Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Drive by Pictures of Home.

Question....why does a person, ok, namely me. Spend 5 hours dragging a niece all over the countryside looking for a replacement pattern book that must have been left on a plane, since it's no where to be found....only to discover it's sitting a mear 4 blocks away from where said person is staying? Which I might add..is next door to the best restaurant here in town...in my opinion..ok mabye not the best..but it's my favorite...gotta loveeeeeeeeeeee their steak sandwhiches.

Cuz after driving all over kingdom come the other day, I was whinning to my cousin that I couldn't find a replacement one. She told me to go look at Robbys Hobbys. When I asked her why I spent the other 5 hours searching without any luck? Her answer: cuz you didn't ask me!

Smart mouth. Love you too cousin. However, in her defense...and only because she apparently gave me the tip of the trip, I have now learned of this 'treasure trove'. This is the 'old fashioned' kind of hobby store that has EVERYTHING! All things Red Heart, rug yarn, plastic dolls to crochet around to put on your bed, candlewicking, plastic models, glue and paints, remote controlled cars, cross stitch, beads, jewelry fixings, candle making..and apparently the only copy of the book I needed on the face of the earth! Next time...I'm calling cousin M first. 5 hours of shopping in stores that don't have what I need? Crazy time...

So, now that the book is safely back in my hands...I thought I'd go tootle around town to see what was what while Mom and Dad were off to the radiation treatments. Dad's doing pretty well, all things considered. He's not a fan of the fatigue factor. I keep teasing them about being the 'glow in the dark twins' now that they've each had their 'turns' with radiation.
I did find the best signal for my cell phone in town...it just happens to be in the center of the bridge over the river! Ahhhhhhhh..not the best place to hold a conversation. Definately not practical.
If you look in this picture, you'll see a cement bench next to the sign in the front yard. This is a couple of blocks away from Mom and Dad's. Last night to be able to talk to my daughter, I sat on this bench, tilted my head towards traffic sideways..and could talk to her for the first time in days. I think I gave myself a kink in my neck. And the call still dropped several times. Ok, back to our little tour.....Here is the place I worked my senior year of high school for awhile, until we got our sports teams back and they didn't want me taking a few Friday nights off for marching band at the games.
This is down town...(Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore...sure doesn't look like Southern California here) Back in junior high school, this is where we would go sledding and ice skating down
the hill. It was also the first place I was allowed to go without my parents tagging along. It's also the place...where if you were a lucky girl...you got your first kiss...when you went inside here to warm up and get some hot chocolate. *Ahem* of course, I never was a lucky girl. *ahem* This used to be called the Nut house. I remember going there to pick up HUGE bags of popcorn to pop and sell during wrestling tournaments. We used to have a bridge where the fence is, until a barge hit it my senior year of high school. The Red Lion is where Beth and I used to go for Chocolate Cokes on Saturday afternoons.That's been closed for awhile, now. They were good! I'd never had them before. Mill-End was the original overstock.com store back then. It's the only place that I could find my white knee boots for my majorette outfit. So much of the store smelled like smoke. Have you heard of 'fire sales'? Yep, they earned their name. But I had to have those boots. Loverly-right?The Empire is also closed. I saw my first Steve McQueen movie there. There so many places that have changed in town.This is our old library, also closed. It was were we all flocked the night before our Econ stocks project was due, cuz none of us did the assignments every week for the 8 weeks we were supposed to keep track. Ya, high school smarts. Even the high school is now a Junior high and the junior high is an elementary school these days.This was where my dad worked. It was on the corner of Catherine and Thomas streets. My name is Catherine, and my brother is Thomas. Our youngest brother is Peter, but the other street was Henry, and he had no desire to change his name.hahahaha...so, they named the alley Peter's Alley, and then Peter's parking lot when the houses were torn down later on. That is still opened. ahhahaa...lots has changed, but Grandpa Tony's is still there and it's still home. Even if Mom and Dad have moved to an apartment across the river from where my old bedroom used to be. AAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhh good to be home for a little visit. And they're still playing baseball down in the park at night. Grab a cold one...I'll meet you in 5!