Sixty Years

Today is a day for total reflection into the past.  I think of what happened in our world sixty years ago, I could cry...I have cried.  Watching old news clips on today's news shows brought back the latent "shake your soul" feelings that I knew growing up.

I was born in 1944 so I grew up with the aftermath of a terrible war, a war that was fought to end all wars...Again.  This time though there was an undercurrent of evil that pervaded Europe even before the war years.  That evil would come to have a name that is spit upon even today..Nazi..and rightly so.  The horrors brought forth by this evil knew no parallel in our recent history. Six million dead by unnatural means...tortured, starved, raped, beaten, shot, gassed, buried or burnt in ovens.  It is unbelievable that it happened, that we let it happen, that we stood by and looked the other way.

We are looking the other way right now.  There are places in Africa where this is happening on a very large scale....it's pure genocide.  What will it take for man to take a stand and say "No more..it's ENOUGH!"  People that do this evil always believe that they will get away with whatever they want...we need to find a way to stop them, to make them pay.

I think of the little ones who never had a chance, the future generations that were never to be. To kill a small baby, a child,how evil do you have to be?  Fall back on following orders? No order on earth would make me kill a child....rather turn the gun on the evil itself. 

I look at how beautiful our planet Earth looks from the heavens... if only man would treat his neighbor as he would want to be treated.....we would have peace at last.

It's so very true the saying "If you don't remember the past, you are doomed to repeat it."  It scares me that the younger people in our society do not seem to know history at all.  What are the schools teaching?  I actually had a seventeen year old girl tell me that the holocaust never happened.  Wrong thing to say to me.  I'm not Jewish, but I have close friends who lost almost everything and everyone in their family...and I mourn with them.  Also, I have Greek relatives that suffered much during the German occupation which was very harsh.

Well, I sat the little missy down and proceeded to tell her the stories that I had been told, also I have books that show what occurred...you can't dispute those awful photographs.  She told me that as far as she could remember her history teachers never really made reference to it.  Maybe she was a really bad student and didn't pay attention?  I don't know but it shocked the hell out of me.

So we not only have to be on the watch for evil, we also have to watch that people are taught to " remember" that evil has happened in the past and can resurface at any time. Rearing it's ugly head once again under a new banner or slogan.

I now believe that we should be showing "Schindler's List" in  all our schools.....just to cover bases.

I want to believe in man's kindness.  I want to believe in man's goodness.....today is just painful. 

NorEaster

Well, I guess alot of the country is in for bad weather.   I look at the newscasts of the heavy snows hitting across the midwest & eastern seaboard, it takes me back to the winter of 1969 in a suburb of Chicago.

Boy, we got hit with a storm to end all storms...29" of snow...combined with the terrific wind that Chicago is noted for.....I could touch the snow from the second floor of my townhouse.  My whole front yard, front door were totally inaccessible.  Luckily, we had a back door (no pun intended) so we walked or climbed around the block and shoveled our way to the front door.

I wish I had a scanner, I have a picture of my little two year (Kenji) standing on the path that we had just shoveled....he's all bundled up in a heavy blue snow suit, the sides of the walk way formed almost an igloo type of cave....that towers above him and drawfs him totally.

I could never understand why the city of Chicago always had their fire hydrants super tall above the sidewalk..I used to think, are they trying to tell the dogs something?..that year I found out why....that bad storm hit in December or January .... it never melted, we never saw the sidewalk again until April! 

I loved the snow though...I wish I was up in New York now..just to play.  Besides there is something magical about the city's view after a really heavy snow storm....it glistens, it glows, it refreshes the air and quiets the city's soul for a little while.

Just stay warm people......and safe..... 

Homework Assignment...Parties that Bombed

No my little one's two year old birthday party was successful, just figured I'd use a party picture.

Little did I know that I would actually years later become a "Party Planner" yikes.

Well,  I've had some strange experiences with clients, one in particular comes to mind. I'm not going to  publish the person's name, just let it be said that he is involved in a major league sport.

This person had just built a $5,000,000.00 home in our area..it had everything...a man-made lagoon pool,a bath changing area, a long dock with a boat ramp, an outside bar area, a heated four car garage, wide open green spaces to be able to party on, bedrooms galore, a game room to die for - everything that you can possibly imagine it it...a child's delight, a large lanai with inside bar....everything made with beautiful shades of marble.

Well, of course, he's going to throw a grand opening for the house. My employer and myself toured the grounds making plans for the party.  This particular gentlemen had a New York publicist that wanted to plan the entire party long distance...well, we all know how good that works!  She wanted white heated tents, comfortable furniture....tables and chairs everywhere.  We proceeded to order and prepare everything from flowers to the gourmet foods requested.

We were informed that 500 individual invitations had gone out...so we planned for around 700.......this woman mailed out over 1,000 invitations without telling us the correct number.  You got it...fiasco!!   Not enough room, not enough food, not enough security....with that much going on...all the young kids in the neighborhood tried sneaking in over the gates. Oh, I forgot to mention that she had also wanted huge spotlights shinning over the mansion to attract more attention.   It was too much for the security force that was in place.

I felt bad...I knew the owner did not want a riot at all and it was not what he had envisioned.  Luckily, they had brought in some really good musicians so people were kind of chillin to the beat and it didn't turn ugly.    Of course, they also ordered alot of pizza!

That's my sorry story.......Sandi

 

Kinda Mad

Well, if life is full of surprises...this is one that I really didn't expect.  I've visited other message boards, especially because I delved into family genealogy.  I used to look at the various threads and thank God that my AOL message boards were NOT set up that way!  I thought how confusing, it's hard to follow...breaks your train of thought and makes it difficult to have a feeling of interaction between the writers.

It's not that I haven't tried...I joined two groups here on AOL and tried to interact on their own boards...but again, the continuity isn't there, it's not fluid...it stalls, it detracts from the messages.  Maybe someone has come up with the idea that all this interaction between us is not a good thing?

Also is this why AOL caved in about letting us have our "own board"...J-land Cafe?  Knowing that they were to change the entire scenario?

Does this particular format save AOL money?  What exactly are the benefits to it?  That is what I would of liked to have read in the AOL annoucement....some reason as to why.

I really would like to know how many people dislike this format.

Thinking Back

Looking back and trying to remember what the feelings were during the 1960's....it was a time to celebrate youth and believe that you were invincible..to be 17 again.

I like to think that I grew up without prejudice..although it was all around me - I took no notice of the slights & wrongs that were done to people of color.  Not until the riots, not until the marches and not until Dr. King's words rang from the hallowed halls of our cherished monuments.....did my eyes open and see the injustice of our world.

As a young child visiting my southern Grandmother in Virginia I could not understand why I could not sit at the back of the bus...like I did in New York.  It was the best place to enjoy the ride, especially hitting bumps...in New York I always ran for the back.  Well, it was just too much for a nine year old to fathom and I remember saying to my Grandma..."But why can't I do that?" She told me that there was a line that you did not cross...I took it literally and looked for a line on the floor of the bus.....seeing none....I told her "There's no line!"  Now Grandma was born in South Carolina and raised by a black Mammy, she had alot of respect for the black folk as she called them.  While they lived in Norfolk my Grandma had a black lady, named Maybelle,who helped clean house, ironed etc., who I loved as much as any member of  my family.  She was a constant in my life for so many years.  They were all getting up in age and Maybelle had to stop working, but every so often she would come for a visit.....when my Grandpa died I remember Maybelle and her whole extended family came to pay their respects at the Greek Church...it was a wonderful gesture that my Grandma treasured.

I am very glad that there was a Dr. King and that he was able to bring his people the freedom that he spoke so eloquently about.  It's a shame that it took all these years.

 

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

Well, it's hard to believe that I'm back home again.  Did you ever look forward to something so much and find that the moments leading up to it move as slow as molasses in January....but when you are right in the middle of the moment time is "flying" as if the second hand on the clock had a life of it's own...speeding...faster and faster.

I enjoyed the children so much.  Each age has it's own joy...the oldest girl at age seven is oh, so grown up..and proud of her accomplishments...very good at schoolwork, is writing in cursive (in my day we were still printing at age seven!) And her writing is actually beautifully written not a scrawl...but again she has a high amount of artistic talent, it shows in her writing and her artwork.  She's still at that age where you still believe for a short while in Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny & the Tooth Fairy (which will be visiting her shortly)

You cannot play favorites with Grandchildren but the little four year tugs at my heart strings...she's the image of her Mom...I look at her and it takes me back 30 years. There's no moss growing on her either, smart as a whip and very quick on the uptake.  You have to watch what  you say around her and she forgets NOTHING!  I have a little stuffed cute Monkey that has been traveling with me for the last seven years, sleeps in my pocketbook and makes quick friends with little ones.  First thing she asked me was..".Grandma Sandi..Where's the Monkey??" The last time I was up there she was two and had taken my Monkey and dunked in hot chocolate, well she still remembered what she had done to it....so coyly she said to me "I won't drown your Monkey...please can I see it?" She had me laughing.

Oh, lord...The Twins...cute as buttons, just two years old and learning fast from the older sisters....each one of the older girls has "her own" twin. They gravitate towards one another and actually get jealous if the twins switch older sisters. Well, I hadn't seen the babies since they were ten months old so of course they looked at me like I was this crazy lady and when was I leaving.  The first day they both looked at me and when I tried to even talkto them.....they both shook their heads and said a great big NO!!  Well, I kept on working on it, they saw me interacting with the older girls and little by little they warmed up to me.  Then they decided that I was to be called Nanna Sandi not Grandma....my daughter still didn't know where that came from because no one is called Nanna up there.  I'm easy, I don't care what you call me just call me.  Anyway, what really worked was my faithful friend The Monkey!  The twins wanted the Monkey..they would send the four year over to ask if she could play with the Monkey so she could hand it to them!  Little by little the twins would ask me "Monkey sleeping and they would glance towards my pocketbook"...sometimes I told them "Well, right now the Monkey really needs to sleep but we'll get him up in a little while okay?" They would play with the little Monkey and return it to me for it to go back to "sleep".  This all worked well until my last day..couldn't find Monkey...we looked everywhere...so with heavy heart I had to fly home alone.  That night my daughter called me and told me that she had found the Monkey in the magic bed (kid's name for the pullout bed) she said that all of the kids were going to get a box and jointly put the Monkey in to mail to Grandma Sandi.......I actually miss the little fellow.

I had a great time and I wish we lived closer.

I can't believe that it's almost a month since I wrote in this journal.......I'm still playing catch up since I'm back so my writing will be sporactic.......