Norms Bait and Tackle

[MaryPage]

Well, Tisie: I remember who you are now!  Wondered which Shirley you were, but was pretty sure you weren't the one, I think she lived in Florida, I exchanged so many quips with.  My special memory of you was that I went to school (an all-girls boarding school) with a Tisie, and had never expected to encounter one again.  Your mother could not have been she, because my Tisie would be 94 if living, and it would have been impossible for her to have given birth at age 6 or so.

Ah, the Missouri connection.  One of my 5 daughters lives in Kansas City, as does her elder daughter.  Her younger daughter lives in St. Louis.  I don't know the name of the section of town Judith lives in, but she lives on Holly Hills Boulevard, so maybe its Holly Hills. Judith has two little boys.  One will be six next month and the elder is 8.  Both go to a public school for the gifted.  I've been meaning to ask my daughter, their grandmother, if that is peculiar to St.Louis only, to the county it is in, or to the whole state.  We don't have that here in Maryland, but they do have a special STEM program public High School (only) in Fairfax County, Virginia.  My little great grandsons, I am told, but mind you, I am no expert on these facts, having passed the tests to get in (each was nominated by their regular school teachers) are guaranteed to be able to go all the way through High School there.  Mateo, who is standing in front of me in my family photo over in Photos, and it looks as though I am choking him, albeit I swear I am not, is one of my favorite people in this whole wide world.  He is a talker.  When he was in kindergarten, Judith was sure he was going to wind up the first kid expelled despite their guarantee.  He kept coming home with notes to the parents.  Turns out he wasn't a bad kid, but a Big Time Talker.  Nothing could shut him up: he had stuff to say, and he said it.  So at the end of the year, when the school had its awards ceremony, they made up a new one, just for Mateo.  MOST TALKATIVE.  Mateo was not daunted; he was delighted.  Can't quash that kid!

Sorry to say, he gets that from Judith by way of me.  I still remember the horrible Mrs. Fritz in third grade at West Point.  She automatically put my name up on the far right corner of the black board Every Morning, and then put a check after it for every additional 5 minutes I had to stay after school that day.  For talking out of turn.  Oh, how I hated her! Once she surprised me by yelling (literally: I think she was in the wrong profession) at me with her back turned and when she turned around to berate me further, I told her I had not spoken, and she would not believe me, and over on the other side of the classroom the handsome Punch Summerall stood to be recognized, and Mrs. Fritz adored him (so did I), so she told him to speak, and he said it was not I who had spoken.  And, miracle of miracles, she Believed him!  While I swooned.  I had been in love with Punch forever.  He never learned this, but we did go to school together one last time in Fort Knox, Kentucky several years later.  His real name was Charles, but he had a twin sister Judith, and she was called Judy from birth, so the family started calling him Punch and it stuck.  You are all old enough to figure that one out.

[shirleyn]

Hey Hey Hey MaryPage!  Here is the Shirley from Florida you were talking about!  So good to see you again.  I have often wondered about you and how you were.  I am four years younger than you – so good to see someone older than me.  Of course most of my same age friends are all gone already, so no one to commiserate with.

~_~
Shirleyn

[Shirley]

Cat got me up wanting to out, he is feral, thinks he is free because if he pesters enough he gets his way all the time. Think I will have breakfast & go back to bed, my tummy appreciates being full & sends me right back to sleep, even with that cup of coffee.

I think most of us visited the Missouri discussion because they had so much fun in there & we all found some connection. And you, Shirleyn, was ONE reason I came up with Tisie, you got here before I did. All said & done, we must have all had good typing teachers, our fingers still do a lot of talking.

Only a few of us left from the old Missouri group, Lloyd still posts over in the Soda Shoppe & still has many problems with his computer & spelling, but hanging in. Have not heard from DorisA for a year or more, we used to keep in touch, her husband died but she stayed in her house. Remember Martex, Whimsy, a couple of sisters that lived in different states???.... So many names I've forgotten....I remember when Bunnie died, her husband went first, she was "the Picture Lady" that had polio as a child & the wicked return of it after her children were grown. How lucky we were to have met them all, I didn't get to but one gathering in MO.

I hear the train whistling as it goes thru Wichita... still the saddest sound to me. We've had a few deaths (suicides most), in this area so the whistle is extra loud & long in this flat land. Didn't think I would ever call Kansas "home" but have been here since Dec. of 1960 & my kids think of this as their home even though one born in England, one in MO & the last one in Liberal, KS. My husband's ashes are in a niche here, my matching urn stored in a back closet with all paid receipts inside for the niche next to his.

And that's MY story, & may have mentioned that I was a Kindergarten drop out because my father was transferred from Jefferson City to Sedalia, MO right after Pearl Harbor. Being the last of 5 I was mortified at the games & lack of teaching, so when I came down with measles & whooping cough & a drain in my lungs, my mother didn't make me go back because we were going to move anyway & NO Kindergarten in Sedalia. You girls bring up nice memories.

[MaryPage]

Forgot to make my post bigger last time.  Question: How do you get the LAST posting in the forum to come up for you?  I thought that was automatic, but it appears not to be so.  I am getting the first I posted when I came back to Norm's, and have to move forward.

Another question. Just for fun. But these days, I don't see any old folks. Like Shirley, most of my friends are dead. The 3, other than a couple of cousins far away, real friends left are all in different parts of my home state: Virginia.  And I am in Maryland and no longer driving (neither are they) and no longer wanting to be driven on those humongous highways.  Can't stay away from my personal, just-me bathroom that long, either; and cannot abide the public ones.  Contented to be just me and my apartment and my spectacular view.  So here is the question: when you DO go out, for whatever reason, does it strike you that folks, from a foot high to more than six feet, all seem to have a cell phone up to their ear, or in one hand while they stare at it and the other hand has a thumb punching away at about a thousand miles an hour?  Do you ask yourself, over and over and yet over again, WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO SAY ALL THE TIME?

When I was growing up, prior to World War II, which I think of possessively as "My War," few people had phones. They used phone boxes along the roads, if there was an emergency. Or paid (or not) the owner of the general store.  Or used a coin-operated wall phone in the few stores that had them.

We had one of the few phones in town.  It was on a special little telephone table, with the phonebook on a little shelf under it, down at the end of our center hall.  A small chair under the table.  When we got a call, if it was long distance we tended to holler down the phone as though we had to make ourselves heard, because the caller was so far away!  And everyone talked for their FULL 3 minutes, so as not to waste money, because it was x cost for the 1st 3 minutes, and then we hurriedly said goodbye so as not to be charged any more!

Well, my point is, we loved to talk, but we did not compulsively spend the money to do so.  And I cannot compare our chatting back in the day with the amount done these days. So a repeat of my question:  What in the World are these generations finding so important that they have to talk or text it CONSTANTLY?  And when do they get anything ELSE done???!!!

[Marilyne]

Mary Page -
I've noticed that very few of these cell phone addicts are actually talking.  There appears to be very little voice communication or conversation anymore . . . only constant/endless texting.  Everyone has their head down, and their thumbs in motion.  Never looking up or speaking to anyone. 

You see it in doctors or dentists waiting rooms, people sitting on park benches, women pushing baby strollers, with the phone positioned on the handle.  Never speaking to the baby in said stroller - only texting to the unseen person who is frantically texting back.  Men and women walking dogs, with a leash in one hand, and a phone in the other.  The saddest thing I see all the time, is groups of teenagers out walking home from school or around town, and they are not talking to each other - they are all walking and texting at the same time!   I always wonder if they are texting each other, as they walk along, instead of bothering to talk?  Maybe that generation doesn't know how to carry on a normal face to face conversation?

[MaryPage]

Same here, Marilyne. Same here. I'm seeing all the same things you do. Do not own a smart phone of any type.  Am quite deaf, and find I need my trusty AT&T land line phone that I can hear quite well on.  And I can see.  My eyes are not what one might wish for, and I simply hate cell phones.  The children want me to have one for emergencies, such as power outages; they, the children,  own the ability to worry up a storm.  OK, they come by that trait directly from me.  So I pay Debi & Steve to be in their "family group."  I send them a check every 2 months in advance, and the phone is parked in my purse, turned to off. And there it sits.  And sits, and sits, and sits. I really have no need for it!

[patricia19]

Smart phones are not just phones or for texting. They're mini computers, and you can go to practically any Internet site, including this one. You can pay bills, play games, check emails, play videos, look at photos or order online, check your home, and turn on and off parts of your home. Or use cameras to survey inside and out of your home.

 You can lock or unlock your home or car's doors via your smartphone. You can read books, check your taxi or bus's whereabouts or your family cars' locales. Or check your clock on your smartphone. Watches and alarm clocks sales are down because smartphones are used. A smartphone is an all-in-one mini media device.

[CallieOK]

Good Afternoon,

Re: people using phones and texts, etc.  I don't know how many times I've said something to someone who (whom?) I thought was talking to me - only to discover they're wearing an ear bud (like an oversize hearing aid) and are having a conversation that doesn't require them to hold anything. 

Patricia, my son has a phone that allows him to turn on his hot tub as he leaves work so he can get in as soon as he gets home.  It also allows him to be notified via video when something (usually feral hogs) enter a big cage-like trap he has on some property 125 miles away - plus shut the gate so they can't get out.  Then he notifies the local fellow who runs cattle on the property and can watch him pull up and shoot the hogs.
(These hogs are a destructive nuisance all over the state and it is absolutely legal to shoot as many as possible.)

Mary Paige, I refer to my 20-something Grands as Miss Ellen, Miss Emily and Sir Carson. This group has been wonderful to show interest in them.
I do keep up with them via cell phone text and messaging on Facebook.

Latest news is that Miss Ellen is flying in (from her home in NYC) for Sir Carson's graduation from Oklahoma State in a couple of weeks and Miss Emily (now Dr. Emily, chiropractor,  who works at an OKC suburban clinic) has more than 35 patients of her very own - in addition to those she treats as a member of the staff.  I think this is great for someone who graduated in December and has been fully licensed to practice in Oklahoma since January.

Nothing really special going on in my life - just various things that need my attention for a while and limits my posting.

Wishing Everyfriend Everywhere an Enjoyable Day.

[MaryPage]

Those grandchildren sound Wonderful, Callie.  All of mine are well past their twenties now.  I have a great granddaughter named Emily who is 27.  I have only one granddaughter of the 13 whom I call "Miss."  Down Home, when I was a youngster, almost all the women in town were called "Miss" and their first names. I don't do the shopping any longer, Callie; but I remember hearing people walking by themselves up and down the aisles and talking away, seemingly to no one.

Patricia, just about all of my family members own Smartphones, so I know what they do.  I just don't NEED what they do.  I no longer drive, so don't need one for any of the things one will do with a car. I prefer talking on a land line, and I am almost always at home, so that is easy.  I decided after buying a bunch of electronic books for my Ipad that I prefer the real thing, and I get very frustrated with the smallness of any cell phone. With a computer in an Ipad and a regular size computer and internet access on my TV, I need a computer I would have to use with a magnifying glass like I need something to drive me crazy. Just don't like the pesky little things.  Color me stuck in my ways; but then again, what does a 92 year old who is close to a shut-in in her own apartment need with one? I have a smart TV, but have not learned to utilize half of what it will do.

[patricia19]

MaryPage, now I haven't owned a television since 1997, and I'm not on Facebook any longer. I am on Twitter for political reasons and Instagram because my local friends are. I wouldn't say I like videos and prefer to read the information, but that's a quirk. Another quirk is anyone over the age of eight using the word yummy, but that's recent.

I have both physical and ebooks but don't like audiobooks because they put me to sleep. I own a nonworking desktop computer, one laptop, and a kindle, plus two external drives for backup that are not left continually plugged in.

I have six shelves of cookbooks I've amassed over the years and four shelves of How to, plants, photography, and philosophy and psychiatry books. The other two shelves are on decluttering and home decorating.

People tell me to donate them, which I find amazing because I often go back and reread sections akin to coming back to old friends.

I rarely use my smartphone to call anyone other than my morning text-athon with local friends during this uncertain time. I do use it as a mini-computer and list maker, and life management device. During the total lockdown my city has been under since March 2020, it's my go-to.

We're all different In how we live our lives, and you have been one of my dearest online friends for years. I admire our differences.

[Denver]

Thursday evening already. This week has been a very trying one for our family.  The week started out very bleak for Michele, but the last two days have shown some improvements.  Of course any improvements are just wonderful to hear.  She is slowly starting to get a bit stronger. The decision was made yesterday to start radiation on her entire brain. This has not been a treatment plan they ever wanted to do, hence the three gamma knife procedures that she did have done on smaller regions. They did treatment #2 today and 5 more will follow each day.
The goal is to get her stronger so she can get home as soon as possible!

Tomorrow I go to see my surgeon.  I will get my sutures out, I am sure.  Then I know I will be told what PT he will want me to start. Problem being.....he is used to working on athletes and not old ladies that are not in great shape!  I am hoping he will agree to let me have some in home PT to start.

MARY PAIGE, how delightful it is to see you posting.  It is nice to have you back in the fold.  Sadly many of our friends are missing, but I for one certainly feel happy to have the few of us here that are left. The mention of the PA Bash brings the biggest smile to my face.  We all had such a nice time.....something I will never forget.

I have to go, my battery is down to 5%.

Pleasant dreams to all.

Jenny

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Jenny...
...quoting your " he is used to working on athletes and not old ladies that are not in great shape!
...you are lucky, people when i am out and about with my rollator, or when i get off my mobility scooter, see me as an old " drunk " lady, due to my worsening MS...Just tell him working with an " old lady " will be an experience for him, he too will be old one day...

[patricia19]

Jenny, I'm keeping you and Michelle and your whole family in my thoughts and hoping for some good news!

[Marilyne]

Jenny - Good to see that Michele has improved in the past couple of days.  Her spinal surgery was successful, and now we will all be hoping and praying that the radiation treatments will also be successful.   She is a incredibly brave woman, and will continue to do whatever it takes to go home to be with Dave, and their three children. 
Hoping the visit to your surgeon today, will be good news, and that your shoulder and arm are on the road to recovery!

Patricia - in my last post, I was only referring to cell phone use in public places, where people pay rapt attention to their phones, instead of engaging in real social interaction.  I was bemoaning the major changes that cell phone usage has brought about in our society. It doesn't seem natural to me, not to interact with others when out and about.  Only my personal opinion of course.    I wasn't criticizing or thinking at all, about people who use their phones for daily tasks like paying bills, making appointments, watching videos, contacting children or grandchildren, etc.  I've been doing those things for many years.   Just that I prefer doing them on my computer, since my eyesight is poor, and my arthritic hands make it difficult to hold my iPhone for long, or to type a text message in that tiny little space!    Emails work better for me if I want to contact someone.

Callie - Glad you'll be seeing Miss Ellen again soon.   Be sure to find our when she'll be starting her rehearsals for "Mrs. Maisel", and approximately when we will be able to see the show again?   Congratulations to Sir Carson on his graduation from OSU!  Will he be starting his new job in AR, right away, or will he be home for a while?

More later . . . I have to make a trip to the store for weekend groceries.
Hello to everyone else who looks in this morning. 

[patricia19]

Marilyne, I knew that! I was mentioning that they might be doing anything other than talking randomly when out in public.

Cell phones have revolutionized the way we live, work and interact in a short time. Public usage comes across and is rude, especially when you physically deal with a clerk, service personnel, or others. However, it's not likely to change as people are inherently self-absorbed.

I remember once when it happened to me when I was assisting a clerk and her customer as an assistant manager. This guy was ignoring the clerk and me waiting while he was on his cell. After noticing us just silently standing there, he paused and looked at us. I told him not to worry. We'd just wait until he was done or perhaps he might want to come back?

[CallieOK]

Marilyne,  Ellen has already "filmed" the "Mrs. Maisel" episode; I think it's for the next season but I don't know when.
Carson has been assigned to a big project (he says for 2 years) in Lancaster, Texas - which is a suburb on the south edge of Dallas.  He reports a month after graduation so he/parents will have time to find him an apartment or small house to rent and get him moved in.

MaryPage,  my Emily will be 27 in September.  Loved the pictures of your entire family - what a special "blend" that is!!

Jenny, I am amazed at all that's being done to/for Michelle.  Bless her heart; she must feel as if her body is being run over by a very long train.
Hope you're getting a good report on your shoulder, etc. today.  at your comment about p.t. not working on old ladies.  You may have to remind him.

Nothing much going on in my world. Our weather has been so cold that planting annuals is not yet possible.  I think I saw a hummingbird at the feeder today but it didn't stay.

 I'm glad that e-books I had on Hold are beginning to appear in my loan list. Most recent one is the newest "Miss Julia" and I'm enjoying it.

[MaryPage]

Like the whole world these days, the technology in here has changed somewhat since I started in Senior Net in 1999.  I note, for instance, a like or liked at the end of most posts.  Have  read & heard about those being used in Facebook, but have never understood precisely what they are for and what they mean.  Color me clueless!

Thank you for your sweet words, Patricia. They are very comforting.

[Vanilla-Jackie]

Mary Page...
... i dont think many use it but if one likes a members posting, they can click on the thumbs up hand link...I am assuming numbers come up, or you receive an alert, showing the post is popular....we will have to give it a go, see what happens...

[patricia19]

MaryPage, the like button is a type of shorthand. You click on a post you like, and the person who posted it will see a note of it in their alerts. It is used heavily, especially if you want someone to know you like something they posted without going into detail. It is widespread in the PSP discussion, among others.

You will see three items, your name, your "my Messages" button, and your "alert button" at the top left hand of this page.

I will click the like button on your last post, and when you click on your Alerts, my name will appear alongside any others who may have clicked Like on one of your posts.

[patricia19]

Simplifying English for The Americans | Michael McIntyre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCo0hSFAWOc

[Tomereader1]

Jenny, do get started with your therapy wherever the doctor suggests.  They will treat you gently, according to his instructions.  Everything is kind of "measured" and they only add things that your body/arm can take.  I personally loved going to PT, and when Covid came and I had to stop going, I didn't do well with continuing my exercises "at home", and that probably was not a good thing, as I feel I didn't progress very much after that happened.  I do try to get in some exercises for the shoulder.  The wrist, with daily use, is taking care of itself.  The PT folks won't PUSH you and ask for more than you body is capable of handling.  My thoughts are with you while you go through this.  It was no picnic breaking my humerus and my wrist in 3 places at 80.
As always, my prayers are with Michelle and family, which includes you, of course!

[MarsGal]

Hi all.

Patricia, I just loved that comedy clip. Thanks!

Jenny, I am so sad to hear that Michelle has to go through more has to undergo more surgery. She (and the family) has gone through so much already.

Lucy and I are off the the vets a little later for her semi-annual blood work. I am not expecting good results because the last week she has decided she doesn't want to eat much of her wet food with the medicine in it. I feel lucky if I can get a half a pill down her in a day instead of the one and a half she usually gets. She is eating though, and doesn't seem to be losing weight, nor has she gone hyperactive yet.

I got my grocery shopping out of the way yesterday, so tomorrow I plan on mowing lawn - again. Sigh!

A new problem cropped up last week - another groundhog under the porch. I'll have to call the animal control guy again. Meanwhile, I have scheduled both landscaper (for bottom of the yard fix) and someone to power wash the house. My intention is to do a few repairs, etc. to make the house more presentable for sale without spending an arm and a leg for it should I still want to sell rather than upgrade/remodel. I do need to get the plumber out to fix an outside spigot that will no longer shut off and possibly do a few other minor things. If I end up staying there will be a bunch of things I will eventually want or have to get done, including those windows and doors that I have been wanting to get done for two years but was thwarted by my contractor going out of business and then COVID. Suffice it to say that there is lots to think about regarding the house and whether to sell or not. Meanwhile, sometime this week I am going to fill out the wait list forms for a nice retirement community near here.

[Marilyne]

MarsGal -  I see that you've been here alone in Bait and Tackle, all day today!     I feel bad that I didn't check in sooner, to say hello.  It must have been one of those days when everyone was busy with Saturday activities, and it looks like you had a lot to do today too. 

I hope that your visit to the vet with Lucy, was a good one, and that he found her to be in good health?   Sounds like you're getting lots of things scheduled, that need to be taken care of in your yard.  Maybe you'll decide to stay in your house, once you get everything the way you want it?   In the meantime, that's a good idea to get on the waiting list for the retirement community.

Hope to see another message from you in the morning, as well as from all the others who usually post here. 

[MarsGal]

Looks like the sun is shining this morning after an all nighter rain/drizzle. Might actually be able to get out and mow the front yard this afternoon.

Lucy is doing okay for now, Marilyne. She went up for her semi-annual blood check. I am not expecting it to be all that good because she has decided she doesn't want to eat any of the wet food with her meds in it. This morning I fed her some wet food without the meds and she at it. Tomorrow I will start back with the meds and see what happens.

Not much else to report this morning. I do hope everyone is doing well today.

[Amy]

MarsGal ,can you hide her meds in a piece of cheese slice? Or in a sardine? Would she eat this?

[MaryPage]

The Chesapeake goes its beautiful way, changing color and mood by the hour.  The impossibility of those colors makes living on the water a constant delight and comfort, and adds in a greater appreciation of the efforts of those gifted with the talent to paint these precise moments on canvas.  Before I acquired this grand view, I tended to pass rather quickly by canvases I believed showed only the disturbed minds of their creators.  Then Bob & I discovered myriad variations, and one in particular that quite simply stunned us. Not always at six P.M., because Time varies with every passing day, but definitely at the hour of sunset and only lasting about 10 minutes, vivid shades of salmon and azure clothe this great bay.  It became our habit to call this "that time," as in: "Oh, look Bob!  It's That Time!"  And he would put down his evening highball, lean forward in his recliner and vow: "There it is!"

The two spans of the Chesapeake Bay Bridges stretch for 4½ miles from Annapolis to Kent Island, which is almost, but not quite, connected to Maryland's Eastern Shore.  Marylanders never say "bridges" in conversation, only bridge.  Another bridge, this time a short single link, connects Kent Island and the greater mass of the Delmarva Peninsula at "The Narrows."  Delmarva may seem a strange appellation, here is the source:  Delaware, Maryland and Virginia meet on this peninsula.                                                                   

 

[patricia19]

Thank you MaryPage for that lovely piece. Are there complementary photos of that time, elusive as it may be?

[Denver]

A good Sunday Evening HELLO to y'all.

First and foremost...AGAIN  I thank you ALL for the prayers and support you give for Michele.  She has been in a lot of pain today from the chest tube in her lung, but Dave said it is draining well and hopefully she can have it removed tomorrow 🙏🙏

Seem I have not posted since my visit to the surgeon.  I thought sure I had😩  The appointment went well. I only saw the docs PA, not him.
My sutures are out....the glued incision just waits to fall out when ever. They took X-rays of both shoulders.  Surgery one looks great, but the hurt one I have to get a MRI this coming Thursday to make sure I did not tear the rotator cuff.  I will be having in home PT for awhile 👍. I ask the if I was sitting up or laying down for my surgery?  They said I was sitting in a beach chair when my surgery was done....had a nice vacation and didn't even know it‼️

IF Ihave torn my rotator cuff on my good arm I will not be able to have it repaired until the first one is healed completely ‼️😩  I certainly hope and pray the MRI proves it is just a strain🙏🙏

Michele had a chest tube put into the bad lung that has the dead part last Friday.  They did not want to do this but she had to have it done as well as the 5 radiation treatments on her brain before they will allow her to join a new clinical study starting next week. 

Dave took the children to visit Michele yesterday morning and it went very well.  Dave said it was just like they were sitting around the dinner table.  The kids thought she looked better than they expected her to😘. Best medicine possible for their mama
I must go help with dinner.  Dinner is over.....home made lasagna brought to us by one of my sweet first cousin's yesterday morning.  Along  with 2 breakfast's and fruit..  Veggie tray, special pasta salad, chili with corn bread bites and shredded cheese for the top and this amazing lasagna.  We ate on it all day yesterday and today, so it gave Bob a nice break from cooking. 

MARSGAL, it seems lil Lucy is one smart girl to know that she could eat the food without the meds in it🤣 I feel for you as I can relate very well to your thoughts of selling vs fixing up your home.  We have been there for a couple of years now....way before Covid stepped it.  There are two of us weighing out the odds and we still do not know what we should do,.  Clearing out has proven to be very difficult for me to do, regarding pictures and papers that have been given to me by both sides of the family.  I certainly wish you the best as you move down this path💕

TOMREADER, I thank you for your advice regarding my PT.  I plan to do as you suggest so that I can get back to being capable again......heaven forbid I have torn my rotator cuff and will have to go through this again😩

Hey MP....just read your post.....loved reading it.....

Pleasant dreams to all....have a great Monday.

Jenny

[MaryPage]

No point in photos, as your search engine can find them all.  Search Delmarva Peninsula.  Search Chesapeake Bay Bridges.  The first bridge was opened in 1952 and the second in 1972.  Before that, there were only ferries. Search Chesapeake Bay Bridges at Sunrise and/or at Sunset and look under Images for a myriad pictures.  I live just to the south of those bridges, on the Atlantic Ocean side.  Baltimore is to the north, on the other side.  If you look at a map and draw a straight line with a ruler between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, and then one between Baltimore, Maryland and here where I live, Annapolis, Maryland, and then a third between Annapolis and Washington, D.C., you will see you have a triangle.  We are 30 minutes from Washington by car, and 45 minutes from Baltimore.  Baltimore is one of the largest ports in the nation, so we see a very large number of cargo ships coming and going.  We, however, are the sailing capital of the United States.  Newport, Rhode Island claims that title, as well and all.  I will tell you the truth, we are.  The whole world recognizes us.  I will also tell you a dirty little secret most of the world does not know about, though they could were they at all interested.  There are varsity sailing teams at all of the sailing spots along all of our seacoasts that also have a college.  Those colleges compete fiercely.  Of course, one would think the United States Naval Academy, with over 4,000 midshipmen who must learn to sail before they graduate, would beat every other college they compete with, where sailing is a choice, not a requirement, wouldn't you?

Not so.  There is a much smaller liberal arts college, a State school, with a total of about 1,500 students down in Southern Maryland called St. Mary's College of Maryland.  They beat the Naval Academy most years.  Deed they do!  Tickles me pink, and then furrows my brow!

[MaryPage]

Search "Sailing competition U.S.N.A. and St. Mary's College of Maryland"  Yep, St. Mary's beat Navy again the last time they met.  I think they skipped 2020; Covid, you know.  Two of my 13 granddaughters are graduates of St. Mary's, and one, Maria, was actually on the sailing varsity, until she could not handle getting up at 4:30 in the morning any longer, and quit. I really wanted her to keep it up, but I understood.  I wanted her to graduate More!  Which I am happy to say, she did.

Speaking of beating Navy, and of coarse, you understand that my being an Army Brat because my dad was a career Army officer who graduated from West Point has NOTHING to do with my stories, but Annapolis boasts two colleges, not counting our junior college.  St. John's is one of the oldest in the nation: much older that Navy.  They share boundaries, though.  St. John's is the famous "Great Books" college.  They do not compete in sailing, or anything else. But. But after being next to one another for a hundred years or so, they decided they ought to be playing one another at Something!  So the Johnnies suggested croquet. Well, Navy did not play croquet.  But there is an old saw that you cannot sink the Navy, so they started a varsity team.  In Croquet.  Yep!  All the resources of the Defense Budget of the United States of America went to work, and zippity do dah, we had a croquet team at the Naval Academy.

Of course, most years they lose to St. John's.

It has, that game, become one of the most desirable social events of our year.  I used to attend back when it was a freebie.  Now they have only 5,000 tickets (I never needed one back in the day.), and it is a sell out.  Everyone dresses up Edwardian style and there are blanket picnics all over the lawns, with plates piled high with shrimp and ham and biscuits and candelabra.  Google THAT!  Croquet competition St. John's vs Navy.  Look at Images!  It is to die for!  Seriously.

Annapolis is a divine place to have fun in.  We know how to do that.