Happy Birthday Strongheart

Be Kind To Francis Day 2012.  Spoil someone today.  Judy's suggestion is to give yourself a break today. Either way, I'm thinking about Weenie and perhaps you are too.  Although I always understood that we were very lucky in many ways that Weenie was our grandfather, I didn't appreciate it nearly enough.  It wasn't until I realized that my own children will never have a similar experience that I truly saw the blessing it was to have Nanny and Weenie in our lives so regularly.

Seeing that envelope with Weenie's familiar handwriting in the mail was always a special treat.  Here's one I have that appears to have been written while hospitalized with a heart attack.  Although I don't know for certain, the Congrats for Mary Jane at the end makes me think this might be about the time she received First Communion--probably around 1969.

He lovingly refers to Nanny and notes his appreciation at being remembered from his friends in Olean.  How ironic considering the coverage his death generated!  And he signs off "Strongheart", which I can't help seeing and thinking how (once again) he was before his time and the time of "Braveheart".

I remember T.B.I.B.; declaring a dividend; 4-5 and Fat Aunt Marge and loads of other classic "Weenie"-isms.  Do you have any letters of his still that you'd like to share?  If so, let's get them scanned and posted.  This one might be a few weeks after the one above.  It references moving to town so that had to be 1969/70 time frame.

I take great comfort in seeing that familiar handwriting again.  Thank you Strongheart for loving us just for being your grandkids.

A shout out to Ryan Patrick newly arrived at Clarkson!  Have a grand adventure. 

Disney Here We Come!

We'll be on our way to The Happiest Place on Earth soon and I got to thinking about previous Disney adventures.  We've been very very fortunate to be able to go to Disney a number of times but this will be the first time without children.  I expect it to be a very different experience than those we've had before. 

Our first visit to Disney was 25 years ago on a senior class trip. 

We spent most of our free time with another chaperone who's still teaching with me.  Cindy and Jim abused me a great deal for the number of flower pictures I took on this trip. 

Our next trip after that was nine years later in 1996.  I recall planning the trip carefully for when Ryan no longer needed a daily nap.  This particular trip was very special because we spent time with Kathleen and Nick, our sister Kathy AND our friends the Hamiltons.  It was (can I say it?) MAGICAL.

Kathy shamed me into setting up a lunch with the characters and this is from that event. I hadn't intended to spend that money but I'm so glad we did.

Four years later we returned and were chosen as "The Millenial Family of the Week"!  Our room was decorated for our arrival and we got a number of nice little perks including beach towels I still have.

Kathy came along on this trip too and was also a Millenial Family of the Week Member.  What I especially remember from this trip was promising myself that any future trips required only a pool, ESPN and a remote control.  That's all the kids seemed to care about even though we were in the Happiest Place on Earth.

We didn't really plan it this way but it worked out that we returned again 4 years later.  It takes that much time to save the money I guess!

This trip was memorable for the characters we met.  As you can plainly see.

I planned the 2008 return carefully realizing it may be the last time the four of us could take a big trip together.  Amy was in college meaning she'd be going off on her own soon.  This was a wonderful trip.  I expected the kids to go off on their own but they didn't--we mostly stuck together and experienced Disney magic in a really special way. 

 This was the morning we left and we were doing some last minute shopping.  We ended up stranded at the airport in Orlando and spent another night there.  Their hotel is right in the airport and it's like a mall.  Couldn't ask for anything better for kids this age. 

All the trips have been memorable and we are fortunate we were able to share such experiences with our children.  But I'm looking forward to this one especially! See you on the other side!

Oops

Paula reminds me me that Kevin and Sarah were also married in August!  Aug 9 2009 so Happy Anniversary tomorrow to Kevin and Sarah!  Thank you Paula and I don't think I have a picture to share otherwise I would!

A fine tradition

They say June is traditionally the month for weddings but we have lots of weddings to celebrate each year.  So here we go down memory lane.

Aug 10 1991  Judy and Patrick.  Congratulations!

How sweet!  And Judy and Patrick looked pretty good too.

Aug 3 1985.  27 wonderful years.

More anniversaries spent in these seats than I care to admit.

Aug 12 1967.  Tim and Emmy

45 years of bliss!

Aug 27 1955  Mom and Dad

Look out now that I've figured out how to extract clips from my video files..........

Happy Birthday Dad!

What is there to say about this?  Remembering Dad on his birthday.

OK, you're the ones who got this started and now I can't stop.  Chris mentioned SOS, which I had completely forgotten!  Kathy says she still makes that once in a while.  One of my favorite dinners was the tuna salad (with celery) and french fries which we would have for meatless Fridays.  Never did understand how fish wasn't meat, but I didn't complain about having the tuna salad.

I'll bet this is another forgotten treat:

We didn't get this Danish pastry very often but I loved the almond paste.  I love how this is in her careful handwriting, all stained and discolored.  There's a backside to this with just the brief finishing touches so if you want it, let me know.  A recipe that takes two days won't go far in this household, that's for sure.

I was so sure I had the chicken marinade recipe in Dad's handwriting, but I guess not.  But here you go:
1 or 2 eggs
1/2 cup cooking oil
5 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1.5 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 cup vinegar
Beat all ingredients well (can add garlic or onion).  Let chicken soak well.  Grill, basting with extra sauce (yes, I know using the extra sauce the raw meat was sitting in isn't recommended, but that's the recipe I have!)

HOWEVER, pork chops and meatloaf were forever ruined for my palate as a result of childhood experiences!

Pizza Anyone?

I made dinner again last night--take out pizza as seen above.  Some of you read the Good Morning Gloucester blog and they take much nicer pictures of food than this, but the pizza-for-dinner last night got me thinking.  I don't remember that we ever had pizza for dinner when we were young (or at all for that matter).  Pizza was a treat for me and I have fond memories of some of my favorite food treats.  Costa's pizza in Silver Creek remains top on my list.  That pizza was GREAT.  Once in a while, I'd bring a pizza home after work in Walton --maybe from Aiello's?  Mom and Dad both seemed to enjoy that. 

I remember only one time that we had pizza with Nanny and Weenie in Olean.  I got the clear idea they didn't like pizza--perhaps that's what they told me.  Anyhow, in my little 10 year old brain, "old people" didn't like pizza so I always thought that was a fact of life.  It's kind of strange to me that we didn't have pizza more often --it's fairly cheap especially made by hand from a mix.

Once in a while we'd have fish fry at Foits.  Out to a restaurant with all of us for fish!  I can't say I remember the fish dinners themselves, but I do remember that going to Foits was a treat.  I still enjoy fish fry as a treat.  It's not something I've tried myself.  I'll leave fish to the experts. 

Another treat was the mandarin orange, banana slices with confectioners sugar dessert--chilled.  Ummmmm.  I shared that special recipe with my own kids and they have always loved it.  Thinking about it now, I don't imagine that mandarin oranges were normally on Mom's grocery list. I don't recollect having them for anything other than this dessert.  But she would have had to have the mandarins on hand.  I buy them semi-regularly these days to have on hand for fruit salads but I think it must have been an extra expense on the normal grocery list for Mom.  This makes that dessert even more special in my eyes.  If she used mandarin oranges regularly for something else, don't tell me.  Oh!  I just remembered jello with fruit which we never saw after she'd been hospitalized.  Perhaps that's why she'd buy those mandarins.

Dad's "special" barbequed chicken sauce wasn't so much a treat as an event, as I recall.  It required preparing the marinade ahead and soaking the chicken for at least a day.  That was pretty good chicken too.
Another treat would be when Mom made pancakes for dinner, blueberries upon request.  That was never my favorite meal but it wasn't fun for Mom to churn out all those pancakes and she did it once in a while anyhow.  Mom's spaghetti sauce was a treat for me and I like making that for my family too. 

I guess that's what makes some food or meal a "treat"--you just know some kind of special effort went into it and it makes you feel like it was all about making you happy.  A lesson I'm happy to carry forward with my children, even though I suspect that the things I thought I was doing special for them won't be the fond memories they share around the table over beers some evening in the future.  It will be something ordinary and unexpected.  I'm sure Mom was as surprised by the popularity of the mandarin orange dessert as I was with Amy and Ryan.  And so it goes.