marypat57

When I was in the 8th grade, our class trip was to Rye Beach Playland amusement park. It’s about an hour’s ride from Long Island, and had a nice assortment of rides. My favorite part of the rides was watching the nuns in their habits trying to hold on to their veils. It was quite amusing and I regret I don’t have pictures. When I started high school that September, I was surprised to see some of the nuns in short habits and veils. They actually had legs! Some of them were even using their baptismal names, rather than their “nun” names. It seemed to make some of them a bit more human.

Bewitched: I apologize about the VA school start dates… Unfortunately in NYC, at least in the school I worked in I never heard of a parent red shirting a child. Some of my students definitely could have benefited from another year at home or a good preK .

@EVS HOORAY. HOORAY HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 🥇🎖🧨🛎🎊🎉🔔🔔🔔l This is the best news ever! (Speaking from someone who knows how that feels) Enjoy every minute of your well deserved celebration.

Regarding school start dates: in the Long Island suburban districts, you must be 5 by December 1st to enter kindergarten in September. A few districts—Plainview-Old Bethpage comes to mind the cut off date is December 31. In the NYC schools, where I taught for 27 years, the cutoff date is December 31 also. So that means that I had kinders that were 4 years and 8 months old when they started school. In Kansas City MO, where my nephews lived, the cutoff date was June 30th, while in Fairfax County VA, where most of my nieces and nephews lived, the dates is September 1.

I am so glad that Henri did not cause as much damage here on Long Island as had been expected. I had visions of hurricane Sandy like power outages. I lost power for 13 days during that storm. All we had was lots of rain and some wind. It could have been much worse.

@zoomama: my friend’s husband uses Dupixent for his eczema and is very pleased with it. He doesn’t have asthma, but does have some allergies and I think he’s seen improvement with them, too. He self injects using a pen every two weeks I believe. I have just started using Fasenra for my asthma, which has become quite unmanageable this past year. The doctors have said I have a combination asthma/COPD. I have never smoked, but was exposed to second hand smoke (my mom smoked for many years). I also received radiation treatment to the chest for Hodgkin’s lymphoma 1986-87. Fasenra is injected once a month for the first 3 months, and then once every 8 weeks afterwards. I will have my 3rd shot on Friday. I have begun to notice some very small changes in my symptoms, but positive changes nonetheless. I chose to go to the doctor’s office for my shots, but I could administer them to myself at home. I have to wait for 30 minutes after my shot, and then I can go home. I always make a stop at the Michaels arts and crafts store conveniently located in the same building as the doctor.

@Scarlett45 Both items of clothing are quite lovely! I may even consider purchasing the Christmas skirt for myself. I have not purchased any new Christmas clothing in quite some time, and it may be just the thing to wear to midnight mass this year. Hopefully we will be singing as a choir this year…

Using “your” instead of “you’re” makes this retired teacher cringe every time I see it. I would like them to write for homework 100 times: (written in ink, on paper, no computer) You’re, not your is the correct way to spell you are. Please have it on my desk by 8am Monday morning. No exceptions!

@Scarlett45 I was so sorry to hear about the loss of your keys. I’m usually pretty good about my keys—I keep my car keys and house keys on a separate chain. About 20 years ago, on the night before Thanksgiving, I decided to do my shopping at a store near my school in Brooklyn (they had a parking lot). I got home at about 7pm, and to my dismay—no house keys! I dumped my purse out on the seat—no keys! I called the store, but they had no record of anyone finding keys. My next door neighbor, who had my spare keys wasn’t home, and their cousins, who lived around the corner, weren’t home either. What happened in the long run was that I ended up driving back to Brooklyn, and fortunately for me, the custodians were working in the building and let me in. It seems that the keys fell out of my jacket pocket and were on the floor of my coat closet….. Another time, I got home on a Friday night about midnight and had no keys(I had left them on my desk). This time I there was no custodian in the building, and I ended up buying a ladder and climbing in my bedroom window. I am getting far to old for this. Scarlett45, I hope that you have good luck with your locksmith!

@Scarlett45 : I have checked and the nearest Crumbl store to my home is nearly 200 miles away in New Hampshire. There is also one in the Outer Banks of NC, where my brother has a vacation home. I must let him know about this. I must order some of these cookies ASAP. They all look yummy—any suggestions?

I always cheer for the flagbearer from the South Pacific island of Tonga👏🏻

I used the 53rd and 3rd E train station for quite a few years when I worked in the area. The cool part about that train was that I would get on my LIRR commuter train, get off at PennStation, get on the E train, ride that escalator to the top, and my office building had an entrance right there . You could buy coffee at one of the shops, and walk right into the building without ever having to go outside. Great for bad weather days! That escalator is frightening. If I remember correctly, when you are standing at the bottom, you cannot see the top.. Although, now I think that the 53rd street station has been eclipsed by the “new” Hudson Yards/34st station on the #7 Flushing Line.

@jjane: It seems like you are doing everything you can to protect your great niece and yourself. I will keep both of you in my prayers. Please keep us updated when you can.

I got FJ, and all but one of the “old” tv show theme songs. A little side note—about 25 years ago, I won a local radio station contest by being able to correctly identify 5 tv show theme songs in a row, after having heard a snippet of each song. The contest ran for a week, and the winner was announced on Friday. I found out on Friday that I had won the grand prize, which was a trip to the premiere of Nick at Nite TV Land in Hollywood. I took my sister in law and we had an awesome time. The event was at the Paramount Studiods and we were able to see a number of sets—my favorites were the Frasier set and the street where Laverne and Shirley lived. They served the food on aluminum TV dinner trays, and even had characters from 60s commercials that you could be photographed with. I have Polaroids with the actual Mr. Whipple and the Hawaiian Punch guy. We had the pleasure of riding back to the hotel with the sisters from Petticoat Junction. They were the nicest, friendliest ladies..

My undergraduate graduation was at Madison Square Garden in the main arena. Tickets were required. I remember my sister was mad at me because that evening was her annual high school sports color competition. My parents said my college graduation took precedence. My high school graduation was outdoors on the football field. The graduates sat on folding chairs on the field, while the ticketed guests had to sit on the bleachers. It was a very hot, humid day at the end of June, and I will be forever grateful for my classmate who had two cans of cold Fresca that she shared with the people in our row.

We have a few cute little brown bunnies that hop around the courtyard in our apartment complex. One evening, I saw a toddler girl (maybe she was 2 or a bit older) trying to take a picture of one of the bunnies with her granddad’s phone. It was very cute🐰. The only time I’ve seen “wild” deer is at the veteran’s cemetery in eastern Long Island (Calverton), where the cemetery property abuts a largely rural area. The local florists offer to spray any fresh flowers you buy with an anti deer spray to keep them from being the deer’s snack. It is nice to see them frolicking around. The original picture was too large to attach, so I cut it down so you could see the deer. This is near the part of the cemetery that is not used right now.

There are some titles such as Farmer Boy (in the original set) and Farmer Boy Birthday and County Fair (In the my first little house series) that are mainly about Almanzo Wilder that would probably be acceptable for Isaac and Sam.

My kinders loved Little House books, too. I invested in their picture book series for young readers. The illustrations are quite lovely, and the stories were true to the original. Some of my students would look at the titles listed on the back cover and reminded me of the ones we did not have in our library. The children also enjoyed what they called “playing Laura” in our housekeeping center. I had to remind them that they couldn’t use any of the things that Laura did not have in her house, so it was challenging for them, but the enjoyed it. I had a dear little boy one year who loved the Little House series. A number of years later, I had his son in my class. The son enjoyed looking at the books his dad had enjoyed so much. Jill’s sons would like the stories, too. They would enjoy learning about life on the prairie.

Back when I was teaching kindergarten, my classes always enjoyed the Magic Treehouse series. Each book was 10 chapters long, and I would read a chapter a day after our “morning message”. I remember one particularly bright little boy who said one day that he knew the next book would start on Tuesday. He was able to explain that since today was Thursday, and we had just read chapter 8, that meant we would read chapter 9 on Friday, chapter 10 on Monday, and be ready for chapter 1 on Tuesday. I liked that series because it introduced some non fiction into the story, and even had separate non fiction books to give more no about some of the topics.

Is @doodlebug OK? Hope she’s just taking a break..I miss her posts.

I was born a few blocks over the Bronx/Westchester border and lived in the Bronx for the first 3 years of my life until my parents decided that having 3 children in a 5th floor walkup apartment was a bit much and moved to Long Island. I enjoyed watching Yankee games with my dad on the weekends.I attended my first game at the Stadium when I was nearly 8 years old. I can still remember walking through the gates to our seats and seeing how green the grass was. I continued to root for the Yankees, and attended games over the years, but gradually switched my allegiance to the Mets. The Mets are my primary team, but the only time I ever root against the Yankees is when they are playing against the Mets. I do however, harbor an intense dislike of the Boston Red Sox.

When I looked at Whitney and Zach in the NICU with baby Jadon, what surprised me the most was the fact that they were NOT WEARING MASKS! Their little guy has a breathing problem, for goodness sake!

I’ve only been in four of my siblings weddings (out of 6 who got married) and was very pleased not to have been asked to be in the other 2, nor in the repeat weddings of the 2 who remarried (1 widowed, 1 divorced). I did not wear any of those bridesmaids dresses again. One in particular, though a nice color , was particularly not to my taste. Thinking about it now, it would have been perfect for JillRod and her crew. I remember trying on the dress a few days before the wedding, and discovering that it did not fit properly. Because they were purchased at a chain department store, alterations were not included, and I refused to pay for them. Luckily, I possessed enough seamstress skills to alter the dress so that it fit nicely by the wedding day. The last time I was in a wedding was nearly 13 years ago. I was the maid of honor for a very dear friend who whom I had “matched up” with another dear friend. Both of them had lost their previous spouses to cancer. In fact, AM’s late husband served in the police dept with her new husband, M, and they actually knew each other. AM’s husband came to play the bagpipes at M’s wife’s funeral. M’s sister was (and still is) one of my best friends). Anyway, when they got engaged, I told AM I would be wearing a red dress, and that it would be in the style of the black dress that Audrey Hepburn wore in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Fortunately my friend did not object. I found the dress, it did look wonderful, and I have worn it to several weddings and other occasions in the years following. .

@GeeGolly: I really think that it’s a little bit of both. God smiles at some, but shakes His head at the crazies. I tend to think it’s a bit more of the latter, unfortunately.

I didn’t know whether to put this in Small Talk or Sweet Fellowship, but because it does have something in common with our dear JillRod, I put it here. (Mods, please let me know if it’s not ok). Last night, I was reading one of my favorite supermarket checkout magazines—not the celebrity gossip ones—you know, this is the one with a different diet on the cover each week. I came to a story about a woman who claimed that she made $40,000 a year selling “nutritional supplements “ that contained incredible ingredients that “solved” her gut health problems. She also gets “generous commissions and bonuses “, and is now an “ambassador” for this company, so she can share this product line with others. I leave it to your imagination to come up with the product name (don’t think I can name it here—can I?}