A Look Back to Dan's 80th Birthday: 2007 *

When Dan turned 80 in August 2007, I arranged to get a few family and friends down to Westmoore Family Restaurant for a surprise party for Dan.  Dan thought we were just going down to meet his daughter Mary and son-in-law Dave for dinner which we often did, so he was quite surprised to find a number of folks there to celebrate his birthday.






Dan had always enjoyed limericks so I asked friends and family, even those who couldn't be at the party to write a limerick for Dan for his birthday.  I received over 80 limericks from all over the country.  It was great fun and Dan enjoyed them immensely.  Here are a few of the limericks.

Joe Richardson who was with Dan during the crocodile attack sent in several.

Many of his graduate students sent in limericks.

A friend and colleague of mine from Louisburg who himself was a great lover of limericks sent in this one.

Even my grandchildren who were then 12, 10, 8, and 6 wrote one with my help.

Patrick had fun with this.

Friends James and Virginia Tucker from Greensboro.


                     While Cruising an African loch,
                      Dan encountered a hitchhiking croc.
                      He said, "Tell you what, keedo,
                      I'll get into my Speedo
                      And race you from here to the dock."


From Sally Kendall (the Da-Bob was Bob Kendall a graduate student of Dan's.  Sally was a graduate student in botany at Duke.  Sally and Bob have now been married 50 years, and are our wonderful friends living in Maryland.




                In order to fill his life's mission
                of drilling deep lakes with precision,
                he hired Da-Bob,
                who made my heart throb.
                To me, twas his finest decision.
                   
                     
This was a really fun birthday party, and Dan thoroughly enjoyed all the limericks that were written in his honor. 


*  I wasn't blogging back in 2007, so I did a look back on this one.  Today would have been Dan's 89th birthday. 

Joe's Maple Syrup

We've had a wonderful visit with Joe and Alice Richardson from upstate New York over the weekend.  Joe was the graduate student who was with Dan at the time of the crocodile attack.  Joe retired from the faculty of Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania where he spent his career as a biologist after getting his PhD. at Duke University.  He and Alice were back in the Triangle where Alice was attending the 50th Reunion of her 1962 graduating class of Duke.

When Joe retired several years ago, he and Alice moved to a wonderful farm in Upstate New York.  They have gardened and raised chickens and for a couple of years Joe made maple syrup by tapping two or three of the maple trees on their property.  He brought us a jar of his homemade syrup while visiting this weekend.  It was really quite tasty, and I used some to glaze walnuts and pecans.

Joe and his homemade syrup.