Hi Mom, it's the second Mother's Day since you left. The earth still spins on its axis, the sun comes up and goes down, the rain falls, the stars shine, flowers blossom, then wither on the vine. Life goes on. Not the same life; there's a huge ache that doesn't go away, a scar that will never heal, a current of sadness that runs just below the surface of all that I do. But on this Mother's Day I will remember and celebrate and be grateful for the motherly things you did, the hardships you put up with and the sacrifices you made, and especially the joy you brought to my life.

I love you, and above all, I miss you. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

Tonight I took some time and strolled through the 1940 census images for the Town of Wallkill. I was looking of course for Mom. It took a bit of figuring which enumeration district to look in; there were four for the township, and the geographic boundaries associated with them did not match up to anything I know about. So I scrolled through 26 images in the district I thought was the right one and didn't find Grandpa's family. Tried the next one, got about halfway through the 28 pages for that, and there she was. E.D. 36-131, sheet 8A, line 31. Living with her father Walter, mother Olive, older sister Patricia, and brother Richard. She was enumerated on the 19th or 20th of April and was 2 years old. Her mother supplied the information for the household. (She's marked with a tiny 'x' next to her name. The enumerator was supposed to circle the x.)

Now, the household came as a surprise to me. I expected to find the family of five living on Brown Road. But the location noted on the census page is "cross roads from Mt. Johnson roads & State road 17." The bigger surprise was that Walter was not the head of household. They were living with Olive's parents, William and Hannah Mae Cordier. I can't located Mt. Johnson road on a current map. I don't know if it has been renamed in the 70+ years since this census was taken. I DO know where William Cordier (better known to me as Gompy, woodworker and maker of fine pieces of furniture) lived when I was a child: a small white house just off the east side of old Route 17 in a locale I've heard referred to as "The Maples." Could they have been living in that house? My mind's eye remembers it as being TINY - too small for four adults and three children. Or were they all living in the house on Brown road that I always think of as Grandpa and Dori's house? So now I have a little mystery; one that fortunately can probably be solved fairly easily by asking Uncle Dick.

A couple of other surprises as well; columns 17-19 indicate where the enumerated person was living on April 1, 1935. If they were living in the same town, the census taker wrote "same place." If the occupant was living in the same house in 1935 and 1940, "same house" was noted. For William, Hannah, Walter, Olive and Patricia, same house is indeed documented. That means Grandpa and Grandma lived in the same household as Grandma's parents probably since their marriage (yes, this is an assumption - I have no proof). I don't know why this surprised me, but it did. And although Gompy's occupation (cutter in shirt factory) was not new news, as I had read it in his obituary, I was surprised to learn that Great-Grandma Hannah worked outside the home, as a machine operator in a shirt factory (possibly the same one). That seemed odd for 1940; the country was well out of the depression and we had not yet joined in the second World War. Of course, like today, I am sure money was tight and every penny counted. Grandpa Walter was employed as a helper in a bakery. That would have been a shock to me if I hadn't previously found an advertisement in the Middletown newspaper in May 1945, placed by Spaulding Bakery, thanking their employees for supporting the war effort, with Grandpa's name listed. I don't know when he began his occupation as carpenter. Another little mystery.

So my first foray into the 1940 images has been fruitful. I found Mom, learned a few facts, have some new questions to be answered. A few other things to point out, if any of you who read this are interested. Living next door to the Cordier/Lowerre family were Byron and Bessie Schoonmaker with one of their sons and his family. Bessie Schoonmaker was born Bessie Baker, and was the maternal aunt of Hannah Mae, mother of my grandmother Olive. Bessie and Byron had a daughter named Doris, who married Clarkson Cortright and lived down Brown Road near Grandpa and Dori's house. She passed away in January at the age of 92. We corresponded several years ago; she graciously identified some old photographs for me and answered my genealogical queries. And further up the page, on line 2, is Eric Brown, who was a brother of Aunt Isabel's (wife of Oscar). I could probably find connections to most of the other people on the page, but I want you to come back and read my blog again, so I won't risk boring you!

Here is Mom's page of the 1940 census:

On Monday, April 2, the US National Archives released the 1940 Federal census. This is a BIG event for those of us who are researching our family trees. The federal census is made available 72 years after it was taken, so every ten years we get this huge birthday gift. Although it won't provide any information about our great-great or great-great-great-grandparents, it offers a chance for us to see where parents, grandparents and extended family were living and what their occupations were during the first half of the twentieth century.

Now, the Archives released the images of the 1940 census, but they are not indexed, meaning you cannot put in a search term like "Piper" and get a result. You can browse the images by state, county and township if you have an idea where your relative was (or ought to have been). So the first order of business is to create an index. Several genealogy sites, in conjunction with the Archives, are making the images available online to an army of volunteers who input the data into an indexing software program. I'm working with FamilySearch.org, the genealogy site associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormons), to index the first states that have been made available...Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Oregon and Virginia. The images from these states were uploaded beginning early Monday morning; the hope is that all the states will be completely uploaded by the end of this week. Last week I downloaded the indexing program to both my PC and my Mac, ran through some practice images of the 1940 census, and also worked on several batches of World War II draft registration cards, which are part of the ongoing indexing initiative. Monday evening after work I got my first real 1940 page to index. A census page consists of 40 lines, one name on each line, and we index family number (the families were numbered in order of visitation by the enumerator), surname, given name(s), title (i.e. Sr, Jr, Rev, etc), sex, race, age, marital status, and state of birth. Other questions were asked on the census but those I've listed will form the basis for creating an index.

It is somewhat tedious work, and strains the eyes, but it IS interesting. Of course I would be more excited if I was working on a township in Sullivan or Orange counties, but New York is scheduled to uploaded later. So far I have indexed three pages from Colorade (Denver area) and one from Florida (Gainesville), and as soon I as I finish this post I will start a new one. But it's cool to be part of such a huge undertaking. 1940 is special to me since it is the first one Mom is listed in. (I was very excited when I first found Dad in the 1930 census.)  And I really hope I make it to 2032, when the 1960 census will be released and I can actually see myself enumerated!

St. Paddy's Day is a special day for me, as it is the birthday of first little brother Patrick. He's 51 today, and my wish for him is a young heart, laugh lines, the "catching of happiness," and a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow. Happy Birthday, Patrick!

It's also a day to remember Troi, who died one year ago today. She was the last of our PP&T trio, all of whom are sadly missed and greatly loved. We have three new blessings in our home, but Troi, Peanut and Punkin are always in our hearts.

Madness, indeed. Strange things are happening all over. The weather has been beautiful. It was 75 degrees F yesterday, and today the thermometer hit 81. The peepers have been singing for three nights. Maybe it's the crossing paths of Venus and Jupiter (which, by the way, have been looking spectacular in the evening sky of late), or maybe the earth is tilting on its axis, who knows? I'll take the lovely weather while I can get it.

More madness, or digital silliness. The other morning I turned the volume up on my iPhone, as I do every morning after the alarm goes off. But this time I noticed it had an icon for high volume (headphones), and there was no sound when the phone rang. What the heck does that mean? I couldn't seem to get it out of that mode. I googled "iphone stuck in headphone mode" and found several dozen pages, all saying the same thing - there's dust or dirt in the headphone jack. And how do you fix it? Get a can of compressed air and gently blow in the jack. Guess what, it works!

More very exciting news, I entered my 8,000th memorial on Find A Grave. Now if that isn't madness, I don't know what is. That means I've typed in 8,000 names, dates of birth and death, and whatever other genealogical information I can find, quite often full obituaries. It isn't really mad, it's a labor of love. Some of these memorials are very near and dear to my heart, like Mom's, Grandma and Grandpa Piper's, Aunt Mim and Uncle John's, Grandpa Lowerre's, Mr. Moran's, Marge Horton's, just to name a few, but most are strangers, people who happen to be buried in the same cemetery as some ancestor of mine, or a Civil War soldier who deserves not to be forgotten. I've taken close to 5,000 photos of headstones, and there are more I want to do, if only I didn't have to work for a living, sigh...

Perhaps the maddest thing we've done this month is to adopt two six-month-old kittens and a six-or-seven-year-old cat from the local shelter. It was time to get over grieving for Punkin, Peanut and Troi and bring some new life into the house. We've done that, in spades. A week ago today, Beckett and Castle came home with us, along with Myrtle. Beckett (female) and Castle (male) are two adorable orange sibling kittens. We dropped supplies off at the shelter the weekend before, and saw these two who immediately stole our hearts, completely wrecking our idea of adopting a couple of the older cats who have been at the shelter for several years. What can I say? We are fond of orange kitties. We brought home one older cat, Myrtle, who just needs a quiet corner to call her own. She's a large black-and-white kitty, who hid in the pantry for several days and spit at the kittens (and us) whenever they or we got too close. But we've let her be, and she's finally coming upstairs and eating with the kittens, and they all share a large scratching post/kitty bed. She doesn't snuggle at all, but Castle and Beckett make up for that. They love to be picked up and held, and take turns sleeping with one or the other of us. They've facetimed with Amy, who will be coming to visit them one of these days.

Oh yes, and I've replaced my non-functioning Nikon D80 with a smashing new Nikon D7000. I haven't had much of a chance to play with it yet, but I have gotten some lovely shots of kitties! Some of the ones that follow were taken with my iPhone. Margaret has some others which I'll need to get from her, but at least you can meet the family. Beckett has a little bit of white under her chin, and is a darker color than her brother.

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march-madness-or-our-house-is-now-a-home-again-raiospyBufmwwvGxtwGF.zip (1.16 MB)

It's been a week already since we hit the Mass Pike to spend a long weekend in Boston with Amy. I'm not sure where the time goes, but it does fly. I only took a few photos with the digital camera, relying mainly on the iPhone's camera, but I did want to post them before Amy graduates next year.

June and Amy at the Boston shipyard:

A very narrow hull for slicing through the waves:

In the shadow of Bunker Hill:

Bunker Hill, from a distance:

Sisters!

June spied this house at the corner of 5th and 2nd streets, and decided she would like to live in it. I'm not sure she's notified Bob of their new address yet.

We had a lovely visit with Amy and June. Amy gets around the city like she's a native born. She had us on the "T" and in and out of the underground like a seasoned pro. We tried to get into Fire and Ice for dinner Friday night, but it was so packed there was a 90-minute wait. June yelped and found us a wonderful replacement, Geoffrey's Cafe, where we enjoyed a great meal and conversation. Saturday morning we all woke up feeling stiff and decided not to take in the sights of Boston, but drove up to Manchester, NH to check out Hobby Lobby. Lots of fun! We also visited Newbury Comics, which is a very cool place, and Pier 1, where Amy decided she would like to live. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner; by the time we were done it had started snowing - quite hard. Fortunately by the time we neared Boston the storm dissipated. June and Amy were staying with us at the hotel and had the nicest surprise waiting - an early birthday party for me, with balloons, yummy homemade cupcakes, party favors and, oh boy! presents for me!! My sister and niece really know how to throw a party. Sunday morning June, Margaret and I had breakfast together while Amy slept in. Afterwards we all headed over to the old shipyard to look at the USS Constitution and peek at the Bunker Hill monument sitting up on the hill. It was a beautiful sunny day, in the low 40's. We had to get June to the "T" so she could make her MegaBus connection at South Station. Of course I managed to get going the wrong way and we made quite a circle around the city, but we finally got her to the train station and she caught her bus with time to spare. In the meanwhile, Amy, Margaret and I headed to the Boston Museum of Science to explore the universe at the newly refurbished Charles Hayden Planetarium. It being a school holiday week in Massachusetts, the museum was packed wall-to-wall with kids, and was nothing short of CHAOTIC. Fortunately we had a veteran tour guide. Amy spends a lot of time at the museum and knows her way around. We got to the planetarium with nary a bump. It was an awesome show. I love planetariums! In all her previous visits Amy had not been able to get into the planetarium, and I think she really enjoyed it. And that evening she took us to a delightful Italian restaurant for dinner. She is an enchanting companion, fun to spend time with, and talkative on any number of subjects. After dinner we managed to get Amy back to her apartment, and ourselves back to the hotel with just the tiniest bit of trouble. Since Amy had a six-page paper to write, we did not bother her on Monday. We headed west again on the Pike, after a slight detour since the road signage in Boston is pitifully, woefully inadequate. Bye, bye Beantown, see you next time!

A very sad day for those of us lucky enough to have seen Gary Carter in action, propelling the New York Mets to the World Series championship in 1986. Those were heady days; the Mets were a cohesive team and they made baseball not only fun but exciting to watch. Gary Carter, or "The Kid" as he was known, was THE favorite of mine in a club of favorites (Howard Johnson, Keith Hernandez, Bob Ojeda, Rafael Santana, Timmy Teufel, Wally Backman, Darryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra, Dwight Gooden, manager Davey Johnson - just to name the guys I can think of off the top of my head). Carter's sheer joy in playing baseball was, and is, unmatched. His enthusiasm was infectious. He knew what the game was all about. He was a star catcher and a hell of a batter. Number 8, you've left us too soon, but rest assured you will never be forgotten.

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You are loved and missed every day. All the best of you lives on in your son, your grandchildren and your two beloved great-grandchildren - your light continues to shine!

(This photo was probably taken in 1928, while Grandma was on her honeymoon.)

First item on the CNN news headlines tonight:

Senate passes insider-trading bill

"Aiming to restore voters' faith in Congress, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday that makes clear it's illegal for members of Congress, their staffs and many executive-branch employees to trade stocks and other securities based on inside information learned on the job."

I re-read it three times, hoping I had read it wrong the first and second times. But no, it still said the same thing. What kind of idiot does not know that insider trading is wrong? My opinion of the members of Congress has just reached an all-time low. Instead of wasting time on an issue that shouldn't need to be voted on, let alone even discussed, our representatives would do well to tackle the real issues that are debilitating this country: the economy, unemployment, the unending war in Afghanistan, global warming, the constant crippling partisan sniping, just to name a few.

It's hard to maintain optimism in the face of such idiocy.

2011 is fast approaching its end; here on the US East Coast only 45 minutes remain until the old year fades away and the New Year's baby lets loose with his first lusty cries. I am happy to relegate 2011 to the past. Although it was a year of many highs (Tim graduated from RPI and secured a dream job with Apple; Amy maintained her unbroken streak of 4.0 GPA's; I saw first-hand the wonders of Yosemite National Park, just to name a few), it was overwhelmingly a year of sadness and learning how to live without Mom. I know she is at peace and watching over us - she came to me in a dream a few weeks ago and told me so. But life is not the same without her. I hope the new year will bring fewer sad memories and more happy ones.

I also hope 2012 will bring common sense back to American politics, an improvement to our economy, less suffering here and around the world, and more understanding and tolerance from each of us. That's a big wish list, but if we don't have hope for the future there is no point in going on. To my family, my friends, and to all my sisters and brothers under the sun, I wish a happy, healthy, hopeful New Year. May the new one begin as auspiciously as this one ended, with a lovely sunset.