Underground Railroad! Post # 900!

From about the age of 5 till about 12 or so, my family lived on Nakoma Farms, in Fairport, NY.  Above is an aerial picture of Nakoma Farms, or at least the buildings area of  the farm.  There are lots of stories to share about my years at Nakoma Farms, but today Dad and I added another chapter.  We were at the Rochester Museum and Science Center, wandering through their Underground Railroad exhibit.  Very educational and quite chilling.  At one point Dad called me over and pointed out that a couple of places on Whitney Road were on a exhibit panel showing pictures and addresses of a number of local Underground Railroad stops.  I looked closely at the pictures, and told Dad I was almost certain that one  was the Butler place - the big house front and center in the picture above!  Some internet digging, and sure enough - that is the house!  The exhibit called it the Talman House. but a Rochester Library web page about the Underground Railroad identifies it as Talman/Butler House

Another stop was mentioned in the exhibit which turns out to be our 1950's next door neighbor's home - the Isaac Talman House!  At that time home to the Schermerhorns.  Just down the road from Nakoma Farms.  It turns out that the Butler's home was built by Darius Talman, and his father Isaac lived at the Schermerhorn place!  There were a total of 5 Talman built homes in my old neighborhood!  Additional history of the farm and the house can be found here.

Just for the record, we didn't live in the big house - we lived in very small digs over the milk house  - the small structure in front of the big barn - with a truck parked beside it, and I think that's our family car out front.  I did lots of odd jobs for the Butlers who owned the fancy old farm house, including changing storm windows and screens, lawn mowing (two full acres), etc.  We still have a couple of Christmas ornaments that Mrs. Butler helped my brother Dave and I make one year.

I'm very pleased  that this story came along for my 900th post! 

Not totally clear from the picture, but the fancy house is on quite a hill.  Note the driveway headed down from the back of the house toward the barn.  Dad taught me to ride a bike by launching me down that hill!  It was a cinder driveway, so I learned really fast!

Maeve graduates from Drew University today!

That's Maeve on the left!

We are so proud of you kid!

You too Wyatt - three more years and I'll re-post this picture for you!

Gravestone has arrived

Dad and I went to see Mom on Sunday - Mother's Day.  We took along some lilacs from our yard, and were pleasantly surprised that their head stone was in place.  I got a phone call from the funeral home this morning (Monday) that the stone had been installed last week.  I asked Dad how it felt to look at his own stone - something not many of us get to do?  The response - "Strange".

We miss you Mom!

Olney Place!

 The Olney Place

 A couple of years ago, a good friend told me about The Olney Place, and told me he was friends with Nate Olney.  I did some research - mostly asking my dad - and discovered the exact relationship between Nate Olney and Dad and I.  We are cousins - second cousins once removed, and all that genealogical terminology stuff.  This past Sunday, Dad and I decided to go find Nate, and The Olney Place.  Nate wasn't around, but his son Seth Olney was, and it turns out an all around great guy and the owner of The Olney Place!  Seth and I are third cousins once removed.  The third cousin  thing is because Henry Cadmus Olney is his great great great grandfather, and my great great grandfather.  The once removed thing is because Seth and I are not the same generation - at least I think that is the correct explanation... anyway, we are related, and I'm very pleased to know Seth!

 That's Mel Olney, Seth Olney, and Don Olney above! Click on the picture for a bigger view.

 At age 32, Seth seems to be a very dedicated and successful entrepreneur - even sells his own private label dressings, spices, honey, etc. in his market and deli!  Seth and I even discussed my designing and making some additional products for his store - definitely some tops, and I'm thinking about some other ideas!

 

While he says he is not yet running for Congress, he already has a sign in the window to help spread the word that he is available!

I highly recommend stopping by The Olney Place for some ice cream, a great sandwich, a couple of t-shirts, and a fishing pole?  He is well stocked on beer, soda, chips, and whatever else you might want for a summer picnic!  Tell him Don and Mel Olney sent you!  And maybe he'll have some Olney Place spinning tops by then - handcrafted by his cousin! If you'd like to know a lot more about Seth's great great great grandfather - Henry Cadmus Olney -

 Click here

The new ride inaugurated!

Gave the kids their first ride in their new ride today. 

Maya declared it cool!

New Ride for the Grandchildren

 

 My Worksman Industrial Tricycle came with a small metal "basket" on the back platform that the grandchildren loved riding in last fall.  In the firm belief that they would outgrow that space by spring, I have created a larger wooden seat area that allows for their continued growth for a while.  Our friend Mike who has an upholstery business created a very nice cushion for them to sit on.  I asked him for some scrap foam, and got a professional cushion instead - Thank You Mike!

 With their names on the back,

 

and the name of my new movingwoodstudio.com
 on the sides,

they now have a much larger and more luxurious ride!
Maya and CJ haven't seen it yet - maybe tomorrow if it gets a little less snowy and a little more spring like?

2012 Family Christmas Tree Ornaments

Every year we create a special Christmas tree ornament for the folks at the annual holiday party.... mostly the Palmeri side if the family - our daughter-in-law's family!  Just a quick question - Why isn't there a name for that group of folks?  They are our son's in-laws, but no term for what they are to us.  I can tell you that they are family, and we are very lucky to be related to them!

A tale of an accident!

This is basically a repeat of a post from about 3 years ago.  The reason for the repeat is that on our drive two weeks ago, Dad and I went through the intersection where the accident happened.  So - read on and learn why that bad fender behind my great grandfather Herman Babcock is really an improvement over the car's condition after the icy slide of 1944?

That's me on the left! I figure that this picture was taken sometime the winter of 1946/47 - maybe Thanksgiving '46? That's my Mom, Violet, holding me. Next to Mom is her mom - my grandmother - Florence Babcock Drake. Next to her is Herman Babcock - her father, my mom's grandfather, and my great grandfather! At that time, Herman was living with Glenn Babcock - Florence's brother - and his wife Katie. The picture was taken by my Dad outside their home. The car in the background is a 1938 Plymouth Coupe.

Note the damaged fender on the car. Dad had been in an accident at an icy intersection, and the right front fender was destroyed, but the collision shop could not get a fender - it was war time, and metal stuff was in short supply. He tried driving the car without a fender, but so much mud and stuff was thrown up on the windshield that he could not see to drive. He went around to junk yards till he found the right fender - not in good shape though! Still, it would catch the flying mud! The junk yard guy told Dad he could have it for free if he wanted to take if off the wreck himself. Dad went to work, and got the fender -- or at least most of a fender! Not pretty, but no more mud on the windshield!

Thanks to Anne for finding the picture in some of my brother's old stuff. Thanks again to Anne for knowing I would want that picture! Thanks to Dad for taking that picture 65 years ago, and thanks to Dad for another of his classic stories! And thanks to Herman, Florence, and Violet for passing on the heritage!

What Dad's 1938 Plymouth looked like before?

New Uses for my Worksman Bike!

 

Well, some research reveals that what I have is a Worksman 2620 Stretch Industrial Mover! Worksman means it is made by Worksman.  They have been making a  wide variety of bicycles and tricycles mainly for industrial use since 1898.   They even currently operate in a solar powered factory!  If you've ever been in New York City, and seen those delivery people with the bicycles with the huge delivery box built in, it was probably made by these folks!  2620 means that the front wheel, with a built in drum brake ( none of those wimpy caliper brakes will do on this thing) is 26" in diameter, and the real wheels are 20".  Stretch means it is very long - I haven't measured the overall length yet, but that rear platform is 38" long x 26" wide.  My "basket" is 23" x 23" by 16" deep - plenty of space for a three year old with all his stuffed animals, etc.... and even room for his 5 year old sister - see below!  Industrial Mover needs no explanation - they are rated at 500 pounds capacity, so 70 pounds of grandchildren is no problem!  Even with grandpa included there is room for over 250 more pounds!   Price new is $1200.  I paid considerably less, and the little rubber string thingys from the molding process are still on the wheels, so it is not very old. Despite the "leaf spring" mounting of that rear platform, CJ declared the ride "bouncy" and we added a foam pad, and his blanket in the bottom for today's ride. I've put over 25 miles on it so far, and while I plan my rides to avoid "big" hills, it has very hill friendly gearing!

 

Besides possible use for craft/art show display, I'm fantasizing about  building a neighborhood Ice Cream vending thing, or possible other ventures..... maybe I could even deliver pizzas for our neighborhood pizza place or add a nice love seat on that platform, and start a pedicab business?  For now, carrying grandchildren is a great option that they seem to greatly enjoy.  Too bad the snow will fall soon --- :-(     I'm  even thinking that riding in the snow might not be too bad because with the wide stance of the rear wheels, skidding or sliding over into traffic seems less likely than on a regular bike!

Wonderful day with Dad!

3810 Ridge Road, Ransomville, NY   Near Lockport, NY.  Dad's second job was here, as a farm hand at the age of 17 if I've got the numbers right?  He had been working on a farm near Utica, NY starting at the age of 16.  Had to drop out of school and work to help support his family.  Good stories!  He lived in the above house with the owner's family at first until he and my Mom moved to a tiny place just down the road when they married in 1945.  I arrived not long after, so Dad was working here when I was born!

 The place seems pretty run down now, but was a prosperous dairy farm in the day!  Dad has told lots of stories about his days here, including watching some of the very first top secret experimental jet airplanes flying over from a nearby air base.  This was the middle of WWII!

One of Dad's stories involved him driving a tractor through the wall of the shed/barn shown in the picture below, not long after it had been expanded using very hard to obtain lumber.  Again - during WWII and resources had to be allocated to the war effort first, and even though the owner of the farm also owned a lumber mill, he had to go through considerable paperwork to get permission to use his own lumber on his farm!  Another story to follow about a car accident Dad had just down the road a bit.  Is there a trend here?  But please remember that he was between the ages of 17 and 19 while working here!

Below --- Recent aerial view of the farm (photographed from my computer screen) Map/aerial view link I tried didn't work?  Later edit - I think this link will work.  Link works, plus you can click on the little guy and see a street view of the place.... this interwebs thingy is GREAT! 

 

As a farm worker during WWII, Dad got a deferment from the draft as an essential worker.  Food for the troops and for the folks at home was important!

This year's special custom tops for CJ's Birthday!

 

 Each year I design a special top for my grand children's birthdays.  The theme this year for CJ's birthday was John Deere.  (Those people have their marketing down!)  I can't believe that this makes the 8th special design for Maya and CJ.  I also created a larger version of the design as a wall piece for his room - about 15" across - see picture below.  Also in view is the 2012 Casey (Dad) created birthday (cake) - actually a large cookie because CJ does not like cake????????????? and the basket of tops - everybody at these parties gets a gift!

I'm getting pretty good at this, so if you would like some special tops created for your birthday, wedding, or other special  event, contact me!  I'm actually in the process of creating a separate division of our enterprise that will focus specifically on Don's mechanical and other moving things --- look for Moving Wood Studio coming soon to an event or store near you?  An actual moving sign for  the enterprise is taking form in my head, and I'm thinking through an actual moving craft show booth.  An industrial strength human powered tricycle with a fairly large built in cargo platform has been found, and my brain is running around the idea of selling off the back of the this tricycle, including moving sculptures that will be peddle operated!  And I've reserved the web site - MovingWoodStudio.com - not active yet, but soon!

Mom

 Most of the info about Mom's passing got posted on Facebook over the past few days, but in summary, Mom passed away this past Tuesday after a day which saw the visit of her cousins Cloyse and Lyell Drake and their wives.  They offered prayers, and lots of good stories that I hope Mom heard.  Morphine was keeping her comfortable by then.  Later, two of her grandchildren, Maeve, and Wyatt, along with Anne and Rick came to visit, and about an hour or so after they departed, she left us quietly.  Mel, Don, and Cheryl were there.  Her obituary in today's paper, a picture of Mom in the courtyard at Kirkhaven just a few weeks ago, and below - Dad at the elevator from the parking garage at Rochester General Hospital, about two hours before we buried her at Elmwood Cemetery in Perinton, a couple of miles from where she raised her two sons!  I've posted the picture of this elevator before with the reminder to remember which floor you parked on.  I love it when life hands you reminders, suggestions, or just connections between things!

 Many thanks to all the friends and family who have shared their condolences with us, and very special thanks to all the staff at Kirkhaven, and at Independent Living for Seniors, who helped us all through the final days, and through the past few months and years of Mom's dementia. And many thanks to Dad who has taught me many things over the course of my 67 years, mostly by example.  His care and love for Mom has been extraordinary by any standard.  Love, and strength of character are who he is!

And today we are having a 5th birthday party for our granddaughter Maya!  Life is good!

Guest Photographer

 CJ took these pictures

 Great Grandpa Mel above

Grandpa Don below

The photographer at the bottom!

Thanks CJ!

T-Ball

Maya takes out the "T" -  leaving the ball totally undisturbed - hanging perfectly in the air right where it was before the swing!

Uncle Chet gives Maya and CJ a ride!

Maya and CJ are big John Deere fans, and after this they are even bigger fans!

Thanks from all to Uncle Chet!

Not sure if Aunt Mary went along to help CJ feel more secure, or if she is just the slightly larger kid in the bunch!  I think it is totally clear that Uncle Chet had more fun that anybody!

Grandma Cheryl's Mother's Day Azalea Bush being delivered!

 Maya and Casey deliver and plant Cheryl's Mother's Day Azalea!

66 years!

Today is the 66th anniversary of my parents first wedding - April 8th 1945 ----- April 8th 2012!

To shorten the story, there were a few hard years along the way, and they separated for a while, and led different lives, married other people, and did good things. Somehow, when their separate lives each independently changed direction, they found each other again, and in November of 1972, they were married again!

Long and interesting lives that I have been blessed to be a part of!

Today, with any luck, I will be getting Mom and Dad together to celebrate quietly. Mom is living in Kirkhaven nursing home because Dad can't handle caring for her at home any more. Dad is in re-hab at different local nursing home recovering from another bout of his congestive heart failure. I'm looking forward to the day! The later afternoon will be spent with our son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren and other extended family.
Life is good.
Life is an adventure.
Life is a learning experience.

Telemedicine

Dad posing with his new HomMed system.

Some really cool medicine that looks like a life saver, and a cost saver!

Dad's home nursing folks have installed a telemedicine system that monitors his vitals on a daily basis. Weight, blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and oxygen level between 8 and 8:30 AM 7 days a week. The machine prompts him when to step on the scales, put on the blood pressure cuff, etc. He also has to answer a few questions about shortness of breath, swelling in legs, etc. by pushing YES or NO buttons! The info is transmitted via phone line to a central monitoring station. He gets a call from the nurse if his numbers are outside the limits considered OK. We know it works, because on his first morning, the nurse called him because his oxygen level was low. She did not know that Dad had a bad time earlier that morning, and a nurse had already been to the house, and adjusted his meds in consultation with his heart doctor! The monitoring nurse said OK, but to call her if there were any further problems!

Mom and Dad

Where to start? My plan was that beginning with the new year I was going to try to get back to daily blogging. I really enjoy blogging, and was looking forward to trying for another run of over 100 daily blogs? As the old adage goes, life is what happens while we make other plans? Or something like that?

January 1st, I took my Dad to the hospital. Our neighborhood hospital is right up the street ... my Dad likes to comment that "we can see Highland Hospital from our kitchen window". He had been complaining for a couple of days about a minor cold, but mostly about just feeling weak and out of breath with the slightest effort. We had decided to call his doctor after the holiday, but when Cheryl came over to their place that afternoon, she said - "Call the doctor NOW!" The ER at Highland was wonderful, and within about 50 minutes we had our diagnosis, and treatment was underway..... pneumonia and congestive heart failure. A subsequent visit to his heart doctor a week later added that his long standing atrial fibrillation was probably the main factor. To make a long story short, Dad spent a week in the hospital, followed by two weeks of rehab at the Episcopal Church Home - also right down the street, and he is now home, and doing quite well thank you.

The "rest of the story" is that for almost three years, Dad has been the primary care giver for my Mom who has been dealing with slowly advancing dementia of unknown origin. Recently her memory problems have been getting worse. With Dad in the hospital, I (with a lot of help from Cheryl) spent full time with Mom because she is totally unable to cope alone. Bless her, she so badly wanted to help take care of Dad, but had no idea of what to do or how to proceed! The above picture is of them holding hands during one of Mom's daily visits to his room on the heart care unit.

On January 6th, Mom went into "transitional care". She is in a special unit with 24 hour a day care, and is on the waiting list for the "memory care" unit of another neighborhood institution - Kirkhaven nursing home. Also on January 6th, Dad was transferred to the rehab unit mentioned above, and worked very hard at regaining his strength and stamina. His best prognosis however is that while he can probably function fine on his own at home, he will never have the ability to handle the amount of care and constant attention that would be required to continue to have Mom at home with him.

We had been asked to not visit Mom for a while because it would make it harder for her to adjust to the change in her life, and while it was difficult, we did not see her for about a week. I did go visit her about a week ago, and she seemed to be doing well given her circumstances. Dad and I went to see her today.... first time Dad has seen her in two weeks. We stayed about an hour, and it went quite well. She was very quiet and sort of "spacey", and while she seemed glad to see us, and knew who we were, she just sat quietly and held our hands. Leaving was not as difficult as we thought it might be.

Lest you think me heartless, the advice to not visit her was good advice. Several other people confirmed the difficulty people with dementia have dealing with changes, and that visits from friends and family actually make the process a lot harder.

Mom is doing as well as can be expected given her level of dementia. Dad is doing quite well, and looks the best he has in quite a while, because he can actually sleep through the night, and Don is feeling good too, because Dad is doing well, and Mom is getting the best possible care under the circumstances. While I still carry my cell phone 24 hours a day, and sleep with it on the nightstand, I probably won't be getting the regular emergency "help" calls from Dad. Dad and I are sleeping more soundly now.

Many heartfelt thanks to all the folks at Highland Hospital, Episcopal Church Home, and Independent Living for Seniors!

Thus the missing first 22 daily blogs from 2012!

December assortment

Haven't posted in a while, so here goes an assortment of December 2011 stuff.
Above - a bottle tree Mom and I found in Fairport, NY on one of our Tuesday "just wander around and take lots of left turns" drives. Actually, this particular Tuesday drive had some method in the madness. I wanted to see if I could get Mom to confirm some information I had about places she lived in Fairport many years ago. We couldn't confirm anything, but we had a great time. We hit some streets that I had never been on, despite living in Fairport area for pretty much all of my childhood! As we sat looking at this bottle tree, I spotted a cemetery behind the homes on the other side of the street, and we then drove around and found
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Civil War Monument in the cemetery.

Above - CJ at the diner, and below, Maya trying a violin at preschool.
Grandchildren are an important part of any month!

Below our 2011 Christmas ornament of the annual holiday party at the Palmeri home.
This year a top that doubles as an ornament! Not a great picture, but I loved that spinning the top in the lid to the cookie tin yielded a view of the other color on the bottom of the top!

Below, a creche puzzle created by our friends Russell and Sue Greenslade graces the mantle at the Sams household! The missing palm tree piece on the left has since been found!

Happy New Year!
Maya - always on the lookout for a project to do - wants to make a bottle tree!
Past Bottle tree posts...
Bottle tree in the neighborhood and Bottle Bush