Christmas 2010

I wasn't sure about how Christmas would end up, since everything and everyone is in some transition. Bt it turned out great.

We went down to DC to have Christmas with Sean. He was worried because his place is so small, but with Mike, Liam, me and Dakota, it was just cozy. It was nice weather driving down. And I got a parking spot right outside Sean's door. This is amazing for DC, so I felt things were going to bode well. We got a cozy and had a few drinks and got some pizza for dinner. We watched a couple of movies and we all went to sleep. Mike got the bed, because if I slept on it so would Dakota. So I made a cushy bed on the floor, Sean got the futon and Liam made a bed next to the computers.

Christmas morning there was snow flurries when I took the dog for a walk.

There had been some fund raiser with Christmas trees on the block where Sean lives, and there were three left sitting along the sidewalk, two small and one big one. I had been looking at this small one, thinking we should have a tree. Sean said he didn't think we should take it. But here it was Christmas morning and this little tree, who had been cut down was left abandoned. It looked so sad. So I picked it up and took it home.

Sean had gone to his bed to continue sleeping, so I set up the little tree. Sean had bead necklaces, Mike calls them Jerry beads ( people who watch Jerry Springer will know) sitting on the bookshelf so I draped them around the tree. Then I started cutting out little snowflakes out of paper and red wrapping paper. The end result was this cut little tree. We put the gifts under it. I was so pleased. The tree was happy too. And Sean was happy to see the little Christmas tree all decorated up.

We opened our gifts. I'm set for chocolate for a while. For dinner I was going to make my famous Lasagna. OH no, we forgot the mozzarella cheese.. oh no it is a major ingredient

Sean comes to the rescue, first he walked to the corner, missed the store closed a hour ago.I call and say hey what about pizza places...no they are closed too.He finally found a Giant store and got the precious cheese...

The lasagna was great with garlic bread and wine...We watched ELF afterwards.

It was a great Christmas Sunday we came back to my current home where Ken and Dewey, Robin, Kelly and Josh were festive. We had the rest of the lasagna and chocolate..yea...

And we include all our friends and family who are here and there, we love you and cherish you and wish you a wonderful New Year...

How I spent my summer part 2

Half of the summer was spent in Avalon. I only went to the beach two times but the salt air was healing. I have a great sunset pix. I really do love the shore...and I really hate what the Jersey Shore reality shows have done for the women. We either are bitches and air head dim wits...most Jersey girls are smart...

The other half was spent in Amish Land. I am in the deep hills of Amish farmlands. Four miles south of Strasburg, PA. The buggies go by. I feel for the horses going up the big hills pulling the wagons. Then there is that "fresh country air". If you haven't been in these parts, the Amish fertilize their fields with fresh manure....ummm, ummmm good!!!!

There is a pix of Agatha in the trees where I camp. One day a hot air balloon floated by. It was so low that it scraped the top of the trees. You can see the people. We all worried that it was going to crash, but found out it was landing near by. This is near where the movie "Witness" was filmed and where those young children where killed at the Nichel mine Amish school.

The campground is quiet during the week and fills up during the weekend. Many NJ people are here with permanent trailers. Just can't get away from them....

There was a big fire a few weeks ago down the valley. A barn burnt down. I expect an Amish barn raising party soon. I will probably miss it. Right now the farmers are harvesting the corn. Wagons and horses and some machine that cuts the stalk. They have been working hard. The pumpkins are out already too. I really like it here. On Saturday they have blue grass music under the tree...it is fun.

The best part was Sean and Courtney came up to camp for Labor day weekend. The pitched a tent behind the RV. On Saturday we walked around Lancaster and went to the Farmers Market, art galleries, antique stores and a coffee shop. Liam, Sean's Dad, came too. The Saturday night we went for a ride on the Strasburg Railroad. It is a steam locomotive. We took the evening Wine and Cheese tour. It was great fun. We really liked the wine glasses..Sean can tell you that story...

Now in White Oak campground...the acorns are falling like bombs but the evenings are so nice.

How I spent my summer part one

It was a weird summer. It all started in Texas, when my Dad called saying he was not well and could use some help, so I drove the RV to Avalon NJ. After a month he was better and said he didn’t need me there. So I drove the RV to Lancaster County and stayed at the White Oak campground in Strasburg. Of course we all knew Dad needed help and was being stubborn. Things changed when he fell and was on the floor for a day not able to get up… So in August I again went down to Avalon. Within 10 days he was complaining about me being there again and kicked me out..actually he told Craig ,my brother, to kick me out..so again I packed up and left….not doing that again.

I did enjoy being down at the beach for most of the summer. I walked the roads I had walked as a teenager. The streets are the same; the houses are now mansions. The music cooperated and I listened to songs of the 70’s . It felt like ol' times.. I did get to see an old friend Bel Whilden. We worked together on many newspapers. We also drank a few. It was good to see him again.

Tim and Jean were down in Stone Harbor and I saw them and the kids and Jean’s Dad. It was nice to sit on the porch and watch the sun go down.

The best part was seeing Sean and Courtney and the Frisbee team in Wildwood. Every year many teams from the east coast come to Wildwood for the Ultimate Frisbee tournament. It was soo hot 100 degrees on the beach, Their feet were burning on the white sand. I got a pretty good sun burn too-yea I put stuff on but went for a swim and forgot to re-apply...

More summer fun to come

Leroy the Amish man Part Two

Part 2

With the temperatures being in the upper 90’s, sitting at the bar at Applebee’s was a cool break. I didn’t have the AC in my car and the heat was getting to me. I wondered how the Amish survived the heat. Leroy said, “Ah we’re joust oused to it.” (Add the accent). He told me about one of his friends, (or maybe it was him) had gotten very drunk up at the YP, (that’s Your Place for non PA residents.) The Amish man got into his buggy and was driving back to Strasburg on Route 30. He forgot to put on his safety flashers and was stopped by the police. The police asked him to get out of the buggie. The man stumbled and was found to be drunk. He was driving a buggy drunk. He was taken to jail on a DUI. His poor wife had to come in the middle of the night to get the buggie. Imagine that call…The man had to call his “English” neighbor to go down and wake up his wife so she could go get the buggie. The man had to spend time in jail. The funny thing is they let him out every morning and evening to go milk the cows. So that’s how the Amish get DUI’s.

Meanwhile ol’ Leroy is pretty happy and keeps asking if we are going to “my place or yours.” He was clearly hoping for alittle action. I wasn’t interested in putting an Amish notch on my bedpost. I kept saying I had to get back to the RV because I was worried about the dog. I guess there are women who would like to try an Amish man. You could see that in his younger days Leroy might have been handsome, and he probably had his share. He just seemed like a 50 year old man trying to be 18.

So after relieving the horse again, our next stop was Brewer’s Outlet, where again they all knew him. Leroy bought a case of Genesee Cream Ale. We dropped off half of the case at a friend’s house. He asked me to come in. “No thanks.” Then we drove down the road to another neighbor’s house where he took all but three beers. Interesting hiding beers all over. Then finall,y we drove down the lane to his families farm house. I parked in front of his workshop. I could see a buggy parked in the barn and a few eyes peering out the windows.

A small Jack Russell mixed female dog with large sore tits greeted me. Her name was Sadie. She was a sweet dog. She walked over to the porch and out popped six puppies. Leroy said she got out one night. One of the puppies looked like Dakota, black with white tips, several were brown, and one looked like a mini Doberman. Sadie got around that night! We talked about dogs; our dogs now and the ones in heaven. We agreed that most animals are smarter than humans. Leroy offered me a puppy. If I had a place, I would have taken the baby Dakota dog.

Finally Leroy showed me his shed where he does his crafts. There is some paintings and some blue jay parts. He showed me what he was doing. I thought it was a cool idea and said I could paint them. I told him to give me the parts and I would paint them. But now I needed to go. He gave me a quick hug and I drove back down the lane, which looked like a tunnel of corn.

Ok SO YOU THINK THE STORY IS OVER??? Well it’s not.

Several hours later, Leroy calls to ask if he left his cell phone in my car, which he did. I said I would drop it off tomorrow morning at Katie’s Kitchen.. I wondered if he did that on purpose??

So it is twilight now and Dakota and I were taking our walk around the campground. Dakota drags me over to this pop-up camper. There is a Canadian man and woman there. She loves animals and attracted Dakota by her smiles…and the smell of food. Her name is Natalie and I can’t remember his name, but he is a Bus driver. We started talking. The bus driver offered me a real treat, a real Canadian Beer..yea…Dakota got some food. Dakota got to play Frisbee with the bus driver.

I talked some about my adventures on the road.

Natalie said they went out to dinner at a diner and there was an Amish guy sitting near her. He had his pants pinned together with a safety pin and he had a black painted straw hat. She said the waitress called him Leroy. And I said have I got a story for you…..

Postnote: Leroy called back once to see if I could drive him. I was busy that day. I never did do any work on his birds.

Leroy, A Day with the Amish man. Part one

When I did my laundry in Strasburg, I left a note on the bulletin board:

I NEED A JOB Office, HR, Customer Service Would like $14/hr Will consider other Offers

Last night after a frustrating day of failing the Excel test at the staffing agency, I got a call. It was Leroy, an Amish man. I am not using Leroy’s last name since he is pretty well known here. Leroy was looking for someone to paint his craft items.

OK, I’m game…so we met at 9AM at Katie’s Kitchen, authentic Amish cooking. I arrived first and got a cup of coffee. Not long after Leroy arrived sporting his black straw hat. He is a thin man between 55-65 years old. He wears traditional clothing held together with safety pins. I introduced myself and we had coffee.

We talked about the weather, dogs and people. He asked if I could drive him a few places. OK, I said curious to what this day would offer. He was a bit flirtatious—how fun. We went to his house driveway to pick up a saw and drove to the Black and Decker store in Rockvale plaza. They could not sharpen the saw. Leroy said that stores here rent for $6000 a month and many were now closed or closing. Leroy said he wanted to try a hardware store in Bird in Hand, but first we had to stop at the Turkey Hill because he needed to “water the horses” and there was a real doll there. We drove to the hardware store where I was the one everyone was staring at.

Evidently they could not sharpen the saw either. Now he wanted to go to Intercourse to the bank because there was a clerk there who was a real doll. Are you seeing a pattern yet?? After the bank we went back to Bird in Hand to a machine shop. Leroy took off his watch, “We aren’t suppose to have these.” The machine shop took the saw. Leroy came out of the shop and lit another cigarillo and starting singing “Bad, bad Leroy Brown.” He said that’s what everyone calls him “Bad Leroy”. I was coming to that conclusion myself.

After the machine shop, Leroy directed me to a short cut (not) through the country. He pointed out his sister’s house. He has five brothers and at least two sisters that I know. He said “people always complain about how big Amish families are, but everyone is needed to keep the farm going. He said people are jealous about the million dollar farms but they don’t realize it is hard work and 14 hours a day. “ He said yesterday he mowed grass and it was hot.

Anyway we ended back on route 30 where we had to stop at a gas station so he could buy some more cigarillos. Every time we stopped he would light one up. Oh yes, then he says he forgot to buy minutes for his cell phone (shhh don’t tell anyone). Back to the Turkey Hill where he watered some more horses, bought minutes and found the “doll “and gave her a big kiss. I waited in the hot car not knowing what was taking so long. He came out and said, “Did you see me kiss that blonde? She is a real looker.”

OK so here we have a real character. The next stop was Applebee’s on route 30. Everywhere we went everyone seems to know Leroy and this was no exception. The bartender said “Hi Leroy. Do you want your regular Budweiser?” He ordered and offered to buy me a beer. Originally I was going to have water, but it was offered and I don’t turn down a free beer especially when it was so hot. I had a large draft and on an empty stomach gave me a bit of a buzz. Leroy drank three bottles of beer using a straw.

At this point Leroy is definitely chatting me up. Innuendos and flirts were passed around. It was fun but I was not sure where this was going to end.

To find out the rest of the story see Part 2 coming soon.

Avalon Cooler than a mile- no place like home

I must say it was fun being back in Avalon for awhile. The last time I really spent more than a day here was in the late 1970's. Much as changed since then. Most of the the people and stores have been replaced. The old cottages have been torn down and Mac-mansions have been built. Some are interesting; many are big but average looking. The thing that annoyed me is that many newer houses are shades of grey or beige. Very blah....houses used to be yellows and greens and even a pink one.

There used to be many prickly pear cactus here and one is growing by the house see pix.

The only old stores still there are Hoy's and my brother's PAPER PEDDLER. The store looks small now, but is pretty much the same. All the kids got a chance to run the store. My run was during the wild '68-'74 period. Man we had fun in that back room. It is amazing we never got busted.

There was much to remind me of those days. For one thing the music playing was all from that time. And I used to walk a dog down the main drag, much like now when I walk Dakota. Everyone knows Dakota..they don't remember my name, but they know the dog!!! Walking the main drag is as it always was. People going to get ice cream and looking for hook-ups. I can watch the young girls and boys flirting with each other. I used to do that, but now I am an old fart. That didn't stop me from flirting with any man near my age.

It also felt like the 1970's because I was living at my childhood home and it really didn't change, except my room is now the exercise room. I went to sleep at night listening to the ocean waves and the toads. Living at home had it good and bad moments. Although Dad appreciated my help, he hated someone being in his "space." He constantly told me to leave or go back to where I was from. So finally I did. Although Dad and I made great progress at a relationship and he helped me get a car so I could get a job.

So I packed up the RV and the dog and rolled back to Lancaster, PA. One the way I heard a song about returning where you came from and it seemed like full circle. I ended up at the White Oak Campground 4 miles south of Strasburg, PA in Amish country.

Finally made it to home

Part 2

From Virginia I could almost smell the ocean breeze. I decided to drive up the east shore of Maryland, therefore missing the Washington DC and Baltimore traffic. I had never been in this area so it was fun driving through the old towns. Before long I was in Delaware….What does Della wear boys??? What does Della wear? A new Jersey… boys a new jersey….I sang that song all through Delaware. There was a lot of road work which slowed things up, but I didn’t care. Soon it was over the Del Memorial Bridge. Driving in the RV I could actually see over the railing down to the river where I saw barges and a small ship. You don’t see anything driving in a car. Now I was in familiar grounds. This was my regular route to the shore. It was getting late and I was ahead of my schedule so I found a campground somewhere between Woodstown and Elmer.

I recognized the campground from years ago. Many years ago I was the editor of my friend, Belford Whilden’s newspaper, THE MID-ATLANTIC CAMPER. The newspaper was distributed all over southern NJ, including this campground. Some weeks I delivered the papers there.

While working at the newspaper one summer a lady came in who had written a book about her full time RV life. I interviewed her. She and her husband were traveling the country in a RV and worked here and there at campgrounds and state parks. She had some great stories. So that is where the seed of this journey actually began.. I can blame it all on her!!! LOL

I am not going to say the name of the campground because it was the worst one of my entire trip. There were many seasonal trailers there, but the campground was empty. They charged full price and told me to park across from the store, which was closed. The electric units there were all broken and there was no water, so I saw a place right next to the store and backed in there. The place was run down, unmowed grass and I didn’t feel safe there.

I was glad to get out of there. The next morning was cool with a brilliant blue sky. It was great driving weather and I was excited that I was almost home. I drove down familiar roads. So much has changed since I went to high school there. Farms were now developments and little strip malls had popped up here and there.

Then I saw the sign for Avalon…yea…I could smell the ocean now. The tide was high in the back bay and I could see sea gulls and birds searching for food. I drove right into to town and finally parked on 39^th Street. My childhood home. Hi Dad! I made it.

My trip was over…..or so I thought…

More on Avalon next time