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Daughter's Day

Daughter’s Day

When was this invented? How did I miss it? And is there a sons’ day? And if there’s a sons day when is it, when does it occur during the year? I have four daughters that I am very proud of and it would be difficult to pick one as number one so I won’t but I’ll go in order of birth year putting Veronica at the, top followed by Christina Marie, Rebecca Dawn, and then Jessica Lynne. Over the past…

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Memorial Day 2021

Over the past few days I’ve been reflecting on memorial days past and fondly remember marching in parades down the main street in Mineola, NY. There in my Cub Scout and later Boy Scout uniforms I proudly marched along the main street to the applause of the community. My mom was a den leader so she marched with us and often when I caught sight of her face, she seemed the happiest I had ever seen…

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Back

It has been almost three years since I last posted anything on Facebook, due mainly to the political insanity instigated by the white supremacist trump, but most importantly, the health fight my wife was dealing with and ultimately lost. I remember when I first joined Facebook and recommended to the high school to jump on board, how shocked they were and demonized the whole platform, banning any…

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Pockets of Love I found a pocket of your jacket that had not been opened since, forever. I had difficulty trying to unzip the pocket.

Entering the Panama Canal. Dawn, February 12, 2020

Pat and I on a tender on our way to Half Moon Cay. The place was very nice, and the water spectacular Not a bad way to spend our first full day at sea (although I am getting tired of explaining we’re brother and sister …)

English Tea https://www.instagram.com/p/B8SZGHAATpW/?igshid=1nfkyrynjzdue

Our journey, Pat’s and mine, actually began many years ago when we promised our mother that we’d get to Newfoundland and visit her homeland. While she always insisted she was Irish, research does show the immigration from Ireland but this was several generations before her parents’ generation. So while her roots may have been Irish, she was defiantly a Noofie. So I arraigned the trip to Newfoundland, got in contact with what relatives we still have here, and worked it out for the end of September, beginning of October time frame. The flights here were miserable, the seats very uncomfortable, and the fact that we had to take three separate flights each requiring a jog through airports only added to the misery.

Finally here at midnight on Thursday, we soon gathered our luggage and trekked the length of two parking lots to retrieve our rental car in weather in the low 30s with a very brisk wind. Our room at the Sheraton is very nice and the hotel itself is wonderful. We got a late breakfast on Friday morning and headed out to pick up a few clothing items like warm hats and gloves, plus some snacks for the room. We went to Signal Hill, our first really touristy thing, and explored again in a brisk wind but it had warmed up to the high 40s.

Unfortunately with matching hats and jackets, we did look like recent escapees from the nuthouse as Warren K had suggested but at least we were warm and cozy. After exploring the gift shops we headed to town and went into a pub for a quick bite. The quick bite turned into a meal way too big for either of us and we were sharing the meals!

I have not had a beer in a few years but I had one here in the Pub called an Iceberg that’s made locally from iceberg water and before we left the place I was feeling it. Anyway, we found out that pot was legal here so we went into the local shop and bought a few joints and some oils and like an idiot I decided to light one up.

Pretty much the rest of the afternoon and evening was a blur😛

On Saturday morning we had arranged to meet with the Newfoundland cousins. They wanted to show us not only where they lived with respect to St John’s but also a few of their favorite parts of the coastline.

So we headed North of St Johns along the coast and stopped at Torbay, Flatrock, Pouch Cove, and Bauline before heading back to the city. Not that any of this was any great distance, but before setting off we had to stop in the farmers market where Pat bought some trinkets and the cousins shopped for vegetables.

Each and every stop along the way was stunning. We could not get over how clean and crisp the air was, the water looked so beautiful yet dangerous, and the countryside beautiful.

Pouch Cove

On the way back Pat had a hankering for ice cream so we stopped at one of their favorite ice cream parlors and had ice cream — I had an expresso and we took this picture.

After this, we went back to our hotel with plans to meet for dinner at Theresa’s house (lady in the middle) and church.

We went to the Saturday afternoon Mass fearing we’d not have enough time on Sunday morning plus the Saturday Masses are often a bit shorter … usually. Well, this day the bishop was in town having attended some sort of priest meeting so he did the Mass, then there was a pair of identical twin boys (James and Joseph if you must know) at three weeks old being baptized!

Add to this a birthday celebration for a 90 year old complete with singing happy birthday and the blessing of this year’s group of religious teachers added up to just over an hour and a half. Mamma.

Ont the side of the church is a convent where the Presentation Sisters have lived since the construction of the church. They are educators and work in the Catholic School also on the grounds of this church. Hosted by these nuns is a most magnificent bust of the Virgin Mary made entirely out of marble, even the lace covering the “Veiled Virgin”. I believe there are only two of these in the world, the other inside the Vatican.

We spent a lovely evening with the cousins having dinner at Theresa’s home and meeting the spouses of Theresa and Anne before returning to the hotel and sleep.

Sunday we took off for Western Bay, the ancestral home of our branch of the Fitzgerald family. We stopped and had a great lunch at The Stone Jug where interestingly Willie Nelson will appear in a few weeks.

The original house, barn, and root cellar are still there and waiting to meet us were some more relatives who in fact use the house during the summer (Tuesday July 12)

That’s Tony in the middle, the handsome feller on the end making moves on Pat (who for some reason has her purse with her) is Jimmy, and next to me is Tony’s sister Madonna. Here’s a short video of Pat, Theresa, Anne, and Tony.

While we were viewing the house and visiting with relatives Mark and Gerry were off berry picking. Now I don’t want to say they take berry picking seriously but —apparently, life is planned around opportunities to go out and pick the most delicious blueberries that populate the landscape all over this area.

Monday rolled along and Pat and I were picked up by Susan, the youngest sister of the cousins, around 11 and we were off to Cape Spear, the Easternmost point in North America.

We had another beautiful day and when we got to the point we were very glad for the sunshine and warm weather because it was windy!

Besides the waves in the background, you can tell by Pat’s hair and my 2 hairs that the wind she was a blowing!

It was a great tour of Cape Spear with all the information we could possibly need about the place from Susan who, besides being a local writer and soon to be published novelist, she is also a registered tour guide!

For example, this cannon below was placed here at Cape Spear to get the German U-boats. They were hidden in the rocks while across the bay stood more cannons that were just there as a lure, they were fakes to allow the guns on the cape to have a better opportunity to shoot and destroy the submarines. They supposedly had a range of 6 miles!

But the part that got me was the waves and the coastline, just gorgeous!

After our Cape Spear fun, we were off to Chafes Landing in a quaint fishing village for some Fish and Chips!

Chafes Landing was in this small village next to a quaint harbor hosting several fishing vessels. While fishing is no longer the primary occupation of Newfoundland, there are many of the small villages that still rely on it for their livelihood.

We finally made it to see our Great Aunt Theresa who would have been our mother’s aunt (I think — I’m such a shmutz when it comes to who’s who in the relatives’ department) and time with her was wonderful! She’s sharp as a tack!

We ended our stay in Newfoundland with a “Jiggs Dinner”. It’s a family affair and we loved it!

As Pat and I were driving to the hotel after that dinner, I must say that usually leaving a place we’ve visited does not affect me in the way driving away this night did. It was an emotional response, a physical hurt in the pit of my stomach and I know Pat felt the same way. Strange, we had only just met these cousins but the way we were received and the amazing Newfoundland family made such a lasting impression that I don’t believe that one visit will ever be enough!

Newfoundland 2019 Our journey, Pat’s and mine, actually began many years ago when we promised our mother that we’d get to Newfoundland and visit her homeland.

Apologies

It has been more than a year since I’ve posted anything, anywhere. I am certainly remiss in thanking everyone who came to my 70th birthday celebration a year ago because I had been occupied with my wife’s health issues for the past two years and anything other than tending to her needs just got sidelined. To all of you who paid your respects at Monica’s funeral, all the cards and letters, quite…

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Sunday mornings with Meena. Feeding her babies (at Horn Springs Rd)

npr

She was hanged in effigy and mocked in cartoons; laughed at by Congress for demanding equal rights for women and fined for casting her “illegal” vote in 1872; shouted down at public meetings and ridiculed in the press by the upright and uptight columnists of the day. That Susan B. Anthony, champion of the women’s movement in the U.S., had to suffer these ignominies is well known.

Less well known is the grueling physical hardship she endured in her long and tireless quest to get women the right to vote. For 45 years, Anthony traveled relentlessly, giving close to a hundred anti-slavery and woman’s suffrage speeches a year. This meant that she quite literally lived on the road – travelling through snowstorms and blizzards by train, wagon, boat, skiff and sleigh. She stumped her way through New York, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, California and even – against the advice of other suffragists – “polygamous Utah.” Often the only woman in the room, she spoke at any public venue that opened its doors to her – from African-American churches and saloons to teachers’ institutes, railroad depots, abandoned barracks and tobacco factories. Once, she even lectured from atop a lumber wagon.

The journeys were punishing and the reception, while sometimes warm and encouraging, was often apathetic, sullen or viciously combative. On the eve of the Civil War, when the national mood was fissile, rotten eggs were lobbed at the stage and cayenne pepper flung on the stove to disrupt the meeting. Implacable, Anthony stood her ground. But one can well imagine how much she and her companions longed for a hot meal and a clean bed after these brutal encounters. In most cases, however, they went back to a dirty hotel and terrible food.

On The Road To Women’s Rights, Susan B. Anthony Stomached Plenty Of Bad Food

Photo: Corbis via Getty Images

Birthdays

On the front page of today’s major newspaper here in Tennessee, The Tennessean, is a story about the remains of a WWII veteran being returned to Nashville and the National Cemetery after a 74 year wait. The news is covering the latest word war between arguably the most controversial president we’ve ever had a leaders of several countries with which we are either allies or friends. Fellow…

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Father's Day

Father’s Day

Every time Father’s day rolls around, I never think of myself as a father but rather always think about my own dad. He passed away almost 17 years ago but I can still hear him when I’m talking to my kids and see him in the mirror as I shave. A few years back I decided to grow a mustache an idea quickly voted down by my family as “creepy”. My Dad’s mustache, obviously grown after the picture…

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Mornings With Meena

Mornings with Meena My life as a dad is completely different from my life as a grandfather – Opa – to my grandchildren. I’ve been a dad several times and similarly an Opa and even a Great-Grandfather! What an honor! I have been blessed. But as a dad I had very different responsibilities. Today’s dads of course have things different than my dad had it and then myself and other boomer dads, but I…

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Promises

I watch as we all do, the infinite amount of promises advertised on television. Medicine guaranteeing to improve your life completely. Diets that run the gamut of eating everything to almost nothing. New cooking items that will make your life easier. Cleaners that will remove any stain. Cars that will transform your life into a more virile man or beautiful woman. The problem with all of these of…

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