Reminiscing, grooming, puppies and sinful foods!

July 24 - July 26

Met Dave and Pat and Susan for lunch.  They all attended Byron-Bergen high school, as did Bruce before he transferred to Spencerport his senior year.  The restaurant wasn't packed so the staff didn't mind that we sat and looked at pictures on my laptop.

We also got to have another New York favorite ... a fish fry!!  Yummy.  Haddock encrusted in a beer batter served with french fries, and coleslaw.  

In the first picture I took, no one was prepared.  In this picture, David is messing around.  He is known for that so I decided to post it anyway.

Susan

Also got to visit with Bill, Bob and Mary Ellen - folks Bruce had known when he was a "shaver" in the Byron area.  Thanks to Pat for getting us all coordinated!

We were able to get a grooming appointment for Zoey at the place my friend Nancy works - Al's Pet Shop. We dropped Zoey off, and look at what we found!!

This cross between a boxer and a beagle caught our attention.  She was such a little cutie and loved having Bruce hold her.  But she cost $800.00 and we believe in getting shelter dogs.  And Zoey would have been absolutely furious with us!

The pet store happened to be close to where Bruce and I lived when we were first married so we took some pictures of our old first homes.

24 Minder Street - our first apartment near Lake Road and Dewey Avenue.  We were on the second floor.  The window above the door was a long, skinny closet; the next set of three windows to the left were the living room and the next set of three windows were the bedroom.  For furniture, we started off married life with two outdoor summer chairs in the living room!!  I used to offer company Kool-Aid to drink when they came.  Bruce walked to work at Eastman Kodak where he started out at $1.25 an hour! 

268 Pullman Avenue - right down the street from Minder Street.  We occupied the second and third floor of this home while the owner lived in the first; she was a peach.  We had a huge bedroom on the third floor plus storage space.  We lived here when the electricity went out for hours and hours one summer day around 1966.  The library was nearby and I used to walk there pushing the baby buggy with Shelly in it.  Bruce was still able to walk to Kodak and we eventually bought our first car while here -- a 1967 Mercury.  

38 Rau Street -- our first home.  This, too, was a delight for us but we discovered that when they say location, location, location, they are right.  That driveway to the left of our house was an entrance to a shopping plaza.  We had a Dunkin' Donuts right in back of us!  But the house had two bedrooms upstairs, two downstairs, and in the basement was the most incredible party room!!  We became known for throwing some pretty interesting parties during our stay here.  One New Years Eve party still gets talked about - it lasted three days!!  I think we sold it for $17,900.

We decided to take a drive down to the Sea Breeze area and indulge in another favorite food - a Don and Bob hamburger.  We discovered that the place is now called Don's; something must have happened to Bob.  The signs above the cook area look the same, but I missed the staff calling out the orders to the cook.  The burgers are called "Grounds" and come with New York state hot sauce.  (It's made with finely cooked hamburger and I don't know what else but it's hot!)

From there we drove out to Hamlin along Lake Ontario and snapped some pictures of our farm home.  This was Bruce's pride and joy.  We were ecstatic to purchase this house, 5 acres and several outbuildings for $32,000 -- and we had to really squeeze the pennies together to do so.  This house held so many, many memories -- girls attended school in Kendall from 1st/2nd grade to their sophomore/junior years; the blizzard of '77 when Bruce had just finished installing the wood stove and got stranded here while the girls and I got stranded over in Chili; family picnics; picking apples, cutting asparagus, picking up black walnuts and drying them in the barn and picking raspberries. My  Muttsy dog got caught under the barn floor after chasing and killing a racoon and couldn't get out; we thought she was going to die under there.  But Bruce, with the help of my cousin Dick, rescued her.

There used to be two big Christmas trees in the front yard and big bushes under the front windows.

Since we were so close, we decided to stop and see if our neighbors were home.  As a rule, I don't like to drop in on people, but it was well after the dinner hour, and we hoped that they wouldn't mind.  Herb  and Mary Lou purchased their farm home around the same time as we did.  They had kids that were about the same ages as our girls, and Mary Lou and I shared some activities together - like Hobby Club and 4H - while Bruce and Herb rode together on the Lake Ontario Parkway to Kodak every day.  Great friends and wonderful people!  They have put so much love into their home; it is just remarkable what they have done.  I wish I had taken pictures of the gardens.  I have forgotten how many perennial beds she said they had but I think it was over 15.

Their doggie (I think Jackie ???) who did some cute tricks for treats.

Zoey after getting a bath and a haircut!