Pottery Chatroom Board

BOB The ships that were lined up along the Hudson River may well have been "inactive reserve", but since it was 1950 when I saw them there, chances are good that at least some of them were - as you said - refitted, and used again during the Korean War.

On the Glass Board, Carl is talking about "leftover" Army trucks, etc. When I first moved to this area in 1950, we drove over to West Point one day and I was amazed to see ships lined up for probably at least a mile along the west side of the Hudson River. I was told that these were ships that the navy didn't need any more, and they were either up for sale, or used for spare parts. Over time the ships disappeared, either sold, or used for other purposes. Must have been at least 50 of them when I first saw them.

Now they could put them on Ebay or Craig's List, I suppose.

NANCY "A 2x will make them look like a 6". Now there's a style I would pay top dollar for! Where can I get it?

MIM You said on another board that you are having a lot of pain from gout. Please try eliminating chocolate, seafood and tomatoes from your diet. My doctor recommended that, along with the Allopurinol pills, and it seems to have helped a lot. I'm sorry to hear that you are having pain, maybe this will help, if you haven't already tried it.

Clearing out that basement sounds like one tremendous project, don't envy you one bit. Since I was first married, over sixty years ago, I have moved fourteen times, plus three different houses in Florida. At least all those moves discouraged me from saving a lot of "maybe I'll need it later" type things. And yet it seems that every time I try to clean out a closet or cabinet, I find odds and ends that we don't use, don't need, and I pack up another box for Good will. Now the SPCA has opened a thrift store near us, at least it will be easier to donate those "extras" there and I might eventually get ahead of the game.

Hi IRENE That flag cake sounds so nice. Think I saw a picture of one similar in one of the magazines recently. Made the stripes with strawberries like you said. Happy birthday to your grandson and hope you have a nice day for the party.
Our market had my favorite blueberries on sale this morning, so I got two big boxes, one for the freezer and the other to gobble up right away. They won't last long here.

Thanks, IRENE. We went out to the market this morning and were both exhausted by the time we dragged everything home and put it away. Not awfully hot compared to what some folks are having, but up in the 80s with a lot of humidity. Last night there was a storm watch on the TV, but nothing came of it right here. Fine with me, but we could use some rain. Jack has discovered crossword puzzles on the internet, so he's relaxing with that. Good hobby for this hot weather.

Even when Jack was growing fresh vegetables in pots on our deck, I thoroughly washed the vegetables, and the blackberries that grow wild on our backyard fence before we ate them. But I washed them with our well water, which has to be chlorinated and go through some sort of ultra-violet light thing because of contamination here. Birds fly over our deck, squirrels run across the fence, and all sorts of other critters can pass through when neither of us is aware of it.
So I peel some of the fruits and veg that we eat, and wash the rest, and hope for the best. There are so many contaminating factors in the air, the water, our food, and everything we touch through the day, that I don't see how they can be completely avoided. For example, I have read that if you never allow a child to get dirty, their immune system won't develop properly. I don't know if that's right, but Jack has made it to 84, and I am 80, so we must be doing something right.

NANCY I had a doctor's appointment this morning, and the cutest little boy was there with his mother. He could have been about three, walking and talking, but not entirely clear with his words. His mother gave him a granola bar and he had quite a time saying "granola". Mother had just had a scan and had a picture of the new baby, and was showing him the eyes and nose, she was quite entranced with the picture herself. Another woman came in and sat across from them and said "Hello" to the little boy and he spoke to her briefly, then turned to his mother, patted her stomach and said loud and clear for the whole waiting room "BABY HERE". I think we all laughed, while the mother blushed a little, but the little boy seemed very pleased about the whole thing.
I hope he will still be as pleased when Baby arrives and he has some competition for Mommie's attention. Cute kid, though.

SUSAN At one time we had seven cats, all rescues from one situation or another. I believe you can tell a lot about the animals background from the way they react to you. Our Susie is the last survivor, she and her brother were taken from their mother by a neighbor who let them run loose in our development, and I would guess that he rarely showed them much affection. They came to us when he moved away, about 2 years old then. Susie's brother died a few years ago, but Susie loves to be petted and brushed. She has no desire to go outside, will go into the garage, sniff around a bit and come straight back to the house door to come in again. Very fond of Jack, cries for him to take her on his lap, sleeps with him almost every night.
Sam, one of our other cats, was very intelligent, but I think had been abused, because he was very defensive when we first got him. He walked up to our door from the woods in back of the house and he bit me twice when I tried to move him from a comfortable position. As he got more used to us, he was more affectionate, but if he heard the sound of a baby crying on TV, he would get very agitated, so I think he came from a home with children, who may have been rough with him.
Our other cats had other stories. one was found eating out of trash cans, and even when she came to us would eat anything and everything, beans, lasagna, you name it. Always seemed fearful there wouldn't be anything more.
Only the last one who came to us as an adult cat, and had been abandoned by his previous owner, seemed to never understand that he had a good home or show any affection. He tried to run away and stayed outside for several weeks before I trapped him and got him back in the house, and still was never happy or friendly.
Every one had a different personality, but we loved them all and tried to give them a good home. Most of them responded.

IRENE What a nice family. You can be very proud. I'm happy to be living in the outskirts of a small town these days. Close enough to the services we need, market, doctors, dentist, etc, but away from the problems of a city. I don't think the "Occupy Poughkeepsie" people really did any harm, but at our age, they make us nervous.

NANCY My first husband's family had a contracting business here for many years, built houses during the warmer months and during the winter they would buy an older house and fix it up, then either re-sell or rent it. Nowadays what they call "flipping". As a result, they had several properties that they rented, but as time passed the laws here changed also, and the renter seemed to have the upper hand. When I took over the family business after my FIL and my husband died, I got rid of the last properties and was glad to see them go. If I had held on up to 2008, I probably could have got a lot more for them, but the aggravation wasn't worth it. I would never advise anyone to become a landlord unless they were good at fixing all sorts of things themselves, and had a lot of tolerance for midnight phone calls from tenants.

IRENE I haven't heard of any such things here, but Poughkeepsie certainly has an old section with houses that have been abandoned for one reason or another. Even the "historic" section with some lovely old Victorian houses, has an empty one here and there. With old houses built so close together it could easily cause a catastrophe in the downtown area. Or probably anywhere.
That fire two weeks ago where the three college kids were killed, is an example. The houses on each side were also badly damaged, but the fire crews got there quickly.
Drugs could easily be a factor, or squatters, homeless people with no shelter breaking into vacant houses. Or it could be intentional, someone whose property is "underwater" and thinks the insurance may save the day.
In any case, six incidents in one town is really scary. You stay safe.

CHAR We once had something like that, but it was a series of phone calls. The woman insisted that her daughter had given her our phone number, that she was going to be at our house. Since my sons have long since gone out on their own, there was obviously no teen age party here. I thought the daughter probably had deliberately given Mommie the wrong phone number, but never found out who or what was involved.

NANCY My friend who worked for the sheriff's department here, said about the same thing. "The scariest thing in the world is a nervous woman with a shotgun, because it's so hard to miss whatever you're shooting at."

BOB I understand there are sites on the internet that tell you how to make those bombs at home. Seems pretty stupid to me, to advertise such a thing with all the dumb kids and lunatics running around loose.

IRENE I suppose when we were kids, we might have thought that some of these pranks were funny, too. I know the two boys who I saw running away after ringing our doorbells, were not from this immediate area, the little boy next door is the only child other than two younger girls at the corner house. But the lady two houses from us lives alone, and I hope they weren't ringing her doorbell, too.
My next question was; What were two boys 12 years old or so doing out at 11:00 at night? Even in summer it gets dark here about 9:00. When I was a girl, I was supposed to be at least in my own yard when the street lights came on and I still think that's a good rule.
Jo Anne

IRENE Around Thanksgiving we were waked up several nights by someone ringing our doorbell around 10:30 - 11:00. I am usually still awake at that time, but Jack goes to sleep earlier. I got up and looked out the window, saw no one, but the second time it happened I got up right away and watched for a few minutes. It was two boys, about 12 or so. They rang the bell then ran and hid between our house and the one next door. A few minutes later they ran out across the street and rang the doorbell of the elderly lady there and ran off again. Both she and her husband use wheelchairs, and it's not funny to be disturbing them, so I phoned and told her it was just a couple of kids, and I was going to call the local police. She said she would do the same, since her husband was upset over it. Hopefully the cops put the fear of something or other into them, because they didn't show up again.
Kids think these things are funny, don't realize that in a world where you hear of houses being broken into every day, it's scary for old people. And if one of those old people has a shotgun, there could be serious damage done.

IRENE Sometimes people can be very nice, and it helps to make up for the other kind.
My son is a cancer specialist and works in a small city where there are a lot of German people. He speaks the language pretty well, and some of them appreciate discussing their problems in their native language. As a result, some of the elderly ladies try to give him little gifts, since they know he's not married, it's often some German coffee cake or home-made goodies. One lady crocheted a lovely "doily" type of thing with his name on it, then had it framed for him.
A while back one lady mentioned that she used to live in NY, and said she missed a certain product that's not available out there. Jim asked me if I could find it and send it to him for her. I actually got a lovely letter from the lady, thanking me and saying what a wonderful doctor he is. (Of course I knew that already, but it's nice to hear).

SUSAN Interesting that your restaurants seem to be doing so well. Our favorite diner here has been quite a bit slower than usual, noticeably slower since before Christmas. I'm hoping none of our favorite waitresses get laid off, but yesterday morning some of them were standing around with little or nothing to do, and Sunday morning is usually quite busy. Maybe just an after-the-holidays glitch, but I'm surprised, since the diner is usually pretty busy.

Isn't USAA an insurance company with some relationship to veterans' organizations? I see their ads on TV. My first husband was a WWII veteran, but that was a long time ago.

BOB All of our cats would jump when they were startled, and dug their claws in to get a running start. Our vet suggested trimming their claws, but if you have tried it once, you probably will take your chances with the scratches and never try it again. Only one of our seven would allow us to trim her claws, and then she was reluctant.
Right at the moment, I have a small scratch on one knee, and Jack usually has several. Susie loves his lap, but the doorbell, the phone, or any high pitched noise on the TV will send her flying.

NANCY & SUSAN All our cats were rescues. We live in a small town with the SPCA just down the road, and it seemed like when the SPCA was full, people would just dump their pets down our road and leave them. One Thanksgiving morning a neighbor found two kittens dumped in the parking lot. One had frozen to death but the other became our Lucy, who lived with us for almost 15 years.
For several years we had seven cats, almost all of them came to us that way, and they all were happy enough to become indoor cats, except for one who always liked to sneak out and visit the neighbor's cats for a while. He knew when it was supper time, though, and would stand outside the back door and let us know "Honey, I'm home!!"

NANCY Wow!! A bathtub job! That little guy must be really awesome. But it's true enough, another year or so, and it will just be something to tease him about when he is older.
I can't say I miss the diapers - and my kids were before the time of disposable ones. But I sometimes miss the pitter-patter of little feet, usually running to get into something they weren't supposed to touch.

SHELLY Yes, indeed, "life is an adventure" A heck of a lot more adventure than we bargained for sometimes!
Years ago my father-in-law, who was usually a very sharp businessman, got talked into a "free" dinner with one of those sales pitches. He and MIL and another couple enjoyed the dinner - with plenty of drinks - and then were informed that they would be taking a short trip by HELICOPTER to Naples, Florida to look at some land. Poor FIL did not enjoy the trip, supposedly told the salesman that he would buy anything, just let him get out of the **** thing and go home. In the end he bought five acres of land, my son Jim inherited it, lots of messy paperwork, but finally make a few bucks on the deal. At one time there were a lot of these "big deals" in Florida, but I think the best land has been bought up and built up over the years.
The time share deals were similar. Had a friend who bought a couple with the idea that if he didn't want to go to Florida during his "time", he could sub-let to someone else. Trouble was that there wasn't always somebody who wanted to sub-let at that particular time. And since he wasn't there to keep an eye on things, there was also some damage done.

NANCY After my husband died, I wanted to sell our Florida town house, and traveled alone from NY to Daytona. I was familiar with the roads since we had gone back and forth for several years, but there are stretches in the Carolinas where I-95 doesn't go through any towns for quite some distance, so it was a bit nerve-wracking. No cell phones back then either. I had the car checked over before I left, and had no real problems, thank God.
When I arrived though, an old friend from here told me that I should not stay alone at my house once I had listed the sale in the newspaper. She invited me to stay with her and her husband while I was there, and she came to the house with me every day. She said that people would know that I got cash for the furniture, etc that I was selling, and I would be an easy target for a robbery. I had never thought of that, but decided she was right, and stayed with her for the week or so that it took to get rid of most of the stuff. Funny that I was more concerned about driving that far alone, and never thought anything of staying in the house alone. Maybe because I thought of it as "home". Eventually sold it and later bought another place in Florida after I married Jack.

MARTY I lived with my paternal grandparents until I was about 12, so I heard a lot of stories about their families and the "old country". Both grandparents had been brought over when they were children, so they spoke good English, although my grandmother and her sisters also spoke German at times.
Later, when I had the chance to go to Germany with my husband and my son, I wanted to see the little town she came from, and it was quite charming. Too bad I can't seem to get a couple of the pictures on here.

SHELLEY Only a quarter German here, my mother's family was almost all Irish, Kelly, Christie, Keating, and way back, a French Bouvier. Sadly I doubt that the Bouvier ancestors were related to Jackie O, but it would have been fun if they had been.
I think I have a picture of the house in Germany where my grandmother was born, it's a sort of B &B/coffeehouse now. Or at least it was when we were there in 1983. They build houses to last in Germany. When we visited some of my husband's family, they were remodeling a house and you could see the beams. They looked to be about 12 inches by 12. Good and sturdy!
Now let's see if I can get a picture on here.

No luck, I click on "upload" and get an ad for Verizon Fios. Maybe some other time.

GORDON Yes indeed the memories are wonderful, and the pictures, too. We live in an area that was dominated by IBM for many years, and the running joke was that IBM stood for "I've been moved". Some of our friends had been transferred several times, and my sons' school friends had lived in various countries wherever IBM had a presence. I admit to being jealous of some who had lived in Germany, France, England and Japan, but in later years I got to see those countries too. (Not Japan, though). For a girl who grew up during the Great Depression, it was really wonderful.

GORDON So much to see, so much to do. You're absolutely right to do as much as you can "while you're still young enough". The years go by very quickly and I'm so glad that I was able to travel and see some of the world when I was younger. I never imagined that I would go scuba diving in the Caribbean, or tour the Tower of London, but I'm so glad that I have those memories.

Speaking of "inside" and "outside" clothes, last summer I was at the drug store when a woman came in with two youngsters who both looked as though they had just come out of a swimming pool. The boy, maybe about 10 or so was wearing swimming trunks and the 12 or 13 year old girl was wearing a bikini.

NANCY I hear you. I worked for one of the social services programs that New York State had for handicapped people for about eight years. Some of them were glad to get a chance to go to school, have their tuition paid and get a living allowance, but others were convinced that they should get more and do less. This was at the same time that we were paying every cent of Jim's college and medical school expenses, no freebies for the middle class, and there were times it was very frustrating.
Interesting, though, over time I worked in the Unemployment Insurance department and Vocational Rehabilitation for NYS, then after retirement, I volunteered at a soup kitchen in Poughkeepsie for several years. Guess what?? Some of the same people who had been collecting unemployment, and getting free education or job training, were also getting free meals at the soup kitchen. Talk about working the system! And those of us who worked were paying for it all.

My mistake, the re-constructed mastodon is on display in Ithaca, New York.

LWBobF I guess you could find artifacts almost anywhere if you dig down far enough. A lot of areas, even in big cities are landfill, so there could be almost anything there. Lower Manhattan is mostly landfill - with those huge buildings on it - and every time they tear something down and rebuild, they find stuff.
Big storms wash all kinds of stuff up, too, but sometimes people don't recognize that it's valuable or historic, and just throw it away.
Down the road from us, the university crews eventually found enough bones to re-construct the mastodon, and it's on display in Albany, I think. Not sure, will have to google it.

GORDON It's quite remarkable what can be found almost anywhere if you dig in the right places. Just down the road from us a few years ago, some neighbors were digging out a low area in their yard to put in a swimming pool, and found mastodon bones. A crew came from one of the universities and verified the find. The young daughter of the family was quite a star at school that year for "Show and Tell".

GAYLE Sorry to hear about your troubles with the credit card. No matter how careful we try to be, there's always somebody out there trying to make a buck off somebody else. Hope he/she gets caught quickly.

My paternal grandfather was born in Wales. His father was a police constable who died when Grandpa was about 10 and his younger brother about five. Their mother had to go to work as a housemaid for a family in Swansea, so the two boys went to live with their grandparents, who had a dairy farm. Then their mother re-married to a man who did not want the responsibility of the two young boys, so when their grandparents left the farm to their sons and emigrated to the US, they brought the boys with them. (See all the good stuff you can learn by doing genealogy?) Since my grandfather came here at about ten years of age, I never noticed that he had any accent.
My paternal grandmother was brought here from Germany at about age three, and she also didn't have much accent, although she could speak some German.
My in-laws however, came here when they were in their twenties, and never lost their strong German accents.
So I guess part of it is the age at which you learn a new language, and probably also has to do with your associates. My FIL was in business and spoke English at work, MIL stayed home and most of her friends were German ladies who spoke German by preference.
I also have my grandfather's American citizenship document, where it says that he "RENOUNCES the Queen of England". Grandpa became an American citizen in 1891, as soon as he hit age 21, which I guess was then the earliest age allowed. But of course a lot of people come here with the intention of getting whatever they can, and then going back in glory to "the old country".

I have to say that care-giving depends a lot on the situation of the care-giver and the person needing care. I have very little personal experience with Alzheimers, but at one time I had my alcoholic MIL, my uncle who had several strokes, and my husband who had cancer, all in my care at one time, all living in the same house. Granted that until the last few months, all three of them were up and around, and capable of feeding and dressing themselves. And my uncle had to go into a nursing home about a year after my husband became ill. But the first four months and the last five months of my husband's illness were very stressful, since he was either in the hospital or at home with nurses coming in a few days a week. At other times he was in the hospital in either Albany or Manhattan, 80 miles or so either way.
I feel for anyone who is in the situation of being a care-giver, and I have made sure that a Health Care Proxy with an alternate is in my lawyer's files. Jack has done the same, and I think we know each others wishes and Jim does, too. We both realize what the future holds, and have tried to make it as easy as possible, but it will still be a difficult time.
I don't consider this preparation to be terribly depressing, just sensible and necessary.

GORDON Interesting video of the dogs at Brown's Falls. But I think I would wait in the car. I have not one adventurous bone in my whole body, especially not these days. I do have a picture of my sons, age about 8 and perhaps 10, hanging over the railing at Niagara Falls. Snapped by their father, just before we each grabbed one of them and dragged them away. What is it about boys, they don't seem to recognize when something's dangerous, no matter how many times Mom tells them to "be careful"!

Alzheimers and dementia; My dearest friend is in the early stages of Alzheimers, and I wonder what her family will do. None of them seems to be the type to take care of her as she will need, even though she has spent her whole adult life taking care of their every need and desire. Just doesn't seem fair.
I am so lucky to have Jack, who is kind hearted and thoughtful, and helps with so many things I can't do any more.

CHAR Back when I was volunteering for the local soup kitchen, the agency that supported it would sometimes ask if one of us ladies would be willing to help out in a situation like you described. I remember going to an apartment where a very shy little girl met me, with her little sister and two brothers also. The mother was there, but an absentee father. The girl was supposed to appear in a piano recital, and needed something to wear. I ended up with a dress, underclothes, shoes and socks not only for her, but for her sister, too. Then was sorry I hadn't looked close enough to guess what size the boys were. Never heard the full story, but it couldn't have been a happy one. Like you say, it certainly wasn't the kids' fault.

BOB Up here in NY we don't have as many swimming pools as in Florida, but there is also a local ordnance that you have to have it fenced. Not sure about state law, since the only time we had one was when my boys were teen-agers and we lived out in the country. (And had a German Shepherd dog) Had more problems with hunters coming on our posted property, than with any of the boys' friends using the pool.

GORDON Too bad your holiday plans didn't work out, but at least the dividend check was nice. Hope it was a little more than those Ebay checks last week.

NANCY I remember the "attractive nuisance" from business school. When my FIL and my husband were building houses, we worried about that a lot. Lots of kids in the houses that were finished in the development, and tools, supplies, machinery for building, etc. that was hard to lock up. Nowadays I read about people getting into empty houses and stealing copper pipe, etc, and remember a couple of the older kids helping themselves to lumber to build a tree house. No great harm done at the time, but I wonder if one of those kids had got hurt nowadays, (fifty years later) would we have been sued?

Dan Sorry to be a kill-joy, but if it were me, I think I would lay low for a while. Your idea is a good one, but personally I would save it for a bit later, maybe after Easter . Your supervisor might not be in a really good mood to hear suggestions right now.

Just a personal opinion

NANCY If you end up with too much Cool Whip, just send it on to my cat Susie. She loves the stuff.

Bravo NANCY. A standing ovation to you for your post.

Sad to think that a poster could spout religious quotes, telling the rest of us how to behave, and then do such a heartless thing to someone else. If there wasn't any concern for Dan, how could someone ignore that he's responsible for his little grand-children? But, there is still Karma.

NANCY Jack's first wife died between Christmas and New Years 1985, and my husband died just three weeks later, so I know what you mean about holidays. It's hard to lose people you love at any time, but the holidays seem to make it harder.

MARTY Some really bad drivers down in Florida. When we had the winter place in Daytona/Ormond, our next door neighbor was about the age I am now and had more dings on the car than you could count. She was a widow and didn't want to give up her husband's big Caddy, but she had a bit of trouble parking the thing. Might have had more luck with a Volkswagen.

SHELLY When we had the town house in Florida it seemed as though every guest we had, wanted to go to Disney first. We probably went at least once a year, sometimes more, for the 15 years or so we spent the winter there. Even Disney can get boring after a while.

SHELLY Like you, I didn't get the best teeth. Odd because my bones are strong, and I guess bones and teeth are similar. When I was a kid in grade school, we got a free annual check-up at the Eastman Dental School - part of the University of Rochester. Even back then, they found cavities, and it didn't get better for a long time. Now I go three times a year for a cleaning and haven't had anything major for a few years. Oh, yes, and AFTER I had paid for enough crowns for all the royalty in Europe, my medical insurance finally decided to include dental coverage.

Lucky me, I have a very nice dentist, been going there for about 20 years. Pleasant staff, all friendly women, and his wife is a dentist too, so they share offices. When I started going there, his sons were babies, now they are in college. I tease him that all my dental work has paid their tuitions, and it's almost true. And he's a good looking fellow, too, which doesn't hurt, either.

NANCY I just got a note from one of my cousins who retired recently. I think she has 11 grandchildren, 9 of them live near her, and she told me about her baby-sitting schedule. You ladies who take on that job have my admiration and respect. I don't know if I could have handled little ones again after my own kids grew up.

KATIE AND SHELLY Jack's first ancestor here had 14 children by two wives. (And I don't envy the wives) Eleven of the children survived to adulthood and almost all had fairly big families, too. The book I have of the Peabody family history was published about 1900 and listed almost 2000 male descendants at that time. Add in the descendants of the daughters, and you can see why so many of us on these boards are "cousins".

Priscilla Mullins, born in Dorking, Surrey, England, married John Alden who was the ship's carpenter on the Mayflower, in 1622 at Plymouth.
One of their daughters, Elizabeth Alden born 1624, married William Peabody, and moved to Rhode Island.
Priscilla and John Alden's daughter Rebecca, born 1649, married Thomas Delano, whose father was Phillipe De La Noye, and lived in Duxbury, Mass.
Phillipe De La Noye was born in Flanders, now called Belgium, and became a friend of the Pilgrims/Separatists when they settled in Holland. Anyone who wasn't a member of the official English Church in the 1500's, Catholic, Separatist, Quaker or whatever, could be burned at the stake for their religious beliefs.

KATIE If you are descended from the Delano family (De La Noye), then you are very distantly related to my husband. Jack's first ancestor in this country was Francis Peabody, whose brother married a daughter of John Alden. I believe Phillippe De La Noye also married into the Alden family, thus becoming a sort of cousin by marriage. It's been interesting to read how many people on these boards are Mayflower or Pilgrim descendants and others interested in genealogy.

Leeches and tapeworm capsules, sounds like it was no fun to get sick or fat in the old days. I have an old medical book - published around 1900 - of my grandmother's, with all sorts of holistic remedies. Mentions several common plants that are poisonous, like lily of the valley, made me wonder how many people poisoned their spouse or MIL back then.
Grano was talking about the Pilgrims yesterday. When we were in Plymouth several years ago, they had a display of common plants the Pilgrims used. It included rue, which made me think that the very religious Pilgrims may have used it for birth control back in their day. Things change over time, but not always by very much.

My Christmas shopping is done. One gift card for my cousin, picked up at the market this morning. Sounds awful, but the boys get cash, easier for Jim to carry home on the plane, and Bobby can get whatever he wants, usually not much or else something outrageous. Last year it was a motorcycle. No way.
Jack and I won't be able to wrap our present to each other this year. We agreed to have a new sidewalk put in and split the bill. Kind of hard to wrap a sidewalk, but it works for us.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

AMBER Thanks for the good thoughts. The sun is out this morning so the knee is better, but still hanging on to the cane. Funny how the weather seems to affect arthritis.
Will you go to see the Macy's parade? On the TV last night they showed the crowds lining up all along the route. A little too chilly for me, so I'll stay home and enjoy some of it on TV. I used to drive in to NYC, when my son lived there, but not any more, thank you. I understand that Mayor Bloomberg has raised the tolls on all the bridges and tunnels, and the MTA trains are more expensive, too, so I wonder if fewer people will attend the parade.

NANCY Those triple crock pots seem to be very popular this year. I saw ads for them at several stores. I think Big Lots and KMart had them too.

SHELLY I neglected to mention that his third wife divorced him when he was 80, because she found out he was having an affair with a younger woman who he had met through a lonely hearts ad. That lady became #4. It wasn't funny at the time, a lot of hurt feelings over the years, but looking back, the whole thing has some comic aspects.

The weather must be about to change, my arthritis is wicked today. Got the walker out again, and the extra strength Tylenol. Had chores to do, but they'll have to wait. Good thing I don't have company coming for Thanksgiving.

SHELLY I guess you could say my father was a scoundrel, but really I guess he was just a very selfish person. He divorced my mother when I was a baby, and his parents and his sister brought me up, except for several months when I was 12 and lived with him and wife #2. She died in a fire, apparently set the house on fire with a cigarette when she was drunk, then he married twice more, four all together. He moved to California when my boys were little, and lived to be 93. When I write my book, I'll send you a copy. Just kidding, no use writing it, no one would believe it all.
And yes, I guess I'm probably the oldest poster here, or close to it.

Jo Anne

HEY SHELLEY I'm 80 and Jack is 84, and he still gets a little twinkle in his eyes now and then. But you're right about Robert Redford and some of the other actors. Who are they trying to kid?
One of my step-mothers came to visit us one time, and my mean old mother in law said right away "She's had a face lift" Step-mother had a little scar by her ear, and MIL spotted it right away.
I'm no beauty these days but I had my fun when I was young, so I'll just keep the good memories and forget about the wrinkles.

SHELLY I know that appearances are very important to people in the entertainment world, but I agree with you that some of the plastic surgery is ridiculous. Cher, for example?? There are some wonderful plastic surgery jobs done on people who are burned or otherwise injured, but it's often overdone.
A dear friend of mine smoked all her life, and in her late 40's had a face lift. It only lasted a few years, partly because she continued smoking, or so she claimed. Seems like a lot of money (and pain) for something that will only last a short time.

GORDON Pete Seeger is about 90 now, but still playing and singing. He made the local newspaper last week by going down to New York and giving an impromptu concert for the "Occupy Wall Streeters". He lives about half way between NYC and us, in Cold Spring, NY.

SUSAN Laughing at your "stash of pot". We keep a little tin of catnip for Susie, she loves to eat it, so we have to make sure she doesn't get too drunk on it and fall down the stairs on the way to her litter box downstairs. I guess I better not leave the catnip out in the open, in case somebody gets the wrong idea.

AMBER So pleased you enjoyed my little joke about the street names. Some of them are odd, but some have a bit of history behind them, too. Mill Street here, really did have several old mills along the creek and the falls. Having a source of power available was one reason why the city of Poughkeepsie grew up where it did. These old New England cities have a lot of stories, if you care to find them.

Sure NANCY, I think a bunch of them live on Cottontail Lane, too. Imagine them going into the police station and having to give those addresses. Kind of kills the "tough guy" image, doesn't it?

NANCY I think there's a Lahore that's a city in India, too. Now if they have a Hooker Avenue in Lahore, No no, better not think about that, I'll surely get in trouble.

BOB I don't think I would want to live on Flopsy Road, and certainly not on Dopey Street. Happy Avenue sounds nice, though.

NANCY Sorry to hear about your bad luck with the car. Makes me so glad my OCD husband keeps the car in the garage all the time. I guess it could have been worse, though. Last summer there was a group of local teen-agers stealing cars and when they got through joy-riding, they just drove them into the river.

SHELLY I guess I have had an "interesting life". An Oriental friend once told me that it's a Chinese curse "May you have an interesting life". I don't know for sure if it's been a curse or a blessing, but yes, it has been interesting. Traveled to lots of places, had lots of nice friends, really weird family, but it's been interesting all right.

NANCY Glad you enjoyed the story of the street names, it's true. We lived in that neighborhood while the houses were being built, and my FIL was acquainted with the builder there.
There's a street in Poughkeepsie called Hooker Avenue, too. At one time some new people moved into town, and tried to start a big campaign with the local newspaper to change the name because it was "evil". Finally somebody pointed out that the street was named for a Civil War General Hooker, who I think had fought at Gettysburgh??? A fairly famous man around here at one time. The street is still named Hooker Avenue.

NANCY There is an area in the suburbs of Poughkeepsie where the streets all have kind of interesting names. The houses were all built by the same contractor, so the first streets were Marino Road and Mainetti Drive for Marino Mainetti. Then the next one was Alda Drive, for his wife, Alda. Oops, they had some problems, so the one after that was Reno Road, and then Memory Lane, supposedly because he missed her. But then he met another lady, so the next street was Carmen Drive and had a daughter, Daria Drive and a son, Alfred Drive. By that time, all the vacant property there was built up and Mr. Mainetti moved on to another development.
I doubt that many people know that bit of history, but it's true.

NANCY My late FIL was a building contractor, as I have said, and in the off season he would buy an old dilapidated house and remodel it to either rent or sell. This is an old area, and some really old houses around here, so he usually had one ready to go. One house we lived in for a while when the boys were little, had been a summer cottage for some people from NYC, the downstairs was where they kept their tractor when they went back to the city. FIL remodeled it into a really nice little cottage, then built 20 more houses on the acreage around it.
Back then IBM was hiring a lot of people, so we had a neighborhood with a lot of kids, and when another developer put in a road and some more houses next to us, the town built a school there. Back then, if you developed an area, you got to name the road, and my FIL and husband decided to name the road for where I had lived in Rochester when Bob and I got married. So there is a XXXX Road and a XXXX Road Elementary School in Poughkeepsie, with some very sentimental attachment to me.

Wow, NANCY That's really isolated. When we were out in Arizona years ago, we drove past ranch houses that looked like they were half a mile from the road, and I thought how I wouldn't want to live that far away from town and neighbors.
We call this "the country", because we have woods and fields around, but there are also a lot of houses in back of us and down the road, so we are no where near as isolated as that looks. The village center is about five miles down the road in one direction, and the city of Poughkeepsie is about 8 miles south. Jack and I both grew up in cities, so we're not used to real "country" like that.

SHELLY "The younger generation do not learn from others" Very true, and it was mostly back when I was young that I made a few mistakes. In later years, hopefully I got a little smarter, a little less trusting, and did a little better. I'm not entirely mistrustful of other people, but I can usually tell a "snake oil salesman" when I listen to one for a little while. There have been a couple of them on these boards, as you may have noticed.
Jo Anne

While I agree that it's no use hanging on to resentment over minor things, I do feel that bad things sometimes happen to teach us a lesson, and should be treated as a learning experience or else we just go through life endlessly repeating the same mistakes and wondering why the outcome is the same every time.
I have made some serious mistakes in a long lifetime, but I do try to learn from them and remember how I got into some problems so I don't do the same dumb thing over again. Call me cynical, but remembering bad times and bad people and trying to avoid repeating the bad experience works better for me than just forgetting what happened and how I may have had a part in it.

Traffic may have been slow in NYC today because of the "Occupy" people blocking some streets and some of the tunnels. It was on the news last night, so possibly some people avoided driving into the city today.

SUSAN I know that it's a very long time since my boys were young, but I do find some of the little kids -and some of their parents, too, don't have any manners or sometimes not even any common sense.
We love our diner, but the owner's son brings his little boy, who is just walking around, in to the diner while he is working. The little boy is cute, but they let him run around while the wait staff is trying to carry plates and trays of coffee. Not a smart move, even though the father jokes that the boy is "learning the business". So far I haven't noticed that he goes into the kitchen, but even in the dining room, he could cause trouble.

NANCY Back when my boys were growing up, I think most parents tried to teach good manners, but by the time they were in high school and college, that wasn't the case any more. I don't know if TV influenced them all that much or if it was something else, but times sure have changed.

NANCY I laughed at your story of the two little ones and you trying to grab them both. Sounded familiar, although a long time ago. My boys were only two years apart, and what one didn't think of, the other one did. Someone asked me one time why I dressed them both in red jackets or red shirts so often, and I had to say that where we lived when they were pre-school age, they could run in the fields all around us, and at least with the red jackets, I could see where they had gone. Always seemed that one would run one way and the other in the opposite direction. Good thing I was young when they were born, I would never have caught them.

SUSAN Saw your post about the Solara convertible. My secret yen is for a Toyota Matrix. I always liked station wagons, and this is close to it, but probably a little more comfortable. Not much chance of getting one for a while, though, our old Camry is still going strong, and Jack won't part with it.

SHELLY I don't have any grandchildren, but I don't think I would be much of a pushover. I see little kids at the diner or on the street, and sometimes they are so cute, but they almost all will try to see how far they can go with you. I think the more intelligent the kids are, the harder they are to keep ahead of them, too. The smart ones are always up to something. In a way I envy you ladies who have grand kids, but I really doubt that I could handle them at this point.

LOOKWHATBOBFOUND Thank you very much! That's the place, now that you mention the name, I'm quite sure of it. We sold our home in Ormond Beach in 1995, and it was before that time, that we wanted to see "Evita", so it would have been at least 16 or 17 years ago. Daytona has/had a small theater, the Peabody, but I guess it wouldn't have been big enough to handle a popular show like "Evita". I have seen a few shows in NYC, but I really don't like going into the city, so we used to enjoy concerts and shows in Florida. Thanks again for coming up with the name of the theater.

Jo Anne

LookWhatBobFound I was wondering if you would show up. I have a question for you, if you please. Jack and I were talking about when and where we saw the musical "Evita", and I'm sure we saw it at a theater near Orlando, just off Rte 4, but can't remember the name of the theater, of course. This would have been some 20 years ago when we still had our house in Daytona, and the theater would have been one that had road companies of Broadway shows, because I'm pretty sure Patty Lupone was still playing the lead at that time. Maddening when you can't remember. Thanks for any help, and if anybody else knows of the place I'm talking about, I would appreciate it, too.

Jo Anne

BETH Thanks for the tip. I use some other Maple Grove Farms products, pancake mix, maple syrup, and I like the idea of using this salad dressing as a marinade. Sounds good.

Jack spends so much time on his computer, that I spend my free time either reading, doing Sudoku or the daily crossword, or on my computer. Good thing we go out to breakfast and have lunch together, so we have a little companionship. I miss having the boys around, but Jim expects to come home for Christmas, so I'll enjoy seeing him then.

BETH We used to play Scrabble, but Jack doesn't care for games, so haven't played in years. I do admire your strategy, though, I would never have thought of getting the most out of the game as you did. Have you ever tried Sudoku? I do those puzzles in the daily paper, usually can finish them, not always. Supposed to be good for keeping the mind from going senile. Hope it works.

BETH I started out with the state as a Beginning Office Worker (file clerk). I took another Civil Service test and moved up to receptionist in the Unemployment Office for about a year back in the early '70's. Then took another Civil Service test and got Senior Clerk with Vocational Rehab. Took another test and got Principal Administrative Clerk. Then Bob got sick and it got to be too much to cope with, so I hung on until I got ten years in, and then quit.
Bob started out as a claims adjuster with Unemployment Insurance, ended up as a manager after 22 years.

NANCY My first husband was a gambler, loved to play cards and had what I think is called an "edactic" memory. Not exactly photographic, but he had an excellent memory for cards, and for numbers in general.
I also worked in the Unemployment Office for a while, during my career with NYS, and one of the women there had a similar ability. She didn't remember people by their names, but by their Social Security numbers. Really unusual, I would think, and imagine what she could do today if she decided to make a career of scamming people on the internet?

NANCY That's right, the Royal Doulton with the hand painted flowers. And the cruise ship episode with Hyacinth dancing with Onslow is terrific. But I also like the episodes where Hyacinth is giving Richard directions to drive somewhere and they go round and round the roundabouts.
Did you ever see the series she did as a lady detective with the young boy assistant? I saw a few episodes, but just couldn't get past seeing her as Hyacinth.

Judy Dench starred in a short series with her husband, called "A Fine Romance". That was also good. I believe he passed away shortly after they finished making it.

NANCY Not just smoking that's allowed on British TV, but of course some of the DVDs that we have are from quite a few years back. Some of the innuendo is very funny, and some other things are pretty risque. I love it on "Last of the Summer Wine" when the older ladies get together for their afternoon tea, and the younger wife mentions that her husband is very handsome or very sexy and her mother says "Drink your tea!"
The way Rose embarrasses Hyacinth on "Keeping Up Appearances" is so funny, too. Hyacinth reminds me so much of the aunt that I lived with for several years, always so worried about what the neighbors will think, when the neighbors never think about her at all.
And to keep this about pottery, Hyacinth makes a big fuss about it, but she only seems to have ONE Royal Doooolton figurine. Of course her hand-painted cups make up for it.

NANCY Thank you. I also enjoy "Doc Martin", and I have been trying to figure out what other show I had seen his "aunt' in. Sure enough, "Waiting for God" was it. I enjoy the British comedies, too, and had so many lovely memories of England and the very nice people we met there.
Have you every watched "Midsomer Murders", an excellent mystery series, and "Last of the Summer Wine", absolutely hilarious? "Midsomer Murders" shows some of the prettiest small towns, and most beautiful houses, amazing where they find them and that they are allowed to photograph inside them. Some of the stories are obviously written by someone who does NOT like the "upper class attitude" of some of the people who think they are above the police and laws that govern everybody else, but they are all very interesting.

SHELLY I would call $97 a lot of money to lose that way. Certainly hope your insurance covers it. Smart move to "cover your posterior" that way.

GAYLE The cat in my avatar is not our Susie. At one time we had seven cats, so I switch the pictures around. I'll put up one of Susie, she's all grey.

SHELLY It seems like more and more people are trying to pull off scams these days. I wish you luck with this, and I would look forward to having the PO investigate. Hope there wasn't a lot of money involved for you, though.

GORDON Our cat Susie lays on her back like that, loves to have her belly rubbed.

NANCY You're exactly right about the supermarket, milk, eggs, butter are in the farthest back corner along with bread. I can make the circuit now, but for a while after I fell, I had to send Jack with the list and the coupons, but he did pretty well.
We live outside a small town, and about five or six miles from a small city, so our choices of supermarkets are limited. The Stop& Shop that we like is about five miles from home, and on our way to our favorite diner, but other than that, the next nearest are about eight or ten miles in various directions. BJ's or Walmart would be about 25 miles, so not too practical. I watch sales and use coupons, and while I could possibly do better at another store, I'm fairly happy with the one in town here. There's a little deli closer to us but the prices are really high there. We only go there in an emergency.

GAYLE Thanks for the back-up. It really doesn't pay to let things go too long when you're sick. We start off with the gargling and cough drops and hot lemon tea, too, but after a couple of days of it, we're off to the doctor. Of course we both have good insurance, so that helps too. Until a few years ago we both had good health, but lately things have gone down hill somewhat, so we can't afford to take chances.

SHELLY I think you figured it out. So that's why the market keeps moving things around. They moved my favorite Entenmann's cookies to the farthest back corner of the store, so now I have to walk through the whole thing, and always notice a few other things I "need" on the way. Hard to believe that two old fogies who eat out so often, can use up so many groceries.

AMBER Seems like you had a sore throat a couple of days ago and thought it was better. If it has come back, you really ought to see a doctor. You don't want it to go into pneumonia or something serious. I know you don't care for doctors, but there are times you need one.

SHELLY Isn't that always the way? I go to the market for a quart of milk and end up with a cart full. Happens all the time.

KATIE When my boys were teens, and my husband was still in business, we had a beautiful home out in the country. Acreage, a pond for fishing in the summer and ice skating in the winter, and even a pool. We used to give picnics in the summer for 20 or more people and have dinner parties in the winter when the kids and even some of the grown-ups would go skating on the pond . It was all very nice, but in later years my son's illness showed up, and my first husband died of cancer, so my lifestyle changed quite a bit. But I also got older, and so down-sizing - with the help of Ebay - wasn't a big deal.
I think that there are phases in life, childhood, raising children, retirement, and each time of life has different needs, some times we need to acquire things, some times we need to get rid of them. You just need to recognize where you are, and maybe who you are at certain times.

SHELLY Sam had green eyes.

SHELLY That's our old Sam, he's been gone for several years now, but was a real sweetheart. Walked out of the woods and up to our door one day, and must have liked the brand of cat food we offered him because he stayed with us for ten years or so. Right now his ashes are in a little tin box in the bookcase, and when Jack goes he wants to take Sam with him. Smartest cat you ever saw, and very lovable.

GORDON You're quite right about peer pressure and gangs and some kids do get into serious trouble trying to be "one of the in crowd".
But the post I was referring to was talking about keeping up with the Jones's in acquiring more and more stuff, versus being a free spirit and what I interpreted as recommending doing whatever you pleased. I just think that if everybody did whatever pleased them at any given moment, the world would be in worse chaos than it is now.

Those WalMart people are just unbelievable. Every time I see one of those videos I am just stunned.

NANCY You expressed my feelings much better than I did, and it's great that your daughter is able to follow her husband's work in that way. I have seen some travel trailers that look very comfortable, just that I'm more like you, and need to feel that I have a "home". I have been lucky enough to do quite a bit of traveling, in this country and in Europe, but always glad to get home.
But what I really disagreed with was "The silly rules of societal pressure" and "We are all bound, most of us, by dumb silly peer pressure".
True enough that peer pressure can be a bad thing, but I think it's peer pressure - possibly in the form of parents, spouses or even the local cops - that helps to keep us from allowing our personal wishes to get out of hand. Chances are that many of us have had the desire to do something we know will cause trouble, and in some cases it's peer pressure that keeps us from doing it. "What will Mom think" or the neighbors, or the kids' teachers? That's what I was thinking of, and so I don't think that all peer pressure is a bad thing.

AMBER I'm not sure that I understand your post @ 5:28 this morning, but if I do, I have to disagree with you.
While Gordon is certainly free to do whatever he pleases, I really doubt that "most would love to do what you are doing and be totally "FREE". A week or two of camper living would be enough for me, I can guarantee.
And the notion that we are "all bound by dumb, silly peer pressure" is a bit extreme, too. Without some peer pressure, you might find people on the public streets in states of undress that would embarrass old fogies like me, using rude language and generally misbehaving in public and annoying others.
The notion of personal freedom sounds great, but think a little about the results.
What if the vet who treated Gordon's little dog Hugo, felt like going fishing instead of into the office that day?
And winter is coming to New England soon, how about if the fellow who gets up at dawn to plow your street so you can get out and about, decided to stay in bed and forget it?
Or the police or firemen just didn't feel like going in to work?
"Freedom" is a lovely word, but it has to be tempered with "responsibility".
At least I think so.