August 2018 Scrapbook Pages

Throwback Thursday - Paul's Concussion

(Written by Paul)

The date was January 16, 1975. Debbie and I were spending a Friday evening with new church friends, Rusty and Patty Gosselin, at their house.  Debbie's father and half sister Lori were babysitting for our kids.  Lori was just getting into babysitting and her father was there to back her up.

Rusty and I had planned an evening of ping pong, a sport that we both played very aggressively. I remember, believe it or not, playing the best ping pong of my life and I really had Rusty's number that night, much to his frustration.

On our way out, Debbie went first and told me to watch out for the ice.  The next thing she knew, I was lying on my back, not moving.  I wasn't getting up and Debbie thought I was fooling and kept kicking me and telling me to get up.  When they realized something might be wrong, they brought me into the house.  They started to question me and were still not convinced that this was not a joke.  I asked Rusty what we were doing there and he told me that we had been playing ping pong in the cellar.  I said, "I didn't think this house had a cellar."  They finally decided that something was wrong.  Rusty brought me to the Emergency Room at Baystate Medical Center, which was called Medical Center of Western Massachusetts at the time.  All the way there I kept asking him where we were going and why.  He would answer me and then I would go on and on about my great group insurance.  This cycle happened several times on the way.  While we were waiting in the waiting room, I kept telling Rusty that I had to go to the bathroom.  This kind of shows that I wasn't right because normally I would have just found the bathroom and used it.  Rusty brought me to the bathroom.  I was in there just a few seconds and came out.  When we got back to our seats I told him that I had to go to the bathroom.  Rusty thought to himself, he forgot to go while he was in there.  Finally it was our turn and they asked me why I was there.  I told them that I really didn't know and that they would have to ask my friend.  Rusty explained and we were eventually seen by a doctor.  The doctor interviewed me and gave me some mind tests.  I could tell him who the last several presidents were but I couldn't tell him a thing about today.  Rusty struggled to convince them that I wasn't taking drugs, and for the most part succeeded.

They then put me in a temporary holding area with several beds.  I kept asking everyone I saw why I was there.  I kept thinking I might have been in an accident and my family was hurt.  I was driving everyone a little nuts.  Finally I asked Rusty if he could write down what happened and put it where I could see it so I wouldn't have to bother people.  Rusty asked the nurse if that would be okay and she replied that anything that would quiet him down would be a good idea!  So he wrote the little note above and put it where I could see it.  I saved it all these years.

Rusty left in the middle of the night.  By then Debbie had called her father to tell him what was going on and they decided to stay overnight.  Debbie decided to just stay at the Gosselins.  Debbie has often asked herself why she didn't go to the hospital but she thought I would get checked out and come back to the Gosselins.

I spent the night in the holding unit trying to find someone who would take the group insurance claim form that I kept in my wallet.  I'm sure they all heard about my great group insurance too.  Finally, someone took it and said she would take care of it - probably just to humor me.

Another odd thing happened in this shared room.  In the bed next to me was a teenager who had tried to commit suicide.  His dad spent the whole night with him.  The dad must have had a resemblance to Debbie's Uncle Lee.  The following morning I asked him if I had already asked him if his name was Lee.  He said, "Yes, a 100 times."  I must have driven him nuts all night asking that.  I'm sure this added more grief to his very bad night.

Some of these things I actually remembered; others were told to me by Rusty.  Several days later Rusty and Patty came over to our house.  Rusty told the entire story of what happened that night.  Rusty and I laughed so hard that we were actually rolling on the floor holding our sides in pain.

My memory returned the following morning (Saturday).  During the morning I was examined by a neurosurgeon who released me to go home.  I was so relieved that they were letting me go home. This was proof to me that I was OK. I was actually worried that something permanent might have happened to me. By the way, I never forgot the neurosurgeon and brought Deb's Aunt Dot to him many years later when no one else could figure out what was wrong with her back. He said "I can help you, Dorothy" and he did.

I went to work on Monday because it was critical year end closing time.  I performed my duties but an odd thing happened.  Evidently, I had never brought my briefcase home from work on Friday because I didn't have it Monday morning.  During the day, I became very, very concerned about the briefcase which was not at home or at my desk.  After looking everywhere, I was afraid that someone had put it in the big dumpster out in the alley behind the building.  I was so fixated on this possibility that I needed to do something before the dumpster was emptied, so I went out and actually climbed inside the dumpster and started going through all the trash.  One of our managers, Carl Allen, walked by and heard the rustling thinking it might be a raccoon or something.  Coming closer, he saw me and said, "Is that you, Paul?"  "What are you doing?"  I told him I was looking for my briefcase and he said, "Oh", walked away, and the incident was never mentioned again.  I finally found my briefcase by the coat rack at the back of the room where I had left it Friday night.

This entire incident, with a few additional twists, was repeated many years later during a New Year's winter storm in Maine, but that's another story!

Both times they said I had a concussion with no bleeding, but I have often thought that maybe it's a good thing I didn't play high school football.  I seem to have enough problems dealing with icy walkways.

Throwback Thursday - Weekend+ Trip to Misquamicut 1973

Lately I have been on a roll to blog my pictures chronologically, and this was a weekend trip to Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island, just me and Paul.  Paul's mom, Priscilla, took care of Kristen from Thursday night, August 23rd to Monday, August 27th.  She was turning one that weekend, and I felt some guilt that I was going to be away on her birthday.  Priscilla told me that she was too young to know the difference, and that we would have her birthday party when we got back.

This beach was just down the road from Misquamicut State Beach.  We have recently been by there a few times looking for the hotel and I think we found it, but I can't remember the name.  The next time we go there I'll write it down and update this.

If you look closely, you can see me on the upper deck.  You can see me a little better in the second picture.  This was on the deck right outside our room.  It was the first time I had ever stayed in a room right on the beach.  I remember waking up in the morning and the whole room was damp from the ocean air.

About the only other thing I remember about that trip was that it was the first time I tried scallops.  Up until that time, I ate no seafood.  Nothing.  I still only eat scallops.  They have to be fried and they have to have a lot of tartar sauce on them. There was a restaurant right next to the amusement park, still on this strip of beach, that served seafood.  Again, I don't remember the name, but it is still there.

So that's it for vacations for 1973.  We found out that it's not so easy to pick up and go with a baby on board.

Throwback Thursday - Lake George Vacations 1984, 1985 and 1987

Last week Mark, Janelle, Mason, Miriam and Janelle's Dad Joe went to Lake George for a week's vacation.

They stayed at the Flamingo Resort at Diamond Point.  They all had a great time.  There were so many things to do right at the resort.  It looks like a great place for families.

Before they left we talked about the vacations that we had at Lake George.  We went in 1984, 1985, and 1987 (in 1986 we went to DisneyWorld).

We stayed at a place called Horicon Heights in Bolton Landing, a little further north on the lake than Diamond Point.  

We first heard about the cabins at Horicon Heights from a co-worker of Paul's at Combustion Engineering.  He was from New York City and loved the Adirondacks, and had stayed there with his family.  He said the cabins were right on the lake and they were less expensive than anything else at Lake George.

A little history of Horicon Heights (you know me, I always want to know the history of places, lol).  I didn't remember this but Paul did, and he was telling Mark about it. The original owner lived in a house out by the road and bought kits from a Scandinavian company to build these cabins.  He eventually sold the property to a couple who were professors at RPI, which was about an hour away in Troy, NY.   There names are Lenore and Nick Clesceri.  When they bought it, they moved the cabin that was in the center of the group of cabins and in its place built a large house that they lived in.  They then rented the cabins and the original home out by the road.  The cabins were kind of rough, in fact, Paul brought his tools and fixed at least one thing each time we stayed there.  

The first time we went, Mark was almost 10, and Kristen was almost 12.  We stayed in one of the smaller cabins. I remember the first time we went Mark brought his mess kit from Royal Rangers and ate with that until the dishes were washed at least one time there.  

The cabins were on a hill and there was a short walk to the lake.

In 1985 and again in 1987 we stayed in the largest cabin.  This cabin had a view of the lake.  

I have so many good memories of staying at Horicon Heights.  I jokingly said to Mark, when they were telling us about what was available at the Flamingo Resort, that the only amenity that Horicon Heights had was the lake, lol.  

We brought our aluminum row boat and motor, and a couple of huge inner tubes and Paul pulled the kids on the lake, and also went fishing.  

We went into Lake George Village a lot.  They had a little amusement park there called Gaslight Village with rides and shows.  It is no longer there, but there is a Six Flags nearby now.  We took a trip to Ft. Ticondaroga for a day.  Paul also went parasailing the last time we were there.  

My cousin Lynda and her family and parents stayed there too for a few summers and they told us that the cat there had had kittens the summer of 1987.  We had one cat, Bony Sweet at the time.  She was a stray that kind of adopted us when we had our cat Callie.  After Callie died we were down to one cat and we decided, before we went on vacation, to get one of the kittens.  We were used to two cats, so why not, right?  My Aunt Dot wanted one too, so we brought a cat carrier and came home with two kittens.  Dot named her kitten Lady Skeeter and we named ours George.  

We had a lot of fun with the kittens that vacation.  

Before Mark and his family came home, they went to Bolton Landing and took pictures of Horicon Heights.  He talked to someone there who told him that the kids of the people who owned it when we stayed there run it now.  There have been a lot of improvements, in fact I almost don't recognize the cabins.  They don't have front doors anymore and have decks off the back which must be the front doors now.  They look a lot better.  

The lakefront still looks the same, the dock and the Gazebo.  There are more chairs now.

I don't recognize this sign, but love the picture of Janelle and the kids there.

The next year, 1988, we went to DisneyWorld again and that was actually our last family vacation.  Kristen graduated from high school in 1990 and then college expenses kicked in for the next many!!! years.

If I could give young families one piece of advice it would be - take as many family vacations as you can.  The memories last a lifetime.  

Throwback Thursday - How Steph and Ettie met their husbands, Ray and Bob

The other day I was looking through things that I have kept track of on my computer.  I was specifically looking for information on Steph, my aunt Dot's best friend.    

The picture below was taken on Dot's 83rd birthday, along with the journaling that I wrote about that visit.  Steph and Ettie both talked about how they came to meet their husbands.

"Saturday, September 15, 2007 – Today we celebrated Dot’s 83^rd birthday.  Linda and Ettie came up on Thursday night.  I had gotten the day off on Friday and it was so nice to have some time to just visit.  We went over to Dot’s for lunch.  

Steph was there, and we had such a nice time.  Steph told us all about how she happened to come to live at Nan’s for a few years.  She came to Holyoke from New Jersey to help out her sister in the summer, went to Bethany and became friends with Ettie and Dot.  Her sister eventually moved back to NJ and Dot and Ettie talked her into living at their house.  She met Ray where she worked at Valley Manufacturing on Birnie Ave in Springfield.  She said it was an old foundry.  They hired Ray and his father because they were pattern makers.  She told us all about how they met, dated, and eventually got married.  

Then Ettie told us about how she met Bob at Framingham Camp in 1945 when she was about 15 or so.  It was the one and only time they had boys and girls camp together.  After that the boys went one week and the girls went another.  David Flower’s (one of the pastors at our church when I was young) mother, Alice Flower, was the camp speaker.  Ettie’s friend Allie Ree Eide (her father was the pastor at the time) wanted Ettie to go to camp.  Nan didn’t want her to go, but Dot got Nan to let Ettie go.  A girl from the Hartford church where Bob attended, Eunice Frick, introduced them.  He asked her to go to a bonfire with him, and also another guy, George Cook asked her to go and she said yes to both of them.  They both showed up at her cabin, and she had to make a choice as to who she wanted to go to the bonfire with and she chose Bob, and the rest is history.  Anyhow, we had a wonderful time that afternoon."

I am so glad that I wrote that all down.  I would never have remembered it otherwise.  Even though Dot and Ettie are both gone now, I still keep in touch with Steph.  She is so much a part of my family and I just love her.