Did you know that upon leaving office every President is able to take cuttings from their favorite plant to give to friends.
Now adding green at my address will be one of those many cuttings from President Obama...
(Greenhouse is located between off of Markham between War Memorial Stadium & UAMS on 7th & Pam Streets. Signs posted... )
Proceeds go to support Master Garadener projects throughout the city.
TBT: Last year at this time my Wisconsin book club was visiting my new home here in Arkansas. We had a wonderful time making new memories. FYI it's strawberry shortcake time again here...
Last night I joined a ZOOM call with 4 of the Happy Bookers as we discussed our upcoming trip to Croatia. Yes, Croatia.
I am truly blessed...
This transplanted Hungarian-Canadian now Texan biochemist, shared his story with a brief geography and history lesson of Hungary, interspersing his family's and Jewish community's fate as a result of the German and Russian tactics.
One of the occupation tactics was to move all the Jews into a 6 block radius, a Jewish ghetto, to be burned, but this was foiled with the arrival of the Russians.
We listened to what our speaker's Mom lived through as the youngest in her family having to move in and share a 2-bedroom apartment with 17 other family members. Then, when it was time for the family to evacuate and go to the train station where trains awaited to take them to the camps, his Mom, a secretary, ran into an acquaintance who invited her to lunch. This woman, living in the apartment, was the maid of the apartment's owner, a Jewish doctor who had been taken away. She offered false papers to help his Mom escape.
Andras, her 15-year-old son, had been left in an orphanage for a week and his Grandparents got him out. He and another boy contacted scarlet fever and were isolated. Surprisingly, when the soldiers opened the door where the 2 kids were being kept, they didn't go inside not wanting to contact the disease. The boys were left there until they were transported to a military hospital, where they were given 3 hot meals/day. It was such a gift in a dark time. When the Russians were getting closer, the Germans left in a hurry. The 15-year-old boys awoke one morning to an empty hospital. The temps were 20 below, and they headed to the basement of a nearby factory, hiding out there for a bit. They, then found his childhood home's street and his home, where there was no electricity or wood.
The Russians took about 3 weeks to occupy the city in 1945.
Andras and his Mom were reunited.
700,000 Hungarian Jewish lives were taken. Dr. Lacko's family amazingly had a high survival rate of 80% , albeit with some close calls. Dr. Lacko now lives in Dallas, but he immigrated to Canada from Hungary at age 17.
tUESDAY tUNES this week is another steamy one.
Take a listen to ARENA Y PROMESA (Sand & Promise)
by the Velvet label under Spanish Soul Blues. Short and poetic.
Who hasn't written in the sand at some time?
Sand and Promise...
"I wrote your name in the sand before the wave arrived
The words lasted seven seconds.
The promise remains whole.
The water erased what I said
the salt kept what I feel ..."
"Every tide brings your name written in another language of foam"
What the sea takes, the heart keeps..."
MONDAY MUSINGS: On Thursday about 5:30 am, the Atlanta crew pulled out of the driveway and left me with evidence they had been here...
These items can be returned, and the leftover foodstuff can be eaten, but there are a couple of other things. Things one can not buy, like the new family memories and a very undeniable 'quiet'...
This Bubbe is having withdrawal..
FOTO FRIDAY: RESTLESSness can occur at any time, but it's pretty obvious when you see this little guy all tangled up in his blankies that he is working hard in his sleep.
TBT: 2017 There was a new Kid on the block on this day in the End of the Rainbow Valley since this birth happened while I was on the phone with daughter Lori Sinapellido and her hubby Evan Lee, they got to choose the name. Drum roll, please: And the final answer is: Alex Tribek. ( I know, good luck to their Baby Tater Tot's eventual name.)
Chad Gad Yo... Looks like "an only kid" for Jacqueline.
Alex Trebek sure was cute...
