Winter Is Finally Here Maybe

  Wow, the temps here are jumping back and forth like a darn jack rabbit! One morning it's 50 degrees and right now it's like 81 degrees. Wreaks havoc with your whole body health, at least I think so.

Although, I really should not complain at all considering what the Northwest has been going through.  My sister and her family live out in Washington State, right smack where all that terrible weather just occurred.  My sister's house is on high ground so she came through okay, but my nephew's house has a small river that flows just behind it...maybe 800 feet down a small ravine. They live in Olympia right smack in the middle of where this storm did it's worst.  Thank God for some reason their house was spared, but for three days they did not know that because they had to evacuate do to the danger.  He and his wife have five kids all under ten...so no way was he taking a chance. They have neighbors who lost everything, the closest town was hit hard. It just reminds us to give thanks for what we do have, because there are so many things that can happen.

I put that silly looking green tree picture up for a reason...that's a baby Amorphous. When it is full grown it's about six feet tall and attractive in an unusual, exotic plant kind of way. Well, slight hint of winter...they all keel over. Don't worry, they don't die for good...just the top part that we see.  The corm keeps growing, getting bigger and bigger each year. We walked out the other morning to see bodies lying everywhere..lol. But, at least I knew then for sure...winter was on it's way!

I have all the old pictures up because I am on a sentimental trip right now. Yesterday, through Classmates a very old friend of mine surfaced,the last time I had seen Denny was in 1973 shortly before he was to transfer to California with American Airlines.

Then he surfaced again in the early 90's, with a rather odd occurrence, which makes you realize just how small our world is. I was working as a wedding/party planner and one of the girls that we house catered to was also a New York transplant and had attended John Adams High School, but years after I had. She was more my younger sister's age. Well, New Yorkers love to talk and talk we did. She had her party and was very happy, in fact she reordered again the following year. About a year after her last party, I get a phone call asking for me by my maiden name. Turns out to be Denny - he had been in a chat room researching ancestors and my customer and he connected. He told her he had gone to Adams, so naturally she brought up my name and my sisters. Bingo! Small world isn't it?

Well, he's in LA and of course they are ahead of us in all ways...he gave me his computer email, and address. Which, organized as I am, I promptly lost.  Of course, back then, who knew that I would ever learn the computer or become addicted to it? Lol.

So forward to this decade. I joined Classmates...he just did...and he re found me. It is a nice feeling to connect with old friends and relive old memories.

The building picture is an aerial view of Adams, it still is a high school. In the early sixties it was voted the best high school in New York, shortly after that they broke up the "900" schools they were the schools for teen delinquents. My poor school. I can remember having police on each floor for quite a while, for supervision. I also remember getting threatened daily to "give up my homework", "lose the volleyball, don't score or else". At one point, this group of delinquent girls went after my friend Linda. She was the captain of our Volleyball Team and the other girls were mad that they lost..their threats did not work on any of us. So they jumped her in the lockeroom...so, of course, I jumped on them! I am not for violence, but back then I was very defensive of my friends. We managed to get them to back off. But for a while there we had to watch our backs.

Even with these memories, I still think fondly of my school and my fellow classmates.  The other picture is one of the way we had to line up for them to open the doors, even in the dead of winter. We all look so funny with our babushka's.

Then there is the lunchroom shot of my boyfriend Jimmy, myself and my friend Louise. This one made it into the class book. Why I will never know. Just a glimpse of what 17 looks like again.

I've promised Denny I will try to find pictures from back then...

It was so nice to connect with him.... 

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