town where I spent my childhood.  One of my books, AUTUMN STREET, is set in that town, and many of my books arise out of the nostalgia that is so much a part of my creative process.  I'll have to try to put that all together coherently so that I can speak abut it Wednesday night.

I think I'll email Phyllis and tell her that for sixteen years someone has been remembering her urinary history, even if they got the name of the protaganist wrong.

Comments

[brenda]

My favorite photograph in Ted and Betsy Lewin's house shows a tiger pouncing at the camera. You will have to ask them about it the next time you see them.

[Jonas]

Two groups of people who are the most likely to have and maintain genuine friendships seem to be: 1) Children, and 2) Adults who have found their calling, or a means of self-expression that they have come to terms with. I envy you. I can't say I've had one really close friend since my high school days. I'm just fretting here...but, I believe those two groups of people have much in common. They both are capable of expressing a certain naivete about human nature, suspension of preconceptions about people, and fearlessness about where an uncertain path might lead. This is how I see friendships depicted in your works, and maybe that's why I keep going back to them. A friend - a title we nowadays so willingly bestow upon the most minor of acquaintances, perhaps in dire hopes that there's a thread of connection that's about to materialize. A friend. Depending on who you are, it's a rare gift. It's also one that furnishes life with the greatest of treasures.

[Betty]

Sorry I didn't have any urinary stories to share, but I did so enjoy meeting you in Calgary - it was the highlight of the conference for me. I'm putting the picture on my blog, too!