50 Memories of 50 years #31

We were married by Reverand Bruce Anderson at the Norfolk Congregational Church on November 1, 1975 in Norfolk, CT. Rev. Anderson gave us a copy of the message he gave during our wedding ceremony. And of course, I still have it.

50 Days of Remembering 50 years Day #17

The Blizzard of '78

For those of us that lived through the Blizzard of '78, it's one of those, "where were you?" moments. What made it worst was that the weathermen did not prepare us enough. Seems they didn't see it coming themselves. Too many people were left stranded on the roads trying to get home. Some died of carbon monoxide poisoning stranded in their cars. Some people were stuck at their workplaces, some children were stuck at school for two nights. I've read accounts of people taking shelter in a movie theater off the highway eating popcorn. For you younger folk who don't know what I'm talking about, here is a pretty good article: Remembering the 1978 Blizzard - New England Historical Society

The snow started on February 6 in the morning and fell for 33 straight hours with wind gusts and drifting snow. The snow, they say at times falling 4 inches an hour, accumulated to up to 2 feet, however we lived in Norfolk, CT aka the icebox of CT known to get more snow than most of the state. Some records say we received 30"-36" and that doesn't include the drifting. I had to look up these facts to refresh my memory.

Our story of the Blizzard of '78: George was working in Hartford. I worked in Bloomfield and carpooled with another woman from Norfolk. Remember this was before cell phones. I'm trying to remember and decipher the timing. We must have left work before the usual 4 pm. The normal ride home was an hour. According to my AI, as my memory is eluding me, it probably took 2-3 hours to get to Winsted. 

When we reached Winsted between 6-7 pm in the dark, we decided to go to the Subway grinder shop, which was open, to see if we could call our husbands and to take a break from the intense ride. We had no clue if they were home or stranded somewhere. We went in and moments later, in walks George. If you see the pictures of the roads and the fact that we were coming from different places, you can see just how miraculous this was. What a God wink!

George had his car, so after recouping for a moment, we decided to try and make it home the last ten miles. It was rough, but we made it. Obviously, we couldn't drive up our 450-foot-long uphill driveway, so we trudged up it on foot.  I am sure I was never so happy to be home and with George. We could have been stranded anywhere.

I don't recall losing our power for the two days that we were stranded home. I really don't remember anything more. I just remember how grateful we were that God led us to each other and got us safely home through the worst winter storm that we have ever experienced. 

"In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps." 

Proverbs 16:9

50 Days of Remembering 50 years Day #10

Road Rage, I mean Road Rally

A month before we were married, we participated in our first road rally. This was a driving contest where you were given clues and had to find various landmarks in a certain order and time. 

Now keep in mind that this was a time before cell phones and even local internet. Because each team started at different intervals, it wasn't who got there first that won. It was who kept the correct speed limit, went to the correct places, wrote down the right answers and finished with the closest correct mileage. From the start we were scratching our heads. The instructions told us to go so many kilometers. Ugh. We didn't know the accurate calculation to convert miles to kilometers. 

There was not a lot of time to stop and calculate and then to figure out where the clues were leading you. You had to fill in the blanks on the form with answers of what you thought they led you to. It was fun, challenging and exasperating all at once. Because of the anxiety we ended up being short with each other and there was arguing in tense moments, so much so that we briefly wondered if we would go through with our wedding the next month!

We didn't win. But this was a pre-cursor to our road trips (pre-map quest days), when I was the navigator and he was the driver. Those who navigate know how hard it is to read a map and road signs at the same time. The driver just expects the directions to be fed to them immediately. The driver is anxious because of traffic and paying attention to lane changes. My driver throws a fit should he take a wrong turn and have to detour. I think a good percentage of our disagreements have been trying to get somewhere. (Though isn't that life--traveling together seeing where life takes us). 

And yet...we have since done other road rallies and have sought them out. I guess we like the thrill of the hunt and trying to work together. They are kind of like a treasure hunt. There really aren't many around. 

Later we were introduced to a similar treasure hunt hobby called Letter Boxing. I started to write about that here, but I was getting so wordy, that I will save that for tomorrow.

Our last scavenger hunt was a contest run by the Norfolk Historical Society. You were given a couple of weeks to discover certain landmarks in Norfolk, CT. Since George grew up there, he was intrigued by this challenge. Armed with the clues, we set about different parts of Norfolk trying to decipher where the clues would take us. Some were very easy, however two eluded us. One was right under our noses on the town green! What was most aggravating for one clue was we assumed the answer was up Haystack Mountain. We had been up there a few times before with kids, but now we were older and I was so out of shape. I was truly afraid I was going to have a heart attack (note: that may not have been far from the truth as a few years later, I did). The part that was most aggravating is that was not where the answer was and we went there for nothing!

But the good news is we won! Our prize was this framed original limited reproduction by Michaela Murphy of a glass plate negative by Marie H. Kendall ca. 1880. It's entitled, "The Farmyard". We have it proudly hanging in our living room.

When I turned 70, my son gave me a clue which took me on a scavenger hunt to more and more clues until I got the prize. He gets me!

One little irritant I have about our road trips, if we are going past something that looks interesting and I don't see it soon enough, George will rarely turn around to check it out. Of course, if we had a schedule to meet, that would be one thing, but even in a leisurely ride, there is something in his DNA that makes him abhor going back.

I love the autumn, and I always try to find one day to drive around looking at all the beautiful scenery and stopping to take pictures. It sometimes requires turning back. I don't take George on my annual autumn drive. 

Somehow, we have stayed married almost 50 years despite the road "rage" which goes on in the car at times. People think road rage only happens with other drivers--not always the case. 

"Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do." Jeremiah 42:3

For my 70th birthday, my son made me a scavenger hunt where I had to drive places to find clues to get to the prize. 

A couple of days around Stratford, CT

It has been since 2019 since we went overnight anywhere, so long ago. We were having a hard time squeezing in another getaway with "life as it is" but we penciled in a couple of days to not go too far but to have a needed change of scenery. Since it was only going to be a couple of days, I splurged on a place right on the beach so I could hear the splashing waves from our room and my desire was to once again, see an ocean sunrise or sunset. More about that later. 

When I called the Surfside Hotel for reservations (I have learned it is sometimes cheaper to call the hotel itself than to use a 3rd party site. There was no difference in charge this time, but at least I could verify a few things), I specified a room with a good view of the ocean and preferred first floor. He asked why the 1st floor, I knew there were only stairs and told him two people with arthritis. He said the best view is 2nd floor and no problem, he would help us with our bags. Well, evidently whoever, he was, was not on duty. A girl did help one of us with a bag and we lugged the other on our 1st trip up the stairs. We do not travel lightly--a bag each (you just never know if the weatherman will be right and just in case we are forced to stay longer), CPAP machine, bag of reading material (and of course, we were both reading hardcovers), snacks, drinks, extra coat and shoes, etc. 

The room was lovely, the view great and there was a wonderful deck overlooking the beach. Big TV that promised Netflix, which I hoped to watch a particular movie later, but never got the Netflix to work. No biggie.

View from our deck

Outside view. Our deck was on the 2nd floor. 

Front view of motel. 

The weather was not what we had hoped. There were showers the first day, they held off the second day, but was foggy and then cloudy all day. The little beach we had provided me with my treasures. I found multiple pieces of sea glass. The sea gulls at this beach seemed extremely annoyed with us. I truly think their squawking was telling us to leave. They also seemed to be bigger than the seagulls we used to see at the Cape. These ones were well fed, for sure. They may not look big in the pictures, but there were some pretty big ones, trust me. 

Forever, my fascination with rocks...

Where we stayed there was also the Lordship Seawall, a nice place to walk. Our motel had bicycles and had the weather been better, I would have been very tempted to try one out, but we kept to walking with our walking sticks. These were taken on the beach by the seawall and in the little area across from it. 

A couple of pictures from some greens in Stratford.

Stratford has an amazing sports and recreation complex. Part of it is on the beach. I took this picture trying to find out what this was off of Short Beach. Haven't figure it out yet.

The next day we ventured off to the Boothe Park & Museum. The buildings and grounds were donated to the town by the Boothe family and is free to visit. You can wander the grounds anytime, but the museums were not open this time of year. I had printed up a map of the grounds with enough information to make it a very enjoyable stroll among the many buildings.

The best way I could describe this is a collection of unique buildings without any rhyme or reason, but all very fun to look at. We will probably want to venture back when they are open.

Here is the last remaining toll booth from CT from 1988.

Instead of explaining all the buildings, I'll just share the photos I took.

We also went to Silver Sands Beach and after a wrong turn, found Walnut Beach. There was a seagull convention at one. Silver Sands required a little hike on a boardwalk.

Liked watching the waves crash on this. I assume it is an old pier.

We had seen a movie where they mentioned, "love locks"--people putting padlocks on bridges to symbolize their love. 

Some gulls we met. 

We could see these from our deck. Were we watching them or were they watching us?

More views from our deck.

One thing I really wanted on this getaway was either one sunrise or one sunset on the ocean. With the rainy, cloudy weather, this was the closest I could get. 

But finding sea glass is another thing that makes an ocean day special, and I felt like God said, "you can't have a sunset or sunrise this time, but how about a heart shaped piece of sea glass?" I was very happy to find this treasure--the brown piece in the middle. These are just some of the pieces I picked up along with some rock treasures that I couldn't resist.

A few of the rocks.

We ate at the Little Pub below the hotel.

Enjoyed seeing the still pretty foliage on the way home.

It was nice to get away and we do hope to return to Walnut Beach and the Boothe Museum one day.