Galen's First Postcard to Richmond Museum Friends

Ms. Pat Vining, Secretary
Richmond Community Museum
Box 284
Richmond, KS 66080

Friday
June 27, 2008
(Harry Green’s Centenary)


Dear Pat,

It was the pleasantest sort of surprise to find your letter in yesterday’s post. If I had more time this weekend, I’d sit right down and dash off a 10-page detailed response to your queries. As it is, however, I’m afraid that this little “postcard” will have to suffice for the time being. Even so, please accept my pledge that more will follow in as short order as is feasible.

To make some kind of beginning toward addressing the agenda you expressed: my family did visit Richmond pretty frequently when I was a pup. Between 1949 and 1965, we’d drive up from Wichita perhaps four or five times each year – at least once over the holidays, usually twice each summer, etc. My dad, Harry, was a toolmaker at Boeing from 1941 to 1969, so that his schedule was the chief determining factor.

I was as close to my McCall grandparents as was doable. W.K. was, of course, already in his 80’s when I was born and grew quite deaf in his final years. More of him, anon. Phoebe and I, however were blessed with a remarkably nurturing bond which endured until her death at 100 in 1982 – in the “home” there in Richmond. Much much more of Phoebe, anon.

It was an honor and a genuine thrill to be present for the grand opening of the Richmond Community Museum, back on June 14th. I kept thinking to myself how incredibly delighted (and, frankly, surprised) Phoebe & Will & Harry & Margaret & all my other ancestors buried up there on the hill overlooking Richmond would have been to receive the news that Richmond possessed such talented, focused, dedicated, visionary, energetic folks, able to pull off such a magnificent project.

It saddens me to report that most of my own pictures and memorabilia have been destroyed over the years by fires and natural disasters. But my mind is filled with more memories of Richmond, Kansas than I’ll ever have time to get written down for posterity. Meanwhile, I do have this little something to offer you:


Over the past few years, I’ve been writing my memoirs. But they’re more about my times (my culture, my context, my surroundings) than about me, me, me. Of late, I’ve begun constructing 37 chapters of a blog. Of these 37 chapters, I strongly recommend that you – and anyone else at all interested in a smattering of my past writing fragments touching upon my connection to Richmond – get online and type into your “browser space” (google, for example) these 6 recent bloggish chapters of my book (whose working title is The Toolmaker’s Other Son):


“The Story of Our Story”
(type in: thestoryofour.blogspot.com)

“The World You Knew is Gone Forever”
(type in: worldknewgone.blogspot.com)

“Why I’m Here, Doing This”
(type in: whydoing.blogspot.com)

“Randomnalities”
(type in: randomnalities.blogspot.com)

“Candor Vendor”
(type in: candorvendor.blogspot.com)

“Chestnut Circle Diaries”
(type in: chestnut-circle.blogspot.com)


Admittedly, these six aren’t all about Richmond. But they’ll provide a context, a background, a backdrop for whatever I end up talking with you about in the coming months and years. These blogs are extremely easy to “navigate;” all you do is scroll up and down and click occasionally. For instance, when the title picture pops up on your computer screen, simply scroll down. When you come to the end of my little “bio,” just click on “View My Complete Profile,” if you’re interested in viewing the entire “menu” of all 37 “chapters.”

Please don’t feel obligated to read all the way through every single one of these six blogs I’m recommending to you. And, as I’ve said, all 37 blogs are still under construction. I’ll be eager to hear your feedback. Please feel free to share any and all of this information with Dorothy Dunbar or anyone else who seems at all interested.

My Cingular (AT&T) cellular plan has oodles of minutes, so let me know a good time to talk and I’ll phone you. Thanks again for your lovely letter. And please say hello to all the friendly people I got a chance to meet at the grand opening.


All the Best, Always,

Galen