dual personalities

Tag: family

September 3, 2012

The fairy coach awaits

by chuckofish

Since daughter #2 left and took with her a large bookcase, leaving a large empty space in her room and a large amount of unwanted books, I have been busy packing up her books. I decided to bring up a bookcase from the basement and fill it with my own books. This meant going through more books and separating them into give-away and keep piles. In this complicated process I have re-discovered some good books that were down in the basement. One of them is the Parables of Kierkegaard, which my sister (and dual personality) gave me back in 1980 for my birthday.

Stuck inside this book was a card with the above picture on it. Inside she wrote:

Happy Birthday Darling Adorable Sister!

Here is a little something just pour vous that I know you will really relate to. I confess that I stole a few peaks at it and I could become quite interested. You must tell me all about it.

I apologize for the recycled Easter paper but you know about deprived school children.

Doesn’t this card remind you of mommy? I think it looks just like her.

Have a happy B-day–don’t get too drunk but just think–next year at this time you’ll be a married woman and I’ll have to send you cookbooks and kitchen utensils!

Well, I must away–the fairy coach is awaiting and fizzy fuzz, Pompey, Pete and Robert Preston are getting restless.

I can’t wait to see your face and sparkling ring-finger again!

Love and Theologians,
YS

How perfect is that? The Kierkegaard is pretty good too. (But I don’t recall getting any cookbooks and/or kitchen utensils.)

7 Comments
August 28, 2012

If you wait long enough

by chuckofish

Back in the sixties and into the seventies our mother was inclined to wear blouses with peter pan collars. Just like everyone else.

I wore them myself. Here I am in the eighth grade wearing the very popular shirtwaist dress from Ladybug with tucks and a peter pan collar.

The peter pan collars that my mother wore were from the Tog Shop catalog and had piping of a contrasting color and were frequently monogrammed with her initials. She wore these most often with a wrap-around style skirt that matched the piping on the blouse. It was almost a uniform. I always said, I couldn’t wait to grow up and wear those blouses.

Unfortunately, they were completely out of style and long-gone by the time I entered my middle years.

But wait. Can it be that Kate Spade has brought them back? Zut alors!

What do you know? They are everywhere!

I guess it’s official. The peter pan collar has made a comeback.

And I want.

(Photos from Kate Spade New York, Harpers Bazaar and Real Simple)

5 Comments
August 24, 2012

Send out your light and your truth

by chuckofish

Well, it’s Friday once again. Time to look back over the week and to remind ourselves of some important things. Here’s Frederick Buechner with some wise words:

“We must be careful with our lives, for Christ’s sake, because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously.”

Have a great weekend and be careful with your life!

6 Comments
August 23, 2012

Like a river flows surely to the sea

by chuckofish

The wedding pictures are here. This one prompted me to rummage around and find ours from back in 1980. (Unlike most people we do not have them prominently displayed.)

The church is the same and the flowers were from the same florist, but our wedding was much smaller. An even smaller wedding was Mary and Newell’s wedding at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia in 1950.

Do you think he borrowed that blazer, or what? (I did a little internet sleuthing and verified the name of the church. Here’s an up-to-date picture of the church door–see?)

Here is a picture of my mother’s sister Donna’s more traditional wedding back home in Worcester, Massachusetts. I thought I had a picture of the wedding party with multiple bridesmaids (including my mother) and groomsmen, but (not surprisingly) I couldn’t find it.

Word is that we’ll get a CD with all 300-plus photos on it. Oh, the wonders of digital wedding photography!

6 Comments
August 22, 2012

Are we there yet?

by chuckofish

I’m feeling a little nostalgic today about those days of old when we loaded the kids into the wagon and headed for cooler climes and visits with family and friends.

Maybe it was the sight of daughter #2 heading off in her loaded Kia:

Ah, but for those of us on the academic calendar, the summer is virtually over. Sigh. Well, there’s always next year!

Okay now, who said: “Why aren’t we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that.”

4 Comments
August 19, 2012

On top of Mount Pisgah

by chuckofish

Daughter #2 is safely in Maryland, unloaded and unpacking. The boy has returned to our flyover home state. And Kermit has found a new home on a bookshelf.

“…All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

5 Comments
August 10, 2012

This and that

by chuckofish

I have a new picture of my daughters and the boy at the wedding on my desk at work. (The bell is a nice touch on my desk–it gives it just the right school-marmish tone I think, don’t you?)

I have a new picture of my sibs on a dresser.

As you can see, I like family pictures on my dresser.

Meanwhile daughter #2 prepares to move to Maryland.

She has a long way to go.

One week to go! Happy Friday!

7 Comments
August 6, 2012

Pins and needles, needles and pins. It’s a happy man that grins.

by chuckofish

The honeymooners are back home. They had a great time in South Carolina. The boy even found a cannon.

How sweet it is.

3 Comments
August 2, 2012

Everyone on stage for the Hawaiian act please

by chuckofish

My husband tells me that yesterday was the 100th birthday of the Eagle Scout Award and that I might want to blog about that.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “One hundred years ago on Aug. 1, Arthur Eldred, a 17-year-old Boy Scout from Long Island, became the first person to earn the Eagle Scout rank.” Here is the rest of the article to read at your leisure.

Well, the boy is an Eagle Scout and I have always been very proud of that.

It was a long, hard road of Boy Scout activities.

He went to multiple camps and earned multiple badges. He rose through the ranks. He demonstrated Scout spirit. He planned, developed and led a service project.

In the fall of 2004 he joined 38th President Gerald Ford, Steven Spielberg, L. Ron Hubbard and Sam Walton, earning the BSA’s highest award, becoming an Eagle Scout.

He never let me put one of those bumper stickers on my Subaru, but I wanted to. Boy did I ever.

Anyway, hats off to the Eagle Scouts of America!

8 Comments
July 30, 2012

It’s a mystery

by chuckofish

Well, we have survived the wedding festivities. Beloved family members and dear old friends found their way into town (sometimes delayed overnight in places like Syracuse and Newark–bah–but eventually intact). The rehearsal dinner, my main concern, went smoothly and was lovely. The wedding service was beautiful and went off without a hitch. The bride and her bridal party were lovely and rocked the long walk like super-models. The groom and his men were stalwart and stood up straight and true. The reception was wonderful. Everyone is still speaking to each other. More pictures to follow. For now a few wise words from Madeleine L’Engle:

“No long-term marriage is made easily, and there have been times when I’ve been so angry or so hurt that I thought my love would never recover. And then, in the midst of near despair, something has happened beneath the surface. A bright little flashing fish of hope has flicked silver fins and the water is bright and suddenly I am returned to a state of love again — till next time. I’ve learned that there will always be a next time, and that I will submerge in darkness and misery, but that I won’t stay submerged. And each time something has been learned under the waters; something has been gained; and a new kind of love has grown. The best I can ask for is that this love, which has been built on countless failures, will continue to grow. I can say no more than that this is mystery, and gift, and that somehow or other, through grace, our failures can be redeemed and blessed.”

Leave a comment