Thursday, April 30, 2009

Yes...Sprinkles For Breakfast!

Bill Cosby explained it best after feeding his children cake for breakfast.

"It's milk and eggs and flour."


Leftover birthday cake - like cold pizza - is meant to be a morning treat.

After celebrating my 70th birthday for three days, I really didn't feel up to making a "real" breakfast so I didn't.

I had toyed with the idea of having 70 blazing candles on my milestone cake, but my sister-in-law summed it up well: "A 7 and a 0 is easier to handle than 70."


My daughters called and the younger one mentioned that - at her last birthday - she had moved into the age bracket of 35 to 40. That's when it hit me: I was now a Septuagenarian.

Yikes.

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Go Granny Go!!

So years and years ago - when I was married the first time - my wife's grandmother was coming to visit us.

We lived in San Diego.

She was coming in from Missouri.

We started planning what to do to show this 77-year old lady a grand time.

The symphony was not playing and no operas were on tap. "She probably would like a museum visit," the wife suggested.

I was riding a Yamaha bike at the time and working for the newspaper. Married students tried to save money wherever they could.

"Hey, let's have the artist at the paper draw a Hell's Angels symbol on a black leather jacket and pose her by my machine," I responded.

So we had that ready when she arrived and I took the picture.

"Grandmother, what would you like to do while you're here?" The wife asked, shooting me a look to let me know she was more than a little bummed by the biker picture.

"Well," she answered, "I've never been up in a helicopter."


Our son got to ride and clenched her hand as they whirred above San Diego. She told him she was glad he was along. It made her feel safe. He liked that.

I'm just glad the artist changed it to H-E-C-K.

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Monday, April 13, 2009

I Call It "The Sand Bar."

This weekend I took a visiting cousin out to Folly Beach.

That's kinda mean because she lives in Chicago. The azaleas there have not bloomed yet.

In fact, they had an April snow a few days ago.

She was still in "sun shock" when we arrived on Folly and I suggested we check out the newly-remodeled Holiday Inn.

This is a view from the new Blu Restaurant and Bar.

Finally, someone had opened up the whole front of the place and let the beach be the spectacular sight it always should have been.

Walls were knocked out, small windows and sliding glass doors have been replaced with wall-to-wall vistas.

I think even the beach looks bigger.

This is NOT your typical Holiday Inn,


(Click on photos for fantastic details>)

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Sunday, April 05, 2009

Get On The Bus !

The story in the paper said CARTA was starting a 3x day weekend bus to Folly Beach.

Well, it's about time!

The last time I rode that bus from Ansonborough was about 1952.

I spent a lot of summers at Folly with my grandmother.

In fact, my birth certificate says I was BORN at Folly Beach.

Technically, I was born at the old St. Francis on Calhoun Street but the certificate stated where my parents were living.

I wasn't old enough to drive so my Mom would put me on the city's beach bus in front of our house on Society Street and tell the driver my grandmother would meet me on Center Street by the (old) post office.

It was a 12 mile drive and what I remember most are the furrowed tomato fields that covered MOST of James Island way back then. Mile after mile, the optical illusion effect made the dark lines waver and undulate as we rolled past.

My extensive photo files had not captured these memories so I searched the internet and found these illustrations.

My Mom is sure the drivers recall me.

She said I was not shy and I was quite a Chatty Chuck those days. She has no doubt I talked his ear off.

Anybody else remember riding that route or the fields?

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