Disney really is magical!

We had a great time, but are completely exhausted. I am not really sure who had a better time, the boys or me!

We did two days at Universal including seeing Blue Man Group (that was great) and one day each at each of the Disney Parks.

We all decided that our favorite park was Hollywood studios (formerly known as MGM). The boys both loved the Rock n Roller Coaster, but my favorite was the Tower of Terror.

Give to Each Other and God Will Bless You

I thought you might enjoy a transcription of this letter from Weenie, probably written April 1964.

Dear "Angels":

Happy to hear you are well again. it was nice that you shared the measles. Give to each other and God will bless you.

If I can get Nanny off her fanny we will be over Friday to have a piece of Mary Jane's birthday cake. It seems ages since I have seen you.

Looks as though my recovery will coincide with the arrival of warm weather. That will be a break as I won't get behind schedule with my flower planting and lawn care.

Enclosed is a check for Patti Anne to get her First Communion dress. Have Mommy get the best and not worry about the price. Nanny and Wee Wee will be very proud of you, Patti Anne.

See you Friday. Love "Wee Wee".

Valentine's Day with Sophie!

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. I spent the day with Sophie at their new house in Binghamton. Bill had physical therapy in Norwich, so I went to help out and offered to watch Sophie while Bill and Amanda went out for dinner. We had a great time! She is so happy most of the time. Timmy was there and serenaded us with his new guitar playing skills. It was a good day.

Memories of Gloucester

First of all, Happy Birthday Ryan Patrick. I hope you guys have a great time on your trip next week.

As promised, here's what I remember about Gloucester. Add your own comment. The picture is in the backyard on Haskell Street I believe from the trip Chris and I took alone. It says 1966 on the back so it was probably the summer we were 8 and 9 years old.

I remember

Flying (must have been from Buffalo to Boston) with Chris –just the two of us about 9 and 10 years old. This was a very big deal. I recall stopping in Albany and fussing at Chris to neaten up because this was the state capitol and there might be important people boarding. I remember getting wings and I think a pack of playing cards on the airplane. Funny I don’t really remember any details about Mom and Dad taking us to the airport or being picked up by anyone.

For this trip, being drilled about memorizing the address 34 Haskell Street. At some point it was changed to 24 Haskell Street as I discovered much later when visiting as an adult. Also I think it was on this trip that Chris went out fishing with Grampie (Paul M. Ryan Senior) and I went fishing with the neighbors. I caught a fish and Chris did not. We all got a chuckle out of that.

I remember going to the beach and finding starfish. Nanny (Catherine Pierce Ryan) wasn’t overly thrilled because she said they would stink. I laid my treasures out on the cellar doors to dry out. The cellar doors were those kind that extended in a slant from the house and you opened it up kind of like a barn door. I think of them as tornado protection probably from “The Wizard of Oz” farm house. You don’t enter the cellar directly from the inside, but from the outside of the house through these doors down close to the ground.

I remember Aunt June and Aunt somebody else living in a house directly behind Nanny and Grampie’s. One of these women had extraordinarily long fingernails. They seemed kind of exotic these two. I think I remember a pretty fancy beehive upsweep hairstyle on one of them. Clearly bleached hair if I remember right. They weren’t rightfully aunts by blood but were related in some way.

Nanny was a cook at the golf course sometimes when we visited. I believe she was also a school lunch lady, but that wouldn’t have been when we were there mostly because it would have been off school time. I remember that she did go to the golf course sometimes and I think I remember going there one time to the kitchen in the clubhouse. It was just up and around the corner.

She had a great pantry in her kitchen. She would give me dinner mints to ease the stomach ache I would get from eating too fast. I loved those pillow mints and they always make me think of her.. The kitchen was in the back part of the house. There was a dining room kind of in the middle and opposite a parlor type of room. I remember a beautiful Tiffany style lamp hanging in the dining room. There was a living room area just inside the front door. The stairs were right by the front door also and I can’t really remember the rooms up there too well. I do remember Judy in a crib in one of those rooms making a mess just before Tim’s wedding. What a mess and I really felt for Mom, even at however old I was then (probably about 12) that her youngest was making this mess in her mother-in-law’s house.

Grampie seemed kind of eccentric to us. Little did we realize he came by it honestly. It must have been on the trip that Chris and I took alone together that Chris would tell me that Grampie had taken him out drinking and what-not with him sometimes. It was a big secret to keep from Mom. I’m betting it was an open secret and drove Nanny crazy.

I recall some kind of bookmobile up on the corner near their house.

I remember going to Good Harbor Beach. We must have walked from the house, around the corner and past the golf course down the hill to the beach. I remember walking across a footbridge and there being lots of sand—very flat and open from the bridge to the water.

Hey, That's My Sister!

Nicely done, Judy! I am getting these response system clickers also--and for the middle school math teacher! Maybe you'd do some training for us.....It was nice to see your name in the paper today.

Thanks for the update Paula on Bill and Amanda's new address!

New Address

Bill, Amanda and Sophie have had a successful move to their new home in Binghamton. Their new address is:

O'Brien
4 Mathews Road
Binghamton, NY 13901

I believe the "Mathews" only has one "T" in it, but I'm not sure. I haven't been to the house since they have moved in, but I plan on going down soon. Amanda's Mom, Dad, and sister were up for the weekend. Marty is still there. She will stay through this week.

Bill was hoping to be released to work February 1st. But that did not happen. However, his doctors tell him that he may be released at 100% ability in mid-March! Very good news! He can't look for work untill they release him, but he is very happy that he might be able to go back with no restrictions! We'll see.

Snow Fleas!

For those of you who were at the Christmas party at my house and saw all those zillions of nasty looking "fleas" outside in the snow, I finally got around to doing a little research and there is such a thing as snow fleas. Ryan pointed the critters out to me yesterday. We were worried about them getting on the cats, but I guess they are basically harmless. Click here to enlighten yourself. Ha. And you thought all I did was sit around thinking about dead people.

Thanks to Paula and Chris for their input on the Olean memories. Anything from Judy or Kathy?? Feel free to add your thoughts at anytime. Gloucester is next so be thinking!!

Had a bad day at work today so the blogging is really helping me to relax. I have one of these for Jim's siblings too. Amy is safe and sound in Kutztown. She still has some headaches and a little nausea reading but that's expected.

Great game yesterday! I have to say I was rooting for New England. Witnessing the end of a perfect season would have been cool but Ryan was rooting for the Giants for the upset. I was a little disappointed in the commercials though. What did you think? I was VERY idsappointed my number in the pool did not come up. Oh well. I'll have another chance to lose money for the World Series.

Proud of my new keyboard!

Had a great time at Christmas, wish everyone could have been there.

We are disappointed Bill, Amanda, and Sophie are moving -- we probably won't see them as much.

Ryan is still playing basketball for a travel team. They are improving by the day. Their record is 2/2. They will be in WP Sat.

Matthew is done with basketball. They only won about 2. He is now shooting his bow in a league on Monday nights. His "coach" says he has potential.