Sis's visit

Well, Deb's visit to northern Kentucky is just about over -- boo, hoo! I'm sure gonna miss her. She's been such a blessing to have here and we've just been chatting up a storm and reminiscing about our childhood and young adulthood .

We both have three children, hers are a couple of years behind mine. She has two boys and a girl (now men and woman), I have two girls, and one boy (now women, and man). Duh!

We have enjoyed visiting with some of my grandchildren while she's been here. Today we celebrated my son's eldest's birthday -- Rosie -- she's eight! Time flies. Aunt Debbie was surrounded for the whole two hours we were at Rosie's house with her and her siblings. Aunt Debbie plays better than me-mom.

We started working on HER memory books of our family. Mine are mostly finished -- the picture editions, that is. This BLOG is another memory "book" of sorts of the Drexler/Sbaraglia/Hahn clan.

Her mind is not as old as mine and she remembers things better than I do. But I remembered something that she didn't remember -- or, as she put it -- never knew about therefore, couldn't be accused of forgetting.

We saw a dead cat in the road -- gross! -- on the way to Rosie's birthday party. Well, when I was a teenager, whenever you saw a dead animal in the road, the object was to say, "I one it." Then the next person had to say, "I two it." And so on. When you got to the number eight -- well, I'll let you complete the sentence. So, when I saw the dead cat, I said , "I one it." And I had her say "I two it." By the time I got to "I seven it." She got it !! She "eight" it. Ha, ha.

We talked about padoodles and how we looked for them when we were growing up, because the person who saw a padoodle first -- oh, yeah, a padoodle is a one-headlighted car or truck -- got to kiss his or her best beau.

And then there was the trick at the stop lights. If your car got stuck at a stop light, everyone in the car had to jump out, run around the car, and get back in before the light turned green. Fun!

And blue lights. Deb didn't know about them. They were lights on poles where the emergency phones were located, and if you saw a blue light first -- same as a padoodle -- you got to kiss your honey. We used all kinds of excuses to get to kiss each other. Kissing was a big deal in those days.

We talked about marriage, and weddings, and how thankful we are that we have such long-lasting marriages. And how we both wanted an early morning wedding so we could get on with our honeymoon. You see, in those days, we waited until the honeymoon to do more than kissing. So, can you understand why we liked kissing? Is that too much information? Sorry.

We talked about Uncle Joe Egitto and for those of you who don't know, he is still alive, he's 91, and he and I have talked to each other a couple of times in the last year. I've mentioned Uncle Joe. He, like my mom's brother, Joe, did things with us children that my father couldn't do because he was occupied being a pastor. Extended family things, I guess is how they would put it these days. God blessed me and my brothers and sister with great Aunts and Uncles who took pleasure in playing with us, and taking us places that without their taking us, we would never have gotten to go.

Anyway, we've had a wonderful, blessed time. And I'm so thankful to Jim, Deb's husband who has given her this time to be with me, and helping me with Alan these past few days. Thanks Jim! And Thanks, Deb!