Abstract
Anne de Coningh of Chagrin Falls has been a member of Village Garden Club since 2003. In this interview, she recalls moving from Cleveland to Shaker Heights in the late 1950s, her time as a schoolteacher, skiing and sailing, garden club activities including during the Covid-19 pandemic, the club’s Cherry Tree Grove, club members’ role in stopping the construction of freeways through the Shaker Lakes, her opinions about the Horseshoe Lake dam controversy, and her current leadership of the Chagrin Falls Parks Commission and its role in downtown beautification.
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Interviewee
de Coningh, Anne (interviewee)
Interviewer
Cameron, Caitlen (interviewer)
Project
Shaker Heights Historical Society
Date
8-19-2021
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
61 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Anne de Coningh interview, 19 August 2021" (2021). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 918006.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1241
Transcript
Caitlen Cameron [00:00:00] Alright. Today is Thursday, August 19th. We are in Chagrin Falls. It's kind of muggy out. It's a little cloudy, but it's nice. My name is Caitlen Cameron and I'm here with...
Anne de Coningh [00:00:15] Anne de Coningh.
Caitlen Cameron [00:00:20] If you could spell that...
Anne de Coningh [00:00:20] Oh, yeah, the Anne is A-N-N-E, and the last name is in two parts, it means King in Dutch, so it's lowercase d-e, then there's a space, capital C-O-N-I-N-G-H.
Caitlen Cameron [00:00:36] Alright, thank you. So I guess I just want to start out with some basic stuff, so when were you born?
Anne de Coningh [00:00:38] I was born September [...], 1945, at University Hospitals at McDonald House. I was the first child my parents had. Then I had two brothers. They were each three years apart. After that we lived in the Nottingham area of Cleveland, which is the far eastern part of Cleveland, almost to Euclid, and we had a great time there. My brothers and I grew up on a... Next to a family who raised horses for hunters and jumpers. So we were over there in the barns and feeding the goat, and we didn't really ride the horses very much, but we loved it when they got loose because they'd come running through our backyard and the owner would say, thank God they're wearing shoes. They're going to break a leg when they get out on the street. But they never did. So then. And when I was in eighth grade, my parents moved to Shaker Heights, and we lived in the Onaway school district... The Onaway Elementary School district and my brothers were at Onaway. I was at Woodberry for Junior High, and then I graduated from Shaker High School. And so it was at that time when we, let's see, we moved to Shaker, it was like 1958, I think... And my brothers and I played at Horseshoe Lake a lot and that's my sort of my connection with Village Garden Club because we have this flowering grove, as you know, across from the Shaker Historical Society. And a friend of mine from church whose—I belong to the Church of the Covenant on Euclid Avenue—said, oh Anne, wouldn't you like to join this garden club? And I thought, well, that does appeal to me even though I live in Chagrin Falls. I love Horseshoe Lake and that whole area so that I joined the club in... I think it was... I have to look and see... In 2003. So I've been active in it. Somebody asked me to be president, but I said I can't, I'm too busy with other things. But I was hospitality chair at one point with another woman. I was the horticulture reporter every month until last year. I've been a hostess for a lot of different things, and I've worked in the grove quite a few times to weed and, you know, mostly weeding, planting a few bulbs. And it's a wonderful group. I really enjoy all those women. And this year we have a couple who had seen us working in the beds or under the trees last spring, and the husband said, I'd really like to join the club. So now we have a male member, too. Did you know that?
Caitlen Cameron [00:03:27] Yeah, I think Barbara mentioned it. But that's, I know, that's amazing. How does that impact? Like, how do you feel about a man?
Anne de Coningh [00:03:37] I think it's fine. He's a very nice young man. They both play in the Cleveland Orchestra. And I hope it's the beginning of more men wanting to be part of it, because we could sure use some more manpower...
Caitlen Cameron [00:03:48] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:03:49] Because we're all getting older. [laughs]
Anne de Coningh [00:03:50] I heard that actually, a lot. It's good, it's good. Yeah, I'm glad the Garden Club is adapting and changing...
Anne de Coningh [00:03:56] Mhm.
Caitlen Cameron [00:03:56] With the times and everything.
Anne de Coningh [00:03:59] And we have quite a few new younger members, so that's good.
Caitlen Cameron [00:04:06] That's great!
Anne de Coningh [00:04:06] Yeah, in fact, when I go to... Because of the pandemic, we haven't been together very much. I mean, we were at the May Cherry Tree Luncheon at the Skating Club and then we went all went to the Grove for two trees that were dedicated. But other than that, we haven't really been together. So everybody's looking forward to getting back together, and I just hope the Delta variant doesn't mess us up again.
Caitlen Cameron [00:04:34] Yeah, I know that's a new thing that really wasn't talked about at the beginning of the summer. How was the Covid year for you guys? Like did, was it, how did you have meetings?
Anne de Coningh [00:04:47] Well, we had Zoom meetings, and they were okay. I mean, I'm on a lot of Zoom meetings for other groups I'm in. And I will say it was better than not having a meeting at all. So we were able to go forward with our programs, and of course we didn't have luncheons. But... I hope we can keep our programs this year. But I was talking with... Now I can't think of her last name... Another garden club member yesterday and we were saying exactly that. We hope we can go on with the meetings.
Caitlen Cameron [00:05:31] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:05:31] So...
Caitlen Cameron [00:05:31] Did you, how did you guys maintain the garden, like when you couldn't meet? Did you guys...
Anne de Coningh [00:05:39] Well, we did because it was outside. We were still able to work and, I can't remember if I wore a mask or not. But, you know, it's mostly digging out weeds and pruning, that kind of thing. So, and we have a company that does the major pruning and mulching. We don't do that anymore. We used to. I'm glad. I'm glad we're not doing that again.
Caitlen Cameron [00:06:04] When did they stop doing that?
Anne de Coningh [00:06:07] It depends on who is the chair for the Cherry Tree Group... I'm trying to think who it is now... [paper rustling] It's Pat Agatisa. And I think she felt that it was just too much to be asking these old ladies to be spreading mulch, so.
Caitlen Cameron [00:06:31] Yeah. Well, it still looks beautiful, so, I mean, they're doing a good job.
Anne de Coningh [00:06:35] Have you seen it in bloom?
Caitlen Cameron [00:06:37] I missed the bloom by like a couple, like two weeks or...
Anne de Coningh [00:06:37] Mhm.
Caitlen Cameron [00:06:37] Something because I joined the group right after.
Anne de Coningh [00:06:44] Okay.
Caitlen Cameron [00:06:44] And I wanted to see it, and I've seen so many pictures, so I'm hoping to catch it next year...
Anne de Coningh [00:06:49] Yeah.
Caitlen Cameron [00:06:49] Which would be great.
Anne de Coningh [00:06:49] Yeah, well, it should be pretty in the fall too, some of those trees are meant to be attractive in the fall. They'll have brightly colored leaves.
Caitlen Cameron [00:06:56] Yeah, I visit it probably once a week, so...
Anne de Coningh [00:06:58] Oh, do you?
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:00] [laughs] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:07:00] Oh, good for you.
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:01] Shaker, the Shaker Historical Society is right across the street...
Anne de Coningh [00:07:03] Right.
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:04] So on my breaks I take a walk over.
Anne de Coningh [00:07:07] Mhm. Oh, that's good.
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:08] It's so beautiful. I saw the new bench and I've sat there and everything.
Anne de Coningh [00:07:12] Good, I can't tell you how long it took us to get that bench. It was...
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:16] Really?
Anne de Coningh [00:07:18] Because the City of Shaker Heights had to approve it and, you know, it was expensive and, I mean, we had the money to do it, but it was just...
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:26] What did you have to go through to get it?
Anne de Coningh [00:07:28] I was not part of that. But... There was a woman before Pat, who'd been working on this for a couple of years and... Shaker's pretty strict about the consistency of the benches throughout the city so... They had to approve it.
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:49] Huh... Well, it's a great asset and it's wonderful in there.
Anne de Coningh [00:07:50] Good.
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:51] And I love the rock that they have too...
Anne de Coningh [00:07:54] Mhm.
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:54] I've take pictures of that...
Anne de Coningh [00:07:55] Mhm.
Caitlen Cameron [00:07:55] I know they placed that a long time ago.
Anne de Coningh [00:07:59] Yeah, it wasn't placed the year the club was founded, but it says, you know, that the club was founded in 1930. So it should say Village Garden Club 1930. But somewhere, something I've read, it tells about when the rock was put in place. Barb Shockey knows all that stuff... She's done wonderful presentations about the club...
Caitlen Cameron [00:08:27] Oh, I know.
Anne de Coningh [00:08:28] Through the years.
Caitlen Cameron [00:08:30] Do you remember any of the ones that she talked about, like any of the presentations she gave?
Anne de Coningh [00:08:37] [Sighs] Let's see, she did it for one of the Cherry Tree Luncheons... And... She's done it a couple of times, so I think there was one meeting that was just about the history of the club. So... That was good.
Caitlen Cameron [00:09:04] Okay, let's see. So, I kind of want to trace back just a minute...
Anne de Coningh [00:09:08] Mhm.
Caitlen Cameron [00:09:09] So I know you said you lived in Shaker, so, and you went to school there and everything. Did you, so... When you graduated high school, did you go to college?
Anne de Coningh [00:09:19] Yes, I went to Miami University in Oxford, and I got a degree in elementary education. So I was a teacher for most of my life. I taught, I graduated early from Miami, and my aunt was working at Moreland Hills [Elementary] School, which is part of the Orange School District. You went past it if you came in on Chagrin Boulevard. So she, they hired me to work in the Materials Learning Center in April of 1967, but I already had a job in California, so...
Caitlen Cameron [00:09:52] Wow.
Anne de Coningh [00:09:52] I worked there until... I was done straightening it out and then, I went to California in August. I taught in Fremont Elementary School in Fremont, California, which is on the Oakland side of San Francisco Bay.
Caitlen Cameron [00:10:11] Really?
Anne de Coningh [00:10:11] But I lived right at the edge of Mountain View and Palo Alto. So my roommate and I and another girl, or woman, we'd drive around the end of San Francisco Bay every day to school, and then we'd take her back home across the Dumbarton Bridge and, that was fun because there'd be hunks of saltwater floating around... I mean, literally salt flying through the air.
Caitlen Cameron [00:10:37] Really?
Anne de Coningh [00:10:37] Mhm. And so I taught sixth grade reading, math and language arts. I had forty-two kids in my math, my reading class.
Caitlen Cameron [00:10:45] Oh my goodness. That's a lot!
Anne de Coningh [00:10:47] How can you teach forty-two children?
Caitlen Cameron [00:10:49] Yeah. That's insane.
Anne de Coningh [00:10:50] So it... And I thought the whole world was going to be like Shaker Heights where the parents really cared and they'd come for conferences and, it wasn't like that then. It's better now. But a lot of them were migrant workers and they didn't speak English and here I was trying to teach them how to diagram a sentence or, you know, math facts and... It just wasn't a good fit for me. So, I stayed and practiced my typewriting and I got a job as a secretary for the Fluorocarbon Company in Mountain View. And I did that for about six months and someone stole my car and... I was just really bummed with the whole thing so I thought, you know, I'm throwing away my education by being a secretary. And here my father had paid all that tuition money and I was not respecting it. So I thought, well, I'll come back to Cleveland. So I applied at Orange again and I got a job teaching fifth grade at Pepper Pike School, where I taught language arts, reading and science. So I did that for five years. And then I had a friend who had taught at Hawken School in Lyndhurst and, she was coming back to Cleveland and got a job at Pepper Pike and that's how I became friendly with her. Then she went back to Hawken and, when she found out there was an opening in the fifth grade, I applied for it and got the job. So I taught at Hawken for twenty-five years.
Caitlen Cameron [00:12:20] Wow.
Anne de Coningh [00:12:20] And I would have stayed longer but... My first husband died while I was teaching there and then I met my second husband, Ted de Coningh, and he didn't like all the time that I spent on grading papers and doing lesson plans and writing comments and all that and, he would come over here, and I'd say, Ted, you've got fifteen minutes because I have work to do. And he'd stretch it out to a half an hour and I said, you know, I'm going to be up till midnight. And I have to be up by 5:30 [a.m.] as it is.
Caitlen Cameron [00:12:52] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:12:52] So eventually it took me five years to make up my mind because I had just gotten married three years before... Well, five years before, and... So my first husband died of pancreatic cancer and we'd only been married less than three years.
Caitlen Cameron [00:13:12] Really?
Anne de Coningh [00:13:12] So it was really hard, but... Ted and I got married in 1998, and that's how I got to be in Village Garden Club because I wasn't working anymore. Well, I was working part time, but I could afford to do other things with my time. And so, my friend Susan Dahm, who's a member of the club, approached me after church one day and said, wouldn't you like to join a garden club? And, so that's how I came to Village Garden Club.
Caitlen Cameron [00:13:41] So did you garden before, like, say when you were out in California and out in here, like how did you get interested?
Anne de Coningh [00:13:47] I didn't garden in California because I lived in an apartment. But when when I met Bob, his name was Robert Wombwell, he was British... He was renovating this house. And in fact, we did most of this. We call this the tea room. And so before we got married, I was helping him in his garden. And my parents were gardeners and they lived a few streets away from here. They'd moved from Shaker. And so I learned from them and asked a lot of questions, and...
Caitlen Cameron [00:14:21] How old were you when you were learning?
Anne de Coningh [00:14:21] Let's see... I'm trying to think... I was in my early forties.
Caitlen Cameron [00:14:30] Early forties?
Anne de Coningh [00:14:30] Because Bob and I got married when we were forty-six, and he died when I was forty... Almost forty-nine.
Caitlen Cameron [00:14:41] Wow, see that's amazing because I feel like a lot of women I talked to, they got married so young. And... That's kind of, inspiration because I feel like I have to marry young, too [Anne laughs], so that's...
Anne de Coningh [00:14:53] You don't have to. I mean, I had plenty of opportunities, but I wanted to be in love with my husband and I wasn't in love with the ones who asked.
Caitlen Cameron [00:15:02] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:15:02] And the ones I wanted to ask me didn't love me. So, I just thought, well, that's the way it is, and then my mother, who hadn't, she'd only been here for a couple of years, we went to church at the Federated Church across the river... And she said, you know they're starting a new singles group over there. Why don't you go? And I said, Mom, you have to understand, you have a single daughter. I have a good job. I have my sailboat, I race. I got my skis, I can ski anywhere in the country. It's fine. And so she said... To mollify my mother, I went to this singles group. So the first night I was there, I met Bob and... He... He told me where he lived and I said, Oh, you live in the Southmayds' old house. They had moved from here to Carriage Hill where I live up the hill here. And he said, it's not the Southmayds' old house, it's my house. And thought, I think I said the wrong thing and I sort of slinked away and, then the next day I saw him over here in the plaza because I was going to the grocery store. And, so we talked and he had a golden retriever named Rudyard Kipling. So I told him about a book I taught "The Incredible Journey" and I said, this is about two dogs and a cat that go across the Canadian wilderness and you might enjoy it because, when he immigrated from England he lived in and outside of Toronto first. So I, gave him a book and, so our first date was taking Ruddy for a walk in the polo fields, which you were kind of close to when you came in on Chagrin Boulevard. So, I fell in love with the dog first. [laughs]
Caitlen Cameron [00:16:47] Isn't that how it goes?
Anne de Coningh [00:16:48] Yeah! And so we dated for a year or two, or about a year and then we decided we wanted to get married and so, Ruddy went on our honeymoon to Chautauqua.
Caitlen Cameron [00:17:01] Wow.
Anne de Coningh [00:17:02] But Ruddy died the first year we were married, and... So that was hard and... Then in the summer of '94, I had my feet operated on for bunion surgery and I had to be in non-weight bearing casts for each foot for six weeks. And, that was kind of hard living in this house, but I did it, and... When I was just finally able to walk again with crutches after the second foot surgery, then Bob got sick and he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on December 23rd of 1994 and he died April 21st of 1995.
Caitlen Cameron [00:17:48] I'm so sorry for your loss.
Anne de Coningh [00:17:48] So, yeah it was hard and, but then I met Ted de Coningh at a Fourth of July party that I didn't want to go to, but I thought I just can't let this ruin my life and so, there was Ted and he was sitting there.
Caitlen Cameron [00:18:03] [laughs] Arms crossed?
Anne de Coningh [00:18:03] Yeah! and [crosstalk] and grumpy. And I walked in and I introduced myself and I said, I'm a teacher at Hawken School. And he said, oh, I went to Hawken. And I said, Oh, really? When did you graduate? And he said, I'm old. And I thought, well, this isn't starting off very well, not that I was looking to start anything...
Caitlen Cameron [00:18:20] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:18:20] But the next day he came by, and I was out here in front working on the garden because Bob had signed us up to be on a garden tour for the Chagrin Preservation Society [Chagrin Falls Historical Society]... And Ted whistled at me and I, you know [laughs]...
Caitlen Cameron [00:18:37] [laughs] Oh my goodness!
Anne de Coningh [00:18:37] I didn't really think anything of it because I was so intent on trying to get this garden ready. And then he came back and apologized and he said, well I'm going to Rick's Cafe for dinner. Would you like to go with me? And I said, okay, I haven't eaten anything since cornflakes this morning. So we went and it was a restaurant that used to be right at the corner of Main Street and East Orange Street. So I cried through the whole thing telling him about Bob and, his wife had died four months before Bob of lymphoma. And so... We both had that in common that we were, trying to get over a sad time and... So we, started dating and... I can't think, what was the first memorable thing we did... He had a place in Aspen, and he knew I was a skier, that was a qualification I had to have... So he invited me to go to Aspen for spring break and, I thought, I don't know about this but I went, had a really nice time and, then he invited me to a Princeton reunion. And I went to that.
Caitlen Cameron [00:19:46] So he went to Princeton?
Anne de Coningh [00:19:48] Mhm.
Caitlen Cameron [00:19:48] Oh my goodness.
Anne de Coningh [00:19:48] He went to Hawken, then he went to Exeter, Phillips Exeter in New Hampshire, and then Princeton. So he had a wonderful education, and I got to, enjoy all of those schools for reunions and, so... It was fun. We had a good time.
Caitlen Cameron [00:20:04] So I want to highlight on this. So you're a skier and a sailor?
Anne de Coningh [00:20:06] Mhm.
Caitlen Cameron [00:20:06] Can you tell me about that? Because that's amazing!
Anne de Coningh [00:20:06] [Laughs] I started skiing when I lived in California. I had two friends who said, meet us in Denver and we'll drive up to Vail. So Vail was the first place I'd ever skied...
Caitlen Cameron [00:20:26] Me too!
Anne de Coningh [00:20:26] Oh, really?
Caitlen Cameron [00:20:27] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:20:27] You skied in Vail?
Caitlen Cameron [00:20:28] Yes.
Anne de Coningh [00:20:28] Oh, that's great.
Caitlen Cameron [00:20:30] I skied in Vail and Beaver Creek. So.
Anne de Coningh [00:20:31] Yeah... Well, I, when I went to Vail it was in 1968 and there, all there was was Lionshead and a Holiday Inn.
Caitlen Cameron [00:20:42] Really?
Anne de Coningh [00:20:42] That's all there was. And, so I rented skis and they were racing skis and I just about broke my neck the first thing. [Caitlen laughs] So we skied there for one day and then we went to Snowmass, and Snowmass was just being built. So then I had enough sense to sign up for lessons, so I took skiing lessons, and that was fun and I didn't know that you could get tan when you were skiing. I had had my roommate call in sick to school to say I wasn't going to be there on Friday or Monday because I was too sick.
Caitlen Cameron [00:21:21] Really?
Anne de Coningh [00:21:21] So I took this long weekend to be in Vail and Snowmass... So I didn't know how I was going to explain this tan that I was coming with.
Caitlen Cameron [00:21:30] Oh, you didn't think about that! Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:21:32] And it was not warm in California then, so, but nobody thought a thing of it. So, I came back to Cleveland. I got a roommate with somebody I went to high school with and we joined Suburban Ski Club. And so I learned to ski with Suburban Ski Club. And, I was never a stellar skier but I loved it and, so I skied all over the United States, really, with Suburban Ski Club when I could go...
Caitlen Cameron [00:22:07] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:22:07] And, so I skied in Vail again. Aspen. Snowbird. A lot of places in the east like Holiday Valley and in Canada.
Caitlen Cameron [00:22:22] Did you ever go to Boston Mills and these places here?
Anne de Coningh [00:22:24] I did, but, you know, after skiing out west, it's like...
Caitlen Cameron [00:22:29] It's not the same at that, at all [inaudible].
Anne de Coningh [00:22:30] Yeah, and I used to go with the Hawken kids to... Not Brandywine... It's a place out east from here... And the first time I went up the hill, I thought, okay, this is a rope tow. We're going to be getting on a chair somewhere. Well, that was it. But I got to ski free, and then I skied at Alpine Valley with the kids because they needed a faculty sponsor.
Caitlen Cameron [00:22:52] Okay.
Anne de Coningh [00:22:52] So, I kept skiing around here and then, in Aspen I took some lessons cause Ted had a friend from, actually from Exeter and Princeton whose daughter was a ski instructor. So a gift from him was ski lessons.
Caitlen Cameron [00:23:11] Hmm.
Anne de Coningh [00:23:11] That was really fun. And we skied... Pretty much all of Aspen except for Highlands. It wasn't part of Ski Co [Aspen Skiing Company] then when we first started out.
Caitlen Cameron [00:23:22] Mmm.
Anne de Coningh [00:23:22] It is now, and I have skied at Highlands but I prefer Snowmass and Buttermilk.
Caitlen Cameron [00:23:30] So are you, have you ever done like, I'm just asking but like helicopter skiing?
Anne de Coningh [00:23:35] No, I never have.
Caitlen Cameron [00:23:35] Or something crazy like that? Have you seen those?
Anne de Coningh [00:23:39] I know about that. I know about the Bugaboos. I have a number of friends who escaped in the Bugaboos. But that's not anything I could do.
Caitlen Cameron [00:23:47] Do you, are you like, you've done like black [diamond], like the diamonds and stuff?
Anne de Coningh [00:23:52] I pretty much stay away from black diamonds. I mean, I got on one in Snowmass, Snowbird. By accident, I was skiing along, which I shouldn't have done, and it was starting to get dark and I was like, are you going to die in this mountain? And, so I finally just went down on my bottom, because it was too much for me.
Caitlen Cameron [00:24:15] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:24:16] But, yeah no, I pretty much ski blues and greens.
Caitlen Cameron [00:24:21] Okay.
Anne de Coningh [00:24:21] Because it's supposed to be fun.
Caitlen Cameron [00:24:22] Yeah, that's what I said. So it was my first time this year, and I got dropped off, well, shoved off of the ski lift at the top of the mountain.
Anne de Coningh [00:24:33] Where?
Caitlen Cameron [00:24:34] At Beaver Creek, that was my very first time. And my boyfriend pushed me off and said, figure it out. [Anne sighs] I cried and cried and cried so much and, but we stayed there four days and by the end I was doing some blues with him and...
Anne de Coningh [00:24:50] Yeah, that's great.
Caitlen Cameron [00:24:50] But I had no idea how to stop. I had no idea how to go. So, but yeah that's amazing.
Anne de Coningh [00:24:57] Well, you were a good sport to do that.
Caitlen Cameron [00:25:00] I cried a lot, but yes I made it through. [Anne laughs] I'm a stubborn person, but that's just...
Anne de Coningh [00:25:04] Yeah, I am too. But I, and I love skiing. I wish I could go out again, but I've got osteopenia now and I've got two new knees, and, I don't want to ski with snowboarders. I just don't.
Caitlen Cameron [00:25:17] Mhm.
Anne de Coningh [00:25:17] I mean they carve those deep grooves, and they're out of control. And, they used to not allow them on Aspen Mountain, but you know, money.
Caitlen Cameron [00:25:27] Yeah.
Anne de Coningh [00:25:27] So Ski Co allowed them on all the mountains and so...
Caitlen Cameron [00:25:32] Mhm.
Anne de Coningh [00:25:33] But, you know, I'm just going to be glad I can walk instead of ski too.
Anne de Coningh [00:25:37] You should do some of the ones where they move back and forth. That's what I do, I loved those ones.
Anne de Coningh [00:25:43] Mhm.
Caitlen Cameron [00:25:45] And the snowboarders don't like them because they can't turn.
Caitlen Cameron [00:25:47] Oh yeah.
Caitlen Cameron [00:25:48] So you could always...
Anne de Coningh [00:25:49] Yeah.
Caitlen Cameron [00:25:49] Do that, just for fun... [inaudible]
Anne de Coningh [00:25:51] Yeah, I'd like to go back, but I doubt that I will. But Aspen, we had a place there. Right... Are you familiar with Aspen?
Caitlen Cameron [00:26:00] A little bit. I have family in Fort Collins.
Anne de Coningh [00:26:00] Uh huh.
Caitlen Cameron [00:26:00] So, I have been out, and around the...
Anne de Coningh [00:26:00] Mhm.
Caitlen Cameron [00:26:00] Whole state... [inaudible]
Anne de Coningh [00:26:08] Well we lived right at the foot of Aspen Mountain, and when Ted first brought his condo in 1968, you could ski from Little Nell right to the back of the building. But that's all changed now.
Caitlen Cameron [00:26:22] Mhm.
Anne de Coningh [00:26:22] But we lived right across from the [Aspen] Grog Shop and City Market, so we could walk over there and, Ted's oldest son was trained as a professional chef, so I'd say, I'm going to Aspen with my chef [laughs; crosstalk]. So friends and I would go over and get the food for, you know, what we were going to have and, sometimes Ted would rent two other apartments in our building so all of his kids and grandchildren could be there and we would have spring break in March.
Caitlen Cameron [00:26:52] Wow.
Anne de Coningh [00:26:52] 'Cause my break, our breaks were always the last two weeks of March, so it was fun. We had a really good time.
Caitlen Cameron [00:26:58] So, I guess I'm kind of like, what does he do [inaudible]?
Anne de Coningh [00:27:03] Ted?
Caitlen Cameron [00:27:04] Mhm.
Anne de Coningh [00:27:04] Well, he's deceased now.
Caitlen Cameron [00:27:06] Okay.
Anne de Coningh [00:27:06] He died two years ago.
Caitlen Cameron [00:27:08] Okay.
Anne de Coningh [00:27:08] His family owned Mueller Electric. His grandfather invented the alligator clip, which is like a clothespin, but it's for temporary electrical test connections.
Caitlen Cameron [00:27:17] Wow.
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