Norms Bait and Tackle

[MaryPage]

Jean, Old Annapolis Neck Road is in my section of Annapolis.  If you want to spook your grandson, or then again, he may just think you are using Goggle Earth, you could ask him if he drives down Forest Drive to Bay Ridge Road and takes a right on Arundel On The Bay Road, right between the Fire Department and Bru-Mar Nursery, and then another right onto the street where he lives.

If, instead of leaving Arundel On The Bay Road, you were to stay on it, you would very shortly come to St. Anne's School.  Run by nuns.  Now this will sound like a Catholic place to you, but it is not.  My great granddaughter Ava, age 5, is a student there.


Charles Carroll, who was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, and also, strangely, the last one to die, had a large home on the water quite close to Annapolis Harbor.  That home is now the rectory and offices for the Catholic church there: St. Mary's.  And the last nun left there some years back.  They have a thriving school, but no nuns. 

If you drive up Main Street from the harbor, and you'd better be driving UP that street, not down, as it is One Way, you will come to a large circle.  Plopped down in the middle of that circle is St. Anne's Episcopal Church, one of the oldest in the U.S. and quite lovely.  The Circle is cleverly named Church Circle.  If you turn right on it, again the only legal way, you will pass the street to turn down to find State Circle, where we conduct, as the Capital of the State of Maryland, all state business in the oldest statehouse still in use in America.  That's where George Washington met with the Congress of these United States.  Then you pass our Governor's mansion and a half dozen other important roads, finally coming around past the Circuit Court, where Bob & I were married, and where, when we came out as man & wife, the bells of St. Anne's burst into a very loud, but lovely, melody of great joy, stunning us with the timing. Turn right just after the court, and you will head back down towards the harbor on the one way street that will take me home.  You will pass St. Mary's about half way down.  Oh, and City Hall.  Our present Mayor speaks with an accent we all love: he is from Australia.

The sun shines brightly on every thing in sight this glorious morning.  We are told to expect our first heat wave of the season to roll in before the sun goes down.  We are also looking and listening for our first cicadas to emerge.  Our local news tells us Washington,
D.C. has already sighted a few popping out.  Bob was right here beside me when they last covered everything in sight with their large wings and huge bright red eyes.  Shiver! Well, they will come, bite no one, and be gone in about six weeks.  The math of the universe in play with this, as with everything else, is 17 years.  Every 17 years they emerge from the ground, crawl out of those spooky beige slipcovers, leaving nasty heaps of them encircling every tree that was there 17 years ago, and start their climb up the trees.

Google "Brood X Cicadas Are Emerging"

[Marilyne]

Jackie - so good to hear that you have found a place to live, where it will be easier for you to get around, and to be able to enjoy the outdoors once again. I'm sure you will be happier in a rented bungalow, than you were in the apartment with the lift.  It will be tiring to move, but worth the effort. 

Mary Page -  so much fascinating history, connected to Annapolis, going back to the Revolutionary War, that I knew-nothing about.  I have only associated Annapolis with the the Naval Academy, and that's all I ever heard about . . . but lots  more interesting facts to learn about.      Fun tradition of the bonfire, and the burning of the socks!    I haven't read your message today, but will get to it, when I finish here.

Sandy - Sounds like fun, to watch the workers, updating your Main Street!  I love to have a birds eye view of change.    Change is constantly taking place all around us, but we rarely have a chance to observe it while it's happening. 

MarsGal - Good idea to put your potential move on hold, for now.  That will give you plenty of time to work on your house, and start downsizing.   We had our annual town clean-up last week, where you can place anything and everything at the curb in front, and they will pick it up.  We worked for weeks, and had our area stacked with giveaway or throwaway items.  Only a small "drop in the bucket", as the saying goes. Most of the stuff was out of the garage and basement, so not noticeable. 

Shirley - So sorry to hear about your brother-in-law.  You didn't mention his age, but he is probably not young and strong enough to fight this off with chemo.  It will be hard for your sister, and for their adult children.  Good that you will be there with her for support.

MarsGal and Mary Page - I haven't clicked on your links yet, but will check them out later this afternoon.

Now time to move on with the day.  I hope all of you are feeling well, and enjoying the Spring weather.     

[patricia19]

The games afoot! Come and join in!

https://www.seniorsandfriends.org/index.php?msg=198007

[patricia19]

MarsGal, I know what you mean about moving. I'm not one or the other income-wise, but apartment prices had been steadily increasing and didn't seem to be slowing down back in 2013.  Then my apartment building went condo, and I was among 200 laid off as the corporation I was with went bankrupt.

I ended up as many university students did by renting a room in a private home. I also found a new job with a company as a tour guide and Alaskan foods propagandist. Luckily, my number came up on the waiting list here after a year, and a year afterward, I retired. Rents are still unbelievably going up elsewhere, and the waiting list here goes up along with them. This building for disabled seniors is rent-controlled for those who qualify, which is why the waiting list is now estimated at five to seven years. And still lower than other places for those who don't.

Thanks for the YouTube Tall ships!

We still have partly cloudy weather, but the temps are steadily increasing. Talking about construction, last fall, they decided to close two major bridges leading in and out of my area for a year-long replacement. It was hard enough moving out of the area walking as I seemed to have certain ways hardwired and sometimes needed to backtrack. There are several bridges here as we have more than one river circling or moving thru town, but it's hard for a non-driver to navigate when two in your housing area are taken away.

Five years ago, it was widening roads and putting in new road bumps and sidewalks. Then it was replacing a multitude of power poles and streetlights. Now they're looking at bridges, either replacing or putting in a new one. It's good for the construction trades but hard on the rest of us. Detours have become a way of life.

MaryPage, I'm learning so much from you as an armchair pilot!

Good morning, Jean and Marilyne! Shirley, I hope today is a better day for you and your family.

[shirleyn]

Has anyone heard from, or about, Joan (Western Joan)?  Today is her birthday and I have always sent her a greeting.  I know she does not come in here anymore and now I cannot bring her up on Facebook.  I am concerned.

Shirleyn
~_~

[patricia19]

Unfortuntely, she has been missing in both areas for over a year.

Johann and Windell as well.

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Just back from the hairdressers....a salon i have not been to, not cheap but she done my hair in the style i described to her and i am pleased with the result, my hair was getting too thick, heavy and long...My appointment i made only yesterday, i was given a 6pm appointment with senior discount Mondays and Tuesdays only, so booked taxi to take me, same taxi driver came to collect me...I was a tad nervous getting into our lift at that time of night and with my rollator, with no one around...came down 5.30pm, then back up in lift 7.15pm...

[Marilyne]

I saw on Facebook a couple of months ago, that Windell had passed away.  Johann is still on FB, and occassionally posts.  I've been wondering about Western Joan also.  She was a Facebook friend of mine, but her name no longer shows on my "Friends List"?

[MaryPage]

Nothing in this world so comfort-giving as a hairdresser who delivers what we wish for, or better. It is sort of kind of like finding a doctor who actually listens to what we are describing!

Jackie, it comforts and consoles me to know you will be moving into a Happy Place.  And away from EL E VA TORS!  Woo hoo!  Let's dance an imaginary jig around the kitchen floor!  Me, I'm not up to the actual thing much these days.

[MaryPage]

It has long been a conviction of mine now that any next of kin who does everything concerning our death should make it a strict rule to go through at least our address books and call each person and say to those who are unknown something like:

"I am MaryPage Drake's niece (or fill in the actual) and I do not know how well you knew her, but I want to let those in her address book know that she has passed away (or fill in the language you use). 

The thing is, dang it, that people DON'T do this, and I have actually had Dear friends die and I learn of it MONTHS later!  It is not fair.  We all deserve the chance to grieve.

[Denver]

I I apologize for not posting yesterday.  Michele did get home from the hospital and we are all so thankful.  I did not get to see her, but Bob was there at the house to accept the bed delivery and to help Dave get the wheelchair into the house.  Bob said she is shockingly weak, much more so than expected.  Bless her heart. 

I had PT and was just on edge all day with anticipation of M getting home. 

We are on day three of cloudy dreary days and I am in need of some sunshine BADLY.

I do hope you all are doing great.  It is time for my shower and I have to get a move on as it will be time for Bob to head out to pick up the boys from school.

Enjoy you day.

Jenny

[patricia19]

I was sorry to hear about Windell, altho I did believe that might be the cause. I left FB due to ongoing privacy concerns, so I no longer see those posts.


Jenny, I'm glad to hear that Michele is home.

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Mary Page...
... it would have to be " imaginary " as i could not dance a jig, even if i tried...

Jenny...
... it sounds as if your Bob had a shock ( the reality ) of seeing how weak your Michele actually is...I am glad at last she is out of that hospital and back inside her own home...

[FlaJean]

Jackie, that is wonderful news about the coming move.  I am so happy for you.

Jenny, Glad to know that Michele is home.  

Saw some kids jumping rope in a commercial on TV.  Do kids actually jump rope nowadays?  I spent hours in the summer jumping rope when I was in elementary school.  Got pretty good at jumping double dutch, but never see kids in this area jumping rope or doing much of anything outside.  I guess they are busy playing computer games.

Enjoyed all the posts.  Have a good afternoon all.  The day is beautiful day.

[MaryPage]

Jumped rope. And how did we learn all those chanting poems and numbers? I must have known a hundred or more of them, but I cannot remember actually learning them!!! It was more as though we were born knowing them!

We played dodge ball and red light, green light and Red Rover and hide & seek and the opposite one: Sardines.  Crack the Whip!  The more we had to play these games, the better.  This way, we got to know all of the kids in the neighborhood, and they all became friends.  There was a wide age difference, too; but it made no nevermind when they needed a lot of bodies for some of those games. We had fun and got tremendous exercise, and it did not cost a penny. We had no computers, iPads, Smart phones, or anything.  And where did those large jump ropes come from? I had my own one person one. Fact is, I( probably had more than one.  But I often jumped those big ones with half a dozen or more girls.  No, not half a dozen jumping at once. We weren't THAT good.  But two to keep them going, and then a line of girls to jump in when the one jumping jumped out.  And how in the world did we learn to jump in and do so well right from the git go?

Beats me! But kids don't play outside any more. They go to the mall, or just text. They're not making memories.  Or friends who will remember you when you grow up.

[CallieOK]

Oh my, MaryPage, did your post ever bring back elementary school memories!  My school was on a huge lot.  We played Dodge Ball and Red Rover behind the building - Red Light/Green Light and "Mother, May I?" on the front steps. 

There was a tennis court on the east side of the building where we played Jacks and jumped rope in the middle and roller skated around the edges with our clip-on roller skates. We kept the key on a shoestring around our necks.

There were a few swings on the west side and I remember badly skinning my knee on the gravel underneath them and how awful the sting of the methyolate (sp?) was when the teacher put it on.  My Mother used mecurechrome (sp?) which wasn't quite so bad.

There was also a big shade tree in a back corner of the grounds where we "played house" by drawing rooms in the dirt.

Nowadays, kids have "play dates" but I'm not sure what that entails.

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Remember playing ( pavement ) hopscotch outside our house...chalking pavements with numbers, then running - jumping on them, and how i remember elderly, well elderly to us as children, complain about us using chalk on the ground...
...Ah yes, sitting crossed legs on the pavement playing jax or marbles...

[patricia19]

MaryPage and Callie, I'm familiar with all of those games except for Sardines? Since my neighborhood was all boys, including one Catholic family of seven brothers, I played lots of boy's games such as tree house, tetherball,  soccer, and softball in the summer and jump rope and other girlish games in the winter. We also had roller skating in the summer and ice skating in the winter.

The neighborhood was sacrosanct, and we defended it against all comers, especially the next one over. I don't think they do that anymore, but then again, it's been years since I lived around children. When my daughter was young in the seventies, it was all about playing house and later using her cassette recorder with friends playing radio and popular music.

I recently returned from the grocery store, paying way too much, in my opinion, for some meat and fruit. Add in the eleven dollars for both ways per taxi, and I'm done for the month. If only I didn't have to eat...

[CallieOK]

Forgot about hopscotch! Teacher would give us worn down pieces of chalk to draw the pattern on tennis court or sidewalk below front steps.

Jackie, also forgot to mention how excited I am about your move. It sounds lovely.

Also excited to read about Michele being at home.

Just swept the garage and took out the trash bin, which was heavier than usual because son had added all the shrubs that froze and other trimmings when he worked in my back flower beds the day after trash day last week.

Now having a sit-down before nuking a Stauffers dinner and watching The Voice and This Is Us.

Wishing Everyfriend an Enjoyable Evening.

[donklan]

I was just skimming through the Forum and this caught my eye..."I am MaryPage Drake's niece (or fill in the actual) and I do not know how well you knew her, but I want to let those in her address book know that she has passed away (or fill in the language you use).

Please don't scare me like that....was about to tell my wife we lost another one.

[MaryPage]

Patricia, Sardines is the opposite of Hide & Seek, at least to my way of thinking.  You know Hide & Seek is where one person hides and everyone else hunts and the first to find them is the winner and the next to get to hide.  In Sardines, as each person finds the person hiding, they scrunch in and hide with them, until all but one seeker is in there, and then that seeker is the loser.

Callie, in trying to remember as many of the games as I could, and Jackie remembered many more I remember playing, I asked myself over and over: "WHAT was the name of the one where we were told to take x number of steps forward or backward, and we had to say "Mother, may I?"

Well, you got it!  That was the actual name!

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/92786/9-outdoor-games-todays-kids-probably-dont-know-how-play

[patricia19]

MaryPage, hide and seek is where everyone hides but one who counts to ten and then calls out, "Ready or not, here I come!" then proceeds to find everyone with the first or last one found, I don't remember which, ending up the new seeker.

I remember we had a wirehair/poodle mix who was very intelligent as terriers are. Dad would hold her, Maggie, on his lap, and we'd all run and hide. Then dad would say firmly, "Find!" and she was off like a shot. I remember once Maggie couldn't find my sister, and dad told her to look in the toilet, and she did!

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Then there were the " naughty " games...I had an elderly neighbour opposite our house, my school was opposite my house and had a high brick wall that was the end wall to the elderly ladies back garden...She had an apple and a pear tree which us children climbed up to sit on this wall ( have to say this was not during school hours ) and we would help ourselves to the odd apple ( scrumping, ) without her permission,  when caught out, well this was until she told us " i know where you live, i know who your father is."

Then there was the game of " knock up ginger " rattling letterboxes then running away...both games i stopped as soon as we got caught out doing it, which was not long, and to be honest i was very reluctant to do it in the first place, i knew it was wrong, and if caught would tell our parents, by the time we got back indoors, facing a good telling off, and told never to do that again...and of course we all feared our fathers, i know i did...the threat of his canvas army khaki belt on my bare backside...

[MarsGal]

Jenny,  I am glad to hear that Michelle is home. Sorry to hear that she is so weak.

Games I remember playing as a child: Hide and Seek, Red Rover, Hopscotch, Jump Rope. Only four? Gee, there must have been more. Anyway, I was real good at Hide and Seek, even had a special shirt I wore (shades of green). When I played Red Rover I was usually one of the last, if not the last, to be picked for a team. Needless to say it was not my favorite game. MaryPage, I never heard of Sardines.

My real estate broker called yesterday to see how I was doing. Since I got rejected for the low income senior housing, I told her I am taking a step back and just doing more clearing and fixing up here for now. When I mentioned that one of the regular apartment complexes I was looking at had just raised its rates, she said that the market is really weird right now. Usually, she said, when housing is tight, apartments are plentiful and when apartments are hard to come by, housing is usually plentiful. Right now, both are tight. She said that is most unusual. Anyway, if I need help in deciding what to fix that will add value to the house, she will help.

The plumber came by yesterday morning and replaced both my faulty outdoor faucet and the indoor shut off valve from the old wheel type to butterfly valves. So, one minor project done. The power wash for the house was once more postponed, this time to June 10, and the landscaper has yet to let me know when he can get out to fix the bottom of the yard. I am not too excited about not hearing from him yet because he had said that he is three or four weeks behind right now. Never-the-less, I think I will give them a call next week to get an update. Oddly, the groundhog has disappeared. He has not been back under my porch for at least four days and I haven't found another entrance hole. I keep expecting it back any time. Well, at least I don't have to contact the local animal catcher - yet.

[MaryPage]

You can actually Google Sardines and it will tell you how it was played.   

https://www.wikihow.com/Play-Sardines

[Marilyne]

We have lived in this house, on this cul-de-sac street for 50 years, so I've witnessed the changes.  When our children were school age,  (now 63, 60 and 52), they had total freedom.  Walked or rode bikes to school and back, and played outside with friends and neighbors.  You could look out the window any day, and see kids playing, and hear them laughing, chasing, skating, organizing games, or gathering in groups to walk into town.  The parents were all friendly, and got together often for various activities from Bridge games, to summer outdoor pot luck dinners.  AJ and I are the last of the original homeowners.  All others in our generation  have  moved away, or passed away.

Now it's dead calm and quiet outside - on the same street and the same houses.  I still have my windows, and have a wide angle view of the entire street, but now I see no-one and hear nothing.  The new homeowners come and go in their cars, and never speak, wave, or associate with each other, and certainly not with ancient relics like AJ and me.    Children are living in most of the houses, but I have no idea of how many, their ages, etc.  They are silent.  I don't hear voices.  They don't play outside.  They don't make noise.  They don't ride bikes or skate.  Although the elementary school, middle school and high school are all within walking distance, they are driven to school, and picked up and driven home. Seems like it would be a bleak and dreary life, but I'm sure they are content, because they know no other way of living. 

I was fortunate to also grow up in a similar neighborhood in Southern California.  The games you all played, were the same ones that we played. Boys and girls - all ages.  We organized everything ourselves, with never a parent in sight to advise or guide us.  We walked everywhere, every day.  Into town to the Saturday matinee, to school, or to the grocery store for a loaf of bread or a bottle of milk for Mother or grandma.  I grew up during the 40's, the War years, so lots of our games consisted of "playing War" . . . building forts, look out posts, climbing trees., etc.  Sticks were used as guns and dirt clods were bombs!!  Yes, it's true!    Certainly dangerous, and not PC, by today's standards, but that was the world we lived in then.  My best friend fell out of a tree and  broke her arm, and my brother had numerous stitches, over the years, but somehow, we all survived.   We also collected scrap metal and rubber, newspapers and other items, for the War effort, and left them at a designated area located at the city park.  The Radio Flyer red wagons were used to transport everything across town. Wonderful year of freedom and friendship!  I would gladly live them over again.   

[patricia19]

Marilyne that is what I see and hear outside my window every day, and the schoolyards are very popular for playground equipment and running and bike racing down the sledding hills and for the basketball hoops. Sports are huge here as well as boy and girl scouts and other youth organizations and activities.

Further east from me are acres set aside for soccer, baseball, and fall football for both kids and adult leagues. In the evenings, you can hear muted roars from schoolyards are over town for game practices. I'll be seventy years old this July, and I haven't seen the changes you describe, nor did I see it in the south in the seventies and eighties.

The difference is that kids don't run wild due to deranged adults' killings and harm done. I remember one case of a policeman's ten-year-old son found dead by a bike path in the early eighties. An adult killed him for his bicycle!?

[Marilyne]

Patricia  -  I was talking strictly about neighborhood play.  I know that there is plenty of normal activities on school grounds in today's world.    Also, lots of organized/run by adults, type of activities for children.  There is Little League baseball and Pop Warner football.  Competitive swim teams, and endless soccer teams for all ages.  Of course the are all great and are supervised at all times by adults.  What I was remembering in my lifetime as a child, and my children's childhood, was the kids having the freedom to organize their own play and games, and doing and running everything themselves.   The neighborhood activities were not supervised by parents or coaches.

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Alongside our row of houses was a gas mask factory, mainly women working inside....When factory was closed it was manned by a male security inside...I used to stand in the road, ( a side road, no traffic ) and play tennis hitting my tennis ball with my racquet onto the factory wall...You can guess, the security man was not pleased, came to the door and told me not to hit my ball on the wall anymore and told me to go play somewhere else, of course i kept coming back...Boy, this is taking me back some 60 plus years...

[MaryPage]

Marilyne, I no longer live in the same house my husband & I bought on the G.I. Bill in 1953.  But your observations in California are the same as mine here in the Washington, D.C. Megalopolis, which includes Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis.  Fascinating to think we kids played the same games, with your home gang on the Pacific side of our U.S.A. and mine on the Atlantic side.  And hey, there were no Televisions or computers with which to learn from one another. Fascinating.

And yes, that war that was Our War, put every single one of us to work.  We checked the black out curtains, too, and checked the ration books to see if there were enough stamps combined to maybe buy a roast for a birthday party celebration.  We wrote to home town G.I.s and left food and flowers for Gold Star Mothers.  We knew, because almost every home had a little banner in the window.  Most of the stars were blue, but we sure reported it all over town when one turned gold.  Every Friday my class, or at least, those whose families could afford it, took a dime to school in our grubby little hands.  When the teacher would call out our name, we would take the dime up to her desk and get a stamp for our savings bond book.  What was the total cost?  #18.75 for a $25.00 bond?  That doesn't add up right, as ten cents was the smallest stamp amount, wasn't it?  When the tires or the battery would go bad on the family car, it would be put up in the garage "for the duration."  We would take the Greyhound absolutely everywhere.

My children's generation were the last of the Free Range Kids.  We threw them out after breakfast and they weren't to come in until called for lunch.  Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, cookies & milk.  My oldest will be 75 in September.  My youngest just turned 57 in March.  They talk about these changes among themselves, too.  They feel sorry for today's kids.