My parents and sister, Col, and her husband joined my sister, Honey and her family down the ocean yesterday and I’m feeling a bit melancholy…wishing my back wasn’t messed up so that the twins, Quinn and I could have joined them. Of course, leaving the care of our dogs and cat, Honey’s dog and cats and my parents’ cat wouldn’t have been very fair to Michael and Sean.

I love taking vacations with my family. So many wonderful memories. I wrote this to go with an image of mine, Grandmom’s Chair, a few years ago…

My grandmother was a hard worker and lived well into her eighties and I mean she lived. She had more energy at 80 than I do at 44. *smile* She was a tiny, busty German lady who used w’s for v’s and v’s for w’s in her speech. She was warm, loving and lots of fun. When we were down the shore she would take breaks from housework and cooking, sitting in an old Adirondack chair, looking out over the water, fanning herself with an oriental paddle fan. The following is from a webpage I made a couple of years ago entitled Eastern Shore Memories….

Eastern Shore (to me as a child) was my Grandparents’ summer shore home on the Little Choptank River. It was a small house on a dozen or so acres off of Ross Neck Road, past Cambridge, Maryland. Memories fade with time and I wanted to do this for that reason–to try to recall all the little things about those wonderful summer days spent there. Sometimes the memories are so clear and crisp and other times blurred, slipping away before I get a chance to grab hold of them…

the sound of water lapping against the old gray pier

the distant sound of a motor boat

sailboats across the horizon

dogs barking in the distance–the sound of a farmer’s tractor

a bobwhite call
the smell of the salt water
the smell of salted eels
exploring the different shores with my family–long rides in the motorboat
sea nettles
turtles
commercial crabbing boats
water snakes
puffer fish
garfish
the silver flash of minnies in the minnow trap
eels in the minnow trap
crabs fins clicking against the livebox
old bay seasoning and vinegar
the ticking of the old alarm clock on top of the refrigerator
the slam of the screen door
bugs humming at night
the smell of bug-off oil
the slick feel of the paint on the stools at the kitchen counter
the fire every evening to steam the crabs
Mr. and Mrs. Parker and Happy their black Lab
Dairy Queen in the evening as a treat
fresh corn, tomatoes and cucumbers from the roadside stands
cold showers because Daddy refused to light the hot water heater
the sound of the pump from the pump house
the taste of brackish water from the faucet
the velvet feel to soft crabs
lying on the pier face down with my nose pressed between the cracks–smelling the water, feeling the cool water breeze and the hot sun on the backs of my thighs
small snails on the marsh reeds
the scariness of the garage because of black snakes living there
the long drive through the woods to get to the house
the big bump at the beginning to the lane
reading old hunting magazines left there by my uncle and cousins during the winter months
fishing magazines
my grandparents playing cards on the front porch every evening–their laughter
I miss them so much!
hot days–hot nights
lazing about–doing nothing or exploring the woods or the shore by rowboat
playing cards
eating cream cheese and crackers with jam for the first time
taking long walks with my Grandmom
dipping crabs with lines thrown off the pier–takes skill to pull up a line with one hand and dip with the other and it’s been made obsolete by the invention of crab traps
trot lines and the excitement of catching a big one or a doubler
watching a crab slough
small baby sand crabs
the sharpness of barnacles on the pier and the boat
my sister’s birthday end of August–it was usually our last visit there before summer ended and school began