Throwback Thursday - Gilbert and Barker Days at Mountain Park

When I was young, my Aunt Dot worked at Gilbert & Barker Manufacturing Co. in West Springfield.   Every year they had "Gilbert & Barker Day" at Mountain Park.  It was a day where employees could bring their friends and family to spend a day at Mountain Park free of charge.  I remember it as being one of the best days of the summer.

These are pictures that Dot took over the years at Gilbert and Barker Day.

1957 - Deb, Maureen and Linda Lockerby

1957 - Dot with her friend Jane Starzyk (who also worked at Gilbert and Barker).

1962 - Bob and Don Lundstrom in first boat

Lynda Lundstrom and Deb in second boat

1962 - Left to right Bob Lundstrom, Donna and Debbie Waite, Don and Lynda Lundstrom

1962 - Left to right Bob and Lynda Lundstrom, Donna Waite, Don Lundstrom

In 1965 Gilbert and Barker closed their factory in West Springfield and relocated their headquarters and US manufacturing facility to Greensboro, North Carolina.  As Dot did not want to relocate, she was out of a job.  She found a new job, also in West Springfield, at the John H. Breck, Inc.  They made Breck shampoo.  No more Gilbert and Barker Days at Mountain Park, but now we always had lots of different types of shampoo and hair products.  Dot worked there until she retired in March 1987.

Happy birthday Dad and Jean (mom)

Jean Higgins and David Waite, November 6, 1948

In keeping with my new idea to post a picture of a family member on their birthday (I started this with Kristen in August 2016), here is a picture of my parents, both of whom had birthdays this week.

My dad was born on January 1, 1927 and passed away on December 9, 2012.  He would have turned 90 this week!

My mother was born on January 5, 1931 and passed away on December 31, 2010.  She would have turned 86 this year.  

I have often wondered what life would have been like if they had stayed married.  Obviously, it was not the plan that God had for my life.  I feel that, growing up with my grandparents and my aunt Dot, I had a much more stable life than my half-siblings, on both sides.  My grandparents were wonderful to me and I am so grateful that they stepped in to what must have been chaos when I was 9 months old.  

As I grew older, though, in some ways, I missed having a "normal" family life.  I always said that if and when I got married, I would definitely have a normal family unit, and I did.  

Since I have had grandchildren, though, I have appreciated my grandparents and especially my grandmother (my grandfather died when I was 14).  Life is a little harder as you get older, as in aches, pains, less energy, etc.  It has made me appreciate my aunt Dot more too.  She never married and lived at home with me and my grandparents.  She did all the fun things with me that younger parents do.  

Since it was my paternal grandparents that I lived with, I saw my father quite a lot.  Not so much with my mother.  It wasn't until I was in my 30's that I reconnected with her and I'm grateful that I had such a long time to get to know her.  I never called her mom.  I had never called anyone mom.  I really didn't call her anything, just hoped she was looking at me when I talked to her, lol!  But I feel as though we got to be good friends and I found that I really liked her.  

I used to think that I was so lucky that my grandparents took me in, and I was.  But now being a grandparent myself, I would do it for any of my three grandchildren in a minute!

August and September birthdays (and a photo bomber)

On Sunday we went to Stacia's house in Woburn for her annual BBQ and Lobster fest.

Some years it is earlier in the summer and a few years it has been at the end of the summer.  When that happens, we celebrate the August and September birthdays.  These include Kris, Mark, Janelle, me, and Maria Quinn.  The Quinns always come to the BBQ and Lobster fest, and Maria's birthday is in September, so she is part of the birthday group!

I always want to get a picture of the birthday group, but this is what happens when Paul takes the picture.

He never says when, just starts snapping until I yell at him to tell us when.

Somehow, Mason photo bombed the picture.  His birthday is in June!

If only I could get Paul to tell us WHEN!

Thowback Thursday - Uncle Harold Wait's Camp at Lake Sherman

A couple of weeks ago Paul and I went kayaking at Lake Sherman in Brimfield, MA.

Before Paul and I really got into doing genealogy, we went to the Wait Family Reunion in 2002. While we were there we met a lady (my grandfather's sister's son's wife, got that?) who was really into genealogy.  She brought her book that she was working on and went around gathering everyone's information.  

It was around 2003 that Paul and I started getting interested in genealogy.  Some time later in talking with my Aunt Esther about some of what we had found out she gave me this lady, Ann Bonneville's, email.  We corresponded back and forth and she eventually mailed us her book that she was still working on.  It had a lot of information and pictures that I had never seen.

One of the pictures in her book was of Uncle Harold's "camp" on Lake Sherman in Brimfield, MA.  

I remember talk of this camp.  My Dad used to love going there.  My Aunt Dot said she never liked going in the water there because there were blood suckers.  

This picture was from Ann's book.

Last fall I decided that I would like to try and find out if this camp still existed.  We found the lake, but couldn't identify the house.

My Dad told me years ago that he tried to find it and he had to hike from the road to get to it.  The picture we had was from the water, so I thought maybe we could find it from the kayaks.  Believe it or not, we found it and it didn't look much different than the picture we had.  

Through landmarks we were able to find the camp from the road.  No one was there at the time.  When we got home we looked up the deed and found that Uncle Harold's son Jim sold it in 1990.

It was so much fun actually finding this place.  I was really surprised that it was still there.  

In going through my grandmother's photo album this week I found this picture.

On the back of the picture, this was written in my grandmother's handwriting.  

1957  Camp at Lake Sherman, Brimfield Mass.  

Donald Merz Wait, Feb 6, 1900, my grandfather.

David Reed Wait, Jan 19, 1907, his brother.

Can I say it again?  I LOVE doing family history.  

Throwback Thursday - Julia Christina Merz Lamson

On April 21, 2016, Paul and I went to the wake of Doris Hubbard.  Doris was married to Bob Hubbard, and Bob's mother Lucy was my grandfather's sister.  While we were going through the line, two of Doris's sons, Barry and Bobby, mentioned something of interest to us.  

This is what I journaled about that: 

Both Barry and Bobby told Paul and I about a picture that was hanging in Doris's home. It was a picture of Julia Merz Lamson. They told us that she was buried in White Church Hill Cemetery in West Springfield. Neither of them really knew how she fit into the family. So of course Paul and I got right onto it. We went to White Church Hill Cemetery which is just across the street from Kristen and Toby's house. It's proper name is Meeting House Hill Cemetery. We weren't able to find the grave but came home and looked her up on ancestry.com. In just a little while we had figured out that Julia was Dora Merz Wait's sister. Dora was my grandfather Donald's, and their (Barry and Bobby Hubbard) grandmother Lucy's, mother; so Julia was Donald and Aunt Lucy's aunt. We also found out in looking through the censuses that the Waits and the Merzs were from Greenfield, but Julia married a man from Northampton and moved to West Springfield. Bob Hubbard's parents lived on the same street, Larone St., that Julia and her husband lived on. I'm wondering if when Lucy and her mother Dora went to visit aunt Julia, that Lucy met Bob who lived on that street with his parents, and that is how Lucy and Bob came to live in West Springfield and, ultimately, how my grandfather Donald came to live in West Springfield because my aunt Dot told me that my grandfather wanted to get transferred (Western Union) to West Springfield to be near his sister Lucy. I love doing genealogy!!

Hopefully, that wasn't too confusing!

It's amazing what just talking to Doris Hubbard's sons lead us to - another piece of the puzzle for our family tree.  By the way, we did eventually find her grave.

801 Merion Square Rd, Ardmore, PA

Back in 2010 I wrote a post about my maternal great grandfather, William Ross Harper.

He was born in Thomas County, Georgia in 1874. He married Virginia Jeanne Sims Stapleton in 1894. They had 4 daughters and 1 son. The son, William Ross Harper, Jr., died when he was a year old.

William's first wife died shortly after their last child was born in 1902. Somewhere around 1905 he remarried and his new wife and the four girls moved to Philadelphia, PA.

One of the daughters, Eleanor, was my mother's mother. I never knew her as she died a month before I was born. The only thing, really, that I knew about my mother's mother's side of the family was that they were from the South and they were wealthy.

A couple of years later, April of 2012, I got a notification that I had a comment on the post of William Ross Harper. All of a sudden I had a new found second cousin who knew a lot about that side of my family. Our grandmothers were sisters! We corresponded back and forth, and I was thrilled to hear all of her stories. She told me about this "big house" as we now call it, just outside of Philadelphia that William lived in.

I knew that Paul and I were going to the Philadelphia area in April for a 90th birthday party for Paul's aunt. I got in touch with my cousin to see if she had an address for the "big house." I wanted to see it. She didn't have an exact address but she knew it was in Ardmore, a suburb of Philadelphia.

I knew that Paul didn't like to go looking for places that we really have no idea of where they are, but I thought that we could look in one of the libraries around there and maybe find a City Directory and find the address.

Who knew that Philadelphia didn't have city directories?

We spent most of the day that we were driving home trying to locate this house. We found several other houses that he lived in before moving to the "big house."

We actually found the house on Merion Square Rd, but we didn't have a house number. One house on the street was not a private home. It was owned by the Philadelphia Motherhouse of Deaconesses.

After we got home we started doing some research and I found two articles written by The Lower Merion Historical Society.

One of them said:

Its new owner, William Harper, a Philadelphia musician, lived at "Skylands" until 1952 when he sold it to Joseph Newton Pew, Jr. The next year, Pew donated the property to the Philadelphia Motherhouse of Deaconesses, who nearly doubled the size of the residence with northeastern additions.

The other one said:

The Skylands mansion was built in 1928 on a 16-acre site for William Wood and his family. The house was originally named Stonecroft. Wood was involved in the woolen industry and did quite well for a time until the Depression hit and his business began to crumble. In 1938 the couple were so broke they put their house up for sale.

Two years later it was purchased by William Harper and his wife, who breathed life back into it. Known for their entertaining skills, the Harpers’ house was filled with music from two grand pianos in the Great Hall and dancing in the third-floor ballroom. They even had individual members of the Philadelphia Orchestra perform at the home, according to a 1999 Main Line Times history page.

In 1952 the Harpers sold the mansion to the Pew family for $100,000, even though the original cost of the home was closer to $500,000.


There were also pictures, the most impressive being this one.

Paul and I have entered all of this in our Family Tree Maker.  I really love doing this, even though it is a lot of work and can sometimes be very frustrating.

I wish my mother were still alive and of sound mind.  It would be so much fun to show her all of this and talk with her about it.

Throwback Thursday - Janelle

This is what I journaled back on 5/19/2004 - before I had a blog.

This is the story of Mark and Janelle:

They met in January of 2003 where they were both working at Providence Hospital.  They started dating in March of 2003 and broke up in July 2003.  They started re-dating in February of 2004 and we met her in either March or April. They came to dinner on a Wednesday evening and she remembers that we had pork chops (probably orange juice pork chops which is one of Mark's favorites).  This picture was taken in May as I was not brave enough to start taking pictures of them until a few months later. As far as Marley meeting Janelle - Marley was not quite 3, and she knew that Uncle Mark's girlfriend Janelle was coming to dinner to meet the family. As soon as Mark's car pulled up in front of the house, Marley ran out and gave her a big hug. Janelle had asked Mark if he thought Marley would be shy around her. He said that he didn't know, because he only saw her around family. I guess not. For some reason she just attached herself right to her. We were all a little surprised just how “un-shy” she was with her. Mark's theory was that Janelle reminded her of a Barbie doll. In fact, Marley named her first Barbie doll "Barbie Janelle."

This week Janelle and their 2 year old daughter Miriam were in a pretty serious car accident.  A truck ran a red light and hit her car on the passenger's side.  Thank God Miriam's car seat was on the driver's side.  Janelle's car was totalled.  They were both shaken up, Janelle more so than Miriam.  She is bruised and very sore but, thankfully, nothing was broken.

Janelle is such an important part of our family that I cannot imagine what it could have been like.  It makes me realize that none of us is guaranteed another day and that we should never take our loved ones for granted.

Our Wall of Fame

These pictures are on one wall in our family room.  It all started when we had our first family picture taken for a pictorial directory for our church.  My in-laws, and also my grandmother and my aunt Dot had their pictures done too.  An idea formed in Paul's head to put these pictures on the wall and then add some of our relatives.  His plan was to go back to our children's great-great grandparents on both sides. Included are 13 of our children's 16 great-great grandparents.

Over the years I have forgotten who a lot of these people are.  Paul seems to remember them and I have been after him to write down all of the names and how they are related to us.

This winter we did just that.  

From top - left to right by row:

1. Charles T. Sanderson II, Irma Beatrice Sanderson’s brother. He ran a bulldozer in Plymouth, MA

2. Ray Lee Higgins and his mother Laura E. Mann, father and grandmother of Jean Martha Higgins

3. William Ross Harper, grandfather of Jean Martha Higgins

4. Nelson Bessete, father of Lucien (Lucy) Agnes Bessette

5. Grace Greenwood, mother of George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr.

6. Charles William Ramsdell, father of George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr.

********************************************************************************************

7. Helena Pillkuhn, mother of Edward August Radtke

8. Bernard Ferren Wait and his descendants (see color coded picture with names in Family Tree Maker) at 25 Pine St., Greenfield, MA

9. Berta Dill, mother of Frederick Ferdinand Radtke, and her mother Lousise Wilhelmina Weinberg, brother Wilhelm Dill, and sister

10. Lucien (Lucy) Bessette and her mother Linda (Clarinda) LaBarge

11. Johann Friedrich Dill and his wife Lousise Wilhelmina Weinberg, parents of Berta Dill

12. Edward August Radtke and his wife Berta Dill, parents of Frederick Ferdinand Radtke

********************************************************************************************

13. George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr. and his wife Irma Beatrice Sanderson, with children Priscilla Grafton, George Herbert, Jr., Marjorie Ellen, and Robert Trenchard

14. Bessette sisters, baby Lucien (Lucy), Aldora, Sadie, and Marion

15. Lucy Agnes Bessette and Dorothy Margaret Wait

16. Mark Edward Radtke and Kristen Anne Radtke

17. George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr. riding an Indian motorcycle in front of the Indian Motorcycle Company, Spfld MA

18. Donald Merz Wait and his wife Lucien (Lucy) Agnes Bessette with their children David Reed, Dorothy Margaret, and Esther Ruth at Esther and Bob Lundstrom’s home in Norwich, CT

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19. Charles Trenchard Sanderson, father of Irma Beatrice Sanderson

20. Donald Merz Wait in Western Union truck

21. Priscilla Grafton Ramsdell and Frederick Ferdinand Radtke

22. Paul Frederick Radtke and his wife Deborah Jean Waite with children Kristen Anne Radtke and Mark Edward Radtke

23. Edward August Radtke and Ferdinand (Nante) Radtke in WWI

24. Eleanor Harper with her children Jean Martha Higgins, Lee Higgins, and Ross Harper Higgins

********************************************************************************************

25. Eleanor A. Radtke and Nancy Jane Radtke at Priscilla and Fred’s House, 25 Yale Ave., Feeding Hills, MA

26. Bernard Ferren Wait in Florida

27. Dora Louisa Merz, wife of Bernard Ferren Wait

28. Irma Beatrice Sanderson, wife of George Herbert Ramsdell, Sr.

29. Donald Merz Wait and Lucien Agnes Bessette, Mohawk Trail State Forest, MA

30. Ellen Eddy Pierce, wife of Charles Trenchard Sanderson and mother of Irma Beatrice Sanderson

***Update - For Christmas 2017 Paul and I made a Chatbooks book for Kristen and Mark with info on all of the people on this Wall of Fame.  We tried to include everything that we knew about these people, not just their names and how they are related to them.  I was so happy with how it turned out.

Uncle Ross's gravestone

My Uncle Ross, my mother's brother, died in 2006.  He purchased his gravestone before he died and had it put in the North Blandford Cemetery where many of his relatives, including his mother and father are buried.  His death date never got put on his gravestone.

My mother died in 2010.  She had been living with my half sister Laura.  Laura has both my Uncle Ross's ashes, and my mother's ashes, and my mother didn't have a gravestone.  

When Paul and I had my Aunt Dot's gravestone made, we had them go to North Blandford Cemetery and get my uncle's gravestone.  The guy cleaned up the stone and had my mother's name, birth date and death date added to Uncle Ross's gravestone. 

I'm not sure if their ashes will ever make it to the cemetery, but at least their names, birth dates and death dates will be there for posterity.

Sometimes life is complicated.

Throwback Thursday - Another four generation picture

I recently found another 4 generation picture.  The year is 1975, the occasion was the combined birthday party of Kristen who turned 3, and Mark who turned 1.  It is of my grandmother, me, and my Dad.  I blogged about the other generation pictures here, here, and here.

Thanks for putting up with all my Four Generation pictures!

Who is this woman?

This is a picture that I found in my Aunt Dot's photo album.  I know everyone in the picture except one lady.  I don't know the year, but my grandmother looks like she might be in her 70's, so maybe 1970's.  I also don't know whose house they were at.

From left is my grandmother Lucy Wait, my dad Dave Waite, my aunt Lucy Hubbard (my grandfather's sister), ???, aunt Lucy's son Bob Hubbard and daughter Nancy.

I have asked my aunt Dot and my aunt Esther if they knew who this lady is.  Neither one remembered.

I'm wondering if it was uncle Harold Wait's wife, aunt Tilly but I really don't know.

I guess now I'll never really know.  I wish I had paid more attention to details when my grandmother was alive.

****Update - In a Messenger text with Greg Hubbard in February 2015, I sent him this picture and asked him if he knew who this woman was.  He said that he was not 100% sure but he thought that it might be Aunt Marion Crawford (my grandfather's and his grandmother's sister).

Throwback Thursday - Older four generations - 1950 (Ramsdell)

I have blogged about four generations before, here and here.  This is another, older, four generation picture.

The baby is Paul, his mother Priscilla, her father George, and his mother Grace.

I feel so fortunate to have this picture.

I remember the picture behind them hanging in Priscilla's mother's bedroom after she moved in with Priscilla, Fred, and Paul.  I know that I have seen this picture recently; I think it is in Priscilla's sister Margie's house.

The little crib

This is the sign Paul put on it.

This little crib has seen a lot of use.  Paul's grandfather, his mother, Paul, Kristen, Mark, Mason and most recently Miriam have all slept in this crib.  Marley didn't because she was born in Ohio and it wasn't practical to get the crib out there.

So, for now, it will be packed away in Mark's attic for the next generation.

Goodbye for now little crib.

Mason's Family Picture

So....Janelle told me on Friday that Mason needed a picture of his house and his family for school. Paul went over there this afternoon to take the pictures, and when I downloaded them I had to laugh.

Janelle called me later and said, "Well, that was a nightmare."  For whatever reason, Mason did not want his picture taken and did not want to smile, even though it was for his school.

These are a first two pictures that Paul got.

Then, after some threatening from Mark about no video games that night, this is the next one, which is the one I used, LOL!

Berta, Nancy, and Edward Radtke

This is a picture of Paul's grandparents and his Aunt Nancy. My father-in-law has been visiting his sister in the Boston area quite often lately as she has been having some health concerns.


This Fall, on our way to the Cape, we stopped by Blue Hills Cemetery in Braintree to see his grandparents' graves. It was the first time that I had ever been there.

I have a pact to take pictures of as many family graves as possible.

Ever wonder where some middle names come from?

This is my great-grandfather, on my father's side, Bernard Farren Wait.

Some years ago, when Paul and I first got interested in doing Geneology, I got in touch with my grandfather's sister's son and his wife. Ann had been doing work on the Wait side of the family for years and gave us a large notebook filled with information. One of the things she gave us was an excerpt from a book called "Early Days of Turners Falls."

It is an article written about a man named Bernard Farren, and mostly what I want you to read are the last two paragraphs.

I was so excited when I read this. My great great-grandfather, Henry Wait, named his first son after his boss, Bernard Farren. It was the captured conversation, though, between Barney Farren and Henry Wait that made it so personal.

This just reinforces my thoughts about how important it is to record every day life. It doesn't matter which way you choose to do it; blogging, scrapbooking, photo books, or writing it down in a notebook. Just do it!

Getting back into kayaking

Our kayaking over the past few years has been, sadly, almost non-existent. We started kayaking in 2004 and that summer we went out about 30 times. Granted, it was our first year, but still.  We averaged about 12-15 times over the next five years or so. 

In 2010 we went out 5 times, and then in 2011 one time, and 2012 one time! I'm not sure why except life gets complicated and if you don't make a definite effort to do something, it just doesn't happen.

So...we are going to try to remedy that this year. We both really love kayaking but it takes effort to just get out there and do it.

So far this summer we have been out twice. The first time was May 30th; we went to West Lake in Sandisfield, MA.

This is the lake with all the frogs, and where I saw a frog frenzy a few years ago.  There were mating frogs everywhere.  I was a little afraid that they were going to jump into the boat.  No such action this year though.  I think we were too late.  It was a beautiful day and it seemed so good to be out on the water again.

I have a couple of fun apps on my iPhone that I had fun playing with in the kayak.  One is InstaWeather, and the other is InstaPlace. 

The picture below shows InstaWeather.  Even if you are in a place with no cell coverage, you can bring the picture into it at a later time.  I had fun playing with that.  The only problem is that I need a case for my phone with a strap to put on my wrist so I don't drop it in the water!

For Marley's birthday this year she got a kayak.  When we first started kayaking she was three years old and could fit very easily in Paul's kayak.  Not so for the last couple of years.  Paul has had to tow her on a raft and that limits us taking her to where she can swim. 

On June 6th we took Marley kayaking to try out her new kayak (the blue and white one in the middle).

Toby, Mark and Mason went with us too.  This was Mason's first time in a kayak.  He loved it.  Marley did really well for her first time. 

We went to York Lake in Sandisfield State Forest. 

There is a little roped off swimming area, picnic tables with grills, and bathrooms.  The perfect place for kids. 

It was a cloudy afternoon, sprinkled on our way out there, but cleared up while we had a picnic and then kayaked for about two hours. 

It rained all the way home! 

These two pictures were taken with InstaPlace. 

We stopped at the Scoop in Granville and had ice cream on the way home. 

So....we are off to a good start.  Let's hope it continues!

Patriot's Day at Lupa's Zoo

Monday, Patriot's Day, Spring Vacation for Marley, Mark's, Janelle's, Paul's, day off from work (what luck that I have every day off, lol).  It was the perfect day for a day at Lupa's Zoo. 


Mark has a funny thing that he does with Mason, making an ostrich hand thing, so of course I had take a picture of him doing it to a real ostrich.




Mason has a super sensitive smeller and didn't like the smell in the barn.

Checking out the ducks.





One of Mason's favorite things was feeding (actually having someone else feed!) the giraffe.




 He has a huge purple tongue!

Sitting on the plastic animals has always been a favorite of Marley's, and now Mason likes it just as much.

Another favorite....the playground.  Last year Mason didn't have much interest in it.  This year he loved it!




Radtke men.




Janelle and Mark.

Mason, Marley and me.

Fun time. 

Until......Janelle's sister Amy called to tell us about the Boston Marathon bombing.  So sad......

Prayers for Boston!