Tuesday, Sept. 1 - Part 3

When we got back from our outing to the Great Falls of Paterson and my nostalgic visit to my hometown of Verona, we got ready for a special evening out. Today, Sept. 1, is Julie's parent's, my Aunt Selma (Kit) and Uncle Sam's, 63rd anniversary! I was so happy to be there and join them for this wonderful occasion! Here is a family picture of Julie, Arnie, Sam, and Kit, taken on the deck of their home in Monroe, overlooking Walton Lake, when we went and picked them up for dinner.

To celebrate the happy occasion, we went out to dinner at Tre Angelica, a small, lovely northern Italian style restaurant in Monroe. Here we raise our champagne glasses in a toast to a truly amazing couple. May you have many more years together!

Sam and Kit Barash on their 63rd wedding anniversary.

And, back at Sam & Kit's house, this is how the nostalgic evening ends - with Uncle Sam carrying Aunt Selma upstairs on his lap on the chair lift.

Since I have (FINALLY) mastered the fine art of uploading photos to my blog site and actually getting the text to insert next to the appropriate picture, I've decided to celebrate and see if I can upload a short video. This is how a romantic Romanian man, still madly in love with his wife, carries her upstairs to their bedroom to celebrate the 63rd anniversary of their wedding night. (Click the arrow and wait about a minute while it loads and hopefully it will play on your computer.)

Tuesday, Sept.1 - Part 2

After Julie and I finished exploring the Great Falls State Park in Paterson (see Part 1), we continued south about 20 minutes to Verona, New Jersey, where I used to live when I was a child. I think I drove by my old house once before (maybe 20 or 30 years ago), but never had the time to stop and really look at it. This is the view of the house from across the street.

This is the house where I lived until I was 6 and we moved to California. The shutters, with their crescent moon cut-outs, appear to be the same ones we had (and the same green color) when we lived there in the early 1950's. The only major change I can see in the house is that a deck has been added out back. It was a great house, two stories, with an attic and a partially-finished basement which my Dad made into a play room for us 3 kids. I remember a long, green blackboard down there; we played "school" and my brother's cub scout troop had their meetings there (I guess my mother was den mother).

And here I am, standing in front of 69 South Prospect Street, Verona, New Jersey. Ahhh.....the memories. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time I was there. Too bad no one answered the doorbell; I would have loved to see the inside.

Here's the old barn-style two-car detached garage. One set of doors were wide open.

This is the tree in the back yard that my Dad hung a swing from and I remember swinging for hours on it. My Mom painted a picture of me on the swing which I have at home. I think the tree has gotten a lot bigger over the past 55 years! We also had a big apple tree in the yard, but it isn't there any more.

This is Verona Park, just down the street from our old house. We were delighted to see what a nice, clean, beautifully-kept-up park it was. I remember ice skating on the lake when it froze in the winter and I remember a boat house which had saw dust on the floor (at least in the winter). The boat house is still there but I didn't see any sawdust. They rent rowboats and paddleboats there now and there is also a little cafe where I bought some lunch and we sat on the patio and watched the boaters, kids feeding the ducks, and generally enjoyed the beautiful day.

Tuesday, Sept.1 - Part 1

I'm sorry, but I'm going to do today in three parts --- too many pictures to try to keep straight.

We closed off the doors to the guest bedroom and the rest of the house this morning, forcing Maggie to be sociable and stay with us in the kitchen/sitting room area. She made herself at home on Arnie's lap (and on his newspaper). After breakfast, Julie and I set off to see the Great Falls of Paterson, NJ. Julie had seen an article in the newspaper recently describing how these falls, just a few miles from her home, were the second largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi (second to Niagra Falls). She was amazed that neither she nor Arnie had ever heard of them so we set off to investigate.

I think it was originally called "Passaic Falls" because of the river it was located on. I'm not sure when they started calling it "Great Falls," but in 1976 President Gerald Ford declared the area surrounding the waterfall a National Historic Landmark District. In 2004 it became a State Park and recently (3/30/09) President Barack Obama signed the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park Act as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Act.

These are the Great Falls of the Passaic River in Paterson, NJ. Perhaps I would have been more impressed if I had seen these BEFORE Niagra Falls. In all fairness, however, this is probably the "dry" season for the falls; they have more water going over them in the springtime, I'd imagine. If you look closely in the photo, you can see a partial rainbow over the gorge. That sort of made up for the rainbow I never saw at Niagra Falls.

This is what is called the S.U.M. Hydroelectric Station, built in 1913-14. It is one of the earliest hydroelectric plants in the country. The S.U. M., or "Society for Establishing Usefull Manufactures" (note the additional "L" on "Useful" and the absence of a final "R" in "Manufactures"), was founded in 1791 with the initial purpose of "making and printing of cotton goods" after Alexander Hamilton submitted a report to Congress promoting the building of mills and developing manufacturing in the United States, rather than importing these goods. The best location for the S.U.M. mills and industries was in what became Paterson, New Jersey, because of the power that could be obtained there from the Great Falls.

While we were there, they were getting ready for an annual Labor Day Weekend Celebration. One of the events is going to be a "stunt" where someone rides a bicycle across a tightrope strung across the gorge below the falls --- with someone on a trapeze suspended from the bicycle! They were setting up the wire, and/or adjusting the tension on the guy wires attached to it while we were there; interesting, and a bit scary to watch. I don't know if they do this every year or if this is a first.

Monday, August 31

I'm getting very frustrated with not being able to post pictures and align the text next to the appropriate picture. What I tried yesterday obviously didn't work. The problem is that what I see when I write the text and even in the "preview" mode is NOT what comes out when I post it! If any of you have any ideas, I'm all ears. (Irene? Daniel?). I have one last thing to try, but it will have to be in the next post because I don't have any pictures for this day. Incidentally, if you are following this blog on a daily basis, please go back to yesterday's post and look at the last 3 pictures which somehow got deleted after I posted yesterday's blog installment. Only 3.5 more weeks to get this blogging figured out....think I'll make it?

Today (Monday, Aug. 31), after a nice lunch and long talk with Vicky Bharier (Mike had gone to work before I got up), I left Providence, RI, for the 4 hour drive to Julie & Arnie's house in Hillsdale, NJ. I made a stop at the AAA office to get a few maps and a tour book I needed. Julie and I had a nice talk and a delicious chicken dinner when Arnie arrived home from playing tennis. Cassie (their youngest daughter) joined us a little later. The dogs were okay in their house, except that Maggie hid in the guest bedroom the whole time.

Sunday, August 30

[I'm going to try a different size photo this time and see if I can get the text to line up better with the pictures. Hopefully you will still be able to click or double-click on the photos to make them larger if you want to.]

This is Maggie cleaning Juliet's face, a daily ritual (actually, about a five-times-a-day ritual. Aren't they cute?

This is Uncle Sam taking the garbage out. He has to go down the stairs to get to the garage where the garbage cans are. They have put power chair lifts on the two sets of stairs in their house --- very clever, these industrious seniors!

And this is Uncle Sam checking out my blog on his computer.

[Did you know that my Uncle Sam Barash has written 7 -- (or is it 11?) --- books? ]

My aunt and uncle invited their very good friends, Minerva and Harvey Horn over for lunch today. A most interesting and well-traveled couple.

Aunt Selma made a most ingenious dessert: whole wheat matzoh with peanut butter (a special one made with marshmellow cream that I'd brought from the Amish country) and blueberries on top. Quite good --- and the blueberries stuck in the peanut butter and didn't roll off. Do you think she planned it that way?

And then it was time to say good-bye to my wonderful aunt and uncle and Walton Lake and be on my way. It wasn't a final good-bye, though, because I would be seeing them in 2 days to help celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary.

As I left their place, I drove through nearby Kiryas Joel, a Chasidic (= very religious) Jewish village. This photo is a little hazy because I took it through the car window, but I think it shows an interesting, almost posed-looking village scene, as everyone goes about their daily business in front of the meat market.

I took the scenic route from Monroe, NY, to Hillsdale, NJ, where their daughter (my cousin Julie) lives --- via Providence, Rhode Island. I wanted to visit my old friend from UCLA days, Michael Bharier. This picture is Mike, his wife Vicky, their daughter Esty, and their pomeranian/poodle Sushi. We had a wonderful dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and then went back to their house for dessert. After getting his Ph.D. in microbiology at UCLA, Mike went on to get an MD degree and now has a dermatology practice in Providence. Fortuitously for me, an orthopedist friend of his dropped by in the evening and while there, he took a look at my finger. He (and Mike also) agreed that it was probably broken but unless there was some tendon damage, not much more than splinting and icing it could be done and I was already doing that. Mike is an accomplished pianist and composer and Vicky is a singer. Esty is learning to play the trombone. A very musically-talented family! It was very nice to see them again. I spent the night in their driveway.

I had one more picture, I thought, of Maggie and Sushi together but I see it didn't get uploaded to the blog for some reason.

[These last 3 pictures were actually added the day AFTER this post was originally posted. Two of them disappeared off the blog after the original post and the third never got posted in the first place. Of course, they are in in the reverse order I wanted them. Grrrr....]

Saturday, August 29

Saturday, August 29

The weather today was much better than yesterday's constant rain. What little rain there was, was more like a heavy mist. This made our 45-minute drive to Julie & Arnie's house in Hillsdale, New Jersey, much less perilous than it would have been yesterday (which was the day we were originally supposed to go). I didn't take the dogs with me; they enjoyed a quiet day in the Roadtrek.

I love my cousin Julie's house, especially the basement. Living in Southern California where most of the houses are built on slabs, we have no basement, no real attic, and our house doesn't even have a garage (converted to a family room before we moved in). I am extremely jealous of the

spacious storage and extra room(s) a finished basement provides. This spiral staircase is one of two staircases that lead down to Julie & Arnie's basement. When their 3 kids (born in less than a two-year period) were growing up, it served as a giant playroom. Now it contains a ping-pong table, pool table, and enough weight-lifting and gym equipment to rival any commercial gym! There are also two other rooms down here which, I am told, have served various functions over the years, most notably perhaps being where Julie operated her law practice from after giving up her downtown office. And I thought Dave and I had a lot of book-shelf space --- look at this hallway lined with solid built-in bookshelves (that is not a mirror at the end---it's more shelves!). It only appears partially empty because Julie just finished a major clean-out of all her old law books and lots of others, precipitated by a mold problem she discovered after the 29 consecutive days of rain they had in June/July.

Another thing Julie has inherited because she was the only one to really have the room to store them, is our Grandfather Ben's collection of wooden things that made. While all of us grandchildren, and some of the great-grandchildren, have wooden jewelry boxes, ferris wheels, carts & horses, or some of his other works, Julie has some I'd never seen before like this model of the White House Grandpa Ben made. These creations are even more noteworthy when you learn that most of them were made when he was in his 90's or early 100's (he lived to 104) out of little bits of wood that he would find here and there or that Uncle Sam would bring to him at the Jewish Home for the Aged on Coney Island where he live for about the last 20 years of his life. While he might not have been quite as great a whittler and carver as Mooney Warther (see post of Aug. 6), his creations were very detailed (and from memory, I think) Doors always had hinges and opened and closed. The jewelry boxes, with many drawers, were fully functional. The trolley car model he made had wheels that moved, etc. Anyway, we all treasure these things he made and I'm glad Julie has the room and willingness to store them; it would really hurt to see any of them thrown away.

Sorry. That was a bit of a tangent, wasn't it.

An hour or so after we got to Julie & Arnie's house, my cousin David Silber (my mother's brother's oldest son) arrived from his home on Long Island with his girlfriend, Myrna. Here's a picture of me, David, and Julie: three first cousins. The 3 of us, each an offspring of a different one of Ben and Rose Silber's 4 children, hadn't been together in many, many years so we had great fun getting caught up on the different branches of the family. And in addition, we got to enjoy the delicious hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken that Arnie & Julie grilled (in San Diego we would say "barbequed" but out here, they call it "grilled). And with a nice green salad, Aunt Selma's cole slaw, apple pie, and the fruit salad that David & Myrna brought, we were quite satiated by the evening's end.

I got to drive Aunt Selma and Uncle Sam's hybrid car (first time I've driven one) back to their house, where my anxious babies (Maggie and Juliet) were very happy to see me.

Friday, August 28

Friday, August 28

Early (10:00) this morning we went into town so I could pick up a prescription at Rite Aid and get a real finger splint to replace the tin foil & gauze home-made one. Aunt Selma needed to do a little shopping at Shop-Rite (a grocery store) nearby. When we were leaving the store, I noticed this neat old picture of the early days in Monroe over the check-out stands. (Monroe was founded in the 1700's). Upon blowing the picture up, I could see that it is actually a collage of at least 3 pictures. I'm not sure if they were all taken in the same time period, but it's a neat picture anyway. Maybe I'll be able to get a modern picture of the store that is shown on the left side of the collage.

Back from our outing to town, we had lunch and then planned to leave for Julie's house; she had kindly invited us and a first cousin (David Silber) of ours for dinner. But it was raining quite hard hard out and Julie called to tell us that David wasn't going to come as he didn't think the old clunker of a rental car he had at the moment would make it in the rain. After some discussion, we decided to postpone the get-together at Julie's until tomorrow in the hope that the weather will be better and David will be able to come; we plan to go rain or shine.

So we wound up staying in all afternoon, watching it rain. Here are some exciting pictures of my probably-broken finger as it looks today and the old and new splints. (Every day can't be as exciting as Niagra Falls!)