Goodbye, Honey

This past Monday, I took an unexpected trip back to the town where I was born, Utica, New York. The night before, I received a phone call that my cousin, Mary, had died suddenly. The Funeral Mass would be on Monday.

Alone on my six hour drive, I thought about Mary and what she meant to me. Mary was married to my cousin, Tony, for 65 years. On the drive, I reflected about Mary. Tony and Mary lived on Conkling Avenue in a two family house. My grandmother lived upstairs, and Tony and Mary lived downstairs with their baby.

While staying with my grandmother, I would always run downstairs a million times to visit Mary. She never complained about it. It seemed every few years, Mary added another new baby to their growing family.

I loved hanging around Mary and her babies. I loved watching her hold her baby, talk to her baby, feed the baby, and bath her baby. I would help her. One time, I remembered I helped her to make a cake. I screwed up the measurements but Mary didn’t get mad. She just added more flour and everything was fine. Mary was like that.

Mary was a nurse and worked the night shift, and managed along with Tony to raise five children. Their house was filled with noise and laughter. And that was what I wanted. I came to idolize Mary. I knew then that when I grew up, I wanted to be just like Mary and have a house filled with children. Mary made it look so wonderful, so easy, and so rewarding.

Eventually I got married and had nine children. My house was filled with noise, joy, and chaos…just like Mary’s house was a long time ago.

At the funeral, one of Mary’s children mentioned, laughing, that I was an over achiever with having babies. That comment made me laugh as well. I guess I was an over achiever. Maybe so, but I came to love babies and children because of Mary.

Mary died at the age of 86. She lived a long life. Mary was a sweet, gentle, and wonderful person. So, let me just say, using Mary’s favorite word, ‘Honey’ - “Bye, Honey! Thanks for your love, guidance, and example. You will be deeply missed.

Dixie Stampede

Whoa! At 7:15 p.m., we saddled up and headed for the Dixie Stampede show. We got there early enough to see the horses in their outdoors stalls. The horses were beautiful. We waited for the previous show to conclude before we were allowed to enter the building.

There was a pre-show with a country band playing and singing. When it was time, we were escorted to our seats. Our seats happened to be right outside the entertainment ring. The audience was divided into the North and the South and during the performance there would be challenges to win battles and eventually the South would win the war. Our side just happened to be located in the South.

The lights were lowered and out came the entertainment…a women on two horses would jump through a ring of fire. Then there were more horses and riders acts. After that, the theme of the show seemed to be the beginning of the West. The entertainers, dressed as Indians made their appearance. This would be my favorite part, where one person was dressed as an eagle, coming out of the ceiling and swinging and swooping around the ring. It was so cool and professionally done that it really looked like an Eagle flying about the arena.

Throughout the show, we were served our dinner without cutlery. The food started with soup served in individual ramequins, half a chicken, a slice of pork loin, a half of a potato, an ear of corn, and dessert.

The story line continued with the pioneers traveling West, women and men on horses doing a dance and then a group of Southern Belles dressed in beautiful ball gowns, singing. When their dresses lit up, my little granddaughter was in awe of the ‘princesses.’ and having their clothes light up. The end of the show was a patriotic ending of we are all Americans united together, with a tape of Dolly Parton singing “Color Me American,” recorded specifically for the Dixie Stampede.

By the time the show ended, everyone was satisfied and tired, but not too tired to pose with one of the cowboys and cowgirls. All in all this was definitely an entertaining show. I would recommend it to visitors to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Dollywood

To be honest, when I was asked to go on this trip, I didn’t have any idea what Dollywood was all about. I knew who Dolly Parton was because I used to listen to her music. But I didn’t know that Dollywood was a big amusement park. So to say that this was on my Bucket List would be a lie. I did know that I wanted to go to see the Smoky Mountains, be with my son and his family and to just enjoy myself.

Dollywood is a huge amusement park. It is definitely bigger than Kennywood. It is unbelievably clean, and the people who work there are the friendliest people that I have ever encountered. They dripped with good old Southern hospitality.

We entered the park early. As the day wore on, it was hot and humid but everyone just consumed tons of water and enjoyed the rides, despite the lines. Oddly there were no water fountains. After buying my fifth bottle of water, I wished that I had owned the bottle water franchise that was used at the park.

Like all parks – you pay one price to ride all day long. And as usual there were long lines to wait to ride. There were long lines to eat. The walk around the park was a never ending one.

When my legs were just about ready to surrender, we stopped and rode an actual train around the area and through the Smoky Mountains. It was a beautiful engine, in pristine condition. The train ran on coal. I haven’t ridden on a real train since I was a kid, traveling back and forth from Cleveland, Ohio, to Utica, New York. The best part was that my family never rode on a train and that was a real experience for them. The grown-ups and the kids loved the ride.

After the train ride, everyone else rode more rides, while I and the other grandmother sat and watched the entertainment. I ended up watching one band perform and sing, three different times. I guess you could say that I became a bonafide, official groupie.

The evening ended with a fire work display. By the time we pulled out of the parking lot, my two grandchildren were fast asleep. Everyone was tired but in the end we had accomplished our mission and the day would go down as a memorable one.

Labsy Awards are an Inspiration!

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Writing can put a person in a lonely place. I, myself, happen to like to work alone. I love to write. Nothing gets me more exciting as when I have an idea and how it starts to come together in the story that I am working on.

Then there are times that I can’t generate anything to write, no matter what I do. That’s when I wonder if I am a writer? Who would even want to read what I write? Does anyone even care?

But, the other evening, I was inspired to get back to my writing. I attended the Labsy Awards at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The awards are a teen media contest. The Labsy Awards recognizes teens’ original creations, inventions, and works of art. The categories were divided as such:

Filmmaking (original film).

Graphic Design  (digital or traditional art work).

Fashion (hand-made, modified, or up-cycled apparel and accessories).

Invention  (a robot, video game, or other original invention).

Music  (original composition).

Photography  (original photo).

Cover Art

Prose

Poetry

I had never heard of the Labsy Awards but I know what they are now. I attended the awards ceremony with my son because his daughter and her classmate were up for an award in the Music category.

My granddaughter and her classmate didn’t win an award but to me they were winners by writing an original composition and performing it. Kudos to the teacher, who submitted their work and for the girls to be in the running for a Labsy Award. But mostly, congratulations for the girls for even trying.

The best part of the evening was seeing what the 1^st and 2^nd place winners in each category had submitted and what won.

The evening left me in awe of these young teens. They were lucky in the fact that they were just beginning on the road of creativity and they would only get better and better. After the ceremony, I went home renewed with the excitement of writing. I also realized that I have a lot of catching up to do!

For the 2015 teens who created and submitted their work and to my granddaughter, Bayleigh and her classmate, Anna – Congratulations! Remember that this is only the beginning of all that creativity that you have inside. So keep creating and performing!

Lunch at Paula Dean's Restaurant

After skipping dinner and then breakfast, I was happy to eat a meal at Paula Deans’ Restaurant, located within walking distance of our hotel, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The restaurant is on the second floor of the Paula Dean store. We lucked out and rode the elevator up and were seated in no time. We must have beaten the lunch crowd.  The atmosphere was open and airy; the diners were surrounded by windows. The Wait Staff was efficient and ultra-friendly. I would notice being friendly for the Southern people was a big deal, which was a refreshing thing to see.

As for the food – it was served family style and totally delicious. First there was a complimentary platter of biscuits and pancakes, accompanied by spicy sweet potato butter. The butter was the hit of the platter. We had to sample the lightly breaded and fried green tomatoes. They were delicious. Then shortly our food order arrived. We were allowed to pick two entrees and four sides, in unlimited amounts. We had friend chicken, ribs, salad, mac and cheese, creamy potatoes, and green beans with ham and potatoes. Dessert was also included with the meal and the diner had their choices of gooey butter rum cake, peach cobbler or banana pudding. The meal was delicious and totally filling.

Plan on eating at the restaurant but beware of the long lines. While you are there, check out the first floor for merchandise to take back home.