THE FOOTNOTES

W e hadn't seen Joel in a long time, so it was fun having him here today. We went to lunch and then caught up on the news. We hope he comes back soon.

When I was a young girl, my grandfather lived with us. He was my mother's father. What an interesting character he was.

He needed our help as he aged, and he did teach us how to care for someone you love.
He was funny, and he told us many interesting stories about his life when he came here from Italy.

His last name was Napolitano, but at Ellis Island, they changed it to Naples. He had seven children, and the two boys were given a good education. Carmon became an eye doctor who practiced in Washington, D.C. and Dominic an engineer for the City of New Britain. The five daughters were not given the same educational opportunities. That alone taught me how unfair life. could be

When Granpa Tony became ill, all of us pitched in to take care of him. We had to help him in every way, including taking him to the toilet. That taught me humility, compassion and kindness at an early age.

I still remember Grandpa Tony and what a big influence he had on my life.
To grandpa from his grandchildren whom he called, Jimameer, Rosamaria, Chancenell, and Mister Touch. ( Jim, Rosemary, Nancy and Bill) we love you.

Our most recent in-class writing assignment was to write for ten minutes on the topic of lessons you learned in your early teens. This is what I wrote:

Mealtime when I was about 13 years old was sometimes an adventure, but there were lessons to be learned. My parents were separated at the time, and adult was never at home during the day. Consequently, meal decisions were made by my sister, Rita, or my older brother, Jack. My sister tended to favor a meal of canned tomatoes poured over noodles. It was easy, and she liked it. I learned to dislike this meal in silence one day when I expressed my disapproval, Rita broke a plate over m,y head. That had the anticipated outcome when I kept my complaints to myself after that.
Jack had a different appreciation of what constituted a decent meal. Sometimes when he was to prepare lunch for me and him, he would go over to the neighborhood grocery store where we could "charge" things and get a ten cent Frisbie pie and a pint of ice cream. He would divide it, giving me my half. That's when I learned about fractions. While I was not a good math student, it didn't take me very long to figure out my brother had absolutely no knowledge of the subject, because his half was always bigger than my half. Perhaps being older and bigger than I, Jack's mathematical calculations were flawed.

Megan, Tabor and Mara were here for lunch today. Tabor has fun in his reclining chair trying to activate the toys/

Labels: Tabor Griffen Ambrose

His hair flying in the wind, Frat Boy (that's what Megan called him) is racing into a rebellious section of the lawn astride his ride-on-lawn mower at break-neck speed. There is a prize for the person who correctly names the older of the two----Frat Boy or the machine,

Here are Sergei and Bob talking about the old days in Ukraine

We had a very pleasant visit today with Mary, Sergei, Irene and Andy. Sergei is here from Ukraine. Irena and Andy from Russia and Ukraine respectively, by way of Norway where they are college students. Moe made one of her specialties, stuffed peppers.
We then settled down to watch the World Cup game between Germany and Spain. Our European friends are very knowledgeable about soccer so it was very interesting to
me to hear what they had to say.

Taken on our porch this morning

THE REFEREE GETS EVEN
When their own kids compete in high school sports, it seems that all parents show up to the games, and they all are smarter, fairer and better judges than the official who is working the game They suspect that if the truth were known,
the ref is secretly in cahoots with the other team, out to get their kid,
and conspiring to make him a loser.
Of course, I myself am above that sort of thing , but even I disagreed with the ref’s decisions on occasion. Naturally, I was strongly in favor of good sportsmanship, even when there was a hint of bias on the part of a given referee. I was almost eminently judicial.
I was sort of bi-partisan when Tolland High School , where my twin sons played, had a game against Ellington where I was a teacher, and knew most of the EHS Players personally. One afternoon when Tolland and Ellington were meeting on the soccer field in Tolland, my boss at EHS told me that a personal friend of his would be refereeing the game and to try to get to say “hello,” to him. He added that the friend would be visiting our office the next week.
I can’t remember whether or not I spoke to the man, but I was a little late getting to the game and immediately joined the group of Tolland parents with whom I usually watched Tolland games. This was a spirited and vocal group which was not reluctant to keep the referee informed of the error of his ways in calling fouls against the Tolland team which could do no wrong in a home game.
One of our group was a talented rabble rouser which drew the attention of the ref to our little group on the sidelines.
To those unacquainted with the rules of soccer, the referee calling a player foul can warn the offending player verbally, or if a more harsh penalty is deemed necessary, he can issue a Yellow Card. If a player gets two yellow cards in a game, he is out of the game. In the event of what the ref sees as a very serious foul, he can issue a Red Card which means the offending player is out of the game right now. Some cards were issued, each one evoking a hostile response from our little group of critics.
Can’t remember who won, but the next day in school my boss remarked that his friend, the ref had called him at home last night to confirm his coming visit to EHS, and to tell the boss about the big mouth Tolland parents, and a particularly obnoxious One who seemed to be instigating the rest of them. I might be wrong, but I think the boss made certain inferences.
On the day of the ref’s visit, I made a hand-written sign and taped it on my office door. It said something like, SCHOOL FOR SOCCER REFEREES HERE TODAY 10:00 A.M. It was all in fun.

A few weeks later, my wife and I were attending a wedding dinner, when our beleaguered ref who also was a guest , spotted me. He cut up a red menu creating a Red Card, sneaked up to our table, and stuck the card in my face. He Red Carded me!