EDIE SILLERY of Wedgwood noted recently that her early roots ran deep in Wallingford, ³as do yours, Stan.² In a letter to me she conjectured we may have unknowingly ³rubbed elbows² in Wedgwood at the View Ridge Pharmacy, Safeway on NE 35th, or the former Matthews Red Apple Market.

The following is what she wrote, with a few remarks of my own.

EDIE: My husband, Jim Sillery, and I, celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary earlier this year in Wedgwood where we have lived for 38 years. But it was in Wallingford that our courtship blossomed into a long and happy marriage. It was in the ı40s, and places to rent were hard to come by. So we were looking to rent a room with kitchen and laundry privileges. Do you remember C. O. Smith Realty on N. 45th? When Mr. Smith passed on we were the first people with whom his widow shared her home.

STAN: I didnıt know him personally, but my dad, Orrill V. Stapp, did. Smith Realty was located at 1716 N. 45th, and the Smiths lived at 1914 N. 42nd, four blocks from my family home.

EDIE: Mrs. Smith taught us a good deal about certain housekeeping facts that she deemed to be very important. Her daughter, Lorna Smith Erickson, who taught at Roosevelt High School for many years, was married to Mel Erickson. Their youngest daughter, ³Midgee,² was a Seafair Queen, and in some years past was employed at View Ridge Pharmacy. During the World War II days places to live were difficult to find, and gas was rationed. We were car-pooling, several years riding with Rex Alexander, F. F. ³Doc² Gearheard, and Reva Lincoln. I remember Rex for his magic, Doc for his delightful humor, and Reva as a fellow car-share rider.

STAN: Docıs son, Jim, once worked for us at the Outlook. The Gearheards lived at 4215 Ashworth Ave., right next to the Wallingford Presbyterian Church, a block from my home.

EDIE: Among the best friends to have during the War years were the butcher on N. 45th and the fruit and vegetable people. At the fruit stand was this young Italian fellow who doled out bananas to this young girl who came in each week shopping ...

STAN: Bananas at that time were hard to come by. When I shopped at Lamontıs Grocery at N. 55th and Meridian, Jack Lamont would slip a few bananas in my grocery sack without asking, as he did for all his regular customers. Otherwise shoppers from other areas, who had time to shop around, would get them all. (Lamontıs is now the present home of the Honey Bear Bakery.)

EDIE: Anyway ... I was to have a date to the U of W Homecoming Dance with this young Italian fellow, but it never materialized ‹ for I learned that MY JIM, was just returning home that day from a military school in Memphis.

I know the Banana Vendor was hurt as his comment was: ³What will I do with the corsage I ordered for you?²

Little did I know that My Sailorıs absence from home caused him to decide that I was to be his wife. So from September to December it was ³shall I say Yes or No.² However when the diamond ring was presented on Christmas Eve, I knew that ³This Was It!²

About five years later, we had a son and he was to be baptized in one of the large churches in the U District. But the only time Jim could be free (he was stationed at Sand Point) was Easter Sunday. The minister said: ³No amount of money would keep me there to perform the ceremony as I am going on holiday.² So I checked with a church Iıd previously attended, a non-denominational church near N. 42nd and Bagley Ave. N. Canıt remember the name of the church or pastor. But I do recall he always gave a sermon that one could still remember on Thursday.

STAN: It was the Wallingford Evangelical United Brethren Church (now the Wallingford United Methodist Church). The pastor was the Rev. R. M. Hilton. The church ad in the Outlook had a line that read: ³The church with the chimes.²

EDIE: When we asked him if a baptism was possible on Easter Sunday the elderly white-haired pastor replied: ³Of course!² And he followed up with the most impressive Easter sermon around the baptism of a new life. I wish taping of his sermon had been a possibility then, as it is now. I would love to have our son, Jim Junior, hear what was said on that Sunday. Our boy, of course, is grown now, and works at the U of W Cancer Research Center. * * *

WHAT A BUSY SUMMER my wife Dorothy and I had ‹ and how important e-mail figured in our doings! First of all daughter Diane Williams and granddaughter Stephanie flew up from Phoenix ‹ arrangements via e-mail and their flight on Alaska Airlines monitored on my computer. They shared sleeping quarters with my iMac in our PC Room (formerly our Guest Room). ... A little later, Dorothyıs daughter Liz Kincaid and her husband Larry Andrews came up from Soquel, Calif., Liz with 16 watercolors for a show in the Museo Piccolo Gallery at Langley, Whidbey Island.

They, too, survived the PC Room, and Larry found the iMac to be handy for checking with his office from time-to-time. He also showed me how to solve a litle problem with my iMac, how to get ³frames.²

Then there was the annual Kincaid family picnic (Dorothyıs relatives) at the Jefferson County beach on Marrowstone Island, handy to the home of sister Marge and her husband John Illman. Date and arrangements by e-mail, of course.

Each year John has to get down to the beach early in the morning to ³reserve² the covered stove and tables, it being ³first come first gets it.²

The highlight of this picnic was the introduction of a new Illman relative, Lizzette (nee Vargas) who wed grandson Andres Malpica this April in Bogota, Colombia. The ceremony was documented with color photographs e-mailed to relatives.

Two other summer events involved old-time folk dance friends, some from Seattle, some from Anacortes.

We Seattle folk, eight of us, got together for lunch, this occasion arranged by telephone (due to lack of time required for e-mail).

We were to meet at Zoopa, an unusual restaurant at Northgate. You pay up front, make your own salad, then move your tray around a long counter, choosing from a large selection of other food. Iıd intended getting a bowl of clam chowder (a favorite of mine) then came across the Decadent Chocolate Cake, and chose it (two pieces) reasoning I can get the chowder a number of places, but not the cake.

Then for a couple of hours we talked and talked, dragging out some of our old experiences. One of mine: dancing the square tango with Kathy Sellars at the old Eagleson Hall across from the UW campus. When I tried to bend her over backwards so she could touch her head to the floor I misplaced the fulcrum point of my knee (picture an off-center teeter-totter) and was unable to retrieve her. Finally I laid Kathy gently on the floor and walked off to the applause of the other dancers.

The other event was at Padilla Bay near Anacortes, at the Bay View Community Hall. The Anacortes Folk Dancers (which Dorothy and I founded in 1978) had invited us, via e-mail, to a summer dance and a potluck picnic outside. The dances were easy ‹ and I even remembered how to do Alunelu, a small circle dance from Rumania, arms on shoulders, with a lot of stamping and changing directions. (We used to remind dancers to go easy on the stamping else the phonograph needle would jump to another spot on the record.)

Besides the recorded music a young lady, Kris Forster, provided some live violin music. When the dancers found out that this day was Dorothyıs 80th birthday, Kris broke out with ³Happy Birthday² and the dancers sang along. Suddenly, Jo Miller ³the honey lady² (she makes her own) ran out with a large jar of honey for Dorothy (a little bit had been used at the potluck ‹ and there wasnıt time to run home to Bellingham for a new one). * * *

OTHER EVENTS: Wild Life ‹ flies, raccoons, goldfish:

I was in my easy chair, Dorothy was in hers right next to mine. I was eating dark chocolate (Hersheyıs) not advertising the fact to Dorothy.

Suddenly a noisy fly began circling my head, buzzing loudly, obviously wanting some of my chocolate. I didnıt swat him for fear of alerting Dorothy to my little no-no. The fly didnıt leave until I ran out of chocolate. That was the first I knew flies liked dark chocolate. Maybe heıd read in the paper (as had I) that dark chocolate is good for your heart. ...

One night I awoke about 4 a.m., looked out the window, and saw two raccoons scampering off after upsetting our front yard birdbath. In the morning I discovered our backyard birdbath had been toppled, too. The raccoons were probably only after a cool drink of water. ...

Our fish tank is a half whiskey barrel in the greenhouse. We usually have three fish residing there. One morning I found the largest one outside the tank, on the ground. He looked dead, but I put him in the tank, and several days later he was as good as new. A week later, it happened again. I put him in the tank again ‹ and, miracle of miracles, he survived. But not when he tried it a third time ‹ he was really dead.

Now some questions: how long had he been out of the tank the first two times before I found him? How long can a goldfish live out of water? And why did he do it? (And it wasnıt due to whiskey ‹ the barrel has a plastic liner.)