To Dare a Dream

A THOUSAND WORDS This book encapsulates six separate plots. Plot 1 it all started out when Earle at fourteen years had the dream of a lifetime to build a boat and sail around the world! Plot 2 he made the unheard of mistake in his folk’s eyes of, as a protestant kid from Wellesley Hills after a glorious summer on Cape Cod fell in love with an Irish Catholic from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. All hell broke loose! Mother, dad and brother Don attended the wedding but did not make the reception. In fact there was very little communication for years. Plot 3 things become more complicated as we go on into the story. Working nights and week-ends, still carrying on a full time job, after eleven years of long hours of exhausting labor Earle finds that at the rate he is going, he’ll never fulfill his dream. With his immediate families approval he quits his job, to take out a twenty thousand dollar loan. A year later there was only three hundred dollars left? At this point in time Denyce had graduated from Keen State and Pamela from high school. That summer they got jobs and Dottie managed to be hired to help her next door neighbor in the Children’s Shop. Plot4 it was agreed that since his daughters had contributed to the boat fund with their summer jobs they could save some of their money for a trip through Europe. Mother had a cousin Cathy in England. Dad and mother had taken many a transatlantic crossing on the United States Line ships to open new business in Europe. They always went to England for a few days to visit her cousin. Denyce made it a point to drop off and visit her. When Denyce showed up Cousin Cathy asked. “Howe’s your Dad doing? Your grandmother told me ONE THOUSAND WORDS he was shot in the head at Pearl Harbor, admitted to an insane asylum, lost his career as a Naval Officer and now runs a little boat shop on Cape Cod. Denyce couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She thought to herself. “There’s no way this could happen as dad was in his senior year at Tabor Academy.” As a matter of fact she returned to England with Pamela with the Boston Globe article ‘Earle’s Boat’ they finally convinced Cathy that mother and dad had made the whole story up. Plot 4 Earle’s dad suddenly died at sixty-three of lung cancer. His mother inherited two fortunes. Dad left her a large estate and her Aunt Edith left her another larger one. Edith’s father was one of the Watsons who owned Jewelry factories. At the time Attleboro was the Jewelry capitol of the world! His dad had been a very good father up until his marriage. He taught him salesmanship. How to build things out of wood, he oversaw the building of the boat house for the seventeen foot cabin cruiser built in the garage winters. He was a fine grandpa to our girls. Things radically changed particularly from mother’s deep seated reaction to Earle’s marriage. She called us to a meeting at her home in Attleboro. There was my brother Don, Earle and representing Edith’s estate her Trust Officer, Mr. Henry. We all shook hands then he started. “Helen if you were to live in Buckingham Palace there’s no way you could spend all this money! You could afford to give a ten thousand dollar tax free gift each year to all your children and grand children. A week later he was replaced. She did however give us each a five thousand dollar check for Christmas. This stipend along with what the girls made waitressing and Dottie working afternoons carried us through another year. Pk the pictures of construction of the vessel got two writers to write an article in the Sunday Globe ONE THOUSAND WORDS entitled ‘Earle’s Boat’. His mother telephoned to say. “Earle that was a wonderful story in the Globe! I’ll send you fifteen thousand dollars to finish the boat.” Two years passed. Once again Earle asked his mother if she was going to pay him the money. She answered. “Go ahead; order everything you need to finish the boat!” He ordered all the expensive items required to finish the boat; like the cooking stove, the bulkhead heater, the fridge, the masts, sails and rigging all from Nova Scotia. The shipment arrived with the extensive bill to be paid. Not hearing from mother, I telephoned and asked her what happened to the money. She said. “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.” and hung up. With all the weight on his shoulders of finishing the boat, by getting the seeming million projects required to get ready for the launching, He had to deal with the old headache now of where to get the money mother had promised! It was just too much! Plot 6 that night he had a tremendous hemorrhage and was bleeding through his rectum. Loosing blood at a rapid rate he just about made it to the hospital. It was a close call. Weak and about to slide silently out of the picture, he said to himself. “What had I ever done to my parents to deserve this? If I should die and leave Dorothy a widow how would she ever manage when all our money was tied up in an unfinished schooner?” My two girls, friends and workers came to visit. Mother and Don were noted for their absence. Dottie and I went to the bank. With the boat almost ready to launch there was enough collateral for a twenty thousand dollar loan. the schooner was appraised for one hundred fifty thousand dollars! ONE THOUSAND WORDS There are laughing episodes. THE BREAD MONEY, “LIGHTI’N OF THE BITCH”, “HANGIN PLANK”, THE GOLDEN TRUNNEL, FLAVIA, THE CORPORATE CAPER, BOX CARS, UNCLE SUMNER THE CEDAR SWAMP, PIGEON HOLLOW SPARS, NOVA SCOTIA 1, 2. SOUTHWICK FARM, DATIN’N DOROTHY