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Nancy and Bob's tributes, Frost 50th Anniversary ON THEIR 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY, 2001 By Nancy (Howlett) Murdock I met Orrel Handy when we both entered Athol High School as freshmen. Orrel was with students she had known for many years, but everyone was new to me, since I was coming from a small school in the town of Hubbardston, which many of the kids had never heard of. Right from the beginning, I recognized Orrel as an extraordinarily good person, and I was thrilled when we became friends. This connection was aided by the alphabetic seating in our classes that placed Handy and Howlett together. We spent a lot of time speculating on our future husbands. Each week we would list our current top five boys. Orrel’s topmost one was always a boy from her church. Mine varied according to who had recently smiled at me, but Richard Kennedy, just behind Howlett in our alphabet, was usually near the top. In our sophomore year, the name Bob Murdock started appearing on my list, but that was just daydreaming. He might take me out to a movie or bowling, but he was in college and dated a long list of girls. At the end of our sophomore year, Orrel went to England to stay for a year with a relative, and the town of Hubbardston moved its students to Gardner. We might have lost track of each other, except that we were both missing Athol High and experiencing new frontiers in our lives. I always looked forward to Orrel‘s letters, the closest I was likely to get to international travel, I figured. When Orrel returned, she went directly into college, having passed the test that allowed English students to leave secondary school. After graduating from Gardner High School, I went to work in the Worcester Free Public Library. I lived in Worcester within walking distance of my work and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where my fiancé, Bob Murdock, attended college. Orrel and I continued to write, going on two very different tracks in life. Orrel began to mention a new man in her life, Charles Frost, who had the same religious background as she did. He even managed to visit her at her summer job, which was working with a group that took care of the children of migrant workers. When Bob and I planned our wedding for September 16, 1950, I asked Orrel to be my maid of honor. She bought a navy blue suit that she planned as her going-away outfit for her honeymoon in the following year, when she would marry Charlie. Orrel and Charlie’s wedding June 10, 1951, was a nice home wedding. Her mother made her wedding gown, a two-part outfit in white organdy and lace. The Frosts’ wedding was my introduction to the kind of strange jokes people play on newlyweds. As we gathered to throw rice and bid them bon voyage, someone barricaded the exit with another vehicle and wouldn’t move it. I remember that Orrel apparently wasn’t previously privy to that kind of impractical joke either, because with a very worried expression, she kept imploring everyone to clear the way so she and Charlie wouldn’t miss the train. She called upon her father to assist them, but I was surprised to see that he didn’t seem too worried - almost as if he had prior knowledge of the trick! Our paths crossed many times in the years we were raising children. Both families did a lot of moving, although the Murdocks weren’t able to work out an overseas assignment. We enjoyed the Frosts’ assignments vicariously, however. They would stop to visit us whenever they went through our current area. They even came to Minnesota in the middle of winter when they left Australia in the middle of summer. That is true friendship! When we were living in the same area, we always spent time with each other. At one point when Bob and I lived in Glen Burnie, MD, and the Frosts in Wheaton or Rockville, we managed several Thanksgiving dinners together. We also made homemade root beer one Saturday and a yeasty milk drink another time. That was in the days when most women stayed home and tried new recipes. Both Orrel and I canned tomatoes if the gardens produced enough. Orrel’s gardens always did well, because she never skimped on fertilizer or humus. Once when we were visiting from Minnesota, Orrel and our daughter Valerie stayed home and canned tomatoes and tomato juice while the rest of us went to the Smithsonian. Orrel’s garden was going wild that year, and everything ripened at once. They made the juice out of the many quarts of cherry tomatoes that were weighing down the vines. It was from Orrel that I learned to make Chinese food that was more genuine than the chow mein from canned bean sprouts that was my only Oriental dish. Her father-in-law liked to cook Chinese dishes, and she was always ready to pick up knowledge. It wasn’t easy to obtain exotic vegetables, tofu, etc., but at least I learned to slice the celery correctly. She also taught me to cook beef kidney stew, but I never got the same support at home for that delicacy. Although Bob and Charlie got their college degrees in the normal amount of time (and Charlie then went on to get not only a Master’s degree but also a Ph.D.), Orrel and I both spent many years taking courses toward a Bachelor’s degree. We majored in related subjects, too: she in English as a Second Language, and I in English. Our children still speak of “Aunt Orrel” and “Uncle Charlie.” Through our family newsletter, “The Murdock Muse,” they pick up information about what’s happening in the lives of the Frost family, including their “cousins.” The Frosts have been Muse readers for several years. They even wrote a long series of Muse movie reviews. And Bob and I love the Frosts’ three children: Pamela, Derek, and Stephanie. It’s always a treat to see them when they’re in the area of their parents’ retirement home in Cape Neddick, ME. We’ve had the good fortune to meet all of the grand-children, too. In fact we see them more often than our own, who are scattered around the country. Now that we are all once again on the same coast, we visit the Frosts each summer. They are great hosts, introducing us to walks on the Marginal Way, tours of the local nature reserves, and trips to the beaches and discount malls. They patiently wait while I take pictures of every clump of Lady’s Slippers on their land and in the Rachel Carson Nature Reserve. One year when the annual Howlett reunion had a French theme, Orrel and Charlie tirelessly drove us from place to place as Bob shopped for a beret. Thanks to their suggestions, Bob found an authentic beret in a military surplus store in the Wells area. A couple of years ago, Orrel and I decided to attend the Athol High School 50th reunion. We were undaunted by the fact that we had left that school two years before graduation. Through her cousin, Jeanne Cameron, Orrel had us added to the list of invitees. We had a great time getting reacquainted with all of our old classmates. I was particularly looking forward to seeing Richard Kennedy. When he arrived, I ran up to him and introduced myself. The poor man looked like a trapped rabbit; he didn’t recall me at all! A little later Orrel came back to the table all excited about what a great visit she had had with Richard, who had remembered things from their early grades and been so pleased to see her. At the buffet supper on the first evening of the reunion, it turned out that we weren’t the only ones who hadn’t graduated from Athol High. The nervous woman seated on my left was pleased when she discovered I hadn’t graduated from there. She said, “Did you get your GED?” She looked crestfallen when I said no, that I’d been transferred to Gardner. (I definitely didn’t want to tell her that I had a BA degree.) Orrel, sitting across from us, smiled and said, “I did. I got my GED.” It made the woman really happy! As I recall, Orrel didn’t mention until later that the University of MD had made her get the GED before they would award the Bachelor’s degree for which she had completed all the credits. One thing that Charlie and I had in common was that we both worked for the U.S. Government. But Charlie, who worked mainly for the State Department, retired early and became a college professor at what is now Truman State University. One year Bob and I made a tour of the eastern half of the country in two weeks, including a stop in MO to see the Frosts. The evening we arrived, we were treated to a “two pie supper”: cheese quiche and cherry pie. It was a truly memorable meal, the kind of forbidden fruit we all love but can’t imagine having. We truly appreciate the vegetarian meals the Frosts serve when we come to visit. They always make us feel it’s a treat to come up with these menus, not a chore. They get quite creative about planning the meals. One year we featured a different country’s cuisine each day. Charlie dubbed it “The International Festival.” Another event we look forward to at Frosts’ is movies. Bob and I hardly ever see any movies, but the Frosts pick quite unusual ones, such as Chinese or Vietnamese films. Somehow, although we don’t manage to stay awake through much footage at home, we remain riveted at the Frosts’. Yes, we’ve had a long, wonderful friendship with Orrel and Charlie Frost and their nice family, beginning in 1945. Orrel said recently that we both were blessed by God in our marriages, and I totally agreed. But I would add that we’ve also been blessed by God in our friendship. With all of the moving around we’ve all done, what are the chances that two couples who weren’t from the same town, and had only two years of high school together by the wives as an initial common denominator, would still be close friends when we both celebrated our 50th wedding anniversaries? God has truly blessed us. And may he give the Frosts many more happy years together! Nancy (Howlett) Murdock By Bob Murdock - June, 2001 Early on, I noticed that you could always find a cat or two around. That was great, because Nancy and I love cats too. At their house, the pets got tender loving care. They were pampered! For example, the little cat-entry door that Charlie built into a window of the laundry room. This served well until the time the Frosts heard a commotion in that room. They opened the door and found 12 neighborhood cats making strange noises! They had followed the resident pet (who was in heat) through the little door and into the house. End cat-entry plan. At our own house in Glen Burnie, we took in a lovely gray and white cat, whom we named Bibbie. She soon produced a part-Manx litter for us. There were more kittens than we could handle, so we offered to share with the Frosts. They agreed, and thus began the great Frost-Murdock Cat Exchange Program. One kitten they took was Tiger, whom they renamed Tigger. She in time also produced a litter, but this was a surplus; so the Murdocks inherited two of her kittens: Bambi, with a very short tail, and Puzzle. The Exchange Program ended when we moved to Minnesota, taking Bambi with us. One thing I liked about the Frosts was that they were sophisticated. A higher level of culture, you might say. Orrel was a great cook with a flair for foreign dishes - but equally good with the domestic cuisine. One time in Wheaton she cooked a Smithfield Ham. I’d never had it before - I thought it was something served only in Virginia mansions. As for Charlie, I knew he was intellectual when I found that he subscribed to the Christian Science Monitor, a world class newspaper. He was, after all, an alumnus of the Fletcher School of Diplomacy! And when he visited us in California, we decided to have a high time one evening. I took him to the main library at Southern Cal University, and we really lived it up, browsing among the bookshelves. It has been a real pleasure knowing Orrel and Charlie for more than 50 years. For one thing, they have a flair for hospitality, as so many of their visitors have found. They make us feel at home as soon as we get inside the door. They serve delicious and exotic food. And not least, they enjoy the afternoon nap. My kind of people! Robert D. Murdock |
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