In this prior post https://mparij.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/who-associates-with-who-in-early-life-and-continuous-livelihood/ I talked a little bit about Marie “Mimi” and Mary Ann’s family. In this post, I talk more about Marie “Mimi” and Mary Ann’s family.

Shannon and her late husband Ray “R.A” Montgomery were and are a couple of the many writers of the Choose Your Own Adventure series of children’s books, and they founded the book publishing company in Vermont that I am associated with. Ray, along with another man whose name is Edward Packard; were the two founders of the Choose Your Own Adventure series of children’s books.

Ed had discovered that this man who was running an earlier publishing company called Vermont Crossroads Press, Ray; was looking for you-based role-playing children’s game book to publish. Ed had written the manuscript for the very first Choose Your Own Adventure book, Sugarcane Island; 10 years earlier and was rejected by many different publishing companies over the next 10 years until he had approached Ray. Sugarcane Island was actually perfect for Ray’s idea of a you-based role-playing children’s game book and both he and Ed were in concordance with their ideas of what a children’s chapter book should be, being that it is  you-based role-playing children’s game book where the reader decides the outcome of the story by turning to certain pages in the book.

Ray is just as philosophical as our friend Dennis, and Dennis & Ray are also as philosophical as a Mid-Michigan based veterinarian who has a reality television show instigated by his adopted son Charles, Dr. Jan Pol. I’ll get more into talking about Jan Pol and his wife Diane in another post. Make a long story short, put it to you this way as of right now in this post; Ray, Dennis; and Jan Pol each have a lot in common amongst each other.

Picture of Ray with his beard, which many of us in the family know him and remember him fondly with:

Picture of Ray clean-shaven, which he decided to wear his face as just shortly before he had passed away:

Video of Ray being interviewed by some young guy who is an internet maven about the history and philosophy of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Ray also talks about the recent death of his son and Shannon’s stepson Ramsey in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/b4Dm-dRWA1s“>http://

Pictures of Mary Agnes “Mag’s” daughter Hannah, and is also one of Mary Ann’s grandchildren and Marie “Mimi’s great-grandchildren:

A birth announcement of Hannah’s birth (just a few months before my own whelping) that had been mailed to us from Connecticut, where Mag was living at the time:

Pictures of a couple more of Mary Ann’s grandchildren and Marie “Mimi’s great-grandchildren, Alison & David’s 2 sons Walker and Penn:

Pictures of a few more of Mary Ann’s grandchildren and Marie “Mimi’s great-grandchildren, Colin & Sheila’s 3 sons: the oldest child who was also named Whit (named after Mary Ann’s husband and the kids’ father), Festus (the middle child); and Angus (the youngest child).