Ted @ The Byrd

We were so excited to see “Ted” playing at the Byrd Theatre! But then we were to find that the film had nothing to do with our good friend Ted. We were so disappointed!

Happy Birthday Ted!

Ruth Farrall

Ruth Farrall ~ October 30, 1952 – November 22, 2012

Our dear sweet friend Ruth passed away yesterday morning. Her art and spirit will be missed by all who met her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that all of you have a wonderful thanksgiving, but I cannot think of November 22nd without thinking of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

It was 49 years ago today that the 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was shot in Dallas, Texas. In 1963 the 22nd was the Friday before Thanksgiving. The president was buried at Arlington on Monday the 25th, but on Thanksgiving the following Thursday  there was still plenty of talk about the assassination, Oswald getting shot on live television, and the funeral on the previous Monday.

On thanksgiving all of us cousins were able to share our experiences and thoughts on the previous week’s events. I clearly remember sitting on the floor of my aunt’s wood paneled TV room along with my cousins looking at magazines and talking in whispers about the assassination.

Little did we know that there would be more political assassinations and that the decade would continue to be one of unrest, demonstration, and division.

Now here we are in 2012, everything is still not perfect but we do have much to be thankful for. Every day we are alive is a gift and should be cherished. My father was fond of saying that, “This is no dress rehearsal.” So if there is something you really want to do, get out there and do it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The “Nai Mara”

In September 1976 yours truly and a very good friend took off on an adventure across the Atlantic Ocean in a freighter, the Nai Mara. We drove to Norfolk, Va and stopped in a small restaurant  for lunch. In a phone booth in the back of the restaurant we looked through the yellow pages under freighter companies and found one that was head quartered out of Italy which was our destination and yes they sometimes took aboard passengers.

We paid for passage that day and were told to go home and wait. We would get a phone call within the next couple of weeks. When we got the call we had 48 hours to meet the ship in Norfolk and we would be on our way to Italy. The voyage would take two weeks, and although our destination was Italy, we would not know if we would port into Genova, Napoli, or Brindisi until we entered the Mediterranean Sea.

We would be transporting coal from the Appalachian Mountains to the European Continent. It was an amazing and rather hot and noisy site watching the huge machines spew coal into the holds of the freighter.

Upon hearing of a friend taking an extended trip by ship today I got to thinking about this adventure some 36 years ago. I googled the Nai Mara and low and behold I found the photo pictured below.  In 1976 the Nai Mara was still a young ship but today she no longer sails the seas.

Another photo © Joerg Seyler

ShipSpotting.com

Top photo © zahan

Veterans Day – November 11th

Happy Veterans Day! – This year observed on November 12th.

The photo above is a photo of my father during WWII. He spent almost 4 years away from home in Australia and New Guinea during the war. The above photo was probably taken around 1941-1942 in New Guinea.

This photo was taken of my Grandmother in 1950. Her birthday is November 11th. She was born in Italy in 1896 and if alive today she would have been 116 years old. I remember her often wearing that broach she has on in the photo.

Come help us celebrate Veterans Day with Loversville at the Commercial Taphouse, tonight at 8pm!

Vote Today!

 

Ruth Farrall Picture of the Day!

Follow the link to Amy Crehore’s blog where she has posted a print of a scratchboard cat by our good friend Ruth Farrall as her picture of the day.