HIATUS

A brief hiatus is much needed by me right now during the dog days of August. There are some things I really need to think about and attend to so I'll be back in a few days to share more blog musings, ideas and other, I think, interesting things with you.

SIMPLE PLEASURES

My Simple Pleasure this week as part of our hostess Dayle's Simple Pleasures party is "The fruit of my Labors." Please join us as we share what little things in life help us slow down and enjoy life's Simple Pleasures at A Collection of This and That. Below - tomatoes, zinnias, hydrangea and celosia all blooming. Zinnias in full bloom and I'm cutting them for surprise bouquets for friends!

Tomatoes are starting to come on strong...so nice to see these in the garden!

...and I decided to put my collection of handmade and homemade bird houses out to enjoy. However, I'm not the only one who enjoys them...I noticed bees living in the tall white one!

GARDEN ROAD

The sun porch was one of the nicest things about the small cottage we lived in, especially during hot summer nights. I can remember Mother sitting in her red metal lawn chair and Dad in the red and white Adirondack chair on the sun porch with the windows opened wide to try and catch the faintest breeze. In the corner was a small stand and on it a lamp and a radio. Byrum Saam would be calling the Philadelphia Athletics game and, since my sisters and I slept in the bedroom right off the sun porch, we could hear the game also. We were supposed to be asleep, of course, but sometimes it was hard to fall asleep on those still, hot nights. One of our windows faced east and was between the crib of baby sister Gayle and Margie's and my twin bed. A window with no screen, right at the end of the bed, looked out into the porch. Sometimes I'd be sitting up leaning on the window sill looking over my father's shoulder. Since it was hot and my sisters were sleeping, I would be allowed to stay up awhile. My favorite player, the A's short stop and the man I was going to marry, was Eddie Joost. I was nine years old and I thought he was the greatest. Other times the games were slow and boring and the last thing I would hear was, "...strike two...three balls and two strikes...a full count for this young outfielder..." To this day, the sound of a basefall game, the announcer, the crowd cheering and roaring and all that is associated with that long ago and far away place can bring me right back to a soothing and peaceful place.
To Be Continued...

GARDEN ROAD

One time Jude's Mom asked Jude and me to pick a couple of quarts of blackberries for a pie. It became an adventure for us because trying to get to them without getting too scratched up was a real trick. The blackberries had originally been cultivated but then had run wild over much of the east side of our property. The next day, I was invited to have some of that pie. I don't really remember much about their kitchen except that it was dark. There were only two small windows over the sink. I do, however, remember vividly the aroma and taste of that freshly baked blackberry pie.

A few years later, I was asked to stay with Mrs. Flaherty while the family was away overnight, just to have someone in the house with her. As I remember, there were no other "guests" at this time. The back stairway to the second floor was located in the corner of the kitchen behind a closed door. Mother said it was probably the servants stairway when the house was originally built. After opening the door, the first three or four steps curved around to the left and then went straight up. It was narrow and very dark with dark woodwork and dark, high steps. It was just a little spooky and intimidating to me. At the last minute, my sister Margie asked if she could come also, and when Mother agreed, I was more than happy to have her with me. Thinking about it now, I wonder at leaving children (I was about 11 and Margie 8) alone with a handicapped, bedridden woman but times were different then and no one thought anything of it.
To be continued...

SIMPLE SUMMER PLEASURES

Here is my Simple Summer Pleasures journey which started back in May with a packet of Zinnia seeds...and from this:To this:

Then this:

...and Hey Nonny Nonny...would you look at this!

So there ends my Simple Summer Pleasures journey and I hear that these little beauties just keep giving until the frost. I will enjoy making boquets of these for my friends too. If you would like to join with Dayle at A Collection of This and That. for more Simple Summer Pleasures - then please join the party!

GARDEN ROAD

Both of Jude's parents were nurses. His father worked at The Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia and was rarely at home for any length of time. Jude had a much older sister, who at the time I met Jude, was in the military and who also was rarely at home. So pretty much, it was Jude and his Mom. I'm guessing the large home had been purchased because they wanted to have a place for patients who were not quite ready to go home from the hospital. A kind of rehabilitation home and we started seeing people on the large, comfortable porch at the front of their house. Jude seemed to take all this in stride and it did not appear to affect him at all.

One of the patients would sit on the porch and Jude and I would come around the corner and just stare. He'd stand it for just so long and then he'd shoo us away by tamping his cane on the porch floor until Jude's Mom came out and told us to stop bothering Mr. Tuttle*. You could hardly blame us, though, as we were awestruck by the yellow liquid going down the tube and into the gallon bottle at Mr. Tuttle's feet. Try explaining that to two little kids. I remember my Mother saying something about him getting better because of it. To me it was just one big mystery.

Mrs. Flaherty*, a full time patient and a dear old soul with a shock of very white hair and blue eyes, was bedridden and her upstairs bedroom window overlooked the field and pathway to our house. She and my mother became friendly when my mother would stay with her while Jude's Mom ran errands on occasion. I remember how crowded her room was with a large dresser and mirror on one wall and a double bed that took up most of the room. Some chairs sat in the other spaces. Boxes were placed on the floor. It appeared messy but I think now, it was because it was crammed with all her possessions. I remember seeing beautiful cut crystal dishes and bowls on the dresser. I still have one piece she gave my Mother, a candy dish with a cross cut into the center of it. My Mother kept it for years and then gave it to me. I think of Mrs. Flaherty whenever I see it. To Be Continued.
*names have been changed.

SUMMER PLEASURES

Something I think is fun for young and old (and especially the male species) is fireworks going boom, boom on the Fourth of July! While I was in Virginia visiting my daughter and her family the guys went out and got some fireworks for us to use to celebrate the 4th. (They are legal in VA but only a certain size - Thank Goodness!) My favorite are the sparklers and my daughter caught this picture of me with not one, not two, but three sparklers as we set off the fireworks that evening. It is my Simple Summer Pleasure this week and if you would like to see more to to visit our hostess, Dayle at A Collection of This and That

GARDEN ROAD

It was fun exploring my new surroundings, but I was used to a neighborhood full of kids - most of them around my own age. Here on Garden Road, there was a scarcity of children of any age. There were a lot of older people who had either retired or settled in the quiet life of the countryside. Raising chickens and growing vegetables to be sold to The Campbell Soup Company was the prime reason most of them located to the Southern New Jersey area. Across the street was a family that had just moved to America from Germany and spoke very broken English. My Father said they were "refugees." I didn't know what that meant. Mr. Bender was a butcher and raised sheep and other livestock. They had a baby girl named Carol who was born that summer about the same time as my baby sister. Next to them was Mrs. Mellor and her daughter, Adele, who was probably 11 or 12. We didn't see much of Adele that first summer as she spent a lot of time in North Jersey with her grandparents. Her father worked a full time job there also and was rarely at home on Garden Road. Adele later became our babysitter.

We lived near the historic Maurice (pronounced Morris) River that runs through Cumberland County to the Delaware Bay. Garden Road was not a major thoroughfare - so it didn't have major traffic either. Since Mother did not drive yet, we were pretty much stuck where we were.

Next to us was a beautiful old colonial home with white siding and stately columns along the front porch. It also sat on twelve acres of land that was once farmed but now was not in use. Huge Cedar trees lined the long driveway. I could see a boy running and playing in this driveway...and children, like magnets, are drawn to one another.

One day, I saw him standing in the middle of the narrow field alongside his house. Our field was a jumble of blackberry vines and a few sapling Sassafras trees scattered her and there. I could just make out a kind of path through the vines and I started walking through them. He said his name was Jude and he was six. During the seven years we were neighbors, Jude and I, along with my sisters became good friends and the path we started that day became a much used albeit sandy pathway to each others' houses.
To Be Continued

A BEAUTIFUL 4TH - ATTEND A PARADE!

If you can, find a parade and attend with your family. There is nothing like the pounding of the drums to make your heart beat faster with pride - just seeing our beautiful stars and stripes passing by. I know that's what we will be doing this Monday and I hope you will too! Have a joyful and S A F E 4th of July