General Motors 75th-1983-Part 2

 I wish that we had taken more photos of the vintage cars that day.

Linden Airport- across the street from the plant. I don't really remember this part of that day. I guess that the planes were a part of this celebration.

The keychain in part 1 was Dad's, this one is mine

General Motors-75th- 1983-Part 1

 

My father's workplace, the GM plant in Linden, NJ, had an open house in 1983, celebrating the company's 75th anniversary

Keychain

Mom, Dad, Mark, and me

Dad-General Motors/UAW

 

Dad-General Motors

 Dad worked in General Motors for about 23 years- the 1960s-1980s. He started out on the assembly line. I am pretty sure that he was putting the tires on the cars. Then he became a forklift operator.

These photos are from the early-mid-1980s.

1985

Dad's lunchbox

September 19, 2015-More Friends- Part 2

   In high school I sometimes hung out with Mary and her friends at their table in the cafeteria. They were a year ahead of me. I think that she was a part of the Peer Club that would look after under classmates. They all seemed nice. I just wish that I hadn’t been so afraid to talk to them. I only did so a little.

   Mary invited me to her graduation party where I found out that she also had a crush on Don Mattingly. Someone gave her an 8x10 photo of him as a gift. It would have been good if I had gotten to know her and the other girls better.

   She is one of my Facebook friends as are some of my other former friends and classmates. I don’t really associate with any of them on that site though. I have sent them birthday wishes occasionally. I’m not that interested in social networking that way or even in person. I’m a very strange girl.

   A tiny part of me disagrees with this and was sort of hoping that I could make a connection with some of the girls that I’ve met at DD concerts and events. Of course, I don’t feel as if this could ever truly happen. I have done so a little bit with a couple of them but even this feels awkward to me.

   Tracey and I cut classes one afternoon to go down the shore – Asbury Park.  She borrowed her sister’s car, a Fiero, for this. That’s the only time that I’ve ever done something bad like that during my school days. I only got detention twice and the one time it was the whole class in high school. I can’t remember why this happened to me in the 5^th grade.

   Tracey was a big Springsteen fan. I’m pretty sure she had a crush on him. We didn’t really hang out that much and it was mainly at school. She was nice; I wish that we could have had a closer friendship but I guess that my social anxiety was partially to blame for this.

   Julia and I went to the Westfield Theater to see The Manhattan Project but I don’t really remember anything about that movie. Mom took the 2 of us and Mike to Woodbridge Mall. Julia ran up the down escalator there. Mom bought her a nice pair of jeans that day.

   She rode her bike over to our house one day. We drove her home. I only remember being at her host families house once or twice; I think that it was in Roselle.

   We mostly only hung out together in school though and she seemed closer to a few other girls in our class. I am glad that we were friends and not just because I got the chance to go to Germany and stay with her family. I would have never been able to afford anything but what I had to pay for- the airline ticket and souvenirs-otherwise.

   My 2- 3 year friendship in the late 90s with Lynn was nice; it’s a shame that we drifted apart. We had sent holiday cards to each other for a few years after that. We had a lot of fun going to garage sales and flea markets.  We sometimes did arts and crafts like decoupage. She liked stuffed animals and stickers too.  I gave her my small Friend Care Bear.

   We went to the Flemington Outlet Center with a couple of friends of hers. Matt and I went to her birthday party. I gave her a Gund brand doggie which she loved. She had a pet ferret but I don’t remember its name.

    Gina and Roy were our family friends. They used to live somewhere in North Jersey before moving to a house across the street from us.

   Our parents went with them to a mall in that area one day in 1976. That is when they bought our Shetland sheepdog pup Rusty from a pet store there. They had an adorable doggie named Barky. I am pretty sure that it was part Border collie.

 Mom said that Roy and Gina saw Grease in the movie theater at least 10 times. I liked the big scrapbook of 8x10s of stars that they had in the attic room of their nice house. I wish that I could remember who was in this book. In the early 90s, Mike and I started collecting photos of our favorite stars too.

  Roy and Dad worked in GM. They used to drive there together. Early one morning (it was still dark), Roy was hit and killed by a car when crossing the street to get to our apartment. This was very upsetting. That was in 1980 or 1981, I think.

     

 

 

 

August 20, 2015- Friends- Part 2

We had good times at our family friend Maureen’s house esp. at St Patrick’s Day parties-The Quiet Man was almost always on TV during these. One Halloween there was a Wizard of Oz themed party; I was dressed as the scarecrow.

   We would always have tea when we visited her. I went apple picking with her and some of her kids and grandkids once.

   Mom and grandma had been friends with her for many, many years. We saw more of her when we lived on the other side of town than we have since we’ve been only a few houses down from her. She’s the one who mom used to go to after big arguments with Dad.

   One time I ran after her crying and begging for her to come back and she told me to go home.  I always was afraid that she would never return. That would have been a total nightmare.

   It’s hard to believe that we ever used to have friends. At least mom had a social life again – this past year she’s been going to the senior center. Mike is very outgoing but I’m the exact opposite; I’m only good at observing, not communicating.

   Aunt Ann once said that I was being like my father when I was hiding in her attic so that I didn’t have to face socializing with Aunt Pauline and a few cousins. I went downstairs but felt so anxious which is super pathetic. I can’t even feel comfortable around my own family.

   Maybe I’m not even capable of being in relationships besides the Sharon one. What if I even screw that up? I sure hope that doesn’t happen though.

   Sharon does so many nice things for me. I am so lucky that she is a part of my life. It has been like 30 years since I’ve had a friendship as close as this one. Kelly was my first best friend.

   By 8^th grade that friendship was over partly thanks to Dad. He was mad that Kelly’s parents didn’t take us to school as much as mom did. After that argument we never really associated with her and her mother anymore.

    We might have eventually drifted apart anyway; Kelly did start hanging out with 2 of the popular girls more.  I wasn’t cool enough for her, I suppose. This is still upsetting 3 decades later.

   I loved playing stuffed animals with her. Her Cindy bear had a crush on my Poochie one. She also had Scrunchy the Shop Rite bear.  Sometimes we would pretend that her house was California and mine was Florida or vice versa. She was in my brother’s class, 2 years behind mine.

   One day when Kelly and her mom were visiting us, Dad actually said (in an angry tone) “What are they doing here?” That was so mean. Mike reminded me that often he would lie and say that we weren’t home when kids called or came over to see us.

   We also had fun taking walks, bike riding- both of which we would sometimes do in the woods near our town- and swimming in her pool.

   Six of our friends had pools; we had a sprinkler. Dad slipped, fell, and sprained his ankle when running through it once. I wasn’t envious of them; I did have some jealousy about my friend’s toys though, like Cindy and Jessica’s Speak and Spell and Lite Brite and Michelle T’s Quiz Wiz.

   We did join the Cranford Pool for either 2 or 3 summers. Mike and I took swimming lessons there. I still have the certificate from that and also one of my pool passes-1983. I almost hit my head on the diving board once. We sometimes got subs from the Butcher Block nearby for lunch.

   Some of our classmates were members as were our family friends, the Prescotts. Our Dads worked together at GM and our Moms were Bradlees employees. Their 3 kids went to the same schools as us. Mike was closer to Jeff than I was to Pam though. She gave me her old clothes sometimes. Jeff’s gecko got into a bag of these once which totally freaked me out.

 

Oz- 1991

Scrunchy bear

 

Gecko