Since Ced was making payments to Grandpa – I’m not sure what the payments were for – I believe he included a check with this note.

Dear Dad,

In great haste.

Letter later.

Ced

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This is probably the later letter,

Friday afternoon

Dear Papa,

Seems as tho’ I must owe you money in order to send you a letter – nothing to prove otherwise yet, is there? I apologize again and admit you are right as to how it happened. At least I had money in the bank this time.

My plans as proposed in the last letter are somewhat upset. The income tax is 20% up to $2500, 22% up to $4500 and 26% up to $6500. this additional 4% is not as bad as I had supposed, but it looks as though I’m going to have a pretty heavy whack taken out anyway. Hope the “pay-as-you-go” plan…

When I use the title Then and Now, I am very literal for this post. These are pictures of the original beams in the portion of the house that was built in 1756. For much of that time, they were covered with a ceiling but are again exposed. Notice how they are put together – no nails were used and they are still solid. You can also see the marks left by the old hand tools used to shape them. 

Beams going into the kitchen area.

Beams in the Dining Room.

Beams going to front of the house and front door.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting another Guest Post from GPCox, pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com all about vehicle manufacturing during WWII.

Next week, it will be letters written in 1944 when all five boys were working for Uncle Sam, in vehicle maintenance, surveying, airplane maintenance, working with the locals in a foreign country or…

A MESSAGE FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES….

https://mailchi.mp/nara/0rjknzxchj-763401?e=2018eed2da

NO MATTER WHAT COUNTRY YOU LIVE IN – IF YOU ARE LIVING FREE – THANK A VETERAN !!!

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Here We Go……

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Farewell Salutes – 

Daniel Buchta – Far Rockaway, NY; US Navy, USS Nimitz

Jean Danniels – ENG; WRENS, WWII

Waverly Ellsworth Jr. – Buffalo, NY; US Navy, Korea, medic

Virgil; Johnston – Grove, OK; USMC, WWII

Alma (Smith) Knesel – Lebanon, PA; Manhattan Project (TN), WWII

Samuel Mastrogiacomo – Sewell, NJ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, MSgt., B-24 tail gunner, 2nd Air Div./8th A.F. (Ret. 33 y.)

Willis Sears Nelson – Omaha, NE; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, B-17 pilot

Gregory O’Neill – Fort Myers, FL; US Army, WWII, ETO, 787th

Orville Roeder – Hankinson, ND; US Army, Medic

Nicholas Vukson – Sault Saint Marie, CAN; RC Navy, WWII, Telegraphist, HMCS Lanark

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As most of you know, America experienced rationing for the first time in World War II and with the holidays looming in the wings, food seemed to be a logical subject.

Some products  that were rationed during World War II were sugar, meat, coffee, typewriters, fuel oil, gasoline, rubber, and automobiles.  Each person was issued a book of ration coupons each month.  Rationed goods were assigned a price and point value.  Families were not restricted to certain quantities of rationed goods.  But once their coupons were used up, they could not buy rationed goods until the next month. Families were encouraged to plant victory gardens.  These gardens supplied a major part of the vegetable supply during the War.

But one thing most of us can admit, our parents and grandparents ate well.  They ate to live – not lived to eat!    Here are some of the recipes, given to us…

Donald Hornig

Donald Hornig was a year out of graduate school when he received a mysterious job offer.  No one would even tell him what or even where the job was, so he declined – until the President of Harvard University called and convinced him to take it.

Soon after, Hornig bought an old car and headed for Los Alamos, New Mexico.   He would become one of the youngest leaders of the team that developed the first atomic bomb and the last surviving witness of the detonation on July 16, 1945.

Albert Einstein & Julius Robert Oppenheimer

Born in Milwaukee, Hornig “was the first in his family to go to college,” said the Associated Press.  He studied physical chemistry at Harvard, earning his Doctorate in 1943.  In Los Alamos, the head of the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, gave him the job of developing the firing unit that triggered the…

Since my previous blog post was about Curraghmore, I thought I would share with you a very popular Beresford Ghost Story for upcoming Halloween. It came out, however, that I have no spooky ghastly photos of Curraghmore House.  I decided to write an illustrated introduction about another place just behind the wall from the Curraghmore estate – the Mayfield House, Portlaw, of which I have plenty of spooky looking pictures, and the most important, a spooky true story.

                                                                         Introduction

Since the ancient Rhododendron tree fell down during the hurricane Ophelia in autumn 2016, the only way to get to the Mayfield house is to crawl through under the tree trunk…

… which I did…

(1) Elijah Guion, Sr.; (2) Elijah Guion, Jr.;  (3) Alfred Beck Guion; (4) Alfred Duryee Guion; (5) Alfred Peabody Guion; (6) Judith Anne Guion

Elijah Guion, son of John Guion, was born in Rye, New York but eventually became a resident of New York City and until 1838 lived at 542 Broadway, near Prince Street, when that region was open country. His residence stood just below the site was occupied by Niblus Garden and later by the Metropolitan Hotel.

Elijah Guion learned the trade of house joiner and carpenter and in that capacity spent some time in the West Indies. When about 22 years old he then engaged in the grocery business in New York City. He was married to Elizabeth Marshall by the Rev. Dr. Pilmon, May 10, 1798 in New York City where they afterward lived. In about 1810 or 1811 he carried on a block and pump-making…

After having seen Mother Brown we are going to walk straight to the place she is looking at – the Curraghmore House.

This July I visited Curraghmore House hoping to see a portrait of Lady Florence. Unfortunately they don’t have her portraits in the house. Otherwise, it was an amazing visit. If you go to Ireland, make sure you contact the tour guides and book yourself a €15 tour of the main reception rooms, Shell House and the garden. I promise you, it will be the highlight of your visit.

I do my best to remember everything that our guide is telling. Photography is not allowed in the House, and for the same reason I can not give you a detailed account on what I have seen, but I still can share some stories. Like the story of the Stag and the Dragon.

Curraghmore House was built by the…

Last weekend I went for a walk along the river Clodiagh in the Curraghmore estate to take pictures for this blog dedicated to the last butler of Curraghmore and his lovely wife who finally retired and left for Portugal this summer.

Who says you cannot change your career and your whole life at the age of 50+? “Born and raised” in Transvaal, South Africa”, Basil Croeser moved to Ireland in 1998 and got a job as butler to 8th Marquess of Waterford. Good old times when the notorious “work experience” was not required: there were no butlers in South Africa, not at that time anyway.

Basil served as butler for 12 years. Some of his duties included “seeing to His Lordship’s general well being; preparing and serving light meals; maintaining stock and equipment; maintaining and winding 17 antique clocks”. When His Lordship’s health started to deteriorate, Basil retired from his…