The Florida Family

On Friday, October 29, several members of the Crotty family gathered here in Jacksonville, FL for dinner and lots of visiting.


I now live in Jacksonville, and my sister Nancy was coming down here for a visit. My daughter Robin, husband Anthony, and daughter Aubrey also live in Jacksonville. Mike and Chris Crotty only live a couple of hours drive south of here and they drove up for dinner. Their daughter Maggie, brother Tim, and Maggie's boyfriend Matt all live here in Jacksonville. Plans were made to go out to dinner. We chose Culhane's Irish Pub in Atlantic Beach. Two members of the 'Florida Family' were unable to make it. Anne from Jupiter and John Crotty (Mike and Chris' other son)


In the meantime, I heard from a cousin on the Jackson side of my family. Pete Tormey and his girlfriend Kate Coleman were coming from California to JAX to visit an old buddy of Pete's.

Pete and Kate joined us for dinner.


It is really a wonderful thing that people that haven't seen each other in a lot of years, or have no clue as to who they are eating with can sit down and there is never a lull in the conversation! We all truly had a good time.


I knew it at the time and was going to remind all....that day was Uncle Willie's 94th birthday! Happy belated birthday, Willie.



I have not figured out this picture 'tagging' thing. So: left to right starting at the bottom: Kate Cornwall, Nancy, Maggie Crotty, Chris and Mike Crotty, Matt Anderson, Anthony Grosso, Robin G., Aubrey G., yours truly, Tim Crotty, and Pete Tormey.

Out with the boys

One Saturday when I was young I remember my dad, my brother, me, and uncle Willie (we called him Woody) and his friend Paul went over to the peninsula. My dad took a couple of pictures with his Kodak 616 camera. In the first one we are at the Perry Monument.

The second picture shows the USS Wolverine, which had been beached at Misery Bay in 1927. It was the first iron-hulled warship and was built in 1842. In 1949 it was cut up and sold for scrap.

Bottle openers and other objects…

A couple of weeks ago, Robin, Anthony, and Aubrey were over here for dinner. I always make sure I have beer on hand for Anthony. He likes different kinds of beer…kinda like cousin Richie!

Anyway, to get to the point, the kind of beer I had required a bottle opener (also known as a ‘church key’). I told him to get the opener off the shelf….it was the bottle opener that Anna had for all the years I can remember. Anthony opened his beer, then looked at the opener and inquired what the ‘hooked’ end was used for. I told him it was used to get the dividers out of ice trays. He and Robin looked at me like they were ready to put me in the ‘home’.

It just reminds me of other things from days gone by. Do you remember:

Toasters that you opened the vertical side, placed the toast in there, closed the door and hoped it didn't burn?

Egg beaters/’mixers’ were very simple hand cranked items that all our moms had in their kitchens?

Coffee percolators? Nothing can come close to that smell or sound! Not even Mr. Coffee.

Clothes were always hung out on a line to dry in good weather or in the basement during the winter.

Coffee cans, always had a key on the bottom. You removed the key and inserted the ‘tab’ and worked it all around the can until it was open.

If your bike got a flat tire, your dad stuck it in a tub of water to find the leak so he could patch it.

Not every kid had their own room? You bunked in with your siblings. Most of us lived at home or in a college dorm or the military until you got married.

I can remember my mother ‘singeing’ pin feathers off a turkey or a chicken. Pre Butterball turkey days.

The clamp on meat grinder that every home had? I don’t remember what mom used it for, but we had one!

The ‘twisty’ doorbell that was on Anna’s front door?

The push button light switches in Anna’s house?

Can openers!! They were instruments of torture…They had a point on one end and you had to do an up and down motion around the whole can to get the entire lid off!!

3 TV stations!!

Most of us have seen all these emails saying ‘remember when’…..Do any of the rest of you have any more remember whens?

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Blogged by Dede

Meeting with Surgeon General

Thought I'd pass along one of the pics I got back from the meeting I had with Dr. Regina Benjamin on April 16th. I met with her at the CGI U event and was able to have her come to UM to discuss the role of the nursing in reducing costs and increasing efficiencies and quality patient outcomes for the "recent health care bill changes." We recommended that primary care be handled by the Advanced Practice Nurses and Doctors of Nursing Practice as independent practitioners. I outlined cost/benefit ratios for her based on EVIDENCE! I have asked the Dean of Nursing for another meeting with her for the fall in DC. UM is sending me a CD of more photos from that meeting...better photos.. ....I'm not bragging much, here. Ha.

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Blogged by Anne

Anne meets President Clinton

The University of Miami was the site for the 3rd Annual Clinton Global Initiative University Meeting (CGI U) held on April 16-18, 2010. As a graduate student Anne was selected by the University to represent nursing as a facilitator for a panel discussion on health care.

Of course she got to meet President Clinton, and during her private conference, asked him to autograph her program for her dad. It says, "To Bill, Thank you, Bill Clinton. She had told the President that her father had been a Physical Training Instructor for pilots during WWII. She also mentioned that he had voted for him twice. The President laughed and said he would be honored to say thanks to her dad.

Willie at Prep

Willie played football at Prep from 1932 to 1935. He was the captain of the 1935 team and played in the QB position. He best remembers the time they played in Bradford in his senior year when the rain fell throughout the game. Prep won 13 to 0. In his junior year he remembers the game against Vincent when he had the ball and ran many yards only to be stopped a foot from a touchdown. They still won the game though with the score 6 to 0.

Urn

After grandpa died in 1950, Anna had an urn placed on his grave site. This picture, taken by my dad, shows the urn at the cemetery. It is behind the flag. The big stone to the left of the urn is for grandpa's father David. The stone in the back is for Lucy Horrigan Crotty Smith. Sometime in the late 1980's the cemetery informed Anna that the urn needed to be removed. My dad put it in her back shed and it sat there for awhile. She later asked me if I wanted it. We painted it white and each summer we place it on our front walk. This year we have geraniums in it.