Living in Osterhout

[JacSue Kehoe]

I think it was between the "new" and "old" Williams when we spent a summer blessed with the air conditioning of Osterhaut. The air conditioning came with more square feet than we knew how to use, but we weren't complaining! Our children, David and Ivan, also appreciated the proximity of the house to the "maison de l'eau rouge" - better known to you as Blackford - where they frequently served themselves drinks from a cooler filled with an ill defined, bright red liquid.

In spite of the air conditioning in Osterhaut, which permitted better sleeping in the heat of summer than did the top floor of the Firehouse, the impressive king sized bed of the master bedroom usually only offered us a few hours of sleep, after our students let us go around 1-2 AM, since the skylight gave us the full blown benefits of Long Island sun very early in the morning - benefits that were not very beneficial after 4 hours of sleep!

But the sound in the evening of the cicadas giving their nightly concert at Osterhaut made up for such inconveniences.