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Santa climbing the fire ladder into Gimbels

So last week my company had our Christmas luncheon, and my boss asked everyone for Christmas memories. I related a story about seeing Santa come out of a house near my Uncle Ott’s house coming home from church one Christmas Eve. The one I should have told was the memories of going into Philly to shop and see the Christmas displays at Gimbels, Lit Brothers and Wanamakers! For us boomers the Christmas season began in the Delaware Valley when at the end the Thanksgiving Day Parade, Santa made the climb up to whatever floor he was stationed on! Yes, those were the days before the Malls drove customers to the suburbs and my family made the trek to these stores almost every Holiday season and it was magical. The trains, the snow and lights and Santa all made a childs eyes light up! I’m sorry but the Malls don’t even come close to the magic that these stores created! Of course it helped that I was a child!! read more

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Let’s all take time today to reflect on those things that for which we are thankful. For me that includes my family, my wife and children and their wives, boyfriend, and friends. While our family has grown smaller this year with the passing of my mother, it also has grown larger as Meaghan and her family have joined us on life’s journey. We welcome her and her family and wish Andrew and her the best as the set sail on their journey.

I’m thankful that our great country saw fit to continue to move Forward and not regress to the policies of the past! I am thankful this morning that there is a cease-fire in Gaza that held through the night and I hope it will last longer. I only wish that the war could end for the people of Syria! read more

So today is one of those days  when you feel older and it’s not your birthday. See today is my youngest child Elizabeth’s twenty-second birthday! Seems like only yesterday my wife was pleading for drugs during labor! Then Edward got in trouble  because he was afraid to hold her! So tiny, so fragile!  Here’s one of my favorite pictures with Nick holding Lizzie the next morning, and Andrew right behind him!

Anyway, she’s all grown up now and we’re super proud of all her accomplishments! We just received a pamphlet in the mail today, telling all about graduation day at William and Mary. It seems like just yesterday, we were sitting in William and Mary Hall for the welcoming of her Freshman class! Can it really be  four years ago? read more

So on November 5, 1920 a  murder was committed at the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly, NJ. The victims were the Warden Harry King and an inmate Charles Vernon Bartlett. They were blugdeoned to death by inmate Harry Asay. Asay was serving a 90 day sentence for a drunk and disorderly arrest. It was his second time serving time. The previous time he had served his complete sentence, this time he made it one day!! My wife is third cousins twice removed with both Bartlett the victim and Asay the murderer, which is why we were at the Warden’s Office tonight for a lecture about the murder! read more

In the midst of writing about the wedding yesterday, I forgot to thank Andrew and Meaghan for the thoughtful gifts we received the day before at the rehearsal luncheon! My gifts included really neat baseball cufflinks to be worn at the wedding, a very cool pillow with vintage baseball cards on it!

But the best present can be seen in the photograph at the top of this post. A framed program from the 1964 World Series between the St Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees! And now for the rest of THE STORY.(Bet you can’t wait) My mother’s first cousin Barney Schultz pitched for the Cardinals that year and he was one of the reasons that the Cardinals overtook the Phillies! He was a call up in August and had a 1.64 ERA and saved 14 games during the Cards drive to the World Series! Because he was on the team, I got to go to my one and only World Series game, he got tickets for us in the left bleachers. It was me, my Mom and Dad and my cousin Jimmy Ashton (a Yankee fan). The game was a pitching duel through nine innings, both Curt Simmons for the Cards and Jim Bouton for the Yanks had given up one run! The Cards went down in the top of the tenth without scoring and Barney came in relief of Simmons. He threw one pitch and Mickey Mantle drove it deep to right field for the game winning home run!! Not only did the home run win the game, but it was the home run that broke the record for the most home runs hit by one player in World Series play!! It was Mantle’s sixteenth! read more

Ok pop quiz, which member of the wedding party has it the easiest? If you answered the Father of the Groom. I do believe that you are correct!  You don’t have to do much, except stand around have our picture taken and receive congratulations!! You have your clothes  all picked out for you, unlike the mother of the groom, who has to stress about her dress, plan the rehearsal dinner and then light one of the candles for the unity candle, all I had to do was say “We will!   We gained another wonderful daughter-in-law as Meaghan and Andrew were married today! A beautiful day, a terrific venue and a great ceremony all added up to make it a wonderful day! read more

So yesterday we ran around getting everything set up for my mom’ memorial service which was held today. With her many lists my wife did a wonderful job of coordinating everything, and making sure the day was perfect. She succeeded.  The service today was very nice.  The minister Craig Waetke give a beautiful eulogy and several members of the audience gave some nice personal remembrances.

The Memorial Table

The insert for the Memorial Program

The top photo is the beautiful memorial table of pictures that my wife created and the second is the insert that she made to be placed in the Memorial program. The verse at the bottom was from a hymn that my mom had wanted sung at the service, but the minister said it was a Catholic hymn and not in the church’s hymnal. He said that the organist had the music for the hymn and would play it at the beginning of the service. read more

So let’s see how I did yesterday on my October happiness resolutions concerning Boosting Energy-Vitality-

Go to sleep earlier – No I didn’t go to sleep earlier, I was still too upset about the debates!  X!

 exercise/eat energy foods – Ok so I may not have eaten a lot of energy foods, but I did get back to cereal with blueberries in the morning! Then I read this article about how to:Fight Fatigue with Energy Foods. Now it’s not a resolution but it helps with energy I ran four miles in under 40 minutes! So I get a check! read more

The Old Man at the Record Exchange

So my wife and I spent this afternoon in Princeton and Allentown, NJ. First, I went to the Princeton Record Exchange to get whatever I could find for my birthday, we then visited Labyrinth Books on Nassau Avenue, on the way home we went to the cemetery at the Allentown Presbyterian Church and we ended the night with dinner at Bung’s. It was a nice birthday afternoon!  Oh, while I was in the Princeton Record Exchange, my wife was wandering around a very big cemetery about a block away!

Here’s my favorite tombstone that she took a picture of today, taken at the Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Allentown read more