Reports & articles
New Members
Bob and Carole Johnson
Driving up the hill towards Bob and Carole Johnson's house in the newly developing neighborhood
atop Hospital Hill, you'd think Northampton were in the midst of a building boom. Handsome new
houses, cottages, and apartments in the "neo-traditional" manner -- colors, styles, spacing -- line the
streets. Fresh wood framing announces the construction of more.
The Johnsons, who recently signed the USNF Membership Book, moved here from Texas two years
ago. Their search for a retirement community began with Bob insisting he "wasn't going back to the
cold." But when they happened on Northampton and then on "Village Hill," he "had to admit it was
a pretty nice spot," says Carole. "The trees, the light, the mountains -- we love it up here."
Bob, an architect whose career has been in teaching and research, first at th e University of Michigan,
then at Texas A&M, says they've always been drawn to neo-traditional design: "Where the lots are
small, the houses are close together; the porches are close enough to the sidewalks that you can talk to
people walking by -- that kind of thing."
And Carole "always wanted to be able to walk to some kind of center." She'd had that growing up in
Southborough, Bob is a New Englander too, having grown up near Hartford, "but of course in Texas
nothing is near anything."
There were other attractions. Carole's father and sister live near Plymouth. Bob also has relatives in
the Northeast. Their sons, Seth and Ti, are not too distant, in Michigan and Virginia, respectively.
Carole regularly walks a back route down the hill to
downtown. Bob doesn't have an old house to rebuild. And there's the Unitarian Society, as natural a
fit for them as is Village Hill. They much enjoyed being part of a plucky congregation in College Station,
and look forward to being part of this one. Carole, a
trained librarian with a career in academic editing, is
already helping sort out the RE library.
"It's just very comfortable," says Bob. "It's been a
great experience listening to the people speaking
from the pulpit."
Patricia Wright
7