TEXT:
Dear Greggie and Lau –
We saw a deer just like this one last night. There are many small baby does this year at Green Lake. The weather here has been bright and beautiful. I hope that you two are having a good time in Boston. Greg, do you remember Uncle Arthur Whitaker, the minister who played with you on the floor of your room and gave you money for your piggy bank? Well, he and his wife are here and they said “hello”. I showed them your picture and Lauren’s too! I love you both.
Love, Daddy
ME:
I suspect that at the age of 5, I would have remembered Uncle Arthur Whitaker or at least recalled being given money for my piggy bank. Unfortunately I do not remember him now. All I recall is that my piggy bank was a metal Mickey Mouse piggy bank (exactly like the one to the left) and I used to love the smell of metal coins on my hands as a child.
It is interesting that Dad would choose a picture of a snowy Wisconsin to send in the middle of the summer. And that we were apparently visiting my cousins in Boston long enough for him to send a postcard to their address.
As a teenager I visited the Retreat Center in Green Lake Wisconsin half a dozen times. Never once did I see a deer or Uncle Arthur.
DAD:
In June 1980, I was on the staff of the Dept. of Ministry with Youth in Educational Ministries of the American Baptist Churches leading the second ever national gathering of ABC Youth called “Jubilee” at Green Lake, Wisconsin. There were around 2000 people utilizing both the grounds of the American Baptist Assembly at Green Lake and the dorms at Ripon College in Ripon, WI. This was a huge undertaking for our department; I was the “junior” staff member since my other three colleagues had more tenure than me. This is why Greg and his sister were visiting their Ng Grandmother in Boston while I was away for more than 2 weeks. Greg just turned 5 and Lauren was 2 1/2.
Rev. Arthur Whitaker worked at The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts in urban ministries in Boston. When I was in seminary, Mom worked as Rev. Whitaker’s secretary and I participated in a project in the South End of Boston trying to build a coalition of mainly Black churches to work together for urban renewal. With two other seminarians (one man and one woman) walking the streets of Boston, I felt like we were the “Mod Squad!”
It’s interesting that I would send a postcard of a deer in the snow when it was probably hot, humid, and hazy in June in Wisconsin! My guess is that I wanted Greg and Lauren to identify with something they know about instead of such abstract things like “a Baptist youth conference!” Maybe it was also hot, humid, and hazy in Boston and seeing the snow on the postcard might have cooled them off.
Recently, there was an article in the San Francisco papers about the origin of the Forty-Niners coach Mike Singletary’s large cross hanging around his neck. He told the reporters that he received it at a “Baptist Retreat in Green Lake, Wisconsin.” When I read that, I can only assume that it was the same place that I spent countless times leading conferences for American Baptists and the while doing that, missing our son, Greg, and our daughter, Lauren.
Posted on December 28th, 2008 by Gregory and Dad
Filed under: Green Lake, Wisconsin
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