Hart Family Reunion

The Hart family reunion is always held on the first Saturday of July. This year's reunion was extra special because my Aunt Marie was able to attend. She gave us quite a scare in the early spring with a bout of pneumonia and we thought we would lose her. But she is a tough woman who has survived many obstacles in her long, rich life. After being in a near-coma, she bounced back and is "feeling pretty good". Good enough to make us all happy that she is still with us and able to commune with us over good food and good talk. She is my mother's youngest sister and the only surviving sibling of that Schaffer/Hart clan.

(On the left is Aunt Marie holding Everett in the mid-1930's. On the right is the house as it appears today. It doesn't actually tilt...that would be the photographer's fault.)

We always have the reunion at my brother Everett's house which happens to be the Schaffer/Hart homestead and was also my home until I was eight. It was built in 1887 by my great-grandfather Peter Schaffer; and has always been owned and lived in by our family. And it always will be. That is a pact that will never be broken.

Aunt Marie telling me to take a pretty picture. And here it is.

My brother Everett is standing to my left with his wife, Gloria. They were married when I was three. My cousin, Earlene Hart Townsend, is on the left with her husband Jim.

With my youngest niece, Melissa, who is Everett's youngest. She is a sweetheart and so are her two sisters and three brothers.

The barn where I spent many hours playing as a child with my cousins and sometimes by myself. It was actually built before the house, so it may be closer to two hundred years old. The American chestnut posts and beams show no signs of age. Chestnut is impervious to insects and rot.

Jaye and Matthew in front of the small stream that runs between the house and driveway. It was a much more adventurous ride down the sidewalk when I was a child...no handrails!  The stream flows into a creek across the road which almost always flash floods when there is heavy rain. The house has never flooded because it sits on a high bank.

Lauren and Melissa's two boys, Harm and Jake, explore the stairs to the basement. I played on those stairs all the time, and in the basement, when Mom would let me. My sisters swear that there are ghosts in there. My late sister Jane told that when she was a teenager, Mom sent her to the cellar to get something and on the way back up, she felt a hand grab her shirt. She turned around on the stone steps to look and she claimed to have seen a ghost wearing an old-fashioned uniform. Lots of screaming ensued! I was never scared to go in there...I loved playing in the dark coolness and smelling Mom's pickled corn and green beans in the big stone crocks weighted down with heavy plates. Those crocks are still in the barn.



This year's turnout was a little light. I'm hoping that next year the whole family will be able to attend. They were missed.

Six Word Sunday

In the tradition of Ernest Hemingway, who was once challenged to write a short story in six words.

His six-word story was:  "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Each week I will choose a theme. It is your mission, if you choose to accept it, to meet that challenge in six words, no more, no less.

If you like, you may illustrate with a photo, or not.

Punctuation will be your biggest ally.

If you decide to play, please link back to this post, and leave the link to your post in comments here.
If you don't want to create your own post, you can write your six-word story in my comments.

The Theme:

Ice cream

 

(image courtesy of MyRecipes.com)

Bossy's greatest gift to dairy consumers.

Thank you for playing.

Perfect weather, wonderful zoo: Part two

Not only does the Columbus Zoo have an awesome collection of animals, but it also is the home of a restored 1914 Mangels-Illions Carousel. This carousel is built in the style of Coney Island carousels by the William F. Mangels Company. Mangels was a German immigrant who designed and built some of the most beautiful carousels in the United States, including the ones in Coney Island Amusement Park. In 1907, he patented a version of the overhead gears that controlled the up-and-down "galloping" motion of the horses. Mangels' design became the standard, and Mangels himself became a leader in the field. He employed the best wood carvers and mechanics, who often were immigrants themselves. Mangels also designed other amusement park fixtures, such as kiddie cars and The Whip.

Marcus Illions is recognized as one of the two greatest artists of the carousel world. His masterpiece horses have very flamboyant heads and fairly well decorated bodies. Illions carved all the heads for his horses himself. Illions first carved carousel horses in England and then carved for Charles Looff in Brooklyn. He formed his own company in Brooklyn, New York, in 1909, carving initially for Mangels and then for himself. Although Illions' three most spectacular carousels (known as the "Supreme" models) have all been broken up, a number of his other carousels still remain. Examples of these are at Agawam Amusement Park in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Columbus Zoo.

The carousel at the Columbus Zoo was originally designed for and installed at the now-defunct Olentangy Park in Clintonville, an unincorporated neighborhood of Columbus. When the park closed, the carousel was moved to Wyandot Lake Amusement Park which was adjacent to the zoo. It operated there for sixty years. The amusement park had seen its better days and was torn down and replaced with Zoombezi Bay Water Resort and Jungle Jack's (Hanna) Landing Amusement Park, which opened last year. In 1998, the carousel underwent a million-dollar restoration and was moved onto zoo property. There it is enjoyed by children and adults alike.

The carousel has fifty-two hand-carved and painted horses, two chariots and a Stinson band organ playing all your favorite old-time merry-go-round and circus tunes.

Kaitlyn is enjoying her ride.

                  So is her Grammy.