Sal and I took the train from Naperville to Macomb on Good Friday. Gpa and Gma picked us up and took us to lunch and then took us out to Aunt Jill's. The ride was really nice. Sal and I even slept a little. :-) Since the tracks don't run anywhere near the road - I was kind of lost until we got to Galesburg and then I was a little more familiar to where at least in the state we were. :-)
Sal and I highlighted the IL map we had with us and pretty much were able to pinpoint Aunt Jill's house. Mostly because she lives ON the Hancock/Adams County border. :-)
When we got to Aunt Jill's we then got to go pick up Uncle Mike from the Nursing home. I stayed behind to make the Dirty Pudding (a family favorite - right Mick). Did I happen to mention that my sister still has her Christmas Tree up???? Now most of us have to re-arrange furniture when we put up the tree - but she doesn't - hardly even takes up any kind of space at all in her HUGE living room. Soooooo - when she came back she asked me to take it down. UGHHH! I HATE taking down MY tree - let alone someone else's. My answer was - Heck, we've come this far with it up - what's 7 more months?? No dice. So with Uncle Mike "supervising" (I now know why God decided to throw him from the roof) (JUST KIDDING)... Sal and I got it down and upstairs to her storage room.
That night (Good Friday) we had her kids (Mick and Brad) and their families - with Mick's new family - which includes two 8 year old twin boys. We had 7 kids coloring 9 dozen eggs that night. :-) They had a BALL! They got along SO well. Mick's fiance' Trish brought her Mom and Dad and my Mom and Dad came out for dinner so we had a really nice time. Trish's family is very nice and gets my family's humor - which speaks to their mental illness. :-)
Bill and Jack were missed. They had opening day for Little League on Saturday. We found out later that they won the game. But Sal and I had a much better time that Saturday (in my opinion). My Aunt Jill and Uncle Mike had to go to the funeral home to make arrangements for Uncle Mike's Dad's funeral. It was really a blessing. He was 86 and in the Mendon Nursing Home and had fallen several times and the last he had a stroke. Sal and I were left alone to be farm girls. :-) We went out to the pasture and fed and talked to Kitkat (the grouchy horse) and DR (the very cute and nice donkey). DR will follow you around and nuzzles up to you and starts stamping his feet if you go to leave. He is a character. Kitkat stands a few feet away and just gives you those "bitchy" eyes. She's also known to run him off the trough of food, so I don't have a lot of love for her. We found Ferocious in the stable and even caught a glimpse of Booger in the barn. We held Bob (cat) and Miss Kitty and played with Chunky then we walked down the lane to get the paper, came back to the porch, rounded up the rocking chairs and sat in the nice sunshine till they came home. I could sure get used to that. :-)
Easter Sunday dinner was just us and my Mom and Dad. Aunt Jill and I had been out to Hebron Cemetery the night before (the Beckett) cemetery and couldn't find Aunt Jess - we must have walked directly over her - as to what Dad described as where she was. Anyway - we ended up asking all kinds of questions from the "wild tales" that the Grandmas had told me. I'm 11 years younger than Aunt Jill and she's the last of the "stair steps" (my 3 siblings). Soooo when *I* came along both Grandmas were retired and I spent a lot of time with my Grandma Beckett - who lived one block from us. Being only one child I got to sleep with the Grandmas when I stayed over night and I'd always ask them to tell me a "wild tale". :-) Aunt Jill was never privy to that kind of stuff because when she stayed with Grandma - there were 3. ;-) Ahhhh - it's good to be the baby. :-)
My Dad told of when the house that he lived in burned to the ground. That house was located right next to the house my parents live in now - they moved there , from the farm, in the 60s - not too much before I came along. My siblings didn't have running water - I did. :-) That's why they think I'm spoiled. Anyway, he told of how the entire upstairs was gone and that was where my Grandma and his things were. They lived with his Grandfather and his Uncle Albert. Even though he was 16 years old he said he cried like a baby. It made a HUGE impression on him - to this day his greatest fear is fire.
My family got a HUGE kick out of Sally. I never realized before but my Grandma's Mom (Sally) was born in September - same as my Sally. I guess I did pick the right name. :-)
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