The Nevis family in 1988 and 1989:
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| Newlin at an event circa 1988 |
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| Newlin in her kitchen circa 1989 |
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| Ashmore sisters Sheryl, Newlin, Eloise, and Floreine, circa 1988 |
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| Ashmore spouses: Opal, Emmett and Clarisse |
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| Ashmore siblings: Ludlow, Sheryl, Newlin, Eloise, Floreine, and Lytton |
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| Ashmores: Emmett, Sheryl, Clarisse, Ludlow, Newlin, Lytton, Floreine, Eloise, and Opal |
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| Newlin and Joel visit Newlin's niece Linda in Jacksonville circa 1988 |
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| Andrew in the family room, circa 1988 |
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| Friend and pastor Rev. Glenn Dickson with Newlin at a church event in her house |
In December 1988 North Florida had a sustained hard freeze the day before Christmas and lost power in the region. An overhead pipe froze over night and then defrosted during the day bursting and flooding the back half of the family house on 11th avenue. Newlin ran to the curb in front of the house to shut off the water to the building and Joel immediately started removing everything from the bedrooms to the front of the house. Andrew and Eric were summoned home to help with that work until the late afternoon when we realized we had no place to sleep. Andrew was expedited to secure a couple of hotel rooms but managed only one room due to the weather affecting travelers on Interstate 75. We had a hard time finding a restaurant open on Christmas eve (thank you Red Lobster for being open). And for Christmas we were invited to share Christmas dinner with a family that Eric knew.
We lost almost nothing due to the quick work we did to remove anything on the floors in the bedrooms, not even the carpeting, but we did have to replace the two decade old rug pads. Mom's insurance agent was a neighbor a few doors up the street, and he came done when power was restored with some oversized floor fans to air out the rooms, preventing mold and mildew from growing. A few months later Newlin got a check for $800 from the insurance company. That neighbor had compensated her for our manual labor that a professional company might have been paid.
Here is Andrew in the family room with dismantled bed frames behind him:
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| Andrew, Christmas 1988 |
Joel worked in Columbus at Ohio State University from 1987 to 1990 and had an excursion to Cleveland in the spring of 1988.
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| Joel in Cleveland, spring 1988 |
Joel spent the summer of 1988 in Helsinki, Finland, attending a refresher language class and visiting Finnish pals. His friend Karen Sobul from Columbus arrived for a vacation, too. They got invited to the summer cabin of an acquaintance, so they hopped a bus to the woods of southern Finland laden with food and booze.
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| Joel at a road-side bus stop in southern Finland |
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| Joel in southern Finland |
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| Joel and Karen eat dinner with their Finnish host |
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| Joel and Finnish friend |
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| Joel being silly |
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| Joel and Karen the morning after the party |
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| Joel at someone else's summer cabin |
Back in Helsinki, Joel and Karen visit Seurasaari open-air national museum; they happen upon a dance festival. Here is Joel dancing a schottische:
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| Joel dancing a schottische |
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| Joel boating in the Gulf of Finland |
Joel and Karen visit Tallinn, Soviet Estonia, too. They craft an improvised sign in honor of his OSU Professor Ilse Lehiste, and they manage to stop a passing Soviet sailor for a photograph.
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| Joel in Tallinn |
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| Joel with Soviet sailor in Tallinn, Estonia, Soviet Union |
In 1988 Allan was married and living and working near San Francisco; Andrew was a teaching assistant at the University of Florida as he finished a master's in mathematics and then entered a PhD program at Florida State University; and Eric worked on a bachelor's in microbiology.
