Sleigh Bells Of East Hampton: A Family Factory Survives - Courant.com

A favorite sound of Christmas for me is the sound of sleigh bells. It was nice to see they are still being made in E. Hampton, Ct. In the early fifties we lived next door to E. Hampton and attended church there.
I can remember when my Dad came home with a porch bell made there. I still have it, along with a piece of harness with sleigh bells attached and an old cow bell on the leather collar. I'll ring those sleigh bells every so often just to hear the sound.
I loved the ending of "The Polar Express" when the boy rings the sleigh bell. Can you hear the sound?
I can!   

Sleigh Bells Of East Hampton: A Family Factory Survives - Courant.com

Another New England Favorite Gone ??

Today is pie making day in our house and one of my favorites is Squash pie not pumpkin. I usually make a few Apple, squash and maybe a chocolate.  My mom would make the squash out of a large Hubbard squash from the garden, but over the years using a canned squash produced by the " One Pie" canning Co. of West Paris, Me was much easier. But much to my dismay my bride came home empty handed. She went to 4 different stores( she's a good woman) early this morning  but couldn't find any. Being really distraught I went to  another store in the next town, no luck. I broke down and made a pumpkin, but used the recipe from the "One Pie" can, I hope the taste will be close.

I searched the web for info on the company, but couldn't find an active web site. I'll have to try "Hannaford's" when I go to Me or NY. and hope I can stock up.
I hope the company hasn't gone the way of all to many of the small canneries in New England.
I mean whats a guy to do?? I can't remember not having a squash pie on a holiday or the next day for breakfast.  

Mystic: Wolf Stones and Old Mystic's Wightman Burying Ground - CTnow

Here's an interesting story on rare wolf stones, which protected the remains from being disturbed by animals.
If there's one thing we have is rock and hardpan in New England, and hence some shallow graves in olden times. 
In addition to Wrightman, other names mentioned were Burrows and Morgan.


Mystic: Wolf Stones and Old Mystic's Wightman Burying Ground - CTnow

MARINE STUNS A TEA PARTY WITH THE FOURTH VERSE OF THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

I've never heard this stanza but, according to wikipedia  on some formal occasions this 4th verse is sung in addition to the first verse.
 I think the guy did a great job, and it would be great if it was sung more often.

Picking Strawberries

My  Mom and  Sister in the 60’s.

And this Little Redpole Flew All the Way Home

This little guy flew in through our garage and into the breezeway window
I found him on the floor stunned. So I took him outside and set him on the back of my truck and tried to  bring him around. Several of his friends came by to visit and he sat there quite a while before flying off.

His right foot seemed to improve as he came around.
When  I was a kid, a Partridge flew threw our living room window and ended up behind the TV  out cold.
I took it outside and put it under a bushel basket until my brother and sisters got home from school to show them
Well when I lifted  the basket  it took off as only a partridge can, with a thunderous beating of its wings. We all jumped back and I don’t think
the kids saw much more than tail feathers.

Lewis St. Cemetery Walking Tour

I went over to the old “North Cemetery” on Sunday mostly to check on the “Merriman” connection and met a very distant ”cousin” of my wife. I plan to visit with him at a later date. Alden O’Brian  from the D.A.R. in Washington DC. gave a great talk on the Lewis family gravesites. It seems many of the married daughters returned in death to be buried with  their birth family.
The tour had a very good turnout. It was held as part of activities for Bristol’s 225 yr anniversary.
below is the article from the Hartford Courant :
 

ANCESTOR APPROVED

A few weeks ago Karen at Ancestor Soup passed this award along to me and I’ve been remise in my acknowledging her kindness . Please visit her blog. So during my procrastination this Award has passed many times over to so many worthy blogs.  Every blogger taking the time to remember the  those who came before are worthy , so if you were missed please  help yourself on me.
I haven’t blogged much lately being away several days a week  helping my daughters or when at home doing yard work. I did find out last week that we are also descendant  approved. Both sets of Grandchildren  think we should spend more time with them :)
Part of the reward requires me to list 10 surprises found during my genealogy research. Here’s some that I can think of offhand :
1. Finding that  we live in the same area that 5 generations (1750-1890) of my wife's  maternal line lived and worked. My daughters probably went to school with countless unknown cousins.
2. Finding  a picture of my Great  grand mother on the Internet.(My only one)
3. Finding that the whispered rumor by some relatives that my father had a half brother somewhere in Maine just may be true. My father had never said any thing but I found my grandfather may have been married twice.
4. Not surprised to  find that many online genealogies have many errors.   
5. Finding that many family members aren’t really interested.
6. It’s late, I’m tired, I give up.

Renfrew St, Dalhousie, NB, CA. Past and Present

I just love this Google Maps with the street view. I was on maps the other night checking on a village in Ct., when I wondered if Dalhousie had the street view feature. And low and behold it did ! I posted before on my old post card and was pleased  to see the same view in color. WHAT WAS REALLY STRANGE WAS THE FIRST SCENE  WAS AT THE BASE OF THE STREET FACING AN OLD CEMETERY!! I have to wonder if my Great Grandparents spirits did that. I really would love to visit there but its quite a drive even from Maine. Maybe someday!
People have attached photos to the locality which is a really nice feature.

Here are the the photos to compare.

Wordless Wednesday; Happy St. Patricks Day

                 IT TURNS OUT THAT THE GREEN BULLDOG IS IRISH !!

Wordless Wednesday-YIPPEE!!!

Google Map Street View with Interesting Feature

 Below is a street view link for a view of Mt Shuksan over picture lake on the Mt Baker Highway. I'm sure most people have seen this Mt. on calenders but never knew it was in the U.S.A.
This street view has  a feature I haven't seen before. Wait until the picture appears then move your cursor over the upper right hand corner and a user photos option appears. Open the option and several photos are available to view. I've never seen this before but must be an option for famous sites such as this view. The user photos are better than the street view photo so be sure to take a look at the Mt. in all seasons.
Of course I'm partial to the area as I spent many days working in and around the lake, which is located just below the Mt Baker Ski Lodge.

 Google Map Link

Winchester Lookout and Larrabee Mt

I found this site after watching the Olympics this week and reminiscing about my time in the Northern Cascades. I was a lookout durning the summer of 1962. That will be 48 years ago this summer! I've a lot of 35mm slides but they are faded and don't scan well. So for starters take a look at these winter scenes, one shows Mt Larrabee with the Canadian border just behind.
Report from the Wet and Scrappy — Lookout for Winchester!
Another site I found was Mt Baker Club 
 The Mt Baker club has much more summer shots which I have written to request permission to repost some shots into this blog. Until then I'll settle for the link.
That summer I spent working in the Mt Baker National Forest out of the Glacier Ranger Station. Most of the time was all sorts of odd projects from cleaning campsites, rebuilding trails, making shingles to repair huts, blasting holes for sign posts, etc. But for a few weeks I was stationed all alone on that mountain with a 2-way radio for contact. We bought the gear up most of the way with horses and pack horses which was in itself quite an experience.
 The memories have faded somewhat, which may be a good thing as the grandkids could be reading this. But, these sites have brought back a real fun time when I was still a teenager (19)!!    

Connecticut's 375th Anniversary Celebration - CTnow

Year long event was launched on Wednesday. It wasn't covered  by most media. Even the Hartford Courant only had a small notice today (the day after the launch).
I guess the Tiger Woods deal is more important.

Event Launches Connecticut's 375th Anniversary Celebration - CTnow

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"This American Life" "A House on Loon Lake" podcast

I stumbled on "This American Life" podcast at the iTunes store produced by Chicago public radio. Their podcasts are free for a week. The "House on Loon Lake" is a compelling mystery , but with a story line every genealogist will love. It's about a young boy's discovery of an abandoned house filled with the contents a family left behind. His quest continues into adulthood before he finds his answers. It take's place in Freedom NH, you know that town next to Maine that Rt 25 bypassed and you always wanted take the turn off to see it. I know I will have to NOW!
If you don't have the itunes program download it for free and listen on your computer.

Treasure Chest Thursday: A Mate For The Bulldog

The frosted glass bulldog on the right was my father's and in the family probably since around 1915.  We once had a black one that my mom had picked up in the 1950's. I laid claim to the frosted one after my mom's passing as I remembered it since my early childhood.  I've looked for a match in countless shops for years with no luck. Last weekend we spent the afternoon back at the antique emporium where I had found 1953 Rockville city directory. About half way though and a hundred glass cases, there it was ! A perfect match! It wasn't black but a very nice green color with the light on it. It is an exact match right down to the same rough edge on the right ear. And yes the search will go on for the black one. 

Well I Guess Washington Didn't Stop Under our Tree

While surfing the web awhile ago, I landed on the town of Plymouth Ct web site. On the history page, there was a little story of General Washington stopping at David Smith' tavern and I said to myself that we had a David Smith in our tree. I went up the hill, to the library in Plymouth, to see what I could find and it wasn't much, just a picture of the tavern. I didn't have sources for this line so I needed to find if this was our David. My best bet would be looking though " Families of Ancient New Haven",By Donald Lines Jacobus. 
So on Monday, while the grandkids were in school I went over to the Kent NY library which has a copy. Its a new facility and has a wonderfull
genealogy research room. It's packed with books of the Putnam and Duchess county area, but also has quite a few CT related books.
 I took a lot of notes on  two David Smith family groups which stopped short of getting me to our neighborhood. I now have the source notes to help fill out the tree if  I find the connection to our Gideon Smith whose daughter married into the Barnes line. At the end of one of the family groups, a note mentions to see "Timlows Sketches of Southington, Conn. for children. So its off to find a copy and a search of World Cat and Archive.com revealed nothing, but good old Google gave me a hit. The actual name turned out to be " Ecclesiastical and other sketches of Southington, Conn."  and Google  has a copy on line. It was written by a local minister and contains local family genealogies. In most cases he did not follow a family once they moved out of town. I believe I have the correct family group now, as I found a Gideon, 6 Aug. 1763; d. in Burlington.  It looks like our Smith line traveled through Southington Ct. and not though Plymouth. So George was in the neighborhood, just not under our tree.
 And so the quest  goes on, looking for those Bits and Pieces !

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: 6 WEEKS TO SPRING!

Wordless Wednesday/ 5 months to go!

Happy 101 Award

I've been sent the Happy 101 award by two of my favorite bloggers, Lucie Consentino at http://lucieslegacy.blogspot.com/ and  Linda Hiser http://lindasflipside.blogspot.com/. In order to accept I must list 10 things that make me happy and pass the award along to 10 blogs.
 Things that make me happy are the simple blessings of life.
 1.My Bride of 42 years
 2. My two daughters
3. Both of my son in laws
4. The 5 grandchidren of course and the amount of involvement we have in their lives
5. Enjoying our time up at the lake with friends and family
6. Catching a fish or not.
7. My new iTouch
8 Helping a friend with a home repair
9. a good cup of coffee while I run through my Google Reader List
10 Good health to enjoy my retirement.

As far as as the 10 bloggers go, my favorites have all received the 101 at least once and I'm not going forward this. I did go over my list so if I missed you pick up the award and tell us what makes your happy list.

2010, ANOTHER DECADE makes EIGHT !!

 As I sat with 2 of my grandsons (ages 10&8), sipping sparkling white grape juice, the announcers said 2010 was the start of a new decade. I thought to myself,"if I just make the next 10 minutes I''ll have lived during 8 of them". I wondered how much change they would see as they enter their 2nd decade. I know as I think back how much change I've experienced since the early 1940's. I don't mean just in technology, but in the stages of our lives.
 So I'm  thinking, one reason for my starting this blog was to relate some of my life, whether the grandkids want to hear it or not. I know some do or will, for example my 8 yr old grand-daughter I'm told spent an hour or so reading my blog a few weeks ago. And just today, my 8 yr old grandson broke in, as I was relating a family joke on our origins, and told with great glee how he told a friend the story.
And so all will not be lost and my my efforts not in vain.
 Speaking of vain, when I blog about these different decades, its about our families history really and not of myself.  I'll have to be careful as to protect the living so perhaps much will be just brief high lites.
 Just think, I started out in the 40's with just a radio and now I'm starting out 2010 with an iPod Touch.