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Randy and Bethany's Wacky Web Page
The Curtis Clan - Spring 2021
Spring Equinox to Summer Solstice
Spring Break 2021 - WPI Road Trip
In early March, with Jane's college decision very much up in the air still, having not visited one of her prime choices in Worcester, MA. It was decided that Randy and Jane would drive together over spring break to get a feel for the community, even if the school was not allowing campus visits during the COVID outbreak (ASIDE: its jarring rewriting this afterwards to recall that Interstate travel was still strongly discouraged, as was all unmasked contact outside of one's bubble). A week and a half later, Jane got the first legitimate on campus tour slot at WPI on Friday of her Spring Break, so it was going to work out perfectly. On Monday the travelers both got Rapid Tests at Walgreen's (negative), as several states "required" proof (although it never came up).
On Tuesday, 23 March, they departed at 0600 on the dot, driving just over halfway to Pittsburgh, PA allowing for an evening visit at Katie and Don's, inside but social distanced. Bethany and Cate were missed but the evening was a warm comforting recollection of past family visits.
The next day brought the scenic drive on I-80 through rural PA, including the Poconos with an absence of billboards that would continue to the New England states. A glaring difference as compared to MO and the surrounding glaciated flatland where billboards are the de-facto State Tree of the Interstate. In New Jersey, it was a bit uncomfortable having someone else pump the gas as it was a human interaction you weren't expecting to have (even with vaccine shot, we avoided contact with others as best as we could). Even with reduced pandemic traffic flows, taking the I-80 to I-95 route into Connecticut we hit rotten, early afternoon traffic as we crossed the George Washington Bridge ($16 Cash CHEAP) to the Bronx. We got to our hotel in Waterford at 4:30 pm, which allowed us to hop over to the charming but exclusive and affluent community of Mystic. Social distancing limited our tourism but we did get a picture in front of Mystic Pizza the namesake inspiration of the 1988 film and Julia Roberts' first cinematic success.
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Randy and Jane detour to Fishers Island
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On Thursday, Randy mixed some work with the college visit given a surprised project manager a positive yes that the office could have "someone" look at a few locations on the Fort H. G. Wright for consideration for FUDS remediation as long as it occurred in 2 weeks. This required us leaving the hotel at 6:15 am to catch the 0700 Fisher Island Ferry from New London. Jane happily took photos as Randy went amongst the various repurposed features and abandoned costal defense batteries (3-inch to 12-inch diameter gun emplacements) in various stages of decay that had been part of a system of forts that protected channels and the coast from attack. A pleasurable outing that allowed us to be out of the car the better part of the day and a couple boat rides.
| Jane taking the ferry to New London |
Randy with spooky New London Ledge Lighthouse |
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Jane entering one of Fishers Island's mine casements
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Blatantly ignoring guidance about being SAFE and licking a whale tail, not knowing who else recently licked the statue at the ferry terminal. (yes Randy likes to tease Bethany and no he didn't ACTUALLY lick the statue because Yuck!)
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It was a quick 1 1/2 hour drive to our hotel in Worcester on the edge of WPI, arriving in midafternoon. We hiked around the perimeter of campus on a beautiful sunny spring day with the students out and enjoying the park to the north of campus. Jane made certain we did not step foot on the property and get her kicked out before she even started (if she decided to go). We followed this with a car reccy around the campus and surrounding community, picking an Italian restaurant on the main commerce strip south of campus for take out in the hotel.
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Jane at WPI on a goregeous afternoon in spring
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Friday was the BIG day and the reason for our Father-Daughter Spring Break Road Trip: the Worcester Polytechnic Institute campus tour. Following a social distanced and masked informational briefing and Q&A from the recruiting staff at the Admissions office on the main quad, a student walked us around campus at a brisk pace in a few selected buildings, which did not include Jane's planned areas of interest (Civil/Environmental/Architectural Engineering).
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Jane with Gompei the Goat, WPI mascot
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The 75-minute morning campus visit seemed exceptionally brief and limited given the multi-day 2400-mile round trip we made from St. Louis and the magnitude of decision that rested on speaking directly with only a single student but such were the reality of the COVID restrictions.
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Initial college building sporting the original name of the school: Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science The guide noted the standard Dad observation that the "FREE" part was long gone.
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With little left on our agenda, we made a jaunt to Nashua, NH (LIVE sales tax FREE OR DIE) to get Blaze Pizza (a family favorite chain that COVID closed the STL stores) and visit the LL Bean store, That evening, we walked around the WPI campus to get a vibe for the student life on Friday night and convince Dad it was fairly safe (definitely, at least for a guy).
Saturday was the longest day of driving with a 10 3/4 hours' plan drive to Columbus, OH. Stocking up on Yuengling beer before leaving PA required a longer than desired detour off I-80, in a very rural part of the state where they looked at us with clear disdain (hatred?) for wearing masks. Incredibly uncomfortable and we couldn't get out of there fast enough (plus they didn't have any Schaefer Light). We didn't share that part of the story with Bethany.
Jane found another Blaze Pizza and navigated us to one in Columbus in what turned out to be the commerce street on the east side of Ohio State. The students were out in force on the sunny spring day: group of kids with no masks, many of the girls in bikini tops and short short cutoffs. It was a striking difference from the atmosphere around WPI in so many ways and a clear depiction that Jane was making the right choice in not choosing to look at any of the large midwestern state universities. At least inside the restaurant things were sane, the guests at the hotel, not so much.
We had a relatively short 6 ¼ hours to reach home, leaving early enough that Jane could attend her Cross-Country recognition gathering at Blackburn Park (normally a banquet held indoors at the end of the season). School began again the next day.
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Annoucing her college choice via cookie
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Two weeks later Jane used a cookie cake to announce she decided to go WPI, ending a half a year of spreadsheets, extensive pro-con lists, lively dinner-table debates, and countless "virtual" Q&A events. The decision was met with relief that a decision had finally been made but there remained a lingering atmosphere of a house divided on the choice over the distance limiting our time together (and financially obligations she would incur beyond her parent's supported amount). Even so, Jane was ready to SOAR.
Meanwhile back home, that weekend Cate started her first paycheck job: at Serendipity ice cream in Old Orchard. Following an orientation, she began 2-3 weekly 4-hour shifts typically with one school afternoon (3-7 pm) and weekend slots. She didn't have her driver's license yet, requiring her family to give her to work and back which got old quickly though having her fill the car up with the smell of waffle cones that clung to her clothes was nice.
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Cate and Bethany enjoy afternoon tea without interuptions
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Cate turns 17
(a.k.a. the spotlight shifts to other daughter...momentarily)
Tuesday, 30 March Cate turned 17 with COVID restrictions limiting the options for celebrating her birthday for the second year in a row. On top of that she had to take the ACT at school that day It was warm and dry allowing for an outdoor driveway birthday gathering with the Townie Sages for the first time in months (winter temperatures curtailed such gatherings in the fall and winter).
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Cate at 17
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| Cate with pals Jason and Katie |
Welcome to my house |
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Afterwards we got paneer tiki masala take out from Himalia Hut and watched Into the Spider-verse. While eating cake, Bethany observed that this would be the last birthday we would all be together for the foreseeable future, which brought tears to most everyone's eyes.
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Curti selfie before getting paneer tiki masala and naan
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Yike! Not another birthday
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April 2021
The first Friday in April, Bethany hosted a late afternoon après work gathering with her friends Elisabeth and Maria. No masks but still socially distanced.
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Bethany enjoying a fire in the late afternoon with friends
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On 6 April, the family all piled into the family trickster for the two-hour jaunt to St Robert to get our second COVID Shot. The redbuds were in all their glory making for stunning burst of colors along the interstate. A treat of natural beauty that was unappreciated when droving through Missouri as a young adult. With the certainty we would all get shots, the trip was somewhat anti-climactic and less joyous than for shot #1. The second-round side effects were all a bit more than the first round and would make us all feel increasing levels of cruddy beginning that night and peaking the next day. Nothing to complain about as we regained our ability to hug people, meet inside, not be filled with dread/rage when people surrounding made some infraction of the rules. Our return to social society came in stages, tentative at first, reclaiming the freedoms we had taken for granted a year earlier. It would take over a month.
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Bethany gets her second Pffizer shot
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Bethany and Gussie enjoy a walk
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Mid-April, the WGHS Class of 2021 had a prom. The quickly planned, big event occurred over two hours at an outdoor venue: the top tier, covered area in Busch Stadium, with no food or drinks, masks at all times, and color-coded wrist bands to keep people in their 20-people pods with the intention of no intermingling of pod groups (that part didn't really work). There were no outsiders and only WGHS senior class members. But it was the first time the whole class was allowed to assembled together all year to that point and about 60% said yes.
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Jane ready for Prom (in front of neighbor's pink dogwood)
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Beforehand, we hosted a Pasta House dinner (pasta con broccoli and fettucine alfredo) for Jane and a few friends (Zoe, Sophie and Kristen) on the driveway under the easy up canopy though it was unneeded as the rain held off all afternoon. Afterwards we drove the girls for pictures in Forest Park, and then dropped them off at Bush to be picked up later by another parent. Afterwards, the parents enjoyed wine under the Christmas lights strung beneath the canopy going in before it started to rain. The kids all largely got soaked as there wasn't any cover at Bush but had lots of fun doing it.
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Kristen, Jane, Sophie and Zoey.jpg
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On 20 April, the Curti hit their 100% Vaccination level though delayed our going out in public celebrations wait until the weekend (though to be honest we jumped the gun a couple days with drinks and dinner out with Kent and Greg at Meridian , a fancy pizza place in Clayton when they were in town).
Mother Nature celebrated with a snowfall in St. Louis. The snow didn't last long but a very late snow (and cause for the climate change deniers to quip that this proved it was all a hoax).
| 20 April snow (Note neighbors pink dogwood from prom pics) |
Third Winter |
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The next day Cate took her driver's test at the Jefferson Barracks MODOT location and we got her license at the Maplewood office. We celebrated with Whopper Wednesday Impossible burgers.
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Cate passes drivers test
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On Saturday, the whole family went to the Hi-Pointe theatre to see "Together, Together", our first big screen experience in over year. We got a little misty-eyed thinking about it as we realized it was likely be the last full family visit for a while (it was). The trip home was consumed by the girls lecturing their parents on male/female friendships and relationships and that THEIR generation understood things more completely and was not controlled by rigid gender stereo types and morays, etc., The words of Mark Twain provided a reoccurring solace throughout Spring 2021: When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.
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At the HiPointe
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Sunday night we went to dinner with Bethany's besties and their fiancees at Cyrano's Cafe & Wine Bar in Old Orchard having the south porch to ourselves. Adjusting back to normal slowly but surely.
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Unmasked with friends on Cyranos south porch
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Randy took off on Monday, for a float trip on the Meramec River from Onondaga to Blue Springs with Charles, JoAnn and Scot McMahon. A beautiful spring weekday, so we had the river to ourselves. The Meramec was up making the normally 4-hour float, a 2 1/2 hour one. The dogwoods looked great but it was a week late for the redbuds.
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Randy enjoying the dogwoods along the Meramec
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WGHS Senior season continued later in the week with awards night on Thursday completed on line with a 43-minute video instead of the lengthy in-person version, which was a happy consequence of COVID. The 5-10 seconds of glory for your kid was great and having the freedom to comment on the others and back up and watch parts again was better.
| WGHS Senior Moms did drive by parades |
Bethany's Traverse looked the best |
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Sunday was yet another last time ever event for the Curti in the recent weeks with Jane's last orchestra concert. The strings program was a great experience for her and the other kids and a definite step forward in the kid's education from when Randy was a kid four decades earlier. We had dinner with Amy and Alvan at our house, which was the first normal meal with them in over a year. The MASSIVE Serendipity drumsticks for dessert were a gluttonous treat for all.
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"Dipstix" desert with Gramy and Gral (Note the size of the Serendipty drumsticks)
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Cate picking out the "Dipstix" (she wouldn't let us visit her for the first month she worked there)
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Jane was the name of the day at Serendipity and Cate gave her a good scope and the rest of the family enjoyed her discount with scoops of Mexican chocolate.
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Cate serving Jane on her name day
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Friday, May 7 was Jane's last day at the Webster Groves School District after 16 years there including with preschool.
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Preschool to Senior - 16 years at WGPS (Ad parent's placed in the yearbook)
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WGHS Instgram post for Jane's school choice
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Oak tree Catkins or Cate's Kryptonite (This accumulated in a few hours after clearing out a larger pile)
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The hostas eater a few doors up on Tuxedo
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Mother's Day cake and flowers (Note the baby Yoda The Child poster/"card" above Cate's head)
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WGHS presents The Meta Plays and Cate Curtis
The second to last week of school was the drama department's big spring play production: Andrew Biss's The Meta Plays, a series of disconnected one acts loosely connected on various theatrical themes. Cate had the main role, Director, in a 15 minutes, three-person play-let: The Curious Art of Critique. She didn't tell us much about the play beforehand except her colleagues were puppets (it worked far better than it sounds).
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Curious Art of Critique
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From the playwright's webpage:
When reaction to his work on a new drama appears tepid at best, the director decides he must tackle the problem head-on and root out whatever it is that's leaving the audience unmoved. One way or another, the evening seems destined to end in tears.
She down played her role beforehand which she had more lines in soliloquies of dialogue than anyone else in the plays including the far more experienced thespians (She did need line queues twice but her overall performance really exceeded expectations and was one of the best that evening). It's clear she loves acting and the theatre.
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Cate stands tall
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The Meta Plays WGHS 2021 Spring Play. Skip to the 41-minute point to see Cate’s one act.
Thursday, 13 May was USA UNMASKING DAY! And a major COVID life changer as the President announced the CDC decision that fully vaccinated people no longer needed to wear masks indoors. A major game changer with little hint beforehand it was coming.
It took a couple months and much to Bethany's chagrin I've named our new car the Wannanosoulus, a play on the W - Wannaosaurus the girls loved from the Dinosaur ABCs: https://youtu.be/g1O_pZClyrc on PBS Kids Dinosaur Train. They also were pleased that it was a type of Pachycephalosaurus which reach their consciousness from They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science I'm a Paleontologist: https://youtu.be/B7zo2zY1Zqg. It brought happy thoughts to mind every time it came up, which was sort of the point.
| Wannanosourus |
Pachycephalosaurus |
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WGHS Graduation 2021(lots more pictures of Jane)
A couple days ahead of graduation, Jane and her pals Kristen and Zoe went to Blackburn Park to do a fun photo shoot in their graduation gowns. Cate did the lensing.
| Emerging from the Tree of Knowledge? |
Might as well jump |
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The Graduate
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On the day of graduation, Jane her classmates met in the afternoon at their elementary school. It was sweet.
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WG Computer School Class of 2021 (Jane is middle second row)
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Pictures before graduation
| Proud parents |
3 generartions of women |
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Curtis - WGHS Class of 1981 & 2021
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Beautiful evening for graduation outdoors despite all the spectators (each grad was allowed only 3 guests) being masked on the football field and all the graduates socially distanced in the concrete bleachers. The experience was marred by the sound system not working for most of the kids whose last name started with an A to E. Not clear why they didn't stop or have a working backup but it was hard enough seeing your kid from the 40 yards away on the flats of the football field, and distinguish them as they were all dressed the same, including matching masks, that the garbled name annoucments made you wonder if if you taking picures of the right kid. The school did comp us the professional graduation photo though.
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The magic momment of graduation
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Jane, family and empty diploma case (you had to turn in the cap and gown to get the diploma)
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Afterwards, the Curti and Gramy had dinner at San Jose in old Webster, which was doing bang up business as the loud, COVID limited clientele were in little hurry to leave in the new freedom and comfort of being mask less indoors.
Saturday night Rosemary offered to host a Sage family gathering at the Shaw's as the Indy Sages had come in that afternoon to visit and come to Jane's Graduation Party on Sunday (no pictures).
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Set up and ready for people to arrive
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Jane's graduation party was a smallish family and friend gathering in the afternoon with food from Pretzel Guys and Pasta House. The weather messed with us a bit with "will it or won't it" rain teasers, having us shift where to put the food multiple times. Fortunately, we played it safe with the food inside and packaged beverages outside when a brief spate of showers finally moved in.
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Insdie out of the shower
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Angry Unicorns
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Neighbors stay dry under the easy up
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| Can it be a party without cake? |
Cousins smiling after the rain |
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Jane, Kristen and Zoe (and Lucy in the middle)
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Camp Echo or Jane leaves the nest
On Thursday, May 20th, Randy and Bethany took off a couple days to make the Road Trip to take Jane to YMCA Camp Echo to be a lifeguard and counselor for the summer. We plotted a route through Champaign to have lunch at Blaze Pizza. We spent the night in Grand Rapids about 40 minutes away from camp and Jane choose her last dinner meal to be at STL Bread Co/Panera outside on a lovely summer evening (it was very warm 89 degrees in Michigan in mid-May), clearly looking for a comfort choice before setting out on her adventure.
On Friday, after a breakfast at Tim Horton's and a Meijer's run to get some last-minute essentials, we headed up to the charming town of Newaygo, MI with a tiny population (<2,000). As a County seat, the town offered multiples food options with Jane choosing Wendy's for French fires (there was a national boycott of McDonald's over higher wages she wanted to support and wasn't interested in the apparent hypocrisy of going to a different restaurant that paid the same wages).
It was a quick drop off at Camp Echo for Jane. We unloaded Jane's gear in her cabin for the training week session and were off. Very anti-climactic after the buildup (It was the 21st day of the 21st week of the 21st year of the 21st century).
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Jane arives at Camp Echo
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Her gear dropped off at her first cabin
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The parents did some splurge shopping back in Grand Rapids before having dinner at the Beer City Bread Company...all the carbs, all the time for the Curti. Saturday was a Feeling Groovy / "No deeds to do no promises to keep" kind of day with Denny's for breakfast, splurge shopping and a meandering drive southward to Indianapolis, hopping off the Interstate to take some two-lanes along Lake Michigan to Benton Harbor.
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R and B overlooking Lake Michigan
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On Sunday, we attended Lloyd Sage's Graduation party (the reason for the dawdling the day before)
| Bethany, Gramy, Katie and Lloyd |
Bethany and Justin |
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Cate's "special" credit project in AP American History
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Got the flag back up after getting a new bracket
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On a Thursday in early June, we had a fun evening out among old neighbors and friends as we joined the Kennedys and Burks for dinner out at Piccadilly and Manhattan in Maplewood. Terrific fried fish followed by ice cream at Serendipity courtesy of our favorite scooper.
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Tuxedo Park Neighbors
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A few days later, as perfect summer evening temperatures beckoned us to take a "joy" ride in the convertible, we ended in Pacific, MO making a purchase of illicit, celebratory pyrotechnics for no particular reason other than youthful memories. The last such purchase of sparklers and twizzling roses lasted us for the better part of a decade, while the kids were at their peak enthusiasm for such things, so it might take a while to actually use them. It was a purchase more about knowing you're prepared to act on a whimsical dream than actually doing anything about it.
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Pacific, MO road trip
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Bethany and fellow Pi Phis during the annual grant luncheon
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Cate and Pepper demonstrating masking protocol
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