Stories
Adventures with Mary, Nepal 1975
In the spring of 1975 Dave and I took a two-month vacation to India. The extended time away was the result of Dave's choosing to take time off rather than be paid for overtime worked at Haskins & Sells during the busy tax season. During our trip we also went to Sri Lanka and to Bangladesh, where Gene and Mary were living while Gene was ambassador to Bangladesh. From Dacca we traveled with Mary to Nepal, where she organized a trek for the three of us in the Annapurna region. With the help of Mary's friends in Kathmandu we managed to get permits, supplies and equipment as well as a sherpa guide (Pasang) and four porters (Mucho Macho, Smiley, Grunt, Kitchen Boy) for a 7-day trek from Pokhara, roughly half of the full Annapurna circuit. At the end of every day I wrote in a little notebook, transcribed verbatim below and with a few added comments in brackets as appropriate. Dave kept a day-by- day log of our expenses, included in an appendix at the end along with a section of our trekking map for reference.
Tuesday, May 13
Left Pokhara at 7:30 am for first day of trekking. Beautiful morning with views of Annapurna and Machhapuchhare. Very easy walking along a river bed to Hyengja and Suikhet (where we ate lunch under a spreading tree and I got my first leech unknowingly).
Short steep climb finally up to Naudanda where we arrived at a school house just in time for an escape from the rain. In no time the sherpa had fixed us hot soup. Meanwhile we talked to all the boys in the 4th and 5th classes who were taking English (instead of Dick & Jane, it's Ran and Sita). The party broke up after one of the boys asked Dave about his relations with me and our sherpa gave them a lecture.
After dinner the rain quit & we walked outside to look around - what a view, about 3 or 4 different peaks including the double peak of "fishtail". Then, as if the mountains weren't enough, a wedding procession went by with horns & drums & the groom riding on a seat held by other men. The horns were huge & shaped in a semicircle.
Even with the rain, the day was a tremendous success and nobody was tired or crippled.
Wednesday
Awakened this morning to another parade of some sort. That was followed by breakfast in bed & then outside for spectacular early morning views. The snow was really sparkling on Annapurna.
Short day's walk to Birethanti with the roughest part being the steep downhill from Chandrakot where we had lunch while Dave tried to photograph all the bathing women.
We camped beside a waterfall just outside Birethanti & fortunately no rain. And lovely baths in the icy water, and I fascinated a Nepali porter with my toenail cutting. [to reduce some of the pain of all the downhill walking]
Thursday
Off at 7 again & excitement came early as we had to ford the river twice very soon after leaving. Mary was carried piggyback by Mucho Macho; I waded with some strategic handholds; and Dave walked rocks - the only one of our entire group to not get his feet wet. Poor Kitchen Boy was wet from the waist down.
A lot of walking along the river bed and then an easy climb to Tirkhedhunge & Hille where we & the gnats lunched on a big rock by the waterfall. Several interesting bridges along our way, then the big climb to Ulleri - very steep & rocky & not much fun except for the valley overlooks.
Ulleri was a nothing village so we pressed on to Thante - another 3 hours away and making our day the longest so far. The last bit was a beautiful walk however - not too steep & surrounded by rhododendrons (giant!), roses, ferns, jack in the pulpits, etc., and millions of chirping birds. It was nice & cool most of the way & pretty damp. Except for being about an hour too long, it was a great path.
Arrived finally & gratefully at Thante - a village of about 5 huts, 1 5 cows & 1 00 goats plus a little girl with her smaller sister on her back. A nice view of the surrounding hills & plenty of "brain fever" [birds] for company.
Friday
Rained off & on all night, and we woke up to one very wet tent & one only moderately so. Hard to get off in the rain so late start. Walked only an hour (but seemed hard after everything) to Ghorepani - which turned out to be our destination point after all. Rainy & cloudy so we decided to spend rest of day there & forget Chitre.
Talked to interesting Westerners in the tea house (including one nice American couple who had been traveling for 2-1/2 years). Spent rest of day resting, napping & rassling leeches.
Took nice walk up to a high meadow where we had good views of Annapurna, Hiunchuli, and a little of Machhapuchhare and Dhaulagiri (first view). We seemed so close!!
Stayed on top floor of crude house and watched a holy swami sit in one position all day long. He was Indian, spoke English, and had mounds of hair. [supposedly held in place with water buffalo dung]
Big excitement of day was Kitchen Boy's trek back to Nogathante for a cup and Dave's winning a game of paise pitching with the porters. [Paise are aluminum Nepali coins, about 1/100th of a rupee]
Saturday
Up early but off late after a frantic search for our tent bag. Had 2 German "leeches" with us and millions of the native variety. [Germans taking advantage of our guide while the native leeches excited about lots of new blood]
First part of walk bad - uphill & getting lost & leeches. All parts of walk turned out to be hard for various reasons - uphill, narrow trail, rocks, steep falls, etc. Parts were beautiful - with lots of rhododendrons & wild flowers and lots of waterfalls & moss.
Finally reached Ghandrung about 5 where we were delayed by Pasang's talking to his lama [Buddhist teacher] and the necessity of making a decision of house or camp. It was house - a fleabag hotel - and our survival has yet to be determined. Shared our room with a girl who was into meditating by candlelight - very strange. [one of most memorable nights of our trek -- a room for only 1 rupee, our only meal in a tea house, and the only real argument during our trek]
Sunday
Good morning views from Ghandrung and then lots of downhill steps and half again as many uphill to Landrung. Crossed a bridge of bamboo & mud over a roaring river. [Mary & I carefully walked and looked back to find Dave crawling]
Most of walk from Landrung to Dhumpus very hot but some thru nice forest (uphill). Had lunch on a nice stream where Mary became the star of our trek by discovering a leech firmly lodged on her seat. After a very messy operation & quick laundry, Mary performed for about 10 Nepali children. [dancing while her underwear dried -- marking my true acceptance into the family after I removed the leech]
Beautiful green meadows with good views above Dhumpus. About 5 we stopped for the night where we rewarded ourselves with dehydrated cottage cheese. Talked to a guy on the way home to his village - dressed in a flamboyant suit & tie & looking very out of place - just the impression he wanted to create, I guess.
Entertained by a young heifer in heat with 2 very ardent admirers.
Monday
Last day - both happy & sad. Trail straight down from Dhumpus. At the bottom, Pasang put it very well when he said "no up, no down." And sure enough it was a straight flat hot walk across the valley to Pokhara.
The closer we got, the more signs of approaching civilization - a variety of things for sale, more children asking for money, more Westerners, etc.
Major event of day was Mary's unfortunate introduction to a bull who was very protective of his paddy field. Met an Irish lieutenant - Johnnie Rollins - with a Ghurka regiment who entertained us with conversation whole way home. [Rollins was there primarily to pay pensions to Ghurkas for previous service]
And home [Fish Tail Lodge] was further than we thought since the walk from Pokhara Bazaar was over an hour - the town seemed so big and urban.
Alyce, March 12, 2019 (original)
Interview
Mary Boster, my grandmother, was born on March 12, 1920, in Akron, Ohio. Of all the grandmothers of people in my class, I bet mine is the only one whose happiest moment was when she climbed to 17,000 feet on Mount Everest and who still has slumber parties with her friends from first grade. My grandmother is an interesting person and sure doesn't seem like seventy-two to me.
When my grandmother was a little girl, she would play hide and seek with all the kids on the street in the summer. Sometimes they would catch fireflies. In the winter my grandmother and her friends would go ice skating on the pond, and they would play "snap-the-whip". They would form a line and try to make the end person fall off.
In school my grandmother enjoyed reading most of all. She says she was an "omnivorous reader". She said she never found out how they disciplined children because she was "too good to find out". For Christmas and birthdays she would mostly receive dolls. In all, my grandmother had 16 years of schooling. She graduated from college, which was unusual for a girl in 1942.
In my grandmother's freshman year in college, while reading a New Yorker magazine in the library, she met my grandfather. They were married on December 26, 1942, while my grandfather was on leave from the Navy in World War II.
My grandmother worked three or four years (in total) as a secretary at $25.00 a week but mostly stayed at home. She had five children and spent a lot of time packing and unpacking because of the many moves she made.
As a kid, my grandmother lived in one house. Later, after she was married, she lived in the Soviet Union, Germany, Nepal, Poland, and Bangledesh. While living in Germany, she threw away her dolls after the people who restrung them purposely did it wrong, but she regrets not keeping them.
Sometimes my grandmother seems wiser but not always older. She is the kind of person who climbed Ayers Rock at age 68, learned water-tubing at age 70, swims about five miles a week, stays up all night working jigsaw puzzles, and is expected to live until she's 110.
I hope she does.
Sarah, (10 1/2 y/o), December 25, 1993 (original)
Grandma in the Garden
We all know what an adventurous spirit and world traveler Grandma was but one of the things I admired most about her was how she could travel all around the world but also love being at home in her garden in Rohnert Park.
One of my favorite memories of Grandma was when I traveled to California in 2008 with Ethan as a toddler, before I had Owen and just after we’d moved into our house in Atlanta.
I was planning what to plant in my own garden and we spent a long time together that week looking at her gardening books at the table on the patio while Ethan played in the yard. We then spent time taking clippings from plants which we carefully wrapped in damp paper towels and sent overnight to Atlanta along with a Southern Gardens book she gave me from her library. She was so curious to hear what California plants might thrive in Georgia. Happily, the bergenia actually did!
With that news I also sent her a sketch of my garden labeling where I planted the roses, laurel, Japanese Maple, crepe myrtle, hydrangea, and azaleas, and in true Grandma fashion, she admonished me for using the common name of tea olive rather than the botanical name “Osmanthus” - she wrote back, “you really should learn the botanical names too.”
I love that Grandma was real like that, sensible and precise, she’d correct you if you were wrong. But more than that, I love how much she loved her garden - and she wrote so much about the gardens and trees of Hudson in her memoirs, especially the beautiful Tulip poplar “Liriodendron Tulipifera” to be precise, at her parent’s house with the swing where she spent countless hours swinging with her sister Elinor. I love how she found such pleasure being outside, watching her garden grow, the simple joy in tending to her plants and knowing all of their botanical names.
She told me on that trip that she might’ve moved from Rohnert Park to another town in CA like Heildsberg had it not been for her beloved garden. I love how she found such pleasure being outside, watching her garden grow and the simple joy in tending to her plants and knowing all of their botanical names.
I also think it’s beautiful how my mom and Aunt Barbara have carried on Grandma’s live for gardening in their own way too - photographing beautiful trees and wild flowers on a hike, identifying obscure plants, lamenting when the trees eat their flowers, but mostly enjoying when they bloom. I see Grandma in them. How wonderful that her love of nature and the botanical world lives on in them.
Amanda