What did Santa bring you?

@billliveshere Everything changes when you’re an adult. Some for better. Some for worse. And now that I’m in my 60s, how I wish I could I could go back to the carefree days of being a boy. Being an older adult blows.

The octopus salad consisted of simmered and diced octopus, red onion, Sicilian olives, and a dressing of olive oil, garlic, and lemon. My neighbor learned to cook in Sicily and on occasion I’m the lucky recipient of her labor.

Drop me a line if you get to Philadelphia PA. There’s a tumbler of cream Amaretto ready for you.

88f7e8e224aa122a0c8a7c231b1eb072.jpg
 
Hi @Jason, Okay, you're on!!!! And that cream Amaretto looks good on a cold night! I am very familiar with Philly. I graduated from Temple U, degree in journalism and went to high school at Wissahickon out in Ambler. I have lived in two or three places in that area. Before I went to Temple I worked at Suburban General Hospital in Norristown; also was a reporter for the paper in Lansdale; and worked in the purchasing office at Rolling Hill Hospital (I lived in Rockledge then), so you can say I kind of know Philly! (yes, just slightly! :D )A lot of good times back then!
I agree being grown up does have its challenges, no bout adout that!! But if only I knew back then what I know now I'd probably be dangerous!!!!
 
@billliveshere I’m a product of the Philly burbs too. Went to college out of state but returned to Philly for employment, eventually settling in an old South Philly Italian neighborhood. I’m in Rocky Balboa territory!

Thinking about what life was like this time of year in the 1950s and 60s. I got Lionel trains when I was 3. My dad built a platform and we had the “Plasticville” illuminated houses. The trains were beneath the tree. I’d play for hours at a time, often in my footed Dr Denton sleeper. All this is in the past. Kids don’t play with trains anymore. They don’t wear Dr Dentons, and they definitely don’t wear a cloth diaper, pins, and plastic pants under their sleeper.

If we had snow, we’d go sledding at the park, and there was ice skating if the lake was frozen. Everyone had ice skates, and if you didn’t have a sled, you’d improvise. Even cardboard would get you down the hill!

You should see Temple University now. They’ve rebuilt the entire campus and it attracts students from all over the world. It’s all very impressive and I love attending fine arts events there.

Sandy many other things are gone, including Connie Mack Stadium, Gimbel’s, Lit’s, and the Bulletin. Sure is fun to reminisce!
 
jeffswet said:
Aren't these things great?
Click to expand...

I love my little 2 qt airfryer but I don't love waiting for on thing to cook before starting the next.. also the ninja foodi 2 basket has a dehidrator function so I can make myself some beef jerky...

Last Christmas I got an instapot so now I'm all decked out in kitchen gear
 
RUhappy: Hope that was the mustang you have! Do you take it to car shows?
Stuart: we heat with wood, and the wife is really happy it has a clear glass door. She'll lay there on the couch and watch it. But my son lives in America, not Alaska. You raised your boy right! We just finished cutting over half a cord and we're both a little tired! Let's see. There is cutting the tree and trimming branches off, out in the woods. Then into the trailer and out of trailer. Then cutting to stove length. Then splitting. Then stacking it in woodshed. Then wheel-barrow to wood boxes on porch & stacking. We won't count bringing it in. Then burning it. So that's really how many times wood warms you! I got a little overheated outside - was dressed not only in winter work clothes (insulated Carharts) clothes plus chainsaw chaps, but it was a plus 25. Too warm.
Billliveshere: You gave me a laugh. I saw you lived in "Ambler". Our daughter's first boyfriend came from there - but Ambler, Alaska! Just a wee bit of different. Off the road system, unless you count the river. He was cool. His brother is a well-know author, up here, now. That cream Amaretto looks like just the thing for coming in from 15 below. Hmmm Hmmm.
Jason. I got American Flyer from Dad - so there! Occassionally, Dad would bring home another piece, like a switch. Mom says she had to make him stop playing with it so I could. Wish I remembered that part! I must have been about 4 or 5, and I had a layout on a 4 x 8 piece of plywood when a teen - hung it in the garage, on pulleys, lowered it when Mom's car wasn't in there. Now there was a gift that kept on giving.
When was in 5th grade, moved to a suburb of Detroit - flat as a pancake. The school district let the contractors dump the soil from digging basements in one school yard - made our only sledding hill. Strictly for little kids. One of Mom's authors even wrote a picture book about it. All the Lower Peninsula of MI is flat. We did iceskate to school after an ice-storm, once or twice. Not sure why, but the high school made us take them off before we entered the building. Spoil-sports.
 
Hi @Jason, boy, do I remember the Lionel trains and the Plasticville buildings that went with it! (didn't get into the Dr. Denton's though, at least not that I remember!) And what was Christmas without those trains??? But sadly the kids today don't know about the trains. They are missing out on a big Christmas tradition! And that is too bad! Of course these days it would be prohibitive to have Lionel trains on a layout that's any decent size! In my place here in Florida not enough room for any trains or the like! But Lionel trains aside, I rode on the full-scale trains a lot, especially the Reading going into the terminal and its huge trainshed right on Market Street. Now I think it's a ballroom or something like that! And if you live in a South Philly neighborhood you must eat awfully well, pandemic notwithstanding! If you starve there it's your own fault! You are also in cheese steak territory. Those are good but I've always been partial to a good old hoagie that was a meal in itself! And Philly is the only place where they really do 'em up right!
Of course I haven't seen the Temple campus since I moved down here in '87 but the university sends me their bulletin (haven't seen that in awhile) and the fact students come their from all over the world is really impressive! I think they even have campuses in Tokyo and London. But not back when I was there!
And I do remember places like Lit Brothers, Gimbels and even John Wanamaker is gone now! And of course I remember when nearly everybody read the Bulletin! I always liked their funnies!!!!
Well I can go on for hours reminiscing!
 
HI @AlasSouth, Just where the hell is Ambler, Alaska????? :D Is it anywhere near Chicken, Alaska???? I've always wanted to go to Chicken, Alaska! From what I understand, Chicken was the local name for ptarmigan. Maybe it was easier to spell???? But it makes sense a settlement would be named for a local bird! But I don't suppose Ambler, AK's high school is named Wissahickon. That's the name of a creek that flows from the Ambler (PA) area down through Fairmount Park in Philadelphia and then into the Schuylkill River. Well I spelled Schuylkill right because I didn't get a red line under it! Wissahickon is the Lenape Indian name for "creek with a funny name!" :D Well I guess I better quit while I'm ahead! ;)
 
Hey @billliveshere I still have the Lionel trains, track, and some of the houses but not the platform. No room! I loved the cattle car. Also had the milk car and giraffe car.

The downfall of railroads really hit home. My uncle received a substantial inheritance in the 1960s and invested it in “Pennsy,” aka Pennsylvania Railroad. Three days later, they filed for bankruptcy. I heard about it for the next 30 years.

Over 20 years ago, the Reading Railroad tracks went underground and were joined with the former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks at a new Market East station. It was a huge infrastructure project. The former train shed is now the ballroom for the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

I live a block away from Pat’s Steaks and Gino’s Steaks. They’ve both become tourist destinations. Good, but I’m like you - I’ll take an Italian hoagie any day. There’s so much good food here and I’ve been eating too much of it.

Wanamaker’s is still here but it’s now Macy’s and only 3 floors of space. The rest of the building has been converted into office space and is leased.
 
Billliveshere: Ambler is waaay up there, just below the North Slope
Borough. About 91% speak Inupiat, which is amazing, as we've wiped out most native languages, in Alaska, and there are/were a lot of them, not counting the dialects. About 250-300 residents. It's on the Kobuk
River, which comes out into the the Bering at Kotzebue, which is the hub city. It's all above the Arctic Circle. Subsistence village, lots of fishing, whether there or they go down to the Bering. Logically enough, the natives are Inupiaq.
Don't ask me to pronounce the village's real name - it take special
speech markers. They have a post office and a zipcode. Getting
Christmas presents requires knowing a craft (like beading with
Porcupine quills or carving) or very early ordering, and everything
comes in by small plane. I mean, everything. I think the Covid economy has bankrupted their plane service, but there may be one left. There may be a small fuel barge that gets that high. It gets to the minus 60s, I think. The river is not open even half a year. It's called asub-arctic climate, although I'm not sure what is "sub" about it. I think they have several teachers. It takes only 8 children for the State to have to send one. Homesteaders anywhere near do homeschooling, probably without satellite internet. I'll bet Ambler has it, now. And there are probably more snowmachines than dog sleds.
Darned if I remember the name, but I think there was a famous Iditarod Race sled dog musher from there.
It's not ancient.
Never been there, but seen the home-made pictures and heard the
stories. My experience is the villagers are nice people, almost
anywhere, but it is their village and their language. There ain't no Super 8. I don't know if it is dry - that's local option. Some
teachers come up from the Lower 48 and have no idea what they are
getting into. I think they have VPSO (Village Public Safety Officer - State troopers without guns and a lot less training). No doctor, but they are part of a native health association. Forgotten which Native Corporation they are in.
Want to see something neat for Christmas? Find the you-tube video of a bunch of Alaska kids from up there doing the Halalluah chorus, with cards for the subtitles. Not sure any are Ambler kids, but there were hub-city kids from up that-a-way.
Chicken, Alaska, has a great story. There were 2 guys running for
mayor, and someone nominated a turkey (You know - a bird). It won, and the defeated candidates ate it. Alaskan were laughing hard. They should have noticed the date and where the story came from - It was from Kodiak Public Radio (South of South-Central), and it was April1st. So, Alaskans laughed harder.
It still makes me smile.
 
Back to my original post. Getting new plastic pants for Christmas is like a slap in the face. You know you bed wet, but why do you have to be reminded of it. It would be better to restock any incontinence supplies other than Christmas, birthday, etc. Sorry for the rant.
 
It's not even a "joke", and to call it that is an excuse. I agree: it's abuse, it's a hurt, whether it's in public or private between you and the "giver". In fact, if you were alone when you opened it, you could be forgiven for thinking dark thoughts about the giver's purpose or message. It's a tactic: do something to hurt someone, then try to hide behind: "joke", "it's something you need", etc.
"I attribute my success to this; I never gave nor accepted an excuse." * It indicates an appalling lack of empathy.
So, rant on. We're here for each other.



* Florence Nightingale
 
Hi @artiejr, please don't apologize for the rant as I read you loud and clear on that one!!!! As practical a "gift" as that may be, it really would not work at all as something to give for Christmas or birthday! Whoever would give a child (or anyone else) something like that as a gift certainly needs to get in line to be given the gift of sensitivity and good common sense! I really sympathize with anyone who would be given diapers and plastic pants for Christmas. It didn't happen to me, but I really would feel saddened if I knew someone it did happen to. :( I agree that it is like a slap in the face and why stoop so low to remind your kid of it at Christmas?????
 
Hi @AlasSouth, This morning I looked in the road atlas and although Ambler was not listed in the list of towns, I just looked carefully at the map itself, starting from the north, and bingo! For some reason it just jumped out at me! Just as you said, right on the Kobuk River and just east of Kobuk National Park. Just by looking at the map I cold tell it's probably very scenic but would still be a rather forlorn little place. You have to feel for those teachers who come in and have no idea what they are getting into! And the ones you always read about are the ones who didn't have a clue :O but eventually grew to love it and didn't ever want to leave. And that makes a good story in itself!
And that story about Chicken really got me laughing. I could just see a turkey running as one of the candidates for mayor and it won so the others ate it!!!!! That would be hilarious! But like you say, the dateline was April 1!!!That makes my day! :D
 
Hi @Jason, all of my old trains have gone to that great train layout in the sky! I do remember the milk car and the platform with milk canisters and the car with the giraffe. I also remember getting their catalog and ogling it for hours on end, wishing for Christmas to hurry up and come! Before I moved to Florida, I did ride the old Reading into the new tunnel going to Market Street East. It was certainly different and it just wasn't at all the same as the old Reading Terminal. Instead you can stay on the same train and go straight through to Paoli! Gone are the days when you had to hotfoot it to Suburban Station to make that same journey.
And Wanamakers has only three floors of store space now????!!!! :O Oh no!!! And it's a Macy's to boot!!!! :O:O And the rest of the building is leased office space???? Eewwwww!!!
And with you living only a block away from Pat's and Ginos' really puts you in the center of things!! But you could probably pick up a little rock and throw it in literally any direction and it would land at a place where they make dynamite hoagies!!! :) However to that cost would be added the cost to replace the window that the rock broke!!!! :D
 
Hi @AlasSouth, you know, being given diapers etc. as a Christmas or a birthday gift would have made a good thread on its own! I do agree that if it's done as a joke, it's in very poor taste, especially if there are others around to see it! And you're right, then it becomes it becomes out and out abuse and trying to back-pedal and explain it was done as a joke is a pretty flimsy excuse.
And if it's given on the basis of "something you really need and can use," then it does show a frighteningly huge lack of empathy and sympathy!
 
Absolutely rant!
Now give them those windows up dentures on littlefeet that clack as they walk and a pair ofbulging eysin eye glasses this April foolsday.
 
My experience with receiving plastic pants as a gift was driven by my mom. She grew up in the depression and Christmas gifts were always practical. My aunts would ask her what to get me and the gifts were always clothes - plastic pants included. It wasn’t malicious but very disrespectful of my privacy. But privacy didn’t exist in my family. So how did that work out? Fraud, theft, fines, and incarceration. Permanent estrangement. With the exception of 2 cousins, I’ve been totally disconnected from immediate and extended family for almost 20 years now. I read stories about how wonderful family can be and how you should stick together. But there’s dysfunctional families where separation is best. That was the path I chose in my 20s until I was encouraged by friends and the church to re-establish contact. That was a mistake. Not all families are wonderful. Most are complex and in my case, both physical and mental illness exacerbated the dysfunctional dynamic. I’m in my 60s and I’m still doing damage control.

So, that’s my two cents worth and I promise never to bring up this issue again.
 
Hi Maymay, I love those wind-up dentures on feet that clack as they walk! Whenever I see those, it always gets me to laughing!!!
 
Sorry I meant give them a set of WIND UP DENTURES not windows up.
It's been a crazy day and auto correct is making it crazier
 
Its ok Jason, you can talk about anything here. Sometimes sorting out other parts of our lives helps understand our whole selves better
 
You must log in or register to post here.
Back
Top