Category: Life’s Stories

So this week has been really rough. Since Target was closed last Sunday for Easter, the HR rep. at the store scheduled me for an extra night, which was Tuesday and instead of my usual Friday night I worked last night because my wife and I are going out tonight. Now of and by itself that’s not all that bad what made it worse was that Tuesday, yesterday and today I was scheduled to work on the drill rig so my day began at 7:00 am. So Tuesday and Thursday my day went from 7 AM to 11:15 PM! Added in there was a funeral on Wednesday. Three weeks ago my wife’s Aunt Anita passed away, leaving her Aunt Nancy as the last of my father-in-law’s four sisters. The Thursday before Easter we received a call that Nancy had fallen down her basement stairs, and died, Wednesday was her funeral. Anyway with all that it has been hard to post anything to my website! Hopefully, next week will be better! Read More

Santa climbing the fire ladder into Gimbels

So last week my company had our Christmas luncheon, and my boss asked everyone for Christmas memories. I related a story about seeing Santa come out of a house near my Uncle Ott’s house coming home from church one Christmas Eve. The one I should have told was the memories of going into Philly to shop and see the Christmas displays at Gimbels, Lit Brothers and Wanamakers! For us boomers the Christmas season began in the Delaware Valley when at the end the Thanksgiving Day Parade, Santa made the climb up to whatever floor he was stationed on! Yes, those were the days before the Malls drove customers to the suburbs and my family made the trek to these stores almost every Holiday season and it was magical. The trains, the snow and lights and Santa all made a childs eyes light up! I’m sorry but the Malls don’t even come close to the magic that these stores created! Of course it helped that I was a child!! Read More

OK so, so far this week has sucked! First, my car was backed into in the parking lot of a 7-11, lucky the person, who did it freely admitted that it was his fault, and sent me to his repair shop to get it fixed. I did so on Tuesday, and was told by the shop owner that he would get back to the  person who hit me with a price and to big the car back on Wednesday to get repaired. On Wednesday morning, I took the car back only to find out that their had been a change in plans and they were now going through their insurance agent and that they would get back to me about bringing the car in to get repaired. Yesterday, I heard nothing , so this morning I called their had been a mix-up with my phone number and the insurance agency had been calling the wrong number yesterday! So I took the car in today and then went and picked up the rental car that they are supplying.  So it looks like everything is working out, but it is still aggravating! Read More

So I was cleaning up some stuff tonight and Nick was here (he’s the one with the guitar on the banner with my kids pictures), I decided to show him how we played football before Madden, WAY before Madden, and actually he pointed out, before the Super Bowl, so out came the old Tudor electric football! Oh, what entertained us before the computer. You’d get out the men ,  line them up for the kick-off, Read More

So several years ago when we were cleaning out my old house we came across my old Buddy Lee doll. A few weeks ago I found it again and put him out over the TV. My wife says those eyes are creepy!! Here’s a link to an article about the doll and Lee jeans! I wonder if advertising last a long while because I always by Lee Jeans!! You can find your own Buddy Lee on eBay! Read More

So Tuesday we spent in the hospital as our second born had his gallbladder taken out. He just turned 30 on April 1. My oh my how time flies! The picture on the left is from his midget league team. Both he and his brother were on the team and the team went 0 for 2 seasons!! He went on to have a productive Little League and Babe Ruth career.  His Little League team the Tigers, won a championship, he played in several All-Star games. The good thing about this year is that he is playing baseball again! We went to one of the games and it brought back a lot of memories!! So of course as all these memories entered my head, Tom Rush’s version of Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle  Game” creeped in there too. Here’s a great video of the song! Read More

This morning I needed to go to Walmart to get a few things, so I checked the library website site to see of I missed the spring Used Book Sale and low and behold the sale had not been held in April, but was in fact this weekend, and soon I was on my way! Like I need more books, but WHO can pass up bargain books not this bibliophile that’s for sure!! When I came back my wife asked if I found anything and my reply was probably too much, ha! never too many books, just too little time!! Anyway my $13.00 got me about $140.00 worth of mostly Kathy Reichs and Steve Berry books! Read More

Ok so have you ever thought who are those people on the banners at the top of this page? No, well the hell with you! I’m going to tell you anyway! The younger folks are my children and I’ll get to them later. The older pictures are my father’s side of my family.From left to right – first my father’s mother Charlotte Meyer Karn or Nana Karn as I knew her. She was a great lady very kind and she loved her family especially the grand kids. Along with her mother and sister Irma she came to America in September of 1912 from Dresden,Germany. Her father, Herman had come over the year before. She was 9 and Irma was 14 when they immigrated. Charlotte never had a German accent and Aunt Irma never lost hers!! She passed away in January of 1971 (1971 was not a good year for my family as my mother’s mother died in June of ’71). Read More