It Sold!

Yes, after 76 days on the market and two price markdowns, our wonderful Virginia home is under contract. It has taken much prayer and a lot of good hands to get the job done. We have worked many 12 hour days. Much of our furniture has been given to our children or sold on Craigslist, and there are still many large items to sell before moving day on Oct. 30. Vickie (photo to right), our astute, hard working real estate agent, has done a fabulous job marketing our home during this historically severe housing crisis. She has held an open house every other week and has run some fantastic ads. Lisa our lovely, energetic neighbor and creative professional decorator has been an inspirational encourager during the entire staging and selling process. She has even loaned us her plants and some appropriate home accessories for staging purposes. We also have had access to her pickup truck. Her friend Diane, has allowed us to store over 50 boxes of stuff in her basement. That meant that multiple ugly cardboard boxes have not been visible to potential buyers. Jim, our contractor, has been there when we needed him for required repairs. His prices are fair, he is a man of his word, and he and his crew have provided quality work no matter what the task.

It was during a recent open house that a wonderful Florida couple with grown children fell in love with our home. He is a CPA and recently came to Northern Virginia with a better job; she telecommutes for IBM. She says our house reminds her of her childhood home in PA. We could not accept their initial offer, so they decided to buy a smaller home in our subdivision. However, after it failed inspection, they came back to us with a better offer. God is good!

No longer do we have to be ready every minute for a prospect's tour of our house. We accepted less money than we would have gotten a year ago, but we bought our Texas home at a most reasonable price back in April. Besides, homes in the Greater Washington, DC Area are still going for about eight times more than they were in 1977 when we moved here. So after 30 years in the quaint Village of Vienna, and with wonderful memories of our four younger children growing up here and graduating from Madison High School, our natural scenic view of Tanglewood Community Park with its wide array of plants and wildlife will soon be history. There is an element of sadness about departing, but the Lord has called us to Texas. There we will have lower taxes, far less traffic and some extra money in the bank. Now we await our purpose for a new life in the Lone Star State.

50th Class Reunion: BGSU

Last weekend we took our Airstream to Bowling Green Ohio to help celebrate our graduation from BGSU in 1957. It was a grand homecoming event, and we were treated as honored guests. There were many special events for our class to include receptions, meals, a walking tour, and a bus tour of the campus, which is at least three times larger that it was 50 years ago. Our tickets for the Homecoming football game were excellent, and our team won handily over Western Kentucky.

The greatest fun was reminiscing with old classmates, most of whom we had not seen for 50 years. We could not believe how old THEY had gotten. One of our more vocal classmates (people don't really change personalities) kept shouting, "Where's the queen?" She (Homecoming Queen 1957) was there, but we do change in looks. Jerry was delighted that he had selected his "queen." Many marriages have disolved, and many members have gone on to Glory. We felt blessed to be so active and healthy.

We made sure that we toured the old library (now Office of the President and other executives) where we had spent many evening hours "studying" while holding hands and quaint Prout Chapel where we married three months after graduation. Jerry also toured his home town of Rudolph. The little white house that he and his mother lived in is still there. Hopefully, it now has plumbing. The old brick schoolhouse where he attended first and second grades stands, but is now a civic center. We held our wedding reception there on September 7, 1957. It was all our $400 wedding budget would allow.

We also took time during the few days we were in the Bowling Green area to visit Gloria's sister and family in Leipsic. Gloria spent a couple of hours at Delta Gamma, her sorority (best on campus in 1957). During the 1970s , Jerry's fraternity lost it's charter for engaging in extra curricular activities unbecoming an ATO. The good news is that a new Tau Colony has been founded, and there will be a new ATO charter issued in December. Jerry stopped by their tent outside the stadium, encouraged them and pledged his support for their new chapter. In the spirit of Old Alpha, we enjoyed separate meals with three of Jerry's favorite brothers from the fifties, Ray, Don and Jim.