Posted in 2024, life, Memories

My Resume

What jobs have you had?

Best Job: Programming Assistant at WTNH-8 in New Haven Connecticut. I was involved with every department at the station. I was there for almost two years until I moved to California.

Worst Fast Food Job: McDonalds. It was also my first job. I hated it. I couldn’t add up the orders in my head. I lasted 6 months.

Best Fast Food Job: Wendy’s. We had registers that we punched the orders in and it would tell you how much change to give back! I worked with a lot of great people and the food was so much better than McDonalds!

First Career Job: I started as a receptionist for the American Cancer Society and over five years moved to different positions with more responsibility and money.

Least Understood Job: Executive assistant in the Municipal Bonds Department at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco. Beautiful view of the city from the windows but a very boring job. I lasted there 8 months and thankfully moved north.

Fun Job: Working in the strawberry fields for two summers. In the spring we worked to get the field ready and during picking season we directed people where to pick and weighed and rang up the pickings.

Like a Family/Second Chance Job: I applied for a job as an office assistant for an insurance company when we moved north. I didn’t get the job but they called a few days later offering another one because someone gave their 2 week notice! There were 4 or 5 of us all close in age and we all had our children at the same time! We were all transplants to California and the office manager was like a mother to us all. I was there for about five years until we moved back to Connecticut.

Most Educational Job: I worked part time in an elementary school library for five years. I loved getting to know the kids and reading the books! I left when the remodeling business picked up and I needed to put a full day in the office. Runner up: I went back to the same school a few years later and worked in the cafeteria for a year and a half. That was tough and I finally gave up working part time for good.

Longest Job: 25 years with my husband in our remodeling business. I’ve gone from doing all the office work myself to having a fabulous office person who takes care of all the clients leaving me with the bookkeeping and social media.

Rewarding Job: Raising our son!

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, Writing

Life Among The Dinosaurs

Do you remember life before the internet?

I am so grateful I grew up before the internet existed!

I think back to life in my 20s and I would have been a MESS if I had a telephone at my fingertips, never mind being able to text, or swipe, or google, or Find My Phone someone!

Ironically, the internet would have been really handy when I met my future husband in Jamaica in 1987. He lived in California and I lived in Connecticut. We learned about each other through letters and phone calls and at the end of five months I was on my way to live with him. Imagine that! I didn’t learn everything about him on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, thoughts, Writing

Items Always With Me

What personal belongings do you hold most dear?

I guess if I didn’t think they were “dear”, I wouldn’t wear these same four rings every day.

rings I wear every day

The thick band with the diamond – the band was my mother in law’s wedding band. We had a new diamond put in for our 30th wedding anniversary.

The thin band is my original wedding band.

The silver ring holds a Danburite crystal. I found it in an antique store in Sonora California while visiting my father in law in 2022. It was meant to be – I was getting ready to leave but decided to look at the jewelry and this stuck out. The crystal takes its name from Danbury Connecticut (I’m born and raised in Connecticut), and it fit perfectly!

The bottom ring is a worry band I bought while visiting with friends in Los Cabos Mexico. It was a splurge and I have worn it since early 2020.

I have a lot of other rings, but these 4 just feel so right together!

Posted in 2024, family, life, Memories, Writing

Ruining My Sister’s Birthday

Have you ever broken a bone?

It was a sunny Saturday in September of 1972 and I was 12 years old.

My childhood (and current) home

One of my sisters and a friend or two were performing flips in the front year. We would start from the steps and head towards the flag pole.

I completed a few flips, but on the last attempt I ran, flipped, and landed on the top of my right foot. There was intense pain and I couldn’t walk. We all shouted for my mother. She came out and off the two of us went to the emergency room. We waited for a few hours for X-rays that confirmed I broke a little bone in the back of my ankle. I came home in a cast to my knee and crutches.

My diary entry!

It was a miserable 8 weeks. First with the crutches, and then with a “walking cast” which back then was a rubber block they attached to the bottom of the cast. In my case even with my highest heel on the other side, I was still lopsided, walking like Peg-Leg Pete! I would have been better off with crutches. What a relief it was when the cast finally came off but how weird my leg looked!

But I wasn’t the only one who suffered that weekend….

The incident happened on Saturday, September 9, 1972. My older sister’s 14th birthday and the family party was scheduled for the next day. My mother was in the process of baking her delicious 4 layer chocolate cake with whipped cream between layers and covered with chocolate frosting. She was likely making whatever meal we would be eating beforehand.

Aha! proof that I didn’t spoil the party, just “her day”!

She was pretty annoyed with me, but she did get to enjoy her party on Sunday! I was probably very happy I didn’t have to go to church!

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, Writing

Fruity Favorites

First and my FAVORITE OF ALL TIME fruit is Watermelon! Just straight up – no salt, no salad – good plan old watermelon. If I let myself, I could eat a whole one, just slicing and slicing away at it.

Photo by Elaine Bernadine Castro on Pexels.com

2nd is Bananas. But they have to be “just right”. A little on the not-quite-ripe side is best. Just ripe is good too. Once they tip over towards too ripe, they get tossed into a bag and into the freezer for my smoothies!

Photo by Kio on Pexels.com

3rd is Grapes. Red, seedless at room temperature! I’m not picky about their firmness or ripeness because they are usually always good!

Photo by Bruno Scramgnon on Pexels.com

4th is Apples. My most favorite is Macoun followed by Empire but lately, apples at the store are such a crap shoot as to whether they are crisp or mushy! I usually cut them up and eat them with peanut butter!

Photo by Matheus Cenali on Pexels.com

5th is Strawberries. They were my ultimate favorite until I worked in strawberry fields in my late teens. We spent the spring, training the vines. During picking season we weighed the containers, worked the register, and also stood at the end of rows directing people where to go. I would wear a hoodie sweatshirt and fill the pocket with strawberries! By the end of the second season, I never wanted to see another strawberry for the rest of my life! But recently, I’ve come back around to enjoy them.

Photo by Ave Calvar Martinez on Pexels.com

All the talk of these fruits has made me hungry! There are apples at home right now, so I guess that’s what I’ll have today!

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, thoughts, Writing

Signs

Do you believe is signs from loved ones who have passed? I do!
May 2nd was our 37th anniversary of meeting. One of the words in the NYT Connections game was SOULMATES – it jumped out at me as soon as I opened the game.

May 1987


May 6th was our 36th wedding anniversary. What popped up in the Connections game? COUPLE and LOVERS.

March 2024


Coincidence? No, I think my mother is sending her love to the two people she set up to meet in 1987. I’ve told this story so many times, you might already know it….I was scheduled for a vacation on March 24th because she was sick and she died on April 4th. I ended up taking the trip on May 2nd and my future husband was a last minute addition to his friend’s trip. Through a medium I went to in 2013, she confirmed she set us up.

I wrote most of the above for my facebook page on Monday the 6th but I was thinking some more about that time and coincidences. You see just before I moved out to California, someone I worked with paid for me to hand a hand analysis with her sister. Although 37 years have gone by, I still had the cassette tape of the reading and a few years ago transcribed it. I think through it my mother was trying to give me motherly advice — and I did NOT listen to it. Literally, I did not listen to that tape again for 35 years. There was actually some advice I could have used. Oh well! They say the other side will give you signs but you have the free will to listen to it or not. Sorry Ma! I’m listening now!

Posted in 2024, life, Memories, This Old House

This Old House

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.

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

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

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.