A stranger at my door in Lodi kindles memories of a special home in Maryland

I have recently had the chance to personally appreciate the great generosity and caring that the Salvation Army demonstrates to those in need.

The people in the office were wonderful and really concerned with the problem I was presenting. Now I can see how much good our donations do every day of the year and how important it is that this group receives our support.

Strange how events and people tie together in the most unlikely ways. The other day, an older gentleman came to the door soliciting funds for a church whose function is to share with those in need. He happened to mention that he was from Maryland, from Aberdeen in Harford County. I was born in Port Deposit, in Cecil County, right across the Susquehanna River from his county and upriver from Aberdeen, where the Army had their proving grounds for testing guns. My aunt used to work there when I was little.

He later mentioned that he was a Navy Seal and a Vietnam veteran, and, as a Navy man, had assisted in the decommissioning of Bainbridge Naval Training Station after World War II. That news hit a sore spot with me. At the beginning of that war, the Navy took over the grounds of the Tome School for Boys, a fine private prep school with a large campus on top of the bluff overlooking Port Deposit. It had its own golf course and power plant, dorms, an inn, the headmaster's house, instructors' houses, a gym and an infirmary. The main building, Memorial Hall, housed classrooms, the library and the chapel, and had a beautiful bell tower that chimed the hours.

I heard those chimes all during my early life, as my grandfather, who was a cousin of Jacob Tome, the school's founder, and who was the school treasurer for many years until his death, had built the family home right across the road from the back entrance of the school. During summers, as a child, I roller skated on the school's sidewalks, borrowed books from the library and swam in the gym's pool. Later, when I stayed in Maryland all year, I played with the children of the Tome teaching staff.

The school was having a hard time financially when the Navy took it over for a song, and the Navy also took over private property for miles around, paying landowners a pittance for their homes. My aunt was offered $5,000 for a three-story stone house — with full attic and basement and slate roof on six acres of beautifully landscaped grounds. She and other homeowners, many of whom were elderly and had lived in the same homes all their lives, went to court. My aunt came out with $8,000.

Our house was first the home of the commandant of the Bainbridge hospital — and, ironically, my aunt went to work for him — and then it became the officers' club, where my best friend later met her Navy husband.

After the Navy pulled out, the area was left to fall apart for 10 years. Truck driving school was held on the spacious parking lot near the entrance but the rest was fenced off. When my husband and I went back East in 1996, we paid a visit to the area. The gate was open and we drove through. We could hardly find the road through the campus and it was sad to see the buildings disintegrating and the Italian Garden a mass of weeds and small trees. As for my grandfather's house, it was gone completely.

I told the man at the door all about this, and then was able to tell him that some corporation or other had bought the Tome property and was converting it into a complex for senior citizens, a la Del Webb. This news made both of us happy.

Another interesting contact came to light when Column Write came out in early August. I'd mentioned not being able to find the music for the song, "By the Bend of the River." I got a phone call from Winnivere Kornstein, organist at St. Anne's, who remembered the song and all the words — but didn't have the music, either.

Later, I was talking to Raphael Pazo, another friend and also a friend of Winnevere's, and he said he had the music! What wonderful serendipity!

Here are the answers to the second Wit Twister puzzle: eluded, delude, dueled.

And here's a short teaser from Rich Norris to end with: Think of a six-letter word for something you might meet on the road. Drop the word's first letter and transpose two of its letters, then read it backwards and you'll get a five-letter word that the original six-letter word is an example of. Answer in next column!

Gwin Paden has been a Lodi resident since 1956. She has a BA from the University of Delaware and an MA and teaching and administrative credentials from the University of the Pacific. In addition to teaching at Lodi High School and Delta College, she has had careers in advertising, the Women's Army Corps, newspaper reporting radio broadcasting, and public relations. She has been active in many organizations.