Sunday, July 25, 2010

Mary Has A Cow

  • "How now brown cow"
  • train to the shore
  • cleaning out the little house at 428
  • exploring the closet under the steps in the kitchen at 428
  • waiting for everyone to arrive at the shore on Friday nights
  • preparing the house for everyone to arrive at the shore on Friday nights (did I just write that?)
  • thinking Kakki was a doctor and telling everyone I knew
  • taking the train to the hospital (where she was a doctor) to pick up Kakki to go to the shore 

The Girls Respond to Meg's Panhandling

Maureen responds: "Oh that's right - you were that cute you could panhandle for money. Me, they would have arrested for vagrancy. I think you talked about panhandling on the first list. Is that how you earned your money for the summer? I am laughing, yes, out loud and it is great fun!"

Mary responds: "I was laughing out loud also, what fun!!"

Meg says "reminiscing about things is great fun - you girls are so ahead, I am digging deep into my memory trove". (and the sand and other people's pockets for change)

Meg - The Pinball Wizard

  • standing at the edge of the ocean and digging our feet in deep, almost up to our knees
  • standing on a raft floating over the waves - hey, I was standing up "paddle boarding" without any paddles
  • my first pair of sunglasses - they were round with pink rims
  • everything in Morrows Nut House
  • bumming quarters to play pinball
  • using one quarter all night because I'd win, then match, then win, then match, then.........


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G, 9.7" Display, Graphite, 3G Works Globally – Latest Generation

Colleen - The Surfer Girl


  • beach combing
  • surfing
  • sand castles
  • digging for crabs
  • running undercover to the tents on the beach
  • hot sand underfoot
  • blisters
  • climbing rocks on the beach
  • walking out on the rocks on the beach into the ocean
  • searching for interesting shells in the rocks on the beach
  • moss on the rocks on the beach
  • pilings in the ocean
  • dune grass out
  • dune grass in
  • Gloria's
  • Henri's
  • Tarpon
  • Shore Bar
  • Ugly Mug
  • Pilot House
  • fishing for blues (that would be bluefish for you amateurs) at night and holding my own
  • watching the fireworks on the 4th of July in the middle of the ocean in Joe's fishing boat
  • beach tags
  • beach tag maneuvers

Live At The Troubadour [CD / DVD Combo]
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Karen Goes to the Zoo at Home

  • Stryder, Terry's favorite dog - - as the world traveller of ten siblings, he was sure to have a canine companion
  • iguanas in the house, four boys, six sisters and iguanas.....priceless
  • chameleons in the house, four boys, six sisters, iguanas and chameleons
  • box turtles in the house, four boys, six sisters, iguanas, chameleons and box turtles
  • Robin, our cocker spaniel
  • mice that travelled from the third floor to the second floor on Perry Street
  • "katydids" in the tree in the yard on Perry Street - birds that sang at the same time every evening
  • a chicken we got as a pet for Easter and Grandmother cooked for dinner

Friday, July 9, 2010

Karen Goes to College

  • Mary Beth waiting at the corner for me after school - she thought I went to college - I was in high school
  • Mommy sitting on the sofa in the corner with the newspaper on her lap, snoozing, after dinner
  • Little tiny white Missal that I got for my First Communion. It had really thin, crispy pages with god edges
  • First Communion greeting cards
  • Sitting around the dining room table after Mary Beth was born - we got to pick her name out of a paper bag
  • Receiving blankets when a new baby arrived
  • Rob and I to the TV studio on City Line Avenue to tape for the Jerry Blavat Show
  • Daddy coming home from the hospital after Kevin was born - he told us Kevin had red hair and was going to be named Moishe
  • Terry's big, round, beautiful grin coming in after surfing
  • Telling people I had nine brothers and sisters
  • Mommy and Daddy dancing

Monday, July 5, 2010

Maureen Spies a Sailor on the Sofa, His Ship Ran Aground

  • The year Daddy took, at least, seven of us Christmas shopping to Center City for our Mommie's gift. We parked illegally on the side of Wanamakers, did our shopping, bought the brass early American magazine rack, and left for the car. Daddy took the parking ticket off the windshield, and everyone was happy!
  • feeling that I could taste the ice in my lungs on frigid, snowy days
  • building a snowman, any time of the day or night
  • waking to find a sailor in the living room asleep on the sofa - Rob was home on leave - a boy was in the house and he was not related - yippeee
  • The Platters
  • checking out lots of books from the library and feeling privileged
  • reading in the middle of the night with a blanket covering me, the lamp, and the book as I sat on the floor - serenity
  • signing yearbooks, signed yearbooks "love ya" "you're my best friend forever" - memories
  • Meg going to college - knowledge
  • Terry trick or treating with Kevin and Gerald and coming home with 100 pounds of candy himself - full

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Little Miss Karen Sits on a Pile of Laundry Eating Her Pie Away

  • Carroll Villa and the linen closet when I was 15 - Mr Thoden baked his special pies in the morning and placed them out on a long butcher block table in the kitchen and Katherine Gibbons and I would go down the back stairs, each take our favorite pie and hide it in the linen closet. When our shift was over, we would sit on a huge pile of laundry and eat our pie.
  • As a chambermaid, I loved to look at the clothes the female guests brought with them. I would imagine a whole story about the kind of life they led by the material of their clothes and the labels. Some were so different than any I had ever seen.
  • Jean Nate
  • Breathless Mist
  • Old Spice
  • Aqua Velvet
  • baby powder

Meg, Busloads of Nuns and Jawbreakers

  • red and white striped beach umbrella with the fringe
  • walking under the umbrella on the way home from the beach in a rainstorm
  • walking the cobblestone streets in Cape May
  • Boston baked bean candy and jawbreakers at Stegers
  • saltwater taffy
  • watching busloads of nuns driving to Cape May Point and waving, wondering what they would be doing there
  • checking every pay phone for forgotten change

Maureen - Freckle Faces Bask in Bug Spray

  • fruit and vegetable trucks selling produce on Kenny Avenue during the summer
  • running into the wake of an enormous white cloud of chemicals as we followed the mosquito spray trucks in the early evenings of summer - how morbidly fun!
  • open windows with screens - don't waste that bug spray
  • painting white picket fences white over and over and over......
  • fishing trips with Daddy - bait, sandwiches, and finding our sea legs
  • Mommie won't go to bed until she sees the weather forecast at 11pm
  • big, beautiful plastic hoop earrings
  • freckle face times ten
  • taking the ferry to New Jersey from Chester before we had roads to Cape May - yikes - how old are we?
  • never realizing what 12 people looked like driving in a car until people pulled up beside us and started counting
  • Bug-Eye Sprite
  • Kindness


Mary - Ready, Aim, Fireworks

  • Cape May
  • Fourth of July
  • everyone at 428 Perry Street
  • cook out on the 4th of July
  • peanuts with money stuck in the shells and tossed on the lawn - 4th of July
  • finding the perfect stick to toast marshmallows
  • corn on the cob
  • walking to the beach to see the fireworks
  • climbing Stegers stand to watch the fireworks
  • jumping off Stegers stand into the sand

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Maureen, Elvis and The Michelin Man

  • Elvis concert, 1971 - Meg, Honora, and I took Grandmother. Grandmother danced in her seat and was the happiest I ever knew her to be - she loved Elvis.
  • Elvis concert Colleen and I attended - we had front row seats and were given notes to meet the King backstage and chickened out - I was one of the fortunate ones  he handed a scarf to from the stage - I still have it - anyone wanna buy it?
  • jump rope - fudge fudge tell the judge Momma had a newborn baby almost every year
  • eating a cheesesteak for the first time and vowing to be rich so I could eat one every day for the rest of my life
  • snowsuits -my arms stuck straight out and I looked like the Michelin Man - an arctic wind wouldn't have penetrated those snowsuits
  • basketball hoop in the driveway - hoops after dinner
  • bike with one pedal and faulty brakes - Geronimo with a Beware sign!
  • awnings on Kenny Avenue - the first sign of summer
  • Eileen sending us University of Miami decals every time we asked, no matter how many times we asked - go girl!

Colleen, Bud Holmes and Go To Helen Wait

  • honeysuckle aroma in Cape May
  • tire swing in Cape May
  • The Girls luncheonette on Washington Street
  • taking Gerald, the baby, out in the coach - running into the Girls luncheonette out of the pouring rain
  • taking Gerald for a special birthday outing - a portrait sitting on the boardwalk, July 22nd
  • swimming out to the last buoy on the ropes and waving to the whistling lifeguards
  • Steger's penny candy
  • RC Cola and a bag of cheese twists with Beth and Maureen
  • Taylor pork roll and Eileen
  • the old Acme where the Towers is now
  • playing mahjong at Caroline's Boutique in the Bubbling Well where I worked and played - random people stopped in to shop and often ended up playing mahjong
  • working at the Wicker Store where the surf shop is now on the Mall in Cape May
  • watching Mary Beth blowing glass in a store window on the Mall in Cape May
  • Bud Holmes Customer Service sign..go to Helen wait

Karen Remembers - Mommy Has a Cowl

  • The Walking Mustache
  • Kakki reading my horoscope, with authority, at the kitchen table in Cape May
  • going to the photographer in Landsdowne to get our photo taken and getting everyone together so Mommy wouldn't know what was going on
  • going into town with Daddy to buy Mommy a blue plaid, cowl neck dress at Wanamaker's - I may have been in the 8th grade
  • standing on the sidewalk on Chester Pike when JFK rode through Sharon Hill
  • choir practice
  • lunch brought to high school...soggy white bread with lettuce, lunch meat, mayo and a tomato slice...the soggier the bread, the better the sandwich
  • the first spring trip to Cape May; when we reached the bridge, I could smell the ocean; when we approached Perry Street, I could smell the hedges.
  • Eileen and her boyfriends
  • Eileen and her Christmas and birthday gifts
  • Eileen and her hand-me-downs - to me

Karen Trains Her Bra

  • playing under the "deck" on the back of the house on Kenny Avenue
  • rolling my knee socks down for the first time when "conservatives" were in style
  • looking at the Sunday Magazine in May with all the senior high school girls photos - wishing my photo would be there one day
  • looking at the back of the newspaper with the training bras - oh how I wanted one
  • stepping into the "hot tub" when we came home from the beach
  • celebrating Daddy's 50th birthday at the ice cream parlor
  • when Mommy put on her Cutex lipstick....that meant happy times
  • hi-balls at the house....company...yeah
  • cream filled donuts Daddy brought home
  • lunch roll sliced extra thin
  • the ferry to the shore

Friday, July 2, 2010

Maureen Discovers Boys, 'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy

  • Azalea bushes planted for the Blessed Mother's May Procession crowns
  • Tea rose bushes in the back yard
  • patio furniture flipped over to become amusement rides
  • bike riding with Rob
  • lights out in the living room - fireplace ablaze
  • lights out in the living room - watching television
  • Mommie decorating for Christmas
  • Daddy painting for Christmas
  • hula hoops, hula hoops
  • pogo sticks
  • carmel popcorn after the dance at Convention Hall in Cape May
  • basketball games at Holy Spirit
  • babysitting in Sharon Hill - making money
  • shovelling snow - making money, being fed
  • book fairs at Holy Spirit - selling books to the parents
  • typing and shorthand
  • the beach
  • The Little Church - Sharon Hill
  • The Big Church while it was being built - we got to walk around inside and walk on the altar as our voices echoed, echoed
  • discovering boys and how I felt
  • Hope


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Maureen, Zip a Dee Doo Dah Geronimo

  • cardigan sweaters
  • jokes - laughing at silly jokes - telling silly jokes
  • storytelling
  • field behind Kenny Avenue
  • field where the Acme was built
  • first day of school schoolbags
  • the smell of new schoolbags
  • carrying a new schoolbag
  • lightning bugs
  • bodysurfing - geronimo
  • bodysurfing with Lyn - double geronimo
  • hymns
  • springtime
  • Easter baskets
  • Love Story
  • Palmer Method
  • Zip a dee do dah, zip a dee ay
  • It's a Beautiful Morning
  • Whitebird by It's a Beautiful Day
  • Spelling Bees
  • Holy Spirit Grade School
  • Hope


Maureen and A Guitar Playing, Singing Boyfriend Concert

  • frayed jeans
  • tan Levi's - before denim- from store at Food Fair
  • the butterfly I embroidered on the backside of my jeans
  • french t-shirts with tiny bows
  • french bikini from Aunt Helen
  • Palmer method
  • asdfjkl; (typing class)
  • Nancy Drew books
  • winter nights - washing dishes - filling pots with water and throwing them into the driveway so the driveway would freeze for our own ICE SKATING RINK
  • ice skating at the tennis courts
  • Bob - Barb Watson's guitar playing, singing boyfriend and the night he gave a concert at our house
  • Pidgie and Paulette
  • Friday nights - treat nights. Sometimes pizza, sometimes hot chocolate, sometimes donuts
  • Daddy playing the piano
  • Mommie running up the stairs after the "nudnicks"
  • Mommie smoking after her morning coffee
  • oatmeal, stew, meatballs
  • Mommie and Daddy have tea at 11pm
  • 69th Street with Mommie - soda and peanut butter crackers on the way home at the drug store counter

Christine - Profile

Christine is number four of the sisters and the fifth of ten. She is quiet strength and fortitude. She lives her life in almost complete devotion to her faith.

Christine uses her many talents doing administrative work for the Diocese of Philadelphia, as well as designing and sewing extraordinary wedding gowns, bridesmaids dresses, and memorable window treatments. She has added graphic designer to her resume as she recently began designing collateral material for the Sun Threadz company.

Since the time she was a little girl, she has demonstrated outstanding talents in art and design and a quiet countenance as she masters her skills.

Christine spends her time between Drexel Hill and Cape May where she lives a life full of family gatherings and work obligations.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Meg's Yellow and Black Hair and Topless Cartwheels

  • my white mohair dress with black velvet trim I wore to Eileen's wedding - my first lined dress
  • straw Easter shoes with little baskets at the toe
  • burgundy patent leather Easter shoes
  • forgotten shoes for Church left at the shore, having to sit with my feet tucked under a chair
  • brown paper bag packed for a weekend getaway in the spring and fall - heading to Cape May
  • returning to school with "yellow and black" hair - it was sunbleached but a classmate didn't know that
  • blisters on my nose and shoulders, peeling them all summer long
  • hand-me down bathing suits I coveted, even though they were too big
  • borrowing rafts and skim boards from girls and boys who had them and never returning them til 5pm
  • cartwheeling on the hard sand and losing my top every now and again - weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Maureen - Three Wheeled Bikes and Sheep Dogs - The Gifts

  • Terry giving Mommie a 3 wheeled bike, her refusing to go near it, and us laughing as he laughed returning it
  • Terry giving Mommie a sheep dog for her birthday, her refusing to go near it, and us laughing as he laughed returning it
  • wondering what Terry would give Mommie next year and laughing
  • wondering what my teacher would be like in each new school year
  • Peter Pan collars
  • pearls
  • gaucho pants
  • prayer
  • High Mass - the scents, the sounds, the power

Maureen - The Be-In and the Woodie

  • Be-In - Belmont Plateau - the people, the music, the joy
  • Earth Day - 1970 - I worked at Rohm & Haas and our bosses let us leave early to celebrate on Independence Mall across the street
  • casts on, casts off
  • Rosie's cast-off party til the wee hours of the morn
  • Joanne planning her wardrobe for the T-Bar Christmas party the day after the Christmas party the night before
  • Ouija boards at Candy's - they told us our boyfriends names and how we would all be married within the year
  • 10 speeds
  • smell of leaves burning
  • thinking piles of leaves were like puffy, soft white clouds and bouncing into them - ouch
  • taking the boat out with Terry and breaking every law of the sea
  • poker nights with Kevin in Cape May
  • Mommie joined the Ladies Club - plays and lots of singing
  • waking at Grandmother's during the holidays to the perfume scents from Kakki's room as she and Eileen prepared to go to work
  • exploring Fairmount Park with Colleen, Lyn, and Cathy
  • mystery books
  • fountain pens, ink wells, nibs
  • Fr Finnerty
  • coal in our stockings
  • laughing at ourselves before someone else did
  • the "Woodie" station wagon - Mommie loved that car
  • bunk beds
  • Joy

Karen - A Hail Mary and a Bow

  • saying a Hail Mary when we heard the sirens in the neighborhood
  • "be sure to thank them when you leave"
  • hold your sister's hand on the boardwalk
  • bowing my head at the name of Jesus
  • "remember you have 'class' "
  • "did you brush your teeth"

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Karen Eats the Food and Helps the Starving Children of India

  • Mite boxes
  • ashes on my forehead on Ash Wednesday
  • Tantum Ergo Sacramentum
  • eating the food I didn't want to finish so I could help the starving children in India
  • having a quarter to put in the basket at Mass at Our Lady Star of the Sea
  • saying the family rosary in the living room on Kenny Avenue

Mary, Punks, and Kris Kin

  • lighting punks
  • steamed clams with melted butter
  • bangs
  • piles of Christmas presents
  • the white bowl in the center of the dining room table with Kris Kin gifts
  • Daddy leaving quarters for his Kris Kin
  • white cotton gloves
  • Mommie's leather driving gloves

Maureen Remembers The One Armed Swimmer and the Mermaid

  • perfect attendance in grade school
  • typing pins on my uniform
  • shorthand pins on my uniform
  • Daddy swimming and using only one arm
  • Mommie body surfing and trying not to get her hair wet
  • Mary's long curly hair
  • Meg's long blonde braids
  • Chrissy's perfect bangs
  • Eileen floating on her back in the ocean then making like a mermaid
  • jitterbug
  • lining up in front of the fireplace for pictures
  • Christmas stockings with holes in the toes
  • Gerald and Petey
  • decorating the Christmas tree one tinsel strand at a time


Enhanced by Zemanta

Karen Croons

  • In the Still of the Night
  • When a Man Loves a Woman
  • My Guitar Gently Weeps
  • Angel Baby, My Angel Baby
  • slow dancing at Holy Cross dance
  • my first piece of pizza at a parlor in Upper Darby

Karen's Heartthrob "I Never Knew Ye"

  • filling the pan with water in the yard on Perry Street before we went to the beach
  • coming home from the beach and stepping into the warm pan to rinse off the sand
  • seeing the grown-ups gather around the kitchen table on Perry Street
  • hearing the kettle whistle as the grown-ups got their tea
  • the 45 record player on Perry Street
  • watching a boy walk down Perry Street every day at 5pm to go to work - he was around 16 - I never knew who he was but I had a tremendous crush on him - sigh
  • watching Rice eat his ham sandwiches with mustard that Grandmother made for him
  • the Bubbling Well
  • listening to the cacophony from the beach when we would come home in the middle of the day - what a wonderful, wonderful sound - you could hear the people and the fun all the way home


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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Live At The Troubadour [CD / DVD Combo]

Colleen Discovers Shopping in Pennsauken

  • Korvettes - going on the bus with Mommy
  • Maureen coming back from LA - dressed all in black and she looked so cool and beautiful
  • going shopping at the Bazaar of All Nations - Maureen and I got hats with the dangling discs
  • going shopping with Karen to Pennsauken, NJ
 AND PENNSAUKEN!

                                                                  

Maureen's Pocketbook Full of Miracles

  • snowglobes
  • walking home from school in the snow
  • puffy white clouds with faces
  • thigh high stockings
  • thigh high boots
  • midi-skirts
  • mini-skirts
  • dancing, dancing, dancing
  • watching Mommie & Daddy dance
  • hats
  • my first pocketbook - it had a chain handle and I used it as a rosary the first time we rode the #13 trolley into the city - we were 7 (maybe) - I was so frightened at how fast the trolley drove and then we went underground - I was terrified so I just used the chain on my pocketbook as rosary beads and prayed - a pocketbook full of prayer

Karen Seeing Stars

  • Barry White - You're the First, the Last, My Everything
  • Beatles - I Want to Hold Your Hand
  • having stars placed against my name, on the bulletin board, at school for going to Mass every day
  • Mother St Michael
  • first time Mommy made homemade french dressing with mayo and ketchup

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Karen Becomes a Construction Worker

  • construction paper cut-out tulips
  • construction paper woven baskets made for Mother's Day
  • making my own Mother's Day card out of construction paper
  • shopping at the 5&10 for Mother's Day gift
  • May Procession
  • white shoes and white anklet socks
  • white undies and white carter t-shirts with the little bow
  • going to school in the morning with only a sweater on
  • going to school in the morning without a sweater

Karen and The Bluebird of Happiness

  • pop beads
  • red wax lips
  • french nougat candies
  • white ruffle with black dots short jumpsuit
  • Easter egg prize card - one of my all time favorites - I know I put this on before - loved the name picking and punching out part
  • Daddy's handwriting
  • Mommy's stick figures
  • bluebird of happiness Halloween costume I made to wear to Colleen & Phil's party
  • Miss Masters - teacher

Karen Straps on Spaghetti

  • yellow pique spaghetti strapped dress
  • Be My Baby - The Ronettes
  • lunch roll...sliced thin
  • Mommy and Daddy sitting at the dining room table after dinner having tea
  • Irish soda bread
  • Irish potatoes
  • Hatchets filled with cherry candies on February 22
  • The Untouchables

Maureen, The Soldier, and The Convertible Dryer

  • Daddy's drawing of the Carousel for me and Colleen in first grade. It was so beautiful. I wish we still had it.
  • Dress for junior prom - brown chiffon, funnel neck, blue shoes
  • Dress for senior prom - brown velveteen, blue shoes from the junior prom. White ruffle blouse that was ironed and starched for years until it fell apart. I loved that blouse.
  • Going to the seamstress for senior prom dresses on Catherine Street in South Philadelphia with Mommie - it was a scary place to go.
  • Marathon phone calls from Kevin Glenn that lasted for hours and hours.
  • Time with Kevin Glenn when he was on leave from the service.
  • Going to 30th Street Station with Kevin G, Colleen, Honora, Joanne and several others the day he left for the service. 
  • Weekend Kevin G home on leave in North Wildwood. Colleen, Honora, and Joanne drove around in a convertible to dry his clothers hanging off the back of the car.
  • Borrowing Karen's VW Bug
  • Rohm & Haas
  • Lunches with Karen in Center City on the 2nd floor of a drugstore on 15th or 18th at Chestnut
  • Lunches with Colleen at Univ of Penna - oh boy!
  • Mother Stephen Mary
  • Christmas Daddy took me to see Mother Stephen Mary after she left Holy Spirit. She was transferred to Philadelphia. I visited her. It was a rainy, rainy Christmas day but wonderful. Daddy waited in the lobby while she showed me around her new digs.
  • Going to Brockway with Colleen, Grandmother, and Daddy
  • The day some girl told me some boy thought I was cute! I was a freshman. Who knew!?
  • Changing seats in grade school. It felt like a whole new life when they gave us a new seat to sit in. I loved how that felt. A brand new perspective.
  • Western movies - I loved the sound of galloping horses.
  • Memorial Day - Cape May - beginning of my suntan
  • Music
  • Hats
  • Hurricanes in Cape May
  • Kelties Bookstore - Cape May
  • Shop in Cape May with the flowered canopy interior - Karen worked there. I think it's on her Favorites list
  • John F Kennedy
  • Camelot
  • Wizard of Oz
  • Gone With the Wind
  • Candyland
  • Collecting bottles on the beach
  • Rafts
  • Third floor
  • Lunch on the beach - pb & j - yum
  • Pretzels on the beach - yum, yum

Karen, Ooogers and Jimmy's Goodyear on The Balcony

  • pink rubber curlers...tong style
  • Betsey Wetsey
  • brown linen raincoat - Edwardian style
  • white wrap-around duck cloth skirt with navy blue & white stripe tee
  • navy skimmers
  • dyed navy blue neck beads
  • ooogers between toes
  • Mary dressed as flower girl in Eileen's wedding
  • Midnight Mass then home for eggs
  • Margate and the "party" we gave - Rice was there
  • Red Sails in the Sunset song
  • Howard Johnson's with Kakki and clam roll sandwiches
  • Aunt Catherine and her tea bag wrapped in napkin
  • Grandmother's white oxfords in the summertime
  • Aunt Alice's sterling silver bracelets
  • yellow and green flowered sofa in Secane apartment
  • Jimmy Goodyear
  • The Balcony
  • The Habiliment

Meg - Profile

Meg is number five of the sisters and the seventh of ten. Meg is strong, capable, and compassionate. She works diligently; no job is too large or too small for her capable hands.

Meg has spent most of her adult life teaching special education in Cape May County to children with moderate to severe handicaps. She has enormous inner strength giving her an innate ability to guide disabled children both physically and mentally.

Meg possesses exceptional creative talents and to keep her students engaged demands a high level of creativity, so with this ability, Meg has developed a skill that is both exclusive and proficient in knitting, weaving, and sewing. She recently added hand-painted silk shawls and scarves that are quite simply, breathtaking.

Her dream is to retire at some point to Center City, Philadelphia and begin life anew since it is where she found her style, her drive, her future while attending LaSalle University. This may complete Meg's Circle of Life.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Mary - Perfume Floats, Fishing, and Boogie Woogie

  • Saturday nights - Daddy playing the piano while Mommie's perfume floated down the stairs - happiness
  • lightning bug rings
  • mimosa trees
  • honeysuckles
  • fishing off the rocks with Kevin and Gerald
  • green lounge chairs on the beach on a cloudy day
  • playing hand ball on the beach
  • leaving the beach at 7:30pm

Meg's First List - Fried Frog Skin, Got Milk?

  • pb&j sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper in a large Acme bag, filled to the top with pretzel rods as dessert - no beverage
  • summertime - sitting on the bottom step or in the hot sand waiting for Mommy to deliver the food
  • pb&j sandwich dipped in the leftover oatmeal from breakfast, reheated with sugar and milk that I raced home to get before anyone else during the school year - one tastykake as dessert - milk as our beverage - the BEST!
  • jelly bread - a real misnomer - it was peanut butter and jelly on a piece of bread with no top, but we called it a jelly bread
  • pretzels and grape juice for our Saturday night treat watching TV
  • spaghetti every Thursday night
  • mac & cheese every Friday night with fish sticks and tartar sauce
  • stew - I forget the night it was served but not Colleen's grimace as she walked in the door and smelled it cooking
  • fried frog skin from Karen's biology class, served to Rob for dinner, prepared by Mommy - what a hoot!
  • lunch meat and cheese with lettuce, tomato, mayo on a kaiser roll, in a brown paper bag all warmed up for a class trip to Lenape Park - YUM! a kaiser roll was strictly a field trip event, always paired with a whole package of tastykakes and an apple
  • pan fried scrapple with catsup - not ketchup - on Sunday morning
  • hot dogs with cheese and bacon in casserole of baked bean


Mary - Profile

Mary Beth is the baby of the sisters and the ninth of ten. Mary is sensitive, sincere, and passionate about improving all aspects of her life including health, self-awareness, mental acuity, and exercise. She sets daily intentions and prepares to accept the results.

We think she networked with Shirley Temple long, long ago and still has the naturally "Curly Top", the ringlets, the lollipop dreams "On Account-a-I-Love You"; so "Baby Take a Bow" as we introduce you.

Mary Beth manages The Cape Motel in Cape May, NJ, and sets her intentions on continuing the successful reign of her mother and father-in-law in supplying a family friendly, meticulously clean, affordable vacation destination off the beaten track and according to references from clients, has succeeded.

Mary is also an accomplished artist with multiple media talents including knitting, weaving, hat making, designing, and decorating as part of her portfolio. With her rapier wit and one-liners, we add another stand-up comedian.

Mary's First List - Splits Bananas with Daddy

  • my beautiful, stylish big sisters: Karen, Maureen, Colleen, Chrissy, and Meg
  • I couldn't wait to grow up to be like them
  • pb&j sandy sandwiches on the beach
  • lollipops (chocolate)
  • Bud Holmes
  • collecting bottles
  • potato sack races
  • trips to 69th Street with Mommie
  • trips to center city with my big sisters
  • banana splits with Daddy

Cartoons by Lilly





The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Live At The Troubadour [CD / DVD Combo]
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
The Girl Who Played with Fire

Maureen Names Names

  • Sherlock Holmes with Basil Rathbone
  • Alfred Hitchcock Hour
  • The Birds
  • Terry hiding under the coffee table watching The Birds
  • Tommy Frankenfield
  • Honorah McCrory - first grade til now
  • Deborah and Dolores Bryant
  • Dorothy Carpino - she galloped daily sans the horse - honestly
  • Kathy Hood
  • Kathy Fitzgerald
  • Dennis Fitzgerald
  • Carolina Morris - a good friend - then she moved when we were in 6th grade
  • Lee Edelman - freshman year
  • Joanne Ardito - freshman year til now
  • Kathy McDevitt
  • Palma Freda - R.I.P. - she died in freshman year and went to school every day until she passed away. I will always remember her. Maura reminds me of her.
  • Serenity

Maureen and the Interns; Hugging and Smiling

  • my short hair at 19
  • working at Univ of Penna Hospital
  • Mark the intern at U of P
  • Jeff the intern at U of P
  • Rich the intern at U of P
  • Greg the intern at U of P
  • Mrs Schulman - U of P
  • rollerskates and key
  • Outer Limits
  • Car 54 Where Are You?
  • Daddy hugging Mommie by surprise and her smiling
  • hanging out on the boardwalk
  • pinball
  • treats at Helen and Bill's
  • Holy Child Academy campus. Karen, what was it like inside?
  • the lane to Holy Child Academy
  • snow days
  • snow forts
  • 5&10 Christmas shopping

Karen Saves Ten Cents a Day and Goes Dancing

  • the outfit I wore that New Year's Eve - black & white long skirt with fringe on the bottom, black lace turtleneck with long white pearls. The skirt was beautiful - woven - got my hair done at some sshmanzy shop on Walnut Street.
  • Rob's wedding
  • going to Boston with Eileen, Rice, and Jay
  • makeup
  • Christmas coloring books
  • dresses Colleen and Maureen wore - gray and brown? I have the picture in my mind.
  • Harry's All American Bar
  • Maureen's blue jaguar
  • Colleen's green batik dress
  • saving my milk money - 10 cents a day to make 50 cents to take the trolley to Chez Vous on Friday night
  • pansy watch Mr Tryder gave me
  • our first "adult party" on Secane Avenue
  • going to see Mary Poppins 1,000x's with Gerald - Jayne Aubin worked at the theatre and I would take Gerald to see it...wonder if this would be on his list?
  • spying on Eileen and Tommy Cook on the front porch on Perry Street
  • spying on Miss Dougherty (teacher at Holy Child who lived on Chester Pike) parked with her boyfriend on Kenny Avenue
  • soda and pretzels at Nana's
  • Horn & Hardarts