With this ring I remember..

Do you have a special object that evokes special memories of a special person or a wonderful time in your life?

I love stories. If I didn’t love tell stories I wouldn't be a blogger.

Most often the story behind the object is more valuable to me than the object itself.

My grandparents were immigrants living in Brooklyn N.Y, he was a baker she a stay at home mother of five. The 1920’s were not a very prosperous time for them, but they got by. There were not many luxuries in their home; probably the most valuable of their possessions was her wedding ring/engagement set and yet it was very modest by any means.

One day she lost her engagement ring.  

Popa went to the local jeweler and had him make a ring for Nana. I can imagine that the $25.00 he paid for it was a lot of money back then. Nana loved the sentiment, she loved the ring, it was sweet and beautiful with two hearts back to back but it wasn't her ring.

Did you ever dig in the cushions of the couch of change? My Dad did one day when he was about 12 and came up with something a bit more valuable than a few pennies he was looking for; he found my Nana’s engagement ring. 

She slipped that engagement back in its place on her finger and the heart ring on another finger and wore them both. She in fact wore the engagement ring until her death at 95 but the heart ring had a different fate.

Many older folks give treasured items to their loved in order to see them enjoy them as opposed to leaving them in a will.  She was a wonderful Grandmother who lived with us and was a tremendous part of my life. 

Years later Nana gave that heart ring to Daddy and he immediately passed it to me. I received that ring 38 years ago and have worn it every day. Sadly, Popa died when I was six. I know Nana and Daddy saw my joy when I was given that ring. Now that they've all passed I feel like I wear their hearts all the time glistening on my finger.  

There’s a great place I know about to get a ring or watch or piece of art to start a new memory by adding a new treasure to your family. There are some wonderful items there. Have you ever visited Invaluable Auctions?  Why not visit their website and check out their great selection of rings. 

Do you have a special piece of jewelry with that has a story worth telling? I'd love to hear it!

faith and caution when strangers knock

When I grew up respect for authority figures was the norm. For instance, I didn't call my friends parents by their first names; they were Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Jones not John and Jane. With my parents there were no mixed messages. I respected the word and rule of my parents with a healthy measure of fear of consequences.  Being that I grew up in a law enforcement family and a Catholic family, cops and the religious were held in high esteem.  It made for and interesting mix of faith and caution when it came to how I developed in all areas. Needless to say I can truthfully tell you my family is an interesting bunch and that I had an interesting upbringing.

Post their police careers my Dad and my Uncle went into business together in the same beach community where our family beach house was located.  And it brings to mind a something that happened when I was about 14 or 15 years old at the beach house. 

I was glued to the TV watching my first airing of The Godfather so I’m thinking 1974 or 1975. Of course timing being everything it is just at the point of the movie when the director/producer finds the horse head in his bed and my heart is racing, I’m alone and I hear… knock, knock, and knock! I jumped about four feet off the couch made my way to the door to find two men in suits standing at the door.

  

Remember what I said about faith and caution?

 Enter faith.

“We’re agent Mulder and Scully (no that’s not their real names, I stole those from the x-files) and we’re agents with the Federal Government (FBI/ Secret Service) is your Dad home? He glanced to confirm my dad’s name on his little pad, Henry right?” Without thought my hand went up to the lock but I didn’t lock it, for now the door as a barrier was enough.

Enter caution

At that point they each produced badges and showed them to me. I remember thinking as I was looking at the badges; I should ask for more I.D. if they’re real agents they’ll have ID too. “Can I see your I.D’s? They showed me their picture ID’s.

Thinking back I’m sure they had already deduced that I was home alone but I didn't want to tell them that myself after all I was a kid and they were strangers.  When I mentioned I’m going to call Dad and tell him to come home they ask if they can come in the house. Funny how even a thin storm door between them and me gave me the tiny bit of courage.  I said no and told them to wait outside. Then I locked the storm and wood door and dialed Dad.

Dad arrived in five minutes and they all came in together. Introductions were made and they got down to business at hand which if you’re curious had something to do with someone or other and counterfeit money being passed in local businesses.

Then surprisingly one of the agents said to Dad with a grin, “I’m guessing you were a cop?”  “Yes.”  Dad replied. “And you know this how?”  The agent went on to exclaim. “Only a cop’s kid would grill us about our credentials and then leave us on the porch, you raised her well.” And he shook my Dads hand as if to congratulate him.

Then Dad turned to me. “Why didn’t you let them in?” All three pairs of eyes turned towards me and I knew they were very curious to hear my explanation. I took a deep breath knowing I had faith that I used common sense and exercised caution the way my Dad had taught me in order to keep me safe in an unsafe world.

Then I explained.

“The decision was simple.”  “How was I supposed to know the badges and I.D’s were real if I’ve never seen one before?”  “For all I know they could have come from the five and ten cent store.”

I like her because....out of the mouths of babes.

In a few days school will start for kids everywhere if they've not started already.
Anyway it got me to thinking about all the cute stories that I remember about my kids and the grand-kids and their school experiences.

I thought in honor of school I'd share an adorable story about my daughters middle son when he was younger.

Let me just set this story up by saying that he is very shy and did not go to take to school with ease in the beginning. To say she was worried about how he'd do in school was an understatement. Moms! We always have one we worry about.

Needless to say she arrives up at school and there he is sitting up in the front of the classroom with a big dimpled smile on his face. He seemed OK, and in fact he was actually more than OK. She did the meet and great with the teacher and then when they got home she spoke to him about his positive attitude of which she was happily surprised.
Now here's the story and I'm paraphrasing here....



"Emmanuel, Mommy was a little surprised to see you up in the front of the classroom."
"I like my seat" he replied.
"You like your teacher then?"
"Yes Mommy she reminds me of Grandma."
"Oh!" "And hows that?"
He then extended his hands near the front of his chest in a motion she didn't understand.
"You know Mommy." he said earnestly smiling at her.
"No I don't know, you have to tell me."
"I like her because she's like Grandma in the breasts!"

wordy wednesday

This tea set has been passed from my grandmother to my mother's older sister Winifred and then to me. Like most with family treasures I was curious to know its origins. I had after all coveted it since first spying it in my Nana's curio as a young child.

Mom told me the local theaters back in the 1940's for the price of a movie ticket would  give you a chance to win pieces of china and that's how we got our set. She lived in NYC.

When I asked her the name of the theater...

She said,  "it was the Scratch House - the Scratchy Theater.

"That's the name of the theater?" I asked.

"Oh that's not the real name that I don't remember" she said.

"You called it that because?" I asked curios as ever.

"Well every time we'd go there we'd scratch ourselves, it always felt as if there were bugs in there!"

My mother is too funny!

I told Mom we could always Google the name of the theater.

In the end we decided to scratch that idea :)

they said what!?

"Q"

I come from a family of strong Irish woman; both my grandmothers were off the boat from Ireland. I speak frequently about my Nana on my father’s side on this blog, but not all that often of my Nana on my mother’s side. My grandmother was very lively and although she passed away when I was a teenager I remember her for her strong will and wit. That wit I'm talking about was expressed in the form of sayings little quotes that she used to say in certain situations. And you know how it is; you say you're never gonna say those things your Mom said, but......

Well, Mom grew up listening to Nana's snappy quotes and then went on to repeat them many times over the years not only to me and my brothers but to other as well.

Today is letter “Q”

Q is for quotes.

Now like any other kid growing up I heard all the usual stuff that kids usually hear, you’re familiar with the quotes.

“Do you think you live in a barn” when you left the door open.

Or “turn the lights out do you think you father owns the power company?” When you left the light on in your bedroom.

"Clean up this pigsty." when you room got a tad bit messy.

But my family had quotes that took it up a notch that were original or at least I think so.

Now let me just preface this by saying I grew up in a normal loving family, my parents weren't mean or unloving, neither was my Nana. I am sharing these quotes in good fun  and I never ever heard them being used in any other way.

So if you didn’t get your way in my house and indulged in some alligator tears you might if circumstance and age allowed here something like, “the more you cry the less you’ll pee” as a response to your phony baloney tears.

Or when you go into trouble, something you were perhaps counseled not to do and did anyway. Then were looking for sympathy you might be told, “sympathy is between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.”

If you lifted the lid on a pot in my house and asked, "what’s this?"  Acting as if it dinner was unidentifiable when you really knew it was pot roast and Mom knew that you knew, Mom would respond by telling you your dinner was.....“pig shit and cauliflower.” 

You know how now a days when you get mad you just flip someone the bird, or tell someone to go f^*k themselves if they cut you off or steal you taxi,  well not my relatives they’re more original. They’d tell you to “shit in your hat put it over your head and make brown curls,” or “to go scratch your ass in Macy’s window.”

My childhood friends from the beach used to love to come off the beach and gather at the house, if mom came in the living room and she caught you sitting on the coffee table she’d say, “tables are for glasses not for asses.”  Our friends actually made her a coffee cup for her 80th with that saying & a group picture on it taken by that table. Cute huh!

Were your parents or grandparents quotable? Did they say funny things? Do you have family quotes that are special to your family like the things my Mom and Nana used to say. Maybe there things that just drove you up the wall about your parents that they said over and over again.

Do share!

here's the O'scoop- about my St Patty's Day

This St Patty's Day I went to the parade with my cousin's Jeanmarie and Colleen  her friend Jim  and her son Landon my husband Bill and our friends Claire and her partner Dewene. 

Claire{ left} Jeanmarie{ center }Dewene{ right }me { back}
at the parade

The parade was great, lot and lots of different floats, bands. Irish groups, bagpipes and others. I have to say I attended this parade years ago and it has grown tremendously these past years, the crowds were huge.

This is a shot down to the end of the parade where the festival was to take place when the parade concluded. It was such a mad house and was so crowded with people we actually skipped it and went to a local restaurant and had lunch. My cousins were having a party so....

We arrived early and got a place on the curb  much like the people in these pictures. Actually I took these pictures which were to the left  and across the street of where we sat. Oh my aching rear end, we didn't bring pillows and the curbs are granite!

St Patty's Day is a big day for people of Irish decent. Actually my Aunt Frances would say everyone is Irish on St Patty's Day! On this day in the company of friends and family, we'll share food and beer, shots of Jameson Irish Wiskey and to listen to Irish music; and we did!

 my cousin colleen thinks if she smiles we're not going to notice she's drinking
Italian beer on St Patty's day, shame shame!

Katie with Jameson Irish Whiskey Jello shots- green jello of course!

Did I mention the funny hats? My husband's hat was so funny he actually got the Guinness truck drivers attention. The man stopped the truck in the middle of the parade to give him a thumbs up on his original head wear.

.    

Bill, my husband

Hans and Jeanmarie are wonderful hosts and have a beautiful home. Hans cooked up a storm and became Irish for a day, he cooked a ton of corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots and I shouldn't forget to mention that my Mom peeled for him!

Hans O'Schuler taking a quiet moment from all the madness

 We told jokes, sang songs and some of us even wore green hair and red hair,  the more embarrassing the better.  We're very good at it, it's what we do!

Jim and his beautiful flowing green hair

Claire with her cap and red hair wig

Hans and Amy

My cousin Hans who is my favorite beer brewer and his lovely wife came ready to "party" to the party at his parents house. Their little son was visiting with his other grandparents since this was an adults only party!

We returned on Monday, very tired after a few great days hanging out with the cousins and our friends down in Charlotte. I promise once I catch up on things here at home { like sleep} I'll catch up on all my blog reading and commenting.

you did what?

For Mama Kat's Pretty Much World Famous Writer's Workshop this week I chose this prompt: You know the stories that are retold a million times at family gatherings? I call them Life Stories that you just never live down. List your Top 10 Life Stories. 

Family stories are most funny to the family that they belong to because we know the people, the personalities. I come for a large family with lots of kids many many cousins.We're all in our thirties, forties, fifties even sixties now and I have to say we never get tired of these stories.  There are so many good stories that are swirling around in my head that could be told about all of us. Here are some of my favorites!

• Once at a holiday dinner, I believe it was Thanksgiving, someone threw a piece of turkey  across the table and it landed in my cousin Genevieve’s soda , she sipped it not knowing it was there, then threw up on the table. ( my brother Paul swears it was stuffing not turkey, he had a front row seat, he was sitting next to her) We still don't know who threw the offending object!

• I took a walk with my cousins, Gen, Patricia, my brother Paul and cousin Mickey on the boardwalk once, I didn't want to be with the girls I wanted to be with the boys. They however had different idea, they left me by jumped off the boardwalk. I was eight years old and lost, I walked to this little beauty parlor which sat off the end of the boardwalk and sat there crying and crying until they came back later. They got in trouble! (I didn't know my address we were living at a summer house)

• We had a party at our house once and my cousin Yvonne mistakenly used a Clorox wipe thinking it was a personal feminine wipe. Ouch!

• Poor cousin Lorraine was locked in the car trunk in Brooklyn by her sister Yvonne and my brother Paul, my grandfather found her.

• My brother Gerard (aka, Gerry berry) stuck a berry in his ear, from the Christmas decorations.

• My personal favorite when at a family party my cousins threw my little shit balls from my diaper out the upstairs window at Uncle Charlie’s head since he didn’t have hair!

• While visiting my friends Flora’s Uncle Joe in Brooklyn he was commenting at the dinner table how beautiful my daughter Heather was, as the words left his mouth, she threw up on the table.

• My son Billy put a clothes pin on our cat Tinkerbelle’s tail once, needless to say they didn’t like each other very much. Once when staying with my parents Billy was sleeping on the couch, and Tinkerbelle  who traveled with us decided to get her payback, she climbed on Billy when he was sleeping and peed on his back.

• My cousin cut my hair after one lesson in hair cutting school; it was a disaster. Mom took me to the beauty parlor after to repair the damage, can anyone say pixie?

• I was walking down the street with my son Matthew and I was VERY pregnant with Eric, a utility worker was working in a freshly dug hole on some sewer pipes. As we turned the corner I said to my toddler son” look Matthew a big hole.” The man looked up at me and said” not big enough for you lady!”