Editor’s Note: In July, 1995, I was serving as President of  Encyclopaedia Britannica’s dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster located in Springfield, Massachusetts.  This gave me a chance to visit Kathie and John Bowe not far away in Cape Porpoise, Maine.  I was fortunate to find that Sandy and Candida Bowe and their children Melissa and Jamie we also visiting.  As usual, the activities varied from visiting on the porch, visiting on the pier, sailing in the sheltered water or wading in the mud flats when the tide went out.  The high point of the visit was on the porch when Melissa and Jamie recited the alphabet for me