The winter of 1960 was extremely snowy and we always listened to the children's TV show Ranger Hal in the morning on snow days to see if Fairfax County would cancel school for that day. I was thirteen and my Mom was in the last two months of her pregnancy in January and February. If it was a snow day Mom would get out the sled and she and I would walk from Ardmore through Warren Woods and Westmore subdivisions down Maple Street to Main Street (Rt. 236) to the 7/11 to get bread, milk, and potato chips and coke. My Mom had developed a craving for potato chips and cokes during her pregnancy that lasted the rest of OUR lives. In this day and age of pregnant ladies not doing anything that would put the baby in jeopardy I can't imagine now how my Mom, great with child, would walk in the snow on unshoveled sidewalks to the store but you do what you must. It was a fun adventure for me walking in the snow with my Mom and I'll always remember it fondly.
1960 was a Leap Year and my Mom went into labor on February 29th much to her consternation. Uncle Claude came out to stay with her till Daddy came home from National Airport (now Reagan) to take her to the old Alexandria Hospital on Duke Street where all us kids were born. We were sent off to school all excited and anxious. My Mom was determined that her youngest was not going to be born on February 29th and only have a real birthday every four years so my Dad had to convince her to get out of the car at the hospital and go in. As it happened though Mom had a long labor and early in the morning on March 1, 1960 Daddy called us from the hospital to tell us IT'S A GIRL!! Mom's labor was long because the baby was breach and came bottom first. Mom had a wonderful doctor whose name I don't know now but in this day and age they would probably have given her a Cesarean.
Now for the naming of the baby. I had a good friend at school whose name I admired-Kimberly Ann Christensen-who was new to Westmore Elementary as I had been the year before. I had never heard the name Kimberly before and was in love with it and convinced my parents to name my new baby sister Kimberly Ann. As it turned out there must have been a million baby girls named Kimberly born in 1960 and the decade following. My own daughter is Kimberly Robin.
The birth of my baby sister completed our family with me the oldest, Linda next twenty two months younger, and my brother Fred who was about five years younger than me. My baby sister is thirteen years younger than me and that's the same age difference as my maternal Grandmother and her older sister. Imagine that.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
CLEO
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| CLEO IN A SUITCASE. |
The Irish family moved out in the middle of the night running from creditors per the wife's American mother and went back to Ireland leaving Cleo. Rod found her mother sitting on the front stoop crying and helped her clean up the mess they had left behind. In the garage Rod found some curious paraphernalia and suspects his neighbor was assembling Tech9s for the IRA. We were taking care of Shawn's black lab at the time so Cleo "went down the street" as she didn't like dogs.
When Tara the lab went to live with Shawn and her family Cleo started coming by again. After a while she would come in and spend the night but leave the house when I went to work in the morning. One morning I called her and she came to the door like usual, looked outside, then turned around and went back into the house. She was ours... or... we were hers!!
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| CLEO DISCUSSING HER DAY WITH ME! |
She had a flat head and ear tufts and looked rather like an Abyssinian with the agouti coat. One day my husband and I were standing out front and the Mail Lady came down the street. Cleo got so excited and greeted her and wound around her legs and meowed to her. The Mail Lady gave us her story: she had belonged to a family years before on a street behind us who moved away and left her bowls on the porch and Cleo behind. That's when she became the neighborhood cat. The Mail Lady used to carry treats for her and knew her well.
Cleo was very old and she finally got a tumor which we had removed but it took her. I still miss her so much and even though Rod and I have and had other cats no one will ever take her place.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
CHRISTMAS PRESENT
Internet and stores are the usual way to make dreams come true and to make their day.
A fedora for Daddy ala Indiana Jones is just what he needs in the sun when he goes.
Sister loves writing a journal at night so a diary with key will be her delight.
Could there be any doubt what brother desires a remote controlled airplane that flies without wires.
Little Boy likes a sled for the the hill when the weather outside brings snow and a chill.
I'll wrap each present in red paper and bows and place them with love 'neath our tree that glows.
With delight I'll watch as they open their presents and I'll thank my good fortune for all of life's essence.
Merry Christmas to you, Merry Christmas Tra La! Peace, joy, and love is my wish for you all.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
A NAME'S A NAME ALL THE SAME
I don't know whether this is a Southern thing or whether it's just peculiar to my family or whether it's the same for anyone who is named for someone else. So many people in my family go by their middle name because they happened to be named for someone. Either that or they are a "Big" someone or a "Little" someone. I have both in my family.
I'll talk about being named for someone first because that directly affects my daughter and has caused her some consternation all her life. First of all her name is Kimberly Robin, named for my baby sister who I named for a friend in seventh grade who I loved and had never heard the name Kimberly before-Kimberly Ann. My sister was born in 1960 and I know, there are a million Kimberlys in that generation. Robin says she didn't know her first name was Kimberly until second grade when all the kids in class had answered present to roll call but her. This she says is probably because I always told the teacher "Kimberly is her first name but we call her Robin". Okay, the "family" all called her Robin so as not to confuse her with her Aunt Kim six years older than her.
In high school Robin had friends who new her as Kim and friends who know the family and called her Robin. Robin went to a huge high school where there were thousands in her class not hundreds. She was walking with this one girl who knew her as Kim and the girl actually said to her "Do you know that girl Robin who has all the designer jeans?" The poor girl was talking about Robin but didn't know it. BTW Robin only had two pairs of Calvin's--it happened in the early eighties when designer names were all the fashion.
Okay here's other members of the family. Daddy was Curtis Marshall, Jr. called Marshall by all his family when he was growing up. Marshall was for his Grandfather who was George Marshall. When he left the farm he was known by all the new people in his life and by all his Marine Corps buddies as Curt. Momma and all her family called Daddy Curt. Momma was named Virginia Lorraine and called Lorraine by all her family because her Mother was Virginia Anna (actually Anna Virginia in the 1910 census!).
Now my brother is named Curtis Fredrick and is called Fred but that never created a problem because Fredrick was for Mom's Dad who had already passed when he was born. However, here is where the bigs and the littles come in because Fred's son Michael Fredrick was called "Little Fred" because he looked so much like his Dad from the beginning and my brother hereafter was called "Big Fred". My sister Linda wasn't named for anyone but Mom's brother's girl was called Little Linda and when we refer to them now together they're big and little. Big Linda and Little Linda are both Grandmothers.
I'm not named for anyone, my name is Sandra Lee and I'm not a Big or a Little, either. However, I know my Mom wanted to name me Diana Lynn when she was carrying me and Dad said no that it sounded too much like a movie star (there was an actress by that name at the time) and then I find out years later that my husband's first wife, who I always heard called Diane, was actually named Diana Lynn. Horrors, that's too much of a coincidence for me. I do like to think, though, that my oldest Grand Daughter Alexandria Mae, called Ally, was named after me although unintentionally. Sandra is a diminutive of Alexander as is Alexandria.
Of course, I forgot to mention Uncle Boo, who was Daddy's baby brother, and whose real name was Lawrence named after one of his Uncles. He came by the nickname Boo because when he was tiny he used to mimic the sound of the milk separator up on the farm. booboobooboo! I know there's probably more instances but I think you get the idea.
I'll talk about being named for someone first because that directly affects my daughter and has caused her some consternation all her life. First of all her name is Kimberly Robin, named for my baby sister who I named for a friend in seventh grade who I loved and had never heard the name Kimberly before-Kimberly Ann. My sister was born in 1960 and I know, there are a million Kimberlys in that generation. Robin says she didn't know her first name was Kimberly until second grade when all the kids in class had answered present to roll call but her. This she says is probably because I always told the teacher "Kimberly is her first name but we call her Robin". Okay, the "family" all called her Robin so as not to confuse her with her Aunt Kim six years older than her.
In high school Robin had friends who new her as Kim and friends who know the family and called her Robin. Robin went to a huge high school where there were thousands in her class not hundreds. She was walking with this one girl who knew her as Kim and the girl actually said to her "Do you know that girl Robin who has all the designer jeans?" The poor girl was talking about Robin but didn't know it. BTW Robin only had two pairs of Calvin's--it happened in the early eighties when designer names were all the fashion.
Okay here's other members of the family. Daddy was Curtis Marshall, Jr. called Marshall by all his family when he was growing up. Marshall was for his Grandfather who was George Marshall. When he left the farm he was known by all the new people in his life and by all his Marine Corps buddies as Curt. Momma and all her family called Daddy Curt. Momma was named Virginia Lorraine and called Lorraine by all her family because her Mother was Virginia Anna (actually Anna Virginia in the 1910 census!).
Now my brother is named Curtis Fredrick and is called Fred but that never created a problem because Fredrick was for Mom's Dad who had already passed when he was born. However, here is where the bigs and the littles come in because Fred's son Michael Fredrick was called "Little Fred" because he looked so much like his Dad from the beginning and my brother hereafter was called "Big Fred". My sister Linda wasn't named for anyone but Mom's brother's girl was called Little Linda and when we refer to them now together they're big and little. Big Linda and Little Linda are both Grandmothers.
I'm not named for anyone, my name is Sandra Lee and I'm not a Big or a Little, either. However, I know my Mom wanted to name me Diana Lynn when she was carrying me and Dad said no that it sounded too much like a movie star (there was an actress by that name at the time) and then I find out years later that my husband's first wife, who I always heard called Diane, was actually named Diana Lynn. Horrors, that's too much of a coincidence for me. I do like to think, though, that my oldest Grand Daughter Alexandria Mae, called Ally, was named after me although unintentionally. Sandra is a diminutive of Alexander as is Alexandria.
Of course, I forgot to mention Uncle Boo, who was Daddy's baby brother, and whose real name was Lawrence named after one of his Uncles. He came by the nickname Boo because when he was tiny he used to mimic the sound of the milk separator up on the farm. booboobooboo! I know there's probably more instances but I think you get the idea.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
BEACH MEMORIES
My family's beach trips were always to Mayo Beach. Three cars drove for the day trip and I got to ride with my Grandfather in his big rust colored Hudson. Aunt Bell and Uncle Bill drove their dark green Hudson and Daddy and Momma drove their little cream colored Dodge Coupe--I'd love to have that car now and I have a picture of it somewhere. The Hudsons looked like big fat beetles and had back seats like couches to a little girl. You had to drive from Virgina through Washington, D. C. and into Maryland because there was no National Capital Beltway!! I remember passing the big barns in Maryland and being told there was tobacco drying in them. You could always tell when you were getting close to the beach 'cause the sky got bigger and wider and grass got sparser and by this time we kids were so excited we were giggling and laughing with our faces pressed against the window.
The kids were me, my younger sister Linda and my baby brother Freddie. I remember my sister and I had matching one piece bathing suits in red gingham with bloomer legs. Mom would slather us with lotion and in the afternoon make us wear t-shits so we wouldn't sunburn but I remember resisting one time and I got pretty red. I loved going in the water it was warm and never higher than my waist and I got to float in a big inner tube. Daddy would try to teach me to swim but I was always afraid to try and that stayed with me into adulthood. My husband always says "those who are bound to hang need not fear water" I think he's quoting Mark Twain. I loved the big bath house with showers on the outside but I never seemed to be able to get all the sand off and always felt gritty. There were swings for after lunch and a tall pole with rings on chains that fascinated me but I could never get the hang of it.
Lunch was always cold fried chicken made by my Grandmother. There was always cold sweet tea in a big one gallon cooler, potato and macaroni salads and sliced home grown tomatoes and rolls and watermelon brought in big coolers and baskets. Cookies were the perfect dessert for a beach picnic. Once my Dad stopped at a little market and bought Tru Ade which was a non-carbonated soft drink that came in orange and grape with orange being our favorite. Years and years later I was at Cobb Island with my good friend from work staying on her boyfriends boat and we found Tru Ade in a little market....nostalgia. There were slot machines up on the hill in the back of the building where swimsuits, towels and umbrellas were rented... after all we were in Maryland and gambling was legal.
The last time I was at Mayo Beach was the day after school ended in the 7th grade. My Mom's best friend Ocie and her daughter my best friend Pat and our sisters and my brother and Ocie's sister who drove and her kids all piled into a big station wagon. This time my baby sister Kim went with us she was only 3 months old. We had a wonderful day and I'll treasure it forever. My son-in-law Rick says that Mayo Beach is not like it was in my day and not a place to go to now. I'll remember the way it was always and the fun we had.
The kids were me, my younger sister Linda and my baby brother Freddie. I remember my sister and I had matching one piece bathing suits in red gingham with bloomer legs. Mom would slather us with lotion and in the afternoon make us wear t-shits so we wouldn't sunburn but I remember resisting one time and I got pretty red. I loved going in the water it was warm and never higher than my waist and I got to float in a big inner tube. Daddy would try to teach me to swim but I was always afraid to try and that stayed with me into adulthood. My husband always says "those who are bound to hang need not fear water" I think he's quoting Mark Twain. I loved the big bath house with showers on the outside but I never seemed to be able to get all the sand off and always felt gritty. There were swings for after lunch and a tall pole with rings on chains that fascinated me but I could never get the hang of it.
Lunch was always cold fried chicken made by my Grandmother. There was always cold sweet tea in a big one gallon cooler, potato and macaroni salads and sliced home grown tomatoes and rolls and watermelon brought in big coolers and baskets. Cookies were the perfect dessert for a beach picnic. Once my Dad stopped at a little market and bought Tru Ade which was a non-carbonated soft drink that came in orange and grape with orange being our favorite. Years and years later I was at Cobb Island with my good friend from work staying on her boyfriends boat and we found Tru Ade in a little market....nostalgia. There were slot machines up on the hill in the back of the building where swimsuits, towels and umbrellas were rented... after all we were in Maryland and gambling was legal.
The last time I was at Mayo Beach was the day after school ended in the 7th grade. My Mom's best friend Ocie and her daughter my best friend Pat and our sisters and my brother and Ocie's sister who drove and her kids all piled into a big station wagon. This time my baby sister Kim went with us she was only 3 months old. We had a wonderful day and I'll treasure it forever. My son-in-law Rick says that Mayo Beach is not like it was in my day and not a place to go to now. I'll remember the way it was always and the fun we had.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
THE RICHEST SHELTON KNOWN
In my Grandmother's family there's the story of a lost brother. Brian was one of eight children. Uncle Claude was Grandmother's oldest brother and he was a Washington, D. C. Policeman. Then there was Aunt Lena who went through nurse's training at St. Elizabeth's Hospital which was the mental hospital for Washington, D.C. and where she met her husband my Uncle Ed. Uncle Burl was a local builder in Fairfax, Virginia in the 1940's-50's and built my parent's home on Popes Head Road along with five other houses on the road and renovated the old schoolhouse they had all attended into a home which my Aunt Margarette's family still owns. Uncle Kline I believe drove a cab in Washington, D.C. Uncle Harry was a Washington, D. C. bus driver. My grandmother, Virginia, worked at the torpedo plant in Alexandria, Virginia during WWII and then followed her boss Mr. Parks to the Veteran's Administration after the war which was an all new Federal Agency. Aunt Margaret worked in a nursing home for years. My Great Grandmother Rose Anna Spenser Shelton was the third wife of Charles Shelton who had lost two previous wives to untimely deaths. Great Grandmother Rose raised the children produced by those marriages and my Great Uncle Oscar was one of those children. He loved her very much and always stayed close to his younger half brothers and sisters.
I'm not sure how Brian fits in age wise, whether he was between Claude and Lena or after Lena. I understand from my Grandmother that he was a big strapping boy and way mature for his age. He didn't get along with my Great Grandfather and it was said that Great Grandfather picked on him. I vaguely remember hearing that he had been institutionalized for a bit and when he came home he got in a terrible row with his father. After the quarrel the last anyone saw of him was when he was heading across the fields to Fairfax Station having told his Father and anyone else who was there that he wouldn't come back until he was the richest Shelton known. He hopped the train at the Station and never returned. (I understand train hopping was sport to the boys in my grandmother's family.) Grandmother said that her father tracked Brian to a circus in Baltimore, Maryland and he went there to bring Brian home but the circus people helped him hide. He had joined the circus as the strong man and he was only seventeen years old. Great Grandfather came home without him.
My Great Uncles and Aunts believed all their lives that their missing brother was Jack Dempsey. Jack Dempsey was known as the Manassa Mawler. Manassas, Virginia was the biggest town down the railroad line from Fairfax Station. He looked and talked like Brian. Aunt Lena's children were offered scholarships from an anonymous person when they were in school and she believed they came from Jack Dempsey (Brian). My Uncle Oscar went to a Jack Dempsey match and stood at the ring saying "come home, Brian, come home" and Jack Dempsey didn't acknowledge him. In this day and age would my uncle have been seen as a stalker? My grandmother had a bow tie that she said was Brian's but it's been lost over all these years.
In the early 1970's I worked for Sears Service Center on 19th Avenue in San Francisco, California. A person who was retired from there used to come to visit all the time. His name was Jack Downey and he had been a professional boxing referee in the day and had known Jack Dempsey. I told him about how my family thought Jack Dempsey was their long lost brother who had run away from home and he told me there was a hotel bar or restaurant somewhere with a picture of Jack Dempsey's parents. I Don't remember where the bar was, somewhere in California, but he thought my relatives were in error. I never pushed for any more information nor have I read any biographies or autobiographies and maybe I should have. In writing this I just wanted to record what my older family members thought and not to try and prove anything.
My Great grandmother waited all her life for Brian to come home.
I'm not sure how Brian fits in age wise, whether he was between Claude and Lena or after Lena. I understand from my Grandmother that he was a big strapping boy and way mature for his age. He didn't get along with my Great Grandfather and it was said that Great Grandfather picked on him. I vaguely remember hearing that he had been institutionalized for a bit and when he came home he got in a terrible row with his father. After the quarrel the last anyone saw of him was when he was heading across the fields to Fairfax Station having told his Father and anyone else who was there that he wouldn't come back until he was the richest Shelton known. He hopped the train at the Station and never returned. (I understand train hopping was sport to the boys in my grandmother's family.) Grandmother said that her father tracked Brian to a circus in Baltimore, Maryland and he went there to bring Brian home but the circus people helped him hide. He had joined the circus as the strong man and he was only seventeen years old. Great Grandfather came home without him.
My Great Uncles and Aunts believed all their lives that their missing brother was Jack Dempsey. Jack Dempsey was known as the Manassa Mawler. Manassas, Virginia was the biggest town down the railroad line from Fairfax Station. He looked and talked like Brian. Aunt Lena's children were offered scholarships from an anonymous person when they were in school and she believed they came from Jack Dempsey (Brian). My Uncle Oscar went to a Jack Dempsey match and stood at the ring saying "come home, Brian, come home" and Jack Dempsey didn't acknowledge him. In this day and age would my uncle have been seen as a stalker? My grandmother had a bow tie that she said was Brian's but it's been lost over all these years.
In the early 1970's I worked for Sears Service Center on 19th Avenue in San Francisco, California. A person who was retired from there used to come to visit all the time. His name was Jack Downey and he had been a professional boxing referee in the day and had known Jack Dempsey. I told him about how my family thought Jack Dempsey was their long lost brother who had run away from home and he told me there was a hotel bar or restaurant somewhere with a picture of Jack Dempsey's parents. I Don't remember where the bar was, somewhere in California, but he thought my relatives were in error. I never pushed for any more information nor have I read any biographies or autobiographies and maybe I should have. In writing this I just wanted to record what my older family members thought and not to try and prove anything.
My Great grandmother waited all her life for Brian to come home.
Friday, December 2, 2011
CHANNELLING ROSIE
Very early on the morning of June 30, 2002 I woke up, rolled over, and started singing to my husband "Hey there, you with the stars in your eyes, love never made a fool of you, you used to be so wise". I said to myself "good grief, Sandy, where did that come from?" then I rolled back over and went back to sleep. Later that morning I was sitting in front of the TV with my coffee watching CBS Sunday Morning when they announced that the day before, June 29, 2002, Rosemary Clooney had passed away. I freaked out....OMG!!!! I'm channelling Rosemary Clooney!!!!! George Clooney's Auntie!!! The only connection, other than loving the movie "Holiday Inn" (White Christmas) and her singing, was that my Grandmother worked for The Veterans Administration in the 1950's and had said a niece of Rosemary Clooney's also had worked there and that Rosie had put her through college. This is the only time anything like this has ever happened to me. It was a strange experience, it makes a good conversation piece, but I hope it never happens again!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
11/30/46
Today is my birthday. I was born November 30, 1946 in the first year of the WWII "Baby Boom". When I was born we lived in Alexandria, Virginia in Cameron Valley. The housing was built for the people who came to Washington, D.C. to work for the war effort. My Mom's family had come from Clifton and Popes Head Road in Fairfax County and my Dad was from Aldie in Loudon County. My Grandfather and Grandmother worked at the Torpedo Plant and my mother worked for the Internal Revenue Service. She never called it the IRS. Daddy had just gotten out of the Marine Air Corps the August before and gone to work for Republic Airlines out of Pennsylvania as a mechanic. Republic Airlines was soon called Capital Airlines and was bought by United Airlines in 1960. On the day I was born my Grandmother had WWII ration stamps she needed to use so she walked up Duke Street to the Safeway that was across the street from Stonewall Jackson Elementary School to get sugar. She stepped off the curb in the grocery store parking lot and in the dusk didn't see a board which she tripped over and broke her leg. So as my mother was in the old Alexandria Hospital on Duke Street giving birth to me my Grandmother was also having her leg set and put into a cast.
Monday, November 28, 2011
A REMEMBRANCE 9/11/2001...Revisited
I had just started work at 6:00AM PST the morning of September 11, 2001. I worked for United Air Lines in the San Francisco Reservation Office. About 6:20AM a co-worker walked in and said that planes had flown into the World Trade Center Towers. I know I saw no footage until I took my lunch break at 10:30AM. When I heard about the Pentagon I tried and tried to get hold of my daughter who lived about two miles away up Columbia Pike in Arlington but couldn't get through. I can't remember anything about work that day. The TV coverage and films of the people covered in dust and injured and running and the planes hitting the towers and the towers collapsing have blanked out everything.
My daughter and I didn't reach each other until that afternoon when I got home from work. She said she was just walking out the front door of her apartment on her way to work when she heard a plane go over and heard something she thought had happened at National Airport (Reagon). My daughter knew something was up because air traffic was restricted to flying up and down the Potomac River only. When she turned on her car radio is when she found out the Pentagon had been hit by a plane. She went to work but left and went out to her Grandfathers. Daddy and his good friend Ann were driving down to Southern Virginia to see a new Marine Corps Memorial that had just opened and were stopped for a bite to eat when they got the news. They turned around and headed back to Fairfax. My brother said he was at the Veterans Hospital for tests that morning and when he left it took him hours to get out of DC and back to Virginia. My husband can't get past how this event has changed our lives with the fact that we both had to end up taking early retirements and loosing half our retirement and benefits in United's bankruptcy that followed.
My heart breaks for the souls lost that day in the planes and Twin Towers and Pentagon and Pennsylvania and all the souls lost in the ensuing military actions that have followed. Thank you to our servicemen and women who have lost their lives in this battle for our country's way of life, our beliefs, and our freedoms. Thank you to all who now serve. "God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above. From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam, God bless America my home sweet home."
Post Script: On May 2, 2012, Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda and responsible for the terrorist assault on New York City's Twin Towers, the plane hijacking that crashed in Pennsylvania, and the assault on the Pentagon, was found and killed in an action ordered by President Obama and carried out by Navy Seals. His death was verified for all the world and his body was buried at sea.
My daughter and I didn't reach each other until that afternoon when I got home from work. She said she was just walking out the front door of her apartment on her way to work when she heard a plane go over and heard something she thought had happened at National Airport (Reagon). My daughter knew something was up because air traffic was restricted to flying up and down the Potomac River only. When she turned on her car radio is when she found out the Pentagon had been hit by a plane. She went to work but left and went out to her Grandfathers. Daddy and his good friend Ann were driving down to Southern Virginia to see a new Marine Corps Memorial that had just opened and were stopped for a bite to eat when they got the news. They turned around and headed back to Fairfax. My brother said he was at the Veterans Hospital for tests that morning and when he left it took him hours to get out of DC and back to Virginia. My husband can't get past how this event has changed our lives with the fact that we both had to end up taking early retirements and loosing half our retirement and benefits in United's bankruptcy that followed.
My heart breaks for the souls lost that day in the planes and Twin Towers and Pentagon and Pennsylvania and all the souls lost in the ensuing military actions that have followed. Thank you to our servicemen and women who have lost their lives in this battle for our country's way of life, our beliefs, and our freedoms. Thank you to all who now serve. "God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above. From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam, God bless America my home sweet home."
Post Script: On May 2, 2012, Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda and responsible for the terrorist assault on New York City's Twin Towers, the plane hijacking that crashed in Pennsylvania, and the assault on the Pentagon, was found and killed in an action ordered by President Obama and carried out by Navy Seals. His death was verified for all the world and his body was buried at sea.
A TRUE STORY IS STRANGER THAN FICTION
In the fall of 1965 I was living at home in Fairfax City and commuting to the Corcoran School of Art at The Corcoran Gallery of Art on 17th and New York Avenue in Washington D.C. and studying advertising design. I had also just started work the day after Thanksgiving at Woodward and Lothrop in 7-Corners in the women's sportswear department. On Thanksgiving break (-----) came home from college and asked me out and this is the story of that date.
(-----) and I and Pete and Pete's friend from the school he went to before he came to Fairfax High senior year drove into Arlington to meet up with (-----)'s college roommate and his girl who (-----) and I were to double date with. Pete and friend took (-----)'s car and we all agreed to meet up at the end of the night. We had the best time that evening dancing and having a few beers in a club I can't recall the name of forty five years later and we stayed till closing. The clubs in DC closed at midnight on Saturdays back then so people could get up for church on Sunday mornings.
Driving back to Arlington to meet back up with Pete and friend, (-----) started acting up and opened his car window and started yelling and screaming and generally acting like a crazy person. Up to this point I felt fine but when I started pulling him back into the car I became very jostled and all I had drank came rushing up. Now I was leaning out the other backseat window spitting chunks as we drove across the Memorial Bridge. I remember thinking this is so embarrassing and then I was out like a light! Somehow the car exchange was made in Arlington and (-----) drove us back to Fairfax Circle where we dropped off Pete and friend with me still passed out.
Back in 1965 (-----) could have gone around the Circle to take me home as we both lived in the same subdivision in Fairfax City, or, since we were on Pickett Road already he could take it out to Rt. 236 The Little River Turnpike and back to Fairfax that way. I don't know if he had any ulterior motives in mind when he chose Pickett Road which was a gravel road with hardly anything on it back then and virtually deserted at this time of the night. I came out of my stupor as (-----) was parking across from the Little League baseball fields on Pickett. Giving him the benefit of the doubt he did have to wake me up before he took me home.
Now here is where everything takes a surreal turn. I'm totally awake now and we're travelling up Pickett to 236 when suddenly I start screaming to (-----) "There's a body in the road! I saw a body in the road!" and it took a few seconds to convince him to stop and back up a few yards. Guess what! There was a body leaning up against the bank with it's feet sticking out in the road. (-----) stopped the car and got out to investigate. The body turned out to be alive and awake. He said he'd been at the Green Dolphin Bar in the Hilltop Shopping Center on 29-211 at Kamp Washington and he didn't remember how he got dumped there in the bushes on Pickett Road. (-----) helped him up and put him in the back seat and asked him where we could take him. The man said to drop him off at the Red Raven which was a bar in the little strip mall on 50-29-211 across from Jim Mc Kay Chevrolet....and this is what we did.
EPILOGUE: (-----) and I saw each other several times that next year but we never spoke of our little adventure and we finally lost track of each other.
EPILOGUE II: Just short of fifty years later I got in touch with (-----) and had him read the story and we both laughed and I know he's showed it to a couple of our old friends from high school. I've reworked it a little since then...mainly changing the names from Bill and Susan to (-----) and me and dropping the "Only The Names Are Changed To Protect The Innocent". I can own the truth.
(-----) and I and Pete and Pete's friend from the school he went to before he came to Fairfax High senior year drove into Arlington to meet up with (-----)'s college roommate and his girl who (-----) and I were to double date with. Pete and friend took (-----)'s car and we all agreed to meet up at the end of the night. We had the best time that evening dancing and having a few beers in a club I can't recall the name of forty five years later and we stayed till closing. The clubs in DC closed at midnight on Saturdays back then so people could get up for church on Sunday mornings.
Driving back to Arlington to meet back up with Pete and friend, (-----) started acting up and opened his car window and started yelling and screaming and generally acting like a crazy person. Up to this point I felt fine but when I started pulling him back into the car I became very jostled and all I had drank came rushing up. Now I was leaning out the other backseat window spitting chunks as we drove across the Memorial Bridge. I remember thinking this is so embarrassing and then I was out like a light! Somehow the car exchange was made in Arlington and (-----) drove us back to Fairfax Circle where we dropped off Pete and friend with me still passed out.
Back in 1965 (-----) could have gone around the Circle to take me home as we both lived in the same subdivision in Fairfax City, or, since we were on Pickett Road already he could take it out to Rt. 236 The Little River Turnpike and back to Fairfax that way. I don't know if he had any ulterior motives in mind when he chose Pickett Road which was a gravel road with hardly anything on it back then and virtually deserted at this time of the night. I came out of my stupor as (-----) was parking across from the Little League baseball fields on Pickett. Giving him the benefit of the doubt he did have to wake me up before he took me home.
Now here is where everything takes a surreal turn. I'm totally awake now and we're travelling up Pickett to 236 when suddenly I start screaming to (-----) "There's a body in the road! I saw a body in the road!" and it took a few seconds to convince him to stop and back up a few yards. Guess what! There was a body leaning up against the bank with it's feet sticking out in the road. (-----) stopped the car and got out to investigate. The body turned out to be alive and awake. He said he'd been at the Green Dolphin Bar in the Hilltop Shopping Center on 29-211 at Kamp Washington and he didn't remember how he got dumped there in the bushes on Pickett Road. (-----) helped him up and put him in the back seat and asked him where we could take him. The man said to drop him off at the Red Raven which was a bar in the little strip mall on 50-29-211 across from Jim Mc Kay Chevrolet....and this is what we did.
EPILOGUE: (-----) and I saw each other several times that next year but we never spoke of our little adventure and we finally lost track of each other.
EPILOGUE II: Just short of fifty years later I got in touch with (-----) and had him read the story and we both laughed and I know he's showed it to a couple of our old friends from high school. I've reworked it a little since then...mainly changing the names from Bill and Susan to (-----) and me and dropping the "Only The Names Are Changed To Protect The Innocent". I can own the truth.
HURRICANE PAST
In 1992 a couple went on a cruise out of Cape Kennedy to the Bahamas. They arrived in the Bahamas and spent one day having fun and that evening were told "OOPS, we have to leave port a hurricane coming". So they left and got back to Cape Kennedy and they were told "OOPS, can't dock a hurricane is coming".
The cruise ship put back out to sea and spent the night rocking and rolling in the Atlantic Ocean with a hurricane raging to the south of them. My friend said the seas were rough but they had Dramamine so they weren't too seasick. The next day when they pulled into port they found out that southern Florida had been devastated. This was Hurricane Andrew which was a Catagory 5.
A few mornings later I was sitting in my family room in South San Francisco, California watching TODAY. They were interviewing a man who was in Florida helping with the cleanup. He had been part of the cleanup in Charleston, South Carolina when they were devastated by Hurricane Hugo in the fall of 1989. It was Howard Chapman a friend from my home town of Fairfax, Virginia.
It's a small world and this was before the internet made it even smaller for me!
The cruise ship put back out to sea and spent the night rocking and rolling in the Atlantic Ocean with a hurricane raging to the south of them. My friend said the seas were rough but they had Dramamine so they weren't too seasick. The next day when they pulled into port they found out that southern Florida had been devastated. This was Hurricane Andrew which was a Catagory 5.
A few mornings later I was sitting in my family room in South San Francisco, California watching TODAY. They were interviewing a man who was in Florida helping with the cleanup. He had been part of the cleanup in Charleston, South Carolina when they were devastated by Hurricane Hugo in the fall of 1989. It was Howard Chapman a friend from my home town of Fairfax, Virginia.
It's a small world and this was before the internet made it even smaller for me!
EUREKA! "I have found it."
AIRLINE BRATS
Airline Brats are children of airline employees who have been accustomed to travel at an early age and usually end up seeking employment in the industry for that benefit. If you want affordable travel as a benefit this is the industry, if you want your benefit to be money get a job where " money" is the benefit. My own father was a jet engine mechanic for United Airlines who began his career out of the Marine Air Corps WWII for Republic Airlines who turned into Capital Airlines and who merged with United Airlines in 1960. My husband's father was a United employee who began his career in Cheyanne, Wy. when that was United's main overhaul base. He was a sheetmetal/airframe mechanic responsible for the "skin" of the airplane. San Francisco is United's Maintenance Operations Base and my father was transferred there in 1966. My husband followed two of his brothers and went to work for United out of high school. Rod had the fortune to be accepted into the apprenticeship program and United paid for his college. Rod was a machinist and a landing gear inspector and at the end of his career was a lead in the tool crib responsible for thousands and thousands of tools and related stock that are required for airplane maintenance. I'm a retiree myself, I made domestic and internatonal travel reservations plus assisted travel agents. Airline brats are children who have become accustomed to flying anywhere the airline goes and in our family's case would be the Brittish Isles, Europe, Japan, China, Central and South America, Egypt and Australia. If United had gone to Antarctica that would be on the list also. It was nothing for Rod's daughter to fly out to Honolulu on a morning flight, spend the day at the beach, and fly home on a redeye (overnight flight) the same day as a teenager with a friend who's father was UAL also. My own daughter was used to flying back and forth from San Francisco to Virginia as a little girl on her grandfather's passes and knew exactly what to do and how to behave and it was usually in First Class in those days before frequent flyer programs. If you see a child or person way overdressed they're probably airline employees as we can't sit in First Class in jeans. Now when we go to the gate and there's 40 people waitlisted for upgrade and only 12-30 First Class seats total, economy plus seating or even two seats together is what we hope for because we travel "standby". Rod and I met in San Francisco as young single parents and dated off and on and always stayed friends and he would come to visit me in Virginia when I moved back in 1978. I came to United at forty years old because Rod and I had rekindled our romance and we dated cross country for four years before becoming engaged and marrying in 1995. I could never complain about salary because I was doing at least two roundtrips a month for four years on the company. The first person you meet when you start dating again isn't supposed to be the person you spend the rest of your life with-- it took us a while to find out that wasn't true. Rod's been all over the world and me not so many places but I travel between California and Virginia like it was going across the street. (Originally posted on FB July 22, 2011
EPILOG: United Airlines bought Continental Airlines this year. Because Continental had relaxed rules as to what you could wear in First Class United has now adopted their standard. We can now wear jeans in First Class if we should actually be assigned a First Class seat. United has purchased Continental and Continental has taken over United...not just dress rules but other things, too. We retirees are on the choping block as they may take our seniority away. We'll see.
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EPILOG: United Airlines bought Continental Airlines this year. Because Continental had relaxed rules as to what you could wear in First Class United has now adopted their standard. We can now wear jeans in First Class if we should actually be assigned a First Class seat. United has purchased Continental and Continental has taken over United...not just dress rules but other things, too. We retirees are on the choping block as they may take our seniority away. We'll see.
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A ROAD TO CALIFORNIA STORY
In June 1994 I moved back to California engaged to Rod. We drove my 1990 Honda CRX from Virginia and left at O-Dark-30 in the morning, 4:30AM to be exact. It was a hot, dark, and rainy-misty day going west and it stayed that way all day as we made our way to Interstate 80 and beyond. Just outside of Peoria, Illinois we ran into a big bank of low dark clouds with little fingers twirling down. It started to rain hard, then hail and thunder with lightning and Rod said get under an overpass. I said I couldn't because there were already cars there and I would block a lane on a big interstate highway so I pulled off on the side. We proceeded to be PELTED WITH HAIL and the wind was moving sideways. Rod pulled pillows from the back and held them up to the windshield and passenger side window as he was afraid the windows would blow in on us. All kinds of debris was blowing in front of us like tree branches and swirling dirt. After the storm subsided we found out we'd been at the wall of a tornado that had touched down. My car had pock marks on the roof, the hood, and the passenger side and it looked like it had cellulite! I should have pulled under the overpass because others did and the interstate was completely blocked. As everyone started moving on we saw some antique autos that had been caught on the road with us that were equally damaged. Pity. Now whenever Peoria is mentioned we throw up our hands and make the sign of an X with our fingers!!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
INLINE HURRICANE
In California it's called The Pineapple Express. The storm is coming from the southwest with winds steady at 45 miles per hour. The rain right now is battering my living room and dining room picture windows which have southern exposures. It's called The Pineapple Express because it originates in Hawaii and blows east battering the California coast and we're 150 miles inland. It's howling outside and I'm waiting for the wicked witch to fly by on her broom. The outside cats are all hunkered down on the porch and in the outbuildings. The new little stray kittie, Ruffles, doesn't know what to think and Pumpkin, in the house, is all agitated. The winds are supposed to become greater as the day goes by. My husband, talking to his nephew on the phone, just said "It's a sit around the house and drink beer day 'cause you can't do anything else". There's white caps on the swimming pool and the patio furniture is blown everywhere. Thank goodness nothing has blown in the pool yet. The last time we had a storm like this was early last November and the big swing with the canopy blew in the pool and stayed there until Thanksgiving when we had enough help to pull it out. Lake Shasta Dam and Lake Oroville Dam are both releasing water into the Sacramento River at the rate of 40,000 cubic feet per second and the river's near flood stage. Animals are gathering two by two. Thank goodness we've got the Grady White back from the boat shop! (Originally published on FB March 24, 2011)
REFLECTIONS ON LOMA PRIETA EARTHQUAKE
Our South San Francisco, California house lies about 1,600 feet from the San Andreas Fault rip zone. During the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 my husband lost all the bulbs in his chandelier because it was swinging back and forth so hard they were hitting the ceiling. As he was running out the front door the china closet started to tip over and he pushed it upright as he passed. He only lost one saucer. His truck was parked in front of the house and rocking back and forth raising the wheels off the ground. Rod's neighbor was standing outside dazed with her underpants down around her ankles...she had been sitting on the commode when everything started to shake and she just got up and ran. Thank goodness she had on a dress. This was the earthquake that happened during the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's World Series. These are my husband's memories. Rod and I had just started dating again and I still lived in Virginia. I was relieved to receive his phone call to let me know he was alright. I decided to record the memories because of the earthquake that happened in Japan yesterday.
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