February 2017 Scrapbook Pages

Marley went to driving school over February school vacation!

A trigger that takes me back - Mt. Tom Power Plant

*I read recently on one of the blogs that I follow, when something triggers a memory, write it down as part of your story.

Today, on our way to Vermont, we drove by the Mt. Tom Power Plant on the Connecticut River in Holyoke.

I used to know how high that tower was.  How did you know that, you may ask?

When I was young, one of our neighbors, Wallace Handfield, worked there.  He lived at the end of my street.

Actually, it was on Primrose Street but it intersected my street, Oleander Street in West Springfield.  I knew him as "Handfield."  Every evening, or so it seemed to me, he would sit on his front steps after dinner.  Whenever I saw him out there I would go down and sit with him.  His wife never came out. Occasionally I would see her at the door but I don't remember ever talking to her.
He was probably in his 50's, maybe younger, but he seemed old to me at the time.

I can't remember what we used to talk about, but I do remember that he told me how high the tower of the power plant was.  He used to ask me how high it was and I was very proud that I could remember and tell him.

Then, one day, he was not out there.  I'm not sure how long it was, but we learned that he had passed away from some type of cancer.  I remember how upset I was.

Now, every time we go by the power plant I think of Handfield and how much I loved sitting and talking with him on his front steps.

In Memory of Ruthie...

I have been so saddened this week about the passing of a friend, Ruthie Watson Iannazzo.

Her family moved here from Kansas in 1962 and they attended my church, Bethany Assembly of God.   We were the same age when she moved here - 12 years old, and we became friends.

After she got married she moved away and I rarely saw her.  The last time I saw her was at a friend's funeral.  That was two months ago.  Who could ever have known that in two months' time she would be gone also.

This is a picture of our combined junior high Sunday School class, probably 1962 or 63.  I am in the back row - fourth girl from the left.  Ruthie is the fifth girl, right next to me.  Most of these kids were in the youth group also.  It's hard to explain what a bond we had with the kids in our youth group at that time.

I still feel that bond, all these years later.
#tillwemeetagain

Happy Birthday Gramps!

Donald (left) and David Wait - 1956

Paul and I have been working on David Wait's genealogy lately.  He was my grandfather's younger brother.  

We have been photographing all of the different places that Uncle David lived, all of them in Greenfield except for one place.  From what we can gather from City Directories and Uncle David's daughter Janet, Uncle David moved to Arizona in 1956.  He had bad lungs and the doctor told him that moving to a dry environment might help.  

This picture is one of my Aunt Dot's slides.  I remember that they came for a visit on their way to Arizona - Uncle David, Aunt Ellen and their five children.  There was another picture taken that day. I can still see it in my mind.  I looked everywhere for it and the only thing that I can think of is that Dot must have thrown it out.  She went through a phase where she went through her slides and "purged" them, although I can't imagine why she would have gotten rid of that one. 

Anyhow, my grandfather and Uncle David were very close and the move must have been hard for both of them.  I don't remember the details, whether he didn't like it in Arizona, didn't think it helped his health or what, but Uncle David was back in Greenfield the next year.

I have many pleasant memories of going to Greenfield with my grandfather to visit Uncle David, Aunt Ellen, and their youngest son Donald, who was two years younger than me.  

Today is my grandfather's birthday.  He would have been 117.  Happy birthday Gramps.