MEMORY MONDAY

Retired Not Tired

This Weeks Prompt:  My Family

Well my family started with my Mom and Dad. Here they are in their riding gear. Apparently they belonged to a riding club yet we never went horse back riding while I was growing up. 

Dorothy and Raymond

Here we are, I'm the little one on the left. Mom and Dad, my older brother on the right is Raymond and my sister Darcy is in the middle. My parents were awesome church people and we were raised Presbyterian. They were very involved with the church, decorated it at Christmas along with making up baskets of food and leaving them on doorsteps of those in need in our neighborhood.

This must have been a confirmation for my brother. These are my grandparents, my dad's parents on the left and my mother's parents on the right. 

I believe this was a church booklet photo.

Raymond, Darcy and I' the monkey in the middle! 

My fondest memories were Christmas and family gatherings. They definitely entertained a lot. My parents had a funny tradition when it came to Santa Claus. We would go to church on Christmas Eve, my dad's parents would stay behind at our house. When we came home after church and the Christmas tree lights were on it meant that Santa came! Santa never visited us on Christmas day. 

My dad would put like 10 boxes on tinsel on the tree one strand at a time. It was amazing! Then at one point they went to those aluminum trees which I didn't like at all. 

I remember one year when my brother found where the Santa gifts were hidden. It sure did ruin the surprise. I have made a point of telling my own children never to look for hidden gifts because it takes all the fun away. We had Santa come on Christmas morning for our own children. 

Of course I have memories of my childhood but I also don't have memories because I know there were bad times. I remember hearing fighting, I remember my dad out looking for my mom and the fact that she drank. 

She was a wonderful woman with a heart full of gold but was very troubled. I remember visiting her two different times at hospitals where she seemed out of it. She was obviously drugged and the saddest thing for me now looking back is that I was never told why.  I know that I blocked out a lot of my childhood. 

I do remember going to my grandparents summer home in Union Pier, MI on the weekends in the summer. We would go to the beach and get a Drumstick at the concession stand. We would also walk to the bowling alley to get ice cream cones and go into the dime store in town to look at the candy. 

I do have fond memories of school, some awesome friends and fun at Girl Scouts! I made it through school because the teachers liked me. (Or did they treat me special because they knew) My dad worked nights running the Movie Theater and no one ever made me do my homework. I was the baby in the family and was very spoiled. It has taken me years to learn that I can't always have my way. My own family will back me up on the one! 

My mom passed away at 56 years old due to a massive heart attack. I was around 31 years old at the time. My dad is 91 years old and is doing well living in Florida. 

These are the two houses I grew up in. I was born into the first one and lived there until I was around five years old. The second house is the one I remember and lived there until I was married. We were just down the street from the grade school which took us through 8th grade. 

HAPPY MONDAY
ENJOY YOUR WEEK! 

MEMORY MONDAY

Retired Not Tired
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First of all I can't believe it is November 3rd.......my birthday was October 3rd and it feels like we just celebrated yesterday and it's only 51 days until Christmas!

This Weeks Prompt:
My First Friend

My first friend was my neighbor Shirley. We were the best of friends. We both had family issues that were never talked about and the fact that we had each other made it so special. 

Even as I type this I know that we never even understood it. I do remember her father pulling up in his car and her saying I have to go hide. They would hide under the bed or in the closets so he couldn't find them. I believe her mother got the brunt of all of it. He did drink and my mother also drank but nothing was ever explained. Things like this went unspoken. 

We played hard and had so much fun. We did silly things too. I am thinking we were maybe 8 years old and saw a neighbor throwing out clothes. Why I will never know but we actually took out bras from their trash, put them on, stuffed them to fill them out and walked through the alleys like we were hot stuff!!! How silly we must of looked. 

We would play in the woods which was normal back then. We had a billboard sign not far from the house and we would jump off the platform. Of course it wasn't real high like the ones you see today but thank God we never broke a leg. We were two of a kind.....

The house I grew up in is on the right and that is Shirley's house on the left. We even did the cans with string phone thing between the houses from her bedroom to mine! I also had some other awesome friends who I also consider my best friends who I went to school with. Shirley attended the Catholic school in the area. 

Shirley was in my wedding party and we still are in contact with each other with birthday cards and Christmas cards. She used to live in Colorado Springs, CO for years and years. She is now back in the Chicago area but we didn't get to meet up when I was there in September however we did talk on the phone which was probably the first time in over 40 years that we actually talked with each other. 

 

We certainly have come a long way from cans to cell phones! Here I was walking around the Brookfield Zoo talking to Shirley on the phone. Could never have predicated that when I was 8 years old.....

MEMORY MONDAY

Presented by "Retired Not Tired"

Our prompt is: My First School

My first school was Komarek in North Riverside, IL. We lived a block away from school. We could walk home for lunch which was nice. I attended Komarek from Kindergarten all the way through 8th grade. 

We drove by my grade school when we were in Illinois for our class reunion in September. The walkway between the buildings, which crosses 13th avenue which is the street I lived on, was not there when I went to the school. 

I recently shared my first day of school on another post but here it is again.....I did not want to go to Kindergarten. I cried and made a big fuss. The Principle came and walked me around the school and showed me my sisters class, my brothers class and my cousins class. Then he took me to the nurses office. I'm guessing maybe he wanted to make sure I was okay.

All I remember is that the nurse made drawing on the top of my hands with mercurochrome. What happened after that I have no clue. I remember walking to the corner grocery store which wasn't very far from our house and I would buy candy at lunchtime. I also remember when Sweet Tarts came out and they were my favorite! 

The other memory I have is being in the library when an announcement came over the loud speaker about JFK being shot and killed. That was a sad day in history. I think I was in 7th grade. 

MEMORY MONDAY

Retired Not Tired

The prompt this week: My First Home

I decided to start from the beginning and show you the homes I grew up in Illinois.  This house is the house I was born into. We lived there until I started kindergarten. This was in North Riverside, IL. 

Then from kindergarten until the day I got married I lived in this house. It was also in North Riversdie, IL and just a block from my grade school which was K-8th grade. 

Mark and I bought a townhouse in Bolingbrook, IL when we got married. I would have to do some digging to get a picture of it. At that time they called them quadminiums back then. There were four units in a building. 

This was our first house purchase and this is the home our children were raised until we were divorced. The house back when we owned it was done in the beige and brown Tudor colors. This home was around 80 years old when we bought it around 1978. It had original cove moldings at the ceilings. It was lovely and is in Western Springs, IL. 

After we divorced I sold our home and got a quadminium in Clarendon Hill, IL. (same type of building like Bolingbrook) Our entrance was under the balcony and that's our garage door you see in this photo. 

Our unit was above all the garages. You walked in the door and went upstairs. We could enter from the garage too! The kids and I lived there for about 5 years before we moved to California and were reunited with Mark.