Happy Birthday Mom

I guess it's a big day today--9/9/09. Happy Birthday Mom. It would have been her 76th. That's kind of hard for me to picture, although I wish with all my heart I didn't have to be wishing I knew what it would be like.

When I was thinking about what I was going to say about her today, I came across a cool website (http://www.wolframalpha.com/ ) You can put in something like weather and the date/location and it will tell you what the weather was like on a particular day. From this I learned that Mom was born on a Saturday. True, I could have figured this out another way but this was much more interesting. No weather report for Olean the day she was born, but I did find out that the weather outside was pretty miserable the day Amy was born--I had no real clue about that!

I have to say I find it amusing that Mom was born on the weekend! The newspaper that day reports it was "generally fair and somewhat cooler". Nanny and Weenie were living on Irving Street at the time. It also seems like Weenie was spending quite a bit of his free time playing center field for the Nationals, which I believe was a semi pro team in the area.

I see quite a few of us in this picture! I will be thinking about her today, as I often do. I hope 9/9/09 brings you a great day.

Provenance Part 1

In many ways, our possessions define us. I'm not talking so much about our cars, homes, clothes, electronics etc but more about all those little things we have around us that make us smile just to see them sitting there. We all have possessions that are not particularly valuable in a monetary sense but are very important for the stories they carry or memories they evoke.

Remember cleaning out Mom and Dad's house? We'd find things and wonder ..... why is that still here after all this time? You know it must have had meaning for Mom or Dad and you'd love to know its story. Well, at least I would like to know those stories. I might still put it out for the yard sale, but the story can still live on.

So it's important to document the stories. This is the first entry into my "Provenance" series--sharing stories about stuff that is important to me so that someday someone can say "I know why that thing is still here after all this time".

I have a picture of flowers in a vase that's in a round frame that came from Nanny and Weenie's house. I don't know why, but I've always been drawn to that picture. It might be a watercolor--no artist's name is visible. I don't know beans about the history of this thing but I would love to. It might just be a picture they picked up at the 5 and 10 for all I know but it has always given me a warm happy feeling and kind of says "Nanny and Weenie" to me.

You can see it in the background of this picture. I never felt like it really fit in that Walton house but I feel like it belongs right where it is currently in my living room. The picture above is Christmas 1990 and the one below is Christmas 1956--look at the wall behind Weenie's head.

These possessions that are so important often appear in the background--they often aren't the focus of any particular attention but think how empty our lives would be in their absence. I only came to have this picture through the loss of Nanny, Weenie, Mom and Dad. Such a heavy price helps explain its real value.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

August 27 1955

BKTF Day

Happy Birthday Weenie!

Be kind to Francis Day

Isn't it today?

Give yourself a break today in honor of Weenie.

Another August wedding

Some of us remember this day! Another reason to celebate August for the Ryans. Beautiful bride and handsome Ryan boys.

We spoke with Tim and Emmy this week. They are on their way to a tour of Canadian cities and regions--I think Emmy said British Columbia and Calgary were included. She also mentioned she's been catching up on the blog! Welcome Emmy! It was good to talk with them and it has me looking at the calendar to figure out when we can get ourselves back for a visit sometime this fall.

Amy returns to school today--I do not know where the summer went. Ryan's first scrimmage is next Saturday. Their senior years are officially under way.

We have just returned from our brief vacation trip to Long Island. Ryan says it was just the kind of trip he likes--4 days (not too long I guess); some time to hang; some fun stuff to do. We went to see Stomp off Broadway. The teeny tiny theater really surprised me and we sat in the second row (no one was in the first row) and I could have reached over to tie the shoes of the performers. It wasn't one of those neck-bender stages so we were in good shape even if one of the performers just about slid off the stage into my lap. We also spent a day at the beach--it was a very nice day and the kids got to spend time with their cousins as you can see.

We didn't get to have this kind of time with our cousins. Of course, there weren't as many of them as my kids are blessed with and our cousins weren't as close in age as these guys are, but I think we missed out on something pretty special. These cousins just love to spend time with each other and very quickly fall back into their comfortable relationships as soon as they get back together in the same room again. It does require active work on the part of the parents involved and Jim's family has always made time with cousins an important priority. It has certainly paid off for these kids! I sort of forget that Cathy and Kevin are our cousins but I don't think that will be the case for Amy and Ryan and the rest of the crew.

The kids also held an Extreme Pool Olympics and here is one of the prize moments from that. Ryan definitely took the medal in the freestyle event.