Daily Archives: 3 May 2009

3 May 2009

The Train

By Nicki

My story about taking the train has come out a few times in my life.  The most recent times revolve around my twins.  In June of 2004, my now 22 year old son took the train to Chicago for the TSA – Technology Students Association – national convention and competition.  The train, of course, comes no where near Endicott or Binghamton any longer so the students had to be driven to Syracuse but it was still the least expensive way to get the group to Chicago.  Not sure anymore, or even at the time, but the train – which runs along Lake Ontario in NY and then along Lake Erie – had a huge delay but still, arrival in Chicago was in plenty of time.

 

Then, my daughter, prior to having a car at college, wanted to come home.  Her older brother lives in Syracuse now so I tried to convince her to take the train from Niagara Falls to Syracuse and I could get her there.  I never did succeed in getting her to take the train but it was definitely less expensive than the bus and did not take a lot longer than driving would take.

 

Imagine my surprise this morning when the local paper has an article on resurrecting passenger train service in Binghamton.  The article brought back memories of riding one of the two trains mentioned in the article, I am sure it was one of these two trains, as a five year old in 1966.  

 

I grew up in Owego which is a small town about 20 miles west of Binghamton.  Owego was recently voted the coolest small town in the US by readers/visitors to Budget Travel’s web site.  My father’s sister lived in Niagara Falls as her then-husband was attending Niagara University.  We were going to take the train to Niagara Falls to visit.  We waited and boarded the train in Owego.  I remember we had not gone far when I heard a strange clanging noise.  What would that be a five year old would want to know?  I was squirmy in my seat which was probably not a good thing as just then, an inmate being transferred to a prison in the Elmira area was slowly being taken through the general passengers to reach a restroom.

 

The rest of the train ride was unmemorable but that memory, shared with my daughter as I tried to convince her to take the train home from school, probably did not help.

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in Family, Just my Thoughts

3 May 2009

Jack Kemp

By Nicki

I have noticed as I age my political slant is becoming more conservative.  I was a young Democrat when I stuffed envelopes for the McGovern campaign at the age of 12.  

 

I was a slightly older Democrat when I was in college and had to take both macro- and micro-economics to get my business degree.  It was the early 80′s and my econ professors did not like the term Reaganomics but we did spend a considerable time discussing Jack Kemp’s book, An American Renaissance: A Strategy for the 1980′s.

 

 

Others sitting in the lecture hall at WVU had little clue who Jack Kemp was.  Being from upstate NY, I was “in the know,” even if he was a Republican.  He had played football for the Buffalo Bills long before I paid attention to professional football.  He, then, parlayed that fame into a congressional seat representing the blue-collar Buffalo area for many terms.  I wanted to know more than our discussion in class.

 

I took Kemp’s book from the library.  I started looking for articles about him in the newspapers.  You all have to remember that the only computer class I took in college was in Basic and involved punch cards and a card reader so there was no going to the library and looking up his life and political point of view on the internet.

 

A year later I was graduating with a business degree and still paying some mild attention to Jack Kemp.  It was 1984 and he was still in Congress.  I had heard him speak on television but had still never heard Kemp in person.  He was still representing Buffalo but would not be for much longer.  

 

In 1988, Kemp opted to run for the GOP nomination for president.  I was thinking of changing parties – a move that would endear me to my father for life but one that didn’t take place.  Kemp was the one person I thought would be best for the job.  I, once again, voted for a third party candidate as neither of the two main party nominees were right in my mind.

 

I can look back and credit Jack Kemp for my even looking at a Republican candidate.  His, as many called it, bleeding-heart conservatism hit on more of my views, especially as I had children, than any GOP or Democratic candidate had before or has since.

 

My thoughts and prayers are with Mr. Kemp’s family in this time of grief.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Just my Thoughts, Politics

3 May 2009

Happy May Day!

By Nicki

I know I am a few days late.  I was hoping in that time I would be able to find some wallpaper and add an image or two to this reminiscence.  It does not look like that is going to happen any time soon so here you go.

 

When I was younger and growing up, we would celebrate May Day.  My father’s family was mostly English in background so our celebration was not that of Eastern Europe where May Day is associated with the Labour movement.  Our celebrations were more of the sharing spring with the neighbors.  

 

Some time the middle of April, we would head to the local wall paper and paint store.  Yes, I am old enough that this is what was sold at that store, unlike today when you go, most likely, to Lowe’s or Home Depot to look at wall paper.  We would ask for any discontinued sample books or just discontinued samples.  A wall paper book held hundreds of pages of 12 inch by 12 inch wall paper samples and we wanted the prettiest ones for our May baskets.

 

Most May baskets were made from either brightly colored wall paper or from floral patterned wall paper.  Since, even to this day, we can still get some winter weather in May, the idea was for the basket to definitively be a symbol of spring.  After cutting a strip from either the side or the top of the sample, we would have two rectangular pieces, one for the handle and one for the basket.  The larger piece was rolled into a cone shape and glued together.  Then, the smaller piece was put on the open end of the cone as a handle.

 

Come May 1, we would fill the basket with little candies for our friends and go hang them on the door knobs at their homes.  If there were neighbors who had no children, we hoped there would be flowers already out that could be picked to put in the basket.  The door bell would be rung and we would run. 

 

May Day came back to me in full force when my children began attending Maine Memorial Elementary.  The school would have a May Day celebration each year that would involve each grade doing a different type of dance, a Maypole and crowning of the Queen of May.  Many years, the gymnasium  was so crowded only grandparents got chairs to sit in and watch.  The rest of us stood as the orchestra would play and the high school Madrigal choir would sing.

 

Do you have memories of May Day?

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in Family, Just my Thoughts

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