It has been a very long time since I posted last. The days go faster the older I get. I am now home more because of my surgery so maybe I can up date the site a bit. I started this blog so that I could write down memories of growing up but I have decided that instead of doing that that I may just start showing some of the things that I am making. I have always been a crafter and sewer. Even in my 70s I am still at crafting and sewing and now there is the web site called Pinterest and I can post all my favorite things so I search the web for wonderful things that I like so that I can post it on my site. I would love to post picture of some of my items but have no idea how to do it. Someday I may figure it out. LOL

This is my carosel horse. I have painted it similiar to what the original one would have looked like. The horse was carved in about 1904-5 by a German carver named Heyn. This horse was not on a brass pole instead it was on a metal stand that rocked back and forth. I am hoping to sell it soon for the right price.

time passes quickly

Time passes by too quickly. It is the weekend and soon it will be next weekend. The older I get the faster it goes. Today I am resting as tomorrow will be a busy day. I am going into the church craft show. I hope I make some money and that we have very little to take home.

I don't remember the last time I posted some memories of when I was growing up. I believe it was when I lived in Florida at "Azalea Courts". We had four motel units. Motels were different in those days as most were not large. Some had separate rooms and some were joined together. Ours were joined together and had a bedroom and a bathroom. There was a small shower, a toilet, and a sink in the bathroom. The bedroom consisted of a bed a lamp and a dresser. The motel was built of cement blocks and none of us had air-conditioning in those days. I don't think air-conditioning existed in those days. Next to the units was an attached building or I should say room that housed the hot water heater. The washing of the linens, towels, etc was done by my mother or I sometimes would be bored and wash the clothes.

The wash machine was outside of our house. It was a wringer type wash machine and there was a rinse tub outside too. Clothes driers didn't yet exist. We would have to hang the sheets, towels, etc on the clothes line. When I would do it it was always difficult me hanging the laundry as I was a kid, maybe 11 years old. I do remember sometimes stepping in a red (fire ant) hill and getting my feet and legs eaten alive until I knocked them off of me.

We had an iron mangler in the home and the sheets and the pillow cases would be ironed that way. I always enjoyed doing the ironing on it. That is when I felt like it.

It was hard on my Mom helping to run the business and then doing the striping of the motel unit and then washing, drying, ironing and cleaning the units just to go back to making hamburgers, chili, etc. She would sometimes work to 1:30 in the morning just to get up and start all over again.

From the time I was 11 years old on, I would always get up by myself in the morning, get washed and dressed and open the business, make breakfast for myself and go to school. Deciding what to wear to school was easy and we always had to wear a dress or a skirt and blouse and I had very few to choose from.

Aunt Fran Funeral

Today was Aunt Fran's funeral. Aunt Dorothy and Uncle George was there. They did not know who I was in the beginning. They look great for being 86 and 89. Aunt Rose was there too. She is 93. That means I have at least 20 years to go. All my cousins were there also. I wish family lived closer. I miss having them around. My cousin Karl who I used to write you when I lived in Florida is married to Peggy now and she seems really nice. I know we would get along fine. Ted and Pat look good also. Ted is really thin and Pat looks the same. I also sat and talked with Frankie who is Randy's age. It was nice talking to him. I didn't go to young Teddy's house as my breathing was getting bad so it was easier for me to go home but I wish I could have visited longer. I sure do miss them all.

A lot of memories were brought up today but too tired to write them down right now. I will write them down later.

Aunt Fran

Aunt Fran passed away a few weeks ago and will be buried tomorrow at Clarendon Hills Cemetary. What a great Aunt she was. She worked for Marshall Fields downtown, the original one on State Street. She was a detective or a floor walker. She watched for "shop lifters" and caught many of them. She also had great stories of the shop lifting episodes. I will miss those stories.

Aunt Fran also loved to dance. At any family function where there was a band, Aunt Fran wanted to jitterbug. She would drag you out on the floor and throw you around. She was always the leader and you would have to follow her steps. She was just a fun aunt.

She was good friends with my mom and really missed her until the day she died. Talking about my Mom would always bring a tear to her eye. When Uncle Ted was alive, Aunt Fran would always be bitching at him about something and she was usually right about the bitching. LOL They would bicker all the time, but they were a wonderful couple. My uncles eyes always twinkled. He always seemed to be full of the devil. I will miss my Aunt Fran and she was my favorite aunt. Some day I will meet her again.

Aunt Fran

This morning my Aunt Fran passed away. What a wonderful aunt she was to me. I missed her when she moved to Colorado and would call her every once in awhile but when she went to the nursing home she wouldn't hear the phone. She was so good to my Mom and they seemed to enjoy each other's company so much. She really missed my Mom after she passed on and would cry every time she would talk about her. Aunt Fran loved to dance and would jitterbug with anyone who would dance with her. She would always be the leader and would throw you around the floor. LOL She was so much fun at parties. She loved life and was a kind and generous person. I know her family will really miss her alot. She was my favorite aunt and I will miss her a whole lot. Rest In Peace Aunt Fran.

I haven't written here for awhile. The weather has been mostly overcast until the last couple of days and the sun came out and it was over freezing so some of the snow started to melt. But now, last night we have a dusting of snow and they are calling for about 3" of snow on Sunday/Monday. I am sick of winter this year. It seems so long and dragged out. We haven't really had a bad winter but am really ready for Spring this year.

I have been longing for a trip to Florida even though I know it is out of the question. I have no money and two of my bills have increased and that is almost another $100 out of what I get in each month. I don't know how I am going to do it. It just gets worse and worse. I have shut off the lights and put the temp down to 65 at night and the bills still keep going up but the social security check is still the same. I never thought I would be struggling this bad at this age. Poor me one more time. LOL At least I am alive and kicking so they say.

When we moved to Florida there was very little around us and no friends. There was a house next door with a couple of other houses which I believe they rented out. On the other side was a large building that became an auction house. There were businesses across the highway (Alternate Route 41 or Nebraska Avenue) but little else close by. My address there was 100007 Nebraska Avenue, Tampa, Florida. I believe the first real girlfriend that I had there was Pat Pless who lived on the next corner down the sand street. Pat's dad repaired semi's. Pat's mom was a stay at home mother and had a wooden leg. I have no idea how she lost her leg. She had an older sister Olive. Pat and I would go to the sink hole and grab the rope that someone had tied to a tree and would swing out over the sink hole. Thankfully I never fell into the water as I didn't know how to swim. The last time I was in Florida there are fences around the sink holes in the area. A sink hole is a large pond that is connected usually to another sink hole by underground water. Pat and I would also play in a cement block building that someone had started to build and never finished. If a snake was in the building we didn't go back there for a long time. We usually walked on the top of the cement blocks.

Pat's mom was Italian and the house always smelled of spaghetti sauce. I remember one time going out to the causeway with them and going crab hunting. We collected buckets of crabs and then when we got back they were put in the spaghetti sauce. From what I remember the sauce had a wonderful taste.

Pat was younger than me and went to Catholic school so we didn't see each other too often.

I was alone a lot living in Florida. My mom and dad were always busy with the restaurant and motel. When I had nothing to do I would sometimes wash the clothes from the motel. Our washing machine was outside. It was a wringer washing machine and we had one utility tub out there. I would wash the clothes and then hang the stuff on the clothes line. I was about 11 at the time.

There was very little to do in the neighborhood we lived in so I went to the movies quite a bit. The theater was in the town of Sulphur Springs which was a mile or more away from our place but it was only about 8 blocks from school so many days I would walk from school to the theater. I also went just about every Saturday. One Saturday I met a boy there and really liked him. He was nice to me and we talked through the movie. I met him there a few times and then never saw him again. He probably moved away. In those days, did not realize that his parents were probably pickers or worked on someones farm. His name was Gabriel Rodriquez.

Because I liked the movies so much I started writing letters to the studios for photographs of the movie stars. I still have many that I collected. I also collected pictures from movie magazines. Naturally Mom eventually threw them away. She didn't like anything extra laying around. I used to keep the pictures in a cardboard doctor's kit (it was a toy). My favorite star was Cornell Wilde. Funny I never sent for his picture.

Super Bowl Sunday

Today is the Super Bowl. I haven't watched a football game in years. The year that the Bears were playing was a great year for Illinois. We all had parties and everyone was doing the Super Bowl Shuffle. I probably won't watch the game but will switch back and forth to see the commercials.

I went on a web site that had things that were happening on the day I was born. It said that "gas Masks" were classed as "wearing apparel". I don't ever remember anyone walking around with a gas mask on. LOL "DDT" was also used to fight bugs and later found out to be harmful to people. Maybe that is why I have lung disease along with the smoking I was doing. Everyone sprayed their gardens with DDT in those days and for many years to come. The new invention that year was the military helicopters. My first president was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Joe Lewis was the boxing champion. Bobby Riggs was the Wimbledon men's winner and he sure played for many years after that.

Judy Garland was the most popular singer and the movie of the year was "Gone With The Wind". Vivian Leigh won the Oscar for that movie. The the most popular song was "We'll Meet Again". That song I don't think I ever heard.

An average house cost was $8985, WOW. A car was $1328. I take one please. Gas was
$.15, bread $.09, flour $.04, a dozen eggs $.16, bacon $.26 and eggs $.16. Gas for the $1328 car was $.l5 a gallon. If those prices were now, I would be a rich person.

The other statistics were that my name Pat means Well-born and I was born on a Sunday. I am a Gemini and my birthstone is an emerald. My flower is Lily of the Valley which is one of my most favorite flowers. I can almost smell them now. I used to pick 2 or 3 bouquets at Teta Kubat's house every spring. My color is Saffron but I don't think I have ever had anything that color. It says that I am loyal, loving and energetic partner for whom romance is important. My relationships must be varied to interest me. Boy that is for sure. LOL It also says that I am imaginative, charming, quick-witted, and vivacious I guess that is enough trivia on me.