Transatlantic Tapes

Create the kind of visit they can listen to anytime.

Tulsa, Oklahoma--When Richard Williams, 73, visits his grandsons, Marc, 5, and Matthew, 3, of Brussels, Belgium, they bake bread together. So last year he and his wife, Linda, decided to record a description of the bread-baking process and sent the audiotape to their grandchildren. On the tape, Richard describes kneading the dough, setting it aside to rise, punching it down, and forming the loaves. Between the steps (while the bread rises, for example), Richard and Linda read WINNIE-THE-POOH and COULD BE WORSE!, a book about a grandfather, among other stories. Throughout the tape, Richard talks directly to his grandsons, sometimes making silly requests of them ("Put your right toe in your left ear") and laughing.

According to the boys' mother, Christine Sollinger, the eclectic tape has been a hit. "My oldest, a natural-born listener and book-lover, has played the tape at least once a day since it arrived. He has the entire tape memorized."