Family Pix in NJ in June

Sadly, the reason I went to NJ was my sister in law Olga's funeral. The bottom pic is me with my brother Louie. The middle one is one of the collections of pics of Olga that was at the funeral home. She was much loved and will be greatly missed. She was my mother's favorite, so I grew up with a positive image of her that just grew as I became an adult myself. The top pic is Tom sleeping. He's technically my nephew by marriage, Louie's son in law, married to Michelle. Anyway, I even have a movie of this scene with him snoring, but I thought it was too mean to put it on the web.

More NJ Pix from June

The top pic is the back porch where all my summers were spent. Some good family times, but many times watching other people "having a life" while I was locked up not being allowed out because of my family's paranoia. Odd...mostly it has good memories though. The next several pix are from the arboretum that I never went to before this trip. I'm not sure it was there when I lived there in good old Summit, NJ.

Home Town Nostalgia in June

This is Summit NJ, where I grew up. The bottom picture is the apartments my father built and I grew up in since I was two years old. My apartment windows were the ground floor in this shot right under the tree. The first door on the left under the tree is the main entrance to D building. My apt was D5. The kitchen window is obscured by a bush. The next window was to the dining room. The next to the right is to the living room. My room's window is obscured by the red maple tree. The pic above that is the church I grew up going to, mostly walking by myself, St. Teresa. It didn't used to have the pretty landscaping in front. The photo above that is the grammar school next to the church. Talk about a "back East" look!! The top pic is my favorite though. That one is totally amazing and just shows you that back there, some things don't change much. That flagstone bench is over 50 years old. I used to walk home from grammar school and sit there with some other kids and eat blackberries from a bush that grew right there. It's just a block or so down from the school. The school and church were just a mile from my house. The bush is gone, but the bench is still there. The school isn't even completely operational any more. I guess Catholic grammar schools aren't that popular any more. They are trying to revive it now I heard.