February, 1998 Volume 2 Issue 5 25¢

What Is February?clubhouse, I'll be right back." You never are "right back." Youget on your trike and start out; the day is so great that you decideto go the long way around. The sun is warm on your back; theflowers are blooming in all the little gardens. You meet a friend -or a stranger - (it really doesn't matter here) and chat awhile, ormaybe just pass by with a smile or wave.

Somehow, it is heartwarming and youfeel a bit more a part of Hawthorne. These are

all our friends. You aren't acquainted with themall yet; you forget the names of many that you do

know - but still you are friends, Hawthorne is yourhome.

It might take an hour to get to the clubhousethough it's only a five-minute ride. Then, oh, then,

there are the classes to peep into, lists of activities tocheck over, and a cup of coffee or orange juice served by

a hostess always ready to chat and make you welcome .. It isdifficult not to sink down into one of the comfortable lounge

chairs and just visit the morning away - but no, you can't let thewhole day slip past; you want to do so many things. You must notmiss your swim and sauna - and who' can skip ten minutes in thewhirlpool? No, February is not too long. It is far too short.

Editor's Preface:

Remember Trailblazer Mary Smith who lived at 530Palo Verde Drive? I haven't had the privilege of meeting thistalented writer, but feel as though we'~'e met simply fromreading many of her beautifully written articles published inthe Hawthorne Penn Notes. Daughter Autumn Lewis, whohas taken over her mother's Palo Verde resi-dence, is looking forward to her mother's visit onthe 11" of this month. Thefollowing article ofMary's was written for the February 1976issue of the Hawthorne Penn Notes. Hmmmm... Hostesses serving free orange juice or coffeeevery morning in the lounge, compliments ofColonial Penn, was a nice idea.

Is it a memory of the cold darkof the North? Is it the month of our historicalbackground, with both Lincoln's andWashington's birthdays? Is it the lace frilled cupid's month of

~, Valentine's Day? Or is it the short fat days of Hawthorne? Daysso brimming full of activity, sunshine and flowers that each onemight drop from the calendar like a fat little sausage.

When in the north, I used to say, "Winter wouldn't be sobad if we could just skip February." Now, I wouldn't part withone sunny moment. Have you ever said, "I'm going over to the

Mary Smith

A House to Match My Canister Set?Did you ever pick out a house to

match the color of your canister set? Wedid ... rather, I did, and my husband JohnThiedeman concurred.

In 1960 John's work brought usto Florida and we settled inWinter Park. After retirementin 1974, we continued to livein Winter Park, loved it, andhad no intention of moving.

Our next-door neigh-bors for 17 years were Ivan and NinaMahr. They owned two businesses, and Iwas working part time. One beautifulSaturday in January 1977, Nina calledand asked what our plans were for the day.I had errands to run and my husband was

v working in the yard. She suggested thatwe forget about our work and go for a ride

to Mt. Dora for lunch, which we alwaysenjoyed doing, then drive to Leesburgwhere some new development was beingbuilt. They didn't know exactly what orwhere it was, but since it was such a niceday, wouldn't we like to go? Iwas willing,

but my husband didn't want to. Hewanted to stay home and get

his work done, but tokeep peace in theneighborhood, heagreed to go.

We had anice lunch in Mt. Dora, after which wedrove to Leesburg and found "The Park"that W.IlS being built. We stopped at thesales office and took the tour, just to havesomething to do. The models were onCaladium Street. At that time the busses

stopped at the models and allowed visitorsto go through them. They were completelyfurnished. My husband has always saidthat he would not live in a "recycled beercan," nor would he live anywhere if he didnot own the ground. He ate those wordsthat day. As we were going through themodels, he said, "I want one of these."Our neighbor said, "So do 1." We stoppedat the office, made an appointment, andcame back the next day.

On Sunday, Orlin Clark was onduty. He gave us the keys to several"Specs." We were on our own. OnMarigold Street, referred to as "the backforty," we found two identical modelsexcept one was on the south side of thestreet and the other was on the north; one

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The Chandlers Found Hawthorne in '75It was 1969 when Marshalla a Hawthorne, I recall how we rode

retired after 38 years as an engineer our bikes out to the back gate andwith Western Electric in Indianapolis, m picked bags of oranges for ourIndiana. I quit teaching, we bought an _ _ own use. What fun! There wereAirstream, and joined the Wally Byam := :: no homes past the 200 block ofCaravan Club. In 1974 we sold our •• •• Aspen Circle. An iron gate wasIndianapolis home, put our furniture in up to tell us to go no further.storage, and decided to retire in Florida. One of my first HawthorneMy mother, our favorite companion on activities was the game of Mah Jong.most of our trips, was a native Floridian;so I had inherited a beautiful Ma!I Jong setwe wanted to take her back to her from a neighbor, but I didn't kriow how tobirthplace of St. Augustine, and hoped to play. Gladys Lensky, who had been in thefind a place to live ourselves. Embassy in Singapore for 26 years, hadThat same year Marshall and I heard about moved into the park and started Mah JongHawthorne from our Airstream friends, in early 1975. I learned then, and haveWallace and Hazel Buffinire. When the played and taught it ever since.Buffiniresbrought pictures of Hawthorne We helped the State Clubs getto an Airstream rally during the summer of their programs in operation. We belonged'74, we were impressed! Marshall said, to three and were eligible to join more."Let me write a check and you can buy me We had all sorts of entertainment for thea house when you go back!" Wallace State Clubs in those early days. Tolaughed and said, "No, you've got to come mention a few: we had "mixers" wherebyand see for yourseIfl" We did, and we took members to individual homes forimmediatelychose a house plan along with the evening; we played a form of Buncoa lot close to the clubhouse on Azalea called Airplane; there were square dances;T1'8i1.We moved to Hawthorne early in and we showed travelogues taken by1975, and found that St. Augustine was members on their journeys.close enough to Leesburg in case Airstream friends Rev. RolandMother needed us. (pop) Mernitz and his wife, Ruth, came to

Our Airstream adventures Hawthorne the same time we did. Pop hadcontinued into the 90's and included lost his sight, but that didn't stop him. Hetraveling thousands of miles with many was a retired minister and could be calledcaravans from Eastern Canada to Mexico. upon at any time for ministerialduties; andThe Caravan America Program gave us a when needed, he was willingto call for thewonderful opportunity in 1975 to lead a square dances. He and Ruth had traveledmonth-long caravan for foreign diplomats to 35 different countries throughout thefrom ten different countries. Our group world and had travelogues about each one.left from Pelatuma, California, and ended They were willingto give a program at they,p in Jackson Center, Ohio. We pulled drop ofa hat.

.tU'.~ Airstream, but the Airstream Another favorite activity for Pop

.Company furnished each diplomat family Mernitz and that also kept us busy waswith a new Airstream, and the Oldsmobile The Forum. It met once a month andCompany furnished a new car, equipped sponsored excellent speakers from bothfor pulling a trailer. We had the privilege inside and outside the park.of showing our foreign visitors many of In the late 70's Marjorieour country's beautiful sights and gathered Andretich started the Doll Club.manywonderful memories for the future. I never made doll clothes, but I

Twenty years later, in 1995, we contributed supplies and enjoyeddecided to give our "home on wheels" to the camaraderie of many of mygranddaughter Margaret and her husband friends who belonged to the Club.Scott, and to make Hawthorne at Leesburg I found the Aquacizingour full-timehome. classes taught by Vivian Gramer to be

Reflecting on those early years in great fun. As I remember, Vivian had

been a swimmingjudge for the Olympicgames and was a well-qualified teacher.Twice a week the pool was filled withaquacizers and their empty milkjugs. Wealways had a good workout.

Wallace Buffinire, who retiredfrom directing the Manual TrainingProgram in the Evanston,Illinois school system,Ii cabinet maker and aperfectionist. In the earlyyears Wallace made severalof the displaycabinetswe see inthe Great Hall today. In addition, hestarted a woodworking class for beginnershere at Hawthorne. After making arrange-ments at Leesburg High School to use theschool's woodworking facilityone night aweek, Wallace took his buddingHawthorne woodworkers to the highschool. In return, the men cleaned theroom, and Wallace left the machineryoiledand in top condition. I'm still usingbookshelves built by Wallace. He alsotaught a class in silk-screening and manyof us made our own Christmas cards thatyear.

I wasn't the only one in ourfamily who kept busy during those earlydays. Marshall belonged to a group calledS.C.O.R.E., which stands for the ServiceCore of Retired Executives. It met inDr. ''K'''s office once a month. Just ahandful of men in the park belonged. Itwas made up of retired executives with thepurpose of helping local people start asmallbusiness. He also helped Hawthorneresidents figure their annual income tax:returns for more than sixteen years.

Marshall and Wallace Buffiniredeserve the credit for starting and teachingthe "55-Alive" classes for Hawthorne. Inthe beginning they weren't given spacehere in the park, so they madearrangements to teach in a room at First

Savingsand Loan on Main Street.They took their projector, showed their

slides and taught the lessons. Hazel or Iwould go along to make and serve coffeeto the students during the break. It wasworth the effort.

Our life at Hawthorne has been a(Continued on page 4)

Hawthorne's Own Crosssword PuzzleV Editor's note: Being a Crossword Puzzle enthusiast myself, it is a real pleasure to give you a Hawthorne puzzle from the July

1976 issue of the Hawthorne Penn Notes. Have Fun! (J have yet to find the author of these early puzzles, can anyone help?)

ACROSS1. College degree3. Leesburg neighbor10. Pre-Christian era, Ab.12. Imitators14. Evident16. Girl's Name17. Boy's Name18. One Ab. For Chicago~OJ Time period. Ab.21.Where we all live26. Ab. For weather27. Poss. Pronoun28. Ocean inlet31. Dutch commune'33. Another Leesburg neighbor, 2 wds.39. Dangerous reptile40. Spanish courtesy title41. Begin43. Self confession, 2 wds.".Spooky47. Girl's name48. Physician, Ab.49. Without end, 3 wds.50. Baseball position, Ab.

DOWN1. Collection of similar things

~ 2. Unbeliever, 2 wds.

(Canister Set Continuedfrom page J)

had a gold Formica kitchen, the other anavocado green one. We decided to buythem, but how would we decide whowould get the gold and who would get theavocado? 1 said, "I have an avocadocanister set, so we'll take that one." Therewas a $1,500 discount in January, whichwe didn't even know about until the nextday. What a nice surprise!

Our children had never seen apark such as Hawthorne, so when theyheard about our decision to buy, their firstreaction was: "Are you sure you want tolive in a trailer park?" But when they sawHawthorne for themselves, they were veryimpressed and happy about our decisionto make it our home.

At that time there were fivehouses on Marigold Street, but none wereoccupied. Husband John and I were thefirst ones to live on the street. We couldn'thelp wondering why we never receivedanything under our clip. When we inquired,we learned that we were the only ones inour zone. John automatically became theZone Captain.

3. Attempt4. Bag of scented powder

2wds.6. Household electrical supply8. Beige, Fr.9. Highway sign, Colloq.10. Those who pack cotton11. An earthen vessel13. Enough15. Wagnerian Heroine19. Land transportation, Ab.22. Distort23. Fertile spot24. Famous award giver25. One who compensates29. Game piece 2 wds.30. Hawthorne's Sink or Cometta32. Belonging to a little girl's plaything.

2wds.33. Alleviated34. Ship's part35.5+52wds.36. Musical note37. False God38. Belonging to Andrew42. River in our Spanish class44. Basic number in met. system46. Not out

East of us, there was nothing butcitrus trees and very few houses onBougainvillea. Only two houses were onHibiscus, surrounded by lots of citruswhich beakoned residents from other partsof the park to pick their daily ration ofvitaminC.

During our first summer atHawthorne, our friends from Winter Parkand Orlando came for a picnic. The lastfew cars to stop at the front gate were told,"Just go to where all of the cars are!" Theycame, and used the vacant lots across the --- :~~~~~~~~~~~~street for a parking lot.

I'm happy to say, 1 still have myavocado canister set and kitchen and lovethem both.

Thiedeman passed away in Novemberof 1995, but Marge has continued tobe a vital part, not only ofHawthorne's activity groups, but ofher community and church as well.Thank You Marge!

Marge's good friends andneighbors, Nina and Ivan Mahr, havepassed on; but not without leavingMarge with many happy memories to,reflect upon and to keep her smiling.

Marjorie Thiedeman

Editor's Footnote:

While not a Trailblazer, MarjorieThiedeman has I'TUJ£k Hawthorne her

- home-for the past twenty years. Sheand her husband John have been awonderful asset to the park anddeserve a big round of applause. John

Brady Livingston Tops the List!When we think of Hawthorne's

Trailblazers, we must also think of BradyLivingston. Brady is at the top ofHawthorne's employees' seniority list!

Brady was raised on a farm inPrattville, Alabama. He came to Florida in1955,and settled in Leesburg in August of'69. Running crew for the Langley FruitCompany out of Clermont was a big jobwith few prospects for somethingbetter, soBrady was always looking. On November3, 1972, he rode past Hawthorne anddecided to stop at this new develop-ment and put in his application. Thesuperintendent of hiring told Brady therewere no jobs available;but by 2 o'clockthat afternoon, he called Brady back andsaid, "I have a job for you." Two daysafter Brady was hired, Mr. Amos Henleystopped by and talked encouragingly tohim, handed him a new pair of gloves, andthe rest is history. Brady has been em-ployed by Hawthorne at Leesburg eversince.

Brady's first job was working onsetting up the elevennew model homes outby US. 27. The firstbuilding at Hawthornewas the sales office, andeven it wasn't finished when Brady washired. The security gatehouse was builtnext, and there was a smallhouse trailer inthat area used for maintenance. The bridgehad not been built when they started work-ing on the large clubhouse, the marina, andthe boatslips. There were no covers overthe boat slips in the early days, but theywere added in two different segments lateron. That meant everything had to come in

..Mlr~ ..the back entrance. on HollendelRoad. There was so much traffic on Route48, it made using that road both dangerousand slow. But the years1973 and 1974brought manychanges.The dirt roads wereblack topped, the bridge was completed,and the back maintenance and administra-tion areas were constructed. It madeconstruction work at Hawthorne a lot eas-ier.

After a surveyor laid out newhome sites throughout the orange groves,Brady became a landscaper in the park.John Cauther's landscape business came toremoveand transplant between 150 to 200

of the orange trees. They brought amachine that scooped out the tree andcarried it to a new location. It wasBrady's job to keep the newlytransplanted trees watered. He wouldtake a water truck and go to a nearbycanal for a load of water, bring it back,and water the trees. Some of the pine andoak trees around the sales office areawere transplanted as bigtrees from the CauthersNursery as well.

When you go to AiiJI9I""your mailbox and realizethe convenience of ourin-ground garbage cans, you can thankBrady! For ten years, he worked on thatproject and its up-keep, plus being incharge of lawns, and helping in the Club-house if he was needed. In 1976, therewas an employee cutback and a time ofconcern for Hawthorne workers. Bradysaid, "The Park was about finished andColonial Penn wanted to get out of the • _construction business, so they cut nearlyhalf of the employees. Those who losttheir jobs weren't too happy, but theyknew that finishing the park would makethe work wind down."

Since 1983, Brady has takencare of the Park's common grounds, andhe likes what he's doing. When askedwhat changes he would like to see for theworkers in the future, he suggested, "Apaid retirement plan for all employeeswould be helpful. Even though itwouldn't help me, it would help futureemployees." When asked if he waspleased about his decision to work atHawthorne, Brady responded; "I wantedto get out of the fruit business, so com-pared to other jobs, I'm happy with mywages and benefits here at Hawthorne."

Brady said that after the 1==============residents bought this park, andproblems were settled, the peoplereally worked together. He has noticedmany younger retirees in the parkduring the past few years; and he feelsmost people are still working together tokeep our community moving along in apositive fashion.

Brady says Okahumpka has beenhome to Brady for the past fifteen years.

He lives there with his wife, Harriet, whoworks for the United Telephone Companyin Altamonte Springs. Their combinedfamily has made them parents to eightgrown children and several grandchildren.When asked about his future, Brady said,"I've been thinking about retiring. Mymom in Alabama would like me to comefor longer visits, and I'd like to do sometraveling." Recently diagnosed withdiabetes, his future decisions will dependa lot upon keeping healthy. We wish himwell, and hope that he stays with us atHawthorne for as long as he can.

The residents of Hawthorne areboth fortunate and happy that Brady madehis momentous decision back in 1972.Whenever you see Brady around thePark, he always flashes that nice smile, sogreet him and tell him "Thank You" for allhis loyal years of service.

Interview by Nancy Apsey

(ChillJdkr Story, Continuedfrom page 2)full one, and we continue to enjoy thepark's beauty and security, the manyactitivies, and all the people who havebecome our friends and neighbors.

Hopefully, Hawthorne will beour home for many years to come.

Bennie Chandler

Editor's FootnoteThe ChillJdkrs joined the

"Kinseekers" timing the 80's tmd trllVeled alltIaOSS the country searching lor the details 01their lIIJCestory, much 01 which they includedwhile recording their lile stories. According toHennie, "It's all on the cOmplller."

While it lulS been necessary lorMarslulll to s/Qw tUnm a bit, Hennle's happyfece is a frequenJ, lamiliar sight at the GreatHall where she continues to be ru;dvein manyIICtivities.

Hawthorne Remembers

Editorial Staff

Edltor_ _._••__ ._ _ _ .. Rose Lee GeigerAssistant Editon._ ..__ .._ ......Elsetta Ervin,

Bruce Fluegge, George & Grace WolfInterview by__ ._._ Nancy Apsy,Artlcles by_~ MarJorie Thledemau,

Mary Smith, ManbaD & Hennle Chandler