Summer Solstice

The summer solstice started early for me--I wanted to enjoy as many of the long daylight hours I could!  The weather was perfect!  Sunny, 74 degrees, low humidity, with a slight breeze.

You see, the First Day of Summer, the longest day of the year, is the day I was born!  

It was also my cousins 6th birthday, which she has informed me, over these last 78 years, I completely ruined for her.

She was my Grandmother's niece and her namesake.  My Grandmother doted on her and then....my Grandmother had to miss her birthday because....Grandma was waiting for me.  When I was born, the nurse (my mother's sister), took me and handed me to my Grandma.  Grandma said, "My precious baby!" and that's how it was until she died.

Sure, my Grandma had a huge capacity to love and she loved my cousin, but I took up a lot of her time and well..............................as I have told my cousin over and over, "It's not my fault!  I was supposed to be born the end of May!"

My cousin and I on our birthday--I was 1, she was 7.

My sister Susan and daughter Pam drove down from Byron, about 4:00, and brought Subway sandwiches.  This is my favorite way to celebrate.  I would much rather eat in than go to a restaurant.  That way, we set up our TV tables and ate and talked and laughed loudly and hooted and laughed some more.  Can't do that in a restaurant.

I had cleaned my earrings the night before and with my hand tremors, I couldn't get them back in my ears.  So Susan did that for me, although she had to sit down because it made her knees weak.

Then Pammie helped me fix the toilet flush handle, which I had worked on for two days, but again, with the hand tremors could not get the wire I had to connect from the handle to the chain.

Then we went outside.  I asked Pammie if she would paint my toenails, because, with the hand tremors, it is impossible for me to do it and keep the polish only on the nails and not all over the toes.

Then we went back inside for cake and a wish.  What to wish for?  At my age, I wished for a few more years.  LOL

They left at about 8:00.  Pam had worked all day and had to get up at 4:00, this morning.

I found out at 8:30 that daughter Karen and her hubs had arrived back safely from their 3 week vacation in  Alaska.  It was a perfect day!
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One of the neat things about Face Book?  When it is your birthday, a notice appears at the top of the page, so all most of your friends wish you a Happy Birthday.  I had over 100 wishes--where else can you get that?  HAH!

Weather Break

Ah-hh!  The joy, the bliss, the pure sublimeness of cooler temps and having windows and doors open.  Last night it almost felt cold.

 Note: Sublimeness is not a valid word.

We have had rainstorms predicted all weekend and all today.  I see the dark clouds and hear the distant thunder, but about 3 miles before they get here, the separate--one storm going north-east (over Howell) and one going south-east (over Brighton).  We got sprinkles--twice today.  So--I went out and watered all my flowers.  Now the dark clouds are coming in again.

While I was watering, I found a sweet Cardinal feather under the bird feeders.  It will go in my  Anasazi Indian bowl with the rest of my collection.

I cut off my stray out growing branches off my Forsythia and Wegelia bushes and up the trunk of my Maple trees.  Stuffed them in a yard waste bag for pick-up tomorrow.

I really need to tear apart my little front garden this fall.  All the Iris need to be spread out, perhaps in their own bed and almost all of the Lilies need to be divided and replanted.  Sounds like a big job, but I know I can do it over a period of a week.  I say this now, who knows what September and October will bring.

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Karen is posting photos on FB from Alaska.  They are there for three weeks.  Their second child, Susanna, who lives in Oregon, does a lot of advertising and marketing work for New Balance shoes and just happens to have a boyfriend who lives in Alaska, so she went with her parents for a couple of weeks.  They sure are seeing some splendor up there.

My hubs and the kids and I were going to drive up through British Columbia and up the ALCAN highway to visit Alaska--that was back in 1970.  We had the camper and the plans and then my Mother died and a year later Jennifer was born, so we never made it.

You might remember me posting that at grand daughter's wedding, he and I were talking about our missed Alaska trip and how we still would like to go there.  He can't drive and I certainly couldn't drive that far, but his wife drives--everywhere.  So I told him, we'd throw our stuff in the back of their van.  He could stretch out in the back seat and I'd sit up in front and chat with Diane while she drove us to Alaska.  HAH!

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I had to run down to Brighton this morning and got into an insane construction fiasco.  It is 4 miles to the Meijer store.  It took me 30 minutes.  The back-up started just about 1.5 miles up the road.  When I got into town I could see what was happening.  They were moving the right lane over into the left.  A few yards ahead they were merging the left lane over into the center lane.  So now they had two lanes of very heavy traffic all in one lane in the center left turn lane.

All during this time, traffic was exiting from the Super Highway.  We were very orderly, letting one car in off the expressway in front of us, then the car behind me would let one in and so it proceeded.  Drivers in this area are nothing if not polite.  When I got about a block from the merging insanity, I turned right and scampered up a couple of streets and basically took a back alley way to Meijer.  I was not the only one.  HAH.  When I got out of there, I took the back way home--out into the country and down a road just west of me 1/2 mile and home. It took me 17 minutes to get home from Meijer.

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Now I am finishing up laundry and working on the latest genealogy book.

OOOH--I hear thunder.  Maybe we'll get lucky this time?

Nope, it's going south east.  DRATS!!!!!!!!!

Broken down old woman.................................

I looked at the weather map radar this morning and there, to the west, was a beautiful big blob of green that looked like it would be right over me at about noon.  Sure enough, as I ran out to get the mail, I could feel the sprinkles.

....and that's all we got.  Not enough sprinkles to even make the street look wet. As sometimes happens, part of the storm split and went north-east and part of it went south of Brighton.  So, after lunch, I went out and watered all my annuals.  I'm not real good about watering.  I never water my perennial gardens as they have long, strong roots that will find deep water.  I do tend to forget the annuals on my porch and even with a nice rain, some of them are protected under the porch roof.

Well, now I see another bigger blob of green headed this way about about 10:00 tonight.So I am hoping.  It has been so hot-90- and dry here for the last few days, we need the rain and more normal cool weather.  It feels like July and it's only mid-June.
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When I woke up this morning, I remembered.  It is my anniversary.  I was married at 7:00 pm, 60 years ago.  I remember it all so well.  

and our best friends

Arlene and her fiance' Dick.

We had a lot of good years------------

...but four years after this happy family scene, if was over.  Such is life.

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I have such terrible looking hands--especially my right hand.

Age spots--arthritis bumps, red bruised spots.

They look like my great grandma's did when she was 90!!!  Now I am starting to have worse Carpal Tunnel Syndrome problems.  Both of my thumbs go numb and sometimes I get, not an ache, but such a pain in the back of my hands.  I can pull the skin up over my knuckles and it stays there.  I used to do that with my grandma's hands and think it was so funny.  I don't think it's so funny now!

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One day, in mid-August,I was about 14, I was helping my Daddy and the hired men, fill the cement silo with chopped corn.  I was about 2/3 up in the tall structure.  It was a hot day and it was a steam room in that silo.  It was my job to hold the funnel by a rope and walk around and around, keeping the incoming corn level and tamping it down as I walked.

I started getting real dizzy and felt faint.  I decided I had to get out of that silo.  It was a long climb down those rungs to the ground.  I remember shaking my head to clear it and felt like I was just going to stumble and fall down.  All I could see was the house and I had to get to it and lay down.

I heard my Daddy yell, "Hey!  Get back up in there!"  I could feel him pelting me with little stones he had grabbed up from the gravel barn yard.  I couldn't turn and tell him what was wrong.  I had to keep walking.

My mother must have heard him yelling because she came to the back door and opened it up.  Closer and closer I got--my eyes only on my mother until I collapsed and fainted into her arms.

I came too the next morning.  I was naked between two nice cool sheets.  A fan blew cool air across the big metal dish pan, filled with ice.  My grandma was wiping my face with a cool, wet wash cloth.  She had been with me all night as I went in and out of hallucinations.

The country doc had been called and came out and claimed I had a heat stroke.  They had put me into the bath tub with tepid water and gradually added cooler and cooler water and then placed me in my bed.

I was in bed for 3 days.  The thermometer in my mouth every couple of hours to check my body temperature.

Ever since then, being outside in the heat and humidity make me sick.   Once, I was visiting a friend in Florida and decided to mow his lawn.  It was August.  I ended up collapsed on his living room floor with the A/C blowing directly on me.   I shoulda known better!

Now you know why I prefer fall and winter to summer.  I cannot bear the suffocating heat and humidity. 

What's it all about..............?

Flo asked:  7 guys, 9 gals from my graduating class of 36 people, have taken their final journey.
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It turned from nice cool days and a night cold enough for the furnace to come on, to sweltering, humid and the first of the A/C running day and night. Thankfully, when it was checked last month, I was told the Freon pressure in the A/C was at maximum pressure, so I am counting on it not to die this summer.  I always wonder what might go wrong with this 20 year old equipment.

I called Pam Saturday morning and her phone was busy.  When I hung up, mine rang and it was her, calling me.  We commented on how "great minds think alike."  She filled me in on what Karen and her hubs are doing on their 3-week jaunt to Alaska.  Karen messages everybody or texts them, but because I don't have a cell phone, I am left out of the loop.  Can't you send an e-mail message from a smart phone?  I think so.

Pam said that (my son) Mark is doing well.  Out walking every day because the doc told him to get some weight off, which Mark replied, "How do you expect to get the weight off when you got me on steroids?"  His cancer is still at bay, so that's all I'm concerned about.

I asked when Karen is coming home and Pam said she thought June 25th.  Then all the siblings are going up to Karen's cottage on June 27th for their get together.

Hm-mm, I thought to myself.  My birthday falls on the 21st.  Apparently there will be no get together for their Mother this month.  If they are going up to the cottage, that means Jennifer will be in town.  I wonder if she will find time to stop over for a 20 minute chat?  

Doubtful.

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I was always so close to my kids, even after they got married and moved, I never dreamed that it would come to this.  Karen and Jen begged me to move "down here" instead of my hometown, when I had to move from Saginaw.  They wanted me near to help baby-sit and be able to attend all the grand kids functions--which I did and still do when grand daughter Maddie has a ballet performance.  Other than that, I might as well be dead!!

Plus, Jennifer moved and took the four youngest with her.  All four now in school and all their activities--that I could be going to and enjoying.

So--what to do?  It didn't help to tell them I was lonely for them and felt left out.  A temper tantrum also didn't help.  

I don't understand any of it.  Not a week went by that no matter what, I visited my Mother and my Grandma.  Even when I lived a 100 miles round trip away and my Dad was always critical, I still visited him once a month--no matter what.  So I don't understand why, when I have always been supportive of them and kind and loving and financially helpful, they forget who I am and where I live.

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Oh well.  Maybe if I had more health issues, they would check-in more often?  But who wants that excuse?  I guess I should be glad they don't worry about me.  But I tell you the truth, and it sometimes scares me, I could lay her dead for a week plus before anyone would notice and that one that might notice, might be Dar.  HAH!!

Or you my blog buddies might wonder why I hadn't posted in a week, but what could you do?

What's it all about and why am I still here?

Thursday

Lunch with the High School Gal Pals, plus a couple of the boys came also.  So good to see the one "brother" as he has been battling a infection in his femur from a hip replacement or knee replacement or something like that--done last fall!!  He almost died twice--had sepsis and still recovered.  Two years ago, his wife almost died. Nice to see that even at our old age, there is always hope for recovery.  This July 22, their five daughters, 18 grand children and 11 great grand children will all be together for their 60th wedding anniversary.  

I can personally tell you, 50 years ago, there wasn't one person in our social/married group would have given them a chance.  He was an alcoholic and abusive to her, but that all changed and here they are today, very much in love and in like.  Happy endings are always the best.  Eh?
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Not all the gals there, Sandy out with bad feet problems.  June having cataract surgery today.  Liz probably got lost and Sally's daughter at the Big Important Cancer Hospital with a brain tumor and important tests done today and Ruth Ann's out of state sister, home for a visit.

Marlene, Nancy V. and Nancy J. Beth and me.  It was a nice close group so we could all chat.

I said, "60 years.  Can you believe it?"

To which Marlene replied.  "60 years what?"

"Since we graduated.  Tuesday was June 6th.  In 1957, it was on a Thursday and we graduated."

"Oh.  Did we graduate on a Thursday?"

"Yes. Baccalaureate was Sunday and the next Thursday evening was graduation."

"How do you remember all that stuff, Judy?"

"How can you not remember?  You were married just nine days later."

60 years for them too.  

Would have been 60 years for Gary and I on the 14th, but not so happy ending there.

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Because of where we gathered, I didn't get out to The Farm.  We were East 20 miles and it wouldn't have been prudent for me to travel out there and then have to come back east, 10+ miles to come home.  Besides that, something was going on with my eyes today and I barely could drive as much as I did.  It was a pleasant day though.  The sun was out and it was in the low 70's.  A few of us got their famous Olive Burger.  I never saw so many Olives piled on top of a burger in my life--with tomato, lettuce and a slice of onion.  I was able to eat half and some good Onion rings.  The rest was my supper.

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I no more and got home and sister Susan called me.  They were at Lowe's just up the road so they came for a visit.  That was pretty darn nice.  Saved me an extra drive on up to The Farm to visit next week.  She and Chuck and I sat out on the porch and chatted for a little while.  It was so nice.

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I wish the gals would just have our lunch in Durand, like we usually do.  It is centrally located for most of them, a bit farther for me to drive, (not as far as today) and that way, Bethie can stop at the cemetery to water the flowers and on the way home, I can stop at The Farm and the other cemetery.  Without having either of us have to drive out of our way.  

I mean, the food is practically the same every where we go, so............................why not go to the easiest place to get to?  I noticed today that we parted without planning where next month's lunch would be.  Or maybe I missed that info because I was in the bathroom?

Anyway, it was a pleasant day all around.

I can remember about high school because..........

High School was wonderful.  I loved every second of it.  I lived 5 miles out in the country.  No kids my age around.  All my friends and all the fun was at my school.  I found out, early on, I think around 6th grade, one day I said something wry and a bit sarcastic and everyone in the room, including the teacher, laughed.  AHA!  I was on a roll for the rest of time.

Daddy wasn't in school to ridicule and criticize.  Nobody at school criticized.

I wasn't a nerd, just an average student.  I wasn't much of an athlete, but I was nice to everyone, I was the "kidder".  Really quite shy and  not too much self esteem, taller than anyone, including most of the boys, gangly, kind of awkward--I found being the happy-go-lucky kidder was my niche.  The kids laughed with me instead of at me.

AND...there was music!  Band and chorus, where I really excelled, the only classes I ever got A's in.  Back then, it was a big deal to be a band member--as big a deal as being one of the football, basketball, baseball stars.

That's probably why I remember those years so well.  I really feel they were the best years of my life!
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Feeling nostalgic....and a bit sad.

Today is the anniversary of D-Day.  Storming the beaches at Normandy.  Taking control of the European front in WWII.

I realized when I woke up this morning, that today is another anniversary.  A more memorable one for me.....and a few of my classmates that are still here.

June 6, 1957 was on a Thursday and graduation day for us.

 60 years ago today.  60?  

It doesn’t seem possible. 36 in our graduating class, most of us started Kindergarten together.  Born as WWII was starting, we’d seen it all.  Ration books, savings bonds.  The Atom Bomb, the Hydrogen Bomb, the dang Commie threat.  None of us had any fear though, we lived in or around a town of 543 people.  Who would want to bother wasting a bomb on us?  Carefree lives. 

TV had been invented a few years earlier, some of us had one in our living room—17” screen, if you were rich enough to get one that large.  $100.00—my gosh!!  We had telephones in our home—used for really important or emergency calls mostly—9 people on the party line, each person having a special ring.  ME4-5551. 

Riding our bikes all over.  Hitch-hiking into town.  The “townies” playing outside way after dark.  No problem.

Sunday School and Church every Sunday, the Youth Group Sunday evening.  The Baptist Church up on the hill, our Methodist Church at the bottom, across from our school.  My Baptist friends saying you could always tell which was the better church.  The one up on the hill.  Their next question, "Are you saved?"  My sarcastic remark, "Saved from what?"   Yet, on field trips and band trips--those Baptists were the ones in the back seats of the bus, necking up a storm, while us sinful Methodists played Euchre, up in front.

In high school, band was most important to me—band and chorus.  More important than anything, other than English and History, and they weren't all that important. 

Those who took the Commerical courses, graduated with a higher GPA than those of us who took required College prep.  Algebra, Chemistry, Geometry, Physics, just about killed me.  We all had to take Civics class to graduate.  We had to memorize and say the Preamble to the Constitution, “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union," ……………..we knew the workings of the government, we still do.  

Senior Trip to Washington, D.C. to see it in action.  Visited Arlington Cemetery.  Strong patriotic souls we were, still are.  I graduated 16^th in my class.

Our first stop on our Senior Trip--Somerset, PA.

                                       

                         May of 1957--Sally, Arlene, Emma,                     Me, Bethie--Judy B. took the photo.

Me, Judy B. Sally, Arlene

The six of us--friends from the beginning.  3 of us gone, Beth, Sally and I still get to see each other at our classmates monthly luncheon.  

                                  Arlene, Beth, Emma

                             Judy B. Me, Sally

Many of us married those first few months after graduation.  By the time we were “legal” (21), we had a couple of kids and more to come.  The husband worked, the wife stayed home, kept the house clean, supper on the table and raised the kids.  That’s the way it was back then—the best years of my life.

Our kids going to the same school—their photos right there beside ours and our parents.  3-4 generations at the same school.  Life in small town-rural America.  The best of times.  We didn’t march in protest, we were too busy and much too conservative.

60 years!!  Many good and best friends gone.  We that linger are confused.  Not by age, but by the world we now live in.  How it has changed in the last half of those 60 years, even more so in the  last decade.

How lucky we were.  Kids nowadays don't understand how it was possible to not only know everyone in our class, but to know everyone in the entire high school and a lot in the grades below us.  City kids in big schools missed out on the feeling of "family".  We were like brothers and sisters, some of us knowing each other way before we started Kindergarten.  

That's what makes me so sad.  Many of my brother's and sister's are gone.  My very best "brother" , now with pancreatic cancer, is making ready for his final journey.  I know where he's going.  He knows where he's going.  We will see each other again.

That makes me wonder, why am I still here?  My lifestyle not any healthier than theirs.  My life not any worthier than theirs.  In fact, most did better with their lives than I have.  Why?

Well, none of us are afraid.  We have seen it all.  It is as it is, it will be as it will be.  We smile when we look back and remember our youth.  The 1950’s were the best.  We all have the pride in our Country we had back then.  We know it will never be as good as it was back then, but we all have faith that it might get better.  

Those of us, in the last decade of our lives.

Silly optimists that we are.