The Foreign Service Journal, April 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2020 79 and-breakfast. I calculated that we could afford that with the income generated by the inn. I decided to “follow my bliss,” as Joseph Campbell summed things up in a 1985 interview with Bill Moyers. Every year when it’s time to return to open for the season, I anticipate how the air will taste when I step out of the car. Every year it is sweeter and fresher than I imagined. Sometimes, a hummingbird will appear, as if to say, “Where have you been? The feeders aren’t up yet.” The timeless beauty of Priest Lake has brought me back again and again. I hadn’t given much thought to the hospitality business, but it soon became as important a pull as the place itself. The guests turned out to be engaging and enlightening. For instance, on our opening night we sat by the fire until midnight chatting about Bangkok. We had lived there in the 1980s, and coincidentally, our guest had been a Navy wife there in the 1960s. When we finally went to bed, my wife threw her head against the pillows and exclaimed, “I never thought I’d be doing this!” “Bea, it’s just like having company. It’s like having our family over.” “Yes,” she answered, “but the guests are more polite.” I also didn’t expect how much the little community of Coolin, Idaho, would come to mean to me. Every Memorial Day, the members of the Coolin Civic Association pull together the Spring Fes- tival featuring a parade, bake sale, crafts fair and quilt show. Every September, a potluck supper is held at the Old Northern Inn. Neighbors keep an eye out for the Old Northern Inn when it is closed for the winter, deciding when snow needs to be shoveled from the roof and noting when there are new footprints in the snow. Running the inn turned out to be more work than I thought. Managing reservations, meals, staff and repairs is a continuous and overlapping responsi- bility, causing one workday to blend into the next. We had an accurate picture that we could cover these operating expenses with the revenue from running the inn, but we made a mistaken assumption that the property value would appreciate the way real estate has inside the Belt- way. We won’t realize a windfall when we sell the place. The timeless beauty of Priest Lake has brought me back again and again. I hadn’t given much thought to the hospitality business, but it soon became as important a pull as the place itself. A family reunion at Priest Lake. Back row: David Summers and Beatrice Camp. Front row (from left to right): Son Daniel with his wife, Ana; son Will with his wife, Megan, and their son, Charlie. COURTESYOFDAVIDSUMMERS But that was never the main point: our whole family did gather on the front porch with the rocking chairs. It happened, with the arrival of our newest family member, a grandson. And the Navy wife who had lived in Bangkok? A new friend, she made a quilt for that baby. David Summers was born in Kentucky in 1949. He joined the Foreign Service after college, and had overseas postings to Kra- kow, Warsaw, Beijing, Bangkok, Stockholm and Budapest. He took a leave of absence from 1979 to 1981 to direct the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. After retirement in 1999, he accompanied his wife, FSO Bea- trice Camp, to her postings in Chiang Mai and Shanghai. David and Bea have two married sons and a grandson. RETIREMENT SUPPLEMENT