Ocean City MD, 2016

I had the fortune to spend about 9 days in Maryland visiting family this summer.  My parents were born in Baltimore, and most of my extended family still lives in Maryland (I also have family in California and Canada).  Last year when we visited, Xena was traveling with Nancy & David to Iceland, so it was just Cam, my dad (Chuck) and myself.  This year I was lucky to go with both Xena and Cam, and my dad.

We stayed at my aunt Norma and cousin Cindy’s house (in Baltimore) the first night we arrived.  Our flight landed in the early afternoon, and my cousin Patrick picked us up from the airport.  That first evening we had dinner at one of my dad’s favorite restaurants, an Italian place called The Olive Grove.  They’re pretty well known for their seafood dishes and my dad usually gets something with crab.  My cousins Cindy, Pat and his wife Cheryl, David, and my Aunt Norma, myself, my dad and Xena,Cam and I all went out to dinner. The last night we were in Maryland we went again – just my dad, the kids and I.  Dad and Xena both ordered the Cream of Crab soup, which was almost like a bisque- very rich and delicious.  Xena really liked it.

On Saturday July 30th we got up early and drove to Ocean City (it’s a little over 100 miles from Baltimore to OC).  We stayed at The Harrison Apartments, an older building that is subject to a little deferred maintenance –  funky, but a fun place to stay. We stayed in a 1-bedroom apartment on the first floor, and the rest of the family stayed up above in a larger apartment (3-bedroom) and an efficiency room on the 4th floor (where we had stayed last year).  The building is 1 block off the boardwalk, on Baltimore Ave between 9th and 10th Streets.

While in Ocean City, we ate at The Brass Balls Saloon twice (my dad and I had lunch when we first arrived while the kids headed straight for the beach).  We also had pizza at The Dough Roller.  We got french fries a couple times (Cam and I) at Thrashers, and had fun tossing them to the seagulls (and I put one on my head, and a seagull got it – dared by my cousin-in-law Tom), and also held one in my hand and a seagull swooped in and took it from my hand.  They wouldn’t take one out of my mouth, though.

That first day the beach was lovely.  The waves were gentle and there was a nice breeze.  The following day was also nice, but the waves were starting to get a little rougher.  By Monday (August 1st), rain was forecast and it was a little cloudy in the morning, so Cam and I decided to go to the amusement park instead of the beach.  We headed down the boardwalk around 11:30, and Trimper’s Rides opened at noon.  Trimper’s is the older of the two amusement parks on the boardwalk, and I believe it’s where my parents had gone to when they were dating/first married.  Specifically there is a ride there called the Tilt-A-Whirl that I have fond memories of – I remember going on it with my mom & dad, Grandma Frieda and Allyson back in 1978.  Cam and I did the indoor activities until the outdoor rides opened at 3.  Indoor rides were mostly for smaller kids, but they did have adult bumper cars and the carousel.  Cam rode the bumper cars about 10 times, and we did the carousel about 5 times.  Once the outdoor part opened, Cam went on the big roller coaster (The Tidal Wave, which has upside-down loops) 3 times, and several other rides that are challenging to the equilibrium (I deferred) – the Zipper, the Himalaya, another “sideways swingy thing” (per Cam) and something called The Freak Out (he didn’t).  By this time it had started raining, so we were a little bit soaked. Around 4pm we decided to call it a day, as the wind had picked up and it was a true “east coast” rain storm (big drops).  We ran over to the boardwalk tram stop and bought tickets to ride back up to our hotel (about a mile up the boardwalk).  It was going to be a bit of a wait for the tram to get there, and I wanted to get ice cream so we trotted up to Dumser’s Dairyland.  While we were there, the wind picked up even more and there was pea-sized hail mixed with the rain, as well as thunder and lightning.  Luckily the ice cream stand had a covered area with bench seating where we could take shelter.  As the wind got more intense (and by now the rain/hail was coming sideways), we hid behind a coke machine to attempt to stay dry.  This was around 4:15 PM – then our phones emergency alert tone sounded, and we found out there was a tornado warning in effect until 5 PM.  Xena (who was back at our hotel/apartment with everyone else) sent me a text asking where we were, and when would we be home.  I let her know that we were ok, but stuck down at the end of the boardwalk.  Around 4:25 PM the wind was really blowing strongly, and the hail was almost quarter-sized, and sharp – about the size of crushed ice you get in restaurants.  The coke machine was no longer providing adequate protection, so we and the others we were hunkering down with decided to run a-few-at-a-time across the boardwalk (about 60 feet) to businesses that were offering better shelter.  Cam and I ran through the wind, rain and hail getting pushed sideways – the hail (which was sharp!) hurt as it hit my head, arms and legs – one piece actually cut me.  We ended up in a old-time photo/costume shop with about 15-20 people.  A few young kids were there w/their parents, and one child was freaking out a bit thinking we were going to die.  I told Cam I thought it was pretty exciting to be in a storm with a tornado warning.  He disagreed.  But I figure if we have to be stuck somewhere, at least we were warm and sheltered (even though we were soaked from running in the rain), AND we could dress up in costumes.  Cam wasn’t impressed with my logic or sense of humor.

Around 5 PM the wind and rain settle down (no more hail, and the thunder and lightning had stopped) so we decided to hoof-it back to the apartment – the damn tram still wasn’t running.  Cam said “Let’s run the whole way back!”.  We ran (almost) a block, and then I had to rest so we would walk a block – about 11 blocks total.  We made it back around 5:15, soaking wet and out-of-breath, but with a great story.  Everyone else was inside when the storm had hit.

Pat and Cheryl showed up on Wednesday, Aug 3rd and brought a bunch of steamed crabs.  We picked a bunch that night and the next, and then I made crab cakes on Friday morning for breakfast.  I didn’t have the usual/traditional ingredients/seasonings but apparently I did ok improvising because my dad and cousin Barbara said they were really good.  I used crab meat, 1 beaten egg, bread crumbs (crumbled hamburger bun), crushed Old Bay flavored potato chips, and french onion dip.  I fried them in butter.  My dad ate them on crackers w/yellow mustard.

Other things we did were rent bikes (recumbent “fun cycles” as well as an upright two-person Surrey), some of us girls got henna tatoos, went to the Funcade and played Skee-ball and other corny games, and spent time on the beach in the sun, shade, waves and sand.   The best times were just being (and talking/laughing) with my family.

The last full day we were at the beach, Cindy, Cam and I went back down to the Old Time Photo place and Cindy and I had picturess taken (two gangster floozies on a hip old car).

I’m so glad to create these memories with not only my kids and dad, but with my cousins and aunt Norma.  It was great to retell (and hear) old stories/memories, and to make new ones.

Politically Incorrect Childhood Games & Recollections

I enjoy remembering how things were back in the 1970’s when I was a growing up. As children we seemed to have had more unstructured free time than kids do these days. For entertainment we had broadcast T.V. and radio, Cassette tapes, and L.P.’s (otherwise known as vinyl long-playing records, for anyone born after 1985 who has no idea what I’m referring to), in addition to sibling rivalry.

There was no internet access or cell phones, game boys or Wii. Video games were rare. A boy across the street from me (Dan) had an Atari game system so most of the neighbor kids would go over to his house to play at least once a week. We got a Pong game from Radio Shack in the late 70’s. Other than that, we played outside on nice days and entertained ourselves with imaginations and indoor games or books on rainy days.

My sister and I frequently played the board games Monopoly and Life, and our mom taught us how to play cards. She was good at solitaire, and we also played Canasta. She taught us how to play poker, and we usually bet with cookies or sometimes my sister and I would play “strip poker” (we would load up on coats and scarves beforehand so we never actually had to take our clothes off). Like most kids we built “forts” out of dining room chairs, couch cushions and blankets.

A wonderful cheap “toy” that gave us days of fun was a cardboard refrigerator box. My dad would go down to Almvigs (local appliance store) and grab one from the side of the store where they were discarded. We would use it as our fort in the living room, perhaps cutting a peephole in one side. We would “camp” in the living room with sleeping bags in the box.  Then after it started to get a little trashed, we would take it out to the front yard and my dad would close it up with my sister and I inside, and rattle us around (I think he would roll us down the very gentle slope in our front yard). We thought it was just about the most fun ever. The other kids on the block enjoyed coming over and joining in on the ruckus as well.  Eventually the box would completely break down and we would flatten it out in the front yard and play Lava Monster. This entailed wearing socks on our hands and feet and trying to run/scramble up the slippery cardboard before the Lava Monster (usually me) attacked you; then you were the lava monster.

The house we grew up in was built in 1942 and was Cape Cod style. It was two-stories plus a basement. Originally it had an oil furnace so there was an air-return in the hallway that went down to the basement. Our parents had the oil furnace removed a few years after buying the house in 1970 and installed electric baseboard heaters. This meant the air-return grate was just covering an opening that went from the upstairs hallway down to the basement laundry room. My sister and I soon learned that we could easily remove this grate, and lie on the floor and stick our head down the hole, and scare the daylights out of mom when she was down in the laundry room.

The house also had a laundry chute which went down to the laundry room, and was about 8 feet from the air return vent opening.  The proximity of the air-return opening and the laundry chute inspired my sister and I to invent a fairly ingenious game that we eventually named “Retard City”.  I recall telling my little sister to go downstairs and sit on top of the washer, and then I would drop things down the laundry chute – like her favorite stuffed animals, my blanket, a toy, or maybe some dirty laundry. As I was shoving things down the laundry chute to her, I would yell “mail delivery!”. We had tied an old bicycle basket to a piece of rope, and I lowered that down the air-return hole. I would yell “Retard Truck!” as I lowered the basket, and she would load some stuff back in for me to haul upstairs. This kept us entertained for hours.

The name “retard” became associated with the game because a few times a year we would donate used clothing and toys to certain charities. The ones I remember coming regularly were the Blind and the Mentally Retarded. Our mom would write either Blind or M.R. on the bags and leave them out near the sidewalk, as instructed for pick up. So originally I would yell “Mentally Retarded!” down the air-return, but later we somehow shortened the game to “Retard City”. I also recall our dad started singing “Everything’s up to date in Retard City”, to the tune of “Kansas City” (from Oklahoma). Apparently us kids were little muses for his sarcastic and offbeat sense of humor.

Our dad was (and still is) a real goofball. He would sing and say weird things, and generally enjoyed leading us to believe he was slightly off kilter. Some of the nonsense-words I remember him saying were “Asieu” (‘aszhew’), and yelling “Aqaba!” (a reference from “Lawrence of Arabia”) in the morning as he stretched. He said this helped him wake up in the morning. He and my mom also knew a few French, German and Latin words/phrases so sometimes they would throw those in the mix to confuse (or disclude) my sister and I.  He made up nicknames for all the family members (and we in turn made up some slightly unflattering ones for him).  All in all, there are a lot of good memories of fun times.

My Miracle Morning

I had the recent opportunity to attend a motivational event hosted by Priority Lending that featured an amazing speaker:  Hal Elrod.  I’ve started reading his book, “The Miracle Morning”, and I am committing myself to getting up earlier and dedicating the first hour of my day to his principles of self improvement.  He is well read and is inspired by so many of the other great success coaches of our time – Jim Rohn is one of his mentors.  Many of the ideas that are in his book are endorsed by Darren Hardy in his book, “The Compound Effect”.

In a nutshell, Hal Elrod basically died at the age of 20 as a result of a horrible car accident where he was hit head-on by a drunk driver.  He was resuscitated after being dead for 6 minutes.  The accident resulted in numerous broken bones, lacerations and brain damage.  He was in a coma for a week, and when he awoke he was told he would likely never walk again.  Defying the odds, he decided to have a positive attitude and do the best he could.  He did walk again, and now runs marathons, is extremely successful as a motivational speaker, success coach and author.  Basically he is living his life as a “Level 10”, living his dreams and is committed to being the best he can be, regardless of the circumstances that life offers.

His positive attitude must be a gift from God, because many people would give up after experiencing the hardship that he faced.  He has a philosophy that if you “Can’t change it” – then, why fret about it?   He realized that if he has anger or negativity about something that he CAN’T CHANGE, the anger or emotion doesn’t change it… It just makes him unhappy.  The way he explained it was that if you accept that something has happened and you cannot go back in time and “change it”, then just “let it go” and decide to move forward – do the best you can given the current circumstances.  He explains how “freeing” that mindset is, and you can therefore allow yourself to be happy, regardless of your circumstances.

This resonated with me.  Perhaps it was his humbleness, his genuine caring to help others in sharing his message, or his somewhat geeky sense of humor that helped me to absorb what he was saying, but his positivity and “non-preachiness” was very refreshing and I am motivated to start making my “NOW” matter, and to become the best person I can be.

I can’t wait to finish reading the book “The Miracle Morning” and I hope that my close friends and family members will be motivated to read it and take it to heart, as well.