I got to Missoula on Tuesday. The newspaper still had front page headlines about a tragic accident on Saturday. An (allegedly) drunk driver went off the road, running over four teenage girls walking well away from the pavement. Two were killed. Two were injured and even if those are minor, they are scarred for life.
Many questions to be answered of course; one of mine was 'why were they walkng along the highway, at 11:45 at night, 14 and 15 year olds?' My Missoula connection, Stephen's girlfriend Chelsey, said it is a common practice, to get from school or social functions in town to what is known as East Missoula, just the other side of the river/interstate.
One article reported that the man said he was on his cell phone, and that he felt the rumble strips that warn a motorist who is drifting off the roadway - there are no rumble strips on that stretch of highway, btw. The article also said that he stayed, he even helped one girl into his truck while waiting for help (if it said who called, I don't remembber). Of course we in EMS know that he probably should not have moved the girl, without knowing what her injuries were, but that's another story.
Today there is a girl's basketball game, with their team playing without four of their usual nine players. Two will never play again. A memorial service is planned for after it, for them.
We've had our share of these tragedies in Chatham, three since 2001 with the New Year's Eve crash about 2 minutes into the year that killed one star athelete and left another in a wheelchair for life. All 4 in the car had been drinking at a party hosted by people who as yet have not been publically revealed. The driver was waiting for his trial for a previous dwi. This accident led to the passage of 'Sean's Law' in NYS, which takes their driving license away from people in that situation. Hopefully it will save lives.
Another crash, just a few weeks before Christmas a few years later, left a football player dead. He and the driver had been at a party. The next day a car was at the gas station by the traffic light, with messages to him painted on it - one said 'We love you Scooby'.
When Stephen and I were talkng about this the other night I said that all I could think was that nobody loved him enough to take the keys away from the driver.
Sadly, it all too frequently is not the drunken driver who is the one injured or killed. It is a passenger or as in the case here in Missoula, completely innocent persons who all to often are the victims.
So, let's all do it. Let's love someone enough to take the keys away.
Make someone's New Year happier.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas 2009
Like I said, no way I can top Claude’s true story, but some Christmas memories are:
Going downstairs very early one Christmas morning, to go potty, and seeing a Howdy Doody doll on the tree. It had to be mine, and I knew I had to leave it there, and I don’t remember if I successfully was surprised enough at it or not.
My mother always made clothes for us for Christmas presents, and she seemed to always be up so very late on Christmas Eve finishing everything – after we grew up and weren’t there any more, she used to want to just sit and relax on Christmas Eve, she said that was making up for all the years she didn’t get to.
We always had one present to open on Christmas Eve, usually it was something to wear to Midnight Mass, that the good Catholic aunts came to get us to go to. How magical that was, to be up that late, and to have the ritual of the full mass.
We would open our stocking presents and then go have breakfast before we opened the rest. My parents would milk the cows and so nothing could get opened until they were done and in the house. When we got older sometimes we would get up with my father and do the milking, and I remember one year he got me up, and we milked and then on the way to the house he stopped at his service truck and said ‘we have to bring this inside’. It was a stereo for my mother for her present and I was so thrilled when he said he got me up because he wanted me to be the one to help carry it inside. Of course I was being a brat about having to get up before he said that. That stereo, btw, is still up in the Indian Lake house and the last I knew at least parts of it were working fine. I know I listened to the radio part of it often up there.
My mother would write a poem for us every year. She told us that on Christmas Eve at midnight, the animals were able to talk, and she would go to the barn and write down what they had to say. She got every animal into that poem, and they always had something to say about what they had done that year, especially of course the ones who went to the fair, and especially if they won prizes. I don’t know how she did it but those were treasures that I wish someone had the sense to keep. I tried once or twice, but it wasn’t the same with just a couple of cats.
The family would get together at the old family home, even after my grandparents were gone (they both died when I was fairly young). The kids had to eat at a card table, there were so many of us, and sometimes it even was put in another room – but somehow the aunts always knew when we were not minding our manners.
One of my favorite presents was a Roy Rogers western town, with tin buildings, corral pieces, animals and of course Roy and Dale. I kept that all through high school, and had a shelf in my room that I used to make different arrangements of it on; I had Lincoln Logs too, and made buildings, and added other pieces through the years. My mother finally sold it in her antique shop, but she later found the Dale Evans figure from it and gave to Stephen, but he said I should keep it because he would loose it, so it is on my bookshelf now.
When my sister and her then husband were living at the farm in Connecticut, one year we were supposed to go down there on Christmas Day but it started snowing real bad and so we started a ‘convoy’, Sara’s father and she and I in our car and my parents in the Saab they had then, I think we got there at something like 2 in the morning. Jeanie and Dick were still up putting toys together. Can’t remember if it was the same year, but one year they got Penny a pony and I remember walking out to the barn with her and how big her eyes got when she saw it.
I don’t remember doing the late night put toys together thing, but maybe I just never got Sara anything that needed it.
I love Christmas, the lights, the preparations – I love thinking of things to give and then seeing if people really like them. This year I tried to be practical –my sister and I decided we both have enough crap and don’t need more, so we are doing donations. And I did one for the family to the Land Conservancy, ‘From the Peduzzi family, in memory of Grampy and Grammy’ – they’d like that, they’d have liked the idea of land being kept for farming or wild for people to enjoy.
Like Christmas music, too, but I don’t especially like that stations start playing only that before Thanksgiving, it gets old before it’s time.
I’m listening to ‘Melodies of Christmas’ now, an area tv station produces it, with the Albany Symphony and with a chorus selected from schools throughout the area, it’s an honor to be chosen for it. The music is beautiful, always something different. They give the proceeds to the children’s hospital. Really should go to it in person some year.
This Christmas I didn’t decorate a whole lot, because I am going out to see Stephen the day after, and tonight I am packing in between listening to the music. Tomorrow Sara will come down and we will open our things, then she will go off to some friends and I will go over to my step-daughter’s and then to my niece’s – and then home to finish packing so I can leave as early as possible on Saturday – depending on the weather, of course, they are predicting rain/ice/sleet/who knows what.
Then there was the time that my father got the ‘bad peanuts’ when he and some other guys from work stopped on the way home on a Christmas Eve, but maybe that should be another story. As should the newspaper Christmas party my sister and I were both at.
Merry Christmas to all!
Going downstairs very early one Christmas morning, to go potty, and seeing a Howdy Doody doll on the tree. It had to be mine, and I knew I had to leave it there, and I don’t remember if I successfully was surprised enough at it or not.
My mother always made clothes for us for Christmas presents, and she seemed to always be up so very late on Christmas Eve finishing everything – after we grew up and weren’t there any more, she used to want to just sit and relax on Christmas Eve, she said that was making up for all the years she didn’t get to.
We always had one present to open on Christmas Eve, usually it was something to wear to Midnight Mass, that the good Catholic aunts came to get us to go to. How magical that was, to be up that late, and to have the ritual of the full mass.
We would open our stocking presents and then go have breakfast before we opened the rest. My parents would milk the cows and so nothing could get opened until they were done and in the house. When we got older sometimes we would get up with my father and do the milking, and I remember one year he got me up, and we milked and then on the way to the house he stopped at his service truck and said ‘we have to bring this inside’. It was a stereo for my mother for her present and I was so thrilled when he said he got me up because he wanted me to be the one to help carry it inside. Of course I was being a brat about having to get up before he said that. That stereo, btw, is still up in the Indian Lake house and the last I knew at least parts of it were working fine. I know I listened to the radio part of it often up there.
My mother would write a poem for us every year. She told us that on Christmas Eve at midnight, the animals were able to talk, and she would go to the barn and write down what they had to say. She got every animal into that poem, and they always had something to say about what they had done that year, especially of course the ones who went to the fair, and especially if they won prizes. I don’t know how she did it but those were treasures that I wish someone had the sense to keep. I tried once or twice, but it wasn’t the same with just a couple of cats.
The family would get together at the old family home, even after my grandparents were gone (they both died when I was fairly young). The kids had to eat at a card table, there were so many of us, and sometimes it even was put in another room – but somehow the aunts always knew when we were not minding our manners.
One of my favorite presents was a Roy Rogers western town, with tin buildings, corral pieces, animals and of course Roy and Dale. I kept that all through high school, and had a shelf in my room that I used to make different arrangements of it on; I had Lincoln Logs too, and made buildings, and added other pieces through the years. My mother finally sold it in her antique shop, but she later found the Dale Evans figure from it and gave to Stephen, but he said I should keep it because he would loose it, so it is on my bookshelf now.
When my sister and her then husband were living at the farm in Connecticut, one year we were supposed to go down there on Christmas Day but it started snowing real bad and so we started a ‘convoy’, Sara’s father and she and I in our car and my parents in the Saab they had then, I think we got there at something like 2 in the morning. Jeanie and Dick were still up putting toys together. Can’t remember if it was the same year, but one year they got Penny a pony and I remember walking out to the barn with her and how big her eyes got when she saw it.
I don’t remember doing the late night put toys together thing, but maybe I just never got Sara anything that needed it.
I love Christmas, the lights, the preparations – I love thinking of things to give and then seeing if people really like them. This year I tried to be practical –my sister and I decided we both have enough crap and don’t need more, so we are doing donations. And I did one for the family to the Land Conservancy, ‘From the Peduzzi family, in memory of Grampy and Grammy’ – they’d like that, they’d have liked the idea of land being kept for farming or wild for people to enjoy.
Like Christmas music, too, but I don’t especially like that stations start playing only that before Thanksgiving, it gets old before it’s time.
I’m listening to ‘Melodies of Christmas’ now, an area tv station produces it, with the Albany Symphony and with a chorus selected from schools throughout the area, it’s an honor to be chosen for it. The music is beautiful, always something different. They give the proceeds to the children’s hospital. Really should go to it in person some year.
This Christmas I didn’t decorate a whole lot, because I am going out to see Stephen the day after, and tonight I am packing in between listening to the music. Tomorrow Sara will come down and we will open our things, then she will go off to some friends and I will go over to my step-daughter’s and then to my niece’s – and then home to finish packing so I can leave as early as possible on Saturday – depending on the weather, of course, they are predicting rain/ice/sleet/who knows what.
Then there was the time that my father got the ‘bad peanuts’ when he and some other guys from work stopped on the way home on a Christmas Eve, but maybe that should be another story. As should the newspaper Christmas party my sister and I were both at.
Merry Christmas to all!
A Christmas Story - no way I can top this. . . .
This story was sent to me by my dear e-friend Claude. We have never met in person, and happened to meet on line through a series of unfortunate - and fortunate events, which proves that out of sadness can come happiness. It is a true story, and even without meeting Claude in person, I can see him doing this - it is a sweet, wonderful story about the true spirit of Christmas. His comments are included. Enjoy . . .
THANK YOU BARBARA, IT PUT TEARS IN MY EYES WITH MEMORIES OF A CHRISTMAS I
HAD 25 OR 30 YEARS AGO.. I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT IT SOMETIME.. GOT YOUR
CHRISTMAS CARD TODAY, IT IS A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT !! THANK YOU FOR IT ALSO... CLAUDE
ONE CHRISTMAS ABOUT 25 OR 30 YEARS AGO
ON A CHRISTMAS EVE A LONG TIME AGO, THIS STORY BEGAN: USUALLY ON CHRISTMAS EVE TRIO TV CLOSED ABOUT 1 OR 2 IN THE AFTERNOON. THIS PARTICULAR CHRISTMAS EVE WE HAD MORE CALLS TO MAKE THAN USUAL. I DID NOT GET THROUGH UNTIL AROUND 5 O'CLOCK OR SO. WHEN I DID GET HOME LAURA WAS MAD AS COULD BE AT ME FOR NOT BEING OFF EARLY! JUST LIKE IT WAS ALL MY FAULT, AS MOST THINGS THAT WENT WRONG USUALLY SEEMED TO BE IN THOSE DAYS. I LET HER CARRY ON FOR A WHILE AND I FINALLY TOLD HER TO BE QUIET AND LISTEN TO ME AND AFTER A LITTLE WHILE SHE DID. AND STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR, SHE SAID "WELL, GO ON WHAT IS YOUR EXCUSE?"
I TOLD HER HOW THE DAY HAD BEEN SO MUCH BUSIER THAN MOST CHRISTMASES. THEN I TOLD HER ABOUT THE LAST CALL I HAD MADE. IT WENT LIKE THIS:
I HAD AN ELDERLY BLACK LADY FOR A CUSTOMER FOR A LOT OF YEARS. SHE LIVED IN THE LITTLE, ALL BLACK COMMUNITY OF KINLOCH. TODAY HER TV HAD GONE OUT AND COULD I COME BY AND SEE HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST TO FIX. SO I TOLD HER SURE, I WOULD BE BY AFTER I HAD FINISHED ALL THE OTHER STUFF I HAD. I KNEW THAT SHE DID NOT HAVE ANYTHING AND THAT THIS WOULD BE "ON THE HOUSE" (I HAD SEVERAL CUSTOMERS LIKE THAT, ALL OF THEM ELDERLY BLACK PEOPLE).
THIS OLD LADY PUBLISHED A LITTLE 4 PAGE LOCAL NEWSPAPER, SHE BARELY KEPT HER EYES ABOVE WATER WITH THAT. SO I WENT BY ABOUT 4PM, AND I GET TO HER LITTLE SHACK AND BECAUSE OF THE COLD SHE HAD NEWSPAPER OVER THE WINDOWS AND BLANKETS OVER THE DOORWAYS AND IT WAS DARK INSIDE. SHE LETS ME IN AND I CAN BARELY SEE TO GET AROUND. AS ALWAYS SHE APOLOGIZES FOR THE CONDITION OF THE PLACE, AND EXPLAINS THAT SHE JUST DOES NOT HAVE THE MEANS TO LIVE ANY BETTER. IT WAS COLD INSIDE THE HOUSE TOO, NO HEAT ON. THE OLD LADY IS WEARING A HEAVY COAT AND GLOVES TO STAY WARM. THIS CHRISTMAS SHE HAS A GRAND DAUGHTER LIVING WITH HER, 6 YEARS OLD, THE LITTLE GIRL IS IN BED TO STAY WARM. I CANNOT REMEMBER THEIR NAMES TO SAVE MY NECK, I REMEMBERED FOR MANY YEARS. SHE CALLS THE LITTLE GIRL OUT TO MEET "MR. CLAUDE". SHE COMES OUT AND WITH THE BIGGEST AND SHYEST GRIN YOU EVER SAW COMES OVER TO ME AND HUGS ME AROUND THE LEGS. IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL, HOW SHE TOOK TO ME. AFTER A WHILE, SHE ASKED ME IF SHE COULD GO BACK TO BED "IT'S TOO COLD OUT HERE". OF COURSE I TOLD HER TO GO BACK. AND SHE DID.
HERE IT WAS CHRISTMAS EVE AND THERE IS NO SIGN OF CHRISTMAS AROUND. AND AS IF SHE KNEW WHAT I WAS THINKING, THE OLD LADY CAME BACK IN THE ROOM AND TOLD ME THAT THERE WAS NO MONEY FOR ANY CHRISTMAS! THIS CHILD HAD BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM IT MOTHER AND HAD BEEN GIVEN TO THE GRANDMOTHER. I AM NOT SURE ANYMORE, BUT I THINK THE GIRL WAS ILLEGITIMATE. I GOT THE TV FIXED AND SHE ASKED "HOW MUCH?" YOU KNOW HOW I REACTED TO THAT – “NO IT'S NOT MUCH - NO CHARGE.”
AND I WAS SO SADDENED BY THE PLIGHT OF THESE TWO,AS I AM DRIVING ON HOME, HARDLY ABLE TO SEE THE STREETS FOR THE TEARS. I GET HOME AND AM GOING TO TELL LAURA ABOUT IT AND THEN SHE IS SPITTING FIRE WHEN I LET MYSELF IN THE HOUSE. AFTER I TELL LAURA MY STORY, SHE SAYS "WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING FOR THEM". I HAD ALREADY DECIDED THAT.
SO WE BEGAN OUR CHRISTMAS HUNT. LAURA HAD MADE A CHRISTMAS TREE OUT OF STYROFOAM BALLS ABOUT 4 IN. IN DIAMETER, WITH TOOTH PICKS STUCK IN THEM AND THEN SPRAYED WITH WHITE PAINT AND SPARKLES SPRINKLED ON IT WAS ABOUT 12 INCHES TALL. THAT WAS THE FIRST ITEM. THEN WE WENT DOWNTON IN FERGUSON TO SEE WHAT WE COULD FIND... AT GASEN'S DRUG STORE WE GOT A FEW TOYS AND LO AND BEHOLD THERE WAS A LITTLE BLACK BABY DOLL ABOUT 10 OR 12 INCHES LONG. THE ONLY DOLL LEFT IN THE PLACE, WE GOT IT. THEN WENT TO THE GROCERY STORE TO SEE WHAT WE COULD FIND. WE GOT SOME APPLES AND ORANGES AND TANGERENES AND SOME CHRISTMAS CANDY. WE GOT THE INGREDIENTS FOR A CHRISTMAS DINNER AND WE WENT HOME WITH OUR TREASURE, AT LEAST IT WOULD BE TO THEM. BY THEN IT WAS ABOUT 8 PM AND WE HAD TWO HUNGRY BOYS AT HOME TO FEED. SO WE ATE AND AFTER PRESENT OPENING, WENT TO BED.
CHRISTMAS WAS ON A SUNDAY THAT YEAR. LAURA AND I GOT UP AND LOADED UP OUR "CHRISTMAS STUFF" AND HEADED OUT TO KINLOCH. WE GET TO THE HOUSE AND LO AND BEHOLD THERE IS SMOKE COMING OUT OF THE CHIMNEY!!! WE KNOCK AND GET INSIDE WITH OUR BOXES AND BAGS, AND BEFORE WE CAN UNDO ANYTHING THE OLD LADY LEADS US OUT THE BACK DOOR TO SHOW US HER COAL PILE. SOME ONE HAD DELIVERED A TON OF COAL TO HER IN THE DARK RIGHT AFTER LAURA AND I HAD LEFT THE DAY BEFORE. WHAT A MIRACLE!! AND SHE DID NOT KNOW WHERE OR WHO IT CAME FROM. WE WENT BACK IN AND UNDID "OUR CHRISTMAS" AND SPREAD IT OUT. AS WE DID SO IT WAS SOMETHING TO WATCH THAT LITTLE GIRL WATCH US IN OPEN MOUTHED WONDER, SET ALL THIS OUT. AND THAT LITTLE SPINY LOOKING TREE SEEMED TO ATTRACT HER MORE THAN ANYTHING, UNTIL WE STARTED GETTING HER PRESENTS OUT. AND SHE WAS JUST JUMPING FOR JOY BY THE TIME WE GOT THROUGH. IT WAS SOMETHING TO SEE THAT CHILD SO VERY HAPPY, WITH WHAT VERY LIKELY HER FIRST REAL CHRISTMAS IN HER LIFE. AND NOT ONCE DID SHE SAY "IS THAT ALL?" SHE WAS JUST SO VERY HAPPY, AND SO WAS EVERYONE ELSE!
GRANDMA COMES OUTSIDE WITH US AS WE LEAVE AND TRIES TO THANK US, BUT WITH ALL THE HAPPINESS THAT WE ALL FELT AND THE TEARS THAT WERE BEING SHED, I DON'T KNOW IF ANY THANK YOU'S WE ACTUALLY PUT INTO WORDS OR NOT.
THE WEATHER THAT CHRISTMAS WAS VERY COLD AND THERE WAS SEVERAL INCHES OF SNOW IN THE GROUND AND IT WAS A SUNNY DAY AND WINDY, I REMEMBER. BUT IT SURE FELT WARMER LEAVING THAN IT HAD WHEN WE WENT IN. AND I STILL THINK THAT WAS ONE OF THE BEST CHRISTMASES I EVER HAD.
I KEPT UP WITH THAT LITTLE GIRL FOR A LOT OF YEARS, THROUGH HER HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION, HER COLLEGE FULL SCHOLARSHIP, FROM MACDONNELL AIRCRAFT CO, AND THE LAST I HEARD SHE WAS TEACHING SCHOOL IN DETROIT. I DON'T HAVE ANY WAY OF KNOWING, BUT I LIKE TO THINK THAT WHAT WE DID THAT CHRISTMAS MAY HAVE BEEN A TURNING POINT IN HER LIFE AND SENT HER IN THE RIGHT DIRECION. OF COURSE THAT IS JUST BRAGGING A LITTLE, OF COURSE I HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING.
THAT IS THE WAY IT HAPPENED. I DON'T THINK THAT I HAVE TOLD THIS STORY TO BUT ONE OTHER PERSON. THAT WAS NICOLE, SOME TIME AGO.
THANK YOU BARBARA, IT PUT TEARS IN MY EYES WITH MEMORIES OF A CHRISTMAS I
HAD 25 OR 30 YEARS AGO.. I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT IT SOMETIME.. GOT YOUR
CHRISTMAS CARD TODAY, IT IS A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT !! THANK YOU FOR IT ALSO... CLAUDE
ONE CHRISTMAS ABOUT 25 OR 30 YEARS AGO
ON A CHRISTMAS EVE A LONG TIME AGO, THIS STORY BEGAN: USUALLY ON CHRISTMAS EVE TRIO TV CLOSED ABOUT 1 OR 2 IN THE AFTERNOON. THIS PARTICULAR CHRISTMAS EVE WE HAD MORE CALLS TO MAKE THAN USUAL. I DID NOT GET THROUGH UNTIL AROUND 5 O'CLOCK OR SO. WHEN I DID GET HOME LAURA WAS MAD AS COULD BE AT ME FOR NOT BEING OFF EARLY! JUST LIKE IT WAS ALL MY FAULT, AS MOST THINGS THAT WENT WRONG USUALLY SEEMED TO BE IN THOSE DAYS. I LET HER CARRY ON FOR A WHILE AND I FINALLY TOLD HER TO BE QUIET AND LISTEN TO ME AND AFTER A LITTLE WHILE SHE DID. AND STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR, SHE SAID "WELL, GO ON WHAT IS YOUR EXCUSE?"
I TOLD HER HOW THE DAY HAD BEEN SO MUCH BUSIER THAN MOST CHRISTMASES. THEN I TOLD HER ABOUT THE LAST CALL I HAD MADE. IT WENT LIKE THIS:
I HAD AN ELDERLY BLACK LADY FOR A CUSTOMER FOR A LOT OF YEARS. SHE LIVED IN THE LITTLE, ALL BLACK COMMUNITY OF KINLOCH. TODAY HER TV HAD GONE OUT AND COULD I COME BY AND SEE HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST TO FIX. SO I TOLD HER SURE, I WOULD BE BY AFTER I HAD FINISHED ALL THE OTHER STUFF I HAD. I KNEW THAT SHE DID NOT HAVE ANYTHING AND THAT THIS WOULD BE "ON THE HOUSE" (I HAD SEVERAL CUSTOMERS LIKE THAT, ALL OF THEM ELDERLY BLACK PEOPLE).
THIS OLD LADY PUBLISHED A LITTLE 4 PAGE LOCAL NEWSPAPER, SHE BARELY KEPT HER EYES ABOVE WATER WITH THAT. SO I WENT BY ABOUT 4PM, AND I GET TO HER LITTLE SHACK AND BECAUSE OF THE COLD SHE HAD NEWSPAPER OVER THE WINDOWS AND BLANKETS OVER THE DOORWAYS AND IT WAS DARK INSIDE. SHE LETS ME IN AND I CAN BARELY SEE TO GET AROUND. AS ALWAYS SHE APOLOGIZES FOR THE CONDITION OF THE PLACE, AND EXPLAINS THAT SHE JUST DOES NOT HAVE THE MEANS TO LIVE ANY BETTER. IT WAS COLD INSIDE THE HOUSE TOO, NO HEAT ON. THE OLD LADY IS WEARING A HEAVY COAT AND GLOVES TO STAY WARM. THIS CHRISTMAS SHE HAS A GRAND DAUGHTER LIVING WITH HER, 6 YEARS OLD, THE LITTLE GIRL IS IN BED TO STAY WARM. I CANNOT REMEMBER THEIR NAMES TO SAVE MY NECK, I REMEMBERED FOR MANY YEARS. SHE CALLS THE LITTLE GIRL OUT TO MEET "MR. CLAUDE". SHE COMES OUT AND WITH THE BIGGEST AND SHYEST GRIN YOU EVER SAW COMES OVER TO ME AND HUGS ME AROUND THE LEGS. IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL, HOW SHE TOOK TO ME. AFTER A WHILE, SHE ASKED ME IF SHE COULD GO BACK TO BED "IT'S TOO COLD OUT HERE". OF COURSE I TOLD HER TO GO BACK. AND SHE DID.
HERE IT WAS CHRISTMAS EVE AND THERE IS NO SIGN OF CHRISTMAS AROUND. AND AS IF SHE KNEW WHAT I WAS THINKING, THE OLD LADY CAME BACK IN THE ROOM AND TOLD ME THAT THERE WAS NO MONEY FOR ANY CHRISTMAS! THIS CHILD HAD BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM IT MOTHER AND HAD BEEN GIVEN TO THE GRANDMOTHER. I AM NOT SURE ANYMORE, BUT I THINK THE GIRL WAS ILLEGITIMATE. I GOT THE TV FIXED AND SHE ASKED "HOW MUCH?" YOU KNOW HOW I REACTED TO THAT – “NO IT'S NOT MUCH - NO CHARGE.”
AND I WAS SO SADDENED BY THE PLIGHT OF THESE TWO,AS I AM DRIVING ON HOME, HARDLY ABLE TO SEE THE STREETS FOR THE TEARS. I GET HOME AND AM GOING TO TELL LAURA ABOUT IT AND THEN SHE IS SPITTING FIRE WHEN I LET MYSELF IN THE HOUSE. AFTER I TELL LAURA MY STORY, SHE SAYS "WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING FOR THEM". I HAD ALREADY DECIDED THAT.
SO WE BEGAN OUR CHRISTMAS HUNT. LAURA HAD MADE A CHRISTMAS TREE OUT OF STYROFOAM BALLS ABOUT 4 IN. IN DIAMETER, WITH TOOTH PICKS STUCK IN THEM AND THEN SPRAYED WITH WHITE PAINT AND SPARKLES SPRINKLED ON IT WAS ABOUT 12 INCHES TALL. THAT WAS THE FIRST ITEM. THEN WE WENT DOWNTON IN FERGUSON TO SEE WHAT WE COULD FIND... AT GASEN'S DRUG STORE WE GOT A FEW TOYS AND LO AND BEHOLD THERE WAS A LITTLE BLACK BABY DOLL ABOUT 10 OR 12 INCHES LONG. THE ONLY DOLL LEFT IN THE PLACE, WE GOT IT. THEN WENT TO THE GROCERY STORE TO SEE WHAT WE COULD FIND. WE GOT SOME APPLES AND ORANGES AND TANGERENES AND SOME CHRISTMAS CANDY. WE GOT THE INGREDIENTS FOR A CHRISTMAS DINNER AND WE WENT HOME WITH OUR TREASURE, AT LEAST IT WOULD BE TO THEM. BY THEN IT WAS ABOUT 8 PM AND WE HAD TWO HUNGRY BOYS AT HOME TO FEED. SO WE ATE AND AFTER PRESENT OPENING, WENT TO BED.
CHRISTMAS WAS ON A SUNDAY THAT YEAR. LAURA AND I GOT UP AND LOADED UP OUR "CHRISTMAS STUFF" AND HEADED OUT TO KINLOCH. WE GET TO THE HOUSE AND LO AND BEHOLD THERE IS SMOKE COMING OUT OF THE CHIMNEY!!! WE KNOCK AND GET INSIDE WITH OUR BOXES AND BAGS, AND BEFORE WE CAN UNDO ANYTHING THE OLD LADY LEADS US OUT THE BACK DOOR TO SHOW US HER COAL PILE. SOME ONE HAD DELIVERED A TON OF COAL TO HER IN THE DARK RIGHT AFTER LAURA AND I HAD LEFT THE DAY BEFORE. WHAT A MIRACLE!! AND SHE DID NOT KNOW WHERE OR WHO IT CAME FROM. WE WENT BACK IN AND UNDID "OUR CHRISTMAS" AND SPREAD IT OUT. AS WE DID SO IT WAS SOMETHING TO WATCH THAT LITTLE GIRL WATCH US IN OPEN MOUTHED WONDER, SET ALL THIS OUT. AND THAT LITTLE SPINY LOOKING TREE SEEMED TO ATTRACT HER MORE THAN ANYTHING, UNTIL WE STARTED GETTING HER PRESENTS OUT. AND SHE WAS JUST JUMPING FOR JOY BY THE TIME WE GOT THROUGH. IT WAS SOMETHING TO SEE THAT CHILD SO VERY HAPPY, WITH WHAT VERY LIKELY HER FIRST REAL CHRISTMAS IN HER LIFE. AND NOT ONCE DID SHE SAY "IS THAT ALL?" SHE WAS JUST SO VERY HAPPY, AND SO WAS EVERYONE ELSE!
GRANDMA COMES OUTSIDE WITH US AS WE LEAVE AND TRIES TO THANK US, BUT WITH ALL THE HAPPINESS THAT WE ALL FELT AND THE TEARS THAT WERE BEING SHED, I DON'T KNOW IF ANY THANK YOU'S WE ACTUALLY PUT INTO WORDS OR NOT.
THE WEATHER THAT CHRISTMAS WAS VERY COLD AND THERE WAS SEVERAL INCHES OF SNOW IN THE GROUND AND IT WAS A SUNNY DAY AND WINDY, I REMEMBER. BUT IT SURE FELT WARMER LEAVING THAN IT HAD WHEN WE WENT IN. AND I STILL THINK THAT WAS ONE OF THE BEST CHRISTMASES I EVER HAD.
I KEPT UP WITH THAT LITTLE GIRL FOR A LOT OF YEARS, THROUGH HER HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION, HER COLLEGE FULL SCHOLARSHIP, FROM MACDONNELL AIRCRAFT CO, AND THE LAST I HEARD SHE WAS TEACHING SCHOOL IN DETROIT. I DON'T HAVE ANY WAY OF KNOWING, BUT I LIKE TO THINK THAT WHAT WE DID THAT CHRISTMAS MAY HAVE BEEN A TURNING POINT IN HER LIFE AND SENT HER IN THE RIGHT DIRECION. OF COURSE THAT IS JUST BRAGGING A LITTLE, OF COURSE I HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING.
THAT IS THE WAY IT HAPPENED. I DON'T THINK THAT I HAVE TOLD THIS STORY TO BUT ONE OTHER PERSON. THAT WAS NICOLE, SOME TIME AGO.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
First Snow
The first snow of the season came yesterday. Just a couple of inches, wet enough to still be frosting the tree branches, enough to have to brush it off the car (note to self: Self, when you have to brush the snow off the car, don’t wear backless clogs, put on boots to brush the car and then go back and put on the clogs to wear to the party), enough to make it a bright, sparkly morning out there. Wasn’t enough to make anybody fall off the road, at least not that I heard about.
Went to a small party last night, and of course conversation was about the snow, and that turned to conversation about the ice storm, this week coming up will be the 1-year anniversary of that. And of the ‘October 4’ storm, over 20 years ago now, that caught the area by surprise with over a foot of heavy wet snow. Every one has stories of ‘what I/we did’, what they remember, how long their power was out, how they coped. Sales of generators soared after both storms, I’m sure.
Remember how exciting the first snow was when you were a kid? And the days when school was closed because of snow – wow, now there was a holiday for sure. I used to wake Sara up and say – ‘guess what happened outside’.
A Camp Katrina friend sent photos of his dogs enjoying a romp in the snow. They live in the mountains in Virginia, and don’t get as much as often as we do, although I remember driving I-81 through there a few nasty times. The cats sat inside and watched, although Streetcar wanted to go out to chase those fluffy white things in the air.
We’ve had a few years of not much snow, have to wait to see what this year brings. Funny weather, Thursday it was 60 +, I saw people on the Northway with top-down convertibles! And yesterday it snowed – they do say about the Northeast: ‘don’t like the weather? Wait a bit, it’ll be different.’
Knew I should have put outside Christmas decorations up last Sunday, when it was a beautiful day. Now I have to stand in the snow to do it. Oh, well. Part of the fun. Off to find the decorations and plan what to do.
Went to a small party last night, and of course conversation was about the snow, and that turned to conversation about the ice storm, this week coming up will be the 1-year anniversary of that. And of the ‘October 4’ storm, over 20 years ago now, that caught the area by surprise with over a foot of heavy wet snow. Every one has stories of ‘what I/we did’, what they remember, how long their power was out, how they coped. Sales of generators soared after both storms, I’m sure.
Remember how exciting the first snow was when you were a kid? And the days when school was closed because of snow – wow, now there was a holiday for sure. I used to wake Sara up and say – ‘guess what happened outside’.
A Camp Katrina friend sent photos of his dogs enjoying a romp in the snow. They live in the mountains in Virginia, and don’t get as much as often as we do, although I remember driving I-81 through there a few nasty times. The cats sat inside and watched, although Streetcar wanted to go out to chase those fluffy white things in the air.
We’ve had a few years of not much snow, have to wait to see what this year brings. Funny weather, Thursday it was 60 +, I saw people on the Northway with top-down convertibles! And yesterday it snowed – they do say about the Northeast: ‘don’t like the weather? Wait a bit, it’ll be different.’
Knew I should have put outside Christmas decorations up last Sunday, when it was a beautiful day. Now I have to stand in the snow to do it. Oh, well. Part of the fun. Off to find the decorations and plan what to do.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Not a good day . . . .
Tuesday was not a good day for fire and EMS in our corner of the county. Started with a total loss structure fire in Austerlitz and ended with a fatal accident in Valatie’s ambulance district, but Chatham Fire and our rescue squad got called. One of those days you want to strike from the records.
The fire had enough of a start that by the time the alarm system went off and anyone got there with a truck there wasn’t much they could do. It was an old house, the original part built in the 1780‘s I heard, and added on over the years; also heard that the current owner had just done extensive remodeling – it was her childhood home. Sad.
I don’t quite understand how it got so much of a start with an alarm system in the house – mine goes off when I burn popcorn (yes, it has happened, quite embarrassing). The house was just off the main highway, but still a few miles from the firehouse, with a long hill for them to pull to get to it. Combination of circumstances.
The total loss fires like that bother me more than they used to; guess with age I think more about what if it happened here? People say ‘it’s just things’, as long as all the people and hopefully all the pets got out all right, but it’s not ‘just things’, it’s your life that’s being destroyed. I’d be a mess.
The accident was nasty, a car ran a Yield sign at the end of a road that comes straight onto a curve on the more main highway, and had the misfortune to do it as a box delivery truck was coming around the curve. Truck driver did his best, but there wasn’t much choice for him; both vehicles ended up in the field on the other side of the road. Many questions including why did the driver not see the sign, what were they doing there anyway (four people not from this area, on a not main road, etc.) and so on. Questions we will never know the answers to, and one life lost and four others (counting three passengers and the truck driver) changed forever. The passengers all had substantial injuries, two went to the trauma center by helicopter.
A friend says to me ‘I don’t know how you do it’ and some times I don’t know either. What made me think this would be a good hobby to take up? I have an answer to that that will make another item. As far as how I/we do it, everyone has their own defense for the sights and sounds. As long as you can put them into the right perspective, know that you are doing what you can to make the situation better, know that you didn’t cause it, and so on, you can work through it. If it’s really bad, there’s the stress team to help. And that’s another item.
Tuesday was not a good day. Thankfully there are fewer of them than more. That’s another way we do it, knowing that the majority of the time we’re helping. That’s what we’re here for.
Speaking of helping, I have to go scare a squirrel off the deck railing, so Streetcar can stop being on alert. Guess the squirrel found a nut, and thought that would be a good place to enjoy it.
The fire had enough of a start that by the time the alarm system went off and anyone got there with a truck there wasn’t much they could do. It was an old house, the original part built in the 1780‘s I heard, and added on over the years; also heard that the current owner had just done extensive remodeling – it was her childhood home. Sad.
I don’t quite understand how it got so much of a start with an alarm system in the house – mine goes off when I burn popcorn (yes, it has happened, quite embarrassing). The house was just off the main highway, but still a few miles from the firehouse, with a long hill for them to pull to get to it. Combination of circumstances.
The total loss fires like that bother me more than they used to; guess with age I think more about what if it happened here? People say ‘it’s just things’, as long as all the people and hopefully all the pets got out all right, but it’s not ‘just things’, it’s your life that’s being destroyed. I’d be a mess.
The accident was nasty, a car ran a Yield sign at the end of a road that comes straight onto a curve on the more main highway, and had the misfortune to do it as a box delivery truck was coming around the curve. Truck driver did his best, but there wasn’t much choice for him; both vehicles ended up in the field on the other side of the road. Many questions including why did the driver not see the sign, what were they doing there anyway (four people not from this area, on a not main road, etc.) and so on. Questions we will never know the answers to, and one life lost and four others (counting three passengers and the truck driver) changed forever. The passengers all had substantial injuries, two went to the trauma center by helicopter.
A friend says to me ‘I don’t know how you do it’ and some times I don’t know either. What made me think this would be a good hobby to take up? I have an answer to that that will make another item. As far as how I/we do it, everyone has their own defense for the sights and sounds. As long as you can put them into the right perspective, know that you are doing what you can to make the situation better, know that you didn’t cause it, and so on, you can work through it. If it’s really bad, there’s the stress team to help. And that’s another item.
Tuesday was not a good day. Thankfully there are fewer of them than more. That’s another way we do it, knowing that the majority of the time we’re helping. That’s what we’re here for.
Speaking of helping, I have to go scare a squirrel off the deck railing, so Streetcar can stop being on alert. Guess the squirrel found a nut, and thought that would be a good place to enjoy it.
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