The Horseshoe Crab Incident

In the mid 70's my mother's friend Barbara left a horseshoe crab in our yard. She had painted it's shell with flowers and Happy Mother's Day. My brother and I were very frightened of it. Dad took it to the river near our house. Another scary incident involving this nasty looking creature was when I almost stepped on one in the ocean- I forget which beach we were at. Maybe Seaside. That was in the early 80's.

Indianapolis 500 - 1960's

My dad and our family friend Stas went to the Indy 500. I'm not sure of the year - probably the mid - 60s. I remember in the 70s and early 80s sometimes they'd watch it either at our house or his. My brother and I would be playing with his daughter Stacey and Mom and Barbara would be talking. I love black and white photos.

More D.C. 1997 photos

- Top - Jefferson Memorial and Korean War Memorial.

- Bottom - Arlington National Cemetary including JFK's gravesite

My trip to D.C. - Memorial Day 1997

I took this trip with my boyfriend at the time 13 years ago. We went to Arlington National Cemetary and saw President Clinton at the wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We also saw the Lincoln, Vietnam War and Korean War Memorials. I'd like to go back there someday to see the World War II one.

James Garner

I loved James Garner in The Rockford Files and in those Polaroid commercials with Mariette Hartley. Some of his movies that I enjoy are The Great Escape, The Thrill of It All and Move Over, Darling with Doris Day, Boys Night Out, Support Your Local Sheriff, Support Your Local Gunfighter and Murphy's Romance. Another one for my classic cute guy list too.

Favourite Game Shows

My brother and I loved watching game shows when we were kids. Sometimes we'd visit grandma next door and watch a couple of them with her. We couldn't wait for holidays and summertime so we could see them.
1. The Price Is Right - We still watch this and miss Bob Barker
2. Password - all versions
3. The Pyramid - all versions
4. Card Sharks
5. The Joker's Wild
6. Tic Tac Dough
7. Family Feud - mostly the Richard Dawson years
8. Let's Make A Deal
9. Sale of the Century
10. Press Your Luck
11. Scrabble
12. High Rollers
13. To Tell The Truth
14. Match Game - all versions
15. Hollywood Squares
16. The Gong Show - cheesy but good
17. Name That Tune
18. Wheel of Fortune - Some of the prizes in the early years were cheesy. We still watch it sometimes- Mark more than me.

Mark and I

Here is a picture of my brother and I from 1980. We had this in the center of individual photos of him and I on the wall in our living room throughout that decade. I'm wearing my favourite green top and skirt set. I'm sure it was polyester. I also have on the gold cross that my grandma next door got me for my First Holy Communion. I think that we had this photo taken at Sears in Watchung. That seemed so far away when we were kids. It's about a 25 minute drive.

I love Moch Frap

I really enjoy having mocha frappuccino when I'm reading the newspaper on Friday and Sunday mornings. I used to have it more frequently but that got to expensive. I was up to 5 a week. I like the vanilla too but not as much. I usually only get that when the store is out of mocha. I was happy that I got a good deal on it this week with the sale prices and coupons -2 4 packs for $8.oo. It does make me a bit jittery though. I normally stick to decaf coffee.

TV 1976

I found this Scholastic Book Club paperback at a flea market in the mid-90s. I think that I paid $1.00 for it. They picked the following for the top ten stars of that year-

- the Good Times kids

- Tony Curtis as McCoy - don't remember that show

- Swiss Family Robinson

- Six Million Dollar Man - Lee Majors

- Larry Linville - M*A*S*H

- Bruce Fairbairn - The Rookies

- Randolph Mantooth - Emergency! I had a little crush on him back then.

- Freddie Prinze - Chico & The Man

- Little House on the Prarie - Melissa Gilbert and Melissa Sue Anderson

- Marcia Wallace - The Bob Newhart Show

Who would you pick as your top stars of that time ?

Gregory Peck

My favourite classic actor. I liked him in To Kill a Mockingbird, Spellbound, Roman Holiday, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Guns of Navarone. I only saw the first 15 minutes of Gentleman's Agreement. I really should rent or take this out of the library and also watch some more of his films. He's definitely on my classic cute guys list.

Alligator bread

My mom and her friends/coworkers went on a bus trip to a dinner theater in Delaware called The Three Little Bakers in 1985. She bought this alligator bread there. I didn't want to cut it up at first because it was so cool. It did taste really good.

Favourite 80's Songs Part 2

I haven't been in the mood for the rock and new wave music lately. I'm enjoying the mellow and soft stuff mostly.

1. Let Me Love You Tonight - Pure Prarie League
2. Private Eyes - Hall & Oates
3. Cool Night - Paul Davis
4. One Hundred Ways - James Ingram
5. Slow Hand - Pointer Sisters
6. Joanna - Kool & The Gang
7. Try Again - Champaign
8. We've Got Tonight - Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton
9. Do You Believe In Love - Huey Lewis and the News
10. Tonight I Celebrate My Love - Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack
11. Key Largo - Bertie Higgins
12. Steal Away - Robbie Dupree
13. Lookin' For Love - Johnny Lee
14. What's Forever For - Michael Martin Murphey
15. Can't We Try - Dan Hill and Vonda Sheppard
16. With You I'm Born Again - Billy Preston and Syreeta
17. Give Me The Night - George Benson
18. Please Don't Go - KC & The Sunshine Band
19. It's Gonna Take A Miracle - Deniece Williams
20. Just The Two of Us - Grover Washington Jr.

My Childhood Pin Collection

- TWA - My family and I took a tour of Newark Airport and a TWA plane in the late 70's.

- 2 Camp Hoover pins - I went there as a Girl Scout and as a 4th grade trip.

- Pope John Paul II - I got this at school in '79 or '80 - St. John The Apostle.

- Braces - had them for 2 years 1981 - 1983.

- Pluto - Why did I put blue ink marks on this one?

- Raccoon - I used to collect raccoon stuff.

- The Fonz - this is actually a charm from a necklace

- turtle - from the museum in Trenton.

- Mickey Mouse - I loved watching The Wonderful World of Disney and Disney films.

- I also have my 2 friendship pins from Suzy but I forgot to include these.

A Mid-70's memory

This is one of my earliest memories from the 70's. Our Chevy got crashed into and hit a telephone poll in front of our Aunt Helen's house. My brother and I were outside playing when it happened. Our parents made us go inside. I didn't have time to get my toys. I was pretty upset about that and the car. A guy was coming out of a nearby bar and the driver wasn't able to avoid hitting him and he died.

We got a new car a few weeks later. A Chevy Malibu wagon. I was hoping that Dad would get the one that had the window that you could roll down in the hatchback like a friend of the family had but he didn't. I did like our station wagon though- good memories of vacation drives in it.

The picture above the car crash one is of our basement and my stuffed animal friends.

E.T. kind of scared me

I forgot to include some of the other movies that I was lucky enough to see for free when I was a kid thanks to my Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Al working in the theater in my previous post on this topic. There was the cheestastic Clash of the Titans, Ghostbusters, Escape From Witch Mountain, Return to Witch Mountain and E. T.

I remember that E. T. was really scary looking to me and thinking that if I ever encountered an alien such as this that I would be so freaked out. I did like the movie though and felt sorry for him when he got captured and also sympathized with him for missing his fellow aliens.

Mom also enjoyed this movie. We still have the VHS tape of it. It's not one that we'd get on DVD. We can't afford to replace many of the tapes. Aunt Al made her a ceramic E.T. but in the mid 90's we sold it at a flea market. I think that I might've had some of the trading cards.

I'm having this craving for Reese's Pieces right now. Haven't had those in many years. Is my memory that they originally wanted to use M&M's in this movie correct?

YouTube is my jukebox

I have a very long wish list of CDs but because of going overboard on buying clothes, jewelry and other stuff I couldn't stick with my plan of buying 1 or 2 a month. I don't know how long it will be before I can fit CDs back in my budget but for now I'll just have use YouTube as my Jukebox. I really had not thought about doing this until a few days ago. I didn't even know that you can save stuff in a favourites section. I have 32 songs in it now.

I have figured out how to get songs at Amazon.com and have about 12 of them only when I tried figuring out how to put them on a disc I was getting confused. I got them on there but the disc only plays on the computer. Not sure what I did wrong. Maybe part of it was that I used the wrong kind of disc. Well, even getting these MP3s will have to be put on hold too.

I enjoyed seeing some of the live performances and even the cheesy videos of the songs that I have saved so far. I never really watched MTV. I haven't seen that many videos in my life. Yesterday it was Kool & the Gang - Joanna and Cherish also. Some of the songs just have slideshows which is okay. The one for Wildfire was nice - pretty horses. I'm looking forward to saving more songs.

Commercials part 3

Celebrities and other icons

- 7-Up - Never had it, never will (caffine) Not sure of the actor's name but he was in the Bond film Live and Let Die. I actually saw him in person at a ChillerTheatre show once.
- Miller Lite - Tastes great v. Less filling. I mentioned this before but left out some of the stars that my brother reminded me of - John Madden and Dick Butkus. I mispelled Bob Uecker's name too. Our favourite one is "It's the creature" when Rodney Dangerfield comes out of the woods and everyone is around the campfire. Billy Martin and Bubba Smith too.
- Mastercard International - So worldly, so welcome - Pierce Brosnan
- Dry Idea - Never let them see you sweat. Robert Woods from the soap opera One Life to Live.
-Carvel - Tom Carvel. Fudgie the Whale, Cookie Puss, Cookie O' Puss, Tom Turkey, Wicky the Witch.
-9 Lives cat food - Morris. I had a T- shirt with him on it in the mid 70's.
- Reggie Jackson - Reggie-vision - Panasonic. I remember his candy bar too.
- Woodsey the Owl - Give a hoot, don't pollute.
- Smokey the Bear - Only you can prevent forest fires.
- McGruff the crime prevention dog - Take a bite out of crime.
- Aamco car care center - James Brolin. Double A - beep, beep - MCO
- Australian tourism ad - Paul Hogan(Crocodile Dundee) "We'll put another shrimp on the barbee for you."
- The claymation California raisins
- Quaker Oats - Wilford Brimley - "It's the right thing to do"
- Snuggle bear - I heard that Shari Lewis (Lambchop) used to do the voice.
- Orville Reddenbacher and his grandson in the popcorn ads
- Starkist - Charlie Tuna - "Sorry, Charlie"

Favourite 70's songs Part 2

I didn't have any trouble deciding this past Saturday night which station to listen to like I sometimes have in the past - was not in the mood for the 80's on WPLJ so I went back to the 70's on WCBS. I did put PLJ on for about 2 minutes during a commercial just in time to hear Duran Duran - A View to a Kill. I used to like that one alot but it really wasn't doing anything for me this time. Oh well, I guess my tastes have changed lately

1. Best of My Love - Eagles
2. Reminiscing - Little River Band
3. Then Came You - Dionne Warwicke and the Spinners
4. She's A Lady - Tom Jones
5. Wildfire - Michael Martin Murphy
6. Amie - Pure Prarie League
7. Summer Breeze - Seals and Croft
8. Dust in the Wind - Kansas
9. This is It - Kenny Loggins
10. Crusin' - Smokey Robinson
11. The Things We Do For Love -10cc
12. Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
13. You Can't Change That - Raydio
14. Biggest Part of Me - Ambrosia
15. The Most Beautiful Girl - Charlie Rich
16. After The Lovin' - Englebert Humperdinck
17. This Masquerade - George Benson
18. You Are The Woman - Firefall
19. Always and Forever - Heatwave
20. Where Is The Love - Roberta Flack and Donnie Hathaway

My mom fell down the stairs today

I took my mom to her doctor today and she fell down 9 steps in that building. I couldn't help letting out a scream. Maybe people were thinking that I was over reacting. I was so worried that she might've hurt herself. The doctor came out of the office and asked her if she was okay and mom said that she hit her head on the wall but felt fine. She was able to walk into the office which was a good sign but I was and still am worried that she has some sort of internal damage.

She did do damage to her eyeglasses. I can't afford to buy her a new pair. I feel so guilty that part of my thinking besides being worried about her health was that I can't afford any more medical bills of hers. She already has many of them. She is on Medicare but this doesn't cover everything and because she gets an alimony check from Dad each month she can't qualify for Medicaid. It's only 187.oo. Then there's the expense of all her meds. Maybe God is displeased with me for these thoughts.

The pathetic thing is that both my brother and I get disability checks too. We have not worked in years - I'm too embarrased to admit how many. And when I did work the longest job that I had was 15 months. I had so many jobs in only 8 years - I think it was about 10, maybe more. I'm sure that many people would not be understanding of our mental issues and I don't even know why I'm mentioning all this on a blog- I usually just vent it out to my therapist and in my journal.

I do have a few hundred dollars saved but that is for my US Open tickets. Maybe I'm being kind of selfish but I really don't want to have to sacrafice going to this event to buy mom new frames and possibly lenses. I also need to get new glasses but I am putting that off because I need to have some fun in my life. I don't get much of this because of all the expenses that I have to worry about. I had to take charge of the bill paying because mom let things fall way behind 4 years ago.

I did help mom fill out charity care forms for the 2 hospitals but we haven't heard anything about this yet. I'm just praying that she's accepted otherwise that's another 750.00 that I have to worry about. If she had applied for this at the one hospital 4 years ago we wouldn't have to be doing monthly payments of 25.00 for that bill. I was ignoring it for months foolishly thinking that it would go away but the bill collector took us to court over this. What's done is done, I know, but it's sometimes hard not to beat myself up over that.

I will return to my usual type of topics next time. Possibly a music one. I am trying to get out of this negative frame of mind now - Buffy is looking at me so I'll go sit with her and pet her which always cheers me up.

My Hometown

I live in a pretty small town. According to my brother there are between 1,800 and 2,000 people here. He is good at remembering numbers and stuff like that. We have lived here our whole lives. Our mother has lived here since the mid 40's. The town has only been around since 1941. She has told me the history of it many times yet I can't remember it for sure - something about it being built during the war because of the shipyard workers in the area.

There are only about 7 streets. 2 of them are the main ones - Wavecrest and Seafoam. We lived on the former for the first 23 years of my life. My mom married the boy next door. Her mom moved to the farm with her brothers and my parents took over the apartment. When I was younger and we drove around town once we got to Seafoam I kind of saw it as the dark, scary side of town. Now we live here. I can't help thinking that I liked our old apartment better than this one.

Sure, it is a little bigger, not that any of the apartments here are that big. There are these type of units- single 2 floor, bachelor type which are really small, one floor 3 attached which we used to live in, 2 floor 4 attached which we currently reside in and some one floor 2 attached.

I loved the decor in our old apartment. Paneling and carpet in every room except the kitchen and bathroom. At first I had the bigger room as my bedroom and Mark had the small one. My parents slept on a hide-a-bed in the living room. Then my brother and I shared the big room and my parents took the small one. By the 1982 they built Mark a room in the basement and I got the small one and they took the big one. By 1985 they built me a bigger one in the basement. We had our own living room area down there too which was cool.

Most of the time my old apartment is in my dreams. I wonder why - maybe because that felt more like home than this one. I wish that we had money to fix up this place, it is in great need of it, especially the kitchen. It definitely needs a paint job downstairs. Such things are not in the budget though because of mom's many medical bills and meds and Buffy's meds.

This side of town is quieter because we are by the county road where the woods are. It's pretty looking out back and seeing them. Our town is close to the Parkway, a road that I try to avoid using. I remember how when I was a kid and we were coming home on that road from the malls , down the shore or elsewhere that once I saw the big sign for the Coachman Inn Hotel I was so happy that we were almost home even though we had a good time at those places. That hotel is no longer there. It's still partly a hotel but I can never remember which one.

At the mall

I have not been to a mall since about November of 2008. I used to like going there but because of my driving anxiety plus my lack of funds, I have stayed away from there. Both of our malls are about 20 - 25 minutes away. I like Woodbridge Center better than Menlo Mall because the latter is too upscale ever since they did the remodle in the early 90's.

Menlo used to have many shoe stores, JC Penney, Alexanders, Bambergers which then became Macy's, Nathan's which we liked eating at sometimes and an art store which we bought a few paintings from. JC Penney moved to Woodbridge Center when they built the fourth long wing there.

My Dad bought me the Yankees team set of Topp's baseball cards in 1984 at a collectibles show at Menlo. A couple of my Swatch watches came from Macy's. Even though it was kind of a cheesy mall I have good memories of it.

I was never really a mall rat. I did go there and to Kohl's way too much for a few years in the 2000's because I was using shopping as therapy for my anxiety and depression which was not good. I got into credit card debt because of this. Should've stuck to reading books and going to Barnes and Nobel to read magazines to escape my problems.

Mom, grandma at the farm, Aunt Al, Mary, Mark and I used to go to Woodbridge sometime in either October or November each year in the late 70's to mid 80's to do our Christmas shopping which was fun. We usually ate at the Ponderosa.

Mom and I usually go to the calender store there in November for presents- I always get Mark the Star Trek one and she gets me a cocker spaniel one and I get her Golden Retriever pups. We didn't do this last year but I probably should try to get over my fear of driving there and do so this one. We also need batteries for our Swatches.

Maybe I'll just order the calenders from Amazon.com and try to find a local jewler who has these batteries. Just the thought of going to the mall is overwhelming. I'd be saving money on gas too.

My favourite stores at the mall are Macy's, JC Penney, Gertrude Hawke candy, Mandees, Wet Seal, Sears and Claire's. They haven't had Sam Goody in a while now and I forget the name of the music store that's there presently. They had a couple of bookstores - B. Dalton and Waldenbooks. I think that the former is still there.

Commercials - Part 2

I was looking through my marble notebook of memories that I wrote in the mid 90's and saw a whole section with commercials. I should go onto You Tube and see if any of them are on it. These are some with celebrities.

- Colt 45 beer- Billy Dee Williams. Don't let the smooth taste fool you.
- American Express - Karl Malden. Don't leave home without it.
- FTD Florist - Merlin Olsen
- Polaroid- James Garner and Mariette Hartley
- Super Polident Denture Cream - Martha Raye. For big mouths like me.
- Maxwell House coffee- Margaret Hamilton- the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz
- Coronet paper towels and napkins- Rosemary Clooney. Extra value is what you get when you buy Coronet.
- Kodak - Michael Landon
- Mauna Lau Macadamia nuts - John Hillerman
- The Money Store - Phil Rizzuto
- Mr. Coffee - Joe DiMaggio
- Coke - Mean Joe Green
- Wesson Oil - Florence Henderson
- Post Grape Nuts Cereal - John Denver
- Ritz crackers- Andy Griffith
- Crystal Light drink mix- Linda Evans. I believe in Crystal Light because I believe in me.
- Playtex Cross Your Heart Bras - Jane Russell
- Glad Cinch Sack trash bags - Tom Bosley
- Wheat Thins - Sandy Duncan
- Ace Hardware - John Madden. Ace is the place
- Jello - Bill Cosby
- Hertz - O. J. Simpson
- Lipton tea - Don Meredith
- Alpo dog food - Lorne Green
- Mrs. Butterworth syrup - Kim Fields
- Fabrege Organic shampoo - Heather Locklear
- Calvin Klein jeans - Brooke Sheilds

I have some more but I'll save them for next time. Sometimes I don't trust my memory though but I think I'm right about all these.

Favourite 70's songs

I was listening to Saturday night 70's last night and really enjoying this. It got me to thinking about other songs that I like from that decade. They are mostly mellow and some country crossovers. This list is in no order of preference.

1. Knock Three Times - Tony Orlando & Dawn
2. Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) - The Temptations
3. Take Me Home, Country Roads - John Denver
4. Let's Stay Together - Al Green
5. I'll Be Around - The Spinners
6. (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right - Luther Ingram
7. Before The Next Teardrop Falls- Freddie Fender
8. Lonesome Loser - Little River Band
9. Let Your Love Flow - Bellamy Brothers
10. I'd Really Love To See You Tonight - England Dan and John Ford Coley
11. You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine - Lou Rawls
12. Use Ta Be My Girl - The O' Jays
13. Here You Come Again - Dolly Parton
14. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes
15. Fire - Pointer Sisters
16. After The Love Has Gone - Earth, Wind & Fire
17. Reunited - Peacher & Herb
18. The Devil Went Down To Georgia - The Charlie Daniels Band
19. The Gambler - Kenny Rogers
20. You Are The Sunshine of My Life - Stevie Wonder
21. My Life - Billy Joel
22. Sail On - The Commodores
23. How Much I Feel - Ambrosia
24. Nobody Does It Better - Carly Simon
25. I Love A Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbit
26. Smokey Mountain Rain - Ronnie Milsap
27. Do You Know the Way to San Jose - Dionne Warwicke
28. Back In Love Again - LTD
29. Midnight Train to Georgia - Gladys Knight & The Pips
30. Rhinestone Cowboy - Glenn Campbell

I'm pretty sure that 19, 25 and 26 are the 70's. I should look this up in my Billboard book but I don't feel like going into the basement for it.

Bon Jovi and US Open tickets

I had not intended on going to any concerts this year because I've mostly been saving for US Open tickets but this past Wednesday my brother informed me that he had been at the TicketMaster site looking into the ticket prices for both events. I was suprised that Mark changed his mind about not fitting Bon Jovi tickets into his budget. He seemed pretty excited about wanting to go which got me feeling the same way so I went to the site and ordered them for us.

It's my fault that he is into Bon Jovi now. He seems even more into them than I am. We have been to 2 concerts together. One was the Bounce tour- was that 2003? We were at Giants Stadium for that. It was the Prudential Center in Newark in 2007 for the Lost Highway tour. Crappy seats for both and likewise for the upcoming show in July. The tickets went on sale a few weeks ago so we are just glad that we were able to still get some.

This is only the second event that I've ordered tickets online for. Last time it was for the US Open in 2009. We did that like only a few days before so I had to print them out which was kind of frustating because our printer gives us problems often. This year I plan on ordering them early and having them sent by mail. We get the grounds pass and will be going for 5 days instead of 4 this time.

I always worry that tickets will get lost in the mail or sent to the wrong place. Until I have the tickets in my hand I will be anxious about this. I have always said my address twice to the person on the phone but I still worry that he or she misunderstood me. The tickets always get here, thank goodness. I worry too much about many things anyhow, I can't help it.

I heard You Give Love a Bad Name on the radio today and was feeling both anxious and excited about the concert. There are 4 shows in May but 3 of them are sold out and the 4th one had even crappier seats left. The opening act will be Kid Rock. I know a few songs by him. I am definitely not driving to the Meadowlands- it's too stressful. Luckily now they have a bus link from the Secaucus train station that will take you there so we'll be going to Linden station for the train. They only started doing this recently. They should've had that for many years- we would've went to more events there. I have driven there about 6 times and am glad that I don't have to again.

We aren't sure when the tennis tickets go on sale, maybe next month. If you are a member of the USTA you can order them now. The weather during the US Open had been nearly perfect the past 3 years. I have this bad feeling that this time it won't be and am praying that I'm wrong. Watch, it'll rain sometime during the first week but be perfect for the 2nd. I haven't gotten rained on for any outdoor concerts yet, I hope that this fortune continues for this one. It'll be interesting seeing the new Giants Stadium.