I jumped ahead of my story a bit. Going back a month, as I motored home in my Jeep I stopped off in New Concord, Ohio, to visit some of the family spirits. I drove around the Muskingum campus, past Moore Hall, and past the Presbyterian Church where Uncle Paul Miller Moore donated the carillion in the late 1940's (one of my earliest memories of family activities). I went to the cemetery to visit the graves of family members. This picture is of the grave of great grandmother Anna Miller Moore and great grandfather William Moore. There were many Moore's in the cemetery, including the graves of great uncle Paul Miller Moore and great aunt Jesse, his wife. New Concord had changed a bit in the 30 years or so since I had last been there. As I drove around the Muskingum campus I thought of swimming in the lake with my sister as a child, and of attending football games with the Moore clan, and of visiting cousins like Olive Dew (Gew?) and Nancy Moore Reilly when she was in college. I thought of visiting Glen and Pearl McConagha (he was one of my father's best friends) in 1954. As a child growing up in Aliquippa Pennsylvania New Concord was "the promised land" for the older generation. I remembered our convoys of cars as we drove there for events at the college, and later for interrments in the cemetery I visited. Now the interstate by passes the town, and old route 40 seems to be on the quaint side. I was in a pensive mood as I drove on past Zanesville and Cambridge, past Steubenville and thoughts of Uncle Kirk, past Wheeling with its Marsh Wheeling stogie factory which is now defunct. Stogies were a part of the image of old PM and JR Moore. Eventually I got to the house of a friend in AAronsburg, Pennsylvania, and up to the Green Frog for a quick visit the next day.
Rhona McMahan