Wednesday, May 19, 2004 7:15 AM 64 deg at LVIA and 66.2 in the bus stop

This morning the blood glucose is 144 and the weight 202. It is a cloudy showery day this morning. Thundershowers are predicted for this morning with cloudy cooler less humid weather for the rest of the day.

At 1 PM I have an appointment with the audiologist to check me and my use of my new hearing aid. Then I will go to the Miller Bloodmobile and give them a pint of good stuff. We went for an abbreviated walk in the rain this morning. Fortunately it was not a blowing rain so it wasn’t bad. Then after breakfast I returned to the “tent” and enjoyed my coffee in the rain. It is a quieting very pleasant experience to be able to sit there and hear the rain falling on the roof of the tent and be able to see everything around me all the time doing so very comfortably.

In this morning’s E-mail is a delightful letter from Barbara Shepherd in Florida. She too reminisces about her youth. I am repeating it in total.

            "Greetings from Florida. We are approaching the hurricane season and being advised to "stock up" on water, canned goods and stuff. This area has been really hurrican free for years, though I don't want to place a jinx on that thought. We do have some real attention getting tropical storms however, as well as an occasional tornado. The latter are not just in Florida. I hope I never meet one.

Either this past issue or the one before mentioned names that I often heard while growing up - all friends of my dad. Noble Wolf, Gerschbach and others. You were looking back and reminiscing as well about your ham radio days. Sounds like that was fun.  I know that ham radio operators have often come to the rescue of more than one lost soul. I'm sure that at some time you have read of their importance in keeping contact with folks in need and rescuers.

There was also Anne Rodda. I knew her parents, but not the girls.  I do remember the house up at the top of the hill on the way to Towamensing that was their home.  Is that where Anne is living now? It was a wonderful old place. Too, the name Naritil. Betty Naritil was a nurse in Palmerton one summer when I was home from Europe, and my older daughter had to have her tonsils removed. One of our cousins, at the same age of six never came out of the anesthesia after that operation, and I had heard of other children who just simply did not wake up after an operation, so I was understandably nervous. Betty was a saint. She rotated between the operating room and me, keeping me informed of the progress. It was performed at the Palmerton Hospital, of course. Linda, my daughter had to remain overnight, and Betty was her nurse at the time. It was incredibly comforting to have a friend there. I remember too having hot cocoa in the kitchen at the Naritil home on a cold, cold winter afternoon. We had been playing outside when her mother asked us to come in for a hot drink and to warm up. Betty was a year ahead of me in school and her sister one year behind. I remember what a nice family they were.

You mentioned too the red wooden bridge that we crossed on our way to the Delaware School. Wasn't that a doozy. One winter after it snowed the steps were filled in and ice formed over them. We made a slide down one side. I managed to tear new ski pants from waist to ankle doing that.Sure that I would get Hail Columbia, I slunk home. I was amazed when my mother who had her sewing machine open just put them up and ran stiches right down the side. Apparently I tore them at a seam and it was easy to repair them. I wore them back to school that afternoon. And I remember often having a penny to buy candy at Beers. Cleo DeWalt and I would buy the biggest piece of candy we could find. Usually it was a lollipop of some kind of nugat that was hard as a rock and really difficult to eat in class without being seen.

It was in that school that I found my all time favorite teacher. Miss Andreas had a wall of books, and she would read heavenly stories to us, and one more chapter when we pleaded, and we could take out the books to read at home. She opened the world to me. She was the principal, I believe, many years later when I returned and had one child in each school for seven weeks. School began, and we were waiting for a new assignment from Washington while in Palmerton, so I enrolled them. It was a positive experience for all three. Heather went to the Delaware School and delighted the janitor who handed out the milk for she was fluent in German, and he was formerly German, so they would converse in his native tongue. Shep was In the middle school and had Mr. Gordos as a counselor. He told Shep that he taught me years earlier, which was fun for Shep to hear, and ironic for I was such a chatterbox that Mr. Gordos made me stand in the hall numerous days. I wondered if he remembered. Side note here. I heard that he died this year, and my last Alumni Bulletin from Lehigh had his death notice. I did not know that he went there. It is where I received my master's degree in my 40's and he apparently went the same route. Then there were Mr. Eckart's classes. You have mentioned them. I would perspire from under my armpits to my waist in that class. The dreaded words, "Shepherd, to the board" filled me with such dread. I always managed to get through the problem, but when someone stumbled his "sit down" was such a humiliation. The man terrified me. But I digress. Linda went to the new high school and experienced her first pep rally which she declared was the worst din she had ever heard, and that the whole thing was insane. Nonetheless, she and the other two loved the schools and being in Palmerton.

 This is quite enough for tonight, but I got to thinking back. The flower pictures are stupendous, and your yard quite beautiful.  Pretty yards take much work, don't they.  We finally hit one day in the 90's and it is not pleasant working outside when the temperature is high.  Mostly the days are glorious, though I admit to turning on the air conditioner now when the heat is at its highest.    Best always,   Barbara “

We sat up in the tent with the rain coming down a short time ago. Shortly we will be having lunch before our trip to the audiologist. The tent has becom a special place where we really have a chance to communicate with one another and is very much enjoyed by us both.

We are up and back. The woman reset the parameters of some of the settings for my hearing aid. I complained about what I described as white noise. What she did seems to vastly improve it. I am to go back next week for more adjustments.
As soon as I left Queen off at the house I went down to the Miller bloodmobile. They were doing a land office business when I got there. I did notice that while out in the waiting area my hearing aid was fine but as soon as I entered the large room with perhaps 60 people in it the din was almost overwhelming. I will need that checked next week.
After I was finished they give me a slip of paper with my name on it. The woman at the refreshment table requires one to sit there for 15 minutes. She was Perma Snyder. When she looked at my slip and she saw my name and said first thing how do I get the Palmerton Press? I asked if she had a computer? Yes. Do you have an e-mail address? No!! I apologized and said she needed that in order to receive it. She has a great quite dry sense of humor. I like her a lot.

Then the man sitting next to me asked how I was doing with my new hearing aid. I looked at him and then he said that he enjoyed these web pages also. I had to ask his name.  It turned out he is a new subscriber Norman Eckhart.  Golly it is a very small world. Another 2 minutes of fame. Ha!

Queen, who helps George Ashman with his phoning potential donors, told me that I am eligible for my 6-gallon pin. Geez it has taken 77 years to do it. However it is nothing compared with so many others. Now some poor soul will become a classical music lover as well as a computer addict. Great!!
The two of us took the garbage to the alley then stopped by and sat in our tent before she began making supper. I decided not to do anything more outside today. It is still very wet. Besides I am still pooped from what we have done so far.

This is a 1915 picture of the Borough Park

Thursday, May 20, 2004 7:25 AM 57deg at LVIA and 58.1 in the bus stop
This morning the blood glucose was an unbelievable 123 and the weight still 202.

It is a cloudy morning. Butternut and I will be heading outdoors as soon as the coffee is ready.

<later> We have been out perusing the patch and it looks darn nice. There is a lot of work to do yet but one can see real progress. As I sit up on the upper park bench I can see that this new flowerbed is going to be very nice when it matures. We laid out the upper flowerbed primarily to look it’s best from the tent area. If others can enjoy a different view fine, but we want it to be its most attractive from there.

 After Queen got up we went for our walk. Fortunately I took along the digital camera. The pictures on the left are just up the street from our place and the other is the house next to Tommy’s home.

We both realize that we are probably nuts for going to all this trouble, but we love to do it. Unlike some others, we plant flowers for our enjoyment. If the rest of the world likes them also, fine, but we do it for ourselves.

Golly the other day Tommy told us that a new dwelling would be installed up the street from us. The former Ann Duris lot will have a new modular structure placed on it. By who and when I haven’t a clue.

Tonight for supper Queen had a hamburger each, baked beans, tomatoes, cottage cheese, and a shared ice cream bar with a cup of coffee that finished off a superb meal.

Friday, May 21, 2004 7:20 AM 64 deg at LVIA and 67.1 in the bus stop

This morning the blood glucose is 139 and the weight 202. It looks like a warm day on hand today.

The other day this printed program below mysteriously appeared at my doorstep. Gee I thought I know this young lady. So I decided to put it in this week’s web page.