Kendal appeals to all ages.

The admissions office received this letter from a resident after family members visited Kendal during a summer weekend in 2009.

Dear Maggie & Terry,

A year from now, you will get a request for an application to be placed on the priority waiting list from my grand-nephew, Moses, age 9. It would have been in your mail last Monday, but his mother (my niece Lynn) suggested that he take it home to Pennsylvania to recopy because he had misspelled "priority." She also recommended that he defer his application until he had saved up the priority list fee of $1,000. Moses observed that his allowance is forty cents a week ("fifty cents if I pick up all my toys"). He will ask his father for a raise, but the prospects, given the sluggish economy, are not promising. He estimates that it will take him a bit more than a year to amass the amount.

Moses, younger brother Daniel (7) and their mother visited me last weekend. After less than a day here, Moses and Daniel called their father to report on how they were faring. "Kendal is cool, Dad," I heard Moses say, "they have a pool and lots of grass for playing tag and people who like to talk to us and toffee at the reception desk. I think I'll retire here."

As the four of us went over to Kendal's pool Saturday afternoon, Moses asked me how old he needed to be to move in. I said I'd find out, but thought that there would be plenty of time for him to finish high school and get a job. "You have to pay an entrance fee," I reminded him, "so it will take some savings." Moses wondered if his mother would help him open a lemonade stand on the front lawn of their house so he could get a head start.

Moses and Daniel climbed Mt. Kendal (aka Wildflower Hill). Twice. "This is probably the smallest mountain we will ever climb," observed Daniel who was not so sure about his brother moving here. Daniel was delighted, however, with the sight from the top: he could see slides and swings over in the New Russia Township park. He conceded it was a nice addition to the lengthening list of Kendal amenities.

Early Friday evening, as we took a walk around the perimeter path near Mt. Kendal, there - looming from behind the hill - was a hot air balloon. It had just taken off from the open space between the hill and the park's tennis courts. Its wide red and blue stripes were taut as an occasional flame hissed upward into the cavity. Two young men waved at us from the dangling basket as they controlled the flame and the flight. Each boy's camera captured the slow climb of the balloon directly overhead and their eyes, big as saucers, followed it until it disappeared to the south. "Gee, what an awesome place this is," whispered Moses to his mother, "I really need that raise."

Sincerely,

Thelma M.