Case of the missing drawings solved....

These are two drawings that were made by my father back around the days when he was dating my mother.
As you can tell he was a very talented artist.
These two drawings were always around my parents' house, and we looked at and admired often.
After I went to the States, they somehow got lost.
For years we argued about who had them and where they were.
The general consenses was that since I loved them so much I had taken them with me to America.
I don't remember taking them.
But every chance we get, the conversation gets around these two pictures...and we are left to wonder where the hell they dissapeared to.

Wellllll..........................

Today I get an email from my nephew from Spain (my sister's youngest, my favorite :>))

He was in Holland over the weekend and since he had the house to himself, so he went snooping.

:>)

Guess what he found!

I have no idea if my sister knew she had them, they must have been stuffed in a box somewhere.
Makes you wonder how thorough my nephew must have been snooping!

It really cracked me up to see these pictures. My father doesn't draw anymore, but in his younger days he would do portraits that would come out looking like photographs.

I hope my nephew takes care of them and maybe get them fixed up a bit and framed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other than that it has been quiet here in Cartersville.
I haven't been feeling well. Every evening I get sick to my stomach, Last night something was bouncing around the upper part of my tummy, you could see it move, felt like a baby kicking. SO weird!!!
I am trying to relax as much as I can, drink plenty of water, try not to eat alot of garbage. But I don't have much of an appetite anyway.

Monday morning I messed up my lower back again while shaving my legs.
Not too severely this time, thank God, Advil and rest made it feel better, but hoisting up the little bugger to change her diapers is getting to be a chore. Not to mention trying to keep track of her.

We built a 'fort' today under the small table, where she got cozy for a while, and when that novelty wore off, she decided to climb...all over the place...heart stopping action, folks! Whew!

I let her run around in her new bathing suit, but didn't feel like blowing up the new little
pool I got her. So we blew bubbles instead.

Did I mention that she now sings entire songs? Even one Dutch one?
She does a great version of Twinkle Twinkle little starrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....it's so damn cute!

She cracks us up with her new mutterings, like: it's hot in here! or: what's WRONG with you? (said to no one in particular), or watching her walk around with my sweater fuzz shaver, pretending it's a cell phone: hello? Oh, hi!, uhuh, uhuh, okay, bye!

SGMKJ!

Happy 63rd Anniversary, Mama and Papa

Engaged in 1944
They met on the street, on their way to work.
My father noticed her and whistled.
They stopped to talk, and that's how the whole thing started.


Married in 1946
Right after the war. There was nothing to buy. Everything required
coupons. They were lucky to get a bed frame for a single bed with a
double sized mattress.
THAT must have been romantic!

In Holland the first serious anniversary is the 12 1/2 year one.
Here we are, all dressed up with gelled hair.
We had a nice party with many relatives and friends
and we kids did skits,
sang songs and danced.

25th anniversary
I was a newlywed myself
My second trip back home.
Here we are, all together again.
My sister on the bottom, then me,
my brother from New Zealand
My brother and his then girlfriend
They were to be married a few days later
On top our parents.
This picture was taken after a few bottles of wine

:>)

40th anniversary.
We rented two vacation bungalows
so we would all fit.
Wheelie and the kids all made the trip.
Here my parents with my son top left, Bugs on my mom's lap.
The others are nephews and nieces

50th anniversary
We didn't think we would be celebrating this one.
Dad had a few heart attacks and had quadruple bypass surgery
only a few months before.
It was a sparkling day. We rented a Rolls Royce to drive them from their home to
my sister's, where we had a small party.
In the evening we all went out to dinner at a fancy restaurant.

60th anniversary
We rented a Party Tram which took us all around the old
neighborhoods in The Hague.
After that we had high tea at The Kurhaus in Scheveningen
It was the last time we were all together
with my brother and his wife and daughter from New Zealand,
My sister and her boys
My brother, his wife and the kids

And here they are today
63 years later
Going strong
I'm convinced their faith and their unshakable love for each other
is keeping them alive. Not to mention their wicked sense of humor.

We are all aware that we're not going to be celebrating many of these
milestones in the future, but boy, what a journey it has been.

Great job, mama and papa!!!

I love you!


SGMKJ!

Little nuggets of bliss

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Boo Booooooo

Happy Birthdayyyy tooooo youuuuuuu


She got her 'bikikle'

We all wore our Ernie party hats

Boo wore two!

What she always wanted.
A soccer ball
and BOOTS!

And of course there was CAKE!

It was a very small celebration. But good things always come in small packages.
The initial plan was to share a birthday barbecue on Sunday in the Park with PH's little brother on Sunday.
But when the forecast said "Rain on Sunday" PH's mom decided to cancel the affair.

What started as a "what now? dammit!" turned into a nice little visit with just the four of us at Bugs' house yesterday.

She decorated the living room, had balloons all over the place, and we had a nice Sesame Street Cake.

Boo was delighted with her new bike, her rain boots, and her soccer ball.

She was not nearly so impressed with all the new summer clothes she got from Oma and Opa, but what the hell. She did like the shoes/clogs (those plastic colorful monstrosities that are so popular these days).

The cake was also a hit. She blew out her candle in one fell swoop! and didn't wait for the cake to be cut and put on plates, she dug right in.

Then she started to show signs of overload, so we left. Perfect!

Nugget!!!!

Of course Bugs received a phone message from Nana. It prompted Bugs to (finally) start writing her a letter, and get things off her chest.

In the evening, as Wheelie and I were watching Jeopardy, it occurred to me that Bugs and I had not had much to say to one another for the past few months. I missed our talks, it seemed like we were somehow growing apart a bit. Perhaps not wanting to worry each other with our problems.
Then, low and behold, the phone rings and there she was, just like the old days, and we talked for 45 minutes.

Nugget!!!!

It seems that things are going in the right direction with them. PH is glad to be back at work at the restaurant, he started a savings account for their future, and he has been cooking for her at home, causing her to gain ten pounds! Yeah!!!

There is still the enormous hurdle of the Daddy-issue. Again I told her it was up to her to start making noise. Unless she talks with people who can help her, Daddy isn't going to contribute or be in Boo's life, and Daddy's mom is going to keep leaving those long winded messages.

She needs to get going on resolving the problem, so she can leave it behind her and start a fresh new life. She agreed, and since today she has another day off, she told me she would call the lawyer she talked with before, finish the letter to Nana and mail it.

While driving back home my little 'Maintenance Required' light came on in the car. I had been meaning to get an oil change before our trip, and was also contemplating getting new tires.

So I called to Honda dealer and got an appointment for 8am this morning.

One short 45 minutes wait, my friendly customer service man came to get me, and told me the car was ready to go.

I had forgotten that months ago they did the 90.000 tune up of the lofty sum of $897.00, and I was keeping my fingers crossed.
But to my delight, the entire deal came to only $30.03!!!

Everything was fine, I don't even need new tires! They changed the oil/filter, topped off all the fluids and checked the battery, and filled the tires.

NUGGET!!!!!

And now an entire day to do what we please.

Wheelie received the movie MILK from Netflix, so we will probably sit and watch that today. It's a film I really want to see, having 'lived through' the time when he and Mayor Moscone were murdered. It was one of those events that will always remind you 'where you were at that moment'
I still see myself and my co-workers at the office, standing stunned and unbelieving, listening to the news on the radio.

SGMKJ!

I've created a monster

The kids with their maternal grand mother

A few weeks ago Wheelie happened to open the mail and saw the bill for our Atlanta Journal, which we have subscribed to for ages.

Aside from the fact that the paper is getting smaller in size, that they combine the Business section with another, that the comics are crammed on one page, printed so small you need a magnifying glass to read them, and the straw that broke the camel's back, they decided to do away with the TV guide on Sunday.

Whaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So when he saw how much a subscription actually costs, he told me to cancel it.

Now think about this. This man takes all morning to read his paper. It's a 28 year tradition that we read the Sunday paper with our breakfast (the first 10 or so years in bed)

I mean, it was part of his daily routine! He was anal about it!

I cancelled the paper. It's true that it wasn't really much fun to read anymore, and he can't do the crossword puzzles either since his hand shakes too much to hold a pen.

The first week was weird. Not going out the front door in my robe to get the paper from the driveway. Not seeing him hunched at the table, reading. Not having to clean the table every day (man that paper gives off some dirt!)

This Sunday I couldn't stand it, I went to the store to buy one. I mean, the coupons make up for the two bucks I pay anyway. What a relief to be able to read my ads and cut my coupons.

But his schedule/routine has changed.

So he started farting around online, trying to find some old friends from way the heck back then.
I showed him how to navigate the websites (Classmates etc.) and for the past two weeks he's been spending pretty much all day on the computer.
Arghhhhh....

He found the home address of one person, and wrote that guy a snail mail letter. (I'll be damned! :>) We shall see.

From experience I know that once you start poking around like that things will usually happen, and you will find the most surprising people. Old friends, old loves, people you didn't know but knew you, relatives....

I'm glad he found another 'hobby', maybe now he realizes how it keeps ME curious and busy like that.

Now the other thing I need to confess is this. Last year we thought we found Wheelie's half brother's address (I write about that March 17 or somewhere around there)

When I went through some stuff in our safe (I wanted to dump some of my auntie's old stuff) I found birth certificates of everyone in Wheelie's family!

I discovered that we misspelled his brothers last name!!!
And I also now have a birth date/year, and place he was born!
I also found out that Johnny and Lucille were from the same father.

So I did another search online and found him (I think)

Without telling Wheelie, I wrote this guy a letter.

Arghhhhh...!!!! Yes! I did it! Consequences be damned!

I mailed it quickly yesterday before I could change my mind.

It's going to be interesting if or when he responds, and whether this is really his brother.

What I am very curious about of course (I mentioned that before too I think) is if this man also has MJD, and whether he kept in touch with his sister, who passed away, but the cause is unknown to us.

Yes, I am a curious little shit, I admit it. But hey! I need a little excitement in my life.

Sun is shining, Boo is napping.

Yahoo!

SGMKJ!

The street where we lived.........

The Dutch fellow who contacted me last week, looking for his old main squeeze, made this little film for me.

When I told him where I used to live, he took his bike and rode it to my old neighborhood, and filmed it.
Needles to say it cracked me up that he filmed it while he was riding, thank God it's a one way street.

I had just mentioned to Wheelie what a mess the old cherry blossom trees would make every spring. How the housefraus would piss and moan every time the blossoms would fall off, and how they would come out with their brooms and sweep them up.

I thought the trees would have been cut down by now. But as you can see, they were pruned over the years, giving them a thick trunk and lighter branches. It's a nice coincidence that he filmed it when they were blooming too. To me these trees are so fresh in my memory.

When the trees bloomed it meant we could wear socks again, instead of our long stockings or sweat-type pants (under our skirts). To feel the warmer air on your bare legs again. Time to take off our woolies, the extra cotton knit undershirts. Time to go out in the field and pick flowers again, hunt for pollywogs and stickelbaars and salamanders. And make little nets to catch water fleas to feed our little pets.

The street hasn't changed much. The street is still made of bricks, although repaved many times.

We lived in the three story building on the right at the beginning of the video. Right above where those ladies are sitting outside, we were in the middle apartment on the corner.

In the late 80's the buildings were all renovated, which was a horrific event for my mom. They pretty much had to gut the buildings while they lived there, constant hammering and drilling, it drove her crazy. The noise and the dust. My mom and dust don't mix well.:>)


The low buildings on the left at the beginning of the video were special apartments for seniors.

It make me laugh out loud to notice the speed bumps in the street.

So many wonderful memories from those years we lived there.

I wrote a long blog piece about that time a while back, and accidentally deleted it. I wish I still had it. It was one of my more inspiring stories.

We lived here from 1953 until my parents finally moved to Zoetermeer about ten years ago.
I was about 6 when we moved here. Our family was one of the first to move into the street, the street was still not paved, I remember.

The large building on the corner at the end of the video used to be a bare piece of land for years. It was a perfect place to play, lots of dirt, small hills, mud. The boys used to "motor cross" on their bikes and scooters, we used to dig for worms and just generally run amok there. The rain would create wonderful little lakes with lots of mud. It was called "het landje" a small triangle of land. Once my youngest brother got himself stuck in the mud up to his elbows, and my mom, eight months pregnant had to drag him out. All the kids yelling and hollering, and telling her to PULL...

The first picture shows a birds eye view of the neighborhood before they built the houses. Our street was one of the three at an angle, in the middle of the picture you can see the triangle of "het landje"

The next picture shows the street in 1953, right around the time we moved there. And who knows, that "bakfiets" you can see might even have been my father, moving our stuff. Sure looks bare.

The third picture is lil ole me with my jump rope and my rubber boots on. My green coat, which my mom sewed from an old coat of hers. According to her I was very lonely in those days before the other families moved in.

The third picture shows the apartment my son and I lived in (upstairs, a two bedroom apartment) when we went back home in 1974.

You can clearly see how much the neighborhood has changed. From a street full of large families, and many children (last count we remembered about 25 of them), it went first to a street full of old people, then the foreigners moved in, then people from India, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and, I'm sorry to say, some riff raff from the inner city.

For my parents it became an unbearable place to live, with the drunken fights and the and loud parties, the strong potent cooking smells permeating the entire building.

The family downstairs started cooking onions every morning at nine o'clock. At first it was like: hmmm...someone is frying onions, yumm...but when mom discovered it was going to be a daily thing, it drove her nuts.

So next year this street and the streets around it will be torn down, just like the other streets in the neighborhood. It will make way for a new group of homes, more modern, more expensive.

My sister asked me the other day if I would come back and live in Holland again. I told her no way, it has all changed too much. It would be like living in a strange country.

But the memories will always make me smile.
I am so grateful to have had a happy and carefree childhood there in the Beverweerdstraat.

Thanks John for the extra effort of making the video.

SGMKJ!

Dancing Fool

A little house, a little wind, a large oaktree

Saturday I drove by this house on the older main drag in town and noticed this disaster.
I took the picture while I was driving.
The house was completely demolished by the huge oak tree. From the houses on either side you can see that this is a row of little cottages that are the old core of Cartersville.
I've seen them take down four or five big oak trees along this road in the past few months. The drought and now the rain makes for some dangerous situations.

I've never seen a house so completely smashed. The guy who lived there was unharmed, thank God. His son was staying at his mom's house, otherwise he wouldn't have made it out.

Today was nice and quiet. I had to run a few errands this morning but I planted myself in bed right after I came home and spent it reading and watching TV.
My back feels better. It's really my hip, or the spot right next to my tailbone. Bulging disk, arthritis, who knows.

But the dogwoods are blooming and that makes me happy.

The forecast is temps in the 30s tonight with more wind and perhaps some snow.

No way!

SGMKJ!

Now that didn't hurt, did it.....

I don't know what's gotten into me today. Call it divine energy, call it being just plain fed up, but today I asserted myself and put my foot down.

Last night my back went out. I called Bugs to ask her to find someone else to babysit today.

Well....of course this request was met with the regular hums and uhhs, and ahhs.

She would try. Since her friend was already going to sit for the evening (they're going to a concert, didn't know that) she would ask her if she could sit all day. Otherwise she would have PH sit, since he wasn't supposed to work.

Calls this morning in tears, can't find anyone to babysit. Her boss wants PH to work (he's not needed) the boss also told her if PH babysits during the day he must work in the evening (neither restaurants are open tonight) The boss is a freaking jerk, that man has serious people issues.

SO, feeling a little better thanks to Advil and a hot shower I told her to bring Boo by. It's only half a day after all, most of which she will sleep her nap.

BUT.....

I sat Wheelie down and told him this crap is going to stop. He agreed.
I made up my mind, and told him about my plans.

So with a bit of trepidation in my loins I awaited her arrival this morning.

I took a deep breath and sat her down. In my friendliest and most mom-like voice I told her that as of May 1, I was only going to be available to babysit all day for two days a week. I will be able to pick Boo up from daycare in the afternoons, but other than that, two days will be my limit.

The news was received with a lighthearted: ok...

I told her there was no excuse for her to sit on her butt regarding daddy. Since our local sheriff or police are dragging their feet to arrest him on a warrant that was issued December 10th, it's up to her to light a little fire under their asses, and that of the folks at Children's Services.
Things won't happen by osmosis. And the money she has coming will come in damn handy to pay for child care.
She agrees, and knows that Mom is adamant and is putting her size 7 foot down this time.

Then I took a deep breath again and told her that her father and I are going to take a week's vacation the first full week of May.

SO

There

!!!!!

After she left and after Boo was tucked in for her nap I got on the computer and booked us a nice hotel in Hilton Head S.C. for 5 days.

SO

There

!!!!!

Now, wasn't that easy?

*lol*

SGMKJ!

Get your popcorn ready...some old videos

Okay!

I was rearranging my video shelf when I found this little gem.
I had some super 8mm movie film put on video a while back. Since I have no inkling as to put these on the computer or on a CD, I simply played the videos on my TV and hand held the camera and filmed it.

So the quality is piss poor...who cares...haha

Start with the one on the bottom.

This was taken right after I came to the States. I worked for Iggy's parents who had a breakfast/lunch restaurant. This is them coming out after closing. My uncle drove a red VW station wagon which he bought in Germany.
Incidentally, ihat was the very first car Iggy attempted to teach me to drive in.

It shows the house they/we lived in, the dog (Pucky) playing with Iggy's mom; some of my paintings, and my other auntie Willy (the one holding up a jar of syrup as she walks towards the camera (must have been pancake night, haha) She was the auntie I took care of till her death, already three years ago.

Then a short show of Iggy coming home from school, dropped off by his friend Lew Mason.
How young he was there...
Also on this clip a short visit to Puri (reading his Racing Form, of course) and my little cottage. We had the finches outside, the Australian sheepdog's name was Hey You. He belonged to our land lady.

This was in 1968.

The second video, the one above, was taken during one of those weekends Puri and I "had the kids" They were 4 and 5 years old at the time, truly beautiful little munchkins. It was a wonderful day. This was at the San Francisco Zoo some time before were were married. I recall that weekend we couldn't take the kids back into Berkeley because of the riots there and the National Guard wasn't letting anyone in.

The first clip is our wedding in 1969.

Oh how young we all look. All the old 'record' friends. My mom and dad, so tanned and smart looking and YOUNG. Me so damn thin and my hair so pretty. Puri with his ridiculous outfit. He hated it, but a suit was even more out of the question. Again the kids, so sweet and little, Maureen and Dick, who stood up for us, who so graciously let us have our wedding at their beautiful home in the Oakland hills.

Quiet here this Saturday. My back is acting up so I am hoping that Boo will take a long nap.

I keep thinking it's Sunday...

SGMKJ!

Spring in Holland - just pictures - enjoy!

I dedicate this day's blog to my dear cousin Margo
in Australia

Cheer up darling, het fluitekruid staat langs de sloot.

Love you!

Kievit bloem

Judas penning

pussywillow

Ereprijs

sneeuwklokje

fluitekruid

tulip

seringenberg

seringen

Pinksterbloem

Paardenbloem

Narcissen

Madeliefjes

Hyacinten

Forsythia

Fluitekruid

Krokus

Boterbloem

Blauwe druifjes

SGMKJ!