Sunrise

Hi Sandy----it's 3:45am. I'm awake, still a little tired but cannot seem to get back to sleep----usually when I wake up like that I lie awake and think about Dad and the times we used to spend together----the good times of course when we were rested from our day's labor and he would hold me and kiss me and there were times we would talk until dawn was breaking. In the last years when he was alive I would put on a fresh pot of coffee. put a couple of chairs out on our back porch/steps area and take him out there to watch the golden orange sunrise come up over the water rising above the water and shining through the trees and over the boat docks We saw so many sunrises in so many places with good coffee 'sometimes we were up all night and also so many wonderful sunsets with a good bottle of wine in so many wonderful places---when dad said" stick with me Babe(that was his favorite name for me) and I'll show you the world "and he meant just that in more ways than one . Dad loved this place. He always wanted a home on the lake. He used to tell me how Grandma Thomson would save money to rent a cabin on Wall Lake. Michigan. I have some pictures of him as a young boy standing cocky (as was his nature) with his arms crossed, hair tousled as if he had the world by the tail. He used to tell me how far and swift he could swim. He said he and his friends used to swim in the Detroit River. You and Tommy inherited that skill from Dad. They didn't have much according to today's standards (Dad sold newspapers on the streets of Detroit when he was eight in his knickers with the buckles undone (that was cool to leave your knickers unbuckled below the knee. I'm sure he buckled them before he went home as they often said Grandpa Thomson used to wear his suit coat to carry out the trash---he also used to take the capsule out of the margarine bag to color his hair---so the family ate white Margarine and he had this funky orange-red hair which he thought made him look dapper-which reminds me of the time we were living in Oberammergau and were going to Munich the next day to the Oktoberfest and I decided to put a henna streak in the front of my hair. I woke up and it was green. Nothing to do but go on to the fest--but I spoke such good German and drank beer like a" Bayer "I was never pegged as an "AmiFrau" People thought just another Ditzy Fraulein trying to take uo "Ami ways') but here again Grandma Thomson saved for a wonderful brick home-----and Dad had such great memories of his youth and how the cousins that had also come over from Scotland would gather and party and I have seen them go on for days with little short naps and Ham sandwiches cut from a baked Ham. One of Dad's cousins in Detroit ' (Sally )took me to a wedding Party at one of the Detroit Tigers players parent's home.. They were Polish--I think Gromyk was the name. There was wall to wall people ,happy, spirited people that seemed to care for one another. Tables lined the walls in the basement with the most magnificent food.Everyone had brought something wonderful---polish "special" dishes. I was in the basement with Sally (pregnant with Michael and waiting for my orders so I could join Dad in Germany) Accordion music was coming from upstairs , I could hear dancing feet doing the Polka and clicking on the floor above, I looked up at the basement ceiling and it was moving up and down as the couples upstairs were doing what comes naturally. When there is good music you grab a partner and dance.It was so different from where I had come from where apple cider was strong drink and my Mother was a "white ribboner" and aside from the small bottle of Bourbon my dad kept in the icebox for making cough syrup when we had the croup----alcohol was never allowed in the house. Jim Edd was a little older and living at home and working at the drug store in Jacksboro with "Big Daddy" Jim would buy steaks on occasion that he loved to broil with butter and garlic. He would buy a six pack of beer to drink with his steak. Mother would open the back door and literally throw the beer and garlic out in the yard. Can you even imagine how traumatized I was with Dad and his Family at their gatherings. It seemed to me just getting up in the morning when they were together (if they happened to get sleep the night before) was reason enough to celebrate.Dad and Annie were so close and always were so happy to see each other and party together. Dad truly loved his Mother and he was "her big Lug and she would walk up to him fist doubled and pound him on the chest and say"how's my big lug? He was her baby and she was so proud of him. She was so pleased with our marriage---she would say "youse Guys Have True love like the movie with Grace Kelly and Bing Crosby and then she would sing True Love in that Scottish brogue of hers. That lady was a saint and her "Johnny was her King "as she would say no matter how ill tempered or ugly he was.She was just so tuned in. None of the daughters- in law would ever let on there was anything going on with the sons. We could be really crossways with each other but when we went to see Mom everything was "hunky-Dory' until we left and then we could pick up where we left off. When Mom died . Dunc and Eva, Mike and Helen and Dad and I were in the Motel having a drink and going over old times as the boys had not seen each other in a while. Dunc and Eva were living in Florida Mike and Helen were living in Cleveland and Dad and I had just returned from Germany. Mike's wife Helen was Hungarian and was a little more" ballsy" looked at Mike and said to him "Mike. you had better watch your step now that Mom is gone because I don't have to worry about hurting your Mom anymore". Eva looked at Dunc and said"that goes for me,too Dunc." Dad was sitting on the bed, drink in hand with this smug look on his face because I had not learned to stand up to him yet--but I have to tell you I was sure thinking it. I'm going to stop now and drink an ALKA_SELTZER . I ate a bowl of cereal when I first woke up. Sometimes that will put me back to sleep. I have to be in Plano at 11 o'clock to have my hip checked Sometimes it just locks up on me. I'm going to call Sean and see if he would like to have lunch somewhere with me---then come back to work. gonna work 4 hours Saturday and Sunday and fit a golf tournament in on Sunday afternoon. Am I blessed or what? Hope I haven't repeated myself and some of this is new. My life has just been one Chaotic Miracle after another. I said to my administrator the other day "by the way ,Jim, I didn't put on my resume that I was a certificated paralegal. To which he replied My God, Woman is there nothing you haven't done--I was overwhelmed at reading your resume? To which I replied--"well yes Jim BUT you're much too young and your ears too tender to hear it." If you have an email for Annies children in Florida please forward LUV and KISSES MOMXXOO

The Moon

Hi my beauties----just got in from work and am yearning to" hit the hay" as the saying goes but wanted to share something with you. Hopefully you won't say TMI mom. On the way home tonite when I turned off of 377 onto 902 there just above the horizon hung a bright orange moon----a peach slice of a moon and all of a sudden I was 25 years old again living in Locham, Germany. Dad and I often went for rides. We had household help so we could just pick up and go. When I would say to Dad on a warm summer's evening "Would you like to go for a ride" he was always ready and would gather up a blanket and a bottle of wine and he would find some beautiful secluded spot to spread the blanket and we would lie there in the magic of our love and gaze at the moon and talk about stuff and actually became acquainted with each other as we only had a few dates , then Dad went overseas and after he came back it was as if he was making up for lost. time. He was very angry at me when he came back from the war because I had gone back to school and left Patti in my mother's care. There was never any love lost between those two. They never did learn to like each other. Then we went to California to look for work and it was no better than Detroit Dad decided to go back into the Military. He was stationed at Fort Ord and I was staying with Nanny Peters in San Fransisco. My brother was stationed in San Jose at the Navy base and Dad went down one weekend to spend some time with Jim Edd-----he never made it home. There was a head on collision with both cars in the middle of the road. Dad ended up in the hospital for about six weeks but at that he was luckier than the kids in the other car.After he got out of the hospital he spent some time in lock up while the investigation was carried out as to blame but since both cars collided on the center line there was equal blame for the tragedy and dad didn't have to serve any more time. While he was in the hospital---after he got able to come to the apartment he would get weekend passes and come home. I would go to Pacific Grove or Monterrey Bay and buy shrimp---huge ,fresh shrimp and have them cooked. peeled and chilled which he truly enjoyed and we would play strip cribbage and drink Rum and Coke and eat those fabulous shrimp. After he got out of the hospital he was transferred to Camp Roberts but housing was really tight after the war and so we found a place near the naval yards but a long distance from Dad' work . He left at 4:30 in the morning and got home about 7:00 at night and would sometimes fall asleep on the couch without eating dinner-----so we did not have much time there to get to know each other. He asked me if I would go to Germany with him and of coarse I would have followed him to hell if he had asked me to I was so much in love with him. He got orders and came in from work one evening ,sneaked up behind , kissed me on the neck and told me we were going to Germany. Now mind you he got home from the war in November--he was home for Thanksgiving and had given me the ultimatum that if I wasn't there when he got home not to bother coming---so I went to the Dean of nursing and asked her if I had enough work time that I could leave. I had pulled extra shifts for my buddies so they could date ----so when she figured it up I was able to go to Detroit and much to my Mother' dismay I packed me and Patti up and actually cannot remember if I took a train or plane to Detroit. It was probably a train. The weekend before he left me in California was special. It was father's day and we layed out in the California sun. After awhile Dad took me by the hand and led me into the house. I didn't t know I was pregnant with Michael until some weeks later.He left from California and I honestly can't remember how I got to Detroit ---This was in June only 6 months after he had come home. Six months later in December1945 I landed in Germany. So the point is that from the time we met we had very little time to get to know each other and were separated a lot so once we did actually settle down in a home it was like magic. We had time and took the time to become friends and lovers and spent a lot of evenings "moon gazing" and later on it was one of our favorite things to do and we have seen the moo come up over a lot of places. We also loved to watch the sunsets with a bottle of wine. It is these beautiful, incredible memories that keep me going. Dad was very special when we were alone together and was not afraid to show me his tender side and I feel very blessed to have been loved by such a man. Also I will never forget that amazing moon in the sky on the night he died. It was as if the moon had come to honor him for all the time we had gazed and made love in the light of the moon. Kinda like the moon had watched these two young lovers who grew to be old lovers who never got tired of gazing at the moon and holding each other in the moonlight and declaring our love for each other. Love you MOMXXOO