The DePeyster Historian

My time in upstate was so busy and so prophetic. When I saw this home for sale, while living in California, I never knew that it was calling me home.

Spending two weeks there went quickly but it took me another 6 years before I made the move to live in my new home. I knew that there was a Cemetery 1/4 mile from the house and after we moved in, I used to look at it from my upstairs doll room window.

I have an affinity for Cemeteries. I don't know why but it has always been that way for me. From the Creek Cemetery Mounds as a child to the Coon Hill Cemetery ghost at night, a Cemetery brings me peace. It was only right that I bought a home with a Cemetery close by and I was devastated when the owners of the land next to me sold it and someone built a home between me and my beloved Cemetery. Thank goodness it was far enough back off the road that I could still view it, but I had to close one of my eyes to block out the house. lol.

It was not long after we moved in that I walked down to take a look at the small enclosed Cemetery. There were probably only about 100 graves, most of them in good shape, some of them unmarked and some of them marked with familiar names... Peacock... Morris.... McCurdy.... All names of my family. I remember how stunned I was to see my family names in this tiny Cemetery in a village of 55 people in upstate NY. I had bought a home that belonged to me. Deeper than I would have ever known but it made sense of this longing within me, to be home, this home and to stay forever. That was why it was so hard to drag me away from it, until it almost killed me.

Everything I did, reminded me that this home was meant to be mine. Digging in the garden produced dolls, toys, marbles, a child's shoe, a complete wagon. I had found the burn pile or the place where they threw every thing away that was considered unneeded. We found many things over the years as we made our garden larger and larger, but my favorite things were the dolls and medical bottles. I was a Nurse and I was a doll collector and later I found out something that stunned me . It let me know for certain that this home and place had called to me for a reason.

I immediately immersed myself in the history of the town seeking out the Present Historian, Adelaide Steele and she became my mentor. I could have spent a thousand years with this wonderful lady and never know all that she did. She imparted her wisdom and knowledge of the town as often as she could and had the town make me Deputy Historian, so that I could be at all the meetings and learn. She recognized my thirst for knowledge and although I had come from California, that I belonged with them.

Hanging in the round house, that would one day be my office as Historian, was a picture of Jesse McCurdy. Just the name alone sent shivers down my spine and when I looked into his face, I could see my family. I wish so much that I had a photograph of this portrait but many of my pictures were lost on an old computer.

My family name of McCurdy, the cemetery with Morris, Peacock and McCurdy's buried there were not a coincidence. In the many books that the Historical society had was one that talked about my home. It used to be a former dairy on 565 acres. It also listed the names of the previous owners, a McCurdy!!!

My home that Daddy helped me buy was a McCurdy home. The chills found me that day. Serendipity at its best and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had come home. It was the hardest thing I ever did leaving that house, that Cemetery, that place that called to my soul. It was the hardest time in my life and yet it left me with memories that warm my heart.

I was given a gift. I lived clear across the country and yet we picked up a paper that day and saw the house for sale. A home almost 3000 miles from where I lived. I bought it the day I saw it, a two story, 2500 sq ft home on just 3 acres at that time. A few years later we bought another 80 acres that originally belonged to the house. I wanted as much of the original acreage as I could get. Then I got sick and everything changed in my life.

Someone else occupies my home now but it still belongs to me and my family. A McCurdy owned it 100 years ago and a McCurdy descendant owned it again for 25 years.

My children grew up there with the marks and names on the beam signaling a height and age change. The new owner promised me that if they wanted to paint, they would remove the beam and send it to me. I believe that they will do that for me. God sent them to buy my home. I believe so that a child would be in the house again and so that another family member would own the home. Their family owned most of the rest of the acreage that originally belonged to the house so they are home now, as much as I was before them.

I love you my dear friends. I pray that your days are blessed like mine are.. Always, Kimmee

Western Town inside Nall's Store... Flomaton, Alabama

Hi my friends,
Y'all have heard me mention that I grew up on 120 acres, 6 miles from the Florida/Bama line. It was a quick Jaunt to Century where Daddy worked at Alger Sullivan Company, then you came to Flomaton. One of the first inhabitants of Flomaton was a relative by common law marriage, Hiram Renfroe. He and my Grandpa's sister had 5 children together without the preacher that pronounces you man and wife. It caused a ruckus in my Great Grandma and Grandpa's life, but that is a story for another day.

In Flomaton there were a few churches, Jackson's Theater, a great drugstore on the corner that made the best malt milkshakes and real cherry cokes, the beauty parlor where Mama got my hair chopped off and permed when I was 9, the bank where my 67 Mustang was financed, the jail and my favorite place in the world. Nall's store. It was the place where you could get gas, smokes, a Coke and salted peanuts, a real sized candy bar for a nickel and it had a miniature working cow town.

He had a daughter about my age and they lived in a trailer near the store. I went to spend the night with her a few times. I liked her, but I LOVED that Western town that moved. If you saw it today, you would be as fascinated today as I was then. It took up almost half the room in the store and was fenced off so that you could not touch it, but you could get up nice and close to see all the details. Your eyes feasted on stagecoaches moving on a track pulled by six horses, saloon doors opening and closing, gunshots and gunfights happening in the middle of the town, and saloon girls swirling and dancing to the loud music permeating your senses.

Now these are the measurements of my young mind and I am not sure if it was that big but it sure seemed like it. It was in the middle of the store and the first thing that you saw in that one room store. The cash register was to the right and the sides were flanked by a coke machine, and shelves that held Vienna sausages, salted peanuts, chips, bread, potted meat, mayonnaise and all the fixins for an emergency Sandwich.

I hope that some of you got to experience this when you were little because it was magical, mesmerizing and wonderful in every way. I remember the man that put this together for all of us to enjoy also. He laughed and smiled every time anyone was delighted with his collection. I will always remember how that nourished this little girl that grew up with little laughter in my home.

The music would stay in your head even after you left it and I wish that you all could hear it. It you imagine the saloon scene in Gunsmoke and Miss Kitty welcoming you in that was it, in miniature. Mr Nall's added to his amazing collection sometimes and people would just throw money into the town like a coin fountain to help with the expense of running the electric for his complete Western town.

Sometimes on Sunday if you came at the right time, the church next door was in session and you could hear some of the best Gospel music ever sang. I don't think many Whites ever visited this all AA Church, but I did. It was a sensation for the mind full of people that shouted, danced up and down the aisles and they sang. Lordy they could sing. Women were dressed in beautiful suits with matching hats and pocket books and I thought they were beautiful like right out of a magazine. I had a couple of dresses and I would wear my Sunday best as I attended Church with Mr Nall's daughter.

If I could take a postcard moment of my life, it was Jackson Theater, Nall's store, Swimming at Munson and that church that made me happy.

Hope that y'all have a beautiful day filled with memories of childhood that make you smile. I love you and wish that you could see inside my mind and visit the store with me. Always, Kimmee

Google image of an old general store. I don't have a photo of Nall's. I sure wish I did.

Touring The Brunswick Bowling Alley Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Good morning friends,

I have already shared the trips that Daddy, Donna and I used to take. One of those trips was to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit the Brunswick Bowling Alley factory.

It was such an experience to see how they made the pins to line up in the bowling alley. The glue was so strong in the factory, even with nose protection, that it would leave you feeling a little woozy when you left the room. I was fascinated by the painting process of lowering the pins half way in for one color and then turning them upside down for the stripes. All of this was animated so it looked kind of like a dance, as the pins came down the line.

They dunked themselves completely in the white color then came up and waited until the drip stopped, turned upside down for the bottom stripe and waited again for the drip to stop, then the next stripe was done and the pin was turned again ending in an upright position. (I tried to find a youtube video of the way it was done, but factories today are different than they were in the 60's and I could not find one. They have cut out the ups and downs of the painting so that it is much more proficient but less like a dance)

It was almost dizzying to watch but also fascinating to see. I will never forget how excited I was to see them being made and painted. This was not a normal part of my life and I loved anything that was different.

The workers were taken with the two daughters and the VIP visiting the factory and several of them wanted to take us on a date. Of course the beautiful family that we were staying with would have none of that, so we did other things on our few days stay there.

We were pretty naive in those days and when two girls were begging for money to make a phone call, we gave it to them. Our host said that they were probably going to use the money for booze but we did not know. We just gave if we could without judging the reason needed or wanted for the money.

Simpler times...

On a side trip one day, we found a little car Museum in Holland, Michigan.

We all loved the old cars and My first car was a 67 Mustang similar to the one shown in the second photo. I have a photo of the actual car somewhere but in all my moving the past few years, it is probably packed away. I loved that car and loved Daddy for getting the loan for me. I had to make the 58 dollar payments but I was happy to do that at age 16, to have a car!

Anyway the Museum owner was so sweet. Today most Museums would NEVER let you touch the cars much less climb all over them for photos but this owner let us get inside the cars, old trucks that Daddy loved, and this photo of me sitting on top of my favorite, A Rolls Royce.. lol. I know that Donna has more pictures of our trip that maybe she will share..

Old cars have often been a part of my life and I was devastated to have to sell my 56 Buick when I got sick and had to move back to my home state of Florida. I so wish I could have brought it but when things like that happen, you have to prioritize what comes and what stays..

I will always love old cars and trucks. They take me right back to being a child and riding on the sideboard of Daddy's Chevy, much like the one in the last photo.
Love to all my family and friends, Kimmee

(The above two photos courtesy of my sister Donna Peacock)

Another year.. Another Memory of My Oldest Daughter

Gloria Peacock Kimmel with Wendi Downs.

June 9, 2013 at 2:52am · 

Happy Birthday darling daughter:-)
From the first time you came into my life, my heart has not been my own. It was lost to you. I thought about waking you up as I used too each morning the minute that you were born and tell you the story of how you came into my life. Even though you are older, I still see that little kid riding her bike, building a teepee in the front yard, and following after Papa.

We have been through a lot in our years together. We had the first 11 years of your life to have fun together.

We flew more miles when you were young than any other kid I know. We loved Hawaii and getting food at 3 o'clock in the morning, Alaska and that huge Polar Bear, Okinawa and those Saturday morning Disney shows, the Koi that you used to feed, the little Dragon train that you used to ride in California, the little house that Grandpa Dibbell built for you, and Grandma bribing you to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disney. LOL.

Yes, we have traveled some miles together and now a new chapter is here in your life:-)

You have a beautiful caring wife that loves you, a mom that adores you, and many others in your life that love and care for you. The whole world is in front of you and as I look back on my view, I am so glad that you were in it and are in it now. All my love, Mom

My Oldest Gem

Gloria Peacock Kimmel

June 9, 2016 at 12:52pm · 

Dear Daughter of mine,
You and I have been together a long time now and I am still filled with wonder, that you are from me....
When you were born, it was you and me against the world. It continued like that for a time and you were always with me, no matter how many changes our life took, we were together.

I will always remember you in pigtails feeding the Koi at the Japanese village on Okinawa or when we came back to the states riding Danny the Dragon at Happy Hollow or playing on the ship or little houses.
Grandma Dibbell took us everywhere.. There were adventures At Happy Hollow, Frontier Village, Disneyland, and Knotts Berry Farm. We had such fun and you were a delight every where that we went.

When we would fly on a plane and the passengers would groan to see children on board, you would change their mind and by the end of the flight, they loved you.

You taught me so many things about life, about forgiveness, about love.. Things that I did not grow up with and knew little about, but you knew.

I am in awe of your work ethic and what you do for all of us that you care for. We are all spoiled because you work so hard. Instead of following in my footsteps, I followed in yours. After you went to Nursing school, I decided the time was right for me to fulfill my dream. and I went too. You have been a Nurse since you were 18 years old. An incredible accomplishment and one that I am so proud of.

You have given me a wonderful grandson that I love and that reminds me so much of you.
Just this morning he was looking at Dvd's and Cd's near the tv and showing them to me one at a time and had put them back in the stack Then it hit him and he said Oooooh Rebel Raiders.. Something that you would have done.. As in ,, Ohhhh Shiny... lol..

And now you have found the love of your life, my daughter in law, Jenny. You both have taken me into your life and given me the easiest, happiest time of my life and I thank you both for that.

I hope that this birthday weekend will be filled with surprises and fun as you celebrate Jenny's Grandma's 90th Birthday and your own.

I love you so much and am filled with memories of all the places we have been and the things we have done together and I am looking forward to many more.. All my love, always, Mom..

Happy Hollow's Danny The Dragon Ride

A ride at Happy Hollow Park & Zoo

YOUTUBE.COM

Penny Candy

When I was a little girl of 10, daddy used to let me drive his black truck to the store to buy candy. You have to understand that I loved candy. I would work in the cotton fields all day long to earn 10 cents to buy candy. I always earned more than that but I tried to save a little each time I worked, for days that I didn't work.

If I didn't have money, my Daddy would always give me some. He was always so good about giving me candy money.
If I had all the money I have spent on sweets over the years I could have bought a car.... lol

I couldn't reach the pedals of that big ole truck, but I would scooch up on the seat and stretch my tiny legs til I could reach the clutch, brake and gas pedal. I must have looked a sight with my small head peering through the steering wheel so I could see where I was going.

One day I had 10 cents to buy candy. Since Candy was 3 for a penny, that meant that I could have candy all week. 30 pieces of candy for me!

I drove to the store and asked for a paper bag to get my candy. Back in that day, trust was automatically given between customer and store owner. I would take the paper bag, go to shelves where the penny candy was, and count out the pieces into the bag. Red hots, Mary Janes, lil chick of sticks, bazooka bubblegum and jawbreakers.

On that day for for the first time in my life. I put an extra piece of candy in my bag. 31 pieces in all. The store owner took my dime, just like he always did never suspecting a thing. I went home with my prize but it gnawed at me. I wasn't a real bad kid, I just loved candy.

I had taken it and I couldn't even enjoy it. The next week when I went back for my 10 cents worth of candy, I shorted myself to 29 to make up for it but it never did. I had taken something that did not belong to me and I had to live with that.

All of my growing up years, the store owner continued to trust people. I would get a bag if I wanted candy and I would get a bag if I wanted to buy personal items for myself. I would have been mortified to ask for Kotex from a man and they knew that, so I would take the bag, put the sanitary napkins inside and then pay for them and leave without looking anyone in the eye.

We are so different now in the way we do things. Men buy feminine products now for their girlfriends or wives. That would have never happened when I was growing up. lol

After I left home, I never thought I would encounter a situation where honor was the word of the day but then I moved to DePeyster, Amish country. On any given day, you could go to an Amish stand that sold Jam, Jelly, Corn, Tomatoes, and home baked goods and you see a small box or carton and a sign to "take what you need and put your money in the box".. I was flabbergasted to see this when I first moved there. Anyone could have taken the money from the box or taken more than what they paid for, but I never saw it happen.

I hope that in my life I have given more than I have taken but that penny candy still sticks in my craw sometimes. It was the only time I had stolen something and I never did it again, so I guess the lesson was effective.

For me, restitution meant to give when I can, every time I can. I will continue to do that and hope that the lesson for all of us is to give more than we take in life. There are so many rewards for living life this way and they have surely found me over the years. I know that God forgave me taking that penny candy and I will forgive myself for it too. It wasn't so much the penny candy as It was the trust between two people being broken by one. I hate that I was the one to do that, but I am human and that happens sometimes in life.

Maya Angelou said that when we know better we do better.

All we can do is strive to do better. That is what I have done with my life and that is what I hope that you have done with yours. If you have done something in your life that is less than stellar, ask forgiveness and then accept that forgiveness and do better.

That is all any of us can do. I love you. I am so thankful that you all are walking with me and I am still that lil girl that loves my candy. The last photo was taken a few minutes ago in my room. Some things just don't change lol. .. Love, Kimmee

My Golden Child Wendi

Warning LONG.. Happy Birthday darlin on the 9th of June..
My oldest daughter almost did not make it into this world. It was a rough beginning for both of us, especially as she was my first child.
I was alone in a new city and afraid but my strength came from her need for me and I met it as best I could. I drove myself to the hospital and I drove my baby and myself back home on the 4th day. My husband was on a 6 month deployment and I was but one of many, that were having our babies alone. For many of us, it was a first baby and our first experience in a hospital.

I remember repeating. "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff comfort me, Over and over as the life slipped away from my daughter. Her heart sounded like a plop in a bucket as I begged them to take her. They came into prep me for a C-Section and she crowned so they rushed me to delivery.
She was born with the chord wrapped around her neck after 21 hours of labor. She was lifeless and did not cry and I said outloud, she is dead.. I was in shock after blood loss and the labor and of going through all of this alone.

I was on a Ward at the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego with 30 others mothers, 15 of us on each side. She and I survived the delivery, but I did not know this until 12 hours later when a Captain came into the hospital and was told that I fainted anytime they tried to get me out of bed. The last time I had fallen in the bathroom when I was left alone on the toilet and I Hit my head on the way down. He looked at the white palms of my hands and said this girl needs to have help when she is up. He asked me what I had delivered and I said, a girl but I don't know if she made it or not.

The look he gave the staff would have cut them to the quick if it had been a knife. He said where is her daughter? They said in the Nicu.. He made them put me in a wheelchair and take me to the nursery where I saw my daughter for the first time without merconium in her mouth and face. She weighed 6 pounds and 9 oz but she looked so tiny with all those monitor lines on her tummy and foot. She was not moving much but she was breathing well and I thought for the first time, she is going to make it and I was so thankful.

I knew that if I can only get her home, she will be fine. I tried to get her to eat and the babies had to eat two ounces before they would let you bring them home. Three days later she was only eating an ounce at each feeding so I squeezed the extra formula into the plant in my room and took her home.

She was everything to me. Any sacrifice, any aloneness that I had ever felt left me when I had Wendi. She was the love of my life and I would do anything to make sure she had what she needed.

I divorced her father for infidelity and later remarried to a man that loved to travel and surprise us on a weekly basis. He was the best of my husbands and Mary's Dad. He, Wendi and I went on so many adventures in the 8 years we were together in the years before Mary was born. Jaunts down to Monterey or up to San Francisco and many trips with the lady I call Mom, Norma Dibbell. She died this year in Jan and I still well up when i think of it. She was Wendi's Grandma in every sense of the word and I am so thankful that we had her all those years.

We would go on the diving bell and eat homemade Clam Chowder, eat Calamari, tentacles and all and spend nights sleeping on the beach at Point Reyes after a long day of walking and exploring. We would always stop at the Cheese factory and buy cheese or just tour the facility and we always left with some Brie, Wendi's favorite. The we would stop in Inverness where the town was full of artists and old hippies and that was just so much fun. They had the best coconut macaroons I have ever tasted and I wish so much that I remembered the name of the company that made them. Something about Macaroons and artwork that you never forget. lol

The Climb down to the lighthouse there would put hair on your chest with its difficulty, but we did it almost every time we went to Point Reyes. There were trips to Big sur and the Redwoods where the trees are so huge that a car can drive right through any opening in them.
Yosemite called our name many times . Sometimes we rented a loft cabin and other times we would stay in our custom Van, but every time was exciting and fun. One day we came at the right time to see the rock climbers and I remember being so afraid because they were going right up the sheer clif without ropes. Just climbing like we walk.

The weekends in San Francisco were among my treasured memories of being with Wendi. She adored Fisherman's Wharf with the Sourdough Bread Company, the tubs of old style favorites in the candy store and the Ripley's Museum. One of her favorites was the Exploratorium Children's Science Museum. It is a building full of all kinds of Science experiments that are completely safe for your children to roam and play with. I still marvel that children could just walk around in the building and touch anything they wanted too. All of those strange combinations fascinated her quick mind and she wanted to see and know every thing.

Wendi was my first experience in childhood and we had 11 years to grow up together before I had Mary.She grew and I grew and we were so close.

My Nephew Lil Clif came to stay with us for 6 weeks when he was 10 and Wendi was a yr or two younger. He was like her older brother and my son, rather than a nephew during that time and I loved him up as much as I could during that six weeks. We took a trip down the coast to San Diego and stopped off in Solvang, Hollywood where I put my hands in Liberace's and where Phyllis Diller was actually in the wax Museum when we visited.

We kept on going to San Diego and was visiting the Natural History Museum in Balboa park when our Van was broken into. The thieves took my husbands camera and all our rolls of film of our trip so all of that week was lost, except in our memories. There are a couple of Polaroids that others took but nothing else and they re-locked our Van when they were done with their thieving.
San Diego Zoo, the Wild Animal Park and Sea World made memories for Lil Clif and for Wendi. It was just the best 6 weeks of fun and adventure. I think we went to Disneyland too, but my memory is not bringing that forward this morning.

It is hard to write about my daughter without writing a book. She is my hero. She had a rough beginning and she has overcome so much to find happiness, a home and family and to be all that she has inside that brilliant mind of hers.
She's an Artist, a Writer, a Photographer, a Nurse, A Mother, a Lover of all animals, and she is my daughter. Nothing in the world can equal what she has brought into my life and continues to give to me every day. She is my sweet Golden child and I wish you the happiest of Birthdays.. Love you always,Mom

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Commen

The Songbird of NY. My Midfle Chi

It is my two girls birthdays this month and This is a story of my middle daughter, Mary.
 She was a surprise when she was born because I had been told that I would not have any children after I had my first child. She was born and then another came later, telling us that sometimes things happen that we least expect but they are treasures, none the less.

She was an easy pregnancy until the 8th month when my gallbladder decided to rear its ugly head. I was at the doctors several times that last month when finally the doctor said, we are going to hurry this along so I could feel better, and she came into the world beautiful and crying a couple of hours later.

She had the most beautiful shock of dark hair and she was such a good baby, just like my first one was. She rarely cried, laughed all the time and made me smile every day. She was the baby that I talked about at 2 months old when we visited Daddy, the year before he died. The passengers on the plane fell in love with her and my older daughter Wendi , who visited the pilot and got her wings. I was thankful that the trip had gone well because I was 2 weeks post-op and 2 months post delivery but daddy had said come home lil ole gal, and I came.

You all have read of that tumultuous trip and landing and the first few years in Upstate Ny. Mary was 4 when we arrived and she was such a trooper. When she got old enough to help shovel, she would go outside and help, alongside my oldest daughter. There are 11 years between the two girls and it was more like mom and sister than just sisters. I knew what this was like because my older sister is 12 years older than me.

From the time she was throwing toys over her shoulder and scooting around on the floor she was singing. It may not have had words when it first started but she cooed and hummed her way into being some kind of singer. She was in chorus in school and was singing solo's by 2nd grade but it was not until she was 12 that I really understood just what a gift she had. There was a talent show at the school she attended and she was going to sing. "Think of Me" from The Phantom of the Opera. I had not heard her sing it but was at the school to hear her on that special night. When she came out to sing, I could tell she was a little nervous. She was moving her fingers on her hand but when the music swelled but when she opened her mouth to sing, every one stopped. I remember how silent it got in the auditorium, except for the lady behind me saying, wow, where did she come from? She sang that whole song and hit every note like she was on a theater stage in New York. When she finished, there was a huge standing ovation and clapping such as I had never heard. The lady behind me said, "that parent has to be really proud of her" and I turned around and said, " I am." She then said in wonder, "that is your daughter?" and I replied with such a smile, "yes."

There happened to be in the audience that night a judge from The Crane School Of Music in Potsdam and she made a point of finding out who Mary was and who her parents were. We talked some and she told me about their summer program where you go away to college for 2 weeks out of the summer and she encouraged me to have her attend. I wanted too, so badly but we did not have the tuition and expenses that it would cost. Almost a thousand dollars when all was said and done. She then offered Mary one of their scholarships that cut the cost for parents to have her attend. I could tell that she really wanted her there and Mary wanted to go also. We scrimped and they paid part of the tuition for us so that we could afford the other expenses she would have there and off she went to summer Music School.

I could tell how much she loved that world and it was evident that she excelled at it. We attended all of the judging and her performances, my heart swelling with pride at how beautiful she sang. I was there back stage as she was judged and she did so well along with other kids from her school.
One of her classmates Jim sang too and he and Mary were friends. They both have a gift and sometimes they sang together which would bring the house down.

She continued to sing and one day she asked me for a clarinet. I asked if she wanted lessons and she said, no. It can't be too difficult. She already played piano and read music so I went to the Music Store in Potsdam and bought her a nice clarinet. We came home and six hours later, she was playing the theme to the Titanic. Talk about gifted Musically. All of my children played instruments growing up and I encourage all children to do that because there is a sense of self worth and accomplishment in learning and playing music.

She often went for walks on East Road where we lived in DePeyster and she would belt out a song or two while she did. The neighbors would hear her and come outside as she passed. One of them stopped in one day and told me that when she first heard Mary sing, she thought it was the radio. I beamed with pride as if it were me singing. lol

I am so glad that although we may have struggled in some areas, I made sure that Mary could have Chorus, Band, Crane School of Music and I attended her plays and other things she was in at school. She was something and I am so glad that I got to be a small part of her musical journey.

Happy Birthday on June 7th sweetie. Love Mom...