I received this note from Peter Nardozzi* on 5 November 2006, and he related some stories of the MacLea family. I have edited it slightly and include it below.*

Ritchie, one of your Grandfather's brothers was a Quarterback for Stoughton High school, high state passing scorer. He was known as "Mucka MacLea," received a full football scholarship to Dartmouth. He never took it, possibly because of his girlfriend(?). (That wasn't unusual in those years, leaving home and all.)

Our "common ancestor," my "grandpa MacLea" I loved to visit because he raised English Setters in kennels behind the house in Stoughton. I'll snap a picture of the house at Thanksgiving and send it to you.

I can remember Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's, Thanksgivings, I can remember Grandpa's wake and then Grandma sold the house and Ritchie moved her up to west Stoughton and into a trailer there. I visited her there all through high school, college, and marriage, before she moved down the Cape [Cod] to be near Ritchie.

I am still working on the story about the trip to Scotland, since it was before I had a computer or digital camera so I have to do it all from memory.

By the way, the last contact I had with your dad, was 1975. I had bought an old home in Sharon, Massachusetts and was remodeling and restoring it. I purchased a large antique stained glass window, from a old theater in Vermont.

Your Dad and Uncle Donnie cut out the two dining room windows and replaced them with this floor to ceiling stained glass. It was beautiful and when I sold the house the Realty people marvelled at the carpentry. Your father was a skilled craftsman.

Peter added a little more about the motivation for his trip to Scotland, and sent it to me on 2 Dec 06. Here is the edited version.

My wife is a well-known spinner and weaver in Maine. Sandie, a Berkeley-graduated art major, became intested in fiber when we moved to Maine. Since then she has become an accomplished and award-winning Fiber Artist. She purchases raw fleeces from sheep farmers, washes them, combs them, dyes them (with all natural dyes), and then spins the wool. She then weaves and knits her handspun wool into various articles. Sandie strongly encourged my trip and we were able to combine my family trip looking for MacLeas with her craft and its origin in Scotland.

More from Peter on his trip to Scotland will be included in a later "Tales" update. Kyle=