The Murdock Muse - July, 2011
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE: HOWLETT-DEANGELIS 2011 Reunion (Polly Joubert) Click R.I.P. BETTY BISBEE (Bob Murdock) Click AT THE GROCERY STORE (Barbara DiStefano) Click IRONWOOD UPDATE (Nancy A. Murdock) Click BUSY, BUSY (Gene Murdock) Click HUBBARDSTON CHRONICLES (Scott Murdock) Click Part 2 DOTTY FEATURED IN NEWSPAPER (Bob Murdock) Click R.I.P. BILL MOORE (Bob Murdock) Click TRIP REPORT (Polly Joubert) Click |
By Colleen McKay
Quilt", 2012 Gallery photo Quilt index |
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Bob Murdock In April, 2011 we received an obituary from the Gardner News, forwarded by my sister Margery Aukstikalnis. Thelma "Betty" Bisbee was our cousin, and we last saw her in year 2000, at the 50th Anniversary celebration for Nancy and me in Gardner, Mass. The following is an excerpt from the newspaper article. - - - - - - - - - - - Thelma E. “Betty” (Murdock) Bisbee, 76, of 79 Bridge Street, Baldwinville, died peacefully Thursday evening, April 14th in Heywood Hospital, Gardner, with her family at her side. She was born in Baldwinville on March 17, 1935, the daughter of the late Frank M. and Lillian (Wyman) Murdock and returned to Baldwinville in 1999 after living for over 20 years in Ashburnham. Betty worked as a home health aide for several years until her retirement. Many years ago she worked at the former Winchendon Dress Shop. Anyone who knew Betty can appreciate how much she loved her children and her family. Family meant the world to Betty and to all who knew and loved her, she will be greatly missed. She was a very giving person and was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and sister. She enjoyed crafts, making quilts, baking pumpkin raisin bread and cookies, watching butterflies, rodeos, America’s Funniest Videos and squirrels. Betty also loved cats and dogs. She leaves her husband of 48 years, Paul R. Bisbee Sr.; three sons, Paul R. Bisbee Jr and his wife Joni of Baldwinville, James F. Bisbee and his significant other Donna Stults of So. Portland, Maine and Matthew A. Bisbee and his wife Michelle of Gardner; a brother, Sidney A. Murdock of Winchendon; two sisters, Florence E. Murdock of Winchendon and Nancy L. Desmond of Fort Pierce, Florida; five grandchildren, Nathan Bisbee and his wife Keri, Nicole Bisbee, Jacob Bisbee, Brady Bisbee and Ethan Bisbee; three step grandchildren, Jimmy Kelley, Scott Kelley and Michael Kelley; one great grandchild Wyatt Bisbee, her cat Tinker and several nephews and nieces. Betty was predeceased by two sisters, Louise Murdock Whitney and Ethel Lirette. |
Barb, 2010 |
Barbara DiStefano (March 10, 2011) - At the checkout today with $196 worth of groceries for the 17-day diet, I set my debit card down to help with the bagging. Near the end I couldn't find my card - checked the counter, my purse and pockets. When I pulled stuff out of my purse to look, some crumbled bacon flew out of a napkin (I forgot I put it there when we went out to breakfast Sunday). The clerk looked at me funny, so I said, "OH, long story, my niece is a practical joker!" Then I told the clerk I couldn't find my card so would have to write a check (which has to be approved at the service desk). Then the man behind me tapped me and said "good thing I have my hearing aid on" as he pointed to the floor, and there was my card !! I ran it through, put my groceries in the cart and went to the car. Once the groceries were in the trunk, I got in the drivers seat and LAUGHED MY BUTT OFF!! Because Teddie didn't know I blamed her for the bacon! (If you are not a relative reading this you won't understand; my relatives will just nod and roll their eyes and laugh...) |
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Nancy A. Murdock June 25, 2011: We are pleased to look at the outside thermometer, after many days of disappointment as we found the temperature was announcing numbers like 40 degrees (on a good day). I believe it is announcing 70 degrees today. We also have sunshine. This is not a definite piece of daily news, even though we are now in the part of the calendar devoted to Summer. We have been slowly working toward more of a garden. Now that the lawn is looking more green and pleasant, we are slowly working toward putting plants into the proper spots. Darrel took us to Little Finland last month, so I bought two good-looking bags of mulch, along with a couple of what looks like bouquets. They are doing well in the garden here. A few days later, I bought one tomato plant that is supposed to be the big red juicy kind (I forget the exact name). Yesterday we got a nice large container to plant the tomato, after stuffing the container with mulch and tomato potting soil. We also have a combo of tomatoes and winter squash, in the big basket we used for the small tomatoes last year. I guess the trick is to find the best arrangements we can find and plant the items with confidence. I was late planting my marigold and other seeds, so I can’t see any of them popping up yet. I had to give up on the bulbs I had bought at our local K-Mart, but maybe next year will bring forth more excitement. When I made a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation, they sent me a package that said it contained “2 baby trees.” Darrel was here at the time, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to plant my trees. It turned out that there were TWO baby purple lilac “trees”, but then we found there was supposed to be a baby blue spruce tree. When Darrel took it out of the package, we found there were actually NINE blue spruce twined together. He carefully separated them and planted them in a circle in a large metal bowl. When I was ready to plant them out in the yard, I mentioned it to Darrel, but he was horrified. He said I couldn’t plant it here, because it will grow to 45 feet tall, and it could destroy my house. So at this point, I am trying to figure out who in this area might be willing to take care of nine baby trees that will grow to 45 feet tall. I figure there are enough of them in the area that there must also be several knowledgeable natives who can plant them on the trail. If only I had known earlier, I could have joined the group that walked up the hills and planted trees on Arbor Day. If I recall correctly, some of the ones planting on Arbor Day were in kindergarten. I bet I could do as well as a five-year-old, with some assistance. On another subject, we have been fortunate to have Colleen McKay for two visits this year The first time was Easter Sunday. She drove all the way from Mpls/StPaul. On her second visit this year, Pentacost Sunday, she took advantage of a new arrangement that involves a local airfield, just starting this year. It turned out that she had gone to Iceland on the first leg of her journey, so she kindly showed us all her photos from that trip. Colleen and I attended the Roman Catholic church across the street from our church, and then we went to our church. It was a really great opportunity! I hope she enjoyed it all as much as I did. (Bob was unable to attend because of ill health.) We drove her to the new airport the next day. It was interesting to see the area where the new airport was put up. I hope the arrangement with Frontier Airlines lasts. I suspect it was partly a chance to find jobs for people nearby. Our son Darrel has been very fortunate in finding work up here. He has had a lot of work with group homes for people who need help in doing ordinary things, like dressing, bathing, eating, etc. So he was a good choice for the opening here, and the ones who are over him are very pleased with their choice of him for this job. This works out well with the updating of his home, also. He and Mary have been working very hard, and it is really paying off now. I am very impressed with the amount of hard work they have put into their house in Ironwood Township. Several years ago, I wrote a piece named “Celebrate the Day.” I found it a few days ago and enjoyed reading it over. I have decided to write a new, updated one, based on living up here. Maybe I can learn the names of some of the birds that share our yard. I guess that’s about the news for now. Hope you are all well and enjoying decent weather. |
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Gene Murdock Hi Folks! April 12, 2011 - I say Busy, Busy, because for each of the next three days I have both a medical appointment and a "business" appointment, and two lunches out on the town. Yesterday I walked out in the evening at 7:30 p.m. - getting dark but still enough light for my task. I walked up the street towards the turkey vulture tree to pinpoint its location and see how much I can make out in the way of details. First of all I paced off the distance and found it to be about 900 feet (three football fields long) from my window. The view up close was fantastic! I could see all the birds clearly that resided in the tree, so I took an actual count and came up with a total of 80 birds instead of the 50 I had previously thought were there. Also yesterday I was in Wal-Mart when I ran into Robin and Lindsey!!! I had a nice long chat with them and got brought up to date on all the happenings. Robin is being transferred to Burlington, Vermont in July, and will still be doing medical recruiting. Vicki will go with her, and it will probably be for four years at which time she will retire. She is all excited about getting together with our families in the area! She will keep the house in Glenwood where Lindsey and Ashley will live while they go to school. Lindsey starts this fall at Clarkson College in Nebraska for a nursing degree. Ashley is extremely busy with her studies in the same field. Tim finishes up his Korean tour and gets discharged from thge Army so he can come back and go to school as well. I had a nice chat with Dotty on the telephone (remember them?) recently. Minutes before the Red Sox game started I told her we had to work together to root them on to a victory and get away from the six losses they had collected. She agreed, we did, and they won. Way to go, Sis! Love, Gene |
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Scott Murdock The Hubbardston Chronicles started as journal notes during my family’s vacation in the Summer of 1974, when we were en route from Florida to Guam. My father Gene Murdock (Bob’s brother) was in the Air Force so we moved frequently. I was 15 at the time, and my brother Eric was 11. The locale for the vacation was the Murdock home on Old Princeton Road. My dad lived here as a child, and in 1974 it was home to my grandmother Christel Murdock. Musers may know this is now the home of my cousin Teddie and her family. An area of the woods we hiked in, behind the house, is now a retirement apartment where my aunt Dotty lives. (It seemed like a long hike at the time, but the house was only a few hundred feet from Brigham Pond!) The document, linked below, is scanned from my original typewritten pages. From my hand-scribbled notes, I used a manual typewriter to produce a few copies of this document. I kept one, and gave others to my brother Eric and our cousin Mary Leskinen. Although 1974 seemed modern enough at the time, we didn’t have computers or cell phones. We didn’t post to Facebook, or send text messages. We only received a few television channels – no cable or dish or flat screen or H.D. We listened to songs like “Smoking in the Boys Room,” “Bennie and the Jets,” and “Seasons in the Sun” on our A.M. transistor radios that summer -- CDs and MP3s were still years in the future. And yet somehow, we weren’t bored. Enjoy this flashback to a simpler time! |
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