New Year 2015

I was unable to determine what became of my Mother's childhood "long walk" friend posted previously. However, she mentioned another childhood friend that was last seen at her wedding 57 years ago. After a couple hours of "pigheaded" sessions with Google, I found the woman's daughter-in-law and an email address! My mom spoke to the daughter-in-law and will talk to her friend soon. I guess batting 50-50 isn't too bad.

The year 2015 will include some big changes for me. The office was put up for sale and the first two months of 2015 will be busy with sorting through years of stuff and moving.

No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't afford to keep the building.

Two Little Girls Tired of Bread...

Far Side of Fifty spotted an old newspaper article in my mother's old photo display. The story tells of one of my mother's earliest childhood memories. The article is dated March 3, 1941.

Two Little Girls Tired of Bread After Five-Hour Walk With Loaf

There was no place like home for two little girls in Roxbury [a Boston, Massachusetts suburb] last night.

Walking may be enjoyable and bread may be good to eat, but 5-year-old Evelyn Belyea of 8 Kensington st., and her little pal, Lois Bush [my mother], 3, who lives next door, have learned the sad lesson that there can be too much of two good things.

When her mother sent her for a loaf of bread at 11:30 a.m., yesterday, Evelyn took her fox terrier, "Trixie" and called for Lois. After buying the bread, the youngsters decided that a walk would be "just the thing."

Their little legs carried the kiddies more than two miles, to Forest Hills, before protesting. The the two tired girls started the dreary trek homeward. Long before patrolman Daniel J. Crowe of the Jamaica Plain station sighted them at Egleston sq., about 4:30 p.m., and recognized them as "the missing kids," they had tired of their day-long diet of bread and felt the "prodigal's" proverbial yearning for fatted calf.

I wonder what's become of my mother's friend?

Christmas is Coming

Barely finished with Thanksgiving, I find myself getting Christmas Cards and even boxes in the mail. Before I moved on from Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a photo of my Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary. I found one at my parent's house. In the guest bedroom, my mom keeps a display of family photos that I have found in a variety of old boxes in the attic and other places.

My Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary are in the center. James Joseph Dunn Jr. was a Master Sargent in the Army and was stationed in Germany immediately after WWII. He looks so impossibly young in this photo. Of course, I never saw him as a "young man"!

In the week that follows Thanksgiving, I place grave blankets on my Grandparent's grave - It is my way of telling them I am thankful for all the love and blessings they gave me while they were "with us." They have not been forgotten - and with the onset of their favorite time of the year, They are specially remembered.

My mother's father loved Fruitcake from Collin Street Bakery of Texas - and a can of it was ordered for the family to share on Christmas Day.

My dad's mom loved to sign her gifts "From Santa" and spent the entire year before Christmas looking (and listening) for the perfect gift idea. She always found something that made her grandchild jump up and down in glee.

The recent loss of my dad's father is becoming less recent - but the later years on the gravestone remind me that my dad's father's last Christmas with us was no different - my older brother and I shared a few hours with him in his comfortable bedroom on Christmas Day. As confused as he was with many things, he knew it was Christmas - and that "Kid" (as he called his wife) was greatly missed...and especially so on that day.

And now, I will start writing and send my own Christmas Cards.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving, I went down to the seashore with my parents. I always enjoy the "winter beach" and the lack of crowds during the off-season. We left just before a Nor'easter storm left 4 or 5 inches of snow in my neighborhood and I only saw only some cold wet rain as the snow was gone by the time I returned home.

I did some overdue maintenance work on a garden shed, Superstorm Sandy had blown off some roof shingles and I set about cleaning out the shed and mending the roof. After getting the shed in order, I went down to the beach to listen to the surf. I took a half dozen photos, and I like how the seagull in the foreground might look like he made some footprints.

About a month ago, I was rooting through some old boxes with stuff my Grandfather left behind, and in with the "debris" of a long life (i.e., "trash") I found a family heirloom.

A silver plated carving set. I was immediately transported back 40-45 years in time to a Thanksgiving Dinner at my grandparents, parents, brothers, and my Uncle Jim, Aunt Mary, and their son Paddy. My grandmother had spent the day setting the big table in her dinning room, and now we all sat down to give thanks and to eat a feast fit for kings. My Uncle Jim, in his booming voice filled with laughter, saying, "Well, Harry! Bring on the bird!!"

My grandfather would then bring the huge (usually a 25 pound plus) turkey from the kitchen through the swinging door to the end of the long table. He would then make a few swipes of the carving knife on the sharpener (it really didn't need it, as my grandfather had fully sharpened it an hour or two beforehand) and set about carving white meat for those that wanted white meat and dark meat for those that wanted dark meat, and always gave me and my younger brother a drumstick apiece too.

This Thanksgiving, my parents and I ate a much smaller turkey carved with the carving set my great-grandfather first used in the 1920's. You might notice someone got a drumstick.

We talked about the many delicious meals we shared with my Uncle Jim, Aunt Mary and Paddy, and how much we always enjoyed being with them. It was hard to believe it has been over 30 years now since we last ate with him.

And as fate would have it, hungry for something warm after a cold day spent outside, we ran short of mashed potatoes, which reminded us of the time my grandmother spent hours peeling and boiling potatoes and mashed them by hand only to find the heaping bowl full only went 2/3ds of the way around the table! She was visibly mortified - and no amount of telling her, "there was more than ample food to make up for it," would make her less embarrassed. Through the hub-bub, my cousin Paddy* pipes up, "Boy these mashed potatoes sure are good!" It turns out that he had innocently taken half the bowl, so Aunt Mary rescued some of them and we all had some mashed potatoes after all!

*Cousin Paddy, James J. Dunn the III had Down's Syndrome and was a big, gruff, but wonderfully big-hearted soul. He spent many hours setting up his huge HO train set and tracks so that his cousins (my brothers and I) would be able to play with them when we came to visit him.

The advance of technology is relentless...

Yesterday, I started testing and learning Windows 10.

I know some of you were daunted by moving away from Windows XP. Windows Vista is on Microsoft's hit list now.

Microsoft decided to skip the name "Windows 9" since there apparently is some old code written that checks the version of Windows by seeing if the number starts with "9" (i.e., Windows 95 and Windows 98) and this might cause problems here and there. So they skipped "9" and went directly to "10."

Below is a preview screen. I would characterize Windows 10 as a mash up between Windows 7 and Windows 8. Click the photo to "enbiggen."

I'm both underwhelmed (by Windows 10) and overwhelmed (by the ceaseless change).

The Irish Photos

The photos were taken a few years ago on film - so the colors are a little off - but I've tried to clean them up a bit.

I didn't expect to see as many horses, ponies, and donkeys that I did, but they were everywhere there were animals. Cows and sheep far out number even people in Ireland I think.

The license plate says Michigan. Having the dog sit in your lap or on the donkey during the ride was an "extra charge." Someone paid it. :)

This is a convent - Kylemore Abbey & Victorian Walled Garden. The weather with the looming fog made it gleam.

Another shot of the abbey.

This was a "Gentlemen's Horse Farm, Carrigglas Manor. I remember having lunch there but not much more. I understand it is now a ruin.

This was spotted in Carrigglas Manor. My Grandfather made thousands of these - I don't know if this one was one of his though.

The Cliffs of Moher. Simply breath-taking.

More cliffs rising from the sea.

Given my fear of heights, this is as close to the edge as I got!!

No trip to Ireland is complete without a kiss. They lean you over backwards and slide you out over the abyss on your back and you lean upward to kiss the bottom of the Barney Stone. It's a good 85-90 foot drop there...

Back on the houseboat - on the River Shannon - there are "street signs" out on the river so it is hard to get lost!

Everywhere along the river are workingmen and fishing persons with their helper dogs of course!

A considerable climb up from the water - the conic towers are - forgive the pun, iconic. This is Glendalough Monastery in COunty Wicklow.

To get around the rapids and shallows on the River Shannon - usually between the many lakes, you go through a "canal lock". Here is one near Carrick on Shannon.

Waiting near one of the many locks was this family of Swans. There were to be many such families along the route.

Here I am in the yellow rain jacket bringing the boat out of a lock.

A view down into a lock, they crammed as many boats as they could into the lock when things were busy. All the boats had plenty of inflated "boat bumpers" on them. A canal further north was "self serve" and far less busy.

A self serve lock. One inserted a "fare card" into the board and the gates would swing shut and the lock fill or empty depending on which way you were going.

The many cows along the river and streams like to stand out in the water and let the houseboat wake wash over their knees - they were totally un-phased by boat wake.

The monastery of Clonmacnoise (Cluain Mhic Nóis in Irish, meaning "Meadow of the Sons of Nós") is situated in County Offaly, Ireland on the River Shannon south of Athlone.

Clonmacnoise was founded in 546 by St. Ciarán, a young man from Rathcroghan, County Roscommon. Until the 9th century it had close associations with the kings of Connacht. The strategic location of the monastery helped it become a major center of religion, learning, craftsmanship, and trade by the 9th century and it was the most famous in Ireland, visited by scholars from all over Europe. Yes, you read the dates correctly!

The houseboat is docked on a wharf in the River Shannon just below this hill. Another climb up a hill brings you into the "land that time forgot." This is one spooky place!

Here you can see a houseboat on the river approaching the Clonmacnoise dock.

Another houseboat. We shared several days company and a couple trips to local pubs for sing-a-longs. The lady with the camera was very friendly and from Limerick.

The Bed and Breakfast I stayed at both before and after my house-boating cruise.

Another family of swans closes this entry. :)

An Irish Sojourn

Recently, a friend of mine went to Ireland to search out their roots. Their family came from the area around the lower River Shannon - and they wrote about a stay in a town that had a river bridge that I recall going both under and over in Ballina.

I've finally found my photos of that many weeks long houseboat trip up and down the River Shannon - and the book of charts I used. I'll scan in some of the photos later but here is a section of the chart showing Ballina.

It was a very pleasant and memorable trip - I greatly enjoyed all my many stays in Ireland - and hope to go back someday. Some of my roots are there too, but in County Antrim, Northern Ireland - And I've never been to that area. For now, I am just enjoying the memories of being on Lough Derg watching the big white fluffy clouds go by with the blue water gently lapping the boat knowing the Irish on shore would greet me in friendship and companionship when I tied up for the night.

One summer, a long time ago...

I recently dug up an old photograph and my younger brother and I racked our brains to try to remember who was who. This group shot shows me and my Boy Scout troop setting off on a canoe trip in Maine.

c. 1976

Labor Day Weekend in Chestertown, Maryland

This past weekend was rather gloomy and sticky in Chestertown, Maryland but the town was "hopping." There were a lot of activities planned - namely the reenactment of the War of 1812: Battle of Caulk's Field! Yeah... Woo-hee! :) I was there alone this weekend - as the parents were and are on Lake Michigan.

The "Pride of Baltimore II" was in Chestertown, Maryland to be part of the "goings on."

It was a "privateer" circa the War of 1812. This ship has been a hard luck case. On May 14, 1986, returning from the Caribbean, a microburst squall, 250 miles north of Puerto Rico struck the Pride. Winds of 80 knots hit the vessel, capsizing and sinking her. Her captain and three crew were lost; the remaining eight crewmembers floated in a partially inflated life-raft for four days and seven hours with little food or water until the Norwegian tanker Toro came upon them and rescued them.

The ship in the photograph is the second "Pride." On September 5, 2005, the "Pride of Baltimore II" suffered a complete dismasting while sailing in a squall in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of France. The ship returned to port under motor power for repairs.

There were "public sailings" on the ship and it sailed past the houseboat several times but I didn't go on any of them.

A view of the mast and rigging.

The town was festooned with 15 star flags from 1812. Note the stars.

In Fountain Park, I found a crafter's display of carved wooden fishes. This is a "Dolphin" or "Mahi Mahi." I didn't bring this home. I wouldn't know where to put it.

Motoring past the wharf is the Anne D., an Echo Hill Outdoor School buy boat.

I took a boat ride in my dad's boat with a fellow "Wharf Rat" to see the Pride of Baltimore II from the water. The Schooner Sultana is in the distance on the right. It is about half the size of the Pride.

Of course, it wasn't all boat riding and sightseeing! I took a couple long walks up the hill from the wharf and visited with my friend Huckleberry. He's not been around for several weeks and I was beginning to worry about him. We enjoyed a pleasant belly and ear-rubbing (for him) reunion.

The sky that evening made me think of several friends - and since I was at the wharf alone - I kind of got lonesome.

The next day I went into town, mostly just to see some people, and caught this young woman tossing some coins into the fountain at the park. The family had a large dog that they tried to have pose in front of the fountain for photographs, but he wasn't having any of that! They finally got a "sort of good one" when someone else took a snap with the whole family at the fountain (see Flickr if you want)

My car turned 150,000 miles on the way back to the houseboat. It is getting old.

While I was at the wharf, the one-legged lady sent me a cellphone photo of Barley - and labeled it, "My Copilot." He's so cute. :)

Happy Birthday Mom!!

What do you get a special person that has everything?

Here she is sitting on a boat reading the history of one of the lighthouses near Baltimore, Maryland. I think she would actually like an old lighthouse - but that isn't too likely to happen! Perhaps she might enjoy a weekend stay at one - preferably one that is not haunted.

So what do you get her? Well, the case of my Mom, you get her a wire reel.

You take it down the shore and put it on the porch. And then, of course, you paint it and forget to take a photo of it!

In any event, my mom was surprised beyond words. She could only stammer, "You! why... why... you!!!! I.. You!!! oh!!!"

I'll get a photo of it painted next time I get down there - I usually don't go down their in the summer - the crowds and I don't get along - so when the fast approaching end of summer arrives, I'll be heading down to enjoy the much more peaceful, hopefully deserted beach and take another photo.

An old photo of the house down the shore showing where her new "porch table" is sitting - by the way, that is a Peugeot station wagon. My mom loved that car!