Throwback Thursday - Bethany Pictorial Directories

Tonight Paul, Marley and I are going to Bethany to have our picture taken for the newest Bethany Pictorial Directory.

This will be the 5th time Bethany has done a book, and the 4th time we have done it.

The first time was in 1984.

The second time was in 1994.

Bethany did another book in 2002 but we didn't have our picture in it.


The third time was in 2008.

The fourth one is tonight.  I'll post it when it's available.

UPDATE***

We got our pictures back finally that were taken on March 19, 2015

It was so much fun having them taken with Marley.  She is almost 14!

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.

Throwback Thursday - A Thanksgiving memory - 1971

With all the talk this week of Winter Storm Boreas, it reminded me of Thanksgiving 1971. Paul and I were going to his parents' house and my grandmother and Aunt Dot were supposed to go to my Aunt Esther's in Abington, MA. We had so much snow on Thanksgiving morning that they also ended up at Paul's parents' house for dinner.

I googled Thanksgiving 1971 and on the www.erh.noaa.gov/aly/Past/WINTER.htm site this is what it said:

"Thanksgiving Snowstorm of 1971 (November 24-25, 1971)

Heavy snow began on the day before Thanksgiving and continued into Thanksgiving day. Albany picked up 22.5", the greatest November snowfall on record, with amounts up to 30" reported elsewhere. This storm turned the busiest travel day of the year into a nightmare, with many stranded travelers not making it to their destinations on Thanksgiving."

I remember us talking about that for years: the fact that my aunt Ettie had no pies on Thanksgiving day, and we had double the amount.

I'm thankful that this year all we are supposed to get in our area is a little rain.

Throwback Thursday - Thanksgiving 1974

Thanksgiving Day 1974 at my grandmother's house.   Paul took this picture in two pictures and then put them together.  There was no "panorama app" in those days!  Left to right - my mother-in-law Priscilla, Kristen (she was 2.  Mark was about 3 1/2 months so he is probably somewhere in his infant seat), my grandmother, Dot, me, and my father-in-law Fred.

So many things in this picture that I remember.  My grandmother always wearing an apron on holidays.  The V-8 juice in the little glasses (my family doesn't like V-8 so I stopped serving it on Thanksgiving, but we always had it).  It's hard to see but I can tell there is marshmellow fruit salad that my mother-in-law made.  Dot also used to bring it to my house on holidays.  We haven't had it in a long time.  I should see if I have the recipe.  My aunt's picture that she painted above the piano.  It is in her room at the Atrium now.  The picture of Dot singing for the Bethany Hour on the piano.  She also has this in her room now.  The sheet music on the piano that my grandmother used to play (and she would also sing while she played).  I wish I could hear that again. 

One of the things that I am thankful for this season is old pictures.  Funny to think that even some of the pictures Paul and I took are now considered old pictures!

Throwback Thursday - Four generations - 1974 (Radtke)

This Mother's Day I gave Stacia a cute little book and wrote in it "To Grandma Joyce, From Grandma Radtke", which is what Mason calls us.

I came across this picture of the real Grandma Radtke, Fred's mother. It was a rare day when she came to our house and we got a four generation picture. I am so thankful to have it!

Grandma Radtke

This picture is of Paul's grandmother, Berta Radtke, Big Baba's mother. I'm not sure when this picture was taken but it is probably early on in our marriage, because in later years she had a very tiny live Christmas tree with almost no decorations (maybe that's where I am heading, lol). I don't remember if I met Grandma Radtke before or after I married Paul, but I really liked her. She was a very sweet lady with a very thick German accent. She and her husband were married in Germany. Her husband came to the United States first, got settled, and then went back for her. She was very young, about 18 when she came here. Until the day she died she had a very thick accent. I could understand her, but if she got excited, it was more difficult to understand her. I liked to get her talking about "the old days" and she used to get talking very fast and I would have to keep asking her to repeat herself. One of the things that we all remember about her was that every time we came to visit, a lot of the family that lived in that area (N. Quincy) would come and we would have a big dinner. Most of the time she made potato salad and ham. If it was Christmas time, she always made her famous Spritz cookies, half of them were frosted and half of them plain. I don't ever remember her actually sitting at the table with us. She used to sit away from the table, usually in a corner of the room, and just wait for someone to need something and then she would jump it and get it. I think of her when I have a big crowd here and totally understand why she would do that. She was just the nicest person and I wish that I could have seen her more and gotten to know her better.

Lately, Mason has taken to calling me Grandma Radtke, completely on his own. The only Grandma Radtke I know is Paul's grandmother, so I have been thinking of her a lot lately!

Ferncol Fair with Marley

Hot and humid was today's weather for the Ferncol Fair. Paul, Marley and I met Big Baba and his cousin Robert there. Robert doesn't live on the Templeton grounds anymore where they hold the fair every year. The State has been making some changes transitioning from large institutions to group homes and Robert now lives in a brand new group home not too far away.




There was an Indian Pow Wow there that Marley and I spent a long time at.






We watched the oxen pull,






and took our traditional tour of the dairy barn,














went on a hayride and walked through the corn maze.





Next year I hope we can do a little more with Robert. His aide didn't bring his wheelchair, only his walker, and it was a real slow go to get anywhere with him. Baba and Big Baba basically visited with him in one place while Marley and I did the fair. Hopefully next year he'll have his wheelchair with him and we can all do a little more together.

Sunday Dinner

Today we had a big family Sunday dinner here. My Dad, Marge and Lori came; Dot, Fred, Kris, Toby and Marley, Mark, Janelle and Mason, along with Janelle's Dad Joe and her sister Amy. Quite a crowd (15 in all). My Dad had quite a scare with his health lately. His biopsy came back negative, and he is really feeling much better. We all had a really good time together today. Sometimes things happen to make you realize how special family is and how you need to make time to spend together.

Throwback Thursday - 1940's Bethany weddings

Today at church a friend of ours gave Paul a DVD; on it were videos of weddings in the 1940's from my church - not the whole wedding, just pictures of the bride and groom, the wedding party and whatever guests were milling about. Evidently the pastor's wife of our church at that time did the videotaping. There is no sound, just the movies. I didn't even know there were video cameras back then. Somehow this friend and her mother were in contact with the daughter of the pastor's wife and obtained them.

One of the couples was Paul's parents; they were married in 1949. I have seen this picture before, but to actually see them in a movie was so cool. You see them actually getting into the car and driving off.

Many of the couples were parents of our friends and we knew them well. Actually, one set of Toby's (my son-in-law) grandparents were on this too. It was so much fun to watch this. What a treasure to have.

When Marley saw Big Baba, she said "Oh my gosh!"

235/365 - Edward Radtke

This is Paul's grandfather, Edward, (front center ) in the German Army during WWI.

This is the same picture, just an expanded view of his unit.