November 18, 1995: My 49th Birthday Party
	October 25-29, 1995: A Fall Trip to Arkansas
	Return to the Index for 1995

Fred was going to his mother's for the next weekend, and would be working the weekend after that, so I decided to take this opportunity for a trip home.

I left on Thursday, November 2, and did the now familiar all day drive to Charlotte, arriving about eleven-thirty that night.

The map above is a current one as of 2015, but in 1995 some of the highways shown weren't yet built. Most notably, the I-485 loop around Charlotte was only on the drawing boards; if it had been in place when I took this trip, I would have taken a different route into my Mom's neighborhood.

Mom and I played bridge the very next day, and we just did our normal errands, relaxing, playing bridge, and catching up.

The following Tuesday, I drove up to my sister's house to spend some time with her and Bob. Once again, the maps at left are current for 2015, but the route was somewhat different in 1995.

For one thing, there is now a new bypass around eastern Greensboro for I-85, and the old route, which always had a lot of congestion, is now designated Business I-85.

Also, in 1995, the best way to get to my sister's house from the freeway was to get off on Huffman-Mill Road and then take a circuitous route back west and then north through the town of Elon and then out to the northwest to Judy's house. Now, there are new developments and shopping areas west of that exit, and so a new exit has been constructed from I-85 to get to them. They have also built a bypass route that goes around Elon to the northwest, and it is much easier and a straighter shot to take this road and miss the little town of Elon, and its college, entirely.

But today, I took the old route, but instead of going directly to my sister's house, I decided to surprise her at the middle school where she works.

When I got to her middle school, I went through the procedures to stop in at the office and sign in as a visitor. Then, knowing my way around the school already, I headed directly to the library where my sister worked.

At left is my sister Judy at her library desk at the Alamance Middle School. Judy is a library aide here at the middle school, and I think she likes her job a great deal, as it gives her something to do other than take care of horses.

Judy was, of course, surprised to see me at the school, although she knew I was coming up for a visit. As family are wont to do, she gave me the ten-cent tour and introduced me around.

At right are Judy and her co-workers at the Alamance Middle School. The girl at left is the actual librarian, and has the office behind Judy. The other girl is one of the teachers. They look awfully young for their positions, but I guess that's just the vantage point of age.

My sister certainly looks good; I guess having her own computer to get out online, and having her own job to keep her busy and involved in the world outside her farm have been good for her. How good, I wouldn't find out for some time.

I got to meet some of the teachers Judy knows, and she and had some lunch in the raucous school cafeteria- which is totally unlike the cafeterias at the schools I attended growing up; today, they are more like fast food restaurants, and the girth of many of the kids demonstrates quite graphically that they would be much better off with a set, nutritious meal.

Here again is Judy at her library desk. The book she is holding is the one she was reading when I arrived; her actual reading interests are quite eclectic, but skewed to books about the natural world. This, I guess, is how life began. I just thought the juxtaposition of my sister and this book she was reading was appropriate.

As I said, Judy took me around to meet some of her friends, and we went down to the cafeteria for lunch. The kids seem very young and noisy, but I guess we were the same way at that age.

I spent two nights with Judy, and we did a lot of stuff on her computer. I brought a lot of software with me, and got her machine set up to use it all. She is out on the net, now, and does a lot of chatting and browsing. I, myself, am just getting set up with my own service, and we talked about Web sites, home pages, and all the arcane stuff on the Internet. It was a very pleasant three days. Judy planned on coming down to Charlotte that weekend for the day, to see me, Mom and Ted.

I got back down to Charlotte after a few days, and my Mom and I got back in our routine of playing bridge a couple of times a day.

As she promised, Judy came down on my last weekend at home, and she, Mom, Ted and I got to do some stuff together.

On the Monday before I left, we were playing in an evening game, and my Mom got dressed up. Since I don't have all that many pictures of my Mom, I took advantage of her being dressed up to get the picture at right of her in her living room.

Unfortunately, after getting the picture back, I saw that the shadow made her hair look all funny, so I resolved to try again when I came home for Christmas.

I had a really good visit at home and at my sister's house, but I headed home on Wednesday, November 15. I got a real early start, made good time, and was home by ten.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 18, 1995: My 49th Birthday Party
	October 25-29, 1995: A Fall Trip to Arkansas
	Return to the Index for 1995