Summer Recap

From letter dated July 31, 1961

The children and I had a wonderful time visiting my family in Michigan. We left Higgins Lake the morning of the 18th, terribly disappointed that the space flight had been postponed. Alex was desperately anxious to see it but, of course, we missed it completely as there is no TV in Belize.

We left Grand Rapids the next morning, had a little over an hour in Chicago, and were in Miami slightly before four in the afternoon. The weather was not too good, very cloudy and often rainy. We had our seat-belts fastened for half the flight, but the little rocking and rolling the plane did was really more pleasant than not. However, during the afternoon, as we were lashed down and tossing about a bit with clouds closed in so that you could not see the wingtips, the captain came on the intercom to announce, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just passed over Cape Canaveral and perhaps now you see why they didn’t shoot off Captain Grissom this morning.”

 

We stayed overnight at the Airport Hotel. In the morning when I checked in with TAN for our flight to Belize, the agent said that “Carolyn Jones” had been asking about me. Well, I asked him to repeat the name, thought about it, and finally said I couldn’t possibly imagine who she could be. He rifled through his tickets, found the right one, checked the name and repeated, yes, it was Carolyn Jones. I just laughed and said I’d better try to remember her, turned around, and there sitting with my two children was Callie (Carolyn) Young, my close friend and the wife of Bucher’s partner in the wood factory here.

I had known Callie was going to Miami but thought she had gone back to Belize a week earlier. I told her about the confusion at the desk and she, nodding happily with the assurance of many more years than I of living in Central America, said, “That’s right, Carolyn Jung; that’s the way they always pronounce it.” No wonder they lost me! Anyway, we sat together on the flight south and had a wonderful visit.

 

Bucher was still in pretty much of a madhouse business-wise when I got back. Lobster season just had started and he was buying, processing, and shipping as fast as possible. He looked well; Concie had the house in nice condition; and Pedro-the-Beagle went completely to pieces when we all returned. Bucher quite literally had thought a couple time that Pedro might die, he grieved so while we were away. He looked perfectly awful, though I know he’d had perfect care. But withing a day, his eyes were bright, his coat shiny, and he was in perfect condition.

 

We came in just ahead of Hurricane Anna. Bucher has had a good bit of experience with hurricanes; we had “evacuation” plans; he listened to the shortwave radio reports from ships near the storm, plotted its course, watched the barometer, and decided that we probably were safe. As it happened, we had a lot of rain and something of a blow, but less wind than we’ve had since then on ordinary nights.

But the town prepared for the worst. Women packed away silver, china, pictures, lamps, rolled up rugs, locked their clothes in trunks, and literally headed for the hills. Not only were large glass shop windows boarded up, but people nailed boards over the shutters that protected the glass in the windows of their homes. The owner of a small family hotel turned out all guests, locked up, and drove the family up to the Guatemalan border. I’ve never seen anything like it.

 

This weekend Bucher’s partner from Miami, Don Eckis, has been here. He is having a seventy-some-foot yacht built, and he brought his designer down to confer with the builder. The designer, John Atkin, is the son of one of the top naval architects, William Atkin; John himself has something of a national reputation in the field. He’s just slightly older that we are and couldn’t have been nicer. He loved Belize and, after the first shock at the casual way Denys Bradley’s boatyard operates, decided that Denys really could do a fine job on Don’s boat.

We had a great time with Don and John, of course, but the really happy person was Alex. He’s seen Atkin’s designs in Yachting Magazine for years and the idea of meeting MR. ATKIN was about the most exciting thing that could happen to him.

Bucher took Alex with him Sunday morning and John asked Alex to show him around Belize. So, the two of them set out on foot and spent two hours off by themselves. Later John was very complimentary about Alex’s interest in, and knowledge of, boat design. John even mentioned that Alex asked some good questions and, more important, listened carefully to the answers. John also said that, if he had paid more attention to details, he should be able to tell us the owner and past history of every boat in Belize, since Alex filled him in on every one of them. Alex even pointed out a boat designed by John’s father and told him how the local builder had changed the design building it. As you can judge, it was a big weekend for Alex!

 

I have a busy week or so ahead of me now. After several poor solutions to the problem of a bookkeeper, Bucher has hired me to do it…and I, who throughout my school career never had been completely convinced that 2 + 2 = 4, only hope I justify his faith.

I have had only some patchwork training for it, but I’ve been working over the books from the first of the year on, have learned the system, and have even gotten far enough to know why I’m doing something as well as what I have to do. I’m behind, of course, because of our trip, so I’m getting June and July caught up.

Since the fiscal year ends today, I have to get everything balanced out and ready for the auditors. I’m really awfully glad, since it has given me a chance to learn the system and make my mistakes and corrections in the old books. They will start me off for the new year with a verified balance and a new set of ledgers. Instead of the loose-leaf ledgers, they use the old-fashioned bound ones here, so all the trial and error stuff of getting the books the way they wanted when this company was bought a year ago will be out of sight from now on. And I do love to have things tidy!