Bill & Judi Urda

Judi Earnshaw was born in Suffern, New York, moved to Bow, New Hampshire and later attended high school in Lexington, Massachusetts. At age 15 she had a job in a local laboratory where she met a young serviceman, Bill Urda, who worked there on a part-time basis. She would marry him 43 years later. No, it was not a long engagement; they just went their separate ways.

Bill Urda grew up in the little town of Jermyn, Pennsylvania, just north and east of Scranton. Situated in coal mining country, with that industry's attendant mining accidents, Jermyn's claim to fame is as the birthplace of First Aid in America. (The First Aid Association of Jermyn, Pa. was established in 1899 and was later adopted as a program of the Red Cross; first aid training for miners was taken over by the US Bureau of Mines in 1910.)

Following graduation from high school, Bill joined the US Air Force in 1960. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, he attended Clinical Laboratory and Blood Bank School with the US Navy in Portsmouth, Virginia and then was assigned to Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts, as a medical technologist. Shortly thereafter, he began to work nights at National Laboratories, Inc., a private company in Lexington that performed a wide variety of tests.

He left the Air Force after four years and enrolled at Boston University, graduating in 1967 with a BA in biology. He continued to work for National Laboratories, unaware that he was embarking on a 46-year career with the company. While at BU, he also got married and later raised a family. He retired in 2006 as a state qualified laboratory director.

Judi Earnshaw graduated from high school in 1966 and enrolled in the accounting program at Chamberlayne Junior College in Boston. She got married-but not to Bill--and began a career at National Laboratories, working there for 17 years before moving to New Jersey with her husband and children. Her first marriage came to an end in 2000 and she contacted her friend Bill Urda, with whom she had maintained contact over the years, to see if she might find a job at National Laboratories once more. She was hired one day and began work the next day.

Bill was a widower when Judi returned to work at National Laboratories; his wife had died unexpectedly from a heart attack in 1996. Over the next years, the collegial friendship that he and Judi had shared for many years deepened into love; in 2006, they got married and Bill retired. Their combined families now include six adult children (a son and a daughter from Bill's marriage and two sons and two daughters from Judi's), living in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and as far away as Maryland. Their nine grandchildren (eight boys and a girl) range in age from two to 18.  

The Urdas are pleased with their decision to come to Southport. The sign above the entrance to their porch says it all.

Judi continued to work after their marriage but was laid off in 2011, which prompted them to consider selling their home in Acton and relocating to a place near the water. They were familiar with the Cape but only as summer visitors and had never considered living here. However, they saw advertisements for Southport in the Boston Globe and their lawyer spoke highly of Southport, so they came to look it over and liked what they saw. They took a year to think it over and then put their house on the market and moved to 18 Chadwick Court in May 2012.  

Judi and Bill appreciate the variety of activities on the Cape and the social life available at Southport and have moved quickly to take advantage of both. They enjoy the theater and attend productions at community theaters from Provincetown to Falmouth. Both have taken up golf for the first time and use the fitness facilities. They like the convenient sociability of their new neighborhood and have found it easy to make new friends. TGIF potluck dinners have become one of their favorite ways to meet people over good food. Judi has joined the Social Committee and is helping to plan events for the village. She especially recommends the March 2 Pizza Buffet with entertainment by singer/songwriter Danny Quinn (who just happens to be her cousin). If you don't have a ticket yet, get over to the Village Center and see if there are some left. Sounds too good to miss!  

Call me nuts but I've grown to like the sound

of construction in the morning,

especially now that it's from the other side

of Martha Pond

and partially muted by the distance. 

It's the sound of life,

the archetype of youth.

Muscles that bend easily swing hammers

as agile feet run up the side of roofs.

There's a vibrancy in the air,

a feeling of growth and prosperity,

new people will move in

and new friends to be made. 

Owls hoot when the sun goes down.

Woodpeckers come to dine

on the feeder that houses the suet cakes,

the same contraption that mystifies the squirrels.

There's something about the combination of nature

and real life that embodies presence.

It's what's yet to come and what's always been.

It's life.

The following essay is based on my recent experience as a first-year snowbird, driving from Cape Cod to Delray Beach, Florida, planning to stay there until early April with my special Southport friend Roberta. She and I spent a couple weeks in Florida 2012, but in Florida terms that only qualified me as snowflake. I will earn full snowbird status this year with over two months of continuous residence in the Sunshine State.

DRIVING TO FLORIDA: WHAT HAS CHANGED IN THIRTY YEARS?

Once a Florida destination has been decided upon, the obvious next question is how to get there: fly or drive? Each has its advantages, but since an automobile is a necessity in Florida I decided the least complicated way to get there was to drive. My last such experience was in the early 1980s. The biggest change over the past three decades involves the explosion of information available. Today we have instant global communication via the Internet and our cell phones. Thirty years ago car-to-car communications involved CB radios with limited capacity; now cell phones offer complete flexibility, and portable navigation systems complement printed maps.

PLANNING THE TRIP

My first step was to obtain a AAA TripTik and associated information. Traveling on Interstate I-95 for most of the way, the trip is over 1500 miles long with an estimated 22 hours of driving time. In addition, I signed up for E-ZPass, which costs nothing to join and provides an automated way to pay road tolls. E-ZPass is valid from Maine to North Carolina (and as far west as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois). When you sign up in Massachusetts you open your account with a $20 credit card charge and receive a free electronic device (transponder) that attaches to your car's windshield. I increased my account to $50 to cover the trip south, which involved $21.55 of tolls paid in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. The total will be a little higher on the return trip since New York's Tappan Zee Bridge collects its $4.75 toll only in the eastbound lanes. Drivers without E-ZPass pay $5.00, sometimes more in rush hour.

We're off! You don't actually have to buy a new car to drive to Florida, but my 2002 Toyota Camry was due to be replaced.

A NEW CAR

My 2002 Toyota Camry provided reliable performance over the years but with a major trip in mind it was time to consider a new car. So, in December 2012 I purchased a 2012 Toyota Camry, advancing from trailing edge to leading edge (but not cutting edge) automotive technology. I did not opt for the very expensive built-in navigation system, but the car does contain blue tooth technology, which permits hands-free phone calls. It also has smart keys and automatic headlight control, features that are quickly becoming part of the performance standards we expect in a modern car. We are using Roberta's Garmin portable navigation system, which can be purchased online for about $130. At Southport, Roberta's car has a built-in navigation system. Occasionally her two systems disagree on their directions, requiring operator intervention to break the tie.

We began our trip on a Sunday morning to avoid weekday rush hour congestion in major Northeastern cities. Our first stop was at a McDonalds in Connecticut, notable for two reasons. Here we obtained our first hotel coupon book, one of the best sources for low cost lodging information. In addition, we noted that each McDonalds special meal listed two calorie count numbers: the first for sandwich calories only; the second for calories (usually more than twice the first) in the full meal, which included a soft drink and fries. Must be a state law. Massachusetts could use such a law! Sunday night, using our coupon book information, we stayed at a Towne Place Suites in Newark, Delaware ($69 plus tax).

When does a Red Roof Inn become a Comfort Inn? When they change the sign.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?  

By Monday night we had reached Fayetteville, North Carolina and once again, using a coupon ($60 plus tax) from our coupon book, planned to stay at a Comfort Inn. But at the check-in desk we were promptly told that it wasn't their coupon. Further investigation revealed that our coupon applied to a "Coming 2013 Fully Renovated Comfort Inn" located next to a Cracker Barrel restaurant and AAA approved. Using Cracker Barrel as a beacon we found the correct Comfort Inn--except its sign said Red Roof Inn! The transition from Red roof to comfort Inn was incomplete. So we stayed at a mislabeled Comfort Inn and ate supper at Cracker Barrel.

Being ahead of schedule (our Florida condo would not be available until late Thursday) we decided to take a detour and visit Charleston, South Carolina. I recall once seeing a large airline poster with men in colonial dress advertising Boston as "where it all began." The same can be said of Charleston concerning a very different war. We thus ended up Tuesday night at a Sleep Inn ($55 plus tax) outside of downtown Charleston.

On Wednesday morning we took a tour of 19th century and earlier homes and public buildings in downtown Charleston. Our guide described the Civil War in a number of ways, including "the war of northern aggression." The tour ended at a historic mansion overlooking the harbor, where we saw a park with Civil War era cannons pointed towards the sea. In the mansion we were served iced tea and cookies while seated on a porch with a distant view of Fort Sumter. The Civil War was ignited there on April 12, 1861.

By the harbor of Charleston town the guns of April stood

Shots were fired, a war began, a region's wild endeavor

And at the end when all was done

The world had changed forever

We left Charleston for Florida on Thursday morning, driving on secondary South Carolina roads for a while but eventually returning to busy I-95 through southern South Carolina, coastal Georgia and northern Florida. We bypassed Jacksonville and checked into a Hampton Inn ($89 plus tax) in historic St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in the United States. Roberta wasn't up to eating out, so I brought in takeout food from (you guessed it) a Cracker Barrel restaurant. Turns out there are over 600 Cracker Barrel restaurants in the US, an ironic example of homogeneity in an increasingly diverse nation.  

We left St. Augustine on Friday morning for the final leg of our journey and reached our rental condo in Delray Beach that afternoon. After registering at the management office and unpacking, our first stop was the Delray Beach Medical Center, where Roberta was diagnosed with the flu. Welcome to Florida! We both began to take Tamiflu capsules immediately and things returned to normal within a few days. Fortunately we still have many weeks to enjoy the warmth of the Florida sun. See you in April!

Early one summer morning

I woke to the sound of a hundred crows,

it started as a distant cry

as they took to the sky,

what all that squawking was about

who knows?

But louder and louder it got

till the growing flock

took flight over my rooftop;

"There must be a thousand!"

I declared,

and rushed out of bed to see

them circling across the way,

landing on a grand old oak tree.

Much to my surprise

the swarm of cawing black birds                                       

perched ever so boldly upon the massive oak,                        

did not compare in number                                                              

to the concert level heard,                                                             

and as a matter of fact

the symphony of the two dozen or so,              

be them raven or crow . . .                                                         

I'll bet Edgar would know,

were accompanied by a lone owl,

who, with a battering of its wings,

joined them in flight

as they flew out of sight

to conduct their boisterous tension

elsewhere down the road,

for another crow convention. 

Sandy Bernstein is a freelance writer and web designer. Her poetry, articles, and fiction have appeared in such publications as The Writer Magazine, Writers' Journal, Poetic Voices, Flashquake Magazine, Mind Fire, and many other print and web publications. She is a long time member of the Stoneham Writers Group. Currently she is working on a novel, an excerpt appears on her website www.sandybernstein.net.  If you have a
Kindle, you can access her short story "Creepies"on Amazon for $.99. www.amazon.com/dp/B00BKMXDDS

  

 

Lydia Biersteker grew up in Somerville, Massachusetts. She met her husband Dale on the beach at Falmouth Heights in 1969, while he was stationed at Fort Devens. After Dale retired in 2005 from his executive position with the USPS, they moved to Vero Beach, Florida but decided that they preferred New England. They moved to Southport in July 2011. Dale plays golf, and Lydia likes gardening, walking, writing poetry and short prose, exploring genealogy, and lunching with friends. Together, they enjoy dining, exploring wineries and brew pubs, walking the trails of Cape Cod, traveling and playing with their grandkids, who live with their son in Rowley, Massachusetts.

David Kapp, with his wife Billie, moved from Connecticut to Southport in 2009. David retired from a career as a university library administrator, after working in the libraries at Brandeis, Harvard and the University of Connecticut. He was a building consultant for the planning of a number of major university libraries and was, for many years, the editor of Connecticut Libraries. Billie enjoyed a career as an educator and social sciences consultant. The Kapps are frequent visitors to Hawaii where their son, daughter, grandson and other family members live.   

Jonathan Leavitt grew up in Scarsdale, NY. He earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master's degree in the same field from the University of Pennsylvania. He worked at Sprague Electric, Epsco, Di/An controls, MIT Instrumentation/Draper Labs, and GTE, mostly as a development engineer. The highlight of his career was logic design contribution to an experiment that was carried to the moon on Apollo 17. Married for 42 years to the late Arlene (Samiof), he has three married children and six grandchildren. He has been associated with Southport part-time since 2003, full time since 2008.

Bob Mendes began his career as an advertising copywriter at Doyle Dane Bernbach in New York before becoming senior vice president of marketing for a west coast department store chain. He left that position to start Pacific Sports, a sports and general marketing agency. There he developed "The Reading Team," a children's literacy program sponsored by the National Football League and the American Library Association, which used NFL players as literacy role models. Bob is the author of "A Twentieth Century Odyssey, the Bob Mathias Story." After retiring, he served as executive director of the Glendora (CA) Chamber of Commerce. When grandson Adam was born, Bob and Bette moved to Cape Cod, where they recently celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. Neither retires well. He's had a number of part-time jobs, has written two more books, and volunteers; Bette serves on committees at Southport and at the Falmouth Jewish Congregation. Their son Steve is a pediatrician and lives in Marion with his wife Sarah and their children, and a second son, Jeff, practices law in Indianapolis.