dual personalities

Month: June, 2014

June 7, 2014

Lest we forget

by chuckofish

Let’s say a prayer for those brave men who fought so hard for us all those years ago in WWII. Any day (every day) — it doesn’t have to be June 6th.  Those who survived the initial assault were still fighting on the 7th of June. After all, it took much longer than a day to drive the Germans out of France.  Remember them often.

Today, I’m particularly thinking about my former pew-mate, Mr. Brennan (now with the angels), who went into Normandy on a glider. He never talked about it, but on Memorial Day he wore his unit pins. They were small and unobtrusive. He wasn’t the kind of guy to advertise — he wore them for the buddies he lost. As I recall he was with the 82nd Airborne, but I could be mistaken. You can read about the gliders at D-Day here. Herb was a gallant gentleman. On one particularly chilly Sunday when he could tell I was cold, he took his jacket off without a word and put it around my shoulders. They don’t make ’em like Herb anymore!

many gliders had bad landings

many gliders had bad landings

Look for another post tomorrow… in the meantime, enjoy a glorious Saturday!

3 Comments
June 6, 2014

Fat Baby Friday

by chuckofish

Prince+George

I have had a hard time getting back into blog mode, okay? So I am resorting to a photo of Prince George in a smocked romper. Is that a problem?

I thought not.

8 Comments
June 5, 2014

“This must be Thursday,’ said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. ‘I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”*

by chuckofish

I am a bit confused about what day it is. After a week away from the office, the amount of emails and phone messages and out-of-context requests is daunting. You know how it is.

Anyway, I was pleased to find out that today is the birthday of Richard McClure Scarry (June 5, 1919 – April 30, 1994), illustrator extraordinaire and children’s book author.pierre bear

I loved his books when I was growing up and collected them long after I was considered to be of an appropriate age to read them.

I am not alone in this. Scarry is arguably the most popular children’s book author of all time. In a career that spanned four decades, he wrote and illustrated more than three hundred books and it is estimated that he has sold more than 200 million copies in over twenty languages. Scarry is most famous for writing a series of books about Busytown, a fictional town populated with a variety of anthropomorphic animals. Some of the main characters include Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Bananas Gorilla, Hilda Hippo, and Farmer Fox.

The great thing about his books is that they can be read over and over and studied and enjoyed.

The boy reading about Busytown

The boy reading about Busytown

Well, his books have been very successful and to some of us they are timeless, but, of course, they had to be “updated” to make them more politically and gender correct.

According to Wikipedia, characters in “cowboy” or “indian” costumes were either removed or given nondescript clothing. Moral and religious elements were altered or removed, and wording like “he comes promptly when called to his breakfast” was changed to “he goes to the kitchen to eat his breakfast”. And so on and so on.

Oh gee whiz.

6789886915_b9b3e6e535_z

Dated maybe, but offensive? Discuss amongst yourselves.

*Douglas Adams. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

4 Comments
June 4, 2014

“You give such charming parties, Mr. Charles.”*

by chuckofish

azaleas

Oh boy, quelle weekend! Never have I been to such a multi-day nuptial event. It was so well organized and perfect and, at the same time, unpretentious. But I shouldn’t be surprised. That sort of describes my friend whose daughter got married.

[Let me interject here that I did not spend my time taking pictures. A few times I hauled out my iPhone to snap something when I remembered my blog, but mostly I forgot. I took my good camera to the Botanical Garden and that was it. Mea culpa.]

My two daughters and I rendesvous-ed in College Park, spending one night at daughter #1’s cool pad where we toasted the weekend with custom cocktails by Nate, which was appropriate, because we proceeded to toast everything all weekend. It was that kind of weekend. Daughter #2 cooked and that is always a reason to celebrate as well.

We shoved off bright and early on Friday morning in order to reach Norfolk in time for the 2nd party (we missed the first one on Thursday night) which was a luncheon and cruise onboard a three-masted schooner.

schoonerYes, amazing, right? We reacquainted ourselves with old friends.

trio

After tooling around Norfolk Harbor for a couple of hours, we headed back to our waterside hotel and all fell deeply asleep. (I dreamed that the old man–who, by the way, was at a conference and not the wedding–held an estate sale and sold all my stuff, but that’s another story.)

We awoke in time to get dressed to go out to dinner before changing again for party #3 at a private club down the street. Sorry, I only recorded the view out the window.

the viewThe next day we headed to the Norfolk Botanical Garden which was fabulous. We walked all around and then hopped on the tram for a second time around.

wild flowers

magnolia

IMGP1010

See the turtle?

IMGP1009

Adorable that we packed the same outfit, right?

After departing the Garden we found a great place to have lunch and drank a pitcher of Sangria. Then we proceeded to get ready for the main event.

Don’t worry–we were hydrating.

hydrating

We boarded a double decker tour bus for the church and the lovely ceremony. Do I have a picture of the bride and groom? Of course not. (But there was no picture taking in the church anyway.) Oh well, take my word for it–they were like the couple on the top of the cake.

We got back on the bus and headed to the reception at the Yacht Club. Picture perfect and a band that played everything from Motown to Pharrell. The guests danced for hours. I think I did too.

dancing

There was an after party, but I did not attend. I bid adieu to the young folks who have more stamina than I. The next day we packed our bags

shoes2

and headed over to party #4–brunch at the lovely home of the bride’s parents.

brunch1

brunch2

The bride’s mother was planning to go to work the next day. Hello.

Thankfully we are a bit out of focus.

Thankfully we are a bit out of focus.

We hopped in the car and hit the road again. Sigh.

the road

 

The Thin Man (1934) of course

6 Comments
June 3, 2014

The Compton driving gene

by chuckofish

arch

The view from my co-pilot seat

Daughter #2 and I arrived home yesterday from our fabulous wedding weekend and road-trip home from Richmond, Virginia where we dropped daughter #1 at the Amtrak station on Sunday.

And it is official: daughter #2 inherited the driving gene from her father. She drove the whole way home–1,000 miles through the mountains of West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois to our flyover town. Awesome.

More tomorrow about our escapades…

7 Comments
June 1, 2014

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood

by chuckofish

…a glorious day in fact.  Til is hiding behind my hosta (I think he’s embarrassed by the weeds and grass) and the flowers are blooming outside

DSC00659

 

and in

DSC00653

and I finally painted and hung the shelves in my downstairs bathroom!

DSC00664

I haven’t quite settled on what will be on the shelves, but it’s a start. The little, flat metal figures are Little Boy Blue and Little Bo Peep, their sheep, a dog, and a pig (I’m not sure what role the pig is supposed to play, but it’s cute). I’ve had these little figures since I was a kid and recently rediscovered them while doing some ‘attic excavation’. I like them on the shelf.  So what do you think?

Next week I’ll introduce you to my newest purchase — an antique table from the Canadian Maritimes. I like to think of it as Scottish in origin, but who knows. Until next week, enjoy the weather and do some fun puttering around the house!

 

4 Comments