Category: Memories

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, This Old House

This Old House

Posted on by nancyb422

I’ve written about my home before but now I’m exploring the house, the area surrounding it, and the family who built it.

My family and I moved into this home I now own on Memorial Day weekend in 1961.

My parents had previously been renting a home 2 blocks from my maternal grandmother for a few years.

They found this gem of a home – Dutch colonial, 4 bedrooms, eat in kitchen and dining room, living room with a fireplace, and a beautiful covered side porch. It was just under a half acre and had a 1 car (maybe 2) garage and old chicken coop. It had a walk up attic and a walk out basement.

Picture taken from area currently Lincoln Drive by future neighbor
Current location still has telephone pole. Structure from other picture and an additional one (unknown)

The previous owners, the Atkinsons, built the house sometime in the mid-20s. He was the personnel manager at H.L. Judd until his 1949 retirement but was also a “gentleman farmer” and sold baby chicks! Mr. Atkinson passed away in March of 1960 and a year later, Mrs. Atkinson was ready to sell.

The cost of the house was $25,000. My maternal grandmother gave them the $5,000 and they took out a mortgage for the rest. In a sweet coincidence, my paternal great grandmother gave my grandparents the down payment for their house in 1925.

The yard still contained what we called the chicken coop which my father took down and left the foundation. This brought years of fun playing on it because it was level from one part of the yard and “so high!” from another side and the back. We raced around on the edge for years.

I’m not sure where he was breeding his chicks for 15 years, prior to this 1927 ad but he appears to be quite well known. This will require some more research!

January 1927 advertisement
9/5/1932 permit notice

There was also a cherry trees, apple trees, a grape arbor, rhubarb, and asparagus that continued to grow for years in “the way back”. Brambles of raspberries, and a mulberry tree rounded out the fruit.

9/1938 advertisement
11/1938 advertisement

There are only 2 remaining apple trees just off our property with only one producing any apples. I determined it was a Wealthy apple from the advertisement and googling the apple. “Wealthy apple trees bear heavily and is very cold hearty, but also fruits in low chill locations. It’s a favorite for home orchards in Minnesota and the East.

Stick with me for the journey!

Posted in 2024, family, life, Memories, Writing

One Name is Enough

Posted on by nancyb422

What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

My two sisters and I were not born with middle names! The story is my parents thought one name a piece was enough. Isn’t that weird? They both had middle names! Why couldn’t they give us one?

At 12 years old when I got closer to my confirmation, not having a middle name turned out pretty nice because I got to choose it myself! I ran through a variety of names but you know, it had to sound right with my first name which is Nancy. Nancy Ann – nah, too plain. Nancy Elizabeth, my mother’s name – not bad, but my sister snagged that. Julia? Antoinette, Helen? All names of aunts, No, No, and No.

I settled on Catherine. It was the name of my mother’s favorite cousin, but she spelled hers with a K and I didn’t like the way the initials looked or sounded 😂. NCJ had more appeal to me than NKJ. So Nancy Catherine Jakiela is was!

After I got married I dropped the middle name and took my maiden name for my middle name. Catherine didn’t stick around for very long but it was good while it lasted.

Posted in 2024, Books, family, life, Memories, Writing

Hearing Myself Talk

Posted on by nancyb422

There’s an article today in the New York Times Wellness Section entitled “You’re Never Too Old for Story Time” that talks about why adults to read aloud to one another and how to get started. That brought back memories!

It must have been when Cody was still in elementary school, maybe middle school, that on a few occasions during long car rides I would read to him and my husband.

My two favorites were both by the same author, Richard Peck. A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder. They were books I was introduced to while I was a library assistant in a K-5 school.

The first involves a brother and sister who go to their grandmother’s home one summer. It is described as short stories but they all blend right into one another.

The second, is about the sister who is living there on her own with her grandmother, her brother having joined the army.

I read them both on my own at first and, even now I’m tearing up thinking about the stories! I knew my husband and son would both enjoy them so on a trip I would bring along one of the books and read.

I clearly remember getting to a part and saying “ok, give me a minute to get weepy so I don’t do it while I’m reading!”. We usually managed to finish a book on the trip.

I still have those two books on my bookshelf. I think it’s time to read them again.

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, Music, Writing

A Thoughtful Christmas Gift

Posted on by nancyb422

Share one of the best gifts you’ve ever received.

For Christmas quite a few years ago, my husband gave me (and him) tickets to Wicked on Broadway. He pulled them out of the tree at the end of the gift giving and handed them to me.

I started crying because I was so happy but also because I felt like he really understood what I would like.

He talked to a friend about different plays and she told him she thought I would like that best. The biggest gift was that he was going with me, even though he doesn’t like to go to plays!

It was a Wednesday matinee, we took the train in from Connecticut and we both had a great time.

Posted in 2024, family, life, Memories

Heading Towards the Unexpected

Posted on by nancyb422

What were your parents doing at your age?

I’m turning 64 this year. My parents are 2 years apart, so we’ll just use the same age range.

My mother was working for a nice local construction company where she had worked for many years. They were good to her. She got the job because she was good at what she did and they were our neighbors so they knew they could trust her. Outside of work, she spent a lot of time reading and she enjoyed going to tag sales on Saturdays with her sister in law Edna.

My dad was working for a local rehabilitation hospital in their Facilities Department as their painter/wall paperer which was his profession since he got out of the army in 1946. He really enjoyed working there because of all the people he got to see and my sister worked in the Occupational Therapy Department. He started golfing again when my sisters and I were in high school so he probably golfed sometime during the week and maybe weekends – I don’t really recall!

This was also the time that my mother had a ticking time bomb in her brain called a Glioblastoma Multiform weaving its way through the areas of her brain. Little did they know how different life would be towards the end of that 64th year.

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, Sports

We’re a Football Family!

Posted on by nancyb422

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

I grew up watching football on tv and in person at our town’s junior football league.

Later, I was running down the hill to the high school games on Saturdays in middle school and cheering them from the sidelines once I became a cheerleader in high school.

Pickup games were played on the practice field in the fall and there was a certain thrill in evading tackles or keeping someone from the ball while on defense.

Senior year I was a captain for defense on our Powder Puff football team. We had practice for 2 or three weeks before the big game against our cross town rivals on the day before Thanksgiving.

Our son played football for the same high school team I cheered for and once again I would head down the hill to watch the games.

My family has a 16 member Fantasy Football league which as me checking the predictions and watching Red Zone closely on Sundays!

Definitely football is my favorite sport!

Posted in 2024, Memories, Writing

ANNhurst, not AMherst*

Posted on by nancyb422

What colleges have you attended?

I attended one college from 1978 to 1980 and received my Associates Degree in Secretarial Science back when that was still a thing.

Annhurst College was a beautiful liberal arts college set in Woodstock Connecticut – “the quiet corner” of the state. Laid out on both sides of Route 169 it was originally a teaching college for Daughters of the Holy Spirit, the nuns who taught in the catholic schools in the eastern part of the state. It then developed into a “regular” college for girls, and by the time I got there, it was co-ed with a 5-1 ratio of females to males. At the time I was there the student body was around 250-300 people.

The college consisted of one old brick building that housed “the gym” and sciences classrooms on the second floor, and classroom/administration building, a student center/cafeteria, and cultural center of built in the 1960s. There were two dormitories – one built in the 1960s and the other built earlier, as well as another building that housed the nuns when I went there and contained the chapel. There were also old homes that some nuns lived in and one was used for the admissions office. In the basement was The Hobbit Hole, the college bar. The only official place to drink in Woodstock because it was a dry town!

I loved it from the moment I saw it. I loved walking everyday to meals and to classes along the paths, sitting out in front of the student center after a meal, or waiting for one, riding my bike to Roseland Lake, taking the school’s bus to Putnam on Fridays to pick up supplies from K-Mart, ordering pizza nearly every night (and gaining that “Freshman 15”), and just reveling in the beauty of the countryside.

Sadly, in the spring of my 2nd (and last) year at Annhurst, it was announced that it would be closing at the end of the academic year. all underclassmen were given help to find somewhere to go at that late notice and alumni were left without “a home”. It really left a hole in the hearts of everyone.

Nancy (me) Annhurst College Graduation May 1980
Views of Annhurst College present day (2023)

Thankfully about 10 years ago, an alumni association was started up and there is an annual reunion held at the campus which is now part of Woodstock Academy (a private school).

My husband and I occasionally ride out to Woodstock on the motorcycle and he drives down Route 169 so I can have my bit of nostalgia.

*A common conversation after graduation:

ME: I go to Annhurst college. THEM: Oh! Amherst in Massachusetts wow! ME: No, ANNhurst college in Woodstock. THEM: Woodstock NY! Oh wow! ME: NO ANNhurst College in Woodstock CT. It closed the year I graduated. THEM: Oh! Never heard of it.

Tell me in the comments if you’ve ever heard of it!

Posted in life, Memories, Travel

I’m Adventurous but…OMG!

Posted on by nancyb422

Perusing through a box of pictures, I found the journal and pictures from a trip to California at the end of July 2007. Our son was going into his senior year of high school and we needed to get the trip in before football practice started!

I’m so glad I kept a journal because there was a lot I’d forgotten and it really brought it back to me. Especially our day at the Moaning Caverns in Murphy, California! They are located about an hour from Twain Harte where Mark’s dad lived. When we would travel to visit him, I always made sure I found a couple of fun adventures so Cody wouldn’t be bored. The website looked very interested and he and I decided we were going to rappel down into the 165 drop. For perspective, the Statue of Liberty is 151 feet. The following is from my journal:

“Oh my GOD. 1st we watch a video with rules like NEVER let go of the rope, NEVER put your hand on the J-bar – real fear inducing. Then the person goes over them again. There were 5 of us. 2 girls went 1st then Cody then me then another lady. We have a seat harness & a chest harness. The chest harness has 2 carabiners & they attach the J-bar to it after weaving your rope through the bars.

Then you duck under a rail and grab onto the rope and feed the rope up toward the J-bar that makes you go down. So I’m hanging onto the rope with my feet on the wall and moving myself down. You can see a ledge so you go down to it and then there is a small narrow hole. You put your back to it and move yourself down. I’m going through this little hole sweating and questioning my decision. There’s another small flat spot and beyond that you see the walls far away and a lot of air space.

8/1/2007 Moaning Cavern Rappelling

I go through that last hole and go over the side. Bang around a little desperately, want walls to put my feet on but there is nothing except me, a rope, and a seat harness. It is freaking scarier than para-sailing last year (story for another day). My heart is pounding. I’m shaking like a leaf. Rocky (my husband’s nickname) knew I was freaked (they were at the bottom watching) because I was silent – no shrieks, no shouts – just silence. I was doing two handed pushing on the rope & even separated the bars a few times so I could go faster and get it over with! It’s hard to even look down because you’re at an odd position. Everyone on the walking tour is watching and when you get to the floor, you go just below (deeper into the hole!) and the guide pulls you in. I was shaking so much! I had to sit down. Cody said it was the “scaredest he’d every been“. After it’s over you have to walk up the 265 stairs to the top.”

I like to say “I’ll try anything once and if I don’t like it, I won’t do it again.” That DEFINITELY applies to rappelling! While looking up the Moaning Caverns there is no mention of a rappelling adventure on their site. Wise decision Moaning Caverns!

Posted in 2023, family, life, Memories, thoughts, Writing

The View Never Gets Old (even though it’s old)

Posted on by nancyb422

I moved into this house in May of 1961, the month after I turned one year old. Before that, my family rented a home a few blocks from my mother’s family home.

I imagine my parents’ eyes lit up when they saw the four bedrooms and the 1/2 acre yard. The bonus was the covered porch on the side of the house and a double bonus was a next door neighbor with four children!

The porch was where we watched thunderstorms lighting up the woods across the street, where we hung out with friends, where we slept on hot summer nights only to be woken up by the sun, well past sunrise beating down on us!

One of my Sunday mornings watching the world go by
6:30 am on a September morning

I left for seven years to California and looked we looked high and low for a house just like the one I grew up in. We found one that had it’s own charm but then we had the chance to buy this one from my dad and we took it. We moved back to Connecticut 28 years ago and are still so thankful it worked out.

August 2021 and the start of the family room addition. The back deck wrapped around the the porch

The side porch is still a special part of the house. It was given a facelift a few years ago, had a deck attached for the back of the house for 10 years or so, and is now a little bit larger to go with the family room added 2 years ago. During warmer weather, I sit out there with my morning coffee and newspaper. It’s the same location that my dad sat for 40 years, reading his newspaper in warm weather.

The sunrise from my side porch November 4 at 7:30

I love that this house keeps so many memories alive.