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.

Happy Birthday Ettie!

Today is my Aunt Ettie's birthday.

This is one of my favorite memories of her.  It was the summer of 1966 and we had rented a cottage at Misquamicut for a week.  I had a transistor radio, and the song "Wild Thing" played on the radio a lot.  My cousins, Donny and Bobby loved that song and Ettie used to sing the beginning of it, "Wild thing, you make my heart sing, you make everything groovy."  We all used to love it when she did that.  She was so much fun!

My Aunt Ettie

This is my Aunt Esther (I have always called her Ettie).  My grandfather had hunting dogs for many years and I am sure this must be one of them.  I wish I could remember the name.  Ettie has been having memory problems, along the same line as Dot, recently.  I wonder if she would remember her dog's name?

This picture reminds me of a funny story.  When I was a kid, one day I was rummaging around my grandmother's attic and came across a brown paper bag in one of the trunks.  I stuck my hand in the bag and nearly freaked!  I quickly took my hand out and looked in the bag.  There were two long, blond braids, intact, in there.  I found out later that they were my Aunt Ettie's.  I can't imagine what her hair looked like after just cutting off the braids, lol!

Throwback Thursday - Me and Ettie

The year on this picture from my Aunt Dot's photo album is 1953.  That means I was 3, and my aunt Esther (Ettie) was 23.  We were supposed to be posing with the "helicopters" from the maple tree on our noses.  Obviously I couldn't resist sneaking a peak at the photographer, most likely my Aunt Dot.  I'm so thankful for these old pictures!

Throwback Thursday - "The Olden Days"

Last week on Facebook there were a lot of posts of these "old fashion" pictures.  I dug this one out from one of my photo albums.  It was taken some time in the mid '80's.

My Aunt Ettie, my cousin Lynda and her family were vacationing at Lake George.  My Aunt Dot and I drove up for the weekend and that is when we had this picture taken.  We had a lot of laughs over this picture, especially my Aunt Ettie's lack of a neck, or so it seemed. 

Good times, that now seem a lifetime ago.

Throwback Thursday - Uncle Bob

Uncle Bob and Ettie, Christmas 1958, in their first pastorate, Norwich, CT

This past Sunday, July 22, 2012, my Uncle Bob Lundstrom went to be with the Lord. He was 80 years old. He was married to my Aunt Esther (Ettie).

We will be going to Delaware on Thursday for his funeral. He was a unique individual, one of a kind. I will always remember him for his total devotion to and focus on his service to God. It was his life.

I'm sure on Sunday he heard, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." Mt. 25:23.

What a busy weekend....

On Friday, 3/16, my aunt Ettie and cousin Lynda came for a visit. Friday was actually Ettie's birthday, so I decided it would be nice to have the family over for a birthday dinner.

She was surprised when we had a birthday cake.



We all had a good time together, including Dot. We never left to bring her home until after 10 p.m. and she never asked to leave. She seemed so happy to be with all of her family.



The next day, Saturday, Ettie, Lynda and I went to visit her at The Atrium.



The weather was so nice we took a walk around the grounds, and then sat in the little garden that they have. Dot immediately went to work cleaning out the flower pots, weeding, pruning, etc. I'm so happy that they have a place where she can do this. She loves it.



Dad, Marge, and Ettie stayed and had dinner with her there, and Lynda and I went out for dinner. It was nice to catch up on each other. We don't do that enough. We all had a fun time that evening visiting with Dot in her "living room." At times I wondered if we were going to be asked to leave. My family is loud. We talk loud and laugh loud. At one time, one of the residents was in her room crying out and moaning a little. Dot went to see what was going on. She entered her room (the door was open) and ended up praying for the woman. Would you believe that in minutes the woman calmed down and fell asleep. I have noticed that the residents really do look out for each other; so nice to see that.

On Sunday, we all met at The Atrium again. Ettie and Lyn were leaving around 12:30 to go home. Dad and Marge were coming to take Dot back to their house for a corned beef and cabbage dinner. Dot seemed tired, but she was still up to going to Dad's house.

On the way home, the weather was so beautiful that I called Paul and asked him if he wanted to go to the Cape for today and tomorrow (Monday is his day off). The kids were all at the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Surprisingly he said yes, so we packed an overnight bag and off we went.

We stayed in Eastham at the Town Crier where we had stayed last year. The Cape was beautiful and warm enough that we were able to drive with the windows down.

The next day we headed up to the Provincetown area and went to Herring Cove Beach and Race Point Beach. The weather, again, was beautiful and the light was gorgeous. At Herring Cove Beach there were whales out by that NOAA boat. In this picture you can see two black dots on either side of the boat. Those are whales. We were told that they were Right and Humpback whales.



We worked our way back down the Cape, driving by all of our old haunts. What a fun day it was. Such a spur of the moment mini vacation.

Here are some pictures from today.



















P.S. More post offices. Be prepared - we went by a lot of post offices on the Cape!

East Sandwich


West Barnstable


Cummaquid


Yarmouth Port


Dennis


North Eastham


North Chatham


Chatham


Harwich Port


Dennisport


West Yarmouth


As I said, what a busy weekend!

Ettie's visit with Dot, Day 2

Last night Kristen brought Marley over to visit Dot, etc. and today Mark brought Mason. We had our own little "living room" all to ourselves.




We all really had a good time together. There were a lot of laughs and, when leaving, a lot of tears. I hope that we can do this many more times for Dot and Ettie.

Ettie's visit with Dot, Day 1

My aunt Esther (I call her Ettie) came for a quick visit with Dot this weekend. She lives in Delaware, about 6 hours away, and doesn't make the drive by herself anymore, so her daughter-in-law Tammy brought her up.

Dot has been doing very well lately. She hasn't packed up her room or taken down her pictures in quite a while. Well.........today when we got there she said she was all packed up to go home...and she was. Pictures off the wall, closet empty, bathroom toiletries packed up. I couldn't believe it. I felt so bad for Ettie; I wanted her to see how well Dot was adjusting.

It was fleeting, though. They came around to get them into the dining room for snack, and by the time snack was over, Tammy and I had put her whole room back together, and Dot never mentioned it again for the rest of the weekend.

My family has always been known for being loud. Even when I was a kid my grandmother would go around shutting the windows in the summer because "what are the neighbors going to think." When my aunts and my father get together, we are loud. This evening during sing-a-long, we all got laughing because my dad and Esther were really getting into singing, but they couldn't hear the music well and were a couple of beats ahead of the music, which made the rest of us laugh. I think we were the entertainment for the whole place!



It was a good day!

Trip to Delaware and PA

Paul and I went to Delaware for the weekend for my aunt Esther's 80th birthday! We drove down in one of the worst rain storms ever. Thank God for Rainex. Ettie knew something was up for her birthday but she sure was surprised to see us there. It was sad that my Dad and Dot couldn't be there, but that is just the way things are now. It was so nice to see everyone again, and to meet for the first time my cousin Lynda's granddaughter Sophia. What a cutie. Lynda and Ray are smitten (as are the rest of the family). We spent Saturday night and Sunday there and on Monday morning headed out to Lancaster to the Amish country for an overnight. What a fun weekend. I made a mental note to get down to my cousin's more often! If you want to see more pictures, go here.

Throwback Thursday - Influential Women

My aunt Esther is here from Delaware visiting my aunt Dot. Paul and I went over to Dot's tonight to visit with them. It got me thinking about the influential women in my life. I have had at least four of them. Two of them are now gone, my grandmother Lucy, and my mother-in-law Priscilla. I have two of them left, my aunt Dot and my aunt "Ettie". It seems no matter how old you get, it's nice to have a mother figure still in your life. They know you and still love you no matter what. Sometimes I feel bad that Ettie lives so far away, but whenever she visits, it's like the years go back. My cousin Lynda and I will still always be the kids, and they will be the adults. There is something comforting about that and I hope it stays that way for a long time.

(Picture taken May, 2005, Greenfield, MA)