Dear Dottie, Greetings after how many years? A Northfield reunion I think. I am enclosing memories of our childhood and my teenage years in Ainab, imagining that most of you will have similiar recalls...The years start in 1934 and for me go to 1945 and 1947 and a summer of 1959 when Marga and I spent two months with my parents and our collective kids. We had our house and Marga's family rented the Close house.
Here are some memories...Shouts of "Car..car " when visitors drove up our steep roadway and we raced from our homes to reach the parking lot before the car...cracking snobars...climbing trees...Big TREE...cement roads built by our big brothers...tennis for all and competitive matches...Sardines after dark with Mr. Dodd...campfires and Sunday sings with the adults...endless games of Monopoly and other board and card games...family picnics to the outer groves, lahm mishwe, majedra and watermelon on the menu...360 degree view from the top of the hill behind the Dodd house.and playing on those rocks....all day hikes to Tom Sawyer, the Jisr and Fizur for swims...Saturday hikes over the Hills to Shemlan and baseball...walking the grove path at night with lantern and flashlight...gorgeous views of Beirut from the Close house...pumping chore to bring water from the cistern to a tank in the attic...collecting shrapnel on the mountainside from British warships shelling.the Shouf mountains.during WW ll...sleeping in the shack with Marga along with katydids that jumped on our mosquito netting...and I hated the spiders on the walls!!!
How safe and independent we felt during those summers and what an amazing and beloved community'. I hope you all can relate to some or all of this. Best to all you Ainabies. Helen Leavitt Campbell.
Ainab kids with Virginie (?), 1934?
L to R: Marga & Helen Leavitt, Peter & Bruce Dodd, ? , Ray Close
Summer vegetables, from the Dodd family archives
Donkey delivery was the next best thing (after cars)
L to R: Garabed, Molly Crawford, Bruce & Peter Dodd
I am very excited about AUB Community in the 1930's. My Grandparents are Walter & Helen Ritsher, My Mother Helen Ritsher told many stories of growing up in Beruit with her sisters Marjo , Anne and brother John. She had many fond memories of Beruit and AUB. My mother kept in touch with Helen "Beezubs" Leavitt
ReplyDeletefor many years, One of my happiest memories is of enjoying "Mudds" a wonderful ice cream chocolate syrup and malted milk treat. My Mom's story of the AUB Community evacuation from Beruit in 1941 during World War Two is amazing. My Uncle John Ritsher has made a couple return visits to AUB since the Ritsher family left Lebanon. I am saddened to say My Mom Helen Ritsher along with her sisters Marjo and Anne have passed away only John Ritsher is still alive. My Mom married my father Fulton Rindge. Later they divorced and Helen married the famous portrait Artist George Augusta. Marjo married John Meyer ( Hydrofoil Designer for Boeing Aircraft) and Anne married Richard Carter ( Professor at Rochester Institute
of Technology) Sincerely Daniel Walter Rindge Newburyport Massachusetts
Many thanks for this comment!
ReplyDelete