a small world story ...

 so, it was 1980 when i first met the  

sportswriter WC Heinz, who lived in Dorset, VT,

a 20 minute drive from where we lived in Arlington at the time. 

he asked if i would build a hutch for their daughter Gayl

and i willingly agreed, as i was just in the process of

becoming a full time furniture maker. 

below is a note on the history of the hutch that i received,

i believe, on the 20th anniversary of the delivery of the piece! 

 

W.C. was a gracious gentleman 

and we hit it off pretty much immediately ... 

 

this photo is from 2022.  it took a while for the project to play out:

saw the logs, dry the lumber, for me to figure out what i was doing,

but in the end it turned out to be a real piece of furniture! 

i remember being very proud of it, and i was thrilled

when i delivered it to Gayl who welcomed 

it into her home outside of Boston.  on the completion of

the project, Bill gave me a copy of his book

'Once They Heard the Cheers', with what i remembered

as a wonderful inscription on the title page ... 

 time passed, and though i occasionally stopped to visit with

Betty and Bill before they passed, i don't think i saw Gayl again until 2023 

when she was in town for a high school reunion. it was

the year that Will was inducted into the Burr and Burton

hall of fame for the arts.  she recognized the name and touched

base with me afterwards. 

after she left, i looked high and low for the book, 

but i came up empty handed ... 

time passed again, and she had a gift for me when she arrived today!

 a copy of the book i couldn't find ... 

how she came by it and what it actually is, 

is the small world story ...  

 

her daughter got married this past summer in new hampshire.

before the wedding one of the bride's friends was in a used

bookstore, knew the relationship of the book to the

bride's grandfather, bought it, and passed it on to her. 

because of what was inside, the daughter passed it to

her mom, who passed it to me today.  you can't make this up!

the book her daughter's friend bought was 

 ACTUALLY MY LONG LOST BOOK!!!

how this happened, i have no idea 

Kit says it was 'karma' ...and i'll buy that. 

 i may have loaned it to someone who didn't return it, 

or we may have accidentally de accessioned

it when we moved from Arlington to dorset in 1996

but, who knows?

below is some more info on mr. heinz, the sportswriter ...

click the photos to enlarge them ...  

the front and back inside flaps

 

the back of the book .. 

here's to Karma! 

 

one final note ... W.C. Heinz is famous for two other things:

 #1. his collaboration with former military surgeon

Richard Hornberger to get the 1968 book 'Mash'

published.  the rest of that is history:

book, movie, television show! what a legacy!

 

and #2. a short article from 1949 in the New York Sun

titled 'death of a racehorse' .. an essay justly compared to 

Hemingway and others as one of the 'finest short stories'  of all time ...

the link to it in that link doesn't work, but this one will take you there