Saturday, July 30, 2011

Sports

In June I wrote a post about sports and in it I mentioned that I scuba dived. 
http://meandmyancestors.blogspot.com/2011/06/52-weeks-of-personal-genealogy-history_7128.html

Today while looking for pictures of my childhood bedrooms, I found these pictures of me getting ready to do a dive.  I thought you would enjoy seeing them.


1976 off the Florida Keys
  

The gal beside me is Linda one of my co-workers and my dive buddy.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History: Bedrooms

Describe your childhood bedroom. What furniture did it contain? Were there curtains, wallpaper or paint? Was it messy or clean? Did you share a room with your sip siblings?



I had a total of three childhood bedrooms the first one I remember was in our home and Whitestone, New York. The first bedroom was in the back of the house on the second floor. It was also the room that my mother hung laundry out on the clothesline. There were two twin beds in this room and I shared this room with my brother George. Sometimes I had the that was on the left and sometimes I had the bed that was on the right I don't remember exactly how we decided who slept in what bed.


Some of the memories of this bedroom include having the chickenpox, mumps and a very vile stomach flu, it took me a long time to drink apricot nectar after that stomach flu. Of course the other memory of this room was watching my mother hang the laundry out on a clothesline. The clothesline when a cross our whole double decker backyard and attached to a wall behind our house. She would wheel the laundry out to let it dry and then wheeled it back in when it was dry. There was a pulley at each end of the clothesline. This was a second-story window so she had to carry the laundry up from the basement through the main floor and up to the second floor.



Our House 1949 Whitestone, New York

When I was older like nine or ten, I was given my own bedroom in the front of the house. In this room there was just a double bed. I also have a little desk, dresser and a chair. There was wallpaper on the wall there were there were curtains and on the windows. One time when we had company my mom came to sleep with me in my room. I wasn't accustomed to anybody sleeping in with me and so I kicked her out of bed. She was not very happy with me. I remember her very clearly telling me to stop it.

In the picture above, the window over the front door was my bedroom window.


Mary in 1968 in my Florida bedroom

When we moved to Florida I had my own bedroom again, well of course, I was the only girl! This bedroom is also in the front of the house it was painted pink and had rose curtains in the windows the interesting thing is I don't think I really like pink it's an okay color but it's definitely not my favorite, this is the room I that I slept in until I left home. This room has memories of my own portable radio. Before then the radio was only in your room if you were sick. My own radio was pink with grey nobs. I spent many hours laying on my bed and listening to rock and roll. I had a twin bed in this room. 

I also spent a lot of time reading in my bedroom.  I spent so much time reading my Mom would yell at me, "Go outside and dust those cobwebs off."   She wanted me to be active and balanced. 

This is a later picture of me when I was 20, me in all my glory in orange baby doll pajamas.


My brother Eddie in my room 1968

One of the sad memories of this room was when my Mom was very sick with cancer and she was in a hospital bed in my parent’s room, her twin bed was in my room. I had a nightmare one night and I remember I ran around that extra bed to get to her room. There was a night nurse since my Dad was working and she just told me to go back to bed.




Mary 1968 packing to go to New York

One of the happier memories was backing for a trip to New York when I was 20.  I had left home for a while and at this time I was back at home.  I was to meet a pen pal Ken in New York, he lived in Ohio.  He gave me the American Airline poster I have over my bed, in the other picture.  Unfortunately he forgot my Aunt's phone number and we never meet up with each other. 

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History


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Monday, July 25, 2011

Georgie???

On Saturday I was making some scrapbook pages about my Dad. I decided to scan the back of the picture and show it on the page. It was labeled "Georgie" Hartmann. Now my Dad was not a Georgie to me, he was a George. Well he was mostly Dad or Pop but never a Georgie.  I do not remember my Dad telling me any of stories about his childhood.  I am glad he was a Georgie to someone.  


Back of Baby Picture

That address on the back of the picture is the same address on his Dad's draft notice for WWII. 
Baby Picture

The only story I remember is that when he graduated from St. Fidelis his class was the last graduating class from that school in 1926,  I don't remember he telling me about playing games, or things he enjoyed. 

I just Googled St. Fidelis in College Point and I guess it is a school again.  I also found this link about a book.


St. Fidelis Parish in College Point, NY - The First 75 Years 1856-1931

by James E. Haas


The story of one Queens, New York, parish--its priests and people--as a microcosm of the German-American Catholic experience from the mid 1850s through the early part of the 20th century.

Yes he grandfather was from Germany.



Back of Communion Picture



Communion Picture


As a parent he was strict, didn't like fooling around or teenage girl drama, and I was mild with the drama.  I wonder why?  He taught me there was no free lunch and if it was worth doing, it was worth doing well.  There was a place for all things and all things needed to be in their place.  His favorite quote was, "There is the Army way, the Navy way and my way or the highway."

I would have liked to know more about his childhood and his parents.  He just didn't talk about those kinds of things.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Remembering Dad

Today would have been my Dad's 99th birthday. 

Dad as an infant in 1913

Happy Birthday Dad!
love from me



Tuesday, July 5, 2011

On This Day in my Personal History

Over the weekend I was thinking about special 4th of Julys and of course the day after the 4th one year was very special to me. So I also reflected on that over that day over the weekend.


On July 5th of 1979 I entered the MTC or the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah. I had joined the LDS church on June 17, 1977 at the age of 29. A mission was the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted to get married but the Lord had other things in store for me. I was raised Catholic and telling my Dad I had joined the LDS church was hard enough but to tell him I was going on a mission are even harder. My Dad didn’t understand anything about any religion except being Catholic. It was also shortly after Jonestown, that I decided to go on a mission. 

So my Dad was worried I was going to go to South America and would drink poison. And where did I go, Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission. He knew he couldn’t stop me and he never understood about my conversion or the desire to serve a mission. But he did promise to write and he kept his promise.

Cover of my Mission Scrapbook
Actually I think he got off easy because when I was ten I wanted to be a Nun Nurse in Africa after seeing the movie the “The Nun Story” at least I would be home in eighteen months.

Above is the cover I made for my mission scrapbook.  The little card in the center is what we wore on our name tags while in the MTC.  While in the MTC you were to speak only Spanish to anyone  going on a Spanish speaking mission.  The Bolivian Flag is red, yellow and green and the national flower is the Kantuta.  After eight weeks of being submersed in Spanish, I thought I could really speak it until I landed in Santa Cruz.  What a rude awaking.

Mission Name Tag

I bet every missionary who ever stayed at the MTC has a picture of themselves in front of the world map pointing to their little spot in the world and I am no exception.
Me in front of the MTC World Map
I loved my mission and I loved the people I severed in Bolivia.  It was a great growing experience and I have many cherished memories of my mission.  The memory of entering the MTC and officially starting my mission is indeed a very found memory.

Monday, July 4, 2011

The 4th of July

One of my all-time favorite 4th of July was in 1979. I celebrated this on in Provo Utah. I had been in Utah since June 25th. I spent several days in Salt Lake City with one of the Sister Missionaries, Joy Lyn Deppe that taught me the discussions in Miami Florida. The rest of the time I spent with Trudy Adair in Provo, she was one of my other Sister Missionaries.

Here are my scrapbook pages from that special day.
The Parade


Sundance
B-Que & Fireworks
Some of my other favorite 4ths of July were in Taylor Arizona. Small towns do the 4th in a big way. One of Taylor’s traditions is to shoot of an anvil. I can’t find any pictures of it and I thought I had some so I didn’t take any when I was there this pass Saturday. They start at 4 AM shooting off the anvil. It was so loud on Saturday I jump so high in bed I almost fell out of bed. The light gun power under the anvil and up it goes. They do this around town and parade down the streets honking horns and all.

I found a YouTube video of how it is done for your viewing pleasure.




 

There are also Cowboy Poetry &  Singing presentations. We went to one on Saturday July 2nd. I enjoyed it but I didn’t hear any of my old favorite Cowboy songs like Ghost Riders in the Sky and They Call the Wind Mariah. There were only three songs I knew, the Orange Blossom Special, God Bless the USA and I forgot the third song.

The Desert Sons



These guys were good, The Desert Sons.








This couple are from Texas, Jean & Gary Prescott and they did a good job also.  I love her boots and I am not a boot gal.









However we celebrate I want to remember what it really means to be an American and the birth of our great nation.