Rationing

We spent the last few days on Islesboro, at the summer home of Founder's Era history teacher John S. Custer, a.k.a. "Grampa."  (We also had occasion to walk by science teacher Holland Sperry's house on our way down to the cove.)  I had hoped to come across some resource that would help with this project - a notebook labelled "My Thoughts About Working at Avon" would have been about right.  No such luck, but we did have fun going through massive photo albums and scrap books.  This image fell out of one of them - certainly a familiar scene for Avonians who have been in the Quad houses or the corner classrooms.

I learned that Grampa had been a tennis "ace" in his day, that he was teaching at the University of Wisconsin while earning his PhD, and that he taught at Lawrence College in Wisconsin, where my mother would later enroll.  I also confirmed that when he left Avon in 1944 he became Acting Headmaster at The Gunnery.  The stroll down memory lane also reminded me of a story involving Grampa, Avon, and Islesboro.  It seems that during World War II those in charge of gas rationing would make exceptions for people with long commutes.  So Grampa went to the Rationing Board and announced that he lived at Islesboro, Maine and worked at Avon, Connecticut and thus would need some extra gas.  When they stopped laughing, he added that he only needed to commute once a year, so if he could have the gas necessary for that trip in June and again in August, he would not require any other gas during the year.  It worked!