Dear Dox,
What a surprise to hear from you last year. Adding you to our Christmas card list was a shot in the dark. Sorry I waited an entire year to respond.
I just enclosed a note in a card to Dave and Lynn, who now own lakefront property just north of Oshkosh. And that’s about all I know about their lives. We’ve been out of touch for a long time now. The last time I got together with them was at least 8 years ago. We still send them a card every year at Christmas even though they seem to have scratched us off their list. Most of my Oshkosh connections seem to have shorted out after nearly 13 years of inattention. The people I’ve stayed in touch with are all current or former Oshkosh Public Library employees.
JoAnna and I have developed an active sports life as spectators, thanks primarily to Andy who now moves from one season to the next without a break. And only in 5th grade. Eddie takes a more cavalier attitude toward sports, preferring to create these fantastically detailed drawings with colored pencils and engage in creative play with his growing collection of Star Wars toys.
In general, things are going very well here.
Dear Dave and Lynn
Well, Dave, we both a major event staring us in the face, a couple of birthday boys who will be reaching the half-century mark. We’ll be glad to help you celebrate. Sometimes I wonder where the time went. I come across a baby picture of Andy and think to myself, wasn’t that just yesterday. Why has he grown past his mom’s shoulders now? Then I think back to what I was doing before I moved to Wisconsin and realize I have lived a very full 49 years.
As you might suspect, we have become comfortably settled in Middleton. I still have plenty of new challenges to keep me busy (and focused) at the library. We’re happy with the house we’ve lived in for the past 11½ years and have no desire to move into more upscale digs, which seems to be the general pattern here. We’ll stick with our starter house, especially after all the work I’ve put into the yard.
JoAnna’s actually between jobs right now. A few weeks ago, she resigned as director of the State Senate Democratic Caucus, and plans to be a stay-at-home Mom for awhile, not the choice that most people would have put their money on. She’s has plenty of options, mostly in the area of lobbying, but she would like to stay involved in party politics. With our secure financial situation right now, she has the luxury of being choosy. At least until spring! Then I might get a little nervous.
On a whim, I sent a card and letter to Dox last Christmas and actually got a response. He’s still in Ironwood, apparently living the Dox kinda lifestyle that we’re all so familiar with: working in restaurants (“I’ve also worked in at least half the restaurants in the area,” he reports.) and playing ball. He enclosed a 1992 clipping from the local paper: a photo of the softball team he played on for much of his UP career. He plays in an Oldtimers League (35 and older – hey, that’s young!). Here’s a quote underneath the headline, “Booby Hatch cops tourney.”
“Trailing 4-2 into the bottom of the eighth inning, George Boline smacked a drive over the leftfielder’s head for an inside-the-park homer. After one out Doug Doxsey stroked a drive in the right center gap for another in-the-park homer, tying the game.
It just goes to show there are some constants in life.
Sports has become an increasingly prominent aspects of my life. As a spectator. Andy, now 11 and in the fifth grade, observes the full cycle now. Basketball-soccer-baseball-football-basketball. Eddie is in a more manageable rotation: soccer and baseball, but then he’s only in 2nd grade.
Yes, life is different now. No darts. No softball. No bicycling, even. But it’s still as rewarding as it ever was.
