Good Thursday morning. June 2. Twelve days before Mary Catherine and I take off for Minnesota. I hope the weather will be good. I keep hearing how rainy and chilly it is and I don't even like that kind of weather. Why would I spend thousands of dollars to come into that when I could stay right here in 95 degrees with humidity of 100%? Sheer bliss I tell you.
I keep checking this blog, looking for my morning's entertainment. We had a wonderful, 20-entry, flurry over Mary's ultrasound. That was such fun, reading everyone's response. Didn't you enjoy it?
The reason I don't make many entries is because of my bland existence. Nothing much going on. But I know all of the rest of you are doing wonderful and exciting things that the rest of us would love to hear about.
Okay. I do have something to report, now that I think about it. I saw a wonderful movie last week with Angela and Samuel, called "Crash." Angela didn't care much for it, but I thought it was excellent. Very compelling. Very thought provoking. Samuel loves going to the movies. After a few minutes, he gets very tired and goes off to sleep and that's okay because he gets in free so it's not wasting money. Sometimes I have slept through an entire movie and that IS a waste of money; even worse was when Uncle Sam/Daddy slept through it with me!!
That's it for this morning. I've spent enough time here that it may be too late to start my day's work. okay, I see that it's 10:24 and I'm pretty sure that's too late. What about my book? What about my nap?
Aunt Ginnie: The weather has improved a bit--yesterday was cloudy but warm at 77, today will be partly cloudy,breezy and 82! There's always the chance of rain but at least the weathermen(and ladies)aren't forecasting it everyday.
Not much new here, kids are busy working and both will play co-ed slow pitch softball tonight. John worked extra 4hrs last night to cover a "sick" call. I work tonight 3-11 but have a 3 day weekend, YEAH! Next week I'm planning to go to Madison for at least Friday to watch our local high school softball team participate in the state tournament--unfortunately Annie's team didn't make it her senior year--so this will be fun. Annie will try to get off work and go along too.
Haven't seen any really good movies lately, tried to watch Sideways but couldn't get into it. Annie thought it was hilarious(I couldn't say that).
John and I are trying to finalize our travel plans with Gary & Sally--will be going to Alaska in Aug. Can't wait. That's it for now. Have a nice nap:)
What does "we need a schedule" mean? I could add a few more but I don't want to bore our readers too much.
Well, you know what? I started that entry with the idea of mentioning names of people who could enter an essay each week, and then I got off-track and forgot what my subject was. There are some people in our family, quite a few actually, who are good about entering a subject that would be interesting to everyone. And then it's fun reading what the others think of that subject. That's the schedule I was thinking of. Angela one week; Christina the next, Janine, Nancy, Carol, Mary, Laura, Beth -- are those the ones who have regularly made contributions? -- all taking a turn. I'm not sure that's feasible, now that I've committed it to paper, so to speak. Might make it too much of a chore, an obligation. We all have enough chores and obligations I suppose. Never mind. It was just a thought.
Nancy, thanks for your nice nap wish. And have a wonderful time in Alaska. What a great vacation for the four of you. I liked Sideways. Probably laughed hilariously at the same scenes Annie did (shame on her and shame on me). You probably gave up too soon. It's a very slow starter.
OK Aunt Ginnie I got a good question for you. I am taking a class on searching for information. Last night we were shown a website for all of the people who came to the US via Ellis Island and how you can even track the ship and ticket information. When my mom and I were going through Aunt Stella's things (after she passed away!)I thought I was told a story about one of our relatives who stowed away on a ship to come from Ireland to the US. I believe they were sixteen years old and taken in by a priest. Do you know anything about this story - who it was and if they may have come over on a ship that registered at Ellis Island? the website is www.ellisisland.org
Yes, in fact, I do. It was my dad's grandmother. She was from County Wicklow, which is in Western Ireland (I believe that's so, but not completely sure). Her father was dead and her mother was dying. She was fifteen years old when her mother made arrangements with the village priest for her to travel to America to live with her (the mother's) brother. While aboard ship, she was befriended by a lovely lady, also traveling alone. They were best friends for the entire trip, together watching the horizon for New York's skyline. When they landed, there was a wonderful excitement and everyone was laughing and crying and hugging and also, sadly, disappearing. The lady took off with Mary Wynn's satchel which contained all of her life's possessions and money, and also her uncle's name and address somewhere in Pennsylvania. The ship's captain was so sorry for the young girl that he took her home and she lived with him and his wife and his children until she left to marry James Tompkins. Till the end of her life, she said a daily rosary in his memory in thanksgiving for his great act of kindness. The only memory my dad told me of his grandmother was that she smoked a corncob pipe, which we all thought was pretty funny. Pretty Smokey Mountains, like Mammy Yokum in Lil Abner. (Nobody was politically correct back in the days when I was hearing that story!)
Well, Janice, I looked up my story in the newspaper article it came from and it turns out that Mary Winn married James Maxwell, both born in County Sligo. Among their children was my dad's mother, Julia. Everything else is true, as told by my dad and also by his sister, my Aunt Mary. James Tompkins, on the other side of the family, emigrated from Wicklow County in 1815.
By the way, I tried to find Mary at Ellis Island, and had no luck. It doesn't seem to go back past the 1890's. I tried both spellings, Winn and Wynn. Maybe you'll have better luck. Should be an interesting quest.
Mama, I love hearing the family history. I am hoping to get a tripod for my video camera and also hoping to get motivated to learn to use the camera so I can come over and get the family history on tape. I am not holding my breath for you to finish your memoirs. Anyway, maybe we can start before the summer is out since Polina is going to summer camp 3x a week.
Aunt Ginnie - thank you for the update. How tramatic for Mary. Did she ever find her uncle in Pennsylvania? I tried searching but found that the ships that were documented were from 1892 and onward. Keep the stories coming! It is really fasinating hearing about the family
No, that's why the captain took her to his home. And that's why she was so grateful to him all her life. Can you imagine what would happen to a 15-year old girl turned loose on the streets back in 1830? Nothing good, I'm sure. There were no agencies back then which were equipped to deal with that sort of thing. It may be some better today, but probably not much.
I didn't recall that Grandpa's mother's name was Julia until you told me that after I named my Julia. She is not named for sentimental reasons. What an incredible story about Mary Wynn. Life was hard and people were so cruel back in her day.
Janice, you are in classes this summer? No rest for the weary, eh?
I watched "National Treasure" and "Shark Tail" last week. Gave them both a thumbs up. I would like to see a movie with some language, nudity, and violence next time I get to watch a movie. Michael has agreed to watch "Sideways" when we get an opportunity. Who knows when that will be?!!