With Athena The Memorial Day Fair is over and you saw the photos in the paper last week, but that was nothing compared to seeing the faces of the children around the animals. One little fellow decided he could speak duck and crouched down and said "QUACK" and I guess he could speak duck as the animal said Quack back to him. The look of joy on his face was worth the whole day. Needless to say, this area, with the ducks, rabbits, sheep, and goats, was the one that held the biggest crowd. The little ones got up close and personal with the animals along with riding the ponies. The joy on their faces lit up the whole area. If you missed this, you have another chance as the Long Island Fair will be at Old Bethpage Restoration Village the end of September. As soon as I get the dates, I'll tell you. After all, there's a kid in all of us. Or you can ask Alicia Melkonian , her daughter, and grandchildren, all of whom were enjoying this area also.

Sue Hall and Ruth Brown enjoyed the vendors and watching the dunking machine. Laurie Hayslit, The Silver Lady, was there too. If you missed her I do believe she will be at the Historical Society's Sale tomorrow.

A number of people asked where the Marine Color Guard was that always led off the Memorial Day Parade. The folks at our American Legion Post said that they had been deployed to Iraq at 2 a.m. the morning of the parade and they had an honor guard of their own to their place of embarkation. Remember them in your prayers and hope that we will have them back with us next year.

In just a couple of weeks, the pool will open. Many of you are praying that the weather takes a turn for warmer as the way things are going, the water will need weeks to get warm. The pool is heated by solar power (as from the sun) and we have not had enough of that lately. For those who planted on the usual date of May 15 th there is very little left of their plants.

Happy birthday wishes go to Ellie Marshall, who will be blowing out the candles on her cake on the 12 th of June. If you know Ellie, you have time to send her a card and wish her many more happy years ahead complete with health and happiness.

The ladies who golf at the Garden City Country Club will be holding their Ladies' Member-Guest tournament on June 12 th which will follow their Cross-Over Tournament on the 10 th. Twice in one week shows how much they love the game. The Tournament Committee consists of Ginny Erhardt, Mary Hickey, Nancy Kiley, Marilyn O'Grady and Jeanne Rohrbach. They have many more plans coming up so good luck to one and all.

One never knows when the decorating bug will hit so I always read the Decor Score page in this paper. One can always tuck away an idea for another day. That is where I read the sad news of the Edith Wharton house "The Mount" in Lenox, Massachusetts. The organization that restored it as a National Historic Landmark must raise $3 million by October 31 st. She wrote "The Decoration of Houses", a classic that designed The Mount with the help of co-author Ogden Codman Jr. Having the house foreclosed and lost would be a terrible loss. I know as I visited this beautiful house and garden two years ago and they had done a truly beautiful job on both, I know that everything can't be saved, but many are destroyed and replaced by something that we quickly regret. My guess is that the house, all the way out in the country and on a huge piece of property, is being squeezed for the land. In the words of Scarlet O'Hara's Father, "It's all about the land."

The club season has wound down until fall, but that doesn't mean that the committees are not busy planning wonderful things for the coming year. Joan Afflerback will be having a committee meeting on "The History of The Community Club of Garden City and Hempstead" this coming week. Marge Goldsmith and Betty Pupke are planning for that same club's Friendship Luncheon in September The ladies "God Bless them" never stop planning and we all benefit from it.

And now for the thought of the week. The easiest way to find something you have lost around the house is to buy a replacement. See you next week.