Diane,
I hope you enjoy this small part of your family history. It is a wonderful, happy, sad, and delightful story.
Love Pat
Christmas 1998
Read MoreAcrivi Artemis Koutavas Anninos Georgelos
The Red Army, The Bolsheviks, marching into Odessa 1917
The Four Green Walls Part 1 Odessa →
I was born in Fragata, on the Island of Cephallonia, the third day of March, 1902. Our home was not far from the Monastery of Saint Gerasimos, the patron saint of Cephallonia. When I was five, I, my parents, and my three sisters went to Russia. It seems like a dream now.
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Andronike and Theodosis Koutavas
The Four Green Walls Part 2 Between Scylla and Charybdis
How would we live? We were now a family of nine. Seven children, five girls and two boys. My sister Maria had been born in 1914 and my baby brother just a few months before. My father did not loose hope. We had lost everything but he firmly believed that God would provide and help him to prosper again.
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Acrivi and Spyros Anninos
The Four Green Walls Part 3 The Offer
If a man marries a girl whose father promised him he would receive the family house, because there was nothing else to give the man as a dowry, and something happens and the father cannot fulfill his promise, the man can send the wife back to her father.
Read MoreDennis, Gerasimos, and Spyros Anninos and their Church Street Shop in Norfolk, Virginia, 1935
The Four Green Walls Part 4 This Unsettled Life
I was not happy with this kind of life, him in the States, myself and the boys in Greece. But there was nothing I could do about it. I was looking forward to and hoping for a better time when we could all live together.
Read MoreAcrivi and her youngest son Augustine on board the MS Gripsholm (the same ship Greta Garbo sailed on to America)
The Four Green Walls, Part 5, The Light In the Fog
Europe was beginning to fear war. We in America were not. America, did not fear war because it was thought to be highly unlikely to happen. We did not feel threatened at all, we simply didn’t see the dark clouds gathering and so we booked passage to Greece.
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I Live In Galax.......
As many of you know Diane and I live in a motorcoach resort in the mountains of Virginia during the summer and fall. The closest town is Galax, and technically our address is in Galax.
Read MoreFour Hours From Heaven
Today is our son Joel’s birthday. This is a story about the day he was born. The following is how the story starts. It should tell you something.
One morning after getting our two girls off to school, I found out that a one’s day could be dangerous and life threatening.
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The Field Trip
Diane and I went for a fast walk around the RV resort where we have been staying for the last three months. Diane pumped her hand weights and as usual I just got lost among my own thoughts.
I started thinking about a time in my past, my long ago past, when I took a trip to California.
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The Loss
I had planned to write about our last two months of 2018, months ago. I couldn’t bring myself to do it., not at first, because I couldn’t write about a loss.
Read More2018-September and October
September was a bit quieter than August but not by much. Diane and I continued to be involved in the music scene, at Chestnut Creek School of the Arts, and my camera was pretty busy also.
Read More2018-A Very Busy Summer (part 2)
The last half of July and the month of August were about to keep us very occupied!
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2018-A Very Busy Summer (part 1)
July was hot, very hot, right from the start. I think some new “on this day” records for heat were set that month.
Read More2018-April, May, June
Diane and I spent more time in Florida than we really wanted to. We were hoping to be heading back to Galax and DCMR by the first of April, but the weather up in the mountains was not looking very attractive. There was snow on the ground actually and very cold. Our trip home would have to wait for a few more weeks.
Read More2018-The First Three Months.
This is the kind of story I like to post the most, one told with pictures. You know the old, old, saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” In my case a picture could be worth more.
2018 has been an up and down year, and thankfully I can say it has been more up than down.
Read MoreCatch Some Wind
I am passionate about many things in life. One thing is photography, one is Christmas, one is my wife, and another one is Kite Flying.
Read MoreThe Man Born Blind
I suppose that many people have a favorite Bible story. I do. It is from the Gospel of John, Chapter 9, It is the story of Jesus and The Man Born Blind.
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Making a Comeback!
Just a few feet from the patio, in the middle of the grass is a patch of pretty, white crocuses. They get stepped on, urinated on by the dogs in the park, including ours, and moved down by the landscapers. They keep coming back.
Read MoreThe End at the Beginning →
Four stories that I wrote some time ago, about gain, loss, and what was to come.
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The It's A Wonderful Life Rally
Let me tell you all something. I gave this rally a lot of thought about how we could make it special. I really wanted all our friends who attended to have more than a good time. I wanted them to feel something while there. I wanted them to feel close to their other members. I intended for this rally to use the Christmas season and the It’s a Wonderful Life story to reinforce the need for friends and family.
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