Happy, successful people tend to be happy wherever they go - in spite of lost traditions and familiar haunts.
You remember the column I wrote about Frank Smith of Romford, Essex, England, a milkman who emigrated to Salt Lake City back in 1948?Maurice Phillips, who now lives in Sandown, Isle of Wight, England, especially wanted to find Frank's relatives. I made a plea for any of Frank's kin to let me know if they still lived in the area.
The next day I got a call from the daughter of Frank Smith - Lily Cullimore - who lives in Pleasant Grove. She is Frank Smith's only child, and she has two sons, Frank Mills and Terry Mills, also of Pleasant Grove.
She said her father died, Nov. 2, 1971, age 75, of cancer.
He loved Utah and had a very pleasant life here. He worked for the Pleasant Grove Canning Co. and was loved by the people here the same way he was by his many friends in England.
He loved fishing for recreation and caught some whoppers, usually on the Provo River.
He always wore a flower in his lapel button hole - just as the English did - but his wife, who is also dead, did all the letter writing back to England.
Lily Cullimore was happy to talk about her father and promised to get in touch with Phillips.
She did. I know because Phillips wrote me again, telling me he was now corresponding regularly with her. She had written him in search of "more news of times past in Romford, Essex."
Phillips also said the London Telephone Directory has five Cullimores and five Lythgoes.
He said I may be interested to know that there is a top-ranking officer at the prison where Phillips works who is named Lythgoe. He is a short, pleasant man with black hair.
What hair I have is not black, but I could conceivably be called short and pleasant. However, I've never had any experience with prisons.
Phillips wonders if I have English ancestry - and I do. My mother even traced it to the Isle of Wight.
He also has another friend, a fellow prison officer now retired, named Tony Arnold, living at 12A, Landguard Road, Shanklin, Isle of Wight.
Arnold is "a fervent admirer of all things American and would dearly love to correspond with an unattached lady, should one be interested."
Phillips also sent me some pictures of Shanklin and Sandown - and they are beautiful, idyllic places.
In fact, ever since my last visit to England I have said too many times - "Why did our ancestors ever want to leave England in the first place?"
It is so beautiful and lush that old England has always seemed superior to New England - as beautiful as that is.
But Frank Smith left - and had a fine life in Utah. He adjusted to the dry, desert life in Utah, which contrasted sharply to the lush, forested English environment he left behind.
Partly he was looking for adventure.
He found people he loved who willingly loved him back. He helped others.
People who succeed in life are those who open themselves to new experiences and new friendships wherever they go.
They blend in.
They don't waste time crying over the past and missing what they used to have.
They don't feel sorry for themselves. They don't nourish negative, hostile feelings.
Instead, they approach their new life and environment with cheerfulness and optimism.
They try to learn all they can about the new culture and become more balanced, more interesting people because of it.
People like that probably like all places equally, because they know that they are the ones who make it a pleasant experience.
People like Frank Smith.