Dad (George B., Jr.) retired in the mid-sixties: he and mom (Frances) toured the country for awhile, then lived in a number of apartments in and around Jamestown until he died at 92 in Gustavus Adolphus nursing home early in December of 1997. Mom stayed at the Dieburt House residence during his last couple of years. After he died, she moved up to Maine to the farm where older brother Bob, after working in movies and theatre in New York City for many years, had moved with his new wife, Lyn.

Oldest sister, Mary, married Al Bailey, Jr. (his father had something to do with Automatic Voting Machine Co., I think). They lived near Pittsburgh, where Al worked for many years at Mellon Bank. They had four kids: two boys and two girls. After Al retired, they lived awhile down near the gulf in Alabama, and now live outside of Chicago.

I attended Jamestown Community College for a couple of years, while working as a radio announcer-engineer in Jamestown and in other towns and cities in upstate New York. I moved to NYC in the mid-'60s, and have been here ever since; working in movies, sound, and radio as an audio engineer. I've just retired after 12 years as a production engineer at WQXR, the classical FM station of the NY Times.

The youngest, Martha, went west; to Hiram College in Ohio, then to Mexico and California. She had bipolar personality disorder, and was beset by worry and depression, which disrupted her usual happy and optimistic disposition as the condition worsened. She moved back to Jamestown to be near Mom and Dad, and lived in a succession of apartments around the city. She became morbidly obese (perhaps due to the heavy psychotropic medications she was given) and because of that, diabetic. She suffered a massive and fatal heart attack on 26 June, 1998 (about six months after Dad's death).

Mom, who was born in 1911, is getting infirm, what with osteoporosis and a broken hip and a broken leg (she fell because of the broken hip); but she is of quite sound mind (better that mine, often), and good spirits. We miss Dad, of course, but he did what elderly people do after ninety-plus years. We both miss Martha most of all, though, because she died unexpectedly (she was 55), and we always hoped that she could find–if not happiness–at least peace while she was still alive.

The growing-up years in Jamestown were halcyon, indeed, and for all of the pains and stumbles of becoming an adult, I will never ever forget how beautiful and precious they were.

—Charles