ONE CHARLESTON SUMMER

by our first cousin Mackie Lippitt

 I remember feeling like part of the family when I lived for a summer at your home when I was about 8 years old.  Daddy was in Bermuda working on the NASA tracking station that summer.  I really felt a bond with Aunt Anita during that time.  And also became very close to Henry.  Please give your mom my love. 

Note: That was the summer that my great Aunt Margaret made a fabulous gingerbread house for my third or fourth birthday. I remember my brother Henry, Mackie and I marveling over it just before we devoured it. Daddy often recalled Mackie sitting on his lap while Daddy "patted him like a dog" (as was my father's habit when we sat on his lap). Mother recounted that my older brother Stuart and his friends lured Henry and Mackie into a trap under the guise of joining their non-existent club. Fortunately, those memories were spoken of with much more regularity and fondness than the fact that my father was retiring from the navy all too soon with no burning desire or  direction as to what to do next. His recent diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumor mixed with a bout of hepatitis kept him preoccupied.  Mackie was just as much a part of our short Charleston experience as the rest of us.