Historical Timeline

[LesleyB]

Hi Marilyn

Her son gave me the set on lights and I hang them on a Christmas tree in my back yard, in her memory.

With or without label?

Apologies to LuAnn - this thread has taken on a life of its own!

Best wishes
Lesley

[marilyn morning]

Sorry LuAnn

Sometimes a thread takes on a life of its own and we get off track.


Regards
Marilyn

[LuAnn]

Nonsense, some of the finest conversations take place from a starting point that quickly disappears into the mists of time. A talent that is sadly lacking in todays world in my opinion. Please feel free to continue, I understand about lives of their own.
LuAnn

[DavidWW]

Oanybuddy goat oany liniment, - high strength

David

PS For anyone listening to "Digging Up Your Roots" in a few hours, my apologies in advance for a degree of hoarseness and sniffles, - I raised a whole lot of dust yesterday, and it affects me that way........
dww

[Rach]

David,
After all that clearing up and hard work aren't you having second thoughts about moving at all? It sounds as though you now have a brand new house!
I remember well moaning for years but nothing being done until we decided to move house. Then I discovered the answer - do it myself. After half the plaster falling off a wall as I tried to put up a picture and managing to break bulbs as I was replacing them I now find that if I begin a sentence with "If your not going to do it now I'll................." . Suddenly the job is done

[marilyn morning]

Quote:
Her son gave me the set on lights and I hang them on a Christmas tree in my back yard, in her memory.

With or without label?

Hi Lesley,

I took the label off and put it away in a box of memories, for someday when I get old, then I'll reattach it. Too Funny!

Regards
Marilyn

[LuAnn]

Be sure Marilyn to attach your own note to that note so that your greatgranchildren know the story behind it. We have in our possesion a letter written to my grandmother from one of her beaus from before she came to Canada and met my grandfather. It bemoans the fact that she had agreed to knit a pair of slippers for his mother for Christmas and had only knit one slipper and no matter what the situation was between them could he please have the other slipper as he had no time or money to get anything else for his mum. We found the letter after she passed at age 85, and it has left us with the most tantilizing mystery. No follow up letters or anything. And gran never ever mentioned the young man or anything for all the years here! I wish she had spoken about her life more but she kept almost everything about her family to herself. And while it is fun to suppose about what happened it would surely be nice to know the real story.

LuAnn

[marilyn morning]

Hi LuAnn

That letter must of meant a great deal for your gram to keep it all those years. Maybe it was her way of getting back at him? Great now I'm going to be wondering to myself if she ever did knit that other slipper.

I too have a copy of a letter (never mailed) written by my gg gf, Matthew Morning dated June of 1898. Its addressed

Dear Brother and Sister

Who ever they were they lived in Maine and so far I can't figure out who they are. I know from a now deceased relative that he seemed to remember someone in the Morning family lived in Maine, but he never could remember who it was and then he passed last year.

What amazed me the most, was how beautiful Matthew's penmanship, sadly he passed on 6 months after writting the never mailed letter.

I'm in the middle of a computer conversion, but once I back to full speed I'll post a copy.

Regards
Marilyn

[DavidWW]

David,
After all that clearing up and hard work aren't you having second thoughts about moving at all? It sounds as though you now have a brand new house!
I remember well moaning for years but nothing being done until we decided to move house. Then I discovered the answer - do it myself. After half the plaster falling off a wall as I tried to put up a picture and managing to break bulbs as I was replacing them I now find that if I begin a sentence with "If your not going to do it now I'll................." . Suddenly the job is done

Hi Rach

Too expensive for a retired couple, never mind too big, and never mind that we want to get at the money ("access our equity") for weekends in Rome and the like, such as a trip next July to the Savonlinna Opera Festival with maybe a side trip to Leningrad (OK, OK, I know that it's been back to St Petersburg for while, but it was Leningrad when I was last there , and that's how I think of this quite beautiful city).

We knew that it was far too big for our needs when we bought it, but took the view that one investment that was unlikely to fail was property, and so has been the case, with our sale price being 285% of the purchase price, which fair beats inflation over the period we've been here, - assuming an average 4% pa, - that would have inflated the purchase price by 160% , and 4% is maybe a wee bit on the high side given several years at between 2 and 3%.

Thinking of Leningrad recalls one fascinating memory from one visit, this being on a Russian cruise ship out of Stockholm, giving 4 (white) nights in the city. My then wife, Mervi, a Finn, was already over there on a language refresher course, knew the place well from studying there; so had lots of friends, which made for a fascinating trip as I was an Intourist person in the morning but then almost a local in the afternoon and evening ............

(A subject that totally intrigues me is how the brain files away in very remote filing cabinets very detailed memories which, until some form of cue is provided, are not readily accessible; but once such a cue does occur, then it is absolutely bl***y amazing the very detailed memories that are accessed within seconds.)

The memory relates to a group of young Swedes who'd gone over purely for a booze trip. They were persuaded by a local to sell their ghetto buster for roubles. Only afterwards did they realise that there was no way that they could convert the roubles back to kroner, as they had nothing like the incoming evidence of Western currency conversion to match their magnificent rouble price for the ghetto blaster, - it was only possible to exchange back an amount up to the limit of the transaction on the way in, and, what p*****d me off, not necessarily to the same Western currency

Still, Swedes are probably one of few nationalities who would adopt the pragmatic approach and start off with vodka and champagne at breakfast, but then, they were there for a booze trip

Another, very Soviet era memory. After visiting a friend of Mervi's one evening I was severely warned not to speak to him in English outside his apartment when we were saying goodbye, since he was a chemist with a high security classification due to the nature of his work, and, had a neighbour overheard me talking in English, a phone call to the KGB could have put him in BIG difficulties.

Earlier I'd made the fundamental "mistake" of praising the Russian composer of a symphony on a record playing in the background, totally unfamiliar to me, - and in that society, it was (is?) virtually automatic that the object admired is given as a gift to the visitor.

If you ever visit St Petersburg, - watch out for the "Polar Bear", - Russian vodka, preferably accompanied by some good bread, cheese, and fruit, with Russian champagne chasers .......... deadly is insufficient a description for the effect ..............

I could go on and on, as the memories come flooding back, - the white nights, the tremendous courtesy of the Leningraders, Foucault's (sp?) pendulum, opera at the Marinsky (Kirov) Theatre, meeting a friend of Mervi's who was an announcer on the Russian radio English service, whose English accent was virtually perfect, and more, and much more.

See thread drift, see fantastic


A last, sad wee tale, but not so sad in a way. Some of you may have heard of the 1,000 day siege of Leningrad in WWII. Weel, Mervi's father's third wife was inside Leningrad while he was outside in the Finnish army who were part of the besieging forces along with the Germans.

The tale was that Arno's company were tasked one evening with attacking the convoys taking essential supplies into Leningrad across the frozen Lake Ladoga. Arno and his company were less than happy with this task, given that much of the food carried by the convoy was for the women and children in the besieged city ............

But if their superiors didn't hear the sounds expected from such an attack then they'd be in deep trouble explaining the situation. The solution?, use lots of grenades to blow holes in the ice while firing their weapons into the air, and do some fishing

See thread drift, see get me talking
dww

[Thrall]

Hi David, good to hear the flitting went to plan, nothing unexpected came up and you´re you now sitting back enjoying the new pad..........

not least undoing that terrible idea that we had to continue the floor tiles in the en-suite onto the doors and surface of the basin unit, - great concept but it looked terrible ........

Your mention of floor tiles reminded me of a young couple I know who recently bought their first flat; it was in good condition and perfect except the "floating" parquet in the living room was rather dark, but otherwise in very good fettle. After much ruminating it was decided to do something drastic before they moved in, otherwise they would always regret the dark floor. Out came the jemmy and the boards were one by one lifted and carried out to the skip, until on reaching the middle of the floor a carefully written message came to light:

What sort of idiots do you think you are, ripping up a perfectly sound floor just because you´re not so keen on the colour

Obviously they had to carry on, but felt somewhat chastened to say the least!

Orraverrabest,

Thrall