Black River and Western Railroad

Last Saturday, my dad and I took a train ride! This was his first "day out" since his health troubles began the day before Thanksgiving. I had bought tickets to the excursion long before that - and was hoping against hope he would be "up to it." Up to it he was!

Here comes the train!

The ex-Lehigh Valley "SW-1" locomotive, #112 was built in April, 1939!

Founded in the early 1960's by a group of friends with an interest in steam railroading, the Black River & Western Railroad has seen many changes over the years. The first BR&W passenger trains between Flemington and Ringoes operated under a lease agreement with the Pennsylvania Railroad, which still operated freight service on the line. Eventually, the BR&W purchased the line from Lambertville to Flemington, and later added the former Central Railroad of New Jersey line from Flemington to Three Bridges.

After the ride, I walked 10 miles on the Delaware Canal on a sunny but chilly day.

Happy New Year to all!

Christmas 2013

The dates were finally put on the my grandfather's gravestone this year. I can't describe how I feel - it makes things... feel so "final" somehow.

When I placed the grave blankets on my grandparent's graves this year, I spent some time recalling the many Christmases past that my grandparents and aunts and uncles came to visit - and so many of the wonderful memories.

My grandfather on the last Christmas he enjoyed opening presents.

My grandmother with her younger sister, the Mayor of Chula Vista, California and her husband, visiting Lawrence Welk. Mr. Welk was one of my grandmother's most favorite musicians. She loved singing "Toyland, Toyland" and I learned to play it on the piano for her.

My grandfather with his three sisters - My aunts Harry, Johanna Parker, Mary Dunn, and Marian Hawn (my Dad, Robert, is in the chair behind them). Ross Hawn Jr. is the smiling face between the legs. Palmyra, New Jersey circa 1945. Ross Sr., Marian's husband, probably took the photograph.

My mom's mom. I love this photograph, murky as it is, because it shows her shoveling snow out to the clothesline in Milton Mills, New Hampshire. She suffered several strokes while I was young and most of my memories of her are her in a nursing home - unable to remember anyone's name, including her own.

My mom's dad hold my mom on the edge of the ocean - He was a loving but "set in his ways" man - He was the only one of the four grandparents I was with when he died. His heart failed while he was in a snoozing nap - and his end was a peaceful one. It was so hard to envision this man being born in "Indian Territory" (now Oklahoma), serving as a telegraph operator in the Navy during WWI, and retiring to a farmhouse in New Hampshire - miles from the "City". I have since learned some of his story in my quest to get my mom's Daughters of the American Revolution membership.

One of the stories tickles me pink - He was one of 5 strapping young men in his family, they all ran to 6 foot and several inches tall - but it was his mother that they all called for when they spotted a rattlesnake. They would cry, "Momma! Momma! Come quick, there is a snake here!" and the little pioneer woman, she was only 4 foot 8, would rush to their side with a hoe and dispatch the snake for them.

For many years, no matter how much snow was on the roads - these people would somehow find their way to my boyhood home early Christmas Day - and made Christmas... Christmas for three little, much loved, boys.

A Welcomed Phone Call

After a week in the hospital, a minor heart attack, congestive heart failure, edema, and an episode of massive internal bleeding - my dad called me on his cellphone saying "I'm on my way home."

This past Thanksgiving was "interrupted" and found the family gathered together, including my brother and his family from out of town, scrambling about and supporting each other as my dad was very much under the weather. The Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving, he suffered massive bleeding, and ended up having an emergency in the ER (he passed out while going to the bathroom). Many units of blood transfusions later, he developed edema and that triggered a heart attack. The doctors implanted a pacemaker a couple days ago (was it Tuesday? forgive me things are a blur) and then treated him for the aftermath of the edema treatment (apparently the drugs for that temporarily (hopefully!) messed up his kidney function).

No phone call has ever been more welcomed.

I thank all of you for your kind words - your prayers - and your unstinting support. I am truly blessed with the best of friends.

On Thanksgiving, my family understood - really understood - what being thankful really means... it's not for "stuff"... it's for blessings. We were thankful for the hospital ER staff that saved my dad's life. We all want him to be able to pull in more Red Drum and other fish like the one pictured - on another day.