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Almost 70 years ago Clyda and Veon were married. That union is why we are all here. This blog is created to capture our thoughts and help us get to know each other better. There will be a new question posted each Sunday until December. Please use contributors first names only. If you are posting anonymously please add your first name to the text. Enjoy!
Please read...
Attention everyone...Marilyn has a WEB PAGE !! You can check it out at www.marilynsmithartist.com!
Nicole, please publish the following disclaimer in a prominent place:
I hesitated to make long narratives with these posts, but Nicole said she might put the whole blog thing into a book form someday, and I could use this as a forum for writing for my kids and grandkids. I can’t pass up an opportunity like that. So rather than bore you, feel free to skip anything you’re not interested in or don’t want to be bothered to read. Sonja
Note from Nicole:
I am happy to do this for anybody that is interested. I am enjoying hearing from each of you and would love to hear from more. Thanks Sonja for taking the time to work on this and giving us an opportunity to get to know you better.
Kids from Lt to Rt:Marilyn, Barbara, Veon Jr., Gladys, Gerald, Evan. Clyda and Veon in the Middle.
Sonja
Ve's Wife
Nicole
Glady's Youngest
Marilyn
The Youngest Daughter
Evan
"The Baby"
Daphne
Glady's Oldest
Clyda
9 comments:
I just got home from the farthest place I've ever been . . . Paris.
Daphne
I traveled totally beyond reality many times in my life. Europe would be the furthest distance.
The furthest place I have ever been is New York. It really isn't all that far but we traveled by Greyhound bus so really it is very very very far away.
"Far Away" is pretty relative. I can be "far away" at home sitting in my chair. Marilyn
The furthest I have ever been outside the U.S. is Tijuana Mexico. I didn't like it very much. We went a couple of times when we lived in San Diego area and I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't taking two toddlers. I was dirty and I didn't feel safe with them there. We should have ventured a little further south but I am not a very brave person so I didn't. I would do it now if Daphne was with me.
The farthest I've ever been is Orlando, Florida. I've never made it outside the U.S., though I've been within millimeters on a map to both Canada and Mexico. It doesn't quite count. I'm afraid to fly, so I don't know that I'll get very far.
That last post was Mindy. I'm catching up. =) I'd set up a blogger name if I had the patience to figure it out.
Until this summer I would have said Hawaii. But we went to Greece in June. It was wonderful! We had two days in Athens, a huge, huge city of 5 million, with numerous sites of ancient ruins. We climbed the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon. What an experience!
Jake and Mindy both had birthdays while we were gone, so I asked d them before we left to look at our itinerary and let me know if there was any place in particular they would like me to get their birthday present from. Jake has fallen in love with the area and ancient Rome through his studies, and jokingly asked me to bring him back a piece of the Parthenon. While I was up there, with dozens and dozens of other tourists, I stepped over a rope where they have organized various kinds of parts of the ruins, and picked up a small piece of something marble looking out of a connective groove of a piece of a column. It’s probably just modern gravel, but hey, it’s from the Acropolis!
In Athens we strolled and ate and shopped in the Plaka, the oldest neighborhood in Athens, just under the Acropolis. Usually we ate on tables outside on the sidewalk. I fell in love with Greek salad! There are more shoes and shoe shops than I’ve ever seen in my life. I bought some Greek-looking brown leather sandals. There are no public restrooms, but the restaurants all had them and were happy to let tourists use them, even if they didn’t eat in their restaurant. They would not bring the check until you asked for it, because it is considered rude to rush their customers to finish a meal.
We saw the Roman Temple of Zeus, the Theater of Dionysus and the Agora, where Socrates taught. Greeks have always believed that anyone who doesn’t have and express an opinion is a "privater" and is not to be trusted because he or she is either conspiring or to stupid to have an opinion. They called them "ethiotis" which means idiot. The place where people gathered to express their opinions and have their loud discussions was the Agora. Because it was the thing to do, it became more and more crowded. People who were uncomfortable with the noisy crowds and avoided going to the Agora were agoraphobic, (and ethiotis).
The next day we boarded our small cruise ship and sailed to the island of Mykanos in the Aegean Sea. The water is every color from light blue, to turquoise to black. Mykanos is the island with the windmills and dazzling white houses and blue domed churches. We loved, loved, loved, Mykanos. I’d like to go back and spend the whole time there next time. The streets were built narrow and deliberately confusing in order to give the town’s people time to escape from raiding pirates who would become lost and disoriented. The streets, shops and restaurants were clean and cool. Mykanos and Santorini (the other island with white houses and blue domes) were our favorite.
The next day we went to Kusadasi, Turkey where we took a bus 20 miles away to the Greek, Roman and Byzantine excavations of Ephesus, where we saw the remains of the second largest library in the world. It stood, three stories high - what was left of it. We walked down the long marble street where Anthony and Cleopatra strolled on their honeymoon. We saw the public toilets where men and women would sit and visit while they did their "business." They also pointed out the "secret" doorway which led from the library to the brothel. ("Don’t wait dinner for me, I’ll be at the library until very late.") Ephesus is also where the large theater is, where Paul spoke against the religious beliefs of the rulers and had to run for his life.
Back in the town of Kusadasi we were taken to a Turkish rug maker where we were educated about how the rugs are made, how to tell quality, and the traditions surrounding them. (They also served wine or Turkish coffee. I tried the coffee. It was very strong, with thick residue in the bottom of the very small cup. Quite tasty, really, if you like coffee). It was here that we had an experience that was almost like something out of the Arabian Nights. Mindy had expressed some interest in our stop at the Turkish rug store, so after the "education" while the proprietor was showing 20 thousand dollar rugs to our friends (who had come with the intention of buying one) another salesman began showing us one that I had been particularly attracted to - but had no intention of buying. But they had wall hangings, that we thought might be a possibility for Mindy. When we said the rug was way out of our price range he went to something smaller. Still out of sight. He brought out something smaller. When Ve finally said maybe a wall hanging would be more like it, he showed us one for about 6 thousand. We, of course, said it was still too much, it was just for a birthday gift for our granddaughter. He asked what price range we had in mind. Ve told him something maybe closer to $50.00. And I swear to you, he disappeared in a poof! We never saw him again, nor anyone else, for that matter. When our friends emerged, they were delighted to have purchased their 20 thousand dollar rug for only 14 thousand.
That same day we sailed to the little island of Patmos where we saw the cave where St. John received Revelations. There is an 11th century monastery built a over the grotto.
The next morning we finished with breakfast in time to watch the island of Rhodes come into view. We sailed in through the same passage where the Colossus is supposed to have stood. We walked through "Old City" which is a fortress built by the Knights of St. John during the crusades. It still houses city offices and residences. All of the roads are cobblestone and the buildings are stone or brick.
Elsewhere on the island we visited the Bonis ceramic factory, where we watched the process of hand made pottery being thrown and painted. Another education and gift-purchasing opportunity, where we bought Mindy’s birthday gift and one of our own Greek souvenirs.
Still on the island of Rhodes, we went to Lindos, where we rode donkeys as far up as they could take us, then walked the rest of the way to the temple of Athena. It was here that we saw the original Nike swish carved into the stone just below a very tall and steep staircase that led to the temple.
The donkey ride was the most daring and terrifying thing of the whole trip. Maybe of my whole life. They had two-team donkeys, yoked together end to end, with a driver walking beside them. I was on the lead donkey and Ve was in the back. The drivers guided them with two words: "Mmm" and "Mmm." The first, with a lilt at the end, not so much like a question, but sounding more like "that sounds tasty." It meant move to the right. The second was lower pitched, and was the sound you might make if you’re indecisive or non-committal, It meant "move left." The narrow path started in the marketplace, went past homes and on up, beyond the city to the base of the ruins. It was made up of marble steps, worn slick and shiny from hundreds of years of wear. Some turns were right on the edge of the mountain, with a wall on the inward side. Other sections had houses on each side with barely enough room for two donkeys to pass each other. In one of those place, my donkey had a stand off with another donkey coming down with a 5 or 6 year old girl on his back. He couldn’t back up, and mine wasn’t just about to. What an ass! I carried the imprint of the little girls shoe on my left leg for the rest of the day. We walked back down, thank you very much.
After a bus tour of the island we were dropped of at a pleasant little taverna where we were served sweet biscuits (cookies) and a cold drink. The bus tour guide told us that one of the reasons for whitewashing the houses is to help keep them cool. They also have very small windows for the same reason. And the roofs are flat, slanting to one corner to collect the rain in a cistern for household purposes. A few houses are painted a soft yellow, pink, or a reddish, terra cotta-looking color. Only these colors and the characteristic blue are used for trim.
Next was the island of Crete and the excavation site of Knosis, the center of the 3,000 BC Minoan civilization. These were the oldest ruins we visited. The entry to the site was through a several block long arbor, covered with a profusion of the bright pink blossoms of an ancient tree that went on and on, the entire length of the arbor. It had once been thought that the Minoans had borrowed from the Greeks, but evidence now shows that the Minoans were their own distinct culture, very advanced and sophisticated, and the "borrowing" had probably been the other way around.
Outside the ruins there was only one, 2 seated restroom to accommodate the hundreds of tourists. Throughout all of Greece, including Athens and the mainland, they have trash cans for you to deposit toilet tissue into, because their sewerage treatment cannot accommodate it. Here, outside ruins dating back three thousand years before Christ, with some of the most sophisticated plumbing in history, we had to pay a quarter for four squares of toilet tissue (unless you had your own) and were asked not to flush it.
Also on the island of Crete we visited the city of Heraklion. It was hot and ugly and dirty and we would just as soon have spent the time on the boat and had more time on Santorini, where we went that afternoon.
Santorini is the other island with whitewashed houses and blue domed churches. The island is crescent shaped because it is what is left of the volcano that erupted and destroyed the Minoan civilization to the south (on Crete). It used to be called Thera, in ancient times. As you approach the island, the houses look like snow on the top of the cliffs that plunge directly into the sea. There are only two ways to get to the top and to the towns of Santorini: Take the tour busses up the narrow switch backs, or ride a donkey. We took the bus.
We fell in love with Santorini - named after Saint Irene, a Greek Orthodox saint. The houses are whitewashed three times a year; Easter, Christmas and one other religious holiday. There are so many churches because families who can afford to, can build a church for their patron saint. On that saint’s day, they whitewash their church and house in honor of the saint, and hold day long services and celebrations and serve food and drink to all who attend, and become quite festive, well into the night.
We rode a tram back down, barely on an incline from straight down, and looked down on those who were riding donkeys. Even the straight down drop of the cable car seemed less precarious than being on the back of a donkey with a stubborn mind of its own and a penchant for shoving the other asses out of the way. Sonja
Either New Zealand, Cairo Egypt, or Jerusalem. I'm not sure which one is farther.
Clyda
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