My doctor's last name begins with an “L.” My dentist's last name begins with an “L.” My eye doctor's last name begins with an “L.”

What is the meaning of all this? I am not sure, but I know I can confidently recommend to any and all readers that they go to “L.”

I am recently returned from Quebec City and environs. We visited a couple of churches, where it was very humid and where I was regularly reminded that I do not want to end up on the down escalator at life's close. I don't care to hear, for instance, that it's “a dry heat” down there.

Despite the humidity, Quebec City was as lovely as ever. The lady of the house and I honeymooned there a few years ago. It was November, and I had suggested Hawaii might be nice. So we went to Quebec.

Another woman on our tour said the same thing had happened to her.

“My honeymoon with my first husband was Quebec,” she said. “First?” I asked.

“Yep. With the second one, we went to Hawaii.”

I couldn't tell if the lady of the house was smiling when she heard that.

I wasn't smiling when I read what the Quebecois did to a perfectly good 14-hole golf course the British had built on the Plains of Abraham in the late 19th century. They turned it into a monument to the battlefield it had been during the French and Indian War. (New Hampshire history buffs may know that Rogers' Rangers helped General Wolfe and the British scale the cliffs above the St. Lawrence River in order to surprise General Montcalm and the French on that field.)

The British won the battle, but apparently the French locals won the war of the golf course. I could still see what looked like the outlines of a couple of the fairways. What a pity. (Due to space considerations, they had to play a couple of holes twice for the regulation 18.)

History, they say, is written by the victors. I'm not sure how that fits with this golf course story, but I do know that the photographic history of early Manchester that the Union Leader is putting together with the assistance of the Manchester Historic Association and the public is going to be a winner.

The book will be out in early November. It will make a great gift (or a keepsake for yourself) and if you order before Sept. 12, the price is $10 lower. For details, go to www.UnionLeader.com/memories.

Write to Joe McQuaid at publisher@unionleader.com.