New York World's Fair, and why it's important to take pictures!

Tonight I watched a TV Special on the 1964-1965 World's Fair.  I thought, wow, I'm going to see a lot of things that I remember.

I couldn't believe it.  I didn't remember much of anything!

My aunt Ettie lived in Ossining, NY at the time, not far from the fair.  We stayed at her house for the weekend and went to the fair at least two times.

These are the things I remember about the fair.

- One of the times that we went we brought one of Dot's friends, Stevie Gorski.  I remember Dot being a little upset with her; I don't remember about what.  I think maybe Stevie didn't want to do too much, but I'm really not sure.

- I also remember getting lost going back to Ettie's house and Dot stopping to call her (how much easier it would have been if we had GPS and cell phones back then!).

- I remember standing next to the fountains with my cousin Lynda because of this picture:

This was the ONLY picture that I have of the World's Fair.  Now mind you, my aunt Dot took a lot of pictures.  Not like nowadays with digital cameras and phones, but a lot of pictures for her day, and this is the only picture she took of the fair?  It seems incredible.  In her later years Dot culled a lot of her slides.  Maybe she got rid of some pictures of the fair, but I don't remember seeing any others.

This is why I think it is so important to take pictures; it is a big way that we remember things.

I have a slideshow going on my 27 inch iMac all the time in my family room.  So many times the kids and grandkids go to the computer to look at a certain picture; when and where it was taken and we are able to recall that memory (never mind the grandkids scrapbooks, yearly Project Life, and my blog).  I try to document all of the things that I wish I could remember about my life back when I was a child.

There are two other things that I remember about the fair.  They are the Carousel of Progress and Small World.  These were made by Disney and are now at Disney World.  When we went there the first time in 1980 I remembered seeing them at the Fair.

I know that if my aunt Dot had taken more pictures at the World's Fair I would remember more.

Throwback Thursday - Weekend Vacation Trip to the Cape the Summer of 1968

My best friend in high school, Cheryl Walker, and her parents used to spend summer vacations at the Cape.  In the summer of 1968 they invited Cheryl's boyfriend, Nicky, along with me and Paul to visit them.  We had all just graduated from high school.

This is a picture of what I put about that trip in my scrapbook back then.

These are the instructions for getting there that Cheryl wrote for us:

I'm so glad I have these scrapbooks (3) starting in junior high, but I wish I had words to go along with the pictures and "stuff".  I guess back then I thought I would always remember what happened.

What I do remember about that trip is getting there at night, spending some time together and then Cheryl's parents shuffling us off to different parts of the house to sleep, lol!

The next day we took a trip to Provincetown.  I had never been to the Cape and I loved every minute of it!  We went for a sail on the Schooner Hindu.  I had never been on a sailboat before; everything was all so new to me.

Afterwards, we looked in all the little shops in Provincetown, and Paul bought me these little shell people.

I think there were a few more, but these are the ones that have survived.


These are a few pictures that I found on the Internet of the Hindu.  Actually, it still sails out of Provincetown!

From http://www.sailschoonerhindu.com

"One of the oldest, most historic wooden schooners in the Florida Keys, sailing out of Provincetown, Massachusetts since 1946.  Built in 1925, Hindu is 90 years young and sails as good as she looks.  The crew spends Winters in Key West and Summers in Provincetown, offering daily sailing excursions aboard the Schooner Hindu."

*****Update 10/2020

In a trip to the Cape Paul and I found the cottage in Dennis Port that Cheryl and her family stayed at in the summer of 1968 where Paul and I, along with Cheryl's boyfriend Nicky visited.  I brought pictures of the directions that were in my scrapbook and we actually found the cottage.  So fun!

Throwback Thursday - Paul's business (and vacation) trip to Cleveland, Ohio 1972

After graduating from college in June 1972 with a degree in Accounting, Paul got a job with Combustion Engineering in Windsor, CT.  He started on an 18 month Financial Training Program which brought him to a two week assignment in Mentor, Ohio, near Cleveland.  

Kristen was just 6 weeks old.  I'm not sure exactly how it all came about, but Kristen and I ended up going with him.  Paul's aunt Marjorie (Priscilla's sister) and her family lived in Cleveland, Ohio.  She and her husband, Henry, were officers in the Salvation Army and were stationed there.  Marjorie invited us to stay with them for those two weeks.  

I was nervous about a few things, but I think I was more nervous to stay home alone with a new baby!  I worried about the trip - it was about 12 hours.  Thinking back on it now, I can't believe we drove all that way with a new baby in a car bed in the back seat of a Volkswagen!  I remember that she slept most of the way, only waking up to be fed and changed.  I worried about whether she would sleep the night that we got there after sleeping all day in the car.  I didn't know Marge and Henry that well at that time and the thought of being up in the middle of the night roaming around their house trying to keep a crying baby quiet scared me.  As it turned out, she slept all night long.  

I remember Marge and Henry being so happy to see us and excited that we were going to be with them for two weeks.  I always felt a special closeness to their family after that.  Paul's cousins were all living at home.  Steve was going to college and dating Sue (who he later married).  Priscilla was in nursing school, and Kathy and Becky were still in school.  

Kristen fit right in with the family.  The picture below is of us watching TV on Marge's bed.  Nobody could get over how well Kristen held her head up at only 6 weeks.  I was so happy that they were so excited about having a baby in the house.

One of their family traditions was making pizza on Sunday evenings.  Henry showed me how he did it, and he even typed out a recipe card for me.

They also babysat for us one night so that we could go see Fiddler on the Roof  which was playing in one of the movie theaters near them.

I also remember that one day Marge made spaghetti sauce before she went to work and left it to simmer on the stove.  My job was to make sure it didn't burn.  I was so upset finding out that it did burn on the bottom of the pan somewhat, but Marge made sure that I didn't feel bad and said that no one would ever know (?!?).

These pictures are not the best quality, but I am so glad that I have them.  I will always have very fond memories of that trip to Ohio.

Throwback Thursday - Vacation, Niagara Falls 1972

Last week I posted about my first camping trip which was also our first vacation after our honeymoon.  I can't believe that I have absolutely no pictures from our honeymoon!  We didn't even bring a camera.  I'm not sure we even had one!

Anyhow, the first week in June of 1972 we went to Niagara Falls.  Paul had just graduated from college on June 4th, and was about to start his job at Combustion Engineering on June 12th.  I was still working full time at Wesson Women's Hospital. I left there at the end of June and Kristen was born August 26th (she was due August 10th).

I really don't remember many details of this vacation.  I know that I asked my OB/GYN doctor if it was okay to drive all the way to Niagara Falls this far in my pregnancy.  He said it was okay as long as we stopped every couple of hours to get out and walk around.  Guess what else we did every couple of hours?  Yep, eat.  I gained weight on that vacation for sure.

We stayed at a motel called Cascade Inn on the American side of the Falls.  I know that I was quite impressed with the bed in the motel room.  It vibrated if you put a quarter in it.  That was fun (!)

This was before you had to have a passport to cross over into Canada and I know we did that. We went to a store that sold firecrackers and Paul bought some.

We also went on the Maid of the Mist.  That's about all I remember.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.  I sure wish I was more into documenting at that time.

Throwback Thursday - Vacation, My first camping trip - Lake George 1971

It was the summer of 1971 and Paul and I had been married for one year.

Paul and his parents had done a lot of camping when Paul was young and he loved it and had great memories of camping. I had never been camping in my life.

We, well mostly Paul, decided that we should go camping on our first vacation.  He just knew that I would love camping and was determined that my first experience would be wonderful.

I wasn't quite that sure but was excited to give it a try.

I'm not sure how we picked the campsite, but it was called Roger's Rock Campground at Lake George, NY. We brought Paul's 12 ft. boat on the roof of our '70 VW bug with the big motor, oars, and all the boating and camping gear inside.

There were a few hitches to our vacation.

One - the campground was three hours away, and it was first come first serve...and it was August.  That meant that we needed to leave REALLY early in the morning to get a site.

Two - on the way there I read a magazine article about a person who was bit by a rabid bat and all that that entailed.  I already didn't much like bats, but this solidified it and I was paranoid every time I went into our tent that a bat would be in there.

Three - we arrived in time to get a really nice, private site.  So far so good.  We had borrowed his parents' camping gear. The tent was the umbrella type.  Can you guess what the next hitch was?  Yep, we forgot to pack the umbrella thingy.  It was three hours home, so going back to get it was out of the question.  So...Paul proceeded to cut down a young tree (even though there were signs saying not to cut down trees!!!).  Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?  All he had to cut it with was an old boy scout hatchet and so it took him quite a long time.  Then the four corners of the tent had to be tied to nearby trees.

I'm not sure how long we had been there but whenever I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I made Paul go with me.  One night we saw (and heard) a bear going through the trash cans near the rest room.  I decided that I didn't need to go that bad!

Four - Paul's hand later got severely burned (3rd degree) from the rubber hatchet handle while trying to hatchet some fire wood.  That night he needed to go to the nearest ER to have it looked at.  Why in the world I decided to sit in the car while he went in I cannot imagine.  I guess I had no experience with how long ER visits could be.  (They had to debride the burn blisters on his hand.)  So, as could be expected, I got tired of waiting in the car and went into the hospital, and locked the keys in the car.  Now Paul was an old hand at unlocking car doors with a coat hanger, but who knew that a 1970 Volkswagen was practically airtight.  There was no way he was getting into that car.  Would you believe that there was a guy in the ER who had been a Volkswagen car salesman in Hawaii?  Yep, and he knew how to get into the car.

Wow, a lot of hitches.  I think we came home a day early with me not sure I liked camping.  We did have some fun times though.  We had fun being out on the water in our boat and swimming from rocks in the middle of the lake.

Looking back, I can think of only one other time that we went camping.  It was for a weekend and it entailed bringing Kristen, along with her potty chair, to a campground near Misquamicut.

Maybe camping is something that you need to start off with as a child, lol!

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 15

Just a reminder - you can click on the scrapbook page to see it full size.

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 14

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 13

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 12

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 11

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 10

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 9

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 8

Just a reminder - you can click on the scrapbook page to see it full size.

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 7

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 6

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 5

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 4

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 3

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway and Trip down South 2015 - Day 2

Just a reminder - you can click on the scrapbook page to see it full size.

Vacation, 6th Blue Ridge Parkway Trip down South 2015 - Day 1

Today Paul and I left on vacation. This is our 6th trip down South.  Each trip has had its own flavor!  This time one of the things we want to do is take in a few concerts. I am going to try to make a daily scrapbook page (Becky Higgins' Project Life App makes this so easy) and put it on my blog.

Here is Day 1