Hello August

Dear August,

Just a short note to let you know how much I am welcoming your arrival.  I have been looking forward to seeing (and feeling) you since the heat wave.  July is an "OK" month but it has nothing on you.  July brings me heat, fireworks, bugs, humidity and the second half of the taxes....I hate them all. You bring me cooler nights, the Beach Boys, school shopping, holiday planning, catalogs and FOOTBALL....!!! Welcome back!

Sincerely,
One of your biggest fans:-)


 This Sunday, a mere 3 nights away, I will curl up, just for kicks, in my recliner and relax with a few punts, passes and penalties.  At this early stage of the preseason, I don't even care who's playing....every team is my favorite team.  Even if I "hate" you by December, I love you in August!  Scores won't matter, players won't matter and winners won't matter...All that matters is you're on the field and it's football season.  I already have my fantasy list for fantasy football.  The last few years I have really sucked but it's fun and it keeps me "up" with all the rosters, all those on the DL and I enjoy losing to some of my other friendly, football FANatics!  My pre-season favorites are:
My head says keep watching the Ravens, the Saints and the Patriots.....My heart says Go Giants, Go Jets and Go Bills.  It will be an interesting year to watch (kinda)  Belichick's New England Patriots. In my estimation, they are the Anthony Weiners of football.  Maybe this will be the year they don't cheat, nobody murders anyone and Bill decides to throw in his Trayvon Martin look-alike outfit and dress like a real coach.  Although, as my grandma always said, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!"
Needless to say I have the preseason and regular season schedules printed and hanging proudly on mu bulletin board.  I will also reserve my Saturday afternoons for the college gridiron although I don't exactly have bowl aspirations for the Syracuse Orangemen...maybe all the new brooms will sweep clean....Maybe S.S. at S.U. will take the A.C.C. by storm...As they say...On any given Sunday (or Saturday:-).....

Birthday Buzz

The buzz today is birthdays, birthdays, birthdays!!!!! Some of the best folks entered the world on July 31st.  My Dad in 1920, Lee in 1950 and my Uncle Randy. Not sure when Uncle Randy was born but I think a year or two before Dad....I'll check it out on my cemetery visit later today.  Thankfully, one of these birthdays we can celebrate right here on earth. Lee's cake tonight may resemble a porcupine as it's small and we're adding all SIXTY-THREE candles!   We figured we'd better have a cake as he hasn't been good enough this year to have earned gifts.  He started smoking again and for that there are NO rewards.  It's tough living in this household....just ask Bailee about her trip to Disney...oh, you can't cuz Grumpy Grandma cancelled it after a little bathroom snafu...in Kindergarten.no less:-)  Hey, if nothing else....When Grandma talks....everybody listens....even if they don't like what they hear!!!

         Happy Birthday Lee, Dad, Uncle Randy, Gene Ward, Cody Gaston, Cindy Dickenson and all of those wonderful souls that share today's BIRTH day:-)

Catalogs

The greatest sales gimmick in the world: Catalogs.  The post office must hate me, my desk must hate me, my bank account certainly hates me (it even briefly turned red yesterday:( and I'm pretty sure birds must hate me for the trees that have been sacrificed for catalogs!  The only ones who don't hate me are those who reap the rewards (and gifts) from the "must have" items I purchase from those very same catalogs. I've made a new rule: When the pile gets above 2 feet (and yes, I measure) I will go through them and discard some.  Sometimes it's only a couple but it does reduce the pile to under 24 inches.  Sometimes I never even knew I needed the items before I saw them in the catalog!!  The time for the catalog rush is beginning.  This morning I had 7 in my mail box. I promptly threw TWO in the post office trash bin (shhh..they were duplicates) and determined that I would undoubtedly need something in the other five.  I was right!  It's time for back to school, Halloween, birthday, birthday party planning (2 this year) and then of course, the granddaddy of all holidays, Christmas.  We've determined themes for birthdays so I can start my search for the perfect décor, I have already received some "I wants" for Christmas...and these were from the 30+ age group:-)  My favorite season of all is Fall and the decoration ideas are literally FALLing into my head.  I can't wait until it's time to change the mantle and ready it for back to school.  I'm thinking apples and rulers and crayons and buses but who knows what will end up living there until leaves fall.
I have some favorites:  Grandin Road, Lamps Plus, Birthday Express, Bronners, Ballard Designs, Thirty-One, Young Explorers and MacKenzie Childs.... ...............oh heck....all of them I guess!   It IS getting time to purge the pile........ no worries though, we have 6 inches to go:-)

I love Nature!

Loving nature seems to be a thing around here lately.  Bailee has chosen that theme for her family birthday gig in November, their new playroom at home will be decorated with trees, clouds, bugs (fake) and all kinds of things that shout "outside!" and this week is the annual nature festival.......................in Summerhill.  This morning, my breakfast pal asked, full well knowing the answer, if I was heading to the festival this week.  The Renaissance Festival, the Jazz Fest, the Antique Fest???? Nope, the Nature Festival at our very own Empire Haven Nudist Camp.  He gave me the article to read maybe hoping to peak my interest.  With all the festivities planned, I can BAREly stay away.  Missing the hula hoop contest will break my heart, I've always wanted to learn how to juggle and missing the fashion show (WTF) will instill total disappointment.  Add to that a free skin cancer check (that's a lot of skin to check) and I can HARDly imagine staying away! With over 300 attending from all over the eastern US, the Kodak moments would be more than I could physically "bare" (there I go again...half cocked!)  In 61 years, I have visited Empire Haven a "handful" (and most weren't) of times.  Once we ventured up for a pancake breakfast.  In the dining room, covered bottoms were required....covered tops (although many hung to the bottom) were not!  You placed your order at the inside window and gave your first name.  They would call you when it was ready.  The very first order announced was, "Dick"......of course it was... Believe me, I couldn't make this up.  I very nearly peed my pants.  After breakfast, we were given a tour of the facility... our guides were unshamelessly undressed.  We waited for our turn to tour on the benches surrounding the pool.  We were soon greeted by our guide.  We were sitting, he was standing...eye level wasn't pretty....I've seen bigger Vienna sausages...  By the end of our visit, my stomach muscles were so constricted from holding in huge belly laughs you could have bounced a quarter off them.... first and last time ever..  Needless to say, we declined the membership papers but assured them we would pass along the virtues of nudism and the amazing opportunities that Empire Haven provides it's campers. We have been telling the tales ever since....

Aunts and Uncles

Today is Aunts and Uncles Day...... the cards and good wishes are pouring in....not!  Regardless of my role as Aunt...which I think I perform (generally) pretty well, it's sad for me to realize I have but one living Aunt...and she lives in Georgia now.  Our family is relatively small!  I had 3 uncles and 3 aunts who were related by the gene pool. Thankfully none came from the shallow end and all, especially my uncles, were pretty cool.  I have special memories from each of them♥  I also had several aunts and uncles who were relatives but scattered throughout different limbs of our family tree. They were great as well but I will remember them as always being old.  I think that many of my favorite uncles weren't really uncles at all but closer than most family.  The "Hewitt" women were never known for their "fuzziness!" The "Hewitt" men were pretty cool but my uncles by love and association really rocked. Two were extra special and I think I've extolled their virtues in the uncle department before.....but they bear remembering again and again.  They would be my Uncle Dick (White) and my Uncle Lou (Ettinger!)  Uncle Dick was my Dad's very best friend.  They lived in Cooperstown but Uncle Dick grew up in Kelloggsville.  His Dad was the head of the welfare department in the county and one of his sister's was our high school librarian and the Mom of one of my besties!  The fourth of July was my favorite with Uncle Dick. While Mom was preparing fried green tomatoes for breakfast on the screened in porch, Uncle Dick would take me out in the boat to shoot off Independence morning fire crackers.  I can picture it as if it were yesterday......and it was over 50 years ago!  My Uncle Lou was the best host in the entire world.  He had a cabin cruiser..............on Owasco Lake.  When we would go for rides, it was like being on the Queen Mary...there was a kitchen and a bathroom.............on a boat...wow!  Back at his beautiful home on the lake was a bar where there was actually soda (we called it "pop" back then) on tap.  I remember him asking one day what I'd like to drink. I said "root beer!"  Sorry there was no root beer BUT the very next visit he asked, "Would you like an ice cold mug of root beer?"....That's just the kind of uncle he was.....root beer was on tap!
So, as with any family, blood is merely what you have in your veins....it's what you have in your heart that makes love (and family)......especially if it's firecrackers and root beer!!!♥♥

Dad the Grad

While perusing boxes of hastily sorted pictures and memorabilia, I came across some cool things... at least cool for me... I may be just one of one who really gives a hoot but here they are. His yearbook just confirmed what I always knew, he had a great sense of humor and hopefully this is one trait I acquired, along with his shitty eyesight which I curse him for daily...Braille is difficult to learn :-( Remember how we always had the most popular, best athlete, most likely to succeed etc. section? They also did so way back 75 years ago. Dad was mentioned in a few categories:  Best Looking Boy...nope, not Dad but... under "Thinks so" - Gordon Hewitt.  Now that's funny...I'd don't care who you are. He looked pretty much like Alfalfa with curly hair and glasses. Best Politician - Gordon Hewitt, Biggest Apple Polisher - Yep, Gordon Hewitt and finally the most perplexing to me, Most Conceited - Gordon Hewitt !  They blew that one big time... Probably the least ego plagued man I ever knew!  The "Prophecy" was written by Majorie Bodine as a vacation return to Moravia 10 years later (1948). Before leaving town, she "discovered that Gordon Hewitt was also living here and had a fine office in the bank building where he had commenced his lawyer's practice (her spelling, not mine). Realizing I couldn't go home without seeing an old friend, I made a short stop at his office. Business had progressed to an extent that a secretary was none other than Julienne Kneedler. She had graduated from CCBI in Syracuse and was drawing a good salary from Mr. Hewitt. While I was still there, Naomi Ely came in, and I had wondered vaguely what had taken place with her during my absence. Upon leaving, Mr. Hewitt confided to me that Naomi was applying for her another divorce. She had married twice but still was not satisfied."   The class of '38 all had a sense of humor!!  Gordon Hewitt was also the sports editor of MO-HI-SKL, their version of our Echoes!  This is much more the GLH who came to "be"than a stuffy old lawyer:-)  Dad loved baseball and basketball...There's a line from their sports pages that says: 
In the finals, Moravia opposed Sherwood, the league winners....... Moravia was again "on" and led comfortable until the end of the 4th quarter when Sherwood pulled up to tie 23-23. "Buzz" Hewitt tossed a high arching shot through the meshes to make Moravia the County Champions.  OK....goosebumps:-)



Dad's 1938 Yearbook

Dad's Graduation diploma cover- The cover was dark blue suede lined in satin....

The newspaper announcement of Dad being Valedictorian extolled his virtues as participating in basketball, baseball, class leadership roles, orchestra, band and member of the Blue and White school newspaper. His fellow salutatorian was Julia "Ruth" Denman.  Wow, I thought she was always 80;-)



Finally, His Valedictorian speech♥ which I think I will cherish.  The original is typed on his first (and probably only as a young man) typewriter. He professed, even at 17 how difficult it was going to be to hard say good bye to so many who had become "very dear friends."  He was sure that their time together as classmates were "very happy ones that made us as classmates, a little nearer and dearer to one another than mere friends!"

Yep, that's my Dad♥

Purging

The dictionary says purging is the act of removing by cleansing..as to purge or rid a sin.  My laundry room/pantry was indeed a sin.  In 5 short years, it looked like I could be a mark on "Hoarders!"  I lay part of the blame to my Mother. I know that's bad!  When we emptied her house after 55 years, there were many things I just couldn't make myself part with.  The old battered silver bowls we'd eat popcorn from while watching Ed Sullivan, the cute little round soup spoons that Dad used every Saturday when he had soup with his "Buzzy burger," both old fashioned meat grinders that screwed to the counter top to make roast beef hash, almost anything silver, (plated or sterling) and every single piece of good "silverware" whether or not it matched anything else.....  Some of the items I can attribute to TV.  I needed a George Foreman grill.  I needed a juicer and I needed a quesadilla maker....NOT!  I'm pretty sure I didn't need to save the last 7 napkins from any and every birthday or Christmas gathering and I'm fairly certain that 14 baskets are unnecessary. 
Contrary to Hoarders, I have yet to find any dead animals or (un)edible food!  I have placed several items on a local virtual yard sale site.  I've had one taker for one item.  I will be patient until the end of the day and tomorrow will be Thrift Shop drop off.  There are a couple of items that I know I will reclaim but if I purge myself of at least the George Foreman sin, I will be one step closer to redemption....Pray for me!