Visiting Scholars

In 1985, China not only opened wide their doors to allow visiting graduate students to study in the US, but also urged quite a number of their professors in the Science Departments to visit the USA, with all expenses paid by China. ETSU was lucky enough to get two of the Chemistry Professors from Wuhan University, one of the top ten Universities in the whole country: Professors Lin and Yin. They were in Physical and Analytical Chemistry, respectively. They chose to come to ETSU as we had two professors, Dr. ChuNgi-Ho and myself,  who could communicate in Chinese with them to facilitate their work. The official press anouncement picture of the four of us was sent out in a black and white picture from
 ETSU as shown below:

 

I certainly took more pictures of them, not only on campus but also in front of our house, when they came to visit us with one of our graduate students from Wuhan, their home town. 

 

An unexpected fun sport for us--- Water Skiing

After we bought the cabin on the lake, we, of course, went swimming whenever we felt warm enough to dive into the clear nice water. Of course, we had plenty of parties for our children and their friends. We had them on many occasions for a variety of reasons. I don't even remember what the reason for Margaret's party in the picture below was! They were having a great time! Soon it occurred to us that we could try water skiing. It was just the right time, as our kids were both at the right age. We bought a used boat and they quickly learned how to ski - all by themselves, literally! Almost immediately they were standing behind the boat and riding the waves. Oh, yes, we had a lot of fun! I was by then over fifty years old but I decided to give it a try myself. I hung on to the tow line a few times and was pulled through the water. However, believe it or not, I did finally get up and found myself skiing - just having fun like all the teens! For the next five years, whenever our kids were home during the summer, skiing was a major part of our activities on the lake. The pictures below were all taken during the time when we all tried to learn how to ski. Of course we also had to swim quite a bit during those times.

 

Our Favorate Scene!

Over the next three decades, the following scene became one of our favorites. The shots I took of this scene became a must for all our visitors. I will post seasonal pictures of this scene below. Since there are seldom severe winters in Tennessee, I never got a good winter shot. So I cannot show you what it looks like in the winter time! Spring and fall were the longest seasons there, as you will see:

Spring Time

 

Fall Time

Of course, most of our activities were centered aroud the summer. So with the help of my stockroom worker, Walt, I built a staionary platform on the shoreline, in preparation for the summer, as shown below:

Summer Time

We used this dock not only for boats, but for all shore parties and a lot of other activities such as jumping fancy jumps!