2020 July Scrapbook Pages

2020 February Scrapbook Pages

Paul and I have been thinking for awhile now how we would celebrate our 50th anniversary coming up in August 2020.  We finally came up with a plan to take a 3-day weekend every other month for, well, maybe forever.  We started this month, February.  What a great time we had!  Looking forward to our next trip.

Throwback Thursday - Kristen and Mark

This is one of my favorite pictures of Kristen and Mark.  I think it was taken at Kristen's college graduation party (note - date pictures, even if you think you will always remember when it was taken).  Our good friend Ralph Lathrop snapped it and gave us a print.  #lovethesetwo

Throwback Thursday - Taylor and Rad

Meet Marc Taylor (left) and Mark Radtke (right).  In these pictures they were about 2 1/2.  

Karen and David Taylor moved into the house across the street from us a few months after we did in the Spring of 1973.  

I never really knew Karen until we both had boys in September of 1974.  We were surprised to find out that we both named them Mark, although her son was Marc.  

They became best friends and we eventually referred to them as Taylor and Rad.

It seems incredible to me that we let them ride in the street with their Big Wheels at 2 1/2 years old.  We lived on a quiet, 26 house circle, but still, 2 1/2?

When the boys were in Kindergarten, the Taylors moved to North Carolina.  I really missed them, although they did come back at least once a year to visit family and we would always get together.  Visits are infrequent now that their parents are gone, but at least we have Facebook to keep in touch.

Russells Diner, West Hatfield, MA

The same day that we took a ride to Brattleboro and saw the changes to the "House on Mill Village Road", which the previous blog post talks about, we saw another change.

In many of my posts, I talk about Greenfield, MA.  My grandfather's family was from there and he used to visit his brother David a lot, who still lived there.  Sometimes my grandmother and aunt Dot went with me and my grandfather, sometimes it was just me, and sometimes it was me and my cousin Lynda when she visited in the summer.  Uncle David had a son, Donald, who was two years younger than me.  In the summer we would go to the Greenfield Pool together.

I knew all of the towns between where we lived in West Springfield to Greenfield.  I also knew all of the motels.  Don't forget, in the 1950's and '60's, Rt 5 was the main route north.  No I-91 then!  My grandfather used to quiz me on the towns we would go through.

Sometimes he would let my cousin and I ride in his old trailer hitched to the car.  I'm sure my grandmother didn't know about it.  We got stopped by a policeman who told my grandfather that he could not let us ride in that trailer.  We were so upset by this.  I do remember that he let us ride in it again, but told us to lie on the bottom of the trailer bed when we drove through the place where we got stopped.  I'm not sure how many times we rode in that trailer but it made an impression on me.

Anyhow, some of the times we went to Greenfield, we would stop at this little diner in West Whately and have a hamburger at the counter.  That made an impression on me too, probably because we never went out to eat!  No fast food places at that time!

The diner is still there.  It looks the same but has changed names many times.  I remember it as being Russells, but lately it has been called Double D's Diner.

For years, when we would drive by, I would say to Paul that we should stop and have lunch but it was always late in the day and the diner was closed.

Today, when we drove by, the big sign by the road no longer had the Double D's sign.  I made Paul turn around and go back so that I could take a picture. Who knows how long it would still be there, torn down to build a bank or a McDonald's!

As I was in the parking lot taking pictures, a lady came out the front door.  I asked her if the diner was closed and she said yes.  When I asked her how long it had been closed she said since last week.  She was very friendly and talkative and she told me she has been the landlord for the last 13 years, and the people who rented it left to do food trucks.  She didn't remember it being called Russells, but she told me that the 101 year old lady who lives next door to the diner is the mother of the man who built the diner in September 1953.  It has obviously had several owners over the years, but believe it or not it still looks the same.

I told her how I used to stop to eat here with my grandfather and had always planned on stopping in, but never did.  She ended up inviting me in to see the place.

My grandfather and I used to sit at the counter and it is very much how I remember it.  She said that she has kept it original to what it was when she bought it.

I was so thrilled to have been able to go in there.  She said she has some plans for what she would like to do it the place. She wants to keep it a little diner, but who knows.  At least I have pictures now.

The House on Mill Village Road in Deerfield

Today Paul and I took a ride to Brattleboro, VT.  On our way we drove down Mill Village Rd in Deerfield, MA.  We do this a lot.  A long time ago I told Paul about a house on that street (it was about the only house at that time) that my grandfather and I had looked at when I was a kid.  We actually got out of the car and talked to the owners.  He wanted to buy it with his brother, Uncle David.  To read about it click here.

Paul put it into his GPS and labeled it "Deb's Deerfield Dream House".  Over the years we have driven by it many times.  It has looked out of place with so many big houses and duplexes that have been built up around it.  I knew eventually it would be somehow replaced.

In 2014 we noticed some changes happening to and around the house.  There were big trucks on the property, and it looked like there was some type of business there, not a residential house anymore.

Well, today when we drove by I couldn't believe how different the house looked!  The big trees in the front of the house had all been taken down.

Most of the little shed type things in the back yard are gone.

I guess it's better than the whole house being taken down and a new house built in its place....but not much!

Throwback Thursday - Pepe Taco

Paul started going to this restaurant, which was then called “Pepe Taco”, on Boston Road when it first opened in 1968. His Aunt Nancy was visiting and found out that there was a Mexican restaurant near them. She said she was surprised that they had one in this area, and that Mexican food was all the rage in California. They decided to try it. Paul went there a lot while he was in college at AIC and I went there with him quite a bit in the early years of our marriage. I would only eat one thing there though; I can’t really remember what it was. It was probably tacos. Paul said he always got the special, which was a tamale pie (a bowl of chili with a tamale in it) and 2 tacos.

According to MassLive dated May 7, 2018, Casa de Nana (The name of the restaurant when it closed) means "Grandma's House in tribute to its founders - and traces its roots back to 1968 when Pepe Taco opened as Springfield's first Mexican Restaurant. The name changed to Nana's Kitchen in 1970 and to Casa De Nana in 1984.  It closed in 2018 and the building is still empty and for sale.    

Throwback Thursday - Fred and Priscilla's 25th Anniversary party

This week would have been my in-laws 70th anniversary!

My father-in-law has been without her for 15 years.  I can't imagine it.

Priscilla and Fred got married April 30, 1949 in Priscilla's back yard.

For their 25th anniversary Paul and I had a party at our house.  It was 1974; I was pregnant with Mark, and Kristen was 1 year, 8 months old.

We had all of their close friends from church plus Nan and Dot and Priscilla's mom (they helped me a lot with the planning and food.  What did I know about planning a party at 23? LOL.)

Sadly, only two of the people in the above picture (besides me) are still alive, my father-in-law being one of them.  Good people, good memories.

Throwback Thursday - Kristen's first day of preschool, Mark's second year of preschool

This was Kristen on her first day of nursery school, September 3, 1975.  She had just turned three.  She went on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9-12 with three boys from our neighborhood - Chris Fitzpatrick, Chris Laplante, and Michael Tassinari.  I wrote in her baby book that she loved it, and was not scared a bit!

Below is the back of the Feeding Hills Congregational Church in the center of town where the nursery school was.  It was called Building Block Learning Center, and her teacher was Miss Pat.  

I took this picture this past Fall but the nursery school hasn't been there for years.  t have no pictures of the school, or the teacher!

Mark also went to this nursery school when he turned 3.  Unfortunately, I have no picture of his first day of school (second child syndrome?).  He went with several kids from the neighborhood, Mark Taylor, Tony Tassinari, Billy Strycharz, Katie Fitzpatrick, and Missy Marieb.

For the second year of nursery school, a few of them went to the YMCA in Westfield.

They had a pool there and offered swimming lessons.  He loved it.  Only a few of the group changed to the Y - Mark, Mark Taylor, Missy Marieb, and I think Billy Strycharz.  The rest stayed at Building Block.

Throwback Thursday - Mark and the Trash Men

I love these pictures of Mark.  He was 2 years old here and fascinated with the trash truck and trash men.  In the good weather he would sit out on the front steps and wave to them.  I'm sure they got a kick out of him and they would wave back.  For Christmas that year he got a hard hat, and from then on whenever he heard the trash truck he would run for it and put it on.  So cute (check out that little plaid bathrobe!).

Throwback Thursday - St Nicholas Orthodox Church

I don't like change much.  If you've followed me for any time or know me, this doesn't come as any surprise.  I especially don't like it when buildings are torn down.

This church in West Springfield was in my stomping grounds when I was a kid.  I always thought it was a Jewish synagogue.  I never saw anyone going in or out of it but the physical building intrigued me, maybe because it looked so different from any churches that I knew.

In later years it had been looking slightly neglected and worn down.  This week when we drove by it, to my total surprise, it was not there.  In its place were houses, new houses!  I made Paul turn around just to make sure that I didn't miss it.  Yep, it was gone!

A little investigation on the Internet and I found out that it was a Russian Orthodox Church and it has been gone since 2014!  Maybe it wasn't torn down right away and that was why it was looking so neglected and overgrown.  

The article didn't say why the church was no longer in West Springfield.  Maybe two congregations merged and they chose the better building, or the building where the major part of the congregation was from.  I just found it so sad that such an interesting building was torn down, and in its place two new houses built.  

Throwback Thursday - Kristen in her Christmas Dress and her first "Piece"

Christmas 1974; Kristen was 2 years old.

Just a little background.  Bethany, our church, in 1974 was not nearly as big as it is now.  It was located on the corner of Springfield and Armory Streets in Springfield.  Every Christmas season back then Bethany had a Children's Christmas Program where the Sunday School kids would say their "piece" up on the pulpit in front of the whole church.  Sometimes there was a little pageant that would go along with it playing out the Christmas story.  Afterwards the kids would all receive Christmas candy in an orange web type stocking or Christmas box.  I remember saying my piece when I was a kid, so this had been going on for a long time.  I'm not sure when they stopped doing this, probably when the church got bigger.

At any rate, back in 1974 they were still doing it.  Kristen came home from Sunday School with a "piece" to say.  She was only 2, so I wasn't sure if she would do it.  Paul's mom, GG, bought her a new dress and when the time came, she got right up  there and said her "piece".  She was the youngest one to do it.

I had written it down in her baby book and this is what it was:

Shining for Jesus - "A little star up in the sky can shine for Jesus, so can I."  I'm not sure if anyone else understood her but I sure did!  Needless to say, we were all so proud of her!

She also sang a song with two other little girls, Pammy Bennett and Heather Sorcinelli.  So cute.

Also, in looking through her baby book I found that in 1975 when she was 3, her piece was called My Wish for You - "A wish for you, it comes from me.  May your Christmas very happy be."

These pictures were given to me by someone from church years later.  I don't remember who.  The one above was from 1975.

The one below was from 1976 but by then I had stopped writing in her baby book and I don't have her "piece".  I do know that all three years she sang a song with these same girls.




PS - In looking through Mark's baby book, I never wrote down any of his Christmas "pieces."  The one thing I do know is that he did not start at 2 years old, lol!

Throwback Thursday - Pantsuits and my first real job

My first real job was after I graduated from Holyoke Community College.  My degree was in Medical Secretarial, which I don't think they even offer anymore.  

During my second year, one of my teachers told me that she had received a call from the Director of Medical Records of Wesson Women's Hospital.  She was looking for someone to work part time getting medical records ready for microfilming (!).  My teacher asked me if I would be interested and I jumped at the chance.  So, I quit my job as a cashier at Roberts Food Bag and started working at the hospital.  The directer, Miss Hazel French, set me up in a conference room all by myself near the Medical Records Department with a boatload of medical records which I had to go through, making sure there were no staples or paper clips in the records.  The other employees felt sorry for me, saying that it was such a boring job, but I didn't care.  It was like a foot in the door of some place I would eventually like to work at full time.  

By the time I graduated in the Spring of 1970, Miss French offered me a full time job as a medical transcriptionist.  I was working with two other transcriptionists, Karen and Barbara pictured above, who helped me a lot.  Miss French was very meticulous and treated me like I was still in school, but that was okay because I had just gotten out of school, lol!

In the Fall of 1970, we were allowed to wear pantsuits to work.  They were a new phenomenon in the work place.  Actually, the first time girls were allowed to wear pants in school was my first year at Holyoke Community, Winter 1968/69, and only because the school's main building had burned down the year before and they were holding classes in many different areas of that part of Holyoke.  They figured it was too cold for female students who had to walk to the different areas to have to wear skirts, so they announced that girls were allowed to wear pants.  Thinking about that now seems like it was back in the dark ages.  

So, when we were told that we could wear pantsuits at Wesson Women's Hospital, we were excited.  They had to be real pantsuits, though, pieces that were sold together as one item.  They couldn't just be pants and a shirt.  Basically, we all had one pantsuit and wore it once a week.  

I still have the receipt for my pantsuit; it was bought at Forbes and Wallace and cost $30.  

My only complaint with the writeup in the hospital newsletter was that they called me Miss Debbie Radtke; after all, I had been married for a couple of months!!

I really loved that job.  I stayed there until I had Kristen in 1972.  

Throwback Thursday - Kristen's first kid birthday party, 4 years old

This is the only picture that I took at Kristen's 4th birthday party!!  It seems inconceivable to me now!

This was her first kid birthday party.  Most of the kids were from our neighborhood.

From left to right - Robin (she lived next door; her family only lived on our street for a few years), Karen Jacobek (she was the daughter of Ann, a lady who used to work with Dot.  We became friendly when we were pregnant at the same time.  Karen and Kristen are 5 days apart), and Michael Tassanari who lived at the beginning of our circle.  In the back I think are Chris Fitzpatrick (he lived on the other side of us) and Erica Marieb who also lived on our circle.

About the only thing that I remember of her party was that she was VERY excited.  She got ready early and asked if we could take a walk around the circle to see if any of the kids were ready to come to her party.

I don't remember if Paul was there or if it was while he was working.  Mark must have been there but I don't even remember that.

Of course, we had the family party at another time so I don't think there was any other family there.  I really wish I had been into scrapbooking then, or at least journaling!

Throwback Thursday - Weekend Camping Vacation 1975

In August 1975 Paul, Kristen, and I went camping for a weekend.  Mark stayed with Paul's parents.  We wanted to go to the big campground, Burlingame State Park, near Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island, but I think it was full and we went up at a smaller campground. I can't remember the name.

I asked Paul if he remembered anything about that weekend, which he didn't, lol!  Believe it or not, he has kept all of his receipts and checks from at least since we were married and probably before.  I asked him to look through the summer of 1975 receipts to see if there was anything from that weekend.  The only thing he found was a gas charge from Charleston, RI which is where Burlingame is.

I love looking at some of the details in these pictures; my Dr. Scholl sandals, Paul's Docksiders, our little Hibachi, the camera case for our old Instamatic camera, Paul's parents' tent, and our 1970 Volkswagen.  I still have those Tupperware glasses on the picnic table!

I know most of us take pictures of people, and I'm so thankful for that.  But these pictures remind me to also include details.  They may not mean much at the time, but years later it will be so much fun to look at them.

There is not too much about this trip that I remember except that we brought Kristen's little potty chair.

I think that might have been the last time we went camping, lol!

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.