1996

M*A*S*H fan Hollie at the blood drive

  It was obvious that to support Hollie's needs we should move.  There was a school district closer to work that had a great reputation for working with autistic children.  That district serves three towns so that's where we looked. 
  Linda and Hollie found "the perfect place" in Newburgh, it was on a dirt road, but we had been living on a dirt road anyway - so it wasn't different.  We made an offer that was accepted and set the wheels in motion.
  In the are that contains Medford, it can take months to sell a house, even when the market was really good.  The house in Medford was grabbed the day it went on the market, someone had been waiting for it to go on sale.  The closings and that sort of stuff took about a month.
  Jon came home for the weekend to help us, we just used a rental truck, no appliances where transported, so it wasn't too, too bad.  I had used a neighbors pickup to move some of the junk in the few days before.  Truck loaded, move made, stuff put away and Hollie was off and running.
  She was, at the time, a huge fan of the M*A*S*H show on TV, her room was "The Swamp" and she carried around a photo at all times. (She still carries a laminated picture of someone at all times).  I became a blood donor because the Red Cross held an annual M*A*S*H blood drive in Brewer every July, Hollie used to come with me to tour the National Guard show and the military veterans that would show up, she always had a good time.
  The new school district was great, living up to their reputation.  Hollie only quit school once after the move.  The teachers and staff at those schools are very well trained (they even have Masters Degrees - that don't make them above everybody else :)).
  Work was still moving along, I had a new boss, a man this time; he had been the Finance Director of Bar Harbor before coming to Brewer.  Great personality and openness made working for him pretty good, of course the public doesn't see that part.

Our new house in Newburgh right after a snowy night.

On the back deck in May 1996 to meet the new "neighbors".

Our Newburgh backyard in the Spring, Linda stretched this lupine field to about 1 acre.