November 22, 2015-

Birthday Parties and Game Shows

 I just remembered that even at my own slumber party I got made fun out of which was so upsetting. I ran upstairs where I stayed for a few minutes and was crying a little. I think that was in 1981 and that 8 or 9 of my classmates were at it. Mom knitted mittens for all of them. We were sleeping in our furnished cellar.

   Something kind of funny did happen that night. We looked out the window and saw the shadow of someone smoking a cigarette which did scare us but it just turned out to be my Aunt Joan.

   Why did a few of us put a paper plate with potato chips on it on the stomach of Sandy who was sleeping? That was sort of crazy. I don’t recall what her reaction to that was.

   I was at Sandy’s b-day party and also 3 slumber type ones- Nancy, Michelle G and Ellen’s. It would have been 4 if I hadn’t been afraid of the 2 very popular girls that Michelle T invited to it. I pretended that I was sick which I felt pretty bad about. I should have just gone. They had been at my party and also 2 or 3 of the others.

   I guess that the taunting from my classmates was even worse at that time. She stopped being my friend shortly after this. I’m sure that it was another case of me not being cool enough for her like with my best friend Kelly.

   Maybe another factor was that she was upset that I had forgotten to put her name on the list of friends in the School Days book that Aunt Ann gave me. I felt awful about this and even apologized. I still have that; my report cards are in it.

   My friend Jane’s birthday was around Halloween time. She had a combo party but the only thing that I remember about this was hiding behind the couch just to see if anyone would notice that I was missing. Did they or was I just getting bored and eventually rejoined the party? I was a strange kid.

  Ellen’s b-day/ slumber party also included a trip to the roller rink but I didn’t do much skating because I was too scared. I had broken my arm doing so at my Aunt Ann’s house only about a year before this.

    Part of one of my birthday parties was at a bowling alley. I was not that good at this but did have fun.  I enjoyed watching the Professional Bowling (ABC Sports, I think) on TV with my family. Sometimes they’d use the song “Freeze Frame “before the commercial breaks. I’m almost certain that we watched a show called “Bowling for Dollars “too.

   My brother and I liked that and many other game shows. Our favorites were “Match Game”, “Hollywood Squares”, “The Joker’s Wild “, “Tic-Tac-Dough”, “Card Sharks”, “Wheel of Fortune”, “Name That Tune”, various versions of “Password” and “The Pyramid”, “Family Feud”, “Press Your Luck”, and “The Price is Right”; it is so cool that our grandma next door was in the audience for that in the late 70s.

 

 

 

Note-The 2 game show photos and Clark Lanes one are from the internet- I had posted more of the former but they weren't showing anymore- I never did claim them as my own so I am not sure why this happened.

 

 

Our Grandparents-Part 2

Grandma-at-the-Farm

Mike and I always thought of mom’s mother as Grandma-at-the-Farm even when she moved to the house in Bordentown in the early 80s. The land owners had only given her and her brother Charlie either a month or 6 weeks to move. They wanted to redo that house for a relative – their son? She had moved in with her 2 brothers after letting Mom and Dad have her apartment in our town after they were married in 1968.

   I really wish that we had gotten the chance to see her and Aunt Ann’s family more. We’d go to her house for Thanksgiving and to Aunt Ann’s place for our second Christmas. Sometimes we’d visit them all in the summertime. They didn’t visit us that much mainly because Dad didn’t like them doing so. That is just so heartless and unfair.

   Grandma (and also Aunt Ann) tried teaching me to crochet. She even got me a set of hooks in the early 80s. I still have them. I could only do the single loop stitch. I made a little blanket for my stuffed animals.  I didn’t stick with this for that long, however. Mom tried teaching me to knit but I could never get the hang of it. I guess that I didn’t inherit their crafting abilities.

   I still have the 2 latch hook rugs- spring/summer and fall trees- and the blanket and pillow set that Grandma made for me. She did the latter for Mike too. I could never get rid of these and the other handmade items from her and Aunt Ann.

   She prepared nearly the entire Thanksgiving dinner which was delicious, esp. the pumpkin and apple pies. I remember how much she used to like English muffins with strawberry jam which I do also. There were always mini York Peppermint Patties in the candy dish at her house. I think that she liked Fritos too. I have a vague memory of that, as well as her canning vegetables and fruits in Ball jars.

   She got me into 2 mystery authors that she greatly enjoyed – Earle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason) and Agatha Christie. I always preferred that authors’ detective Poirot over Miss Marple. Aunt Ann introduced me to others of that genre- Martha Grimes, Margaret Truman, PD James, Elizabeth George, Reginald Hill, and Lillian Jackson Braun.

   Grandma had very beautiful Christmas cactuses. I am pretty sure that Aunt Ann got these after she died. She gave me a cactus but I accidentally killed it by over watering it which I felt very bad about.

   She helped me study my state capitals in 4^thgrade one of the few times that she was visiting us for a few days. This really helped me to remember them even more than if I had done so on my own.

   Her favorite perfume was Jean Nate and she collected cardinals, some of which mom has now.  We would get her both these as gifts. We have a few of her kitchen items too, like a cast iron skillet.

    I found the photo albums of her pictures of Germany when I was looking through mom’s totes a couple of years ago. I can’t believe that I had never seen them before this. Maybe I had but it was a long time ago and I forgot.

   She used to go bowling with her brothers. I was talking to mom about this one day and she told me that her sister, sister-in-law, nephew and even mom would also go with them sometimes. They had a pool table at their house. I remember her brothers playing this but not her but mom said that she did too.

   Mom and I both used to like playing the card game Solitaire and also doing those circle- a- word puzzles just as Grandma used to do. I wish that I could recall more about Grandma-at-the-Farm; maybe if Dad had let us visit her more then I’d have more vivid memories of her now.

 

                                                             1986- 80th Birthday Party

                                            
                                                                   Crochet hook set
                                                
                                                                   My Doll Blanket
                                    

 

                                                               Handmade Snowmen

                                                                Christmas Cactuses

                                                                      Poinsettia

                                                                  Germany-1960s

 

                
                                                  

                                                
                                     
   
                                       
                                                        

 

 

 

Memory Lane

I was driving along Central Ave. the other day and remembering how it used to be there - Bradlees, Bonanza, Clark Lanes, Howard Johnsons and Roy Rogers. Now these places where they were - Target, McDonalds, Bally's Fitness Club and Rite Aid, Shop Rite(which used to be down the road a bit but now is Barnes and Noble) and Wendys.

My mother worked at Bradlees in the late 70s - late 80's. My brother worked there for 7 years starting in 1988, I think. I even worked there a couple of times for 5 months in 87 and I forget how long a couple of years later- less than 6 months.

Dad would take us to Bonanza and Roy Rogers sometimes. My brother left his King Kong figure at the former in the late 70s but when we went back for this it was no longer there. He was upset about that. I felt bad for him. I still have my membership card for the Roy Rogers Buckaroo Club from back then. I'm pretty sure that my mom told me that she saw Roy Rogers in person once.

Part of my birthday party in the late 70s was at Clark Lanes. I was never really that good at bowling. We didn't go that much. We did watch the professional bowlers on TV with our parents sometimes. I think that there was a show called Bowling For Dollars that they watched too.

When I took my dog to the groomers yesterday on Raritan Road I thought about the Carvel and Stewarts that used to be nearby. Now a Portugese and Japanese restraunts are there. We loved Carvel ice cream. My favourite flavor was maple walnut and my brother's mint chocolate chip. We'd get their cakes for birthdays, graduations and our First Holy Communions. I loved the root beer in the frosty mugs at Stewarts.

Route 1 and Route 130 changed so much over the years. We'd travel that way to get to my Aunt's house in South Jersey. Many shopping centers, businesses and homes are now there. No more Ford and General Motors plants on Rt. 1 though which is sad and also makes me angry that our country is outsourcing alot of jobs esp. in manufacturing. My Dad used to work in GM for 23 years up until he took the buyout in 1987.

Sometimes I get that silly sci-fi fantasy of my spirit traveling through time and being in my body in my childhood. I'm in the car with my family seeing how things used to be and going to those places again. I'm only there to observe. I can't change anything that my younger self does or says. That would be okay. My trip down memory lane is over for today.