Way Back Wednesday

Don't adjust your television sets, this is Way Back Wednesday and it actually still IS Wednesday!
Yay for me!!
So here is this week's picture:

I like this picture because it reminds me of a time in my life when everything was almost perfect. It was just Aunt Anonymous and I was a very snazzy dresser. In fact this is the last time I wore gloves until I made my First Holy Communion seven years later. Frankly it would have been perfect if it had just been me, but since A.A. is a year OLDER than I am, I didn't have much say in the matter. My guess is that this picture was taken on Easter in 1960, a few months before Terry was born, turning me from a lovely, spoiled youngest child into the confused, stuck-in-the-middle, middle child. :)

This picture was, according to the scribble on the back (and I do mean scribble -- Dad has the handwriting of a doctor) taken in N.Y., which I interpret to mean Massapequa Park where I spent my first couple of years, although it could have been at my grandmother's house, too. The woman in the photo is identified as 7u[or7? which I have interpreted as Audrey? but I don't really know who Audrey was. I thought at first it might be Alphy (my grndmother) because it does sort of look like her, but I am thinking that even if I can't exactly remember what my grandmother looked like in 1960 (being year old and all), my father probably did and he was he person who followed the name with a question mark on the back of the picture. In fact the only thing I remember about this picture is Aunt Anonymous' hat, which I preferred to my own -- and I did eventually get one of my own -- and the pocketbook which I believe was passed down through the Garrity ranks because I remember Beanie carrying it around, too. 

Way Back Wednesday

I didn't think this photo was way back at all until I noticed tat Shelby looks to be a bit after a year old ... which means this photo is at least 22 years old! And the kids ALL still look EXACTLY the same. Except for T.A. doesn't have a mustache anymore. Oh, and Shelby is taller.
This was taken in the living room of the house on Hilltop sometime in the late 1980s or maybe even 1990. Since there is no Christmas tree in this picture I know that it is not Christmas or Easter or any holiday in between (we usually tried to get the tree down by Easter) so I am going with Thanksgiving. Also, we are dressed for cooler weather, I am wearing my dress jeans and Beanie is wearing pearls so I'm sure it's some festive fall holiday.

Shelby was our side of the family's first grandchild and my mother waited a looooooong time for her although both Terry and the Anonymouses did provide us all with granddogs in the interim. And I donated at least one grandkitten to the cause. Terry also provided the second grandchild five years later. Then there was an even loooooooooonger wait. (Like almost a decade). Then there was a grandchild boom with Hannah, Lizzie and Tommy all born in 2002 and then Brenna was the caboose grandchild five years ago.

Way Back Wednesday

Is anyone else surprised that today is NOT Wednesday? This is what happens when the girls have a random Tuesday off from school. I spent most of yesterday thinking it was Monday, which means today is Tuesday, which means this photo is a day early, not a day late.
True?
Oh well, whatever day it really is .... here's the Way Back Wednesday photo:

This is one of only a handful of photos from our years in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. We moved there when I 2 and then moved away from there when I was 8. I don't remember a whole lot about Elk Grove, but I DO remember quite a few parties like this on the back patio. That's my dad, by the way -- looking very 1960s suburban, right? Handsome, too. And I'm going out on a limb and say that the dip in the foreground of the photo is my mother's famous Egg Dunk dip, made from mayo, ginger, hardboiled eggs and curry powder. In today's world it's the kind of dip you eat with vegetables, but back in the 1960s (and 70s, 80s, 90s) it was served with potato chips.

I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that there is probably some alcohol in those glasses, it being a day ending in the letter "y" and all. (Ha Ha.)

Here's a couple of things I remember about Elk Grove:

Aunt Anonymous sat in a chair that collapsed on the patio and bled all over the chair.

Terry got her finger caught in the back door of our house (I may have had something to do with that by it was a loooong time ago....) and bled all over the backseat of the car on the way to the emergency room

I once lost TWO teeth while eating the same sandwich cookie

There were actually Elk that you could go visit in a park somewhere. I think we went there one time.

The twins were born shortly before we left for New York -- but they still managed to get a write-up in the local newspaper. A write-up in which I was identified as "Tressy" because TRACY was such an unusual name for the 1960s (not.)

We had a million guppies and they all died of Ick. (A disease for fish, not a commentary on their fish tank or anything.)

There was an A&P a few blocks from our house and we regularly walked there to by candy with our friends (no parents).

We walked several miles to school each morning, back home for lunch, back to school after lunch and then home for the day. In the snow there were no phone poles to count so we were on our own.

I had a boyfriend named Ricky Stevens.

I had a best friend named Ann McNulty.

I used to watch Days of Our Lives with my mom and Mrs. Pauli next door, while they did their ironing.

I still watch Days of our Lives. But I don't iron.



Simple Woman's Daybook

For May 15, 2012

Outside my window... It's raining. And I'm stuck inside with two girls who had the day off and one dog who always has the day off and they are B.O.R.E.D. Every once in a while the sun comes out to tease us, but mostly it's raining.

I am thinking... that it's not allowed to rain this summer. Seriously. I am also thinking that I haven't done one of these recently.

I am thankful ... that Hannah's finally OUT of Everyday Math and actually LEARNING math now.

From the kitchen... Mom's Swedish meatballs, egg noodles and a vegetable to be named at a later day (in about 20 minutes when I look in the freezer.)

I am wearing... red shirt, brown capri pants, fake croc maryjanes that cost me $8 at Walmart and are extremely comfortable and good for walking in the rain.

I am creating... this year's installment of the Very Bored Princesses that we write and illustrate for the girls' teachers each year. This year's title is "The Very Bored Princesses and the Great Hamster Escape," which is sort of based on a true story.

I am going ... to finish setting up the basement as a craft/exercise/tv and sometimes spare bed room.

I am reading... I just finished "The Dry Grass of August" and I loved it right up to the very end, which I thought was very abrupt. In retrospect I can see why the author chose this ending-- I just wanted to spend more time with Jubie and her family.

I am hoping... that Hannah and Lizzie learn time and money  this summer. I've just about set up my summer learning program and it's ALL time and money (and a little reading -- but  that's mostly for me!)

I am hearing... Hannah complaining that she is SO SO SO BORED and the only thing that will take care of that is computer time and Lizzie trying to finish her math homework (what's 9x7??)

Around the house... yeah, things look about normal. Take that however you like!

One of my favorite things... my new android LG Optimus V phone. It's my first smart phone (although I've had several phones smarter than me!) and I've been enjoying playing Words with Friends, Hanging with Friends (reminder to Terry that it's YOUR turn) and Draw Something. Oh, and making calls is still fun, too.

A few plans for the week ahead... Work-wise things are pretty light, but we've still packed the week with homework, pageant practice (two weeks until the states!) dance, Nature Club, a passport office appointment and a Leader-Daughter event where there will be country line dancing.

Pictures I am sharing... I think Mother's Day is probably going to be bittersweet for the rest of my life, but I try to focus on the sweet. Which is why when I was told to pick my favorite place for lunch I just wanted a large cheese pizza in the park with my favorite people (Rob was there, too!)

Way Back Wednesday

This picture actually provides more questions than answers. Here's what I do know. It was taken in front of the house on Hilltop, probably right around 1969. And it was probably snapped following some occasion because that's really the only time we took pictures, although if this was taken following some occasion, how come no one is wearing a sailor suit?

Here are my other questions. I don't really know the date of the photo and, in fact, I don't even know the season. Why? Because I am wearing a Saratoga Springs tee shirt and pedal pushers and Aunt Anonymous (the smart one in the family) is wearing a turtleneck sweater and long pants, so it's probably on the cooler side. However, TA is wearing a short-sleeved shirt and long pants and Beanie is wearing a dress and no pants (ha, ha -- that dress is kind of short, no?)

I also don't know what hair products I was using at this time, but I wish I did because my hair looks GREAT. It's very curly and frizzy, so I have no idea why it looks so smooth and straight in this photo.

Also, we are down one child in this photo. Terry is missing. Is she at summer camp? Is she across the street at Nancy's house? Is she the one taking the picture? Who knows?

If any of you can shed light on these mysteries let me know. :) Otherwise I'll just say I chose this picture because my hair has never looked this good ever again in my whole life.

Way Back Wednesday

Well, it's Thursday evening so you know what that means ... time for Way Back Wednesday. To say this week has been incredibly busy would be an understatement. So the fact that you are reading this on Thursday and not  NEXT Wednesday is a credit to my extraordinary caring for my many fans... :)

So this is a bonus post that magically relates the past to the present.

First we have the Way Back photo ... this is Aunt Anonymous in (I believe) third grade at her viola recital in Illinois. The fact that I remember it so clearly (she played "Jolly Old St. Nicholas) is most like due to the fact that my ears were never the same after that concert.... I played the xylophone and the glockenspiel back in Illinois, but as far as I can recollect there are no photos of my first foray into music.

So now it's nearly 50 years later and I'm hearing those same squeaky strings, this time played by Lizzie. Lizzie plays the violin (and the piano) and she told me last night at dinner that she was the best violin player in the Junior Orchestra. Here's Lizzie getting ready to take her seat:

The spring concert was tonight and Lizzie (and her classmates in the third grade) performed for the first time as a group. And as a bonus, here's their first song -- "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."