Christmas 1998:
The annual report from Gideon Lawton Lane

Annual Christmas letters get a mixed reception: tossed unread, browsed lightly, responded to. In the aggregate, though, they have some historical value, some bits of information about who’s doing what. So here’s the archive.

101 Gideon Lawton Lane
Portsmouth, RI 02871
Boxing Day 1998

Dear Friends,

Yes, it’s us and yes, those are skis — from our spring trip to Colorado. We like to think we’re the same as we were then, but time does march on.

Dan passed the 6-foot-2 mark in the intervening nine months and is nearly eyeball-to-eyeball with his father (whose 1991 Toyota he now drives to and from school at St. George’s in Newport).

Susan parted company with the monks of Portsmouth Abbey and now attends the Lincoln School, an all-girl K-12 institution on the East Side of Providence. Switching schools was the best move Susan’s made in a long time. She adds style and interest to her dad’s commute.

Despite our best efforts, Anson is turning into a big kid. He’s entered the upper school at Pennfield, has a great bunch of kids in his class, and is having a wonderful time of it.

Hockey continues apace for 80 percent of the household (the other 20 percent has finally given up on the idea of learning how to skate). Dan plays JV for St George’s, a towering presence on skates. Susan has remade herself into a goalie for the Lincoln Lynx’ first-ever season. She's averaging 35 saves a game and has had two glowing reviews in the Providence Journal. Alli is coaching again at the Abbey, monks or no monks. We’re all looking forward to the mother-daughter, Ravens-Lynx game in a couple weeks. Anson is playing defense this season. He was appointed captain, and the “C” on his uniform means he gets to tell the refs how things ought to be.

Alli and Mark? We’re doing well. Alli has turned her two avocations — music and hockey — into a Beruf of sorts, being a church organist and choir director as well as a hockey coach. To mark the occasion of Mark’s 50th birthday in November, Alli commissioned a setting of three love poems by e.e. cummings. [While giving permission to use the texts, cummings’ literary executor told Alli that cummings preferred “E.E.” but lost out to the typographers.] The Providence Singers gave the world premiere on November 6 at historic Trinity Church in Newport, with composer Julian Wachner conducting and Alli and Mark singing alto and tenor. After four years as president of the Singers, Mark stepped down and Alli was elected. We consider it a team effort and we love it that way.

Hope this finds you hale, hearty, and ready to cope with all the good wishes the five of us are sending your way for 1999.

Warmest greetings,

Alli and Mark
Dan, Susan, Anson