The Three Muskateers Together Again

After some effort we finally got the Three Musketeers together again.  The "event" took place yesterday,  Saturday afternoon, Nov. 26th 2011 at my home here in Latham.   It took a lot of phone calls, back and forth discussion, house cleaning and food preparation, but in the end it was all worth it.  Seeing these life-long friends sitting on the couch together reminiscing about their youthful escapades was priceless and we, their families, felt a certain magic radiate forth from this unity known as the Three Musketeers. The guy in the red plaid shirt is my  "Uncle" Nick; he will be 97 this coming January.  In the middle is "Uncle" Joe, the baby of the group;he won't be 96 until August.  On the right in his green Christ Our Light shirt is my Dad, Charlie, who celebrated his 96th birthday on November 2nd.   Between the three of them, they have had 287 years of living.
Some things we learned/re-learned yesterday:    Charlie met Joe Mule' at the start of his Junior Year in high school.  Joe & Charlie both signed up for Chemistry 1 & Chemistry 2 in the same semester - this is an abnormality since Chemistry 1 is typically a prerequisite for Chemistry 2.  Nonetheless, since they had openings in their fall schedule and chemistry 2 just happened to fit perfectly, they were given a waiver and were allowed to take both 1 & 2 in the same semester.  Apparently taking the two courses at once didn't hurt, because both did marvelously well in their Chemistry Regents.  Charlie got the highest score and was awarded a medal in Chemistry.  Shortly after wards, after a re-check of the Chemistry test answers, it was decided that in truth, Joe had gotten the higher score and the medal really belonged to him.   By this time, Charlie claimed he no longer had the medal since he had given it to his girlfriend, Kathy Ryan (Johnny Ryan's sister).  This was the first time I had heard this part of the story - I only knew about Johnny Ryan from stories my mother, Rita, told me - she spoke of having a crush on Johnny before she dated my father and Johnny Ryan escorted her to her senior prom at Girl's High in Brooklyn.
My father's Uncle Frank Odorfer (His cousin Flo's father) had a car and took Charlie up to Garrison, NY to start his junior year in the seminary high school in Garrison, NY.   For some reason (yesterday when I asked him, my father stated he doesn't know/remember why), my father decided not to stay at Garrison that autumn day, but instead decided to turn around and drive back to Brooklyn with his Uncle.  When he arrived home in Brooklyn, his father, Joe, had to scramble to find a high school that would/could accept Charlie on such short notice.  Luckily, fatefully, Bushwick High School said "yes"and my father was admitted there in the autumn  of 1932.      Charlie meets fellow student, Joe Mule', and they begin a life-long friendship. Thus began the history of the 3 Musketeers.  Joe lived at 829 Quincy St., Brooklyn, on the 2nd floor of a 3 story brick building.  Joe's aunt & uncle & their family lived on the 3rd floor and another aunt and uncle & their family lived below him.   Joe's uncle on the 3rd floor was a barber and Charlie enjoyed the free haircuts he was given.  In exchange for the haircuts and some good Sicilian cooking, Charlie did electrical wiring throughout the 3 story house on Quincy Street.  When it came time to graduate, Joe encouraged Charlie to attend a newly created tuition-free college in Brooklyn.  The college was so new that there was no real campus yet, rather there were classrooms scattered in different buildings all over the neighborhood.  Charlie, having no definite plans for his post high school days, decided to join Joe at the newly created Brooklyn College.
It was there that the third Musketeer, Nicholas Pascarelli, entered the picture.  Joe, assuming that it was "an easy A", signed up to take Italian.  Nick, an ambitious Italian-American from Staten Island, decided to take the same class.  And, that my dear friends is how it all began.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Just got back from my walk. I have to keep in shape in case we ever decide to take a bus tour around Europe again.   It is not the type of thing for the faint of heart.
The turkey is stuffed and in the oven and already making the house smell wonderful.

I went to the 9AM Mass this morning to say, "thank you, Lord" and on the way to church and back home again I thought about all the things that I have to be thankful for.    There are major, big things  that I am thankful for but I also thought of two that brought a silly smile to my face.  My Italian Tour Trip Mates might understand where I am coming from on this:
Today I was thankful for
1. the fact that I didn't have to have a suitcase of my clothes outside my bedroom door at 6:15AM and
2. the fact that I could go to the bathroom without asking Federica's permission.

Have a nice day. Love, Mary Beth 

My First Christmas

Our grandson, Connor slept over last night since he had off from school today.  Being the day before Thanksgiving, I guess the teachers wanted some extra time to cook.    Connor slept on a blow up mattress at the foot of our bed.  He likes being close to us and we don’t mind having him near. 

Last night, Connor and I had a “movie night”; we watched The Polar Express together as the fire in our wood burning stove (truthfully, now it is gas operated) kept us warm and cozy.    We are always looking for things to keep Connor entertained and gainfully occupied, so I decided to begin decorating the house for Christmas.   Yes, I know it is really too early, but we needed something to do!

The tree is up and ready for the lights but we’ll save that for another day.  I cooked all morning and the bird is clean and ready for the stuffing.  We won’t have a big crowd for Thanksgiving – not like I did in my childhood days – but it should be nice anyway.

This afternoon, the last thing I brought up from the Christmas shelf in the basement was some “old” photos of visits with Santa from years gone by.  Looking at one photo, circa 1954, brought me immediate, overwhelming sadness and literally stopped me in my tracks.  Although I’m no longer crying every second, I still haven’t truly assimilated the fact that my brother, Charlie, is gone from this planet and that I will no longer be able to touch his hand or hear his voice.   Charlie always liked Christmas.  He worked hard to make it a special event for the people he loved.   His excitement celebrating Christmas brought a smile to my face.      As I looked at this special photo, I remembered some of the details of that day 57 years ago.  I remembered being excited and a bit nervous as we stood in line waiting for our turn to go up on the stage and stand next to Santa.  If my memory serves me correctly, it was taken in Macy’s Department Store and my mother brought us there for the photo.    My baby sister, Meg, had just burped up on Santa’s hand and I think it shook him up for a moment.  It was a time that Charlie and I were just about the same height and people often asked us if we were twins.

This will be my very first Christmas without my brother, Charlie.   I miss him.   I’ll always miss him.

Let theTours Begin!

Our tour guide, Frederica, greets our bus outside our first hotel, the Ludovis Palace at Via Ludovisi 43 in Rome.
As we exit the bus, we are told our bus driver from the Fiumicino airport in Rome, a pleasant, quiet fellow named, Donillo (spelling?), will be our driver for the duration of our 13 day tour. 
In the doorway and up a few steps , we enter the modest Ludovisi lobby, and are given a heavy, clunky key to room # 604.
The itinerary contained in our "Important Travel Documents" Bible states, "time to rest or start exploring the Eternal City" and "at 6pm, meet your Tour Director and traveling companions for a special welcome dinner".
Rather- and as an indication of things to come- before retiring to our room, we are informed that we'll be meeting in a small room off the first floor lobby at 4:30pm - a full hour and a half sooner than expected.
Bob & I enter the tiny, closet-sized elevator and make our way up to the 6th floor where we quickly locate our room- a small but adequate space containing a queen-sized bed and minuscule, built-in nightstands and little else. Interestingly we have a sliding glass door that opens onto a balcony of sorts.  I say of sorts because you have to stand on one of the two little chairs that are surrounding a small round cafe' table in order to look over the high wall and into the street below.  Nonetheless, I find our balcony quaint and amusing. My mind quickly categorizes it as something  "European" so I like it on that basis alone although I also like the sense of space and openness that it affords our tiny room.
The bathroom contains the usual equipment found in bathrooms throughout the US plus one common European addition, something known as a bidet.  The bidet looks a bit like the toilet bowl but its purpose, I was told, is to keep certain unmentionable body parts fresh and sparkling clean.         I've heard it that some travelers have mistaken it as basin for washing one's feet or, ugh! even worse,  have used the bowl to wash their recently purchased fresh fruit.         But, having been to Europe in 1966 and several times since, I feel very knowledgeable and well-informed regarding its' true purpose.  Therefore, on one occasion during our Globus tour I decide to give it a whirl.    Even though I'm "in the know" as to the bidet's reason for existence, I haven't the foggiest idea how to actually use it.   I looked around briefly but I was unable to locate any written instructions or visual diagrams..
But not to worry - I don't give up easily, life is short and since this may be my only chance to experience fresh and sparkling unmentionables, I make my mind up to give it my best shot.   I mean really how hard can it be?  ......to be continued later today                                                         

Leaving on a Jet Plane

So we left JFK at 5:40PM (or a little after) on Saturday evening, October 15th, 2011.  We flew Alitatlia and were not too pleased with the experience (really horrible food and the service that was even worse) although for me the most important thing is freedom from turbulence and landing safely so that was a big plus.  Bob went up to business class when, after several requests, the flight attendants did nothing to fix his malfunctioning video screen.  Eventually the flight attendant in business class noticed a new occupant and she promptly and  miraculously was able to repair Bob's malfunctioning video screen.   Once again I found him sitting next to me in economy.   The flight was over 8 hours and it seemed like an eternity to me although the flight back home was even longer (something to do with the way the winds are blowing).   On the way home it seemed like the air got so heavy you could hardly breath and half the people in the plane were up and roaming the isles looking for somewhere to go.   A very pleasant and talkative gentleman sat on the other side of me on the way home and it helped us pass the time a little more easily.   Seems he owns a winery out on Long Island so now we have a new place to visit sometime. 

We landed in Rome somewhere around 8AM Sunday (it is 6 hours later than in NY ).  I did not sleep a wink on the plane but it was morning in Italy and the sun was shinning.  I searched high and low for the Airport Chapel as it was Sunday and I would have loved to have been able to attend Mass, but the signs led me in circles and I finally had to give up my quest.  We waited for well over an hour for our Globus Tour bus to arrive at the airport and on our way to our first hotel, the Ludovisi Palace, we met a few people on our tour.  I felt a little "out of it" as I don't do well without sleep so I don't remember if we had any type of conversation.  It is a bit of a ride from the airport into center of Rome (40 minutes or more) but I enjoyed taking in the sights and was excited to realize that we had made it and were finally actually here in the "Eternal City".  This was Bob's first visit to Rome.  I had been to Rome once before in 1966. That time I was 21 and for 6 weeks I was traveling throughout Europe with three dear friends from Nursing School - Mary Jane, Eleanor and Sue.    In 1966 I threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain.  Legend says that if you throw a coin in the fountain, you will one day return again to Rome.  I guess it worked.   This time I saw no need to throw a coin in the fountain.
The 1st photo is the Ludovisi Palace, our hotel in Rome. The 2nd & 3rd photos are of course, the Colosseum.

Italy

Bob & I have been on a 2 week tour of Italy and it was a good experience.  I missed having Charlie & Ellen and Marty & Donna with us but we felt it was important for us to make this journey nonetheless and we are glad that we did.   The weather was great, the schedule was hectic, and the people we met were fantastic.   Being cooped up in a plane for 9 hours was the pits but as of yet they have not invented a magical travel machine. 
I have a lot of tales and a lot of photos (1100!) and I hope to share some of them with you but tonight is just my re-entry into my blog after such a long hiatus.   My energy was depleted and my heart was broken and needed to heal a little before I could speak again.

Love, Mary
PS. This is a photo of the Trevi Fountain which we visited our first day in Rome (Oct. 16, 2011)