Paper description Excerpts of letters sent by the author's grandfather (John Tait) from Britain to his wife at home in Canada during World War II. They had moved from Scotland to Canada in 1919. He sailed for the British Isles in late August 1939, while she remained in Canada. He was a physician and scientist who had suffered a heart attack the year before (in 1938) and was taking a medical leave of absence from his work. But war broke out shortly after he arrived in Scotland and travel home across the...

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The author focuses on memories accumulated over more than 35 years while servings as a volunteer wedding coordinator for her church in Winnetka, Illinois. she describes a wide range of emotions, how she handled challenges, and how it all touched her.

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An essay on the author's seven heroines, all of whom, like the author, have pushed ninety years old and beyond: writers Maya Angelou, Harper Lee, Nadine Gordimer, and Diana Athill; actress Elaine Stritch; athlete Olga Kotelko; and outrageous character Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

Paper description The story of four of the author's friends whose families were forced to flee their homeland Russia when Lenin took over in the Russian Revolution against the regime of Tsar Nicholas II. All the nobles were to be killed, their property destroyed. These families all made plans to leave immediately, they fled by sea. All had hoped to return shortly when it was safe to come back. After a year, they realized they would have to start over in a new land, the United States. We knew Michael Kadick,...

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The author's meditation on transitions: young marriage, new neighborhoods and cities, the aging and death of parents, the death of a child, effect of aging on hobbies (sailing, racing, the down-sizing and move to a retirement home. All losses that bring learning, new adventures, and determination to continue.

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Author describes two of her stormy sailing adventures in Maine. She shares two survival stories that occurred on the same small, wooden Herreshoff sailboat with the same skipper thirty-eight years apart. Each wild sailing adventure was unintentional. Susan did not set out to challenge either a hurricane or a microburst. She explains how she, her sailboat, and her passengers responded to the storms that surprised them.

Paper description Topics includeabout great grandchildren (and pleasures of life in ones 80s), contemporary social arrangements (sperm donors, single mothers), the science of developing fetuses (gender determination and PC, male models in Vogue), developments in medical science (predicting illness and determining treatments determination through DNA, artificial limbs made of tissue, computer chips and the brain, bioweapons (the use of tiny drones in spying, protection of the President's DNA by the Secret...

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The story of the author's grandfather, Paul Pearson, and his life travelling all across the country, giving lecture recitals, mostly related to poetry, and mostly under the tents of Chautauqua. Founded in New York in 1874 to spread education, Chautauqua expanded throughout the United States and is still in existence today. Some of the author's grandfather’s favorite poems are included, as is his legacy for five generations, down to poems by his great great grandchildren.

Paper description Joseph Smith Jr.: In his youth and young adulthood, Joseph Smith Jr. founded the Church of Christ, which gave rise to the most successful religion of American origin, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, popularly called Mormonism. The seeds of the Mormon faith were planted in western New York in 1820, when Joseph was just fourteen. “Joseph the Prophet” and his growing congregation met with persecution in New York and pushed westward to Kirtland, Ohio. Greater persecutions...

Paper description This is a set of writings consisting of three short pieces and a poem: The Homecoming- a non-fiction story of an elderly woman who deeply misses her family who lives far away. She is jolted at the end by their heartlessness. George-also a non-fiction story - of the writer's family poltergeist, the surprises he brings, as well as his own life story. Breathless On the Cherwell - a fanciful story of a quartet of young people out for a fling on a river near Oxford. The story leaves three of the...

Paper description A woman of some accomplishment tells the story of the powerful positive influence of Delta Airlines upon her career and upon her life. She turns to her paper notes, collected snippets over the years, and turns them into a comprehensive and captivating story. Off she went to discover two worlds: that of travel and more importantly that of assisting a mosaic of people move around in their lives while at the same time learning from each one. The reader meets some fine people and will recognize...

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The author writes with humor on idioms and acronyms, like LGBT, LOL, ASAP. Acronyms remind us of being left out of the youthful world, while idioms, many lost by time, bring back memories.

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The author defines and describes the "Belle Époque", a brief period of prosperity between the Franco-Prussian War and World War I, 1871-1914, characterized by innovation, creativity, political turmoil and rapid social change. Topics of the era mentioned include art, architecture, design, the two Paris world expositions, fashion technology, innovations and some prominent characters in the drama of transition to the modern world.

Scope and Contents From the Series:

The titles, summary descriptions and commentary are supplied by the author / presenter of the papers, and by members of the Winnetka Fortnightly.

Paper description The story of the author's growing young family. It is about a time (1949-1950s - post Depression and post World War II), a place (family homes in the communities of Hubbard Woods and Northfield), and Rick, the youngest child and only son, who was active and mischievous from the beginning. The family's first home was a Hubbard Woods apartment and when outgrown, with 2 children and Rick on the way, they moved to Northfield - farmland developing into "Winnetka's suburb". Her tale includes...

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This is the true story of Emerson Herbert Hills (Snookie), 1924-1944, who died in Germany in World War II at age twenty. This is about how his cousin investigated and found out about his life and death.

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The author tells the story of her descent into the hell of a compulsive gambling addiction and how it changed her view of who she was. The story takes a surprising turn when the author and her family learn the role a prescription drug had played in that addiction and how that knowledge and the support of several people saved her life.