Faded Memories...

Recently my dear cousin, Patti and I were able to steal some time away from busy schedules

and go back in time a bit to our childhood with old photos her mother had tucked away in an album.

When my cousin went in search for some photos I had asked if her Mother may have,

She found an entire album filled with years of memories...

Each picture was carefully placed and labeled...

We had such a good time remembering while looking back through the years...

Growing up there were six grandchildren..

My two brothers, Mike and Doug

My cousins and siblings, Patti and Jim

Then I came along, with our cousin Tracy bring up the rear...

We do have two younger cousins,

Todd and Shane..they however came way behind us in age and unfortunately did not

experience growing up with the fearless 6...

My grandparents built the farmhouse after all four of their children were born..
My grandfather, my father and great-grandfather worked together building what would
become a place we all came to know as....
Grandpa and Grandma's.


My Grandmother cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner
every year for the entire crew...
Never taking any help or covered dish from either of her daughters or daughter in law.
Grandma cooked for days,
preparing the pies and cakes, puddings and stuffing...
We all sat around the very large dinning room table and ate until our hearts and tummies were filled to the brim...
At the end of the meal, 
it was a contest to see who would get to the chocolate pudding first..
And grandpa usually...almost always...DID win..!

Through out the year, there was never a question where or what we
would be doing...
It was spent on the farm on Sunday evenings, where all of us gathered..
The grown ups sat either on the porch or in the very large kitchen
and chatted away for hours...
while the kids rode bike, roamed the farm,  or all 
piled on top of Grandpa's Hemock and swinging as fast as we could until it did eventually come lose, which at that point we all found 
ourselves on the ground.
The cold winter months were spent playing in the basement where we
rode bikes continuously in a circle around the steps,
avoiding a head on collision with the coal stove,
to which none of us to this day understand how that never happened..

During the summer months,
our time together was spent from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon
at the Family Cottage at Red Point, MD along the Chesapeake.
Here is where we would gather early in the mornings and eat a huge 
breakfast prepared by my grandmother, Aunts and my mother,
I can still smell that bacon..!
Eggs were made to special order, mine was always...Sunny Side Up!
After breakfast the men would take off
in the boat and fish for a good part of the day
returning with their catch, (cleaning what they caught in the back yard on the
wooden stump), the daily catch would  then be part of our dinner....

The rest of us would wonder the grounds or play games while the men fished,
eventually finding our way to the beach.  We had a very short
walk to the beach, our cottage was water front and within a very short walking
distance to the road leading down to the beach and docks..
Our entire afternoon would be spent swimming and playing off the floating dock..
Red Point was where all the grandchildren learned to swim and we all
were/are very good swimmers...!

What I will always remember:
My grandmother made her own Popsicles...used Miracle Whip for everything,
always had a fresh pie made and sugar cookies in the cookie jar...
Grandpa was very quiet, but had a smile that melted your heart..!
He chewed tobacco, never ate from a paper plate or drank from a paper cup,
he could fix anything, cleaned his dinner plate with a piece of bread,
and always had a piece of that pie for dessert grandma had freshly made...

Patti, Aunt Sally and Me on Aunt Sally's Wedding Day at the Farm House before the ceremony...

Me apparently getting ready to take a nap on Grandma's kitchen floor

Me taking early steps at the Farm House

Me on the beach at the family cottage, Red Point, MD

(L) Cousin Jim, Brothers Doug and Mike, Cousin Patti standing in front of huge Evergreen Tree at the Farm

The Fearless 6..Back row: brothers Mike and Doug, Cousin Jim..Front: Me, Cousins Tracy and Patti

Brother Mike on beach at Red Point, MD

(L) Grandparents, Hannah and Leroy, kitchen at Farm (R) Grandparents on Porch swing at family cottage in Red Point, MD

Grandmother, Hannah...this is how I will always remember her...dressed like a lady adorned with apron.

Thanks for taking this trip down memory lane with me...

I have so many great memories of my childhood to which I owe credit to wonderful family and values...