A trip to the
Old Hometown —
Back to the beginnings!
A trip to Florida for Grace's Birthday and a following trip up to Wilmington, North Carolina, The Old Hometown, has become an annual institution. This year I reversed the process and flew into Raleigh first. We had made elaborate plans to have Jenny meet me at the Raleigh Durham Airport. We then planned to meet our friends, Mary Edith and Howard Alexander and Edith and Fred Cox, at Tripps Restaurant on the western edge of Raleigh. But even the most carefully worded plans can go wrong, and following Murphy's Law, they did. We circled for one hour at the 'appropriate' location for the Restaurant, talked by telephone with the workers at the Restaurant where our friends were probably slowly starving, and failed to find Tripps Restaurant located just off of Highway 40 - where everybody said it was! It turned out that Tripps is in the center of Raleigh, next to Meridith College, and just off Highway 440! With darkness closing in and stomachs growling, we decided to head on down the highway to Wilmington.
The house where I was born looks even better today than I remember
With such a start, I was sure that the rest of the trip would be plagued with problems, but that turned out to be wrong! It was a great visit with Jenny and Family and friends. We did all of the usual things to bring me up to date on changes in the area, we went to the Beaches and ate lots of good food including North Carolina Bar B Q. But the event that I want to share with you was the Lunch for the family at the Carolina Bar B Q.
Many of the family had conflicting schedules, but there were 24 there to enjoy the 'get to-gether' and the good Buffet. Harriet and Rick Settle came down from the Greensboro area with daughter, Jody, and Granddaughter, Elizabeth. I used that event to deliver a Booklet describing the Wettig Family Education Trust to all of those present. Nine of the eleven eligible children of the family were there to hear a brief description of the Trust and a short message from Dorothy Marshall about the importance of planning early for the needs of the College years.
Dorothy, the wife of my brother, Jesse, who died in April 1970, was the Registrar of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington for many years before her retirement. She is quite familiar with the financial demands made upon a family when College time begins. Her message was a challenge to the parents and the young ones to begin planning now for enrollment in a College or University at the completion of High School years. The Wettig Education Trust will be of some assistance, but will have to grow a few years before it can make substantial grants to eligible students.
The family members for whom the Trust is established are those descendants of Vina and Harry Wettig who were born after the year 1993. The picture above shows all of those who attended the Lunch who are in this group. Jasmine and Keegan were not able to come to the lunch. Others in the picture are, from left back row, Bryce, brother of Jasmine, Haley, Elizabeth , Chase and Lance . In the middle row from left to right are Dayne, Walker and Cara. In front is the youngest member of the group Amelia Ann. I know that there are some inaccuracies in the spellings in this list, but I will rely on Walker to correct these for me after he reads this Page. Walker, at age four, corrected the spellings of all of the family names in my report of the vacation at Fort Caswell. These are bright and beautiful kids, with unlimited promise which will depend upon the foresight of their parents and their individual integrity for development. They deserve the best!
Before the crowd gathered, I asked Bryce if he would roam around through the group and take some pictures for me to place on this Page. I quickly went through the use of the camera (the picture at the right is a self portrait as Bryce was learning what each button would do.) I think you will agree that Bryce did a great job of capturing all of those who were there, as well as getting some interesting expressions and compositions. This is a very talented young man. The encounter with all of these kids gave me a better understanding of their current interests and their potentials. Click on a photo to see the larger image. Following photos are by Bryce Walker, age 12 (?):
And there is a good Photojournalism story of the Family Gathering as told in the pictures by Bryce! An Excellent job!
It was a great party and the photographs by Bryce attest to that. The facility that Jenny found, The Carolina Bar BQ, was perfect with privacy for the family and yet close access to the Buffet - and the desserts!
Jenny and I spent the next 10 days resting, sleeping, watching TV (the French Open) and running around to see all of the changes in the area. We had Lunch one day at the Oceanic on Wrightsville Beach with Janis, Andy and Beth. The view of the Beach was great! I was surprised to see so many people on the Beach this early in the season. The weather was perfect, except that I was hoping for a Hurricane, or at least a little thunderstorm, which never did come.
