I spent such time reading and writing about people in the past for the “Blast” page in today’s edition that I found myself needing to think about present people to round out my perspective.

The newest person present in our lives is, of course, little Eli Taylor, now three months old. He accompanied his parents to St. Louis this week for a visit with his Strauss kinfolks. They are the family of his paternal grandmother Linda Taylor. Linda and Lowell met them there.

Eli’s mother said the visit stretched his horizons.

Another new present person in our lives is Porter Civjian in Seattle. He’s the grandson of Rosemary’s brother, Johnny Nelson. Johnny’s wife Margaret brought new photos by the office this afternoon. When the little fellow grins, as he apparently does quite often, judging from the photos, the grin is so big that it comes in waves. That’s the only way I can think to describe it; the kind of smile that lights up a room when he walks in. When he starts walking, that is.

 Meanwhile, granddaughter Lauren Howell came by this week for a short visit. She and her grandmother Savannah were in town and when she walked into my office I was almost rendered weak-kneed, so tall and pretty she had become since I last saw her — how many months ago?

I haven’t told granddaughter Blair Howell that her grandmother never even had a telephone when she was growing up. She lived so far in the country that when service finally became available it was on an eight-party line. I’d have to explain to her that meant eight households sharing the same telephone line with none of the other seven households able to make a call when one was using it.

Blair, soon 10, has just received her own personal first cell phone, apparently a right of passage very much anticipated by youngsters today. If I tried to tell about that party line business, she’d certainly think I was lying.

Blair accompanied her brothers and other family members to Hardy, Arkansas last weekend for a canoe trip. I think her Uncle Jeff Blair was in charge, which tends to get details taken care of. Her granddad Gary Blair may have been allowed to believe he was in charge to maintain peace in the safari of uncles, aunts, cousins and big brother’s friendgirl.

The post-safari report was that Blair’s brother Nelson and their cousin Josh navigated the only canoe that did not turn over once in the rain-accelerated waters of the Spring River.

I could have told her that her granddaddy Gary — she calls him “Pee-Paw” — was not going to be in a canoe that remained dry. The last time I remember canoeing, Gary and I were in a canoe rented from Johnny Kelly for a float down the Tallahatchie River. We managed to turn it over in much slower waters than the Spring River.

And if the foregoing has not been a sufficient dose of present people, take a look at the little guy in the photo at right. Ryan Barker is the happy fisherman who is smiling and with good reason.