Showing posts with label mothers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mothers. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

My Mother's Diary (and a Meaningful New Year's Resolution for You to Consider)

When my sister and I were clearing out my mother's house after her death in 1999 at the age of 91, I came across my mother's diary and brought it back home with me, and though I dabbled in reading it back then, it's only been lately that I decided to actually read it all.






Mark Twain said:

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."

When we are young, we don't seem to give much thought to what is going on with our parents, who they are or whether or not they are happy.  We tend to take them for granted. Perhaps that is why we end up knowing so little about our parents. 

I actually don't think I gave my mother any credit for "learning" anything until I was in my 50's.  Oh, yes, I tried to talk to her from time to time and find out how she felt about things, but we were not only from very different generations but we were on a different wave length.

You see my mother was born in 1908 and she was 40 when I was born.  That puts me at 21 in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War and the sexual, social and political revolution that was taking place around the world.  My mother had absolutely no idea what was going on with me and pretty much wanted me to stay her sweet little 1950's goody-two-shoes.  That wasn't going to happen.

But it wasn't all my fault.  I remember when I was in middle school, sitting on the edge of my parents' bed with my Dad and asking him why I didn't know him as well as my best friend.  Even then I was trying to make a connection between him as a Dad and him as a person. He said something about parents not wanting to worry their children, which looking back now, was an interesting comment.

I read something recently that said our children will never love us as much as we love them, and now that I have had children of my own, I understand that, and it actually gives me some strange comfort.  It's like it's not ME my children have rejected by not hanging on my every word or asking me if I am happy or not; it's the nature of things. Children just don't wonder if their parents are happy.  They are too busy wondering when they are going to be happy.  When we're young we take our parents for granted and don't really give them much thought unless they are getting in our way.  I literally know nothing about what really made my mother tick other than what she didn't like about ME.

Now as I near 70 I would give anything to have her here to ask her questions about her life and marriage.

But I have her diary.

The diary documents my mother's life from 1930 through 1933, age 22 to 25, which was also the time that my mother and dad were "courting (they married when they both were 26).




My mother's entries in her diary consist of mostly pretty mundane stuff.  Each entry was only a few lines per day, but I was able to glean some things I didn't know:

  • When I was growing up, my Dad was a musician and played trumpet in various bands right up until he died.  But I didn't realize how much he did that as a young man.  My mother is always mentioning in her diary that my Dad, Frederic, was playing this evening or that evening but it added up to quite a few evenings per week.  And he was also in college during that time.

  • My mother also talks about her friend, Rosella.  She is the person I am named after, and I didn't know anything about her because by the time I came along, she had moved away. Likewise, it was fun reading about my mother's other friends whom I only knew as old ladies.  I thought it was wonderful that my mother still had all of those friends all of her life.

  • I didn't realize how close my mother was to her own mother.  My mother's mother died when I was around five, so I don't remember her very well, but my mother talks lovingly of her in her diary.  I knew that her mother had gone back to Sweden to visit her family but had not realized it was for three months.  My mother writes in her diary, "Mother has been gone for a week and it seems like a year."  I think that was partly because my mother's older sister was married and no longer lived at home but her five brothers did, so looking after her Dad and her brothers probably fell to her.  I found it interesting that my mother had told me about an unsettling incident that had happened to her during that time her mother was away but no mention of it in her diary.



  • Reading my mother's diary, I was happy to see that my Dad was just as thoughtful a boyfriend as he was a Dad.  He was always writing her letters and giving her gifts and she called him "My darling" and "My Sweetheart" throughout the diary. That made me happy and sad at the same time.  It made me happy because they clearly loved each other when they were courting, but sad because it was clear to me growing up, that by the time I came along, my Mother and Dad were not that happy together.  Though their marriage lasted until my Dad's death - almost 60 years - something had gone wrong somewhere but I never found out what it was.

  • My Mother's diary had all kinds of little keepsakes in it and clippings from the newspaper: announcements about programs at the YWCA or the Women's Club that she was a part of but also pictures of things she liked and things she wanted to remember such as cards and notes.


  • Ironically, though reading someone's diary should be like reading their thoughts, just as she was in life, my mother's diary didn't reveal very much about her inner thoughts.  Her diary is mostly a few lines each day about what she did - she came home and took a nap, her friend came for dinner and she would describe what they ate, she went to a concert, she received a letter from my Dad-to-be or she didn't.  Nothing very revealing and very little about what she actually felt about her life.

And that is not surprising since my mother was never one to talk about her feelings and she didn't deem it an appropriate topic of conversation either.  I remember as a teenager saying to her, "Mom, I am feeling depressed," and her response was "What do you have to be depressed about!"  It wasn't a question.  It was a statement.  She probably added "Count your blessings," and that was the end of that conversation.  Isn't it funny and ironic that I was a teenager who actually wanted to talk to her mother, but, also ironically, unlike most mothers of teenaged girls who wanted their daughters to share with them, I had a mother who didn't want me to.  So that was that.

She was also very practical.  When I was having problems in my marriage, I remember calling my mother and saying, "Mom, he has been cheating on me and is in love with someone else," and she replied, "Well, you can't fight that."  And she was right.  I couldn't.  So that was that.

So my mother's diary very much reflects her reluctance to share feelings and her practicality.  Except for mentioning the occasional spat with her husband-to-be, my Dad, my mother's diary reveals little of her thoughts, no soul-searching, no sad stories, no doubts about herself, so if I was expecting revelations about her life, they are not there.

But I am comforted by the details of her life as a young woman, a young twenty-something who would one day marry her sweetheart, my Dad, and give birth to me. I enjoyed reading about her daily life: she was an active young woman who was the secretary to the president of the local bank; she read books and went to concerts and plays; she was active at the YWCA, and at her church and belonged to a young women's business club; loved her mother and her family and she was always on the go.  She didn't appear to have a bad word to say about anyone. In fact, she spoke lovingly of her nieces (her older sister had already married and had children) and friends. She would mention my Dad's parents or her brothers and sisters but never revealed how she felt about any of them which is odd, because later in life, she had plenty to say!  But in her twenties, she seemed happy and hopeful, with her whole life ahead of her.

I am glad I have my mother's diary and can spend some time with her as the young woman she was.  I just wish I had spent more time with her older self, when she was still alive, so that I could have found out more about her.  I wish I had let her little criticisms of me go over my head and not cloud our relationship.  I let those criticisms bother me and because I was busy living my life far away and raising my own children, I didn't make the effort to visit her much or talk with her on the phone more than once a week. 

But I loved my mother and I know she loved me.  When I finally did get a divorce and asked her to come and help me, at 74, she dropped everything and traveled by herself to California from Michigan to help me with my two-year-old son and to help me get back on my feet, and it was comforting to know she was always there for me - and she was.



Now that I have grown children too, and am in a position similar to my mother's, I have time to reflect and feel regret that I never had talks with her about her true feelings (though I can remember trying upon occasion), what drove her to do some of the things she did, how she felt about her 50+ year marriage at the end and if she had any regrets in life.  Though I am glad to have her diary and glad that she did share some important things with me over the years, I still have so many questions.  I wish my mother was still here to answer them.

But now it's too late.

Since my parents are both dead, it's too late for me to ask them questions that I have, but it's not too late for those of you whose parents are still alive.  I urge you to try to find out about them.  I'm not talking about their accomplishments or the family tree, I am talking about finding out why they raised you the way they did, why they married who they married, how they feel about getting old, what they have learned about life, what they regret.  All of those things that make them who they are.  You will learn about them but it also might shed some light on who you are too.

So here's an idea for a meaningful New Year's Resolution.

Make a resolution that in the coming year you will have some meaningful conversations with each of your parents to find out about who they really are and how they feel about their lives.

It's too late for me but it might not be too late for you.

Don't wait.  Do it now. 

Do it before all you have left is a diary.


Thanks for reading!



See you Friday 

for

"The Best and the Worst Movies of 2017:
 
Rosy the Reviewer's Top 10" 

 
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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

A Mom All By Herself on Mother's Day

We all raise our children to be independent.  Well, most of us do, I hope.  We don't want our 35 year old moving into the basement with his Lazy Boy and his 65 inch TV just as we start our retirement, now, do we?

But raising our children to be independent has a dark side for us mothers out there.

I really loved my children and enjoyed their growing up years, but I also looked forward to knowing them as adults and being a part of their lives.  However, we never know how things will turn out and loves and career often take our children far away from us.

My mother had to deal with that.  I moved to California from Michigan the day after I graduated from college.



Off I went, just like that. It was 1970.  What can I say? In those days, everyone from Michigan wanted to move to California.  We wanted to be a part of "The Summer of Love" but didn't realize we had already missed it!

My mother's heart must have sunk when I announced I was moving 2000 miles away, but being the stoic Swedish woman that she was, she never said much about it except the occasional "if you weren't so far away."  I think when I left, my Dad gave me $10. It was a symbolic gesture. Somehow he knew I had it all figured out (he later shared with me that he thought I was so brave to make that move. I could tell he wished he had done it himself).  I was 22.  Don't all twenty-two year olds have it all figured out?

So I lived my life in California, married, had children and only ventured back to Michigan to see my parents occasionally and they would come out to see me when they could.  It was only when I had children that I realized what I was missing by living so far from my Mother and Dad.

My mother spent many Mother's Days without her children.

So now history repeats itself.  My son and daughter both live far away so this last Mother's Day, I found myself alone.  Hubby had to go on a business trip so I was really alone.  But before you point fingers at him, his absence on Mother's Day actually bothered me less than my childrens' absence.  I mean, I am not Hubby's mother (though sometimes it feels like I am)!

But we say we want our children to be independent and have their own lives so we have to walk the talk, and my children are living their own lives just as I wanted them to do.

So when Mother's Day rolls around it evokes all kinds of emotions.  It can be a happy day when your family is around you and paying homage to what a great mother you are.  But for some of us whose mothers have passed on, it can be a sad day.  For many who wanted to be mothers and were not able to be, also a sad day.  And for those of us who are mothers but whose children are not close by, it can also be a lonely day especially when our hubbies are gone too.

So what did I do all by myself on Mother's Day?

First, I refused to be sad.

I spent some time with my mother.






And then I spent some time with my children, because even though we are not physically together, I have them, and my mother, with me always through my happy memories. 





 








   










































 






In the end, whether we are alone or with our families, we will always have those memories. 

I was alone on Mother's Day, but in the end Mother's Day is just a day, a day like every other day because every day I think of my children. 

But I am fortunate.  My children, despite their distance, seem to like me.  They keep in touch and we see each other several times a year.  So we continue to make memories. There is no guarantee that if we all lived in the same town that we would get along and see each other all of the time, so I am happy that we are as close as we can be.  And I am glad that they are happy and successful.  Because wasn't that the whole point?

We can't control what will happen to our children, what choices they will make.  We can only give them the wings to fly away and be independent and hope that those wings will hold them up.  And that one day those wings will bring them back (this is totally metaphorical. I don't literally want them moving back in)!

But I felt so strongly about those wings that I had them permanently imprinted on my arm so I would never forget my role (and I was in my 60's when I did it - but don't tell my mother)!



What does Mother's Day mean to me?

It's a great day to honor our mothers and for mothers to think about their children, but we don't really need a "day" to tell us to do that. We can do that any day and we should.  And while our loved ones are around, we should be sure we tell them what they mean to us so we don't have any regrets.  And then when we can't be together, we have our memories which are timeless and eternal.

So on my Mother's Day by myself, I spent time with those memories, reminiscing, remembering all of the fun and the stories and the funny things my kids used to say, and then being so glad I have such wonderful, successful adults. I knew I had done my job.  I had given them the wings to fly away. So instead of feeling sorry for myself, sad and all alone, I felt grateful for my little family.  I had all of those memories to keep me company.



And then I went out and, with a smile on my face, treated myself to a new outfit and a nice Mother's Day meal...all by myself...but not alone.







Thanks for Reading!



See you Friday



for my review of


"Keanu"



and


 
The Week in Reviews

(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)


 and the latest on

"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before

 I Die Project."






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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

How to Have a Successful (and Happy) Mother/Daughter Getaway: Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque

 




As you know I am retired. 

But that doesn't necessarily mean I am now traveling the world as so many retirees do.  Au contraire, I am in fact not traveling any more than I used to when I was working, because Hubby is decidedly NOT retired and may never retire since he doesn't have a pension.  He also knows he wants to keep his wife's lifestyle up to the standard to which she has become accustomed.

So if I want to travel more, I either need to do it by myself or find someone else to travel with.

Like many of you out there, my adult children do not live down the street.  I wish they did because then we could have Sunday dinners together and not worry about when we can spend time together.  Instead, we have to plan vacations around getting together, which can be wonderful but also fraught with possible problems.

Think about it.  When your family lives nearby you can choose when to see each other and for how long (unless you are the kind of mother-in-law who just drops by which I would NEVER do...)

But when your family lives far and wide, you can't just drop by or even have a regular dinner together.  You have to plan vacations around being together, and to make it worthwhile, it usually has to be for a week, or at least a few days, and once you are all together, the unspoken expectation is that you will spend all of your time together.  It's not like dropping by the house for a visit and then going home after dinner.  When you meet up after not seeing each other for months at a time, the expectation is that you will do everything together all day and all night long, especially if you are all staying together in the same house and one of you is hosting.  This worked when your kids were ten; it doesn't necessarily work that well when they are 35 with families of their own. No matter how much you all love each other, it's not natural for everyone to be thrown together for days at a time, and yet families are surprised and disappointed when tensions occur. 

I grew up in the Midwest at a time when families were born, raised and died in the same town or at least the same state.  My grandparents lived across the street and my mother's brothers and sister all lived in the same town.

But then my generation started moving away from that model.  My sister moved to New York and I moved to California right after college with nary a care about what our parents thought about that.

Anyway, that's the long story, which I won't bore you with now.

The short story is that I now live in Washington State, my son lives in California (not far from where we raised him, which he is quick to point out) and my daughter is in Virginia.  We see our son regularly because we return to California often for a variety of reasons, one of which is to see them and our two grandsons, but we don't get to see our daughter as much.

So with my being retired and Hubby not able to travel as much as I would like, I had been bugging my daughter to go on a trip with me.

Finally the timing seemed right so we talked about some destinations: Portland and Oregon Wine Country?  Hawaii?  Paris?  (Hubby said no way are we going to Paris without HIM)! 

My daughter suggested Santa Fe, New Mexico, which sounded just perfect. Something exotic (desert) and beautiful, great food, history.  Did I mention food?





I threw in Taos.  We planned to meet in Albuquerque (which I have just learned to spell) and drive to Santa Fe together.

I will just say at the outset that we had a wonderful time.  But that does not come without some planning, both physical and mental.

So for those of you out there who would like to have a successful and happy getaway with your daughter (or son), for what it's worth, here is what I've learned:




Tip #1:  Fly First Class
You would be surprised.  Flying first class is not really out of reach unless you are particularly parsimonious.  You can often score a First Class seat for an extra $100 and some frequent flyer miles. 

And for me, someone who does not fly alone that much, it is well worth the extra money, especially on the way home when I was sad to leave my daughter and exhausted from a fun-filled six days.  When I flop into that roomy leather seat (after smiling and greeting the flight attendants, of course), open up my content-filled IPad as I await my complimentary glass of sauvignon blanc (that my flight attendant happily gets from the other cabin so I don't have to drink the dreaded chardonnay), I feel safe and cared for.  It's worth every penny.  Speaking of drinking, though, be careful if you need to drive when you get to your destination.  Those unlimited free drinks in First Class could become a Toad's Wild Ride.




Tip #2: Come bearing gifts
If you have been reading my blog, you know about my Dad.  He was the most generous person I have ever known, not just with material things but with his time.  He would go out of his way to surprise you with a coveted item or do something nice for you.  So I came to equate love with gift giving to a certain extent and I like doing it. 

My daughter and I had talked about really living the Southwestern life and bringing clothes that celebrated that.  I told her I had a top I thought she would like but I also brought her a knit book bag (one of Oprah's Favorite Things...and you know how I feel about Oprah)!  Turns out the top fit her perfectly and the bag was big enough to hold not only her "personal item" (purse) for the plane but all of the stuff she bought while shopping as well!

My daughter brought me something too, which was a lovely surprise.  No matter how old we get, we enjoy gifts and heartfelt notes, right?

And buying your daughter a little something as a souvenir on the trip will make both of you happy and give her something to remember you by.  So don't be cheap!

 
 

Breakfast at Clafoutis in Santa Fe near our casita in the blouse I brought her.



Tip #3: Take turns planning a day's activities
Speaking of shopping, my daughter came up with the great idea of each of us taking turns for planning a whole day's activities.  A great idea because then each person gets to do something she wants to do (within reason, of course).

My daughter planned a day of pampering - we had facials together - and also a day exploring the cliff dwellings at Bandolier National Monument.  I was a bit worried about the latter as my daughter is a hiker, but she assured me it was not going to be a trek into the back country but rather an easy walk.  Good thing, because you have never heard such huffing and puffing as I did all over Santa Fe and Taos.  I walk a great deal but not usually at 7000 feet!

 
 
 




I let my daughter do the climbing.  I could barely hike at that altitude let alone haul my butt up those ladders!  I think I was suffering a bit from altitude sickness.  Or I'm just a wimp!



 





Don't Ask!  Oh, ok, I'm an Abert's Squirrel (with sunglasses)!




Tip #4: Plan activities you both enjoy
We took turns planning the day's activities, but we also took care to plan activities we would both like. My daughter and I both enjoy good food and the occasional adult beverage.  Ok, more than occasional but we enjoy the good stuff. 

The day I planned was a food tour of Santa Fe provided by the Santa Fe School of Cooking.  We started out with "Christmas enchiladas" and a beer at the cooking school and then walked to four other restaurants around town.  Our tour guide was a chef and he shared points of interest along the way.


"Christmas enchiladas" - when you can't decide on whether you want the red sauce or the green sauce, so you order both!  Now you know.


One of the restaurants we visited: Eloisa, named after the chef's grandmother, who was Georgia O'Keefe's personal chef.


We also visited the Agoyo Lounge, La Boca/Taberna and Il Piatto, all delicious.



In addition to the official food tour, we did our own tour and sampled some more of the fine dining Santa Fe had to offer.





                     "Christmas" Tamales


Scallop Salad                                                  

Pasqual's. Try getting into this place without a reservation.  Good luck!



Another favorite was Love Apple in Taos.
We decided to walk there not realizing part of the walk was right on the road out of town (no sidewalk), so as it became darker, we started worrying about our walk back.  We asked the waitress if there was a taxi service in Taos.  Uh...not really, but there is this guy.  I texted "the guy," Mario, who came and got us in his Town Car "in 15 minutes," as promised and drove us the mile or so to our casita for $10.  It was the best $10 we ever spent and turns out he and his wife are "local celebrities (his words)," as they both have bit parts in the TV show "Longmire."  He regaled my daughter with his pictures from the show before she got out of the car.  But a small price to pay as he saved our "you-know-whats" by leaving his home and coming to get us at 9pm on a Sunday night.  Thank you, Mario!

 

My daughter and I also enjoy "exploring" bars.




And then there is shopping.



And that was just the beginning!



Tip #5:  Plan for when things go wrong.


CLOSED!
 
So on to Plan B!
 
 

Tip # 6: Always have a Plan B.




Tip #7:  Book two bedrooms and two baths, if possible.
It took me awhile, but I realize that my children are no longer children.  They require the same privacy that I do, so I think it's important when traveling with any other adult, that you have your private spaces.  I also know that my daughter has a different view about keeping her private space neat (she has a unique way of organizing her clothes - it's called heaps on the floor), so it's best for all around that we have our own bedrooms, not to mention that I probably snore. 

I rented casitas with two bedrooms in all three destinations: Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque, and at two of them, we had two bathrooms. I think traveling is as much about enjoying your accommodations away from home as it is about touring.  When you have a nice, spacious accommodation with a kitchen, you can store your wine...er, supplies... and enjoy it all at the end of the day.  Also having your own bedroom allows you some private time to call home, check your email or just unwind. 




(Two bedrooms, 1.5 baths - no TV but great wifi).

I got the .5 en suite bath.  I pulled the "I'm old" card.)




















 
 
 

 
 

 
 


































 

  


(Two bedrooms, two full en suite baths but no wifi in the casita - but there were TV's in every room)!














Casas de Suenos Old Town Historic Inn - Albuquerque

(Two bedrooms, and only one bath, but this was an unattached casita with it's own entrance and driveway and $100 less per night than the casita in Taos). 









Albuquerque is an undiscovered, very affordable gem!



Tip #8:  Don't go there
I talked about "the mother/daughter connection" in a blog post a year ago.  That connection can be a complicated one. Being off alone with your daughter can result in some heartfelt discussions, but if you want a happy trip and to inspire closeness, now is not the time to bring up unpleasant topics or recriminations about the past (if there are any).  Don't mention the heaps of clothes on the floor, either. The "don't go there" admonition also speaks to that as in "don't go IN there." That's why you have two bedrooms.



Tip #9: Plan for down time
It's OK to go to bed early, to do some reading or let your daughter go off on her own (especially if you have a daughter who walks fast and you have been having trouble keeping up with her and she thinks your pace is called "strolling)". 
 
No matter how much fun you are having, we all need "me time."  Just remember what I said above about how unnatural it for adults to be together 24/7.




Tip #10: Show love
It goes without saying that we should always show love to others whenever we can.  However, I also think when you are not around your loved ones very much, especially your adult children, it is not as easy to show affection as it was when they were young.  I would say that I was very affectionate to them when they were little, but probably not as much as they grew older. 
 
My mother was not particularly affectionate when I was older either, but that could probably be because I was quite a disdainful teenager. That would turn anyone off.  But here is your chance.  Who knows how long it will be until you get that chance again?  Kisses good morning and good night go well at any age and hand-holding and hugging go a long way too. 

 


Tip #11: Wear comfortable shoes, try to keep up and don't complain!
See Tip #9 above.



Tip #12: Spend the night in the town you are flying out of
When the trip is winding down, we tend to want to get to the airport and fly away.  My daughter and I both had flown into Albuquerque and planned to drive back there from Taos.  But instead of racing to catch the plane directly from Taos, we planned to spend the night in Albuquerque and fly out the next day.
 
If we had planned to catch the plane the same day that we left Taos, we might have missed out on the Taos Pueblo,
 







with the iconic church immortalized by Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams which we visited that morning


and the gorgeous drive down The Turquoise Trail from Santa Fe to Albuquerque (which, by the way is not well marked to get to, so it's good to have a great navigator, which my daughter was), a drive that takes longer than the interstate and would not have been practical if we were trying to catch a plane. 

Instead, we booked another charming casita in Albuquerque so we could take our time getting back.

We stopped in the arty town of Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid, instead of Ma-DRID) and had the best fish tacos we had ever had at the Mineshaft Tavern and were able to really soak up some Southwest flavor, if a little on the quirky side. 


 
And I discovered my love for fried green chiles!
 
 
 
 
We also had the chance to discover Old Town Albuquerque (our casita was just steps away),
 
 
 
walk around the University district,
 
 
 
where we discovered the best Buffalo Exchange we had ever been to.  If we had had more room in our suitcases, we would have made a killing.  Their stock and prices were fantastic! 
 
We also got to listen to some live music and hang with the locals at a pizza joint near our casita.
 
 
 
And my daughter found the hat she was looking for at Larry's Hats, a little Mom and Pop hat shop with a lovely friendly lady who helped us.  How can you resist a place with a sign that says, "We want you to play with our hats!"
 
 

If we had been trying to make a flight from Taos we would have missed out on all of that.


Tip #13:  Have a sense of humor...especially about yourself.
When you lose your airplane boarding pass on your way to meet your daughter and find it under the security conveyor belt, when you can't find the ignition button on the rental car or how to move your seat and have to flag down the rental car attendant before the two of you can even head to Santa Fe and when you didn't even realize your car had the rear back-up camera until you were returning the car, all you can do is laugh and realize you haven't traveled much by yourself before.  And you needed this!

 
So that was our trip to Santa Fe and beyond.  
 
Now I think my daughter and I can relate to this...

"You’re from Santa Fe if…you know what Christmas chile is…you’ve worn flip-flops, snow boots and a rain jacket in the same day…you’ve never seen a three-story building…your color wheel consists of shades of brown…the mean age around you is 65 at any given time."
---Chicken Joe
 
All true!

 
I will leave you with this iconic shot - iconic for me anyway. 



No, it's not a head on a stick from "Game of Thrones." 

It's a vintage feather hat that my daughter scored at the Buffalo Exchange, sitting on top of her carry-on bag, as we wait for her flight to leave Albuquerque.  It's iconic for me because I hope she will think of me and our trip together every time she wears it.

So that's it.  That was our trip. 
 
And if this is the only post about our trip, you might be wondering why I called this Pt. 1.

This is Part 1 of what we hope will be an annual thing.  We are already planning our next trip... to Savannah and Charleston.

So stay-tuned for Part 2!

 


Thanks for Reading!

See you Friday


for my review of the new movie 

"Pawn Sacrifice" 

and

The Week in Reviews

(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)

and the latest on

My 1001 Movies I Must See Before
 I Die Project."

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