Thursday, April 12, 2012

Woodstock School

It was a magical place for me 60+ years ago...and still is. In the foothills of the Himalayas near rhe towns of Landour/Mussoorie is Woodstock School, an experience that tends to continually beckon. How fortunate are those who can return, not as students nor teachers, but as assistants to staff.

What must it be like to return year after year to a special place and time in one’s own past, especially with a mate. To be able to take up the strand of that magical time and watch its continued tendrils as they move out into the present and near future. How fortunate to have health and financial resources that allow a couple to still climb the mountainside paths, to inhale the Spring time breath of a Himalayan morning, or to ride a motor bike down to Dehra Dun.

I wonder what it must be like to walk down “the ramp” from Parker Hall to the complex of biuildings that used to be the lower school, lady faculty living areas, and the administrative suite.
To remember how it used to be and how improvements over time have altered it.

It must be exciting to be there for a few months each year, watching the new Woodstock grow and prosper. To use the skills one has a couple to promote and assist that growth. And to be rewarded in turn by being able to to return to a treasured place/experience.

It would seem to be somewhat like a time warp, to walk with one’s mate through the Landour bazaar, eating lunch at a favorite spot, and remebering together what it was like in a previous
life. How wonderful to be able to live as it were in two times at once! This is what I miss most,
to be able to share this in a meaningful way with my wife. She wasn’t there so its impossible for her to relate to that experience. It is a door that only I can open and revisit.

I met Dan and Anne Lind many years ago when they first returned from India and Woodstock. He was the new strings teacher in Charlottesville, Virginia and I had been in Roanoke for perhaps 10 or more years. What a joy and coincidence to discover we had been at
Woodstock; I as a student and then he much later as faculty. We have kept in touch through
Anne’s blogs.

So on this quite cool Virginia morning I visit Anne’s blog...it’s on my small list of links, or
an art teacher’s blog “Where in the World?” also on my list of links and for a few moments
my memory and I revisit a beloved place.

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