A night on the town...

As a teenager I can recall spending weekend after weekend at Pine Knob in Michigan on outings, just seeing whomever was playing at the time: Huey Lewis and the News, oohh there was that double bill of The Thompson Twins and Berlin... yep, even the Pointer Sisters! (OK, looking back I'm a little agog at that one...)

Even before the baby, and in the days of ever-climbing ticket prices, I'd gotten a lot pickier about an evening out. It just has to be someone I really want to see if I'm going to make that effort.

H decided to splurge for my (ahem) milestone birthday this year and nabbed us some tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld when he breezed through town. I didn't quite anticipate heading into Boston with the rest of the Red Sox faithful last Friday. We made it on time, but the jockeying for position at the **&^%$! tollbooths made me a little nervous. Thanks MBTA. Jerry was in fine form for a (mostly) family-friendly show. Refreshing to have an outing holding hands with my guy and not keeping one eye peeled for: Where did the 2.5 year old just go?

It must be a measure of my TV addiction however, that I kept half-expecting to see George, Elaine and Kramer pop out on stage as well...

Smartie-Pants

Just a few odds and ends... It is supposed to hit 80 degrees today. Eighty! It's October 22nd! I can handle this kind of Fall.

Sense memories... of all kinds. Think of the name you can't stand, and suddenly remember that a kid with that name bullied you in grade school. I look back at yearbooks now and realize that that imposing figure was a third-grader. A black and white photograph that H took when we visited Quebec years ago - the starkness of it reminding me that we were freezing our hineys off. I think it was the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving, and it was cold! The smell of burning wood takes me to 4th of July bonfires in our backyards in Michigan. Ditto for the sugary scent of marshmallows, ripe for the toasting.

Anytime I pass by The Food Network and happen upon the program Unwrapped, I always get sucked in... there is something fascinating about the behind the scenes of how things get made. A recent episode dealt with some Halloween candy, and I loved learning about Smarties. Smarties remind me of my Grandma B. She always had them in her purse. Probably great for keeping kids like me quiet in church, as I would sit and eat one tiny little sugary bit at a time.

What items/experiences send you down memory lane?

Seventy Years Ago

My Mom likes to venture out to estate sales and auctions, and she seems to have the best luck: from small items on up to getting a kitchen table, an old steamer trunk that makes a great coffee table and a wonderful antique flip-top desk. Maybe I need to look further, but the antique shops I've found in New England were of the variety that bought the pieces, did the restoration for you and then charged far too much for you to acquire an item. Fun to look around, but goodness knows I wouldn't be buying anything.

I was nosing around my parents house and found an old Diary from 1937 that my Mother had picked up at an estate sale. It is strangely compelling... the writer is a woman whose husband Arthur owned a tavern in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. She doesn't have an entry every day - there are many blank pages. But what is here is an interesting snapshot of life 70 years ago. The daughter, Joan, gets sick several times. "I started to worry about her," laughed my Mom. They go to the theater many times, and the author notes received bowl, or received salt and pepper shakers: a common practice (I am told) in the thirties. It is noted who is on duty at the tavern on specific nights, and Joan's dancing lessons and purchases of dresses and sittings for photographs. Progress on the construction of a new tavern is noted, as well as the day that the Mayor visited to look around. The author's name is never mentioned, although she does note the deaths of various folks around town.

Blogging has some interesting parallels. Some of my favorite blogs are just that - snapshots into the author's life. While I love this new medium and its ability to connect people across the country and across the globe... there is a certain excitement to holding this old volume in my hand and wondering at the author's life. There is something tangible in being able to press into the spine and turn the pages and peer at the faded ink... There are many reasons that people blog. Getting a chance to look at this old book makes me wonder: If I am writing this as a means to keep a record... Should I be making some provisions for what happens to "my little corner of cyberspace" when I am not around? It's hard to imagine someone 70 years from now stumbling across these words. The unknown author I have been reading would probably have said the same thing, I imagine. But it makes me sort of sad.

Nostalgia

This is a favorite photo of me. A great big pile of leaves just sort of speaks to the way childhood should be, don't you think? I need to ask my parents for a copy of another favorite... I'm Daniel's age, maybe even a bit younger, wearing nothing but a diaper and sitting on a red pedal car at Grandma and Grandpa T's place in Wisconsin. I wonder what ever happened to that pedal car? My brother would probably remember too of many adventures frantically pedaling that thing up and down the sidewalks. A quick internet search found me Pedal Cars and Retro Collectibles so that you can see what I mean... Although many of these are too "glam" for what I am talking about. I remember our pedal car as being a frame, seat, four wheels, pedals and a steering wheel. It was red, and I think there was some white writing on it... perhaps it was even a Radio Flyer, but I would have to ask if someone remembers.

My sister in law and I were lamenting the "fear factor" (for lack of a better word) we have for our children these days. Pedaling a car up and down the sidewalks for hours. Slamming out the back door to go play in the yard, or with/over at the neighbors and not coming home until dinnertime, are just a few of the things that I remember... There was an attempted abduction of a nine year old in my sister in law's neighborhood. Even before this incident, she confessed that if she leaves her little guy in the backyard (fenced) even for a brief moment, say to go wash her hands, she gets nervous. I certainly can't imagine leaving Daniel. Starting school is going to be difficult, I think...