Just musing this week....

When you reach this time of your life, one finds that one reflects on all sort of things and writing this blog lately with the attempt to share a little about my early life, I thought about some of the hard times that I went through. They were hard only in respect to being young and not understanding some of the things that affected my life. My parents did not share their troubles or problems with us, and I can remember sensing that something was wrong and not having any idea what it was, would of course magnify it in my mind. I was to a great extent a loner, preferring most of the time, the company of my dog to a human friend - and the dog and I would spend hours on the Shore, walking, climbing the rocks, or simply sitting and taking in the sounds of the sea, the gulls and the wind. There was my solace. There was my comfort and there was my peace. I now know that it was there that I was close to my God. It's been a long, long time since I have lived by the sea, but it still has the power to heal me more than any other place. My recovery from alcoholism was at Pacific Grove, California, and it was there I reconnected with God and found his help and comfort again. I have learned as I grew older that God didn't only live at the sea - he basically went wherever I went, because he was inside me. When 'times are tough', as they are now in Dick's and my life, I am glad he's there and I can concentrate on the things I have to be thankful for - our life together, our love for each other, and the love we feel from our family. Love you all.

Growing up in Llandudno, Wales

Sorry for the repeat pictures - still learning how to do this stuff!

This is Llandudno. Actually if you are interested in learning more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llandudno is a neat link and has a great panorama photo there too.

Llandudno is a relatively small town (a little over a mile by a mile) and sits between two sea shores. The first photo shows one end of the town and the black and white shows the other end - which is the one I frequented more as a kid as we lived about a block from it. The main shore was far more commercial and had the big hotels - the other shore was much more to my taste with a vast sandy beach, sand dunes and cliffs and rocks where the sea would pound. The photograph I duplicated is of a gardens situated on the Orme(the mountain dominating Llandudno) and it was there that my grandfather worked as a gardener. The main street (Mostyn Street) shown on the final photo is where the bulk of Llandudno's shopping was and I have a memory it seems for almost every foot of it - ranging from the ice cream parlor where my friend Sylvia would hang out, to the ladies stores where we drooled at the latest fashions. Cinemas we went to. Dance pavilions where we danced, sweet shops (candy stores) where we perused seemingly for hours picking what we would buy with our very limited funds. My favorite was licorice allsorts, and English Toffee (hard enough to break your teeth).

My parents met at Pavilion on the shore by the hotels. On Sundays it used to have concerts and there was a balcony all around the inside with tables and chairs where people would mill around, meet, talk and listen to the music. My father and his best friend Bob started talking with my mother and her sister and they arranged to double date the following week in the neighboring town where my mother lived. Bob eventually married my aunt Lu, and my parents romance blossomed from there. One fun anecdote on their first date: my father decided to buy my mother a box of chocolates, but he had to travel about thirty minutes on the tram to her town, so he couldn't resist sampling them. He showed up with a very pretty box with a ribbon on it and ONE chocolate.

June - Father's Day Month

Since this is Father's month, I thought I would tell you all a bit about our fathers. Mine - George, was the oldest son of a family of 13. He has two older sisters. His father was a bricklayer and was not a family man. He brought home the wages (not enough) and was the only one who had meat to eat. Any meat that was provided for the rest of the family came from my father who would go out at night and kill birds, rabbits and whatever he could get to put the food on the table. He left school at the age of 11 to work as a laborer for his father and was paid in cigarettes and beer. He went on to be a bricklayer/stonemason and a lot of the walls still standing in Llandudno were done by my father. The one in front of the house on the corner is an example. He was not the best provider (having a weakness for beer and gambling), but he was the most attentive father and regaled us with stories, bits of wisdom and his humor, and his morals. He was what would be referred to as a man's man - darts and snooker champion at the pub, club champion at the Golf Club, played soccer for Llandudno and once for the amateur Wales team. He was a volunteer fireman and also volunteer with St. John's Ambulence - a first aid force that would attend sports games and other large gatherings. He was always asked to be the M.C. at the club events having an unending supply of jokes and anecdotes.