So I got to do something totally FUN the other day and exciting for me. I got to preview Frazer Antiques new store in their new location further east from where they were on Route 30/Lancaster Avenue in Malvern/Frazer.
It’s a lot of familiar faces that we all love from the original store plus some new faces, some which are already familiar to me. It was just the most positive wonderful thing to see. For example, Daisy Cottage Antiques from Morgantown is coming!
I was very sad, as were so many, when we heard after decades in one location, they literally lost their lease and were getting the heave ho. Well everything happens for a reason and this is a much better space with wonderful flow.
They are loaded with all sorts of interesting things and I think the store is going to be fabulous and it’s a good location because the parking is much easier, among other things.
(If you need an artisanal chocolate gift that will knock your socks off, they will be carrying some of the Ben Wollenberg Chocolates from Canton, OH.)
The soft opening is Monday, September 8 as far as I know.
179 Lancaster Avenue is the address and down the same driveway as Tague Lumber and Malvern Collision.
I hope you love it as much as I do. #shoplocal #vintage #antiques #lovelocal
And let’s get real, how long does it take to place pumpkins yourself? The answer is it doesn’t. You can do it yourself, promise!!
But remember: to be trendy you are supposed to hire people to pumpkin. Personally, I will never be trendy and I am proud of it. I also skipped the beige beige world of interior decorating like I live in a Pottery Barn/ West Elm catalog too. (And I am damn proud if it too!)
And these people who have to be “professionally” pumpkined? Ha! How does your HOA feel at the end of pumpkin time when they need to be disposed of if you are a development dweller? And not all of these pumpkin vomiting on porch businesses offer removal, and if they do, yeah, that costs extra, doesn’t it?
Pumpkin placement services are joy suckers. And expensive. And everything these people do no matter where you live, all looks the same.
Do you really want to be Stepford about pumpkins too?
And the headlines are pouring in. It’s official: Villanova University was “swatted.”
What does that mean? That means false reports were called in causing all of this activity. As per NBC 10 and 6 ABC the two channels I was watching, the call came into the 911 Call Center in Delaware County.
But what I am learning from people who live in close enough proximity to Villanova that they should’ve been the alerted the same time as the on campus population , yet they say that was not necessarily so?
I have spoken to some neighbors down there and I was told basically they found out after everyone else and they’re not happy. It’s not easy being a neighbor of that school. I don’t know how much of a delay there was, or if it’s more a misperception than fact, but it needs to be addressed publicly and rather soon.
Villanova has a security model where they have their own police force and there was quite the contretemps over that. I think it was about 2016. Police Superintendent at that point was Bill Colarulo and he didn’t think it was a good idea. And residents definitely weren’t happy.
Neighbors are not happy. Did not receive alerts. I heard the news from another friend.
Wonder if Stoneleigh was alerted and the houses on and off County Line Road?
So apparently, when I asked kind of how long it was, I was told:
After the fact and an hour late.
Ouch. Residents and taxpayers of Radnor also asking how much this cost Radnor Township today. I don’t know that they’ll ever get the true numbers but is it safe to say at least $50,000 if not more? I mean it was a massive response from multiple municipalities not just in Delaware County, but all over.
This is not Radnor’s fault this happened. But if it ends up, there was a delay between Villanova University, and any kind of notifications to the public, who obviously are close by, that’s a problem. People have already been concerned over the years of how Villanova has handled sexual assaults and other things, haven’t they? Please, by all means correct me if I’m wrong.
Right now all I have are questions, and so do neighbors closest to the school. Far too many people are being left with an uneasy feeling after this exercise today that wasn’t an exercise, or reality, it was in fact a hoax.
I’m hoping that Radnor, Villanova University, and the district attorney of Delaware County and other agencies will address this so if this is a misperception, it is cleared up immediately.
Now let’s talk about who did this. I think they will find whoever it is. It might take time because the call came into a call center. And once you sift through that information, law-enforcement will next have to go to phone providers and that requires paperwork and fees and like a subpoena or something. You see telecommunications companies tell you they cooperate with law-enforcement, but basically they cooperate for a price. I actually know this personally.
People think those calls are anonymous, but actually they aren’t. And people do get caught and charged. And when they get caught here, it won’t be some minor in fraction, I think something like this probably rises to the category of terroristic threats, or something.
I don’t know what the motivation would be for someone to do this other than to freak out and immediate community, a university campus, and tons of parents dropping their kids off for their first year of college. It’s not funny.
I think the police did an amazing job. I think Villanova got to stress test their plans, and that’s a hard situation. You have people getting these alerts on campus they’re outside for a mass for the beginning of school and then all of a sudden people are running and chairs are getting knocked over. People could’ve gotten hurt any single way you slice this.
And when I think of the people, I know personally, who did not find out at first who had kids stuck in businesses up close to campus on Route 30, and people who are just trying to come home and people who were home, wondering if they were safe is simply not acceptable.
Governor Josh Shapiro stated that this act of swatting Villanova University on move in day was a cruel hoax, and he reminded everyone that this is actually an illegal act. He has instructed the Pennsylvania State Police to help in whatever way they can to find whoever it is who did this. he and other today also reported that what happened today regardless of whether it was real or a hoax was every parent’s nightmare.
If there’s anyone out there who knows who might have done this, they really need to go to law-enforcement. And I can’t help but wonder if every parent who dropped a kid off at that school today is not having a second thought or two, along with every parent everywhere that’s doing the same thing right now.
Oh hello dear readers! How are you today on this now cloudy slightly dampish Saturday?
Did you know that I live life in the fast lane?
It’s kind of a no, not really response, but I am once again, fascinated by people whom I choose to have nothing to do with being so fascinated with me.
First up this week was an important local meeting where I shared meeting information for residents who wanted to know the details of the meeting. So I provided the location, and the fact that they could access it on Zoom.
After I posted the comments started. Today when you give people the information they’re seeking and they say they couldn’t possibly make time for what they say is important to them. It’s their community, they expect change, yet they don’t want to participate where they live.
I literally said to one person that they could Zoom it, and I continued that you don’t have to have your camera on or your audio on. You can simply have the meeting on and the volume turned up so when it gets to the part that is of interest, you can come watch it. I literally do that a lot because no, we always don’t have time to go to meetings in person or sit and listen to an entire Zoom meeting. This person subsequently replied along the lines of wow what a privileged statement and how is that a privileged statement?
How is giving someone the meeting information they wanted and giving them their options a privileged statement? Or was it the fact that I said OK I was just providing the information, and said people make time for what’s important to them?
People in communities everywhere often demand to know what’s going on in their communities because heaven forbid they look at their municipal website. But when you give them the information they seek, they couldn’t possibly, they’re too busy, they have kids.
Again, my response is pretty simple. That’s their choice but people make time for what’s important to them.
Is this something I’m supposed to do for them? Or the ones who hold up the yellow flag for kids. Do they think they are the only people who have ever had children or worked while having children or had children and did other things?
Again, people make time for what’s important to them. And the ones who want everyone else to do everything for them, don’t like it when you point that out.
Next up was an unsolicited private message from a local politician, who also happens to be a lawyer.
Let’s begin it doesn’t take a genius to read an agenda. It’s pretty straightforward. These municipal agendas tell you what’s going on in a meeting and when they include a packet with documents that further explain what’s going on in a meeting it’s not so hard to interpret is it? I love it when you get the feels like but of course it’s not an intimidation message when you point out what’s happening at an upcoming meeting…. especially when said municipality has documents to back up exactly what is happening and they are all over their website if you know where to look so how does that work, please?
Then you have the social media circus that you have to wonder is this just being propped up by a particular gaslighting guru?
There’s also one person whom I don’t really talk about except once in a while to ask with genuine curiosity about the obsession with me and other local individuals.
When you encounter someone online, who seems dangerously obsessive, are you supposed to never ask questions about that?
I also can’t figure people out who who participate in the barrage of verbal diarrhea on social media who are mostly people that have been taken off of my blog’s Facebook page or something like that … all people I just simply choose not to be around even virtually on social media.
I really don’t get it.
And then there’s this whole thing about the fact that I am showing up on political platforms like I’m a candidate to defeat except I’m not running for office.
These extraordinarily damaged people literally sit on social media platforms and bash me and others like we are a Bravolebrity. Andy Cohen, where’s our bonus?
I did learn a new term today. Someone said I had TDS. I had no idea what that was so I looked it. it’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome. He’s kind of not my guy and I don’t actually talk about him a lot so doesn’t that actually apply to them because they love him so much?
And then there are the psycho assholes with casseroles types who say I’m an operative for the Democratic Party. What’s even funnier are the Democrats who say I am an operative for the Republicans.
These people? This is what they do all day, every day. And then they also send me private messages if I don’t respond to them on a particular social media platform.
These people have zero boundaries. I am not at their beck and call.
And at the end of the day I am still bemused by the fact that I’m still just one person so why are they so obsessed? And then you have these other people who totally rile these others up because they like to see me gaslit and disparaged. And they also actually like to see me threatened. And yes, law enforcement does keep an eye on this stuff in general, as in not for me, but because that is what they do.
I don’t actually know these people who have decided I am evil. I simply don’t want to interact with them. I’m just out here living my life yet they want to tell me and everyone else how we are supposed to live our lives. They want to tell us how we’re supposed to think and what we’re supposed to do. And if we don’t wish to interact with them? That’s simply not acceptable.
And then when they’re not getting enough attention, they will throw something out there like I’m talking about their families. If I am speaking about their families, it’s only in the context of a question as to who are they anyway?
People don’t have to like me and I don’t have to like them. But that doesn’t mean that they get to just sit and try to destroy everyone’s lives, including mine by claiming that’s what I’m doing. I believe the appropriate term is projection?
Well, here we all are. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. What does it mean to you?
We’ve had a year, haven’t we? Thanksgiving means it’s winding down so maybe now we can all take time to enjoy a holiday or two with friends and family?
It’s funny. I don’t know that I have anything particularly profound to say, but when I woke up this morning, I was thinking about Thanksgivings past.
I remember Thanksgiving when I was really little. We went to my mother’s brother’s house. They were the ones that adopted our German Shepherd, Lily Marlene, when my parents decided she wasn’t right for them. Lilly had been given to them by friends of theirs who at the time basically lied about everything about the dog. They just wanted to get rid of her. Lily didn’t like being a city dog. I think it was as simple as that and before us she had been a boy dog and I think she missed that. Lily loved my uncle so one day she went home with him, and she had an amazing life with my cousins and my Aunt and Uncle. And among other things, she became a boy dog once again.
I remember Thanksgiving at this their house. The table was packed and it was a small enough house that it got very warm with the oven and all the people. But it was nice and my Aunt was a good cook. She was also a very warm and welcoming woman and loved kids.
Also when I was little, I remember one particular Thanksgiving when my father’s sister and her family were living in a house they rented in Paoli. I think my paternal grandfather was even still alive at this point.
The house in Paoli doesn’t exist anymore. Shortly after my uncle got relocated by his company to either Florida or Cincinnati (I forget which), that house was eventually sold again and torn down. Because my uncle was living a corporate life with an insurance company he and his family moved fairly frequently when I was little.
The house in Paoli was off of Route 30. I remember it either was off of a private road or like a farm road and it was on the right when you were headed west on Route 30/Lancsster Avenue.
Paoli was still a lot of open space farmland then. Even along Route 30. This was maybe 1968 or so and I remember that because my sister was so little. I remember the house though, and it was a beautiful old farmhouse and it was big  and had great woodwork. I believe it was maybe a Victorian era farmhouse if not earlier, but I was too little to know the difference or precise age. I do remember it was white. It had a big porch and black shutters. There was a barn off to the side that obviously my aunt and uncle didn’t use except to pull a car in, and across from them there were still fields. And pretty big trees. 
My uncle is Cuban, and when I was little, his mother was still alive and there. She was very tiny, dressed in widow’s black clothes, and pretty much spoke Spanish to her son. That was the Thanksgiving where I first had black eyed peas. They were one of the side dishes. I was seated at the children’s table, which was set up in the hall at the base of the front stairs. The house had a beautiful staircase, and I still remember looking into the dining room, which was lovely with a beautiful table and candlelight.
Then at some point as we were growing up, we moved to the suburbs from the city and my parents good friends moved as well to Bethesda, Maryland. We started the tradition of state swapping Thanksgiving. Some years we went there, and some years they came here. I liked it better when we went there because the kids could go into Georgetown that weekend after Thanksgiving Day. Also because the mother in this equation, we’ll call her Mrs. C, was an amazing cook. She also never treated the kids like kids. I don’t know if you remember growing up, but you just had some of the adults that basically talked down to you, and like my parents, she spoke to us normally.
I remember being in the kitchen with Mrs. C as she was preparing Thanksgiving. We were all put to work, but you didn’t mind and it was a pretty big open kitchen and it extended into a family room. She used to make giant turkeys and they were just like perfectly basted things of beauty and oh they smelled so good!
One of the Thanksgivings when it was my parents turn to host, we decided to try eating out, because when this family came, it was a lot more people than could necessarily fit comfortably in our dining room, although we did do it a lot of the time. (Besides, if my mother could get out of cooking, she would.)
So this one Thanksgiving, we went to a restaurant in Radnor called The Greenhouse. People today would know this location as 333 Bellrose, which was owned by a friend of mine until a couple of years ago when he sold it. My high school friend opened it originally in 1999.
The Greenhouse Restaurant was owned by a Mary Bentley. Before she opened a restaurant there, according to Main Line Media News :
….Between 1953 and 1975 it was a gift shop and garden center called Radnor House. Part of it is literally a converted stable built in 1769 and although it sounds like a joke, local historians say that George Washington’s horse actually slept there – not George himself, but his horse.
In 1975 Mary Mitchell Bentley, of Bryn Mawr, had survived a traumatic divorce and opened the first restaurant there, the Greenhouse. She had no previous experience in the restaurant business.
“I did it because there was nothing else I could do but cook,” Mary told us 25 years ago. “I could not even type and I had never held a job outside the home in my life. I had to go to work to pay the bills though and I was terrified to go on a job interview, which I had never done, so I figured I’d open a restaurant.”
Despite this less than auspicious track record, Bentley managed to develop the Greenhouse into one of the Main Line’s most elegant and successful restaurants for two decades….After Mary’s departure, the property was converted into another restaurant (Carolina’s) and then another one (Oyster Bar) which both lasted a little longer than a Caesar salad…..
Why so much on The Greenhouse and its history? Because it was an amazing restaurant. Today, if a restaurant like that actually existed, it would be amazing and what Mrs. Bentley did for Thanksgiving precisely was create your Thanksgiving dinner at her restaurant.
You would order an entire Thanksgiving dinner, including your own small turkey. When you had Thanksgiving there, you didn’t feel as much that you were in a restaurant, but it was like you were in somebody’s home. It was really terrific. I am not sure if any other restaurant in the area does it the way they used to. Being able to get in there for one of the Thanksgiving dinners was a big deal. And you got leftovers. 
I remember other Thanksgivings that we spent with my father’s sister and her family once they were permanently back in Philadelphia. Those were more formal Thanksgivings and not particularly warm and fuzzy because my father and his sister did not really get along. It was just a beautiful but cold house and having dinner with a bunch of equally cold people.
My aunt’s children, my cousins, were not friendly really towards us, they were polite… and you always got the feeling that they felt oddly superior to any of the rest of us. And it was a shame because my aunt had a beautiful house in Chestnut Hill and I loved her living room and dining room. Those Thanksgivings while they lasted also included my father’s mother, my grandmother as she moved in with them when Pop Pop died. These are the Thanksgiving memories that are like the echoes and empty rooms.
There was also one Thanksgiving or Christmas that we spent in Ellicott City Maryland, where one of my father’s cousins lived. They most had this amazing Victorian house that they restored and it was great. The holiday was also great because they were always warm and loving
Other Thanksgivings over the years were spent with friends and other family like my cousin Suzy. She and her family settled in Newtown, Bucks County, which was not too far from where some of my mother’s cousins and other aunts and uncles had lived .
Suzy was my mother’s brother’s oldest daughter. She was like a big sister to me and my sister. She had spent a lot of time with us growing up and when she got married, she actually got married out of my parents house in Society Hill and our parish, Old Saint Joseph’s.
I loved doing holidays with Suzy and her kids. She would also do things like have a Christmas caroling party in December and we would all go around her neighborhood in Newtown and we collectively had the worst voices, but we had so much fun. I used to go to the New Hope area flea markets with Suzy as I got older.
Sadly, Suzy is no longer with us, she died two years to the day after my father passed away.
Then eventually we were all doing other Thanksgivings. Sometimes in Philadelphia, or the Philadelphia area, and then after my sister and her family moved to New York, also up there.
I also have other memories of random Thanksgivings where I couldn’t get time off from work and had to work Black Friday. So I remember one year my parents went to Nee York to my sister’s and I went to Merion Cricket Club with my friend and her family because after everyone in that family stopped wanting to cook Thanksgiving, they started (like a lot of people) eating a club Thanksgiving dinner. Only the Thanksgiving meals at Merion never held a candle to the Old Greenhouse restaurant in Radnor. And you definitely didn’t have your own turkey.
I remember some Thanksgiving meals I didn’t like particularly which were in a prior life and a prior relationship where I would have to go to my ex’s sister’s in the Allentown area. And one reason why it was unpleasant is that is when my ex would have me as a captive audience in the car and would yell at me the entire way up. It was enough to give you holiday PTSD, and when you would get to his sister’s they would spend the entire Thanksgiving talking meanly about whoever wasn’t there, or about whomever was in the next room of her dark depressing town house.
And the ex’s sister had speckled brownish kind of Pfaltzgraff crockery plates that I thought were truly ugly, and they served the turkey to the table in giant tinfoil pans. I mean, it’s Thanksgiving. I get it people like to cook turkeys in disposable tinfoil pans, but you don’t bring those to the table. it’s a holiday. Bring out the dishes and platters. Maybe it’s just personal preference to me, but I always thought it was a waste. The best time I ever had there was the year his sister’s beagle got part of the turkey.
And it’s funny when we would go to his brother‘s house for a holiday, I would still get yelled at on the car ride up, but his sister-in-law and her mom really made an effort and said a beautiful table, and the house was just lovely and warm.
Those felt like the purgatory years. Thankfully, they came to an end. I don’t miss those years. They were neither super terrible or good. They were just a loop I was stuck in for a period of time.
Thanksgiving Day dinner is a meal I actually like cooking. It makes you crazy and it can be stressful, but I think it’s fun. I especially like it since I moved to Chester County because you can always get a fresh turkey easily.
I have enjoyed over the years, creating my own traditions. I like making cranberry sauce I like making chutney right before Thanksgiving when I have leftover green tomatoes and some apples and I love to bake. And one of the things I love best of all is ironing a vintage linen tablecloth, and setting a pretty table. We can’t take it with us so we might as well use our dishes etc. I really don’t like when people who have nice dishes and glasses and who don’t have the excuse of having small children, bring out the paper plates and plastic glasses. I think it’s kind of tacky.
Like any other holiday, it won’t necessarily be perfect. We don’t live a Hallmark Movie existence, after all.
We’ve had a year and now it’s time for the holidays. There’s always time for reflection and introspection as well. We should be grateful for the people we still have in our lives, and the ones who no longer are.
I go into the holidays missing a very important friend who died unexpectedly this summer. She would’ve been texting up a storm by now to find out what we were doing for Thanksgiving and what she was going to do, thousands of miles away. It makes me feel a little disconnected and right now kind of sad that the only conversations I will have with her about holidays going forward are just speaking into the air and wishing she was still here. I think going forward, I will probably always feel a little bittersweet, but I won’t have that sadness.
2024 has been a year of change for most of us, and I think it’s safe to say the future is uncertain in some regards. However, life goes on and a lot of what makes our lives our everyday lives doesn’t change. And we have to remember that.
I know there are some people who won’t be spending holidays this year with friends or family in some cases because of the election. There will always be more that unites us than divides us and we shouldn’t let political extremism on either side take over any further than it already has. And I’m not saying that because I’m good with the outcome of the election.
We don’t live in a Norman Rockwell illustration and we’re not the Waltons and John Boy won’t be necessarily home for Christmas, either. But the business of living has to be gotten on with. Life is never going to be completely static, nor should it be.
Some people tomorrow aren’t big fans of Thanksgiving for whatever reason, and I know some people who will be volunteering somewhere. It’s their way to give back. 
So whatever your jam is, I hope all of you out there have a happy Thanksgiving.
When your friends are on a committee, you buy tickets.
When your friends are on a committee for a holiday house tour and Christmas is a favorite season, you buy tickets.
When your friends are on a committee for a holiday house tour and it benefits one of your favorite local nonprofits and helps seniors, you also become a sponsor.
So yes, I am personally on the sponsor list for the 2024 Surrey Holiday House Tour & Shop. Now I can’t be a big platinum sponsor, but I joined in where I could.
Surrey Services is a very special nonprofit to us in our house, so this is a pleasure all the way around.
Jim Devine Photography Photo
I am so excited for this year‘s tour and it’s Friday, December 6 and those tickets sell out fast that is not just hype. They literally fly out the door.
Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning October 2nd.
Again, tickets are live TOMORROW !
Start your countdown…⏰
Visit SurreyServices.org to purchase your tickets for our Holiday House Tour. Tickets are $95 per person and include a box lunch.
And the shops which are open to all? They are amazing! They have tons of vendors and my friend, Eddie Ross, who is also Volunteer Chair of this event, will be a vendor this year as well. If you have ever gone to his sales at his studio, I need to say no more, he has fabulous taste. And he loves Christmas as well! We share a love of old German kugel ornaments and glass icicle ornaments – as a matter of fact, he gave me these wonderful vintage glass icicle ornaments last year for Christmas that I can’t wait to put on the tree this year!
You KNOW you want to go!!! Come on now, let’s sell this event out and raise lots of money for Surrey. There are very few events I support at this point and this is one of them so I hope you will join all of us. It’s a wonderful day!
Today I got to see photographs that I never knew existed. We had read letters my late father in law had sent home during World War II, but we never saw the photos, because like most veterans, he never really spoke about it. He came home in one piece, he put this away and went to college on the GI Bill and started his life.
My father was too young to have been a World War II vet. He was just a little boy when World War II was being fought. I had friends whose fathers were World War II veterans, but looking through these photos was like looking through a History Channel program on World War II.
When you look at the photos, and I never knew really before this, that my late father in law liked to take photos as much as I do.
So this was his world, then. I found it very moving. And it really makes you think about what these boys (because they were boys and they were often teenagers) did and how many never came home.
This prompted me to think about the world we live in today and the things you see people protesting about and how they even behave on social media, and they don’t even realize that these were some of the young men who fought for them to maintain those rights to do so.
This was a part of time that my late father-in-law put away, so I couldn’t ask him how many of these friends of his came home from his unit or battalion, or whatever you want to call it, because I saw these photos for the first time posthumously. This is something my late friend Anna would have found fascinating, because her late father was also a World War II vet.
This gives us all a sober reminder of what people fought for around the world then, so so many others including politicians could act like idiots today.
I guess this is what we call perspective. This is yet another reason to me why this upcoming election is so important. We also can’t let down the memories of these people who fought and bled through the entirety of the history of our country so we could be free and live free.
We can’t really tell the stories of all of these unknown young men staring out at the harsh reality of a world war as teenagers in the 1940s, but we can damn well respect their memory by making sure we vote. And if that means some of you have to secretly scurry into a voting booth and vote for a Democrat for president because you know as a Republican, your choice is repugnant, just get to it. Vote in memory of these young men captured in a moment in time, vote for your sons and daughters today.
After all, this is why we vote, and why it’s so important. We vote to ensure that the horrible atrocities of the past don’t come forward again into the present and future.
I told my readers a while back that I recently lost a friend I have had since I was 11 years old. At that time I hadn’t really been sure how to talk about it and I still don’t know quite how to talk about it but I know I need to. I need to process this loss and write it out.
It has been about a month and I miss my friend Anna.
Although as middle-aged adult women, we were thousands of miles apart, we were only ever a phone call or text message away.
We’re all getting to that age where occasionally we get the calls that someone is gone and when that someone is someone who’s been in your life since you were 11 years old, where do you go in your head?
The memories are still flying at a fast and furious pace. She and I met at the Tennis Farm at Shipley in Bryn Mawr. We were Mrs. P’s worst tennis players ever but she loved us just the same.
She was the reason I went to Shipley.
And throughout the years we were still connected to each other. That’s a gift until you realize that they’re not ever going to call you again.
I realize that it was just her time on this planet was finished, and now I have another angel watching me. But still…So many memories.
I remember JDA and SDA. The Junior and Senior Dancing Assemblies, respectively. They were held at the Merion Tribute House in Merion, and for all the years that we had to go down there our parents got lost either coming or going, every single time. These were the young people special events that they sent us to in those days to learn manners, and how to interact with the opposite sex and dance, and be polite and politely social. And it was managed onsite by this harridan in a gold lamé dress with a bullet bra named Mrs. Farber. And we can’t forget her 10 pounds of Aquanet that kept her hair in place.
We used to love the breaks the bands took when we would sit in the seating areas in this gorgeous old house with our friends, David and Kurt, and put stale pretzels down the heating vents, giggling the whole time. We lost our friend David a couple of years ago to a freak hit and run accident in Florida. Oh, and did I mention these events were black tie? I think we were what in 8th grade when we started attending? Because of these dances, for a few years I felt like I had a lifetime supply of crinkly taffeta skirts.
Other memories I have are like taking the Paoli Local to Philadelphia, and going to the Rusty Scupper in Society Hill for lunch on weekends once in a while. Or Pizzeria Uno.
Or walking up Morris Avenue, (when you could still do that safely) into Bryn Mawr, and going to KatyDid and the bookstore next-door to look for Christmas presents.
Or going to the movies. We went to lots of movies. I saw every Star Wars movie with her until we became adults and every James Bond movie. And it is because of her that I experienced the Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight at the Bryn Mawr Movie Theatre for the first time as a teenager.
The Devon Horse Show… when it was still old school Devon. We bought our first antique prints from the print lady who was there once upon a time. We hunted for treasures at the Bryn Mawr Hospital Thrift Shop booth and had Devon fudge when the carefully guarded recipe was still made properly and had lemon sticks and greasy Devon burgers.
Flash forward to mini term in Italy senior year of Shipley. The hotel they put us in when we got to Venice at the end of the trip was called the Hotel Canal. It was all hard surfaces and there was this little German kid with his parents there who is about five and the kid was the devil and his name was Damian. We got a total giggle out of that. This is of course the hotel that Anna famously sprained her ankle in because she bought really high heels at one of the bazaars I think in Florence. She wanted to wear them to dinner and stumbled. Miraculously, she did not really do anything other than a sprain. It was just a slight sprain, and nothing was broken, but you know bruised egos a teenage girl. Amusingly the hotel is still in existence and sounds like it hasn’t changed since we were there.
On this trip, the students got shoved in the lesser hotels and hostel type situations and the alumnae traveling with us got the good hotels. To this day I think our parents probably paid for the alumnae to sit in good hotels.
The best place on that trip was the Pensione Adria in Florence. And that was the place were another classmate who passed away around COVID19, who flooded the room she was staying in with people by not paying attention to where the shower was running that was in the room.
In Rome, we were in a convent, and I think it was called the Sisters of Atonement. It was right near Vatican City. And we went to a private mass which was about 100 people on Ash Wednesday that year, because my father’s Saint Joe’s Prep friend, the late Cardinal John Foley, arranged it. It was our Pope encounter, Pope John Paul II and it was pretty memorable. He was right there blessing us all with holy water. And we were pretty close to the Pope. I still remember how serene his face was. In today’s world, I don’t think we would have been allowed to get that close.
But I don’t want everything I’m writing to be sad, but I’m honestly just sad right now because I just wasn’t expecting this. Death is not kind and death is not a gentle thing and sometimes we have advanced warning that somebody’s leaving, but a lot of times we just don’t.
I had a memory again last night about one time when we were in high school, and she wanted us to go to this kid’s toga party in Bryn Mawr. She even made herself a toga out of a bedsheet, but I refused to wear a toga. It was winter and so freaking cold and I think even snowy. We went to the house we knocked on the door. The door opened and 100° heat came pouring out because it was the middle of winter along with a female underclasswoman, chasing her (we guessed) at that point ex boyfriend screaming crying (this couple was all drama all of the time) ….both attired in bed sheet togas. I looked at my friend Anna and I asked if she really wanted to go to this party and she looked at me, shook her head, and we got back in the car and left.
Then there was the Super Bowl party for the Eagles. We went to a party on Fishers Road in Bryn Mawr. A nice guy who was a neighbor of sorts to me, and we knew absolutely no one there because he and his friends went to like Archbishop Carroll, Saint Joe’s Prep, and all the Catholic schools that we didn’t know anyone at. The Eagles lost. Our first Super Bowl party was a bust. And ironically, I have gone to very few since.
And then there was the Phillies when they won the world championship in the fall of 1981. All of our friends were cutting school to go to the parade and we weren’t allowed.
Then there all the adult memories. Calling to tell me her father had died. Eulogizing her mother at their church the day of the funeral. Texting each other at Christmas when we would watch Hallmark Christmas movies and text each other about which ones we liked.
Essentially, I have almost 50 years worth of memories with this woman. I hadn’t seen her in several years at this point, but we were still connected. She was one of the first people we told after my mother and sister when my husband and I got engaged.
We have these people in our lives, and there is that saying it’s something like people are in your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. She was a lifetime person, and it just wasn’t enough time. A lot of you reading this, are classmates and other friends of mine who didn’t know Anna. And I am sorry that you didn’t. To those of us, who did, she will forever be our Anna banana. And we loved her.
If I hadn’t met her, there are so many of I never would have met, including my husband.
So here’s to Anna. Thanks for all of the years of friendship.
Anna Klauder Nupson, 61 of Ribera, NM died June 24, 2024 after a brief illness at home.
Anna grew up in Bryn Mawr, PA and graduated from the Shipley School in 1981. She went onto Amherst College in Amherst, MA where she graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts in American/United States Studies and Civilization.
Among the happiest years of her life were spent between Shipley and Amherst. She had a deep appreciation and reverence of American history and the theater arts. While in high school she was active in theater productions and after college she was a member of the Footlighters Theater in Berwyn, PA as well as being part of the Windsor Court Players, which was based in Narberth, PA out of Narberth Presbyterian Church and founded by a close friend and classmate from Shipley.
Anna eventually decided she wished to move to an area of the United States, for which she had a special affinity. This was the beautiful and majestic American Southwest. Anna’s mother was a native New Mexican who was born in Clovis. Anna purchased a modest ranch and settled in Ribera.
Anna embraced New Mexico with her whole heart and soul and loved the wild beauty of her adopted state. She settled into ranch life, and also loved creating a life which was also full of rescuing dogs and horses.
Anna is survived by her family and friends, who mourn the loss of a gentle soul who has gone home to God far too soon. Anna will be forever loved and missed.
Now a lot of people know Barry from various things, including great balloon rides and West Vincent Township. But what people don’t realize is that for many years he was on the radio. So he and WCHE have gotten together and he’s got this new show.
He has had many interesting guests so far, and one of the things I am most amused about are the elected officials of both political persuasions and candidates who ghost him or hide because he has offered them time to come on the air, and not have gotcha moments, but talk about what they’re about and what they’ve done.
Today they also had Neil Young the latest history teacher in Chester County running for office. He is running against Chrissy Houlahan for the 6th District Congressional seat. I was laughing because he came on after my segment, and he remarked that I think I was like the first thing his family saw when he announced he was running. I may have been giggling and posted a comparison to Pee Wee Herman’s haircut, and his because his old haircut did look like he borrowed it from Pee Wee Herman. And he has an Alex P. Keaton working on his campaign, but I’m guessing that the party machine has probably lessened the role of that high school kid who was his campaign manager. And I’m not saying Alex P Keaton because the kid was annoying or anything it’s because that’s what I immediately thought of was the television character Alex P. Keaton from “Family Ties” which was an awesome sitcom- and those who know me know that I don’t really watch sitcoms.
Now I’m still going to say I don’t think he’s my guy, but I applaud him for going on the air and talking about what he thinks and helping people get to know him. He was also very well spoken, which is a thing with me because Barry had a guest on earlier in the week who kept dropping her G’s and it makes you want to hit them between the shoulder blades.
Neil also spoke about the situation in Great Valley Middle School, where he is a history teacher. As he said in a recent media interview:
“There is nothing more dangerous than not holding children accountable,” said Neil Young, a middle school teacher who was the victim of a fake TikTok account created by his students….
“This is not funny,” was Young’s first thought when he found out about the post. He could not understand why students would do this to him or to the other teachers who were targeted. “These are great teachers.”
According to Young, the district’s administrative office (not the administration at the school) initially said that they would take care of the problem, but he was unsatisfied with their response….
A teacher and coach for twenty-two years, Young understands that middle school students are impulsive and make mistakes; yet he has witnessed a change in their demeanor over the years. “We have empowered children which is a good thing, but the pendulum has swung too far.”
Students are “careless in the way they use technology and have no understanding of the reach they have via social media. When they make mistakes, they are not apologetic and they employ a mantra of ‘I have rights.’”
He pointed out the difference between what I had said, and what those students did, which I think is important. Because every day I have somebody telling me I am a horrible human being, etc. etc. but there’s a big difference between being a blogger and what these middle school students have done.
He also announced on the air that he has a new stylist and a new hair cut so I am glad. His former style is like the some of the other hairstyles on men that I just don’t get. Especially if they have good hair. And there is a thing called too much styling product. And in general, regardless of what side of the aisle you are on sometimes the hairstyles they give candidates, male or female, are horrible. Especially with the women because they look very Stepford wifey.
Anyway, enough about that. Barry and I talked about the new legislation. I blogged about last night protecting residents against SLAPP suits.
Barry and I had a great time talking for a few minutes, and it was fun. Maybe we’ll even do it again, who knows? All I know is I’m really glad he didn’t say I had a face for radio because I might have to hang up on him then 🤣
The ability for any of us to discuss local things going on in various communities is very important. And basically today’s local media has been disemboweled. so many news outlets are dead. In our local communities, we really depended upon our local newspapers, and so many have shuttered themselves and gone out of business, or been acquired by things like hedge funds, who don’t give a crap about what goes on in our communities.
It’s really very sad. And you know Barry was nice enough to point out that I am a blogger so I am opinion based.
We’ll see what the feedback is. Because we all know there are so many people every day of the year who love to hate me and I still scratch my head at that one. First of all, they don’t know me, and second of all read something else. But when the haters gonna hate, then you must be doing something right is the other train of thought isn’t it?
Today’s will be up on a podcast soon. I encourage people dealing with issues in their communities to contact Barry and WCHE and see if they’d be a fit for his show. This really is about what is happening locally and it’s the stuff that you know politicians don’t want to get out there.
And face it here in Chester County. There are so many meetings that still aren’t recorded from municipality to municipality, and if they are, the recordings aren’t kept this show is your chance to let the sunshine into your community.
And I think I will sign off with a little thing to think about in West Whiteland, and it’s not about the Brickette.
I am seriously wondering if the newest member of the West Whiteland Board of Supervisors has fallen and hit her head or something?
Apparently there was a Democratic Committee Meeting last night and she had off-topic verbal diarrhea? Should she actually be an elected official? Look, I know I’m not suited for that life and I don’t think she is either and I can have that opinion. Maybe #Resign Fridays should be resurrected? And recall elections take what to happen? Is it something like 2/3 of the plurality of a municipality?
I thought she was a bad choice for a supervisor all along, and I’ve never not said that. But I have been watching since she has been sworn in and she doesn’t seem to get how to do her job. And politics and being a politician is for sure not for everyone. But you don’t see her at public events much do you? But when you do hear things about her it’s usually for what she’s saying that she probably should not be saying including in public meetings. I’m not talking about anything secret squirrel as I have no knowledge of that. And we leave secret squirrel/ squirrel time to West Goshen, anyway.
For example, this elected official has done things at public meetings where she has basically said a valued member of the community shouldn’t be opining on something when what they are opining on is a direct correlation to what their professional background is, so who is she to judge? I am (again) talking about what you can see which makes you wonder about what you can’t see and what you’re not hearing about doesn’t it? I find that troubling.
Now I know this politician doesn’t like me. She will, of course deny this, but she forgets that I actually know politicians don’t like critics and that’s a given but I don’t think she’s cut out to be a politician so I do think she should resign. She only got elected in the first place, because the then incumbent was being primaried and knew she wouldn’t survive.
Also, from a practical standpoint, she’s very uncomfortable with interacting with people. Stiff as a board as one of my grandfathers would have said.
Anyway, I had fun today so thank you Barry and WCHE!
Blues & BBQ last evening at Farm Boy BBQ at 625 N. Morehall Road Malvern, PA 19355 was super fun! It was BYO if you wanted an adult beverage, and some people did and some didn’t. It was a great mix of people of all ages and families.
