Thanksgiving

I am thankful this week for Danvers connections.  I have harvested the very last of my garden crop: Danvers Half-Long Carrots.  See photos below.  They are small, but oh, so very tasty!  I am savoring each one. 

Tomorrow I will be traveling north to visit with some very special people who were significant in my growing-up years in Danvers:

• Pat and Chuck Poirier, who lived at the corner of Nichols St and Durkee Circle, and welcomed neighborhood children into their home for fun craft projects, especially puppet-making.
• Janet Nichols Derouin, who lived with her young family at 123 Nichols St (near to my home), and then lived on Durkee Circle from 1959 to 1964.  She and Pat became very close friends.

My husband and I will join Pat and Chuck for a Thanksgiving meal in Concord, NH, where they now live.  Pat doesn't know it yet, but I plan to bring along the puppets I made at her house long ago.  I want to see the surprise on her face. Pat is almost 90, and I haven't seen her in years.

On Friday we'll be in Bridgton, Maine, celebrating Janet's 87th birthday. She lives there with her younger son Mont. Her husband Jed Derouin died in 2006.  Janet is my first cousin, and we have been in communication via email and phone calls over the years, but in-person visits are rare.  I last saw her in the spring of 2013.  She has kept in touch with Pat and Chuck.