Wondering about wild grapes

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Remembering my wanderings – Part 4

I took this trip for many reasons; to attend the reunion picnic, to visit my Aunt, to see my wife’s relatives, and to see old friends. Sort of like a trip back memory lane, but boy how things have changed. One morning I made an appointment to meet with one of my old high-school teachers, who became a friend and a fellow “ham”, and he was also the fellow who sold our house after we moved out of Pennsylvania. We have been in contact via email and ham radio, but haven’t seen each other in person for almost 50 years. I tried to meet with him on a couple of trips I took back home but ran out of time and never did. This year would change all that. Of course, we had to ask each other if we were who we were, since we both had changed considerable and we would not have recognized each other if we were sitting on the same bench.



We met at the County Kitchen restaurant and had breakfast and coffee and conversation. I really enjoyed that meeting and hope he did too. Here is a picture that the waitress took of us both:



On the way there I drove by what used to be my in-law's old house.  It sits on about three acres or so on a corner across the road from the airport.  Here is a picture of the rear of the house:
And one from the front:

Directly behind me when I took that picture was the airport. It now has a fence all around it and a business jet was just fixing to take off. In the old days there were no fences and my father-in-law would taxi his plane over to the front yard to wash it and clean it out.



I also went to see my wife’s and my old house, since it was in Country Club Heights just behind the Country Kitchen where we had breakfast. It was such a mess and run down that I couldn’t stand to look at it. I did get to say hello to a couple of old neighbors.


That evening, we went to see my wife’s last surviving Aunt and also got to visit with wife’s cousin and brother’s family. This is a picture going up their driveway. The Y to the left goes to her aunts home and the Y to the right goes to her cousins home.


And here is her aunt’s home:

My wife’s cousin raises Arabian horses as a hobby and has done so for most of her life.  She is a down to earth girl who is easy to talk to and friendly to all.  Here is a picture of her (in orange) showing a couple of her horses to the girls:

And a couple more of the horses:

I am going to end this blog with a picture of my wife’s Aunt, her daughter, and my wife’s nieces.  This represents the 1st, 2nd, and 4th generations.

More to come and you all have a good day now, you hear?

5 comments:

  1. sure enjoying your trip pictures.. Beats hell outta having to sit and watch 100's of slides. :-)

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  2. Hey Dizzy! I'm back and just caught up with your photos. Thanks for the lake shots. Nice. Some of the rural parts of PA remind me of my home in NH.

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  3. You sure saw some pretty country...

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  4. Gee Ben, I was just going to send you a hundred slides (grin).

    Sixbears, I thought of you when I saw all those sailboats and just had to get a picture of a couple.

    Fran, sure did and the trip home through West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc. was even prettier.

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  5. The house just doesn't look the same without the amazing gardens out back. So glad you got to visit with everyone.

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