| 06/29/08 05:03 PM |
#204
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Elmer Dante
Sorry I haven't checked this in a while, my boss has taken up every spare minute with projects.
Lisa,
I sold the whole pair for $1 to somebody who was very happy to get those lamps. You never know what you're going to find. When I was in highschool, my two brothers and I used to go "treasure hunting" with metal detectors all over the place. We actually has a little side business selling antique bottles. The best find we ever made was in, of all places, our back yard: a champleve enamel medal given by one of the Hapsberg emperors to a subject (it was in a small metal box). God knows how something like that ever made its way to Kenvil. My brothers and I sold it at auction for $750.
My most interesting find was at an estate/garage sale. At this sale was a box containing a bunch of items for $1 each. One of the items, which I purchased, was a small reliquary containing a bone fragment of St. Catherine Laboure (which I purchased for the princely sum of $1 and have, of course, put in a place of honor in my house).
Marianne,
You have, indeed, followed your bliss. Think of all the lives that you can influence and all of the people who will remember you on a website such as this, 30 years from now (unless there is another technology that replaces the web). Oh, and by the way, I saw that issue of 'Weird New Jersey.'
Carol,
Thanks for the nice comment. I think that all of the people who were in the class of '78 are fabulous people. A lot of what we've become is due to the fabulous people who came before us.
Remember: Each of us has a story and each person's story is what makes him or her an individual. Although my childhood was far from conventional, it made me who I was then and, to a certain extent, who I am now. My father was in his 80s in 1978 and was suffering from Alzheimers disease (he passed away while I was in college). As a result, I didn't know what it was to have the type of father most children of that era had. Looking back, however, I can say that I've experienced three centuries: my father was born in the 1890s (hence, my being named after my father with a name that was popular in the Victorian and Edwardian eras); I grew up in the twentieth century; and now find myself in the twenty-first century.
I remember regularly visiting my paternal grandparents (who died in 1969) each of whom lived to be more than 100 years old. They lived in a Victorian mansion (oh, to answer any question anybody might have on this, there's no money left--gambled away--and the mansion is now a parking lot) in Morristown that looked just as it did in 1910. They had a cook/maid who had lived in the house with them for 60 years who used to prepare snacks for me, my sister and my brothers with the gentility of the Victorian age and who served us those snacks in the very Victorian-looking parlor (they didn't call it the living room). Each time I visited there, it was like a trip back in time.
Couple all that with my father's gambling addiction (He loved the horses. I remember making my first Holy Communion and rushing off to the track right after the ceremony so, God help us, we didn't miss the first race. We celebrated my first Holy Communion at a very swank restaurant at the track. No so bad, but not conventional.) and the fact that my mother, his fourth wife, was a night club singer and you won't end-up with conventional (if there's such a thing as 'conventional') children.
By the way, a funny thing regarding my name...When my brother attended my 2005 graduation (when I received my MA in theology), after hearing all the multi-cultural names mentioned at the graduation, he said "after hearing all these names, your name sounds normal."
I guess what I'm saying is that although my parents were in some ways very liberal for the time, neither of them was living in the world of 1978. In the world of 2008, I can look back at all that and laugh; however, at the time, it was a bit confusing and resulted in my being somewhat shy.
Faith and Hope:
I know your sister-in-law. We work for the same company.
My best to everyone. Have a great holiday next week!
Elmer
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