Blizzard of '78

If you lived in New England in 1978 and were old enough to remember, you'd remember the Blizzard of '78.

In the span of approximately 30 hours, my small Massachusetts town was hit with almost 3 1/2 feet of snow. We lived on a main road in town, but our house was set back on a hill. We watched many a car try to get up the hill, to no avail. As a result, my parents opened their home to many of the stranded folks while waiting for the roads to be successfully cleared.

I don't remember too many of the people that stayed at our house overnight, but I do remember that my mother made hot cocoa in a huge, electric pot to warm them all up. I also remember that my Dad took me and my older sister out with him the day after the snow ended. He was a supervisor for a local chain of convenience stores and many of them had not been shoveled out. We spent almost 6 hours out there going from store to store and shoveling out the doors in the front and the back.

The following week my Dad told my sister and I that the company wanted to pay us for helping out shoveling. We were so excited - even more so when we got $21.00! That was a ton of money back then for a couple of young teens. Looking back after I became a parent, I realized that the "company" didn't pay us for anything - it was my Dad who provided our payday. For a man with 5 kids, that had to have been a lot of money. I can remember pretty much every hour of that day, probably because even though it was a lot of work, I got to spend it with my Dad.

Here are some shots from that storm.

Theme Thursday - Friend

While I am known to be a huge Friends fan, this part of an episode was probably one of THE funniest I have ever seen.

Theme Thursday ~ Late

Halloween 1983

Four months since Dad passed away.

I’m 17 and two month’s “late.” What the hell am I going to do? How am I going to tell my mother that I could possibly be pregnant?

Thoughts running through my mind included how can I take care of this without getting caught? Am I going to have this baby if I am pregnant? What about adoption?

I ask my mother “How "late" do you have to be before you start to worry?” She responds “How "late" are you?” I reply “Two months.” She said “Worry now.”

One week later I’m in a Planned Parenthood facility with my mother. How ironic – Planned Parenthood – NOT. It’s confirmed, I’m pregnant. My mother asks “Who’s the father?” Me: “You don’t know him.” Again, racing thoughts – “What to do, what to do?? Someone please tell me what to do?”

My mother says “You have to decide what you are going to do.” I tell her that I need more time. She says “fine” and walks away.

Now what? I’ve graduated high school, thankfully. I think it would be frowned upon that a Catholic school student got pregnant. And had put off college for a year. Apparently, I’ll now be putting off college indefinitely. What to do?

May 12, 1984 – the day before Mother’s Day

My baby was due on April 28, 1984 - yup, he is "late." I go into labor at 6 p.m. on May 12, 1984 and go to the hospital at 9 p.m. where they promptly sent me home – you aren’t ready, I’m told. Back in at 11 p.m. and delivered a healthy boy at 11:34 p.m.

If I terminated the pregnancy, I never would’ve experienced the never-ending struggles that I had as a single mother. 11 years as a single parent meant paying bills "late"(if at all), "late" getting him to school because we had no car...but, somehow, we got by.


November 19, 2009

Now...much "later"...My son is 25 now. Married, college graduate and now buying a house. Bright blue eyes, curly blond hair. Looks just like me, except I’m not blond or blue eyed. If I had given him up for adoption, I never would’ve looked at a blond haired, blue eyed child and wonder if he was mine. Being “late” was one of the best thing that ever happened to me.

File this under: No Duh!

Headline on CNN:

Dr. Gupta: Food tied to teen obesity.

Really? I never would've guessed that.

See the whole thing here

Theme Thursday - Phone

The room was quiet. The grandfather was sitting in the corner, in his favorite chair; the grandmother standing, peering into the candy dish for a treat. The two young girls were sitting, waiting, for the phone to ring.

The grandfather had told them that there was a call when he was the only one home. The caller had said that the young girls' father was being rushed to the hospital - heart attack. He was waiting for additional information.

The phone rang. The grandfather picked it up and said hello. He didn't say anything other than "Okay, I'll tell them." He hung up the phone and said to his granddaughters, "I'm sorry, he didn't make it. Your Dad is dead." The safe, secure life the girls' had known was now over, in the ring of a phone.

Moon

Goodnight Moon

I have three children, although my oldest is now 25 and married. I had never heard of Goodnight Moon until I married and had 2 more children. My husband loved the book and every night he or I would read books to the kids and always ended with that one. Now that they are 11 and almost 14, the days of reading to them at night have long since gone; but I can still quote from the book...

In the great green room
there was a telephone
and a red balloon
and a picture of
the cow jumping over the moon
and there were three little bears sitting on chairs
and two little kittens
and a pair of mittens
and a little toy house
and a young mouse
and a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush
and a quiet old lady whispering "hush"

Goodnight room
Goodnight moon
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon
Goodnight light and the red balloon
Goodnight bears and goodnight chairs
Goodnight kittens and goodnight mittens
Goodnight clocks and goodnight socks
Goodnight little house and goodnight mouse
Goodnight comb and goodnight brush
Goodnight nobody goodnight mush
and goodnight to the old lady whispering "hush"
Goodnight stars, goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere.

A simple theme and a favorite memory.

Theme Thursday - Castle

Castle

Nathan Fillion is currently starring in the ABC show, Castle. He plays a mystery novelist named Rick Castle, who hooks up with a police detective, Kate Beckett, to help inspire him in his creative writing. Although they are paired as many characters have been in the past – with the intent to have the two characters pair up romantically. I hope that they don’t do that in this instance since they don’t really have romantic chemistry but more of a brother/sister relationship. The tendency with television shows is to pair people up for sexual tension – no matter what. This should be avoided for this show.

The fabulous Susan Sullivan plays Castle’s mother and the talented Molly Quinn, plays his daughter Alexis Castle. The rest of the actors who play the co-workers of Beckett are well cast and bring a lot of humor to the show. If you haven’t had the opportunity to check this show out, you should – it keeps you from being bored.

As an aside, what is most important in relation to Mr. Fillion is the charity he co-founded, Kids Need to Read, which provides books for underfunded libraries. You can find more information out here .