Remember Whensday

Taken in 1967 this is a picture of my sister Judy and our horse Miss T. ( Misty) . She was a 3 year old Appaloosa that we had since she was 6 mos. old. This horse was deathly afraid of cows! You couldn't ride her anyplace where there were cows or she wouldn't go past them. One time our neighbor's cows got loose and came over into our yard and Misty along with a pony we had ran right through the board fence and headed down the road. We had lots of fun trying to catch them!
Thanks to Sally for this fun meme. Click on her site Here to see more oldies.

Remember Whensday

It's Remember Whensday and this week I found an old photograph of my uncle William (Bill), my aunt Rosamond, and my Dad Russell ( Rusty). When this photograph was taken my father was about 4 years old and he was born in 1913. This is actually a copy of the original picture. My aunt Rosamond only lived to her mid 20's. She had surgery on her thyroid, and didn't survive. My uncle Bill lived to his late 50's and died out West. My Dad died in 1979. When Gary and I did the genealogy on my family several years ago we found numerous pictures of my family that I never knew existed. What a wonderful find we made.
Genealogy is such great fun....
Thanks so much to Sally for hosting this meme. Just click on her site Here to see more oldies.

Remember Whensday

The year is 1961 and I was home from my studies in X-ray school in Erie, Pennsylvania. I spent most days out on the Allegheny River in my canoe. My parents had a summer home on the river and we stayed there till Fall. My only wish was that we had digital cameras back then. There were so many cool things to photograph out on that river, from frogs, turtles, fish, snakes, beautiful flowers, and I could go on and on. PS, If you read my post a few weeks ago on Remember Whensday about the skull I found, this is the very canoe I put it in to take it back to the camp...
Thanks to Sandy for hosting this meme. Click on over to her site Here and you can see more oldies.

Remember Whensday

For Remember Whensday this week, I'd like to introduce you to my Great grandfather W.J.T.
"WJ" was born in 1836 in County Tyrone, Ireland during the Potato Famine and emigrated to the United States in 1851.
He, his parents, and several siblings sailed to this country on the 3 masted Barque ( Bark) ship The Agitator. They rode in steerage or in the bottom of the ship where there were no windows, no sanitation, and this section was usually reserved for the not too well to do folks. Sometimes depending on the weather it could take weeks to travel across the ocean. They settled in Buffalo, New York, and it was there he began his family.
Gary and I with the help from my sister Judy decided back in 1998 to do a genealogy on these greatgrandparents of ours. We worked on it for about 7-8 years and found out so much information. Today we have 3 drawers of a file cabinet full of our records. Once we found out the first little bit of history it all snowballed from there. Many, many miles on the road and many hours at historical societies, and libraries going crazy looking at micro film machines, but such fun we had. These were two relatives I never knew existed before we began this search. I now feel like I really know them and would love to climb in a time machine and go back there and meet them for even just a day. My sister is now carrying on with the search in a different direction with another part of this family.
I also might add during this time I put our name on a web search over the Internet and became acquainted with some cousins that I also never knew existed living in Colorado. We exchanged lots of information, and wrote lots of emails. To this day I owe so many Thanks to Kristine for getting me into Blogging! If it weren't for her, I most likely wouldn't be posting on this blog right now. So you see, if you even think there might be some family out there you'd like to know more about, go for it. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Thanks to Sally for keeping this great meme going.
Click on her site Here to see lots more oldies.

Remember Whensday

Looking back to 1981, this is a shot of me and our Cock-a-poo Chaudney. He was rescued from the humane society and really turned out to be a great dog. One of his favorite things to do was to sleep in my chair. He loved to play ball, and would run till he was out of breath and could barely stand. We had him 15 years.
It's funny, I don't remember wearing nail polish...
Thanks to Sally for this meme, and if you click on her site Here you can see more oldies.

Remember Whensday

These are my two grandmothers. This was taken on Mother's Day 1943. I was 4 mos old.
My grandma on the left was born in Sweden, and came to this country when she was 9 years old. When she was younger she once sang for the King of Sweden.
My grandma on the right was a homemaker, and in her younger days taught English in grade school. She often would help me with my English homework.
I have many many fond memories of both these grandmas. If only I had asked more questions about their grandmas when they were alive.
Thanks to Sally for keeping this meme going. You can click on her site Here and see more old time pictures.

Remember Whensday

I really don't have a picture for my story for Remember Whensday this week, so you can look at the sky I saw a few days ago about 7 o'clock in the morning. We did get some rain so I guess the old saying" Red Sky in the Morning, Sailors Take Warning" did apply.
Continue reading below-- Now, onto my story;
It was July 1959, and I was 16 years old and spending the summers with my parents and sister at our cottage on the Allegheny River near Warren, Pennsylvania. This article appeared in the local newspaper.
Read on:
Our cottage was located near the ending point of two islands. One island up river about 1/2 mile, and the 2nd one about 100 yards from the cottage , both in the middle of the river. I had my own canoe and enjoyed going out daily searching for flowers, wildlife, and especially Bullfrogs. (Sorry, but I used to hunt them with bow and arrow., and yes we did eat the legs.) I also did some fishing, and oh how I would have loved to have had my digital camera back then. There was so much to photograph. --
OK, back to my story- One morning I had taken the canoe up to the farthest island planning on searching around on the sand bars for Soft shelled turtles and hopefully finding a nest or two. ( just to look at them ). I had just gotten out of the canoe and began walking around when I noticed a round shape partially buried in the sand. It actually looked like a melon sized vase with a hole about the size of ping pong ball in the top. I began uncovering this shape and soon discovered it was part of a human skull.
Want to read more?
I took it to the water and washed off all the sand to get a better look. It was only the top portion of the skull. The lower jaw, not being connected naturally to a skull, was missing. At that point I knew I had to notify the authorities, so I placed the skull in the bottom of the canoe and took it back to the cottage.. My Dad was a funeral director, so I knew he would know what to do. He called the State Police, and within 30 minutes there were local Police, the local Sheriff, and State Police all wanting to know just when, where, and of course my story. The sheriff asked if he came back the next day would I take him in my canoe back to the island so he could look around. I said I would all the time wondering if I could paddle his big 300 lb. frame up to that island by myself.... We did go back the next day, but all we found were animal bones- no body to go with the skull. As the article in the paper states the skull was sent to the Smithsonian in DC for more testing, and the only information I ever found out was that this person most likely was a woman around 30+ years old, had no teeth ( we could see that there were no teeth in the upper jaw), and that she most likely had red hair. The things they can find out are amazing. They told me they were going to conduct an investigation on missing persons from the area. I never heard any more.
End of story...
Thanks to Sally for hosting this meme, and if you'll click on over to her site HERE you can see more oldies.
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Remember Whensday

This was about the earliest that I can remember being on vacation with my parents, and I'm not sure where it was taken either, but I think we visited a carnival. My parents went on a vacation every summer, and it most always included a steam train ride. My sister was very small then and stayed home with our grandmother.
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Remember Whensday

I remember the day and remember it well!
It was a hot August afternoon in 1964. I had taken a walk up this dirt road not far from my parents cottage along the Allegheny River North of Warren, Penna. With me on this walk was a neighbors big white Collie dog named Ring. ( He had a ring of black hair around the base of his tail, hence his name) . We often walked together, and on this afternoon Ring was far ahead of me when all of a sudden he began barking alot! When I went to investigate, I saw a large Timber rattlesnake laying across the middle of the road. It was stretched out and very slowly slithering across the road.
I was afraid that Ring would get bitten the way he was barking, so I found a big round rock and killed the snake. I got a branch, picked up the snake and carried it back to the cottage where my Mom took this picture. Later I opened up the snake and found a Chipmunk in it's stomach.
It measured 25" long and had 8 rattles.
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Remember Whensday

Going back to 1951, this was taken of me in the summer at my parents camp. It was in the woods not far from the Allegheny River , and a great place for lots of adventures . There was fishing, catching butterflies on the Tiger Lilies down by the river, hunting for turtles, and who could forget going to the outhouse in the dark not knowing where the spiders were.... Probably my favorite was helping my Dad feed the Raccoons and Skunks that came out at night. We would set out a plate of Oreo cookies, and any leftover food from the day. The animals would be there after dark, and my Dad had rigged up a spot light so we could watch them. Sometimes when the Skunks showed up the raccoon's would leave...Wonder why? LOL
One summer my Dad got the mumps, and couldn't go to work for a few days. To keep busy he made a sign to hang up on the front porch cut from small twigs mounted on a board that read WOODYNOOK. That was our camps name, and where I got the name of my Blog.
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Remember Whensday

When I graduated from high school in 1960 I got my first job working as a nurses aide at the Zem Zem Hospital for Crippled Children in Erie, Pa. This picture was taken in June 1960 on my first day. I worked there for 2 years until I was accepted into the Radiology program at one of the local hospitals in Erie.. It certainly was a memorable time in my life and the hospital and it's Dr.s saved many children from crippling conditions. The hospital now is much larger, and is called Shriner's Hospital.
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Remember Whensday

I'm not sure how clear this picture will be, but after all it was taken in 1943! I was 11 mos. old and my first Christmas. My Mom is at the right, and Dad is laying on the floor on the left. In the bottom right of the picture is a little wooden red wagon that my Dad made for me. He wasn't a carpenter or did very much woodworking, but it was a wonderful gift, and I still have it today. I miss them both especially at Christmas time.
Thanks to Sally for hosting this memorable meme. Click on her BLOG to see more oldies.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE, AND THE HAPPIEST OF NEW YEARS!

Remember Whensday

This is a new meme I'm posting on today for the first time. It's called Remember Whensday, and it's all about enjoying old photos from who knows when.
Since we're heading toward Christmas I thought I'd post this picture is of me when I was 7 years old in 1950 sitting with Santa. I just remember all the children waiting their turn, and some were crying. Times really haven't changed have they?
Thanks to Sally for hosting this fun meme. Click on over to her site http://rememberwhensday.blogspot.com to see more oldies.