MEMORIES 9

I first met John September 19, 1964 the first day of college. We dated that first school year and then he was drafted. We were out of touch for almost a year. These next pictures were taken at my house in Sandusky OH in 1966. In the one picture we are playing gin (and look soooooo young). The other picture is of our house. He was deployed to Thailand in January of 1967 and was there for a year. That was a period of time prior to the widespread use of cellphones and e-mail. We communicated by letter and used that thin flimsy air mail paper. I did receive one phone call during that time and it had to be routed through Okinawa and over a two way radio. I had to say "over" when finished so he could then talk and vice-versa.

MEMORY 7

As I previously stated, my Christmas's were quiet. On Christmas Eve, I could open one gift and then we went to the candlelight service at church. As I got older, I sometimes opened that one gift after church. We opened gifts on Christmas morning and at some time had our dinner. Since extended family did not enter the picture, we would celebrate with friends. I am including a picture of my parents friends. We would all go out to dinner and exchange presents. I did not include pictures of us girls. Those early teen pictures are pretty bad.

MEMORIES 7

Here are some pictures of various Christmas Days. I did note a recurring theme. It appears that I did receive a good number of dolls over the years. I still have several and I do have the Terri Lee doll. I also saw that I received a table, chairs and a tea set, an organ - that was my precursor to learning the piano, and there was one with me on the tricycle. That picture did not make the cut. My mother would buy some of the clothes but because she was such a phenomenal seamstress, she made many of my doll clothes. I noticed that the top picture must have been from the living room since the dining room wallpaper is missing. That year was 1956 and I believe I have all three of those dolls - although one needs the services of a good doll hospital.

MEMORIES 6

The postings will be fast and furious now. This picture is the only one I have with both Grandmothers. The one on the left (as you view it) is the grandmother from the farm and the one on the right is my Great-Grandmother. They were at my house to celebrate my birthday - I saw pictures of me blowing out candles.

MEMORIES 5

This excerpt was taken from ohiohistorycentral.org. The Thanksgiving snowstorm of 1950 was the deepest in Ohio's history. I mention this because my birthday is always around Thanksgiving and I am sure that the snow was still around for Christmas. This was the weekend of the famed Ohio State vs. Michigan Blizzard bowl. The temperature was 5 degrees with winds around 40mph. The game was played in Columbus on Saturday with Michigan winning with a score of 9-3 with 27 total yards gained and without achieving one first down. The storm began on Friday and continued through Sunday. In the eastern part of Ohio snow depths reached 33" in Steubenville, 30" in Geneva and 29" in Youngstown. The Ohio National Guard used Jeeps to transport people to hospitals and deliver food to rural homes. Buildings collapsed under the weight of 2 to 3 feet of snow. The drifts in some areas reached 25 feet. The one picture I am posting is from across our back porch. You can see how high the snow is stacked on the post. The other picture is one of me in my sled. I am not sure it is from that storm since I think I might be too young in the picture and there was no date on it.