Local History

Today I did what I do when I visit a place that seems interesting: I found a little history book and started reading. Did it help that we're in New Jersey, the state I truly consider to be where I'm from? Maybe, but all those Victorian houses on South Main Street really seemed like there had to have been something going on.

So far I've uncovered that the couple for whom this hamlet is named was lost to history a mere 20 years after carving a town from woods along the former Indian trail that became the main road from New Amsterdam to Trenton. There's also a couple of haunted houses, and the little known fact that the "Etra" in Etra Road and Etra Park is actually an acronym for Edward Taylor Riggs Applegate, one of 19th century Mercer County's most prominent citizens.

All evidence of a good day's work, and who knows what I may discover tomorrow?

Auntie's Taxi Service

After a single day of driving 2 teenaged girls and their friends around to jobs, camps, rehearsals, boyfriend's house, hair appointments, shopping etc. and back, I am exhausted! As a teacher, I am certainly aware of how crazy kids' schedules can be, but I honestly don't know how families manage the complexities. Or rather, I do. Family time is the obvious casualty: there simply isn't time for dinner at the table, homework help, family TV or games, or other activities.

Back when I was a kid, things were a lot different. Were we bored without so many activities on our agendas? Maybe, but we were bored together!

The P is not Silent

We were talking vegan options at dinner tonight with Heidi's friend Betty and her 2 girls, Allyn and Delaney.

"Pea protein is very big these days," Heidi told Betty, who nodded.

As Betty started to tell Heidi that pea protein was in her smoothie powder, I looked across the table at Delaney, who looked horrified. Allyn noticed the expression as well.

"They mean the vegetable," she told her sister. "P-E-A."

"Oh good!" Delaney replied. "I was really worried about where people were getting their protein from these days!"

Inside Recess

When the day is hot and sticky
But you want to have some fun
And bowling is so last week
There’s still some place to run

Indoor mini golf!

Heidi and Annabelle and I went when we were in Atlanta, and at the time I made note of the fact that they had a location not too too far from our house. And so on Josh’s last day with us and in between running errands to prepare for our next road trip to NJ and Buffalo, we made our way to Monster Mini-golf, where all the clubs and balls and bumpers on the greens are fluorescent, and you play under black lights with retro music pounding too loud for you to have a normal conversation, but just the right volume to make you shake your bootie on every green while waiting for your turn to putt. This location also had duck pin bowling, a laser maze, and a neon color challenge that were included, along with 10 dollars worth of arcade games in our flat rate admission. And yes! I put the high score on the basketball game again, proving Atlanta was no fluke! It was cheesy fun at its finest, and gifting our tickets to a family of little boys on the way out the door, I laughed all the way into the muggy afternoon, where, yes, it had thunderstormed again. 

Microburst

Our street is like a river! the text from one of our neighbors read.

We looked around where we were, just 10 miles from home. It was 95 degrees, and the sun was unrelenting.

I know! I got drenched coming in from the car, and that was with a raincoat and umbrella! replied another neighbor.

There were a few clouds in the east, towards the direction of home.

The pavement was dry on the way back. A mile or so from our house we spotted a few small puddles, and the streets grew wetter as we approached home.

Here? The sun was out, but everything sparkled and steamed in the aftermath of what must have been an impressive storm.

Too

The day was too good to waste, and too hot to do much.
But we tried:
The path was too steep and too muddy to reach the river.
The town was too flooded to have much of anything open.
The park was too crowded to find parking.
The road home was too crowded to make good time.
But:
The company was too good to complain.
The dinner was too delicious not to enjoy.

Holiday

Before I even knew that there was a national day devoted to watermelon, much less that that day was this day, I stood in the kitchen this morning chopping up a small, round, dark green watermelon that came in our CSA box on Thursday. It was perfectly ripe-- crisp and sweet-- but unlike most of the melons we see these days, it was also full of tiny seeds.

Heidi was next to me, sampling the cubes as I cut. "This is a good, one!" she proclaimed, "Except for the seeds."

I shrugged in agreement. "But it's so old-fashioned," I said. "Remember when we were kids? watermelon always had lots of seeds."

"Right!" she nodded. "We always had to eat it outside."

"I know," I said, "like right after we went out to peel the corn? We ate watermelon."

"Yeah," she replied, "and we spit the seeds into the grass!"

We were silent for a moment, and then she continued, "And wished that watermelons would grow there!"

Yes. That's exactly how it was.

Happy National Watermelon Day!