Schoolgrounds, Shows and Johnies

From John
Playing baseball at Bennett school and climbing the school roof to get free balls. I used to climb the side of the building using the ledges and window sills. When I got older I would carry Pa's ladders to the playground to get to the school roof. That is where I got almost all my baseballs, one basketball and one football.

Do you (Marcel) recall trying to teach me to play football in the Bennett school playground? I do. But I don't remember ever actually carrying the ball much less catching a pass.

We all had some fun back then even though we had little money and our fair share of family problems.


From Marcel
I remember climbing the side of that school myself. The first time I had seen it done was by Buck Mulligan. Given the finger strength at that time it was easy.

from John
Climbing that school by the ledges seems a lot scarier today than it did when I was 10 or 12. However, I doubt it is any riskier than the rock climbers do these days (and they are old enough to know better).

From Paulette
Bennett schoolground - if we had a nickel for each hour we spent there. It was just across the alley and through a yard and across Senator. I remember that Mama was able to stand on the back porch and look for you guys and send us to get you to come home to dinner. I also remember that Mrs. Clark, across Navy from us used to holler for Donald.

I remember the guys climbing up on the roof to get baseballs but I thought it was just when one was hit up there and it had to be retrieved to continue the game.


Movie shows
From John:
Going to The Capitol (movie theater) on Vernor Highway on Saturday morning. We got to see two full length movies, a comedy and some newsreals all for about a nickel. I think Ma gave me the nickel just to get me away from her for almost the whole day. On the way home Bob Mealback and I would recreate the action scenes from the movie. I distinctly remember pretending to be Zorro (or Superman). We would get home late in the afternoon (for supper). Those were fun times.

Bernie, I vaguely recall that you were an usher at the Capitol. Do you recall the emergency exit door near the right front of the theater. The door latched on the inside and it lead out to an outdoor corridor that opened out onto Vernor. Bob Mealback and I used to sneak in to the show through that door sometimes. One of us would pay to get in then sit near that exit. When the usher was not looking he would quickly open the exit (which was shielded by a curtain) and the other(s) would run in and quickly sit down as if they were there all the time. What a thrill! We got the idea by seeing others do it first. Did you ever catch anyone doing that?

From Bernie
I WORKED AT THE CAPITOL FOR 2 YEARS. SERGEANT YORK PLAYED AND IT WAS VERY POPULAR. IT PLAYED FOR OVER A WEEK AND I SAW IT ABOUT 30 TIMES. IT WAS ON TV LAST MONTH AND I SAW IT AGAIN. IT WAS STILL GOOD.


From Monica:
So you went to the Capitol theatre on Saturdays? So that's why you were never around when the 3 of us girls cleaned the house on Saturdays and always ended up in major arguments over who was going to do what rooms, etc. And Ma would walk to the grocery store on Saturday mornings and do her shopping. Pretty sharp mother we had.

from Bernie
THERE MUST HAVE BEEN MORE ARGUING THAN CLEANING. I DO NOT REMEMBER THE HOUSE EVER BEING SUPER CLEAN.

from Paulette
I was never aware that Gabby was going to the show on Saturday afternoons. Its like the Capitol was the "boy" show and the Rio was the "girl" show. So if we cleaned house while you were gone to the show, what did you do on Sundays while we went.

Johnies Sweet Shop

from John:
Walking to Johnies and trying to talk Rita into serving me a free ice cream float. She never did. Later I tried it with Monica but she never did either.

from Marcel:
There is only one Beauregard that would do what you asked, all others would refuse.

From Paulette:

Monica worked at Johnies first and he was so pleased with her work he asked if there were any more at home like her and lucky for him there was. I started at Johnies on March 1, 1952. Rita never worked there. I don't remember you ever trying to get anything free from me, but it wouldn't have worked. I don't think I ever even ate a spoonful if ice cream that I hadn't paid for. I wish I could say I have been that honest all my life but when I used to do my income taxes while I had the house on Navy with the rental unit upstairs, I would drop to the bottom line to see how much I could get away with getting back and then work up to itemize my house income and expenses.

I loved working at Johnies. That's where I got my first taste of bookkeeping. I was working there when Social Security taxes first came into his life. It meant a lot more work in doing payroll and I was there to help him figure out the forms and the deductions. I think the deduction was 1/4 of 1 percent each from the employee and the employer at that time.

It was also during that job that I gave up the idea of ever being a teacher. Bernie dropped a comment about the time I was starting high school that we girls should become teachers and we could make as much as $2.00 per hour. Well, while working at Johnies and watching those kids from Wilson that used to come in after school, they were horrid. The day they bragged that they had made the teacher cry, and that they had thrown her chair out the window, I decided that wasn't for me.

Goodfellows

From Gabby:
I read your input about Monica you mentioned getting charity boxes of clothes. That reminded me of the free (I think) salvation army shoes we used to get once a year round Christmas time (I think).
I remember Ma would take us all on a bus to somewhere downtown (I think). I was about 6 or 7 years old. I don't remember Marcel or Bernie being there but maybe
they were (there may have been an age limit). I remember the shoe place was a very very large room with a very high ceiling (about 15 feet high) and huge round columns rising to the ceiling. It was crowded and noisy. It seemed to me to be controlled chaos. The shoes were not very stylish but they were very well made and sturdy. I never got a choice of styles, If they fit I had to take them. Then we were good
till next year. Being older than me maybe you or Monica remember this better than I and can fill in more of the details and put it on your Blog.

From Monica:
Those shoes came from a certificate in the Christmas boxes brought to our house from The Good fellows. Berni & Marcel were too old, but the 4 of us each got a big, long cardboard box from the Good fellows. The girls box always had a doll, some underwear, and I donÂ’t know what else, but always the certificate to go downtown and get some shoes. We all rode the streetcar with Ma (I think that was our only outing once a year with Ma by herself). I hated those clunky brown shoes, but they did last until the next year.

From Marcel:
We got shoes from the Goodfellows, a Christmas Charity. There was an age limit and that is why Bernie and I did not go when you went. When Bernie and I went it was probably to the same place, with the same confusion and disorganization. I was struck by all the blacks that were there, each time we went. The Goodfellows were good at raising money and distributing Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve. Their motto was "No kid without a Christmas". I think our family owes something to the Goodfellows for the charity they gave us when we were younger.

From Paulette:
The Goodfellows and the Salvation Army are two charities that I never minded donating to. They were both a part of our lives. Those goodfellow christmas boxes were very exciting when I was very young. You can bet we never would have gotten dolls like that every year otherwise. In later years I remember going to the Rotunda and seeing all the dolls on display. The goodfellows used to pass out dolls to women in large workplaces and these women would dress the dolls and give them back to be distributed to poor little girls (us). They may still do that. I also remember a year when Mama and Mrs. Gervais dressed dolls for us. Mine was dressed in green, and the other two were yellow and purple. I don't remember who got which.

Oh the shoes. I don't know what "styles" Gabby is talking about in boy shoes. Those all looked alike to me anyways. But the girls. When all my friends were wearing Mary Janes and loafers, we had "nun" shoes.

I remember when Rita graduated in age from getting a doll as her special treat into getting a book. I felt very sorry for her but maybe she was of an age to like the book better. I don't know what Gabby got in lieu of a doll or a book but there must have been a "boy" treat for kids his age.

Weren't the Goodfellows the "Old Newsboys". Don't they still sell special edition newspapers on streetcorners to raise money to make sure there is "No child without a Christmas"?

Correction

You guys have to remember that these blog facts are not written in stone. They are the recollections of my young life. Turns out I was way wrong about the Eldege family boys' citizenship and birthplaces. The Eldege family moved back to Canada shortly after the birth of Laurent who is only 3 weeks younger than Uncle Marcel. So only John Robert and Laurent had citizenship as adults. Marc came in and applied for citizenship the old fashioned way. At the time he married Jeannette he was a green card holder and required to register annually.

Jeannette told me about a time that two immigration officers showed up at their house ready to pick him up for not registering. All of you must know by now that Beauregards are "take care of business" kind of people and those officers were just wrong. Marc convinced them that he had indeed registered (he must have had paperwork) and they left him alone.

Gabby and Monica have sent long emails about recollections of their own and ideas for future blogs. I have copied those into a file and will do some editing and put them into posts. Stay tuned for further developments

Scholarship & Citizenship

Mama and Papa became U.S. citizens. I know they had to go to school for this and I know that they both went to night school and completed their 8th grade education. One of them had completed grade 6 as a child and the other only grade 3. I forget which was which. This 8th grade education was completed in English so they first had to learn to speak and read and write in English.

One story from their English classes concerns the picture book used in their class. There was a picture of a girl holding a glass of water. The text under the picture said "She has a glass." Mama, who was the faster learner, knew what it said and was quizzing Papa. He looked at the picture, saw the word She (it should be noted here that the word she in French is a form of the verb "to shit" in fact it means "is shitting") and of course his answer was "The girl is shitting in the glass".

Mama was a quick study and loved learning and school in general. She told me of a time as a very young child when she was staying with one of her older sisters. Another side note is that Mama was the second last in a line of 14 children. Most of her siblings were a lot older than her. We knew and visited with her younger sister Reine, and one brother Euclid.

I know there was another brother Arthur who was the last remaining at the homestead (which in Mama's youth included a general store and the post office, but in later years might have been just the farm). Arthur married late enough in life that I was aware that it was happening and then the new wife inherited the property. I got the impression that it was an irritant but not a really big deal.

Anyways, this older sister was a school teacher in a one room schoolhouse that had attached living quarters, lets call it a bedroom, for the teacher. Mama was admonished to stay in the bedroom while school was in session. She just couldn't do it. She kept creeping out into the schoolroom. She liked listening to the lessons and figuring out the answers. Finally the sister brought a chair into the doorway, and let her sit just inside the bedroom with the door open so she could watch and listen. I imagine she recognized a kindred spirit in me when I asked as a toddler "Why don't you let me go to school."

We were working in the kitchen of the house in Allen Park when she told me this story. She paused and said "I can hardly believe I'm the same person as that little girl. But I know it was me, I've been with me ever since". (Rough translation from the French).

Citizenship was offered by this country of ours to all children born within its borders. Eldege had several boys that were born during his stay in Detroit. As far as I know they started with John Robert and ended with Marc. That would mean John Robert, Laurent, Julian and Marc were U.S. citizens. In order to maintain their U.S. citizenship they were required at some age to live in the U.S. and at different times, John Robert, Laurent and Marc all lived with us on Navy street. Could have been for weeks, months, or years. I just know they were there, and then they weren't. I assume Julian opted not to take advantage of maintaining dual citizenship.

I remember that being drafted into the service was a concern of each of them. I believe Laurent was 4F, possibly the beginnings of the ailment that he ultimately died from. Marc married young and started a family which exempted him but John Robert did indeed have to serve. I have never met a person before or since that was so bitter about his Army experiences. Get him to tell you about it sometimes.

What with having to serve so unwillingly in the army, you might say John Robert paid dearly for his citizenship and all of his children were citizens. John's first marriage failed at some point and his wife, Loretta, moved with the minor children, back to Canada. Things happened, laws changed, laws changed back.

John's son Paul, who lives in Fowlerville got caught in the middle. There is a 3 or 4 year period of either U.S. or Canadian law where dual citizenship was no longer offered. Where you lived at the age of your majority was your country. Paul found himself without U.S. citizenship. I don't know what his status is, but he was unable to get a U.S. passport. His recourse was to apply for citizenship through regular channels with the normal requirements of sponsorship and waiting periods. He was a little bitter of being caught in this position and he stubbornly resisted for years, but now with the tightening of our borders, and his mother guilting him that he won't be able to come to her funeral, I think he has finally taken out his citizenship papers.

How Many Beauregards

How many Beauregards you ask. Sean asked actually. Well, in the family of Leon and Louisa there were 14. Since you know there were 10 girls you can do the math. Besides Eldege, and Papa, there were Gerard and Robert.

Robert was hurt from a fall out of a tree as a child which left him crippled for life. I remember seeing him on our first trip out there and he was short and deformed and I'm ashamed to say, I was afraid of him. He never married or had children.

Gerard had a farm about a mile away from the old homestead and I can only remember 4 of their kids, so I don't know if there were more than that or not.

I already mentioned that Mama had 7 children in 10 years. My own first 4 were born in 4 years but the baby birthing championship goes to Pat who had 6 in 5 years.


In my scope of knowledge however, the longevity birthing championship goes to Yvonne (Eldege's wife) who had 16 children in 22 years. We know one only lived a few days and is buried in Detroit. Two others, Luc, born in 1939 and Francoise, born in 1941 had died before I became aware of the family.

This picture of the family was taken at the parents 50th wedding anniversary. As far as I know only Laurent has since died and they have 12 surviving siblings.

In 1996 I was in Canada for a birthday party the kids gave for their mother (her 94th birthday) and they did a count of progeny. She had 51 grandchildren, 105 great grandchildren and 17 great, great grandchildren.

I have been trying to keep a family tree for the Azarias family and I'll see how I can put that into a posting.

Surviving Tantes

These are the surviving Beauregard Tantes.

Julia, Monique and Alfreda in that order. The fourth one, Marie Clair was disabled by an anurism many years ago and lives in a nursing home.

The party Tim referred to is one I'm not familiar with and maybe he can fill us in on his impressions of the Canadian connection. The only guy I can think of that was ordained would be Dennis Pion (of the first batch of Pions whose mother was Flor). He became a Jesuit priest. His older sister Jennine married into the Bombadier family. Y'all probably don't know that Joseph Bombadier invented the snowmobile, branched into SkiDos, SeaDos and I think they are even into aeronautics now.

Dennis was Monica's age and was always one of my favorites because he was english speaking, even when we were kids. I can't remember why those kids spoke english. Their dad (Leo Pion) was a barber in the town of Acton Vale. I don't remember that being a big town or anything.

Come to think of it, I think my mother's parents were english speaking. They operated the general store of Roxton Falls which included running the post office. My mother told me stories of how her dad used to write letters for people who couldn't write their own and post them to America for them.

Papa met her at that store and was worried because she was a year older than him. Not that the age made that much difference, but it meant that she would be on the dating market before him and might meet someone and not be available when he reached the age of dating. Dating in those days meant that you visited the girls family on Sundays.

I recently learned from Rita that when a courtship got really serious the young man was welcome to visit on Thursday evenings also. So, when she first started going out with Jim, he was allowed to come over on Sundays and Thursday nights.

Down on the Farm

I don't much remember our arrival in Canada, but I remember waking up on the farm. We children were housed at the Eldege household. Many of us slept up in the loft that they called "au troisieme" which means on the third floor. When John Denver came out with Grandma's Feather Bed it reminded me of those days.

The grandparents house was across the road and had indoor plumbing. Nobody had warned me that there might not be such a thing. Eldege had an indoor bathroom but there was nothing plumbed about it. It must have been a chemical toilet of some kind. They did have a pump at the sink so nobody had to carry water or anything. I don't know if they had a bathtub of any kind. We kids, my age and younger, were washed by adults. When it was time to get properly bathed and dressed for the party, Mama did all that at Grandma's house that had a proper bathroom.


In the kitchen at the Eldege house they had one of those big steel wood stoves with at least 4 maybe 6 removable burners. It was a very modern one with a hot water reservoir on the side. It was the girls of the family that tended the stove. Put wood in the burner and lit the fire. It was so fascinating that they didn't use frying pans, eggs were placed right on the burner cover to cook.

I remember them covering the whole top with bread at breakfast time to make toast. Had to be at least a whole loaf at a time. They had a lot of growing boys who did a lot of heavy farmwork, not to mention all this visiting kids. Vonna and Tony were also there for the party with their six kids.

I have no idea what they did for refrigeration. There was a celler that one or another of the children would be sent to but I never was brave enough to go with them. We had a refrigerator at our house in Detroit. Vonna and Tony still had an ice box on their back porch and the ice man delivered ice. But down on the farm they didn't even have an ice man. I must have siblings that know more about that part than I do.

The twins, Fleur Aimee and Fleur d'Ange were my age and we hung out together. I went with them to get the cows in the afternoons. It was a longer walk than I was used to and up a couple of hills. They showed me their school house on the way. I didn't go with them to the barn to milk the cows in the mornings (too early) or in the afternoon either (too stinky). Plus, those big boys thought it was very funny to squirt milk at us. I'm thinking now that Rita and Monica were of an age to maybe do a little flirting (16 and 14) but I was oblivious to it then.

The barn, the smell, the flies There were dogs and puppies, cats and kittens, and I don't know what all; and we had free access to all of that. We rode on the hay wagon and I saw a picture of me on a horse but I don't remember riding him.

One treat for me was being exempt from Sunday Mass because there was insufficient transportation. The older adults traveled in Papa's Hudson and the younger adults hitched up the horses and buggies. I remember the confusion of transporting to Mass but I don't remember anything about how we all got to the party.

This picture of Grandma and Grandpa and eight of their ten daughters (collectively known as Les MaTantes) was taken at that party. One dauthter Jeanne who also lived in Detroit, did not attend. The other missing daughter was Flor who died young after bearing six children. When she died, a younger sister, Monique was sent into this motherless family to keep house for them. She ended up marrying her brother-in-law (Leo Pion) and bearing him six more children.

Les MaTantes who survive today are Alfreda, Julia, Monique and Marie Clair. One hundred and five years after the first sibling was born, that ain't bad.

On the Road

The education of travel is real. In 1949 we took a family trip to Canada. To us Canada meant the rural area of Quebec northeast of Montreal where our parents came from.

I learned on that trip that feet could swell to a point that you couldn't get your shoes back on. This happened to Mama. I remember the poor thing having to hobble to a gas-station bathroom barefoot. I made a conscious decision that that would never happen to me, and it never has. Could be because footwear has improved a lot.

I learned of Mama's trick of traveling with salt and pepper mixed into one shaker. There were no restaurant stops for us. There were a plethora of roadside tables and Mama had packed plenty of food.

There were no freeways either and we drove through many, many small towns and one great big one - Toronto. Street signs and store fronts were all still in English but many were starting to be bilingual and we had lots of laughs at the French names of things. As we got into Quebec signs became all French. We were familiar with the spoken slang French, but the written word was something else. Jerry Lewis was pretty popular then and one of his comedic sayings was "Stop already" so when the stop signs said Stop - Arretez it made us laugh. Another really funny word was the French word for swimming pool when it was advertised at a hotel. We rather thought they should hide the fact that they had a "piscine".

In our suitcases were the first store-bought dresses I ever remembered. Mine certainly and probably the other girls too. Mine and Monica's were the same style and fabric but different colors. We were traveling with our best foot forward to meet the family. Those store-bought dresses were for the big anniversary party. Mama had a lacy aqua dress that I thought was the most beautiful I had ever seen. I don't remember one more beautiful at the party, and a lot of our Aunts had "money". That aqua dress didn't lose its "most beautiful" status in my eyes until I saw Pat in her wedding dress.

I would imagine that Marcel and Bernie helped with the driving. They would have been 19 and 17. Well maybe not Bernie. The trip takes almost 12 hours now, it must have been at least 18 or 20 back then, especially with all those stops.

There is not one single memory that I can attribute to on the way home. Just a lot of crying when we left Canada. I don't mean just me (although I did my bit), everybody cried, a lot. That's what our family did when parting company. Maybe because it used to be so long between visits. Even when people from Canada visited us in Detroit, the leavetaking always took place at the Ambassador Bridge and involved at least an hour of crying.

Paulette (Me)

I was a beautiful, delightful baby. How happy the family must have been to see me. I mean, think about it as girls go, we had timid, clingy Rita; stubborn, pouty Monica and me, a ray of sunshine.

Mama said I was always smiling and happy. I liked to rock. Papa loved to rock babies. We bonded. The newest baby slept in a rocking cradle in their bedroom. Mama said I used to wake them up, not hungry or dissatisfied, but sitting crossways in the cradle and rocking.

I remember the happiest of childhoods, I remember long days with Mama as she cooked in the kitchen. Once those other kids were gone to school I had her all to myself. I was jealous of those kids going to school though. I really wanted to go too. One day I asked Mama "Do you love me?" and she said she did so I said "Then why don't you let me go to school?"

When it was time for Papa to come home from work I would stand by the alley gate to see him come around the corner from Lawndale. As soon as he was visible, I would start running to him and he would scoop me up and carry me home. I remember running my hand on his beard growth and laughing as he kissed me on the eye.

Of course after we got home, it was Monica he took up on his lap to give her sips of his beer.

I think I was a "good" child. I usually tried to do what I was supposed to. I do remember though, that many times if I had done something wrong or "bad" it seemed to be the fault of my sisters for having "let" me do that. I remember feeling bad when they were yelled at or punished for something that was my fault.

I remember Rita threatening me once. There was something I wasn't supposed to do and she said "You'd better not do that, or you'll be sorry". I was very worried about being sorry. That seemed like a terrible fate. I tried to avoid having to be sorry.

I was so proud when I got bigger than Monica. (Not so proud about it now) All the relatives made a big fuss about me. I was smart too, in the "choose the nickel or the dime" game, they had laughed at Monica for choosing the nickel because it was bigger. I couldn't wait till it was my turn, and I chose the dime.

I remember being put on display at parties singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. In later years the three of us sang together, but that one was a solo. I don't know why, or if the other girls had solos too.

Pictures

I am trying to add another picture to the Uncle Marcel post that has Bernie in it also. I think it is too far back to go add pictures to each post. However, pictures are not cooperating with me today. I will try more later. My next piece is about my recollection of Marcel in the navy. I have pictures (if they will go up)

In the Navy

When I was about 10 years old Marcel joined the navy. It didn't make much difference in my day to day life, but, oh, the excitement when he came home on leave I don't know if Mama always knew when he was coming but it was usually a big surprise to me.

I remember times just before dinner when Marcel would come sauntering through the back gate. I don't know why I was so excited about that. It wasn't like he was going to spend his leave with me. One of the fascinating parts of his leaves was that they seemed to be measured by the hour. He would have a 36 hr. leave or a 72 hr. leave.

He took time during one of his leaves to teach Monica and Gabby how to do a handstand. (notice the pin curls in Monica's hair). During that handstand lesson Marcel also demonstrated his one-handed handstand. I was so impressed.

One day, dinner was ready and there was a big plate of Chocolate Drop Cookies in the middle of the table for desert. I seem to remember that it was Rita that did the baking of them, but knowing what I know now, I am doubting that memory. Anyways, Marcel came in the back door, spied the cookies and said "Oh, boy, hamburgers." We laughed.


The picture of Marcel in his sailor suit with Mama and Papa was taken in Canada in front of the Beauregard family farm house.

In 1949 we took a family trip to Canada. It was a big celebration. 50th Wedding anniversary of Papa's parents and 25th wedding anniversary of Mama and Papa. Marcel got leave to come with us. Pa had bought a Hudson (car) and evidently the seats were pretty wide because it fit all 8 of us. I remember Bernie and Gabby sitting in the front seat with Mama and Papa and we three girls were in the back, sitting on the edge of the seat or on the floor because Marcel was laying across the back seat sleeping.

I have some pictures and will do future posts about that trip.

Uncle John

John Gabriel Beauregard (hereinafter referred to as Gabby) was the last child to be born into the Azarias Beauregard household. As he neared his 2nd birthday Papa was heard to utter "We are going to be caught without a baby".

Being the most recent baby entitled you to all sorts of privileges. All those bigger kids were at your beck and call. All Beauregard children are intelligent and Gabby was among the best. It didn't take long (months) for him to have that "becking" and "Calling" down to an art form. It didn't affect me as much as the others because I was still pretty little and being the last girl, and being cute as the dickens, I was still enjoying privileges of my own.

Usually MRB privileges waned when the next baby was born. Gabby was able to carry these privileges well into his Grade School years and maybe beyond. I can remember instances of his chagrin when the outside world didn't share his parent's fascination with him. He truly expected all things to go his way. I think he used crying as a mechanism a little longer than the average kid his age.

When he was playing outside and things were not going according to his plan, he would slam through the back door and throw himself onto that dining room couch crying. Since it was on wheels, the couch would bounce off the kitchen wall so the whole household was aware of his presence. Marcel and Bernie had many a good laugh about this. Once, when they heard Gabby crying outside and were anticipating his next move, they playfully moved the couch out of its normal corner so that when Gabby threw himself into its customary spot, he hit the floor instead.

Gabby and I used to share comic books. Share might be too strong a word for what Gabby used to do. There was a used comic book store on Vernor near Lawndale. You could get well used comic books for 2 cents. Slightly used comic books were 5 cents and brand new ones were 10 cents. You could turn in the 2 cent comics for a penny so you only needed one more penny for each comic you bought.

I remember asking Gabby if I could read his comics once and he said "Beg me". While I was contemplating my best begging strategy he said "After you beg me enough, I'm going to say no". I might have hit him. He might have cried. I'm pretty sure I was bigger than him. Another time when I was looking forward to sneaking his comics after he went to bed he informed me "When I go to bed I'm going to keep them safe, under my pillow".

I'm not sure when Gabby managed to pick up the social skills he enjoys today. He turned out to be quite a delightful fellow in his adult years.

Baby Theresa

Things I know about Theresa


She was born during a hot month.  When the doctor was in the bedroom working on the delivery, he had a fan aimed to blow directly on himself. This meant that when the baby emerged, the first thing she felt was that blast of cold air from the fan. From the way Papa talked about it to me, I felt that he blamed that doctor for the fact that Theresa only lived a few days and that her cause of death was listed as Pneumonia.

I don't know if Marcel and Bernie attended the funeral, but one Sunday afternoon when the family was going to visit the gravesite Bernie ran over and picked up his little sand shovel. When Papa asked him why he wanted to bring that Bernie answered "To dig her up."

Theresa is buried in Holy Cross cemetery on Dix across from Patton Park. I think I only learned about that after Monica's baby Pamela died (February, 1960, I think) and was buried there also. After Pamela died, Papa bought a headstone for Theresa's grave.

After we moved into the Navy house, I went over to office of Holy Cross to locate the two gravesites. I learned then that there was another Beauregard baby buried there. One of Eldege's babies that had been born while the Eldege Beauregard family lived across Navy from our house. You may all remember that John Robert, Laurent, and Marc were all born in and had citizenship in the US of A.

This other Beauregard child (I don't remember a name) had malnutrition listed as the cause of death. I confronted Mama with this, thinking that if food were a problem surely they would have seen that the kids were fed. Mama explained that when a baby can't hold his food down, malnutrition is what they die from. I felt very stupid.

Uncle Marcel

All Beauregard men love babies. If you are a Beauregard man, carry that to its logical conclusion and don't even try to deny it. You love babies.

Papa was used to having babies in his life since his mother was having them regularly almost right up to the time when he moved away from home. Imagine his delight when, after five years of marriage the first baby finally came along. Marcel was the sun and the moon.

One story Papa told me about this first baby had to do with his bottle. Marcel was very attached to his bottle. They thought that when Bernie came along Marcel would be willing to give up his bottle, but alas, no. There were two bottles set aside for Marcel and the rest were for Bernie. Marcel could tell his apart (I'm not sure how, I know they weren't different colors or anything and they were all glass) and would have a fit if Mama tried to use one of his on Bernie. They respected his wishes but Papa told him to be very careful with his bottles because if they got broken they would not be replaced. Marcel understood and accepted this.

There came a time when Marcel was down to his last bottle. Papa had taken him for a walk and Marcel enjoyed his bottle on the way. On the way home, in front of the house next door to them, Marcel dropped the bottle and it broke. Marcel couldn't believe his eyes. He looked at that bottle for the longest time and finally said "broken" (I'm translating from the French here). He accepted his fate and continued walking up to and into the house.

At this point in the story, Papa got a little misty and said that he had to hurry into the house himself so that the neighbors wouldn't see him crying.


Marcel, with his long blond curls was a beautiful baby, I've seen pictures. The long curls did him in one day when a neighbor child marched up to his front door and when Mama answered the door the child said "Your little girl hit me". Mama said "I don't have a little girl". The child's incredulous reply was "Is Marcel a boy"?

One of the percs of being the oldest was manifest one winter evening when Marcel declared that there would be no "Lucy" in his living room when the Stanley Cup Playoffs were being televised. No one breached this edict.

The Strap

The strap was made of leather. The words "Hand Tooled" come to mind even though I'm not exactly sure what that means. The shape of the handle was like handle shapes I have seen on cheese cutting boards. Comfortable in the hands. It was 3 or 4 inches wide and maybe a foot or more long. It lived on a hook in the basement stairwell.

When the strap came off the hook, the going mantra was "Iwill,Iwill,Iwill,Iwill," even though, as Monica pointed out, most of the time it should have been "I won't." Nothing could put more butterflies in the stomach than seeing that strap come off the hook.

We girls, in our upstairs bedroom, liked to have a good time. Sometimes that good time involved getting in and out of bed and maybe some chasing around the room and into the closet. As an adult, when I could cross the room in two steps it didn't seem possible that I could have been winded from running around in it. Also, when 2 sisters were playing and leaving 1 sister out of the game (perhaps the youngest one) the left-out person was able to retaliate with "I'm going to call Mama."

Then, if Ms "left-out" couldn't be persuaded otherwise the chant would begin. "Mama,-- Mama,-- Mama,-- Mama," When there was no response we would start with "Papa,-- Papa,-- Papa,-- Papa." There were times when we were sure there was going to be no response and in a fit if giggles would all start with "Mapa,-- Mapa,-- Mapa,-- Mapa."

More often than not, there was a response and it would be in the form of a warning. Sometimes, what was going on upstairs, just got funnier and funnier and the giggling was just too far gone to stop abruptly. After the warnings came the footsteps. At that point things got serious as a crutch.

If the footsteps were on the way up, we could be sure the strap was in hand. Oh, My, God, how did we ever let things get to that point? Papa appears, the scrambling begins, three voices chanting "Iwill,Iwill,Iwill,Iwill." I don't remember Papa ever getting "nothing but air." He hit flesh with every swing. Later, Marcel admitted that he and Bernie used to follow Papa up there just to watch. I don't know how come they weren't in bed.

When I bought the house on Navy, we found that strap on top of a cupboard in the basement. Its bottom edges were frayed. Papa's famous last words on the subject "We never actually hit you kids with it."

Aunt Monica

Aunt Monica was a stubborn child. Everything she did was done with determination and perseverance. Unfortunately, her look of determination could be (and often was, by my father) interpreted as a scowl or frown. Thus she got the reputation of being angry a lot of the time.

Both Rita and Marcel's "first, clearest memory" of her was when she would go down the basement (sent by Rita) to get a kitten. Needing all four of her limbs to maneuver the steps the poor chosen kitten would get crushed on each step on the way up. I'm not sure how it got back down, but I can't imagine it was allowed to stay upstairs once my mother got wind of it.

Monica was always a tiny thing and I remember that she had to take a vitamin (possibly iron) every day. It was a little brown round pill and I was jealous of the fuss made over her to take that pill every day, until one day I smelled the pill and after that I was glad it wasn't me that had to take it.

I don't know if that is what motivated me to eat so much, but it wasn't long before I usurped her place in the hand-me-down clothes chain. As I think about it now, I think, "Poor baby, its bad enough to have to wear your big sister's clothes, but your little sister's?"

We used to receive "charity" boxes of clothes from the parish. My mother was a wonderful seamstress and would alter the clothes and sometimes even remake them for us. At one point, there must have been a family in the parish that had twins and donated their clothes to charity because Monica and I had matching outfits. I thought it was wonderful, but Monica was pissed.

I remember that when Papa got home from work and was relaxing with a cold beer before dinner, he would take Monica on his lap and give her sips of beer. It occurs to me now that it might have had something to do with beer being a treatment for anemia. I know for sure, it had nothing to do with him liking her better than me.

Working Girl

The very first "job" I remember was as for a lady on Whittaker right across from Bennett School. I just needed to cross the alley, go through a yard, through the playground and across the street almost directly even with our own house on Navy. I was more "mother's helper" than babysitter although we called it babysitting. I would go over after school and take the kids for a walk round and round the block. Occasionally friends would join me for these walks. In inclement weather I would play with the kids (2) and keep them occupied while mom went about her business

My last chore of the day was to feed the baby his bottle while the mom fixed dinner. When he finished his bottle I went home to my own dinner. I used to try to prolong his bottle because the mom would always listen to "Our Gal Sal" (a radio soap opera) on the radio at that time and I didn't want to have to leave in the middle of it. I got quite hooked on it. I used to pull the bottle out of the baby's mouth during the good parts (he made so much noise gurgling). But I always put it back in before he started to cry.

One wintry day the mom sent me to the store for something. The store was across Vernor about even with her house. The route to the store was through her back yard, across the alley, through the parking lot of what became Sammy's Pizzaria and across Vernor.

We Beauregard children never left the house in wintertime without our boots. This lady said "You don't need your boots for that short trip, just hurry". I was appalled, and exhilarated, and excited and apprehensive. I kept looking down at my school shoes as they boldly walked on the cold pavement with patches of ice and even patches of snow which had to be avoided at all costs lest someone (Papa) notice that my school shoes had been wet.

Negotiating through that parking lot was harder than I thought it would be and there were a few close calls on slippery ice. I came to appreciate the need for rubber boots. I was so relieved when I completed my mission without falling or getting anything wet, I vowed never to complain about having to wear boots again.

I think I probably broke that vow.

Aunt Rita

What I learned and knew about Aunt Rita

Rita was a timid child. When my mother needed to get her out from underfoot (remember all those other babies) she would send her out on the back porch on Navy to play. There was no playing on Rita's mind. All she could think of was getting back in. She would stand with her nose pressed against the screen door (which was locked) and either cry or wait patiently till she could go back inside.

When I was about 4, (she would have been 8 and Monica 6) the three girls were sent, every Sunday afternoon to the movies. Saturday was housekeeping chores day and Sunday was movie day. We were each given the 12 cent admission as our "pay" for doing the Saturday chores. There were two movie houses (shows) in the neighborhood, The Rio at the corner of Vernor and Central and the Capital on Vernor, just east of Cunningham's near Springwells. The Capital carried mostly Westerns and Horror movies like "The Mummies Curse" and "The Beast with Five Fingers" and was where all the rough kids went. We "nice" girls went to the Rio. When we left the house, we were admonished "Don't come home till its dark."

The walk from our house on Navy to the corner of Central and Vernor was a long one for a 4 year old and I'm sure "Are we almost there?" became tiresome to Rita. So she invented a game to play on the way. As soon as we rounded the corner onto Vernor, we would start looking for the sign that said Rio. Whoever spotted it first would say "I can see part of the R." The next one would say "I can see all of the I and part of the R" and so on until one of us could see all of the R, all of the I and all of the O.

It didn't matter when time we got there, we just stayed for both movies until we came to the part where we had walked in. After we had seen both complete movies one of us would be sent to the lobby to go look out the front door to see if it was getting dark yet. If it was we would go back and tell Rita and she would take us home. I remember walking home in the dark at Christmastime. Many of the store fronts on Vernor had Christmas trees and decorations. And the Western Auto store had toys and dolls in the window.

This went on for years and I remember being nervous one year because Rita was going to turn 12 and she would then have to pay the 60 cent adult admission. I knew instinctively that times would change then. And they must have.

At the age of 12 Rita became quite ill with an intestinal flu I remember her lying on the couch in the dining room (yes, I said couch and yes I said dining room. What we called the couch was more of a day bed on wheels. It had a bed spring underneath that rolled out and you could put the top cushion on the roll out part and it made a suitable double bed for company. This couch also plays a big part in what we remembered about Gabby. What we now call a couch was a sofa in the living room)

Anyway, Rita was lying on the couch in the dining room being visited by the doctor and nursed back to health. We had to be quiet and be nice to her. When she became ambulatory, the doctor recommended that she get away from the city and into some good country air. My parents had just the place. Remember Eldege and the farm in Canada.

Rita was dispatched with her big brother Bernie as her protector/escort by train to Canada. Bernie was 13. Rita remembers him taking very good care of her. He went to the Kiosk to buy the tickets. Made sure they and their luggage got on the proper trains. I think they had to change trains in Toronto. When Rita felt ill on the train, Bernie found the conductor and told him that his sister was going to be sick. Bernie got her to the space between cars where she could throw up onto the ground.

Not long after she got back she was put into the work force and I don't remember much about her after that. I do know that she used to buy me trinkets occasionally and I always looked up to her. She bought me a key chain with a plastic enclosed engraved rose and my name on it and I still have it.

Uncle Bernie

Things I learned about your Uncle Bernie.

Bernie used to skip school and go to Tiger Stadium (Briggs Stadium then) and sneak into the ball games. His best method for sneaking in was to go by the loading area when the concession stands were unloading supplies. He would grab a box of hot dog buns and take it through the gate. Put the buns down when he got inside and go sit in the bleachers. As the game progressed he would improve his seating position by watching which assigned seats remained empty.

He said he was doing this from the time he was 6 and I was skeptical about that part. But when I thought about it, before he turned 7 my mother had had 4 baby girls and was way too busy to pay attention to him. (For any of you that don't know, there was another sister named Theresa who only lived for a few days. She was born between Rita and Monica) I'm sure Bernie had to be pretty self sufficient by the time he was 6.

There came a time during Bernie's grade school career that he received 7 U's (Catholic school graded U as a failing grade) The priest announced it from the pulpit, although he didn't identify him by name. My mother cried for days.

Marcel and Bernie attended Ford Trade School for their High School years. It seems they rotated one week of school, one week of farm work (families were allowed to reap some of the rewards of the produce) and one week of shop work. This was a work and learn program that paid a salary. In order to receive the 20 cents per hour, they had to maintain a C average. If they got a B average they got a raise to 21 cents per hour. If they got an A average they received 22 cents per hour. Bernie never got less than A's for the rest of his learning career.

His comment was "Those Nuns just never new how to motivate."

No Color, No Brother

No color.
What I mean by no color is that the color was not spectacular like it was five years ago when we were here for a comparable weekend. There was some yellows and browns mixed among the green. But the vistas are still spectacular. We went out water-falling each day. The first excursion required a walk to the falls and after our wonderful picnic lunch (the pork loin is a whole other story) I stayed in that area while the others walked to the falls. I did bring along my cane with a seat and needed to use it even to walk to the place where the best picture of all of us was to be taken and used it to sit on while the picture-taking jockeying went on.

The next excursion - Lori was/is a volunteer with a forest service of some kind so she had friends in the right places. She called ahead and got us permission to drive on the hiking trails, someone met us at the gate to let us through and we were able to drive right up to the water falls. That was at DuPont falls. We set up a time to meet when we were done and he was there to open the gates to let us out. We met many envious people along the way.

The third excursion was to the Looking Glass falls that are visible from the road and we just pulled up and parked for a while. That was on Sunday and we stopped for lunch at a barbecue place called Hawg Wild where we had eaten five years ago. Sure enough, the food was just as good this time.

Color improved considerably on our drive home and we got the spectacular factor thru eastern Tennessee and most of Kentucky.

No brother -
The person that started this whole ball rolling failed to show up at the reunion. Its not important which brother that was but he had trouble with flight connections and ended up going back to LA on Thursday while the rest of us were gathering for that great pork loin dinner. We were all kind of irritated and yes, a little angry (not having been in his shoes) but we got over it and ended up just really sorry we didn't get a chance to see him. Party animal, though he is, we still managed to have a really good time without him.

We played the "blog game" (thanks Stephi) which engendered much discussion and laughter. We three girls were prepared with written remarks while the resident brothers winged it.

Lori, of course was the perfect hostess and. wonderful cook that she is, kept us fed very well. The famous pork loin was so good at dinner that I asked her what she had used as a marinade and she started naming ingredients but when she got to clam sauce I made her stop because I didn't want to have to think of that while I was enjoying the subsequent sandwiches.

Chalet Beauregard is multi leveled with outdoor decks on many levels. So our weather was always good. If it got too hot on the sunny deck, we moved to a shady deck. When it started to get cold in the shade we moved to a sunny deck. When the sun went down we moved inside. We couldn't have found a better "resort" to have a reunion.

We have decided that the next one will be in Uncle John's back yard. One of the many sarcastic barbs aimed at him this weekend. But we have also decided that we all love him like crazy even though our blog game remarks of our "first clearest memories" of him painted him as a spoiled brat.

All in all a great weekend, and its not over yet. Monica is still here for a couple more days and this afternoon we are going to Elise and Larry's.

Tehachapi

That's where the new Endurance is. I just happened to see it by chance. I was still taping the old Hawaii one because I never did see the ending. Megan told me that the grey team won, but I just wanted Yellow to outlast Orange but they didn't.

This year they had one day all together and three girly girls bonded and formed a clique. Then they had the first challenge to eliminate 3 boys and 3 girls and one of the cliquy girls was eliminated.

It is on here at 12:30 pm Saturday afternoon on NBC. That is within a bloc of time that NBC gives over to Discovery Kids shows and I think you can probably find the show and/or reruns on Discovery Kids (Adam found some for me last year when I was in California and had missed a couple of shows)

This week they will be choosing partners. I'll be glad when that happens because then I can just remember them by color and don't have to remember their names or faces.

In other news Monica is coming to town (my town) on Sunday afternoon. She will be staying with Rita and the three of us will be driving together to Brevard, NC on Thursday where we are having a sibling/spouse reunion. All the boys still have spouses. We return here on Monday the 17th and Monica returns home on Thursday the 20th.

Don't say I never tell you anything.

34721 Spring Valley

That's going to be my new address. Rita says they are making all sorts of moving out motions. First of all all the window dressings came down and she could see a ladder in the living room. A few days later, the window dressings went back up and we think that means they had them cleaned and they are painting the interior. This would be very good news to me since I don't want to have to do any of that, but I will if I have to.

The drill is that they will probably file a petition to vacate in October, Those have to be filed during the first 5 days of the month. They would then have 60 days to actually vacate while the resale goes through, but I am assuming that since they are doing all the preliminary work now, they will want the resale to go through as soon as possible. Then they (the corporation) notify me that the unit is for sale and I make arrangements to buy it. In turn I file my petition to vacate (this would probably be November) and I will have 60 days to actually move.

So most likely case scenario I won't be actually moving until Christmastime. Hopefully there will be a several week period where I will have possession of both units and the move can take place in small pieces until its time to bring in all the big pieces, for which I will get a couple of bids ahead of time.

Its exciting and intimidating.

Ambition

I think planning to blog once a week is an admirable ambition for Adam. Its not as easy as Erika makes it look. She, of course has excellent subject matter and it will be hard not to hold Ris to those standards.

Even when I think of something I should blog about, by the time I'm sitting at the computer, I've forgotten what it is. Sometimes I type a whole posting and then it sounds so dumb that I don't even publish it. Then when I remember that I would rather read something than nothing I wonder why I did that.

I have taken Stephi's blog game idea and sent an email to all my siblings suggesting that we "do" each other for our reunion in October. I tweaked the game a little leaving off the wrestling part and the animal part. I have been working on my own responses to each brother and sister and I am mostly stumped on the "What I have always wondered about you" one. I'm afraid I haven't spent much time wondering.

I like the family AR very much. As the show started to climax about who was going to be eliminated I found that I didn't want any of them to be eliminated. Usually there are a few teams that you can't wait to get rid of.

Ummm, Steak

Stephanie said that Texas Roadhouse was Jeff's favorite steak house. Since he was the one I wanted to please, (those birthdays were just an afterthought) that's where we went. What a good choice. The food was great (I just had Erika's leftovers for lunch today), the service was good and the company was delightful.

We stopped by Stephanie's place on the way home and her appartment looked very nice. Turns out Stephanie got her cleaning genes from Dana. I think we should all go out and buy Clorox stock.

All of the younger people went to Motor City except poor Erika who had to take her old mother home. Old mother and Erika had already spent more than 6 hours at Motor City that morning. This was Erika's baby-free, birthday-dinner weekend and she had to spend a lot of it doing my laundry and collecting and carrying my buckets of nickle tokens.

Have I mentioned how much I love my family?

Dr. Hall

She's my new favorite doctor.

She had a plastic spine and showed me in person what was depicted on the mri films. She showed me where the hermiation of my discs were (she described the discs as the soft tissue between the bones of the spinal column - I always thought that the bones themselves were the discs) and how that was causing the narrowed openings for the nerves of the spinal cord.

Since I described my situation as being back to what I have come to consider as normal she doesn't recommend any course of treatment right now. For any future incidents of spasm or pinched nerves I would go directly to her and she would treat with therapy (since I told her that really helped me)and steroid injections before resorting to surgery.

I asked her about the Laser Spine Institute and she said she just didn't know enough about the laser surgery to recommend or discourage it. But she agreed that surgery of any kind should be a remedy of last resort.

shopping

I just finished my xmas/birthday shopping for the 2005/2006 season. The Savings Bonds list has really dwindled even after adding Jackson. Stephanie is fast approaching her last scheduled gift (21st birthday) and the over-18 crowd will now be getting checks instead of bonds until their 21sts.

I am not planning to add the next generation to my list. I will be lucky to remember the ones I already know. In a few years Adam is the only one I will have to remember because Megan and Jackson chose really good dates to be born.

Tennis everyone

These late night matches are hard. I went to bed after Venus won the first set figuring she was going to win the match and I was wrong. Last night I went to bed after Blake won the first two sets. Lucky for me, I had my tv on cbs and woke up about 1:00 am to the cheering crowd. Evidently USA couldn't keep the game on and they threw it back to the cbs network. I couldn't believe they were still playing. I woke up enough to see the tiebreaker. When I went to bed I was happy that Blake was going to win, but when Agasi actually won, I was happier.

Old games, new tricks

Did you know that while you are playing Diamond Mine, hitting any key on the keyboard will pause the game. Well, I can't vouch for any key but certainly any of many keys. Hitting the same or any other key will resume the game.

If you touch the key and hold it down, the poor game will undulate back and forth and you can actually keep playing while this is going on.

Jackson taught me that while I was playing with him on my lap. Such an inventive boy.

Let's Call it a Brace

Here's the thing. When the ailment first started I couldn't clutch anything. I couldn't change gears or steer the car out of the parking space without both hands and great difficulty.

As I followed the doctor's orders by taking tylenol every 6 hours for two weeks the sharp pains got more dull, I could work the gear shift and steering wheel with one hand although painful. I got to a sort of pain plateau and not better. So I got the brace.

It seemed like a magic thing. I could do everything within the limits of the bulk of the brace. I am being careful not to get it wet or get food on it. So this morning after my shower, I forgot to put it back on. I went shopping. I was back to square one in the car. I could hardly turn the key.

So is this backward move worth the comfort of using the brace? Good question for a doctor whom I am about to call.

Our Big East connection

You may remember that Guy, the son of John Robert lives in New Orleans. News is that he and his family successfully evacuated before the storm, all are safe, house has damage but they expect to return by early next week.

I bought some golden ballet shoes. They are very cute and will go well with that gold tank top and over blouse that I have for formal night on the cruise. I got them from a catalogue and when they got here I tried one on and it fit. When I was telling gretchen about them I said "They fit, but I don't know if they will be comfortable". So here's the golden part about travelling with daughters. I continued "I will have Adrienne with me, if they hurt she will go back to the cabin and get the comfortable ones".

Love, the next time around

I met a new slot machine yesterday and I'm in love. I think its true love even tho we've never done the bonus round (there's a euphemism I'm giving away for free) I don't know the name of it, but the lovability comes from a feature called the Scottish Scatter. A little frame that moves from spot to spot while the reels are spinning. After the reels stop, the frame lands on a symbol. If there are 2 or more like symbols anywhere on the screen it acts as a scatter pay.

In other news, people are moving actual furniture out of my new house. Rita spoke to the current owner and they hope to be out by the first of October.

In other, other news, I finally bought a wrist immobilizer for my right wrist. Erika referred to it as a wrist thingy but I shy away from that word because in my married life thingy meant something else. But I digress. I got the immobilizer home last night a put it on right away. It felt fantastic. I woke up about 4 in the am with an itch and a pain I couldn't ignore. I removed the immobilizer to find that I had left my bracelet on underneath it and now had a permanent imprint of my bracelet. I left it off for the rest of the night (and took off my bracelet) and the imprint seems to be gone now.

I can do most things I need to do with it on and when I feel myself impaired its only to realize that those were the areas when I was over using my wrist. Typing is good but the remote control is now a two handed tool because the fingers of my left hand don't know where all the buttons are.

Twenty Five cents richer

Rita stopped over today and brought me some more Kelly green cucumbers (this is me chuckling at that pun). Kelly has planted a garden in his yard and is reaping a plethora of cucumbers. I really like them. I had forgotten how much better they taste when really fresh. She pointed out the one picked this morning and I am going to eat that one as soon as my poppin fresh rolls are finished cooling off.

She went cushion diving for me and came up with a quarter and a peanut but no nail file. I told her she could keep the quarter but she didn't. Hence the title.

I had a nice little IM conversation with Marcel last night. He reminded me that it was Bernie's birthday and we went back and forth about what we remembered about birthdays when we were kids.

Monica emailed me about a Laser Spine Institute that Kim may be using. Kim has spinal neck problems that seam to mirror my lower back spinal problems. She has cancelled a scheduled surgery to check out the laser route. I am going to ask my next doctor about it and wait to see what Kim's experience is.

Big Black Hole

I just spent the last 10 or 15 minutes searching for my nail file. My only "good" nail file. It is somewhere in the big black hole around my chair.

After "icing" my wrist for a while I decided to tackle my fingernails. They are getting very long and strong and I'm always afraid I will poke Jackson with one. I got out my manicure kit - had out my clipper, file and emery board. I clipped one nail at a time then filed it. I ended with my left thumb nail. I clipped it down, put the clipper down in my lap, picked up the emery board to get the big edges, put the emery board down in my lap and went to pick up the file for the finishing touches and the file wasn't there. I had just used it on the previous nail. I stood up (figuring it had gotten lost in the folds, lets pretend its the folds of my clothing). Nothing fell out. I looked around the floor, around in the chair, patted myself down, no nail file. Good grief. The cushion on my chair doesn't come off but I put my hand down the sides and still didn't come up with anything. Next person here with smaller and healthier hands needs to go cushion diving for me.

Oh Brother

I can't believe its been so long since I posted. On the Doctor front I have an appointment with Dr. Hall on 9/12 and I'm hoping there will be a non-surgical remedy for my back pain. I never did return to physical therepy because they never contacted me and I'll show them.

The therepy I had helped enough for me to resume my version of normal activity. I can dress myself and walk short distances etc.

In other news we had a really nice weekend with Erika and Jackson and Steph and Arn. Arn had lost both his grandmother and another close family friend last week and then he has been nursing our steph during her disability so I hope he had a good time. We played "bowling dice" (thanks Adrienne) and it was unbelievable how hard it was to keep score. Arn was the only one that could do it. I was a bookkeeper for more than 30 years and I'm sure I could have put my mind to it and conquered it but the pay wasn't good enough for all that work.

As for Brother Kayser. After my original indignation (as soon as she said I nominate Kayser, I pushed the rewind button) I decided I will probably keep watching BB but have no enthusiasm left. My least favorite line of the whole show was Ivette's (and I paraphrase) I don't care if America voted him back on, this is our game not America's.

Dr. Dawn

That's Dr. Tartaglioni, Neurosurgeon. I got there early enough to fill out the requisite paperwork. I can't believe, in this day and age, they can generate that form with my basic information (name, address) already on it.

I really like Dr. Dawn. She showed me the pictures (it turns out they are mine to keep). Showed me the several things that were wrong, told me which things could be helped and which couldn't. The only surgery she recommended was - well I would be having to refer to the pictures to explain it to you. The upshot was there was something that can be done to alleviate some nerve roots and their passageways. She showed me a couple of places that were very narrow and said "I don't know how you can stand it".

The benefit of this surgery would be that I could stand longer and walk farther. I'm thinking that I already have one arthritic knee that's giving me problems. The only reason it doesn't hurt more it that I don't stand on it or walk on it very much. It seems to me that's like fixing the axle when the transmission is ready to go. I told her I do not want surgery.

Then she referred me to another doctor (Dr. Hall) for non-surgical pain management. I will call for an appointment with her (I think she referred to Dr. Hall as her) tomorrow.

Real reality

I have started watching a couple of shows on E. One has got children of celebreties or just the very rich doing a cattle drive and the other is a group of quasi celebreties that have been on other reality shows making a movie. Gretchen, you won't believe, but Toni is back. After the Love Cruise, and Paradise Hotel, she's back on this show. Others that I recognize are Johnny "Fair Play" and Ethan from Survivor. Both shows are pretty stupid but interesting enough to fill in time while I am taping the "real" shows that I want to watch.

Neurosurgeon

I have an appointment to see a neurosurgeon on Wednesday the 10th. I just picked up a packet of "pictures" from my doctor's office to bring with me. I am tempted to open the envelope and look at the pictures but I have visions of opening the envelope and being greeted by a notice "Void if exposed to natural light."

There is a letter attached to the front that details the findings of the mri and say a lot of things about disc herniation, effacement upon thecal sac, lots of things about nerve roots and degenerative changes of the sacroiliac joints.

In other words I'm a mess.

Today is the day

I still take extra strength tylenol every six hours for my wrist. It hardly ever hurts any more, unless I try to use it. Some of the things I can't do is open pop bottles or pill bottles. To that end, I don't put the cap on the tylenol bottle all the way but just set it on top. I was fully aware that one of these days those pills were going to go flying all over the room. Today is the day. I think I got them all picked up but people with pets and small children be warned.

I was at Randazzo's yesterday and they had corn 10 for $1.00. I planned to get 10 and I could peel them if I took one layer at a time. On the 5th one, however, there was a long tail and I forgot that all my parts weren't working properly and tried to break it off. That brought an end to the corn and any other shopping.

On the pt front. I called them today and found out that Bob should be back the week of the 15th. I asked them to schedule me for that week. The reason for my call, however; remember when I noticed all the errors in their information screen? I got my first Medicare Summary Notice and they are not paying anything on my pt because the medical ID number (read social security number) is missing or wrong. Its not like I could have given it to them wrong, they have a copy of my insurance cards.

We have to get Kaysar back in the house.

Eee-Oh Eleven

Marty is probably the only one old enough to understand the title line (if he's still reading blogs). That is what Ron Simko used to say at the Dad's Club Bingo every time B-11 came out.

My reference here is that the Janet Evanovich book "Eleven on Top" was in the bag of books from Inga. Gretchen was looking for it, and I could see that the top book in the bag was Evanovich but it was a paperback and Gretch knew that the eleven wouldn't be in paperback yet. Inga (corner unit on the Suchy side) has been giving me books and I hadn't gone through the new bag yet.

In other news, I found the chair I wanted for the living room. I found it at Big Lots would you believe. I went out and bought it and Jeff is meeting me there after work today to bring it home for me (and I'm hoping perform the "some assembly required") and take my old chair to Stephanie.

I called the PT office and asked what had happened to Bob and was it just temporary and got the dreaded "I don know". I cancelled my appointments for the rest of this week. I didn't like the 3:20 time slot when everyone wanted to go home. My appointments next week are for 8:20 AM and I said I would call them Monday morning to find out if Bob is back, but I didn't want to go to the new people.

No New Machines

When I went to therapy on Friday I had a re-evaluation and my leaning numbers (front to back and side to side) had improved to almost normal. Bob (the PT guy) scheduled two more weeks of therapy and said he would start me on some machine exercises on Monday. I was very encouraged about this since I have a lifetime membership to Fitness USA and would be able to go there to continue machine use.

I figured Bob would set me up on a series of exercizes that would be more helpful than harmful since right now I don't know the difference.

I got to my appointment on Monday and felt like I had gone to the wrong place. No Bob or any of the assistants that I was used to. The main person seemed to be George who was Indian and hard to understand, his assistant was Eva who was Polish and hard to understand. They asked me what I usually had done, and of course, I didn't know the proper names for any of it.

When George got an inkling of what should be done after finally looking at my chart, he walked over to one of the high tables and said. "OK, get up on the table on your stomach." I said, "I can't breath when I lay on my stomach and I will need a chair to get up on that table.".

He gave me a lower table (they were all empty I was the only one there) and told Eva to begin my Deep Heat Stimulation (that's what Bob always called it but these people were using letters, I think it was IFC). She started to connect the ports to my back and I asked if they were going to put a heating pad on the table. After she sighed, she asked the American male gopher to get her a heating pad. As she was setting me up on the machine she talked to the kid telling him many times how this was so much easier to do if the person was on their stomach.

So, when that was done, she did my Ultrasound massage again letting me know several times that she had never done this to a sitting patient before.

After that she asked me what else I did, I showed her the exercises I did and she added 3 or 4 more to be done on the floor. I told her I could not get down on the floor. She was not happy with me. I was happy to be in the West because I'm thinking that in the Eastern Bloc they have ways to get to on the floor.

While I was doing the exercises, Eva and the kid were talking about the fact that George was leaving at 4:30 (My appointments this week are 3:20, and it took them almost a half hour to decide what to do with me.) Eva and the kid discussed how much lunch and break time each of them had had and what time they would be able to skip out after George left.

The upshot was I only did half my exercises and told them I was done and got out of there. There was no traction and no new machines.

New Machines

Kewadin was full of new machines. Its fun to try new machines except when it isn't. It isn't when you put your $5.00 in and hit the button and get nothing. Then you hit the button 9 more times and get 9 more nothings. Those new machines are sucky and you haven't learned anything about them.

Angels and Devils is one of the new penny machines. I put my $5.00 in and hit the button. (For some reason, most of the new penny machines have 21 lines instead of 20). My first spin brought up a bonus. I got to take my choice of the number of free spins. 20 free spins with prizes multiplied by 1, 10 free spins with a multiple of 2, 7 spins with m/3 or 5 spins with m/4. I chose the 7 spins. The second free spin brought up the same bonus so it added 7 more spins. Each win was multiplied by 3. Within the free spins I hit a different type of bonus with the angel on reel 1 and the devil on reel 5 and I chose the angel and she shot an arrow into 996 points. Anyways I made like 2,500 points (read pennies) on that bonus. I cashed out a ticket for $25.00 and put in another $5.00 to keep playing. I continued to get wins and bonuses until I cashed out another $15.00 ticket and put in another $5.00. Each time I got the free spin bonus I chose the 7 spins with m/3 option. During one of these I hit 5 of the biggest prize that paid 2,000 points and it was multiplied by 3. Read 6,000 pennies. I ended up with a ticket for $66.00 and change. That was $106.00 from that penny machine.

King of the Grill was also very good to me this trip and I ended up with $48.00 from the little piggy. I didn't see any of the Milk Money gendre but then, I don't walk the whole casino any more.

Those wins were enough to keep me in the black for this trip and maybe a couple more.

Whaaat

I went to bed at 9 last night because I knew I had to get up early today. I didn't sleep well but I was up at 4 and drove to Windsor to take Jeannette to the train station. I had to pass right by the casino and wasn't even tempted to stop. (I'm going to Kewadin on Monday so I didn't need a fix or anything). I got back home about 6:30 and tried to watch tv for a while. I finally felt so exhausted that I went back to bed. I just got up and I have a sneaking feeling that I'm supposed to know what day it is. Boy, I hope its not Monday, or I will have missed my trip to Kewadin.

Dr. Cathy

I finally got to the doctor for my wrist and her name was Dr. Cathy Beitman. I liked her very much. They x-rayed the wrist and it showed arthritis, of course, complicated with tendonitis. She will add it to my pt workup and told me to take Tylenol Arthritis every 6 to 8 hours for 2 weeks.

The MRI results were in and it turns out that it showed arthritis, of course, along with herniated discs. She mentioned the numbers of the affected discs but I forget. 4 and 5 sounds familiar. She explained why I can't stand for more than a few minutes and why sitting down seems to take the pain away. After I finish with the pt, it the pain persists she will send me to an orthopedist.

I have a one pound bottle of planters peanuts that I put on the top of my refrigerator next to the stove. It must have been too close to the edge because after I had opened and closed the freezer and refrigerator doors a couple of times the jar fell down on the stove. I saw it falling and visions of broken glass and peanuts all over the floor danced through my head. However, the bottle didn't break and all I got is a chip on my stove about the size of a dime. At the time that seemed like the lesser of the possible evils, but now that doggone chip is starting to look ugly.

A Bullet Dodged

My heavy weekend schedule brought back all the pain in my wrist and hand and I was looking to make a doctor's appointment for today or tomorrow. Of course nothing was open when I was ready to call so I was just filling time. I have a Stress Test scheduled in my calendar for 7/28 and they had sent me some preliminary papers to fill out and bring with me. They were sitting here on my computer desk so I decided to fill them out while waiting for the doctor's office to open.

When I got to the last page of the papers it said "Date of test 7/18/05". I checked the calendar and that is today. As soon as the clock hit 8:00 I called to verify. Yes they said, I was scheduled for 9:00 am. There were lots of conditions about eating and drinking before the test and luckily I hadn't violated any of them yet so I said I would be there, except that the papers said the test was 4 or 5 hours and I had a physical therapy scheduled for this afternoon. They re-scheduled the pt for tomorrow and I went for my tests today.

The first one started at 9 with an injection into my veins (like the bone scan did) and instructions to drink a full (10 oz) glass of water. After the stuff had gotten through my veins there would be an x-ray type of picture taking. Actually is was like a cross between an x-ray and an MRI. I had to lay flat on a table and the picture taking device, a disk about 3 feet across, started on the far left side of my chest and took about 20 minutes to move over to the far right side. But it wasn't in an enclosure or anything.

While waiting for the vein flow, I was taken in for an echo cardiogram. This was an ultra-sound picture thing that looked on the screen just like the baby picture ultra sounds. I was poked and prodded all over getting pictures from different angles. First from under my left breast, then under my left arm, then in the center of the bottom of my ribs, (she really had to push hard there) then from the throat area.

I dodged another bullet there. She was entering my information of her computer and I could see the screen and she had my first name as Patricia. I called that to her attention and while she was changing it I looked over the rest. They had my date of birth as 2/12/32. When I told her that was wrong, she left to go to the desk and make sure they changed it there. It never did change on her screen though.

I can just see my insurance company getting billed for a 73 year old Patricia Van Houten. How many years would that have floated around before it got straightened out.

I was sent home and told I could have juice until 11:30 and then just water after that. I go back there at 1:30 for the last set, a new injection and more pictures. It is a stress test that does not require me to walk the treadmill. They do it chemically somehow.

Now I have pt scheduled for tomorrow morning. I am too busy medically to go to the doctor.

A matter of time

The pain in my hand has subsided enough to give me a wide range of motion but I still have almost zero strength in it. Taking the cap off a pop or pill bottle is a major undertaking.

I always eat my meals in the living room in front of the TV. So I was having soup this afternoon. I tucked a tea towel into the collar of my T-shirt because I know I usually have a few drips even tho I hold the soup up close to my face while I eat.

I don't know what happened this time, but the whole pot sort if tipped over but only half of it spilled out before I could right it again. The tea towel had protected my shirt and the throw rug in front of my chair took most of what fell on the floor. I rolled up the towel, rolled up the rug, rubbed out the few drops that had hit the carpeting with a swiffer-wet. Those things work pretty good on a lot of spills. I used one to get some blood out of the carpet last week when I had a toe bleed.

Well, it wasn't until I walked back into the living room after dispatching all the soup soaked things that I noticed the big blob of soup on my chair. A wet towel and another swiffer-wet took care of that the best I could and I can hardly notice it any more, and I can hardly feel the burn on my inner thigh any more either.

I guess it was just a matter of time till I had that kind of disaster but I hope I have a lot of good years till the next one.

more bugs

I was talking with my friend Pat Specht (Jake Johnson's mother). We don't talk often but when we do its a talkathon. Anyways the lightening bug incident came up and she said that when she was a kid (in Pittsburgh) they used to catch fireflys and draw rings on their fingers with the phosphorencence and they glowed in the dark.

I didn't even think to ask if they killed the bugs first or just went around drawing on themselves with live bug butts.

Doctor, doctor

Bob, the pt guy, after determining that the pain in my wrist had not deminished, suggested that I see the doctor and get it x-rayed. I brought the doctor's phone number upstairs to bed with me so that I could call for an appointment first thing in the morning and not wait until I came downstairs.

However, when I woke up this morning, the wrist pain had moved into the middle of my hand and to the top set of knuckles. I thinking that pain from something broken wouldn't move around. So now I am just going to wait for it to keep moving till it reaches my fingertips and moves off the planet.

Lightening Bugs

Are lightening bugs lucky? I want to believe they are, even when the phosphorescense is sticking to your fingers after you have crushed him to death. Not my fingers, Gretchen's.

What made him come into my bedroom in the first place. I don't even want to think about how he got in. Didn't he know I had an Amazon Daughter ready to come to my rescue? I have always depended on the kindness of daughters.

Movin Right Along

had an MRI this morning. The test itself is painless. They had to make sure I had no metal on or in me. People my age tend to have implants of one sort or another. They asked about permanent eyeliner which reminded me of Steph's tattoos. She is supposed to have an MRI near the end of the month and they will have to find a way to cover her tattoos. I didn't think that a decision about surgery on her knee had been made yet. As for the MRI itself, I remembered that chamber as being a little bigger. It is embarrassing to scrape the sides as they slide you in and out.

The MRI place was very easy to find. I had good directions and they led me right there. Twelve mile across to Northwestern and right on Northwestern and the clinic was on the right. There were no directions to get out. Northwestern is the highway from hell. The clinic was like the last building accessible before the road turns into the Lodge Freeway. The freeway, Northwestern, Franklin, 12 mile and God knows what-all else, all seem to merge right at that corner. It took me a little longer to get home.

My latest ailment is my right wrist. I can hardly move it. I have trouble with the mouse and with the remote control so you know this needs to be fixed. Its been since about Saturday so at Monday's pt session I asked Bob, the pt guy if he could wrap it for me. He said that Ace bandages were considered a "durable medical apparatus" and they didn't have them there. He did suggest a cold pack and did that for me and suggested that frozen vegetables work best at home. After the long drive this morning, using both hands to work the gear shift, I stopped at Farmer Jacks and bought a bag of frozen corn. I put it around my wrist and it felt pretty good. I stopped at the drive in at Burger King and had the corn over my arm while I clumsily used just my left hand to hand over payment and receive change and take in the food and it occurred to me that you probably don't get as much general sympathy with a bag of corn on your wrist as you do with a cast or something.

Sorry to hear that Mary is in the hospital but glad to know she is getting good care.

Happy Birthday America

I spent America's birthday in Canada. Me and Rita and Jeannette went to Windsor Casino on the bus trip. Because of the carnival and Westland Festivities we couldn't park by the city hall as usual and had to park across Ford Road behind the Blockbuster Video (in the Kroger parking lot). I got there kind of early and was like the 2nd car from the back of the store. I spent my allotted amount of money in Windsor and them had the horrendous ride home.

First of all the bus driver didn't even try to get into the tunnel and took the bridge home. We were 1/2 hour in line to get through customs at the bridge. Then he dropped off the Dearborn people and proceeded to Westland. Ford Road was closed off so he went past Ford Road on Wayne to Hunter and across to Civic Center, making a very iffy U-Turn to head sough on civic Center, past the library and into the Kroger parking lot. The trouble was that the parking lot and all of its entrances and exits were packed with people trying to jockey for position for the fireworks tonight.

And besides, by this time it was raining very very hard. The driver finally gave up on the parking lot, went up to Ford Rd. around the barricades, made a left turn around the police cars that were blocking the road and pulled up in front of the blockbuster store to let us out there. That left quite a little walk to our cars. We all got soaked. If you ever wanted to see a senior citizen wet T-shirt contest-- Good thing I was smart enough to give Jeannette my keys and say "you will get to the car way before I will". and Good thing she was smart enough to get to the car and drive it in my direction so I didn't have to walk that far.

It is sooo nice to be home and in my nice warm dry jammies.

Bob, the PT guy

My physical therapist is Bob. He is very nice and inspires confidence. He did a pain free evaluation of my condition. He thinks my scoliosis is just above the waist and not a factor in this current situation. I got the heat, electro thing and deep heat ultrasound massage and he gave me a set of 4 exercises to do 3 times a day. They are all things to be done sitting down and I found that I can do a set at the computer wairing for a download.

I feel good and encouraged. I have pt scheduled every mon. wed. and fri. at 2:20 pm for the rest of the month.

How do you spell relief

V I C O D I N

Extra strenth vicodin and something called Neurontin. I took one of each as soon as I got home from Meijers and within a couple of minutes I took off my shoes with hardly any groaning.

I went to the real doctor. His is the name that was on the clinic when I first started going there and the name they have to use when billing my insurance. But he is hard to see since he is trying to retire. I had to wait a week for an appointment with him but he's the only one there that can prescribe narcotic drugs and I was afraid of running out.

When I told him how many Tylenol4s I was taking each day he said "Those are clearly not working." Duh. How come the other doctors (2) I went to didn't know that. He changed the prescriptions and added the Neurontin. I told him I will start the physical therepy on Thursday and he said after we see how much that helps he wants to refer me to a (kind of doctor I forget the name, but it made me think of sports medecine). So I have a little more ease of mind that releif could be on the way.

While I was at Meijers I picked up some light staples like chips and crackers. They are having a fantastic sale on pap. 3 24 packs of 12 oz cans for $4.00 after rebate but I couldn't even think of picking one up. All the stores around here are having really good pop sales. Maybe Gretchen will pick me some up later this week.
I will put that on the running "wish list" I started keeping on the kitchen table.

Little River

I did really well on my gambling trip. No I don't mean the gambling part although I am $6.00 ahead. No I did well physically if you don't count the part about being in pain and I hardly ever count that part any more. It is a given. Actually, either my pain threshhold has gone up a notch or I am getting a little better because I don't need the pain pills as often as I did.I can go 6 hours or more sometimes in a sedentary position.

I dressed myself this morning, even shoes and socks. I took my car in for a recall and I have to get dressed again tomorrow for a doctor's appointment. The I finally have my first physical therepy on Thursday and have to get dressed for that. I don't know how you young people do it, getting dressed every single day.

My aching back

The physical therepy prescribed by my doctor has yet to materialize. I have to wait till they have an opening and be evaluated etc. I'm still waiting for a call from them. I tried calling them and crying a lot but they have no sympathy.

I am living on pain pills and inactivity. Lucky for me that fits my lifestyle.The worst part is getting out of bed in the mornings. It is a long drawn out process of inching to a sitting position and letting everything settle and then inching to a standing position (trying not to fall backwards in to the above mentioned sitting position) [Not always succeeding]. However, when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom I don't usually have time for this ritual and I end up moaning and groaning a lot.

Showering is an adventure. Once I get it and let the hot water stream over my back, that parts pretty good. I can manage to wash up but you would be surprised how many back muscles it takes to lift your arms. I haven't washed my hair since I left Florida.

Another bad part is getting dressed. It is very frustrating to dangle step in clothing only to get your toes caught up in the elastic parts. I did manage to wiggle into my shoes to go to the doctor's but I used a ruler to close the velcro. Socks, of course, are out of the question.

I don't expect this disability to curtail my gambling trip this weekend.

Another Post

Oh, my aching back. The bad back was a big fat drain on the enjoyment of the last few days in Florida.

When I got home is was hot in my house. About 87. Kelly had told us a story on the way home from the airport about how it was hot in Rita's house when he went there to paint. He went out in back and found a utility box that was open and a large plug-type contraption was laying on top of her a/c unit. After trying to notify maintenance and deciding that after hours they really didn't care; he put the pluggy thing into the box thing and the a/c started right up.

So, when it was hot in my house I called Rita and asked her to ask Kelly if he would come to my house and check for a pluggy thing. I saw that there are several utility type boxes behind my house but I didn't know which one it would be. Kelly came by and identified the box, managed to get it open and pulled out the plug. He didn't find anything wrong with the plug so he put it back in.

I opened my front and back doors and the weather had cooled down enough that I couldn't tell if the air was working or not. One big sign was that the unit behind my house was not cycling.

Then I opened my mail and found my Visa bill. My billing cycle ends on the 23rd and I usually have the bill before the end of the month, but holiday and all, it wasn't here before I left for Florida. After checking the bill I noticed that the due date was 6/14. It was by then 11:30 PM of 6/14. I went on line immediately to pay the bill. When I got to the confirmation part they said my payment would be posted on the 16th.

All of this was fixed today. I went to the doctor and after pushing and prodding and xrays that made me lay flat and roll over. All things that I could not do easily because my back hurt. Duh. He determined that I was not experiencing a muscle spasm at all (thus, why the muscle relaxers were not working) What is going on is that my spine is moving. My scoliosis is getting worse. He is setting me up for a couple weeks of physical therapy. Also for bone density and stress tests. I am waiting for his "girl" to call me and let me know when the appointments are.

I called the Visa people and asked them why my due date was so early this month. I told him this is one of the bills I usually pay out of my social security check and that doesn't even come until the 3rd wednesday. He changed by billing cycle to end on the 28th and my due date to be the 23rd of the following month. He confirmed that I had made my payment on line last night and said that when the late charge went on, he would remove it.

I called Family Heating and Cooling. They came out and found that my problem was a bad fuse. A part that cost $4.50. The service call, however was $80.00.

But, I'm all fixed and all is right with the world

Where to finish

A little ways down the beach (to our right, looking at the ocean) they were building on to the beach. We could watch the sand being blown onto the shore and then spread around by bulldozers. My dad would have loved watching all that. After a couple of days the yellow taped area moved closer to our strip of beach. The day before we left the yellow tape was right in front of our building, but the weather was bad that day and the day we left so they weren't working on it. I'm thinking the people who rented the week after us were in for a disappointment. The beach building was to make repairs for the damage caused by last year's hurricanes. And in the middle of it, here comes Arlene.

I didn't get down to the pool every day. One of the days I didn't go down, I was re-heating our Sunday roast for dinner. about 4:00 Monica came up and got our blender because Mitch was making Frozen drinks out by the pool. I put the roast on to heat at about 6:30. Every time I thought of joining them down at the pool, I figured that by the time I put shoes on and got down there they would be ready to come up. So I didn't. I ate my dinner at about 7:30. My two drunken sisters wandered in after 9:00.

One of the days I did go down was Wednesday. Hot Dog day. They don't cook the hot dogs out by the back of the pool (where the drinking party was) any more. They cook them up by the clubhouse. I had my hot dogs and stayed down the rest of the day. We had a family dinner in the club house at about 6:30. Everyone brought stuff and Monica made a barbequed briskit. Afterward, we played nickle dice.

Thursday night all the women (11, count them 11 - including Monica's friend Ginny) went to see the play Menapause, the Musical that was playing in Sarasota. We decided to go out to dinner first and they picked a restaurant that served drinks. As part of Kim's birthday present (her birthday is 6/8) John (her husband) rented a limo for us. It picked us up at Four Winds. We had a couple of drinks in the limo (I'm not sure who supplied the rum and coke but it was delicious). The driver dropped us at the Chart House where it was Happy Hour and early bird dinner prices. He gave Kim his number and she called him when we were ready to go and he took us to the theatre. The play was very funny and the limo was waiting for us when it was over. Angie (Mitch's wife) kept us all in the party mood right up to the time we were dropped off. I heard later that although some of us went to bed, others continued to party.

Saturday we went back to Monica's and the weather was cloudy and not so nice for the first couple of days. Monday me and Rita did get down to the pool for a while. Starting from Sunday I was suffering from what I thought was a muscle spasm in my back and it hasn't gone away yet.

But that's another post.

Where to start

Where to start? Where to finish?

First of all we arrived at Monica's condo on Tuesday the 30th. It rained every day we were there (not the whole day) and we never used her pool that whole week. We proceeded to Long Boat on Saturday (a mere 1 hour and 15 minute drive)

Some of you may be aware that there was a shortage of rooms there this year. Kim really wanted to rent an extra unit but there didn't seem to be one available. Alternate plans were made and it ended up that Danny and Janna were going to use the unit that Debbie usually uses and Debbie and her kids were going to spend the week at Monica's condo. Debbie invited her mother-in-law and sister-in-law to spend a long weekend there with them.

Now comes, one or two days before our week starts and Kim gets a call that a unit has opened up. She took it. Now Kim's family have three total units which gave Lauri and Austin one to themselvs. And thus, we enjoy the weekend.

Then comes Krista in the pool on Monday talking to a woman that says her group has to leave that day and would Krista like to use her room for the rest of the week. There are some huge teenagers in the Krista/Mitch unit. So Krista got the keys etc. from her and wanted to give Debbie first shot at it. So Monica called Debbie and since her company had left that day, she decided to pack up the kids and come on down.

It turned out that the free unit was a large studio (all in one room with a murphy bed and sofabed) Debbie has a couple of good sized teenagers also. Anyways, Brittany moved in with Laurie and Austin and Debbie and Ryan did fine it the studio and we all had a wonderful week.

to be continued