My 4th Grade Camping Trip

Our fourth grade trip was to Camp Hoover in Northern New Jersey in 1979. That's the same place that we went to for our Girl Scout camping adventures. Mom kept all the papers that had information like directions to the camp, our daily activities and what to bring.I put these in my scrapbook many years ago. Mom took my picture with both my teachers, Miss Kiernan and Mrs. Davies. I had fun canoeing and doing a charchol drawing. I have a few other photos of some classmates and I that I was kind of embarrassed about putting on here - maybe I should've anyhow. We took about a mile walk to the general store and got penny candies. I'm pretty sure that one night some of the boys were looking into the girl's cabin. I haven't read that list of activities since the late 80's - now I'm curious as to what else we did so later I'll check this out.

Happy Easter

I made this picture in 1985 based on a set of placemats that a friend of the family gave us in the late 1970s. Originally I did one in 1979 or 1980 but I foolishly used it as part of a project for Spanish. The teacher liked it alot and kept it hanging in the classroom for several weeks. I should have asked for it back. Mom liked my redo enough to put it in a frame. I should have retaken this photo though- I didn't notice how badly it turned out in the one spot. I haven't been able to spend much time on the computer lately but hopefully will get to do more reading and commenting on blog posts soon. My uncle just died last week and my mom is in the hospital because she fell and broke her collarbone yesterday. I hope that everyone has a very Happy Easter.

My Ginger

We went to the animal shelter one day in 1979 and saw the cutest puppy. She was being picked on by the other puppy in the cage with her. We fell in love with her immediately and took her home with us. My grandma was the one who gave her the name Ginger. She looks a little like Benji. She was such a wonderful dog and mom says that she was definitely my girl. She always comforted me when I was feeling sad. She would sit next to me and give me little kisses to make me feel better. We don't have that many pictures of her - these are just a few of maybe about 15. No puppy ones. She was only in our lives for about 7 years. She got sick and my dad wouldn't even pay to find out what was wrong with her. It might've just been just an infection that meds would have cleared up. I still miss here even after all this time - it will be 25 years in October since she was put to sleep. I wrote about her when I first started this blog but didn't know how to add pictures back then.

More Christmas Memories

The top 3 photos are of Christmas 1986. My brother didn't get his first Lego set until that year. We both got an A&S bear. We used to like going to that store. The below photos are from 1979. I'm remembering how for quite a few Christmases we would get certain fragrances as gifts for family members. Dad - Old Spice, Mom - Charlie, Grandma Wrunski - Jean Nate, Grandma Wancea - Windsong. We would go to Christmas Eve mass at St John's - I think it was at 10:00. Afterwards we would look at the animals in the nativity set outside - llamas, sheep and goats. Then Dad would drive us around to look at the lights. There was also those small brown paper bags with sand and candles in them - I forget what the term for them are - at some of the houses. We enjoyed having the Yule Log on TV, watching White Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life, and all the holiday specials, particularly Rudolph, The Little Drummer Boy and A Year Without a Santa Clause (the Heat Miser and Snow Miser were so funny) We were always allowed to open our stocking stuffers before our parents woke up but the other gifts had to wait until afterwards. Christmas was always my favourite holiday. I have so many good memories of it.

Christmas 1979

My mom liked buying us games every Christmas and this year it was Battleship. We got a few Make It Bake It kits too - suncatchers or stained glass window ornaments, I guess either description applies to these. Mark got some Battlestar Galactica figures. I wish that we had some pictures of my gifts. Probably a Barbie was one of them. I loved our old stereo with the record player and 8 track on it, our Encyclopedia and yearbook set and the big stereo/tv cabinet that are also in these photos. This is the first year that we got a live tree. I meant to put the top photos below because these are after Christmas morning. We went over to my Aunt Sylvia's house later that day or maybe the next day. I'm wearing my favourite sweater, Mom made this for me and also ones in different colours for my 2 friends. I hadn't noticed the Kirby vaccum cleaner under the tree until recently, so now I know what year we got that.