Happy 5th birthday, to Aiden!! :)
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Summer went by too quickly!!
and it's almost time for April to be going back to college...time flew this summer.
(and now her cousin is also going off to college,which somehow makes me feel even older,lol, as I just came across a picture the other day, of the two of them together as toddlers.)
It's been a lovely summer,though, starting with the Memorial day picnic we had
and the camping trip in July
the birth of newest grandson Logan on July 22 (and we'll get to meet him in Oct, yay!:)
Tony finally going to a Redskins fan appreciation day!
and going on a helicopter ride at the fair last weekend!
and, of course, I knew that summer was Really winding down when oldest grandson Aiden started school last week!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Aug.8--How Nixon's resignation led to a treasured memory for me..
I've posted about this before ,but wanted to post it again:
The year was 1974, and I was a 14 year old on a 'primitive camping' trip with the Girl Scouts, through Camp Merrie Woode out of Plainwell,MI.
Normally I went camping At Camp Merrie Woode but for 'primitive camping' we campers and two counselors went out to someone's farm, on their 'back 40',so to speak, and set up a camp from scratch.....yes, dug our own latrine, set up our tents, fire pit, and I remember lashing together a table of sticks to use for our meals. I also remember using some kind of tablets to treat our water that we got from a stream on the farm, which tasted 'ew',lol.
The folks who owned the farm drove out on Aug.8,1974 to tell us that the President was resigning and they wanted to bring us in to watch it on TV, as they thought it was an historical moment that we should not miss. The counselors agreed, so we all piled into the back of their truck and went in to their big old farmhouse to sit on the floor in their living room and watch Richard Nixon's resignation speech.
Indicative of a 14 year old mind,lol, I recall nothing of the speech and I'm not sure I understood at the time what a huge deal this was. All I have is a snapshot memory in my head of the President talking on the screen of a wood floor model TV (this Was '74,guys:) and I think it was a black and white TV,too.
It was what We said while we were there that led to one of my favorite memories. Someone mentioned the mosquitoes that were at our camp, and the folks who owned the farm in the next few days after that came out and sprayed around where we were camping to try and get rid of them. (what did they spray? no idea.)
Unfortunately, their good intentions went awry, and it seemed that they only managed to drive even More mosquitoes into our camp.So much so that, after getting bitten unmercifully all day, we decided to abandon our camp for the last night we were there, and take our sleeping bags out into the middle of a huge field that was nearby. (we were camping in the woods.)
Only we hardly slept. We just so happened to have chosen a night that the Perseid meteor shower was occurring (didn't know that was what it was Then, found out later.) We had set up our sleeping bags and were lying in them idly chatting, when we saw the first meteor shooting across the sky...and then another, and another.
All these years later, every August that memory transports me back to a Michigan summer night when I unexpectedly saw the most beautiful celestial show I've ever seen, lying in a field and gazing up at a clear sky filled with heavenly fireworks.
I've never seen the meteor shower as clearly again, and maybe the magic of that memory was that it wasn't planned, it was just a happy accident that we decided to sleep in that field on that night.
But it still remains one of my most treasured memories....
Burgundy and Gold!
Anyone who knows us knows that my husband Tony is The penultimate Redskins fan :) One thing he'd always wanted to do was to attend the Washington Redskins Fan Appreciation Day ..so yesterday, we finally Did that, and had a great time!
It was a very hot day, even though it was overcast, and I have No idea at the size of the crowd,lol ("a Lot of people" :) I tried several times to take pics of the crowd to try and give an idea of how vast the sea of 'Burgundy and Gold" was, but looking at the pictures later, unless I would have done a panorama, I don't think it captured it.
Let's just say that I overheard one Fan make the comment to another Fan as they were walking by "I'm kind of freaked out, actually, by all the burgundy and gold in one place, and I'm a fan!"
Old to young, and tall to small, the fans were all there.....one thing I've learned over the years about Redskins fans (my Uncle is Also a fan:) is that they Love their team!!
Like Tony in this pic
they were all happy and smiling.
oh sure, I heard some of them razzing various players, and the coach, at different times(hollering at players to 'make that catch!'and yelling at Coach Shanahan"Year Two,Coach! let's see some results this year!")....but it was all done in fun, and in a lighthearted way....done in 'love of the team', I guess you'd say? lol.
We met a grandmother who was a lifelong fan, she wore the cutest 'Skins cap, and when I asked her about it? she said it was handmade.."but I need to make another one, this one got a little faded because it accidentally went through the washer and dryer, and normally I hand-wash and air dry it"...(THAT's a Fan!)
and there were high school football players from around the area up in DC,
there was a very friendly family who sat behind us (and had me cracking up sometimes at some of their comments I overheard as they watched the team practice)
and there were the two ladies who wandered by with sheets of paper in their hands and had downloaded a bunch of info about each of the players and were figuring out who was who out on the field, and critiquing them (that's dedication! :)
All in all, it was just a great day....like one big happy family on a giant picnic. You could strike up a conversation instantly with anyone sitting near you, because everyone was there for the same reason..they're fans, and they love their team! (or, like in my case, they love someone who loves the team, and so I guess I'm kind of a 'fan by default'? lol )
The rest of our pics are HERE
Monday, August 1, 2011
down Memory Lane,via the Radio
there are a few songs that when I hear them on the radio, I'm instantly transported back to a specific time and place ...heard one of them coming home from work the other day, which prompted this post.
Whenever I hear either of these songs, I'm back in 1996, on the biggest vacation I ever as a single mom took my 3 kids on, to Florida for Thanksgiving that year. Both of these songs came on while I was in the middle of a 10 hour drive (which I hadn't realized would take that long!) to get to a particular Holiday Inn on the way back home, for our last night on the road....the kids and I all joined in singing along with both of these, and this memory always makes me smile ...(and,lol, I asked one of my son's before I posted this if he remembered any of this and he said 'nope', which just goes to show ya..one of my fave memories, and who else recalls it but me? :)
(and the second song, I can't embed...but here's the link to The Village People:Y.M.C.A. )
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The other two songs are from when my daughter and I were traveling back to Virginia from MN in 2001, and were stuck in a traffic jam on the outskirts of Chicago. Hearing either one of these takes me back to singing along to them with my daughter...
(yes, we have eclectic music tastes, lol....everything from hip hop to bluegrass, and all points in between..except Opera)
What songs take You back ?
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