Happy Birthday Mary Jane

Here are some random pictures of Mary Jane I thought would be appropriate for her birthday.  Of course, I've been thinking a lot about her as I always do at this time of the year and I realized that most of my adult memories with her are sad.  It remains difficult for me to come to terms with the reality that I had just barely begun to get to know Mary Jane as a adult when everything changed for us forever.

I know some of you had more opportunity to spend time and get to know the happy healthy adult Mary Jane and I regret that it wasn't the same for me. I don't even have very many memories as younger children.  I remember Mom bringing her home from the hospital 49 years ago.  I recall her hair being so very curly and nearly unmanageable.  What a great smile!  Well, here's to Mary Jane!

 Easter 1968

Dec 1962

1973

Travels with Oscar

Oscar is going to Gloucester with us.  No, I don't mean Oscar the cat.  I mean Oscar the Coleman cooler.

I was giving the cooler its spring cleaning in preparation to go on the trip with us, scrubbing off the dirt and cobwebs like a madwoman.  I realized some of the dirt and gunk coming off there was probably left over from last spring's baseball season.  Some of it might have been dirt carried home from the extra inning, Ryan-chugging-the-bases, upset League Championship win over Unatego. 

This cooler has been part of the family for years and years.  It has gone along to nearly every outdoor event the kids were involved in:  parades, baseball and softball, football and field hockey.  It's held ice, drinks, towels, sunflower seeds and popsicles.  It was on the sidelines getting a better view than I had of Ryan's winning run and Amy's game saving block in Oneonta one very cold night.  It's been a seat, a footstool, a door stop.  It witnessed the softball team no hitting another team in the sectional championship yet losing.  We took ice out of it for Jim's head when he banged it leaping up in joy when we won the state championship.  We used a wet towel from it to wipe Ryan's bloody nose after a youth football skirmish.  It took the long quiet ride home after the field hockey states. 

Now it's retired too.  It's travelling to Gloucester with us for a leisurely few days "on the coast".  It's all cleaned up and spiffy.  Maybe it shouldn't be all cleaned up--but I guess it's ready for new adventures and memories. 

Where's Waldo?

Easter 1958

This picture is labeled "Easter 1958 with the Flynns" in my album.  I love the way Nanny seems to be looking at the camera, my eyes are shut, Weenie seems to be speaking across the table and Grammy Flynn (Barbara Lippman Flynn) is looking lovingly at her son.  

 

I am not sure what house this is.  I think we lived on Olive Street in Silver Creek at this time and I'm guessing this is where it might be.  I don't think Nanny would have been sitting there in that manner if she was the hostess, but I could easily be mistaken. 

It looks like turkey was on the menu that year.  The pretty hyacinth were probably a hostess gift--unless Mom made special effort to pretty up the table for her parents and her grandmother's visit.  I see that Nanny's china was there--that's part of what confuses me about what house this is.  I recognize it because I have it here and get it out myself for holiday dinners.  What a history!  It appears dinner is just about to start.

It appears dinner is just about to start for four people.  Looks like 4 plates and 4 place settings but it's hard to be sure.  So I'm assuming Mom is there but Dad is not.  Hmmmmm.........where's Waldo for Easter in 1958?

Stream of consciousness...........

Warning of randomness:  this post is going to wander and be randomly on and off point.  Feel free to continue or click away. 

Facebook is kind of amazing for the ways it makes me obtain information and reminisce.  I kind of wish it had separate "channels" for childhood friends; relatives; and co-workers or some such.  They all sort of blend which leads directly to posts like this one.  My Facebook friends include classmates from Silver Creek.  I mostly just lurk to enjoy the memories that get reconstituted when I see their names.  This week Russ Stebbins posted that his dad had died.  I remember Mr. Stebbins and his farm--I think I picked strawberries there one year.  Mr. Stebbins reminded me of Ken Berry at the time (Ken Berry was on the later years of the Andy Griffith show).  They had a family of something like 5 boys I think and lived up on the corner between our house and Virgil's. 

Cherry Ludeman (I have no recollection of her at all) said her dad died several months ago.  This would be the Ludeman's department store right downtown.  We'd go there to get new Easter bonnets.  Those stiff straw and plastic sat so stiffly on your head but were ever so important for the church service.  We'd only get maybe 2 new hats at a time and I'm not sure that happened every year.  I think I barely recall Ludeman's would have live chicks in the store at that time of year. 

These are some of the adults that shaped our everyday lives when we were young.  Our memories might just be able to barely recall them to mind.  Mrs. Hamburg and the haircuts.  Mrs. Birdsee and the swimming lessons.  Mrs. Clark was my 4H leader.  Mrs. Moore was my 4th grade teacher and lived roght across the street from where we lived on Olive Street. I know Paula fondly remembers Mrs. Wilson.  They touched our lives just as we are doing the same for others today.  Someday we'll be barely remembered by those on the fringes of our days but that's perfectly OK.  It's very comforting to be part of a greater cycle of history--even teeny tiny bits of history like Silver Creek in the 1960s.

Another Facebook friend is a cousin of Jim's and she noted recently that a library dies with a person.  The world loses that knowledge and history.  In some ways this is true but if we share our stories and pay forward the lessons we learn that library will never disappear.

You were fairly warned.

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!

SUNNY WISHES EVERYONE A HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!

Irish Blessings

Happy Birthday wishes to Amy and Aiden!!  Paula is away at training this week so this picture is my way of including her in our Irish celebrations this week. 

Kathy, Paula and I drove to Reading PA to do some outlet shopping over the weekend.  Somewhere along the way, the highway lanes reduced from two to one so all the cars were lining themselves up in the open lane.  Well, I'm sure you know what happened next--some driver pulls right up to the end of the closing lane probably intending to squeeze in ahead of those he'd just passed.  A couple of cars ahead in the open lane, one van pulls over to "take his half out of the middle" which blocked the driver in the closed lane. 

This got us talking about different kinds of drivers: the van driver, the sneaking up to the front driver, and the drivers like me just slowly advancing.  Or, to use other labels:  the hero, the jerk and the schmuck.  I had recently read "Adult Truths" which includes a shout out to those who actively block drivers from sneaking ahead in line.  I agreed--those drivers (jerk) make me nuts. 

I had also recently read an entry in one of my favorite Gloucester blogs Life's a Typo  March 10 entry Action vs Reaction.  I thought this post made a very good point.  Those who correct others in the loudest or most obvious ways are doing so more to prove they are RIGHT than to correct a wrong.  This is a greater wrong than the original offense.  Think about it.  I'm sure I am guilty of the very same. 

Charlie Sheen comes to mind.  Need I say more?  Anyhow, I plan to employ a technique I use most often when faced with jerk drivers:  assume their need to get wherever they are going is more urgent than mine for a good reason. 

I believe that most people do the best they can do in the circumstances they are given.  People don't intentionally go out to be STUPID.  Charlie Sheen just popped into my mind again.......huh...go figure.

So this is my St. Patrick's Day resolution:  try to suppress my natural instinct to prove the world would be better off if it ran by my rules. 

Your Irish words for this post:

As sure as the shamrocks are growing

In the land which the Irish all love,

As sure as the lakes of Killarney

Reflect the blue heavens above-

As sure as the warmhearted Irish

All pay honor to Saint Patrick too.

I'm wishing you "top o' the morning"

And happiness, always, for you.

Luck of the Irish

I have some "new" old Irish ancestors for you!  These are the Gloucester Irish, so they are up Dad's line of ancestry.  You probably know that Capt John Bentley (your great great grandfather) drowned aboard the Schooner Paul Revere in 1882 while fishing the Grand Banks.  On board was his father in law Martin Costello. 

Martin's wife, Julie Costello, lived in Gloucester for several years after Martin's death but sometime around 1900 moved to Boston and died in 1901 at the age of 81.  It was reported she was living with her niece but I haven't yet untangled that particular spider web of in laws.  A while back, I told you that her death certificate indicated her parents were Thomas and Monica McDonough (nee Tierney). 

Recently I came across Monica Tierney McDonough's death certificate which you can see here

I was quite stunned to find her in Boston as I had no idea she had come to the United States.  This is your g-g-g-great grandmother--and her parents are Martin and Monica Tierney.  She was 85 when she died.

 Some further research uncovered a brother to Julia named James McDonough.  His death record is here

 
It's probably a little hard to see, but he was 66 and lived in Boston also.  He appears to have been married though I haven't yet found his family.  It's very intriguing to me that Julia's mother was right there in Boston.  I hope to learn more of that story!  I'll be needing to get McDonough and Tierney pins to add to my collection of Irish surname pins!

So here are a few words from a book of Irish Blessings that Kathy shared with me:

Like the warmth of the sun

And the light of the day

May the luck of the Irish

Shine bright on your way

Have a great week rich with new names!