July 4th, 1980

I like writing stories for this blog, but sometimes, I’m stumped as to what to write about. Whenever that happens, I go to the hall closet and pull out the old photographs to peruse, because I always find something there! And, then I write about a thousand words. So here goes!  Today’s photo was taken on July 4, 1980.

 

Cindy, Pam, Bonnie, Linda, Dennis

  It’s a photo of me and my siblings, sitting from right to left in our birth order. Since I’m the youngest I am on the left wearing my ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) tee-shirt.

And, since I brought up the tee-shirt, I guess I’ll start this story with it. I got the ELO tee-shirt from my friend, Tina, who went to ELO’s famous “Big Night” concert tour in Pittsburgh in 1978 without me. I had wanted to go, and can’t remember now why I could not go, but Tina bought me a tee-shirt that I absolutely loved and that I only ever wore on special occasions.

Me, Pam, Bonnie, Linda and Dennis are sitting on the picnic table in my parents’ yard at their stone house. It was the 4th of July, which meant my parents were having a family picnic. In 1980, all five of us kids were married, and four of us had kids of our own, too. So, by then the picnics were not the same as when we were younger and all living at home.

But, back in the day, aunts, uncles, two grandmas and cousins from both mom and dad’s side of the families would come for the family picnic.  Us kids would play badminton or jarts (a game using huge darts with these dangerously long sharp points that you would throw and try to stick in a ring, that essentially would kill you or at least put your eye out if you were unluckily standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, or were in the path of an errant toss) or dodge ball or go gallivanting out in the woods at Devil’s Canyon (rock formations) and play hide and seek after it got dark. We also got to light sparklers after dark. Picture a handful of kids running around in the dark with an eight inch wand of pyrotechnic fuel reaching about 3000 degrees Farenheit in each hand! The men would drink beer, play horseshoes, then usually switch to poker after it got dark.  The women would set up all the eats, clean up all the messes, and finally retreat to the kitchen to chat (and laugh hysterically) about adult stuff after it got dark.

I remember one year my Uncle Bobby from the big city of Pittsburgh, knowledgeable in all big city things, spiked a watermelon with rum.

And, I remember snow flurries one year during the annual summer picnic, unusual even for Pennsylvanians.

So, back to the photo. I was 22 years old in 1980. And, I was married and already a mom, too.  Our cousins were grown with their own families and not too interested in our family 4th of July picnics anymore.  But, because of the photo, I can see that in 1980 all of us siblings were there together. I think Brian and I might have lived on a farm in a nearby community at the time. Pam and her husband Gary would be moving to Colorado soon. Bonnie and her husband lived just a few miles down the road. Linda was not too far away, living in Pittsburgh with her husband. I’m not sure where my brother Dennis was in his life in 1980.  He might have been living with his family in the old hometown, or home from Texas for a visit.  

There we all were, grown siblings with a long history of 4th of July gatherings posing for a picture for our mother on July 4, 1980.  My nephew, Dennis Jr, was 13. His sister, Lori was 11. My daughter Carrie was not quite four years old.  Her cousin, Shani was also three years old. Jason would be turning three in another month or so and Kara had recently celebrated her first birthday. My other nieces, Kelly and Shannon were not born yet.

We probably had hot dogs and hamburgers and pickled eggs, and potato salad, maybe some ham salad, corn on the cob and watermelon for this picnic fete.  My dad would have had the horse shoe pit set up. He and his son and the sons-in-law might have played some poker after it got dark. My sisters and I would have been sitting around the kitchen with our mom chatting (and laughing hysterically) after dark.

 

This picture was taken on the same day on the same picnic table. Cindy, Brian and Carrie.

 

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Sister Vacation, Part 2

I published a story last week about my visit to Phipp’s Conservatory In Pittsburgh, PA with my sister peeps.

Well, we did a lot more than just that on our yearly vacation together, but those sisters of mine wore me out and I’ve been just too pooped to write!

I tried to upload our Dance Heads DVD on You Tube, but it will not convert  to MPEG, so the world may not ever see our amazing performance!  But, embarrasing as many of them are, here are some of the pictures:

We rode the Rollo Coaster at least three times. I could scratch that off my bucket list, but have decided that I want to ride it again when I am 80!

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Summertime Blues

Yeah, sometimes I wonder what I’m gonna do
cause there aint no cure for the summertime blues…

 

I finally figured out why I am currently in a state of discombobulation. My space-time continuum is out of whack!

Ever since I got home from the sister vacation, time is playing tricks on my well being and I can’t find my rhythm.

I get up every morning at my usual time and then, it starts. The coffee perks slower, Sam takes longer to go pee, I’m late getting into the shower and then, must rush to get to work, where time stands still, but yet, at day’s end I still have not gotten through my to-do list, only to get home to find there is no food in the house, dinner is served late, the gardening chores aren’t completed, the house is a wreck and it is way past my bedtime.

And so, it occurs to me that I’m suffering from the Summertime Blues. According to the song of the same name (first recorded in 1958 and remade by a number of artists since then), there ain’t no cure. 

I wrote a post about the Dog Days of Summer a short time back   (http://tinyurl.com/l92ae9) In it, I talked about joyful childhood summer memories. But, that was then.

Now, my summer vegetable garden is dying. And, although there is still some produce to pick, the excitement of getting my first tomatoes is long, long gone. And, in order not to waste any of that produce, there is still a bit of canning to do, which is a lot of work for the meager end of season pickings. And, then there is the fall garden to prepare, while it is still a mere 90 degrees and humid outside. 

Many of my perennials are struggling to stay healthy no matter how much effort I spend on them. Most of the annuals are spent. And, the 50 gazillion or so house plants that thrived in the spring outdoors are now drooping. And, the weeding chores, easy to keep up with earlier in the season, are now overwhelming. 

Everything is in a funk.

 Just a few more weeks to go…

If you want to see Eddie Cochran’s performance of this song on You Tube, click on the link below.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAdZ4ZgH7Tk

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