Yup! We are Family!!

I enjoy watching our grandchildren grow, I like to see how their characteristics are the same, and how they are different, some even take me back to my own childhood with my siblings; and that makes it all the more fun to watch.

Several weeks ago we had our Lancaster grandchildren for the weekend. They come here mixing Spanish and English...and then throw in a little Dutch to thoroughly confuse me, and I wonder if I will ever understand them! Then I see them in action and know they are right where they belong!

They might have some Spanish blood in them and eat the cultural foods from their fathers country but when they come to Grandma's house they ask for roast beef and mashed potatoes, they want French Fries, and Oreos.  Now that is a language I understand!!

It was at Grandma's house that they first got introduced to Lucky Charms, better known as "grandpa's cereal"!! Now this is the correct way to eat Lucky Charms!! There is no other way. Grandma is the only one who lets anyone get away with this, and she even understands that everything else in the bowl is "yuk"!! Sure, you can buy the little marshmallows in bulk, and eat them by the hand full, not only do they taste disgusting but that takes all the fun out of fishing for charms!! (The lighting is very poor on this clip but you can still see what he is doing)

 

 

Sunday morning I was getting this same little boy ready for church. He had told me when I gave him his bath the night before that I was not supposed to get his hair wet! So here I am on Sunday morning , we have five minutes till we are supposed to be in the car, and I am frantically trying to comb out his mess of curls! I got it all combed out beautifully but he looked like this...

 

 

Which immediately took me back through the years to this....

 

 

I sent a quick frantic picture to his mother, who immediately sent back a frantic reply, "You're not taking him to church like that, are you?" , she then walked me through the whole "mousse" process, turning a head of wild curls into a lovely batch of tight ringlets!!! If we only knew in 1980, what we know now, my own brother might have had a lovely crop of tight ringlets!  :) 

 

One hot summer day I was taking a lunch out to Rob in the field and two of our grandsons wanted to come along with me. Since I hadn't planned on taking the boys along I only had enough lunch for Rob. It made a very interesting half hour. As one little boy was sitting on the back seat, the other was hanging over the front seat, keeping tabs on what "gampap" was eating and how he was eating it. "He's eatin' his sammich now, Wancie" , "Wait! whats he pokin' wif a fowk?" "Why you eating cheese culls with a fowk gampap?" "Gampap" has always eaten cheese curls with a fork!! What is really fun is when they notice this at the table and then everybody needs a fork to eat their cheese curls.

 

 

This clip was about 8 years ago but it could have been about 40! I have a little sister that would boss her nieces and nephews around just like this. If you would ask them now...she still tries!!  

This little girl has grown up a lot but she still knows where everybody belongs!  

  

 

 

Life isn't complete without broken oreos in a cup of milk!! This is one tradition that started with these little girls' father, and has spread through the whole tribe!! They tell me it is the only way to  eat oreos!  I think it is purely disgusting. It just reminds me of mud!

 

When they finally scoop out all the soggy cookies, they actually drink the... milk??

Good to the last drop!!

 

 

When I look over these pictures and clips I see a little bit of Rob and I in their faces and in their actions and that is what makes us family!

 

 

Memories....the old and the new (Part 3)

The next day we had made reservations at the Elkins Depot to take a four hour train ride.

 

 

 It was a vintage train called the New Tygart Flyer. It had climate controlled cars with tables and cushioned chairs.  Very comfortable! We rode for 23 miles up into the Cheat Mountain.

We were served a delicious cold lunch buffet. It was a challenge trying to walk with a plate of food on a moving train. I saw several people's eyes widen as I was walking toward them and the train lurched.  This was my sleepy lunch partner. We had our table all to ourselves.

 

We passed through a tunnel that only had a five inch clearance at some places.  We knew it was close since we could see the wall right at our window.

 

 

This was an old bridge that is no longer in use.

 

 

 

 When we got close to the top of the mountain, we had to stop for 10 minutes or so till they moved the engines to the back of the train so they could push us the rest of the way up.

At the High Falls of Cheat, we had a 45 minute break. We got out and walked down to the falls, it was well worth the walk.
                                                        

This was the parlor car, a romantic table for two with high back plush chairs. To be in this car also added 12-15 dollars onto the ticket price. The folks in this car also had to walk through three cars to get to the dining car.

 

 

After we got back to the station it was still too early to go back to the hotel so we drove out to Beverly, W Va. Rob loves Civil War history, there was supposed to be a battlefield out that direction. This is where I got powerfully sick! I got out and took a couple pictures so that helped. We drove, and drove, and drove, up a gravel mountain road and finally came to a field that was overgrown with weeds and this sign!

 

 

I had to get a picture of this power line. My camera does not do it justice at all.  I am sure this is where the song, "The Bear Went Over The Mountain" originated. It was just one mountain after another. I have now seen enough mountains to last me for a long time!

 

  

Sunday Morning we went to visit a small mountain church, called Brushy Run Mennonite Church. We looked it up on the internet and Rob said he was pretty sure it was close to the same area he had been 31 years ago. As we drove up to the church, it was 2 1/2 miles off the main road, he said it was the same road he had hunted on.  We had never met anyone at the church before but they were very welcoming. As we visited with them we found out we knew a lot of the same people. We were invited to have lunch with Larry and Rhoda Showalter, while we were there we found out their son and daughter in law had been about 6 miles from our farm the day before. They say its a small world but that weekend made it feel smaller when we took my old memories, and his old memories, and made our own brand new memories.

Memories....the old and the new (Part 2)

As we continued on our way, we eventually came to the stop sign in Springfield. There was the country store. Still a store but not as I remembered. It was at this corner the school bus would drop off my older siblings so they could catch the high school bus that took them into Romney. Springfield Greenspring Elementary was where I started first grade and hated every minute of it. It still looks the same as I remembered. I could just visualize my second grade teacher rapping on the window, motioning us to hurry up and get to the classroom. She was the grumpiest teacher I ever had, and I was scared to death of her.

 

We drove through the little blink and you're through it town, out to where the road followed the Potomac River. Looking across the river we saw the farm where our family lived for two and a half years. I have accumulated a store house of memories in those few years. (This picture was taken a few years ago, in the fall. We couldn't drive back to the farm so we stopped at the road and looked across the river.) To catch the school bus we would either have to walk out a three mile lane, or row the boat across the river to the road. Rowing across the river was more fun and a whole lot faster.

 

 

It is amazing that the house has not changed at all since the time we lived there. The barn has not been so fortunate, it is starting to lose its boards and looks ready to fall down.

 Behind the barn was the big hill where we would go sledding. We used those old round metal Coco-Cola signs for sleds. It was an exhilarating ride!

 

 

We didn't spend much time here, it was getting late in the afternoon, and we still had two hours to our hotel. As we continued south we came to Seneca Rocks, W VA. I was having a terrible time staying awake until Rob said, "Hey I was here before."

 

 

     Thirty one years ago Rob had went hunting with a buddy of his to this area. We started passing landmarks he recognized and he kept me entertained with the stories of his hunting trip.  We even passed the road where they drove up into the mountains to hunt.
We finally reached our hotel, high on the hill in Elkins W VA! What a welcome sight!

 

We didn't get a room with a view so I didn't get a picture of the town.

                                                             ~ to be continued

 

Memories....the old and the new (Part 1)

For our anniversary trip this year I wanted to take Rob down a memory lane from my own childhood. We started out not really knowing where we were going but knew what direction we wanted to take. My first mistake was leaving the directions my sister gave me at home. My second mistake was bringing the new road atlas instead of the old one. And my third mistake was following the GPS. The only mistake Rob made was letting me plan the trip!!

Our first stop was Old Town MD. The story of the C&O Canal is very interesting. The canal towpath trail runs 185 miles along the Potomac River, from Washington DC to Cumberland Maryland. You can walk or bike it and camp at the "primitive" campgrounds along the way.

This is Lock house #70 at Old Town

 

 

...and this is the canal

 

 

You can see the towpath (lower pic) on the left side of the canal. 

If we were bikers and campers that would be a future trip,

but, sadly,we are neither.

 

 

Our next stop was to pay 1.50 to cross the Low Water Bridge. This bridge is very unique because

it has no sides. Buses and tractor trailers also use this bridge. It is the only way to get to West Virginia unless you go the long way around through Cumberland MD.

 

As I was driving along I realized we were going the wrong direction to see our next attraction.

Rob said, "turn around, we have all day" a phrase he will live to regret! We turned around and started back toward the bridge. We came to a road that went up into a mountain, Rob suggested we try that road, "it has to lead somewhere". It did!! After 5 miles of meeting one way traffic, twisting and winding ever upward we came to a gated community and a "no trespassing" sign. Turning around we followed the familiar road back down the mountain and once again paid 1.50 to cross the bridge.

We found Paw Paw W VA about 12 miles down the road.

I had heard a lot about the Paw Paw Tunnel from my siblings, but I don't ever remember being there.

 

 

 

We walked 6/10 of a mile to the tunnel.

 

 

The tunnel was about 6/10 of a mile long.

Outside it was very hot and sticky but inside the tunnel the temperature dropped quite drastically.

We weren't quite half way through when  I was ready to turn around.

This was looking back at the entrance...

 

 

...and this was looking at the finish!

 

We walked back to the car and continued to travel away from Paw Paw. At this point the GPS could find no matches for the addresses I was putting into it. Our trusty atlas didn't even have the towns listed that we had already visited. We were traveling by instinct and our instinct told us we were going to have to turn around again. Somewhere along the way I quit hearing, "turn around, we have all day" and I started hearing, "just so we don't have to cross that bridge again"

Well we did, we crossed over the Potomac River again and forked out another 1.50. Thankfully the shift had changed and we had a different gate tender.

 

       We were starting to get very tired and our hotel was still several hours away. I still wanted to see the farm where my family lived in W. VA. I knew I could find it once we got in the little town of Springfield. As we were traveling on the Green Spring Rd toward Springfield,

 I wondered if we would pass the little store where dad would stop and buy us popsicles. He would always holler out, "anybody that is sleeping don't get any ice cream", that usually brought everybody up. One time I was sound asleep and didn't hear the call, but he still got me ice cream.

~to be continued~