Girls day out...

( The Raptor, photo C.P.)

Nope. No shopping at the mall for my two girls and me. My dear friend bought 3 tickets for us to go and have a fun day with the coasters.

We went for a whole day of roller coasters.

Big roller coasters.

BIG BIG roller coasters.

The park has 17 coasters (more than any other park in the WORLD!), 3 of which are in the top 10 steel coasters in the world!!



We opened the park, stayed all day riding (and doing lots of walking between rides) and closed the park. 11 hours of roller coasters. Phewwww!!! We had a blast. I LOVE roller coasters. All of them! I love the awesome speed and I love the marvelous heights (which is really weird , 'cuz I hate heights so much I can't even walk along an open banister, balcony or stairway railing or go on a glass sided escalator!!) .

(The Magnum, photo C.P.)

I hadn't been on the roller coasters since 1989. I went in 1995, but I couldn't "ride the speeding rails" due to being 5 months pregnant with A. Even though I am a touch older than my last ride day, I still LOVE them just as much!!!

So Monday turned out to be the BEST day for it. IDEAL, as a matter of fact! The park was not crowded as most schools are starting back already by now. And the weather was so beautiful. No humidity (a rarity in our area of Ohio), blue skies and a nice cool breeze off Lake Erie!

The longest we had to wait for any ride was 20 minutes. Sometimes we would get off a ride and get right back on again!! Super fun!

I had been there years ago when you would wait for up to 1- 2 hours to ride a 3 minutes ride!! Crazy!

(The Gemini, photo C.P.)

We were disappointed that the park closed at 9:00 because it was just starting to get dark and anyone knows that the only thing better than riding roller coasters is.....riding roller coasters in the DARK with all the wonderful colored lights everywhere!

I told the girls they were lucky to have such a totally CRaZy  "old" Mom!! I told them to take a poll among their friends to see if any of their Mom's would ride roller coasters for 11 hours!! I have found that none of my female friends would do it!!

As we walked out to the parking lot. Both girls had sore feet and were tired (A had blisters on her feet), but I was fine. I had a BLAST!!
(Max Air, photo C.P.)

I am afraid I may not get back again soon. It may be another 20 years before I go back and I am afraid at age 66 I may be too old for 11 hours of BIG roller coasters.
I'm pretty sure, anyway!!

A birthday and a reunion

Yesterday we made a short trek to Michigan to see some people that share the same blood line. Those would be my cousins!

We had a wonderful gathering at the home of one of my cousins. We had blue skies intermittently mixed with quick summer downpours throughout the whole day. We easily adapted to moving as a group of about 30 from his comfortable yard to his cozy house as the weather dictated, back and forth.

Another reason to get together on this particular day was the event of my Uncle's 75th birthday; the father of my party hosting cousin.

He now holds the honor of being the eldest relative on that branch of the family tree; his two sibling's (one being my Mother) are both gone. He is the one we now go to for stories told and questions to be answered.

The above photo is him as a boy with his parents (my Grandparents) and his sister (my Mother). His oldest sister must have been the photographer! I do love the stories, and a few new ones were told yesterday!

My cousins had some old 8mm family movies transferred to DVD and we had a glorious time narrating and laughing as we all sat in the same room to view some of it.

We marveled, as we watched ourselves on film as infants, at how we all survived the seemingly death-trap contraptions of babyhood eras gone by.

The strollers and walkers and cribs and playpens...

Several times throughout the day, my daughter commented that we needed to get together much more frequently as, "I want to learn all the names and get to know these people!"

I have 2 cousins born the same year as I and our conclusion was that, We are becoming the generation that sits and talks and tells stories as the little ones run around and play.

When did that happen?

A note about this photo: I have used this photo before on my blog and have previously commented on how I like this photo...it is funny- the fact that only my Uncle and the dog appear happy. Maybe they know something??!

10 memories of springtime from my childhood

(Me among spring bulb flowers in 1965 and then 10 years later in 1975. The first one at home, the second at the park.)

1. Watching the spring bulb flowers emerge from the cold ground and burst into color and fragrance. My very favorites are Hyacinths. (I have been known to detour from my rushed, planned out route inside the grocery store just to swing through the floral dept and breathe in a big fragrant dose of potted brightly colored Hyacinths!)

2. Being able to run outside to play without having to first bundle up in 5 layers of clothing and coats, mittens, hats etc.

3. Seeing adorable baby bunnies and chicks, and other birds. I always wished we could raise baby chicks. Mom said absolutely not-They grow much too quickly. (Now that I'm a Mom, I have allowed my E. to breed her bunnies several years in the spring.)

4. Being able to wear white shoes again. Who can resist a new pair of white patent leather shoes? I think I may have even tried to sneak wearing mine to bed when I got a new pair. I didn't want to take them off. I'm sure they stayed next to the bed so I could open my eyes and see them first thing in the morning!

5. Taking my bike out for a spin up and down the street after it being banished to the garage all winter.

(1970-Me with my oldest nephew at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Michigan for Easter. He seemed like a little brother since only 6 years divided us. By the way, I loved those t-strap suede Hush Puppy shoes!! Big yarn tied in my hair!)

6. Going to Aunt B's and Uncle J's house and Grandma and Grandpa's house each Easter Sunday. They lived on the same street, which was pretty convenient. As a kid it seemed like a long ride in the back seat to get to their town in Michigan from our house in Ohio. The Easter Bunny would include a new stuffed animal in my candy basket and leave it by my bed so I would find it first thing when I woke up. The new animal usually went in the car with me that day. (In the photo above you can see me holding a rabbit. I still have her. Touching the pink velvet inside her ears still reminds me of that Easter's car ride.)

I had fun playing with my cousins and eating too much candy. We had to save room in our tummies because there were always plenty of good things to eat for dinner. Chairs were gathered from all around the house and pressed into service as we squeezed around the huge table .

( my ink and water color paint art)

7. The arrival of the first fat Robin birds in the yard and watching them take things from the dormant garden to fashion their nests.

8. Springtime break from school meant that when we returned to school it would be a more tolerable amount of time until the school year ended!!

9. Warm rain showers and the smell of the dirt after a quick down pour. The air feels so invigorating!! Jumping in puddles up and down the street and searching for the biggest and deepest puddle.

10. I had a great friend named Joan who lived next door. We would sit on the split rail fence that divided our two yards and play hand clapping rhyme games..."Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack..." and others. We even made up lots of them. When it was springtime, there was a Pussy Willow bush by the fence and we would pick off the soft, fuzzy buds in between hand clapping games-- and then get yelled at by her Mom or mine without fail! Here is where you insert an all-knowing Mom voice = "Are you girls picking at that bush??!" It was too tempting. We couldn't help ourselves.
(I just saw a bush for sale in the garden section of the store the other day when my kids were in tow. I shared this story with them and they thoroughly enjoyed hearing about Mommy getting yelled at for acting mischievously!!!!)

me and cousins

1964- I am the baby in front holding the Raggedy Ann. It was my first birthday! My cousin B., the baby in the blue shorts, was just a birthday boy again this month!! The rest of the people are my uncle, aunts, cousins and my grandparents (Dad's parents). My Mom was the photographer.
I still have the doll. She was well loved!!

1967- That's me in the red bubble suit in the front. To my left, wearing red shorts, is my cousin B. The rest are cousins and second cousins. I think this is a great photo because of the twisted shorts on the boys!!!! Obviously they "pull to the right" when pulling up their pants. Too FUNNY!

See the nuns in the background? This was taken at one of the many picnic reunions we attended each summer at the orphanage where my Grandma Bubbles and her siblings grew up. The building location changed through the years but it was always run by the same division of nuns.

wedding

I recently went to a family wedding at Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral in Toledo. Many of my relatives have been married there, all the way back to the 1940's.

i

It is absolutely breathtaking and each and every time I have been inside it, throughout my life, I am still awe struck. It has so much history and trivia attached to the building- inside and out.

My aunt-in-law was the sacristan there for many years and I always intended to have her give my kids a tour through her eyes and tell all the unknown secrets too. Sadly, she now has Alzheimer's and does not even recognize her 15 kids (yes! 15!!). We waited too long. Do not wait to do things- even simple things- if you know anyone with Alzheimer's!

Everywhere you look inside and out there are wonders to discover!! Imagine all the hours of labor lovingly done by hand. Old buildings are truly the best. New construction is sometimes (in my amateur opinion) done quickly, often devoid of detail and not meant to last.

See the skull up there? I was always told that it was there to keep evil spirits from entering. I do not know if that is true. It could also mean that life is fleeting or it could represent Golgotha- "the place of a skull".

Even if you aren't Catholic this church is a one of those buildings that makes you want to see more and find new details around each corner.

You can take a tour by clicking here and following the directions to see many breathtaking features of the Cathedral.

There is also a blog that shows many, many great photos of the Cathedral. Get yourself something to drink, place it on a coaster next to your key board and settle in for some beauty and history.

This is the beautiful bride and her handsome groom. It was such a memorable day. There were many people attending the celebration.

This wedding cake was beautiful, very unique!!

chairs are fun

Recently I visited my cousin while he was house sitting while my Uncle (his Dad) was out of state. We shared lots of stories about growing up.

I told him about a little red chair I remembered. At our Grandma "Bubbles" house (down the street from my Uncle's house) I used to sit in a little chair-- as a small girl wearing my fancy cute dresses and crinoline slips and patent leather shoes and curled blonde hair.
( It is now naturally curly strangely enough. Maybe an effect of all those torturous years of sleeping in sponge curlers or rolled socks!).

Grandma had a room at the front of the house with lots of windows and, I think, shelves under the windows. Not sure about the configuration of the shelves, but I know that was where she kept her scrap book albums.

Yep and double yep!==Grandma was a woman before her time with the scrapbooking. She would save all the hand written letters I wrote to her- terrible grade school misspellings and all- and every drawn and colored art creation and coloring book page signed and dedicated especially to her that I had ever tossed her way! No need to wonder... I come from a long line of savers!
I remember feeling really proud as I looked at the way she had immortalized my efforts at being a good granddaughter. Incidentally, I have that scrapbook stuff from Grandma's house even now. The stuff I would look at while siting in the little chair at every visit.

Here's where the story gets even better==
I told this story to my cousin and he listened to my ramblings (much like my blog ramblings!). He finally had the chance to get a word in edgewise and seized the opportunity.

"That was probably my Dad's little red chair from when he was a little boy. He told me he used to sit in it to listen to the radio!!
[or listen to radio as it was back then, just as we now say watch TV as opposed to saying watching the TV]
He still has it. It is here in the house. "

I was shocked. Then he said, before I started my rantings again, "Would you like to see it?"

Well, would I like to breath some air is just about the same question in my opinion!!!!!!
I was sooooo excited as he went to the closet and pulled it out. I had to take a picture of it. Had to!!
I only wish there were a photo somewhere of Uncle J. as a little boy sitting in this little red chair listening to radio!!!!!!

Then he showed me some boxes of OLD books that have been in the family for 100 years stacked in another of my Uncle's closets but we did not open any of them. It was like looking into King Tut's tomb in my opinion!!! What treasure undiscovered!!! That's another story for another time...

Speaking of chairs...


Some time ago I bought this cute child size vintage chair (or chairs, depending on how you approach it all) in my travels, and now I am trying to decide what to do. I collect old Raggedy Ann dolls and I can picture them sitting in this.
What do you think?
Keep? Sell? Oh the drama of life! Anyone with any thoughts??
Just one more funny thing to share while on the subject of chairs. I was on the way to taking E. to the Rescue Horse Barn where she volunteers and we passed a huge Edison electrical repair truck. Tucked inside and up on top were two stacked wicker chairs (where they had absolutely NO business being!!!!) as if the guys had found them along the road in some one's trash and couldn't leave the opportunity behind. I wonder what their boss would say about this mode of transport? And hey! I thought I was the only one silly enough to drag home chairs!!

Beautiful Nature Can sometimes Sting Too

When I asked my cousin if his dad's house looked the same as when I was there last, he commented about his step mom's flower gardens. He was right; the house looked beautiful and with many colorful gardens in the front and back yard too.

Such amazing nature sights for me to capture.

I walked around and around clicking the camera

As is normal in nature there were plenty of buzzing, flying things about and wouldn't you know it-- my A. was stung for the very first time in her life.

I wasn't sure if she would be allergic since my dad and brother are very allergic to stings. My cousin was kind enough to make a run to the store for some Benadryl while I put a baking soda paste on the spot on her toe. She ended up being fine although she now knows how it hurts to be stung. Welcome to the club of stung people, A!!

As is also true in nature, you sometimes find the perfect picture with flowers and insects together. 

The cousins

I took the kids last week to visit my cousin, in Michigan.

We had so much fun!!!

He was house sitting at his Dad's...which is a shorter drive for me than his own home

which is much farther North.

[A., E. and my cousin's son]

We shared stories from growing up times while my kids and his son played games and went swimming until they grew gills.

[N. and my cousin's son]

We had a cookout/picnic for lunch and for supper we had lunch-left-overs and delicious pizza. We had way too much food so we could have invited the whole neighborhood. My cousin made a salad with fresh fruit and that was yummy looking enough but was made even better when he added pineapple and dressed it up with star fruit!! We also had coleslaw with apples diced up in it- extra yummy!!

We also had lots of fun with my cousin's older brother and his two daughters who live very close by. E. hit it off with myother cousin's daughter -they seemed to talk so non stop they couldn't help but to talk over top of each other. It was comical. They talked for the longest time about fishing, of all things-- who knew??

My cousin's daughter was so interested to hear the family tree stories; of course I was a willing speech giver on genealogy!

I wish the day could have gone on forever.

[My cousin's daughter and my E.]

It was great to be together with my cousins- just like we were kids again...well almost!! You can read more about cousins here and here.

from the days of youth

I have included a list of super cool places to visit in blogland. When you have the dishes and windows washed go ahead and sit down for a read. Oh heck...I will write you a permission slip excusing you from all that...read them as soon as you get the urge. The dishes and windows will wait for you. They always do.

In the meantime, this post is about me and

my cousin Barry.

December 1963. Barry, me, and my other cousin Jeff.

We are known in the family as the "1963 Gang" and we are the genealogist captains too!

Don't you LOVE the apron in the background? All the vintage seekers

KILL for aprons like that today!

Easter 1964. Barry and me at my house. I think he must have needed a button fussed with. How 'bout the major chub on my legs and that terrible bow on my head?!Easter 1966. Me with Barry at Grandma Bubble's house.

1966. Barry, me and Barry's brother John.

My other cousins may leave a comment saying where this was photographed.

Grandpa's 65th birthday 1969 at Barry's house.

Me, Barry, Grandpa, Barry's brother John, and my uncle (Barry and John's Dad).

See my "turkey apron"? That's a whole other story for another time!

1971.

Me on my First Communion day with Barry at my house.

You can view more photos of Amy and Barry~~ the blue eyed blondes

by clicking here and here.

Barry was the best D. J. that any wedding could ask for when it was my day.

He cued up "Amy" by Pure Prairie League.

For the first dance he made sure to fill the request for "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton.

Thanks for being a great cousin!!

Meet Grandma Bubbles and Grandpa, Too!

This picture shows my Mom's parents; my Grandma and Grandpa - Grandma Bubbles is holding me!! I promise to tell you (later on) the reason she is called Grandma Bubbles!!
The card next to the picture is actually one of my baby announcements that my Mom sent out when I was born [almost 44 years ago]. My Mom was a saver. She saved everything! I have to say that there are many, many things that are treasures now just for the sake of surviving time. I am so glad to have those things to pass on to my kids. Thanks Mom. I could have done without some of the other treasures you saw fit to save, though. I am often talking to her up in heaven in this manner. It took, literally, years to sort through things. Sometimes it was mentally exhausting and overwhelming to decide what should stay for future generations to possess and what should just be chucked into the trash. I hope the decisions have been good ones. I even found a birth announcement card of a [now adult] cousin. I returned it to her. Yep! She was surprised!