What is it about nice people that attract total idiots?Nice people are martyrs. Idiots are evangelists.

SOCK IT TO ME BABY!!!

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Happy Labor Day! While you weren't paying attention...

...I did manage to get some things accomplished.  One of them was something I had not ever done in my 53.31 years on the planet was this:



...I found my first 4-leaf clover!!!!!! Of course, it wasn't much of a challenge.  I had just stepped out of a huge bed of clover- and there it sat, about 2 feet away from any of the rest of the patch!  Stevie Wonder would have had a 40% shot at finding it, but I got there first,


Second, I finally got motivated to enter the beer caps given me by Bobby G into my vast collection!  To see that story, go hit the "Chris' Cap Collection" link at top right to peruse that long neglected blog for the post.


Third, I got several pictures from my niece through FB today.  Seems she was out in the old neighborhood and couldn't track down Mom and Dad's graves.  She tried to blame it on their "moving to Florida", of which I was a bit skeptical, because Dad never took Mom anywhere!  Nevertheless, I proceeded out to the land of my youth to look things over.


The old, not-so-familiar-anymore route down old US 30 to St Louis Besancon...

And there's Mom and Dad, right where I left them.  (See, I told you Mom's name was Ursula!)

A really nice cross, erected since I'd last been there.

I visited the rest of the family, including Grandma and Grandpa on Mom's side...
...and Dad's.

And there is the school I spent first through eighth grades at.  Kindergarten?  That's now the field on the other side of that cross I showed you.



And this is the house I grew up in.  More correctly, the building that USED to be the house I grew up in.  I left it to my ex in the divorce so she'd have a home.  She spent a four figure tax return on a trip to Florida instead of paying property taxes, and had to sell it for an eighth of what it was worth.  (Never mind that she'd have been evicted without knowing why had I not spotted the tax sale in the newspaper...)  But it needed massive remodeling, and the buyer accomplished it... to a point which I stood inside and could not tell where ANYTHING used to be.  But it's still a living and breathing home, with children playing, and that's what a home is for.

My niece had posted pictures of the house, too, and I'll admit I didn't know what I was looking at first.  That picture there is shy about eight big maple trees that are no longer there, an added on porch stands where cement steps used to be, and the window you see next to the light pole is where my bedroom was for 22 years.  The oak in the back is still one of the most massive trees I've ever known... an ancient burr oak that was 12 foot around at the trunk when I was still a toddler.  The second building behind the two car garage is where another big maple used to be.

In truth, they may be the things I miss most from back then... well, that and the two-holer outhouse that used to sit in the back corner.  Brings back a LOT of memories...

19 comments:

  1. Chris:
    This post got me kinda misty...(and neither because we had a touch of fog this morning OR that you mentioned me regarding the bottle caps...lol).

    I think it's always important to know WHERE you hail from, how you remember it, and how it has changed since you were there last.
    It anything, it keeps one "centered", and makes you realize ALL the moments in life that comprise WHO you are at this point in time.
    It can often run the gamut of emotions as well.
    (sure has me thinking about a lot of things, too).

    Nicely done.

    Stay safe up there, brother.

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  2. Oh, and a great bug happy CONGRATS on that 4-leaf clover (now THAT is one for the record books).
    (I have yet to find one, but am ever hopeful)

    Get that bigger laminated and stuck in your wallet (or framed).

    :)

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    Replies
    1. It gets one a bit sad to walk the stones where so many names you knew lie, it's true...

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  3. Tony and I have inherited 2 plots at a local graveyard if we chose to be buried there. My mother and I are going to try and find them this fall. Funny stony.... my great grandmother who bought them always wanted water front property (just like me). So when it came time, she went to the cemetery and picked these four which over looked a beautiful large pond. Happy with finally getting her waterfront property, she left and never visited again.

    Except she had visited in the fall... and the "pond" was a cranberry bog.

    I wonder if she's rolling on her side of the headstones or if she's happy with her seasonal view.

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    1. Well, at least the plot wasn't in the bog. If she doesn't mind the guys doing the Ocean Spray commercials, she's prolly happy enough.

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  4. My great grandmother found multiple four-leafed clovers every single time we took a walk and I never, NEVER found even one yet.

    You have given me hope, ha ha.

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    Replies
    1. I told Laurie that Mom usually found one every other year while picking dandelion greens in the spring.

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  5. "Right where I left them"
    Don't know if you intended to be funny, but I laughed.
    If I've stepped over the line, I apologize.
    I still laughed, though.

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    1. No prob, when your niece tells you that two dead people moved to Florida, you have to laugh.

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  6. I love visiting graves, because I am strange, but you already knew that, labour day well for us that is in October the 5th to be exact and it is a holiday most people take for granted and don't think about what it means and it means a lot it is the day we mark shorter working days and weeks and paid sick days and paid holidays so many things that once a pond a time we didn't have

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    1. I don't think it's strange. I see it as a way to make sure a person doesn't fade from memory.

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  7. How awesome that you found the four leafed clover!!
    Congrats. That had to be hard to see your childhood home be sold but glad they renovated it and made it nice.

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    1. Yeah... my friends actually took it worse than me!

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  8. Man,33 years and I still don't think I've found a 4 leaf clover. .. Lucky you! Love the photos!! Forgive my absence, dare I say I'm going to try to do better :))

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    1. I guess there are a LOT more people who haven't found them than I thought... Mom always had a few pressed in her prayer book.

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  9. I understand that - I really miss the big apricot tree we had in our backyard and...that's about it.

    You're such a good guy to have given the ex the house.

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  10. I hope you kept that clover.

    it's weird going back to childhood places. I can't go near my old house anymore, so much has been done to it and to all the neighbours, it just looks like a different street altogether at this point.

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