Masthead

Founded December 17,1912    Ceased Publication Thursday February 1, 1951

Book 1 Volume 26

Original Volume 26 republished using KompoZer.

Editors

At this time, I think it would be wise to make some kind of a statement as to the motives, as well as the purpose behind this web page.
            Recently son, George, and grandsons Andy, and Jason, encouraged me to turn this from a letter into a web page. A web page offers a vast new opportunity to also display pictures along with text. They set it up and instructed me how to put it on line every week. Bear in mind, for this old geezer, this represents rocket science.
I do have an agenda. I try to write an upbeat page, with a bit of humor and not get too confrontational in my opinions. I do have some very firm opinions that have a way of working their way into these pages. I am also very much computer oriented and try to do as much as I can to encourage their use. I do regret that most of the pictures have to be reduced in size, due to space limitations from Prolog, thus limiting their quality.
I hope to reach out to former Palmertonians, as well as other friends and relatives, with whom I would like to maintain contact. We may not agree on everything, however, my intentions are honorable.
I suppose the on going saga of the adventures of Queen and Bobby is about as fascinating as watching paint dry or grass growing. We don’t lead a very fast paced life. However, with us what you see is what you get. I really must say that there is a lot of love in this house.
 If anyone is offended by my content, I am sorry, but at 77years of age, I am doing something I enjoy very much. I am not about to change my ways now. As our late son Jack said, "I am me and you are you." Phrased more succinctly, "Tough beans" There is always the delete key. Ha!!

Fred

Our Butternut

Seperator
Saturday, May 15, 2004 7:07 AM 61 deg at LVIA and 63.1 in the bus stop
It is a cloudy foggy day this morning. The weather is supposed to be more like summer these days. Showers and thunder showers are expected.
This morning the blood glucose was 139 and the weight 202. We went for a short walk. I want to finish the job of putting up the tent at the glider location. Tommy was over last evening and we put the framework together until it started to thunder hard so wisely we quit.
This morning Queen wants to go to K-Mart so that is on the agenda also.

<Later> We are down and back.  For Father’s Day Queen is getting me two pairs of lightweight outdoor working pants. I was pleasantly surprised when we picked out my usual size 44 and discovered when I tried them on that they were much too large. Golly it is back to a 42!! They feel fine. I dropped them off at Margaret Shinsec’s tailor shop for alterations on the way home.
Then Queen and I put the tent canopy over the frame. It is coming right along.
<Later> It is now officially open for business. I had to get some extra tent stakes but now it should be secure. Hey I even installed the wind chime we had up there last year. That is a marvelous place for the two of us to just sit and talk. Gail Nonnemaker who lives behind us told me last year to be careful sitting up there just the two of you “making out”. She can see us from her kitchen window. Golly whiz!!!

swing             tent

Tommy stopped over tonight to see if I needed help with the tent. We had it done and all was well. He spent the day over in Portland, Pa. on his archaeological dig with one of his buddies who is the renowned archaeologist, Don Kline. Sometime I would like to show pictures of the overall “ dig” they are currently doing. Others might enjoy them also.

seperator

Sunday, May 16, 2004 7:16 AM 61 deg at LVIA and 61.4 in the bus stop

It looks like a great day on hand, so far. I will be heading out with Butternut and my trusty 8 O'clock coffee. The weight was a not so hot 206 and the glucose level was 139. The turkey stroganoff supper last evening was good. This morning I sat up in the tent and enjoyed my first morning’s coffee there. It rained hard last evening but it was quite dry inside.

After Queen came down we went for our walk. We met Marlene and Lee Bollinger as they were out walking also. She corrected the spelling of her name. Ha!! It is always nice to meet folks as we walk. This is another small town joy!
At Queen’s suggestion I filled and moved the one bird feeder that was directly over the gas grill which we recently relocated.

We are expecting Belva and Fritz later today. He has a speech to deliver at White Plains, N.Y. for the Ethical Culture Society in which he has a prominent part. With this in mind I started to clean out the bus stop so that we will be able to entertain dinner guests in there this evening.
We had the big cleanup this morning of the bus stop. It really needed it. A lot of junk can and did accumulate over the winter. With Queen’s help we got it done.

mess 1          mess 2          mess3

We started out with this mess, before the big push.

cleaned up

After

The Williams’s stopped by for supper on their way back to Perry County. Queen had boneless pork chops, stuffing, green beans, tomatoes, cottage cheese, and an ice cream bar each for dessert. Then we sat on the front porch and had a marvelous time rehashing our lives.

Here is an interesting site I just found. It is the National Geographic’s map machine. http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/


Seperator

Monday, May 17, 2004 7:21 AM 57 deg at LVIAS and 57.2 in the bus stop

This morning the blood glucose is 147 and the weight back to 202. Today is the dreaded sheet day so I had to change the bedding before I arose and now Butternut and I will be heading outside.

It was wonderful sitting up in the tent on the glider with my 8 O’clock coffee. I was reminiscing about yesterday's visit from the kids. Family means a lot to both of us. It is good to see and hear how the others are doing.
The glider tent area is such a marvelous place to sit, think, and as I say, get one’s head on straight. Now if I can only master this damn hearing aid. It is a big improvement but it all seems so strange to me. The saleslady said that what I now perceive as unpleasant noise is stuff that has been there all along but now I am hearing it and I must relearn how to process those now strange sounds. When I really get disgusted with it I take it out and WOW it certainly does help. I suppose perception too will come. Now, if only I could contact one of my computer parts supply folks and install some new “memory” in my “noggin”. Sheez!!

I sent Butternut up to find Queen who was getting dressed. It is always a joy to hear her greet him. Then we went for our walk. It is a lovely day to walk. The "muggies" are to return later in the week with possible daily thundershowers.
I want to cut the grass as soon as it dries out from the heavy dew last night. I should also like to plant some more plants today. I will go downtown while the grass dries out a bit. In the meantime Queen will be washing.

<Later> I was a busy boy this morning. I went downtown and after I got home cut the grass. It went as usual. Work awhile and rest [loaf] awhile. Gail Nonnemaker came by with her dog and commented that "Gee, it must be nice to have time on your hands." I replied that indeed it is nothing to do and all day to do it. Well not really but it sounds good. I take frequent breaks. Oh heck I could easily have done it all in one shot but then I wouldn’t have the fun of enjoying my breaks. Sometimes I think of something I want to add to this web page while I am sitting out there so I go in and add it while it is fresh in my mind. Then back to work.

After I cut the grass I got out the power string trimmer and cleaned up the tall grass around the edges. It looks much better now. Nevertheless I can see that I missed some places.

Then I raked the upper garden area where I wanted to plant the grass seed,applied it liberally watered it well and covered it with the piece of burlap my nice neighbor gave me. I suspect I will have nice grass in about a week. My previous effort did very well.

After our afternoon rest we both were out planting. Now all the annuals are in the ground. It was a big push for the two geezers but it looks nice.

palnting1           planting 2           Planting 3

Here we are at work.

done 1             done 2

Here is the end result.
Here is an interesting and possibly very useful site. It is a guide to find your way around locations for state and local governments.

http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm

Tomorrow I want to plant our tomatoes. Our neighbor Gary Kovacs stopped at the back door with 4 excess cherry tomato plants and wanted to know it I could use them. I replied in the affirmative and will add them to them others for tomorrow’s planting.

seperator

Tuesday, May 18, 2004 7:20 AM 61 deg at LVIA and 63.1 in the bus stop

The blood glucose was 135 and the weight 202 this morning. As soon as the coffee is ready Butternut and I will take my jump start for my heart out with me and peruse the property.

I watered all the new stuff we planted up at the upper area yesterday and watered the newly planted grass in the garden. We want to go to Lehighton this morning.

 Queen overdid it yesterday and had difficulty sleeping. About 3 AM I had to make one of my old man’s pilgrimages to the throne room and saw the light was on down stairs. By the time I was finished she was back in bed. I went in and saw that she was a bit upset so I invited her over to my bedroom and I comforted her and after a while she went back to her own bed and fell asleep.  This to me is now the biggest reason to take care of myself so I can be here for her when she needs me. She is not the only one who is comforted. Believe me it was well worth being awakened!!

We went for our walk this morning. It is a kind of gloomy day but it isn’t too warm although the humidity is on the way up.

This morning we went to Walmart. Queen wanted some of Butternut’s favorite dog biscuits and I got some blasting powder [Metamucil]. Then I got a of couple tomato plants. We are just about fully planted now. This afternoon I recharged the soil in the containers in which I grow them and then I planted most of them. I am not completely done, but almost.

plants 1       plants 2

plants 3

Later this afternoon, Margaret Shinsec called to tell me that my trousers were ready to pick up. So Queen and I went down to pick them up. Of course I took my camera along. She showed me the slacks she was wearing on which she had embroidered a lovely flower pattern that she did with the sewing machine. It was great. I asked to take a picture of them. Unfortunately I didn’t get the entire pattern on camera. <Sigh>
Maggie
    flower       Maggies shop
It's obvious she knows what she is doing. Shortening a pair of trousers is child's play for her.

sep

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.


park


This is a 1915 picture of the Borough Park


sat pic

        This is a modern satellite picture of the Borough Park

Tonight for supper Queen had the rest of neighbor Jean’s excellent chicken tetrazini, broccoli for Queen, green beans, for me then she filled out the menu with tomatoes, cottage cheese with coffee plus ice cream for dessert.


sep

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.

flower 1          flower 2          flower 3

The rhodoedendron bushes are at their peak right now.       

This morning we plan to do our shopping.
< Later> We are back. It wasn’t too crowded or too busy. However we are glad it is finished. This afternoon after our usual rest we were both busy outside.

Tommy called this morning and Queen told me to pick up another flat of Johnny Jump ups. Queen was busy planting all she could use. I took the rest of them up to Jean and Mike hoping they can use them. Some she planted under the pine tree where she has a nice display of flowers. I was busy planting the rest of the tomatoes and a small flat of marigolds that I put in a planter. Now we are just about done with planting. We got some individual plants that I will transplant into a pot for our usual flowers to put up on the graves on Memorial Day.

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.


sep

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.

cert

cert 2

Gail

Gail Nonnemaker

She is a good kid who deserves recognition. It won't be long before swimming season is here. Wonderful!!

This morning we got three bags of cypress mulch that Queen wants for around her plants. I just “downloaded” them from the trunk of the car.
Queen is distributing some of it around the flowers she planted. I shall have a similar task up in the upper flowerbed.
It I had to farm for a living I probably long since have starved to death I realize that I would make a miserable farmer but we do this out of love.     
As we work out doors in the soil I can’t help but believe that there is a force far more powerful the we poor mortals. [Thank God]

Well it is time to end this.

Please love one another, Mom and Bob [Queen and Bobby]

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter."
-Mark Twain

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up."
-Mark Twain

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Mark Twain

Imagination is more important than knowledge...

            Albert Einstein

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