7th ANNUAL SALEM OHIO DAY IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

Our second trip to Port Charlotte to visit Audrey's niece, was also to attend the seventh annual Salem Ohio day in N Fort Myers at the Shell Factory.  We had attended it in 2009 and 2010 and enjoyed it very much, so we were looking forward to it again!!  There were 119 in attendance, many who were Salem alumni.

It was great to see former classmates who we had not seen for many years (We won't put numbers to those years!).  The attendees were from the Classes of 1947 through 1972.  Ah-h, we are somewhere in the middle those years!!

Can you Salem people put names to the rest of the pictures??

 

 

Ray Esterly introduced the speaker who had been a Salem football coach in the 50's and had gone on to coach for Ohio State for many years.  He was an inspiring speaker and had many antidotes to tell.

And what is a banquet without a little dancing??  Richard Hary and Helen Brown Esterly have been on the comittee for this function since it's inception seven years ago.  This year they have invited Gary and BJ Abrams to join the comittee for the future events.

Hope that you can relate to the flow of conversation around the room!!

Pic - 1  Tim Bowser and his wife.  Tim is very involved with Salem BSA Troop 2, although he is not originally from Salem.
Pic - 2  Bill Goodchild, his wife Esther and her friend Janice Wells.  Gary served with the BSA Troop 2 for many years with Bill.   Janice worked at Lincoln Machine when Gary worked there.
Pic - 3  David Eastlake and his new wife.  But sorry to say I do not know the lady David is talking to.  Audrey worked with David's son-in-law for a brief time at HS&L.   David's son-in-law was the son of Audrey's manager Bob DeCrow.
Pic - 4  Paul Lippiatt talking with Bobbadean and Tom Foreman.  Bobbadean was a classmate of Audrey's who she had not seen for several years.  Great to catch up!!
Pic - 5  Bill Goodchild talking with Denton Herron and his wife Marilyn.  Gary had worked with Denton at Herron Transfer just after high school.
Pic - 6  Joe Kozar and Tim Dean catching up on news.  Both were classmates of Audrey's.
Pic - 7  Sorry to say, the only ones who I am sure of are Sam McKinney and his wife. 
Pic - 8  Bob Sebo who hosted the 2012 Salem Ohio day in Naples.
Pic - 9  Gary socializing as usual.

While visiting around, we met up with Gail Bowen who had worked at Bliss when Gary worked there.  Gail had also played cards with a group who met in an apartment we rented out in the early '70's.  I also played with this group.  We were amazed to learn from Gail that Karen, our former renter, is now residing in Foley AL and working here in Pensacola. Gail assisted us in making contact with Karen and we have since spent a Sunday afternoon with her and her husband, Dennis, for dinner and much visiting .  Had a wonderful time and again we forgot the camera.  Such a small world though!!

After the Salem Ohio dinner and social, Gary and I went through the Shell Factory store very leisurely.  Very interesting and so many awesome things with AWESOME prices as well!!

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, including some more one on one visiting with Audrey's niece, Tina.  She was amazed to find out things about us that she had not heard before.  We will have to do this visit again!! 
After leaving Port Charlotte, we stopped in Bushnell, where we had spent our first two winters of fulltiming, for a couple days.  We joined friends who we had met at First Baptist Church of Bushnell those first two winters,  Lee and Karen.   Gary keeps in touch with Lee often as they share an interest in classic cars.

                  

They were committed on our first evening in town to a fund raising dinner for the Cattleman's Association. So we joined them there for the evening.  We loved it and learned things about farming/ranching that we had never heard before.  We have been amazed since our first visit to Florida to learn how much of Florida is a cattle, horse and produce state.  It was wonderful to see them again and we joined them again the next day for Sunday School and church.  Sorry folks that I had to dig in the archives for pictures, as we forgot to use our camera that evening!!   Such delicious beef, that we did not think about the camera.

We stayed over until Monday to go to the large Webster Flea Market.  We were going to meet up with Fran, 

 

a friend from our winters in Mesa, Arizona, who is spending this winter in Florida for a change. However, after her big Sunday in Sarasota, she was not up to the Flea Market, so we promised to meet up again in the near future.  We had stopped and visited with her the first of January, so we were glad for that visit.  She is originally from Illinois so we are thinking that we might meet up with her there in May.  Time will tell.  Sorry Fran, I also had to dig in the archives for this picture.  I am getting out of practice with the camera.  Shame on me!!

Thanks goodness for a Creative Memories consultant here in Pensacola, who located all of my pictures on the computer hard drive after our recent upgrade.  I could not locate them, but since am learning much about navigating around the computer.   I have also been able to spend some time with other women scrapbooking here in the area because of my contact with this consultant.  It has been fun.

Stay tuned and I will bring you the rest of the way up to date in the next Blog. 

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS 2013 IN PORT CHARLOTTE FLORIDA

It has been more than two months since I did the last Blog with pictures.  Shame on me!  But I just got a newer version of Creative Memories Workshop to reinstall my old photos with.  I finally located them and am working at updating from the cameras.  Hang in there and I will try to bring you up to date.
I am finding that I must retrain myself to take photos more often.  It even seems to be a chore to remember to carry the camera out the door.  I will have to get back in the swing!!
The biggest event that we have had since the last full blog, was Christmas in Port Charlotte at Audrey's niece's and I will have to post those pictures for family to catch up on.  It was fun!!

It was great seeing Tina's new house and enjoying her wonderful hospitality!!





 

Richard, I thought you would like to see the architecture and contours.  I especially loved the flowers and trees, - and the pool, though did not get to use it.  The water was too cold.

 

The first family gathering was for little Aiden's birthday.  He loves John Deere, can't you tell?

 

Mommy and Daddy, Amanda and Michael prepare food.  Yum!

Sister, Ilana and cousin, Lydia watch the candle lighting.

Seven cousins gather to eat and share cupcakes.  Opps, where's Eyob?

Eyob at next table in booster seat with Daddy and Aunt Becky helping.

Two months before Aiden and Ilana were children in a family of four.  They now number six with their two new brothers from Ethiopia.  It was amazing how they have adapted to their new family, the family practices as well as the English language!!  They sure fit right in!!

 

 

Audrey, Tina, Jessica & Matthew, Pearl

After a day shopping, feeding a family of seventeen, and cleaning up, we always found time to sit down for a few games of Five Crowns.  It was always fun and relaxing!  Gary vegged out in front of the TV, by himself this time.

 

 

The day before Christmas, Tina was rushing to finish wrapping gifts in the garage while Pearl and Audrey helped her by tying fleece throws for the little ones.  The requirements for the family and children exchanges this Christmas was that no gift was to cost more than $5 and they were to be something homemade.  So check-out the pictures of Christmas Day, down below.

 

On to the church's area wide Christmas Eve Program in the Park!  Can't wait for darkness for the fun to begin! 

 

 

Let the fun and the Story of the True Meaning of Christmas begin - -

 

Michael on the bongo drums.

 

Kaelyn and Lydia singing with their adult friend.
                                                                                             

Mikias and Uncle Matthew checking out the play ground.

It looks like Mikias got a hold of Aunt Jessica's scarf. 

It was a very meaningful program and all went home tired but content, ready to sleep and wait for Santa.

 

The families all chose to return to have Christmas at Grandma Tina's, as they were sure she had more room.  And Grandma loved it!!  It is so difficult for Audrey to realize that Tina is a grandma, and especially to so many, since she stayed with Tina as a tot when her sister was born.  Many years ago, though it seems like yesterday!!

 

Grandma with the girls!



Grandma, Jeff and Becky, Amanda looking on.

Uncle Matthew and Aunt Jessica, gathering ideas for their baby to arrive soon.  

Topographical map play ground!

Kaelyn and her artist pouch!  Awesome, says the artist!

Eyob's monkey puppet!



Daddy plays with the race track!

Oh, so warm!!

Grandma, is this puppet story time?

Aunt Jessica, thank you for this baking idea!

Grandma's turn!!

AWESOME GIFTS don't you think?  We all thought so and the kids will have many hours of fun!!   

 

Now it is time for turkey dinner!!  Great that grandma has plenty of space in her kitchen as it sure was the gathering place every time. 

 

 

Jeff carving!



Adults sampling??

As bedtime came on, all was cleared away and we had time for Five Crowns again.  It was a Christmas that Gary and Audrey will not forget!!  Next will be New Years Eve together.  Had the great ringing in of the new year at 8 pm and the youngsters did not know the difference.  They were ready for sleep (almost) and we were all ready for them to call it a day.

 

We are looking forward to this in 2013 in Ohio.  Get ready!!