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Northumberland, Pennsylvania

I took my Aunt Doris back home to Northumberland on Saturday. My Mom and my Aunt Kathy went along for the ride.

This picture shows my Aunt Kathy Evans (nee Saxton) and Great Uncle Jack Leighow standing. Seated on the swing, left to right are my Mom, Doris Reichard (nee Saxton), My Great Aunt Doris Leighow (nee Shannon) and me.

It was a very nice trip. Three generations of women trapped in a car for two and a half hours was the perfect opportunity for us to catch up and reminisce. And share some stories that had us all giggling along the way.

We asked Aunt Doris to give us a quick tour of the town. To show us old landmarks and such.

We were almost there when she turned to me and asked, “Would you like to see where Thelma (her sister and my Grandma) went to housekeeping?”

“Um,” I replied with a pause, “sure. But what does that mean?”

They all got a chuckle from that one. “Housekeeping” is what they used to say when referring to newlyweds living in their first house.

We couldn’t find the place. Aunt Doris thinks it was torn down. But we did see some other landmarks. One of the things we saw was my great grandmother’s old house. That’s Grandma’s mother, who lived into her 90s, too.

You can see all of the photos if you visit my Picasa web album. I have got to take my son up there for a visit. Uncle Jack is quite a character. Eric would LOVE him!

I’ll close with a picture I took of some flowers that were catercorner from my great grandparents’ (Saxton) house.

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Traveling Back in History

I had an interesting day yesterday. I drove, with my Mom, to Northumberland, Pennsylvania, to pick up my Great Aunt Doris so she could attend Grandma’s funeral.

Aunt Doris, Grandma’s sister, is 83. She was either going to ride the bus from Northumberland to Baltimore or have her husband, Jack, also 83, bring her. Apparently Jack’s top speed in a car is about 40. The AVERAGE speed on Baltimore metropolitan highways is probably about 75.

We all decided it would be much safer for everyone if I just went to get her.

Grandma–her name is Thelma Saxton, by the way–was born in Northumberland. That’s where she met my grandfather, Frank Saxton (he passed away in 1985). They married and had three children. All of them were conceived in Northumberland, and I am pretty sure at least the oldest two–Aunt Susan and my Mom–were born there before they moved to Baltimore around 1940.

Grandpa, “Patty” to his friends, worked for the railroad. They were the first people on their block to get a telephone because Grandpa was always on call. It was a party line. They were also the first to get their own line once the party line became too busy.

Anyway… time is short. I wasn’t thinking clearly and did not take my camera along for the ride yesterday. Tomorrow, when I take Aunt Doris home, I will. Let’s see how many cool images I come home with!

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December 16, 1913 – July 22, 2008

Today is the day we said goodbye to my grandmother for the last time. She passed at a little after 2:30 in the afternoon. She was 94 years young.

As my friend Carol said, 94 years was quite a long ride.

Her three children–my mother, Doris, and aunts Kathy and Susan–were with her, along with my cousin, Shannon, her husband, Jason, and me.

She fought a brave fight during the two months since her stroke. I stood there, beside her bed, watching her struggle to breathe. She was strong all the way to the end. I was just about to tell her it was okay to let go, that the time had finally come for her pain to end, when she took her last breath.

Way back when Eric, now 18, was a baby, I’d often drive past a beautiful, flowering tree, admiring the bunches of dark-pink blossoms, wondering what it was. Grandma was the one who told me. She said it had always been one of her favorite flowering trees. It is one of my favorites, too.

Since that day, seeing a flowering crape myrtle tree, like that pictured here, always makes me think of Grandma. She and I shared a lot of laughs over the years.

She was a wonderful lady. A fixture in our lives over the years. She’ll really be missed.

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The House That Pork Chops Built

I stumbled across this image while perusing the Internet this morning. It is actually the logo of something called the Lovedale Long Lunch. Having no idea what that was but curious since I was borrowing the image, I had to look.

The Web site says… “The Lovedale Long Lunch is an annual event, held on the third weekend in May. It is a progressive-type lunch where visitors wine and dine their way around the seven participating wineries over the weekend enjoying a glass of wine, gourmet food, fabulous music and art.”

The logo is cool, but the lunch sounds cooler! I doubt I’ll ever get to experience it, though. It only happens once a year (in May) and it takes place in New South Wales, which according to Wikipedia, is “Australia’s most populous state.”

Now that THAT is out of the way…

Yesterday was Thirsty Third Thursday. It is a sort of holiday that Shannon, Amy and I invented as an excuse to get together. We always have a good time when we do, and it never seemed to happen often enough, so we created our own holiday. We’ve pretty much stuck to it all year, although sometimes it has happened on the fourth Wednesday.

July’s TTT was not the same without Amy, who is away in Virginia for the summer. We missed you, Amy! (She is one of my most-loyal readers.) But Shannon and I couldn’t let our holiday pass uncelebrated, so we went without her.

I have to give Shannon full credit for introducing me to Helen’s Garden, a cool little restaurant “on the square” in Canton, one of Baltimore’s more famous neighborhoods. We celebrated TTT there earlier this year.

They have a “notorious” happy hour Tuesday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. (by the bar clock) where you get half price glasses of wine at the bar only. As Shannon says, “they have nice pours”, too. That means they don’t skimp on the portions, even if they are letting me steal a $13 glass of wine for $6.50.

Not only do we get to enjoy good company, we get to try all different kinds of wine, too. Even beyond those we purchased, it turned out, because we were there WAY early and were the only folks at the bar besides Gordon, the wineseller, and Tim the bartender. (Amy, I got there first!)

Gordon and Tim were, of course, discussing the different wines. We joined the discussion and got to enjoy some samples. Now I know what “earthy” means. And that if you feel the sweetness on the tip of your tongue it is from the sugar in the wine, but if you feel the sweetness all over the tongue, it is from the fruit.

I also learned, finally, that their Pork Chops au Poivre are TO DIE FOR. According to Baltimore Eats, they “are bathed for two days in a unique brine of salt and spices then grilled with a brown sugar bourbon glaze.” They’re served over garlic smashed potatoes. Fabulous.

Apparently everyone else thinks so, too. The dish is so popular, in fact, that the owners have a sign in front of their Rehoboth (a Delaware beach town) house that says, “The House That Pork Chops Built.”

Now that I FINALLY revealed the origin of today’s odd title, I have to go find some naproxen…

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What is the Point, Anyway?

This picture has nothing to do with today’s post. Or, maybe I should say today’s post has nothing to do with this picture.

Hubby inspired me again. He inspires me a lot. In a good way, of course. Most of the time.

Daughter 2 asked how Hubby finds time to discover sites like the one I featured in yesterday’s post; Papi the chihuahua declaring “no mas” to being subjected to various demeaning things. In case you didn’t read his comment, I’ll enlighten you.

One of Hubby’s favorite ways to kill time is to peruse a Web site that is nothing but a collection of links to pointless Web sites. There are myriad links on there to some pretty odd things. Some are funny. Some are cute. Some are just plain weird. Some are downright stupid.

I like looking periodically, too, just to experience the strangeness.

The one I chose to FEATURE today falls into the weird category. Seeing these things, which obviously take a lot of time to create, just makes me scratch my head and wonder … What was that person thinking? What was their inspiration? Why did they bother?

One thing I don’t have to wonder about today’s feature is why the site ended up listed on pointless Web sites. It is because the site is pointless. But fun, in a weird sort of way. Check it out, if you haven’t already, and let me know what you think.

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Persecution, NO MAS!

I’m back. Hard to believe it has been a week. It amazes me that there are people who have multiple blogs that they update regularly. Where do they find the time? My guess is, they have no job and/or no other responsibilities. Or maybe they are just way more energetic than me. Anyway…

We have Hubby to thank for my return. He stumbled across this Web site last night that I just had to share. It is one of those stupid-funny things some of you will appreciate and some of you won’t. If you have a dial-up connection, it may not work.

The colorful graphic above will work as a link, too.

When you have reached the site, and have clicked on the image once (a larger version of the lovely image you see above), look closely at the speaker’s face. This must have taken HOURS to accomplish. I am jealous. I don’t have enough hours in the day for normal stuff!

That’s it. I have to get back to work. Hope you enjoy your day!

P.S. – Let me know if you find yourself saying “no mas” (that’s “no more” in English) to yourself during the course of the day.