The Craftsman Inn

Yesterday we had lunch at the Craftsman Inn which is located in Fayetteville, NY, on Route 5, just across from the Town Center shopping area. It is currently painted green on the outside and furnished primarily with Stickley furniture on the inside. All the decorations are of the craftsman period or arts and crafts period of the late 1800's or early 1900's. The food was superb and not too pricey. We had hamburger, tuna melt, and ruben type sandwiches, and it was so much food that we have enough left over for lunch today.

Fayetteville is a suburb of Syracuse on the east edge of the city. My dad always said you should live on the east side of the place where you work so that you could drive to work or go home and not have the sun in your eyes either way. Stickley makes wonderful arts and crafts furniture and has been in business since the late 1800's and is located in Manlius which is another suburb on the east side of Syracuse and just south of Fayetteville. We have toured their factory and are awed by the quality of the workmanship. If you ever get a chance to buy quality furniture, I encourage you to look at Stickley, as well as others such as Bernhardt or Thomasville.

Happiness!!!!!

We were at the mall the other day to get our walk, and we had been walking all around each of the halls and going into some of the stores when we realized that a candy store was having a sale to unload their left over Christmas candy. This nice young lady appeared with a small plate of samples, and who can resist dark chocolate. So we looked around and decided that Mom would like a box of mixed chocolates and some Christmas ribbon candy. While I was paying, HW2 noticed a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln that was framed and hanging behind the cash register on their wall.

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." A. Lincoln

When the tire hits the road, that is the bottom line, and I think that Abe has it correct. We make our own happiness, and it is not dependent upon others. So, if I might give a small piece of advice, "Make this day one where you find happiness in small things and if given the chance share with others." HW2 finds that when she smiles at others, she gets smiles in return. Keep smiling!!!!!

That Mysterious Tom

When Mom had her problem and could not stop her nose bleeding, a neighbor Tom came to the rescue. He stayed with her until the ambulance arrived and then followed the ambulance and stayed with her until the nose was cauterized and then brought her home. We all thought Tom was wonderful to be so helpful, and Mom wanted to really thank him and his wife and so invited Tom and Leslie to dinner last night.

HW2 cooked up a storm of good northern Italian cooking and we had bruschetta, antipasta, salad with pears and walnuts, penne pasta carbonara, and chicken breasts in lemon and wine. This feast was followed by sour cherry pie made by Mom. Of course, we all talked the whole time.

Tom and Leslie are retired teachers. She volunteers for various civic things, and now he gives piano lessons, as he was a band/music teacher. Leslie was a physical education teacher. He likes to cook, and being of Italian descent, he thoroughly enjoyed HW2's meal. They were thoroughly delightful, and a good time was had by all. So, Anne, Tom is no longer mysterious, but a good Samaritan who really helped Mom when she needed help. Thank you, Tom, for being a great and wonderful neighbor.

The Kewpie Dolls

When my sister-in-law Anne was a young girl, she and her sister Dottie had saved up some money to buy Christmas presents. They each had about $5 to spend and decided to buy each other a Kewpie doll. Years later Dottie inquired of their mom where the dolls might be, and they were found in the back room in pieces, and Dottie decided to have them fixed and returned to health. Now Anne keeps her Kewpie doll in a doll chair up high so granddaughter Faith will not get it and play with it. After all, this doll is 60 or more years old.

Now Maurice, Anne's husband is a very kind man and saw in a Smithsonian catalogue a reproduction Kewpie boy doll dressed up as a bell hop. He purchased this doll and gave it to Anne for her Christmas this year. The two dolls are quite cute together, and I'll enclose a picture or two so you can see them.

I think that every little girl hopes that her dollies will be saved and that they will have them to enjoy when they have children and grandchildren. I also believe that when they get the doll down, in their minds, they return to the happy times of childhood when their biggest job was to play with their dolls. Enjoy!!

Links to other blogs are added

I figured it out all by myself on how to add links to other blogs you might enjoy reading. (1) Eric and Sarah - Eric is the grandson of my brother Maurice and his wife Anne. Eric and Sarah are a young couple doing missionary work in Kentucky for a year. He majored in social work in college and I am not sure of what Sarah majored in. (2) Bobby and Vickie own and run the Sunrise Antique mall in Kerrville and have become good friends. We had a booth in their store for several years until we moved to Omaha. It was so good to reconnect with them and their extended families. We also enjoy their mom's Frances and Rosetta.

Joan and Linda

After we returned from Marathon and had our dinner of Spiedies, we saved dessert for later, as Maurice and Anne's two oldest daughters were coming by for a visit. Linda shared pictures of her recent visit to Kentucky to visit her son Eric and daughter-in-law Sarah. Such pretty countryside and rolling hill occasionally marred by strip mining for coal. Eric and Sarah are spending a year at the Methodist Church's Henderson Settlement, essentially doing missionary work. What a wonderful choice they have made as they try to help others.

Joan and her husband had recently made a trip to England to visit their oldest son Ira, who was spending a semester of his junior UNC college year there. They had a fun time being with Ira and visiting Canterbury, where is also located a 900 years old church, St. Martin',s in which is located a brass grave plate of Sir Thomas Stoughton. Many family members have enjoyed visiting and making a rubbing on this particular brass. Now Joan and Todd intend to display their rubbing by hanging it in their stairway at home. It was fun to hear about their trip and to see some note cards Joan had made using pictures from their trip. Her husband Todd could not be at our get -together as he has been elected as one of the town judges or justices and was having his first court date that evening. I wanted to know how many criminals he got off the streets but haven't heard so far.

Todd is continuing a fine family tradition of having a judge in the family. During the Salem Witch Trials in the times of the pilgrims. William Stoughton was known as Hanging Judge Stoughton, since he believed those witches should be hanged, and he never recanted this position throughout his long life. Maybe Todd will become the latest version of the hanging judge, but I doubt that.

With the nieces visiting, we stayed a second night in Newark Valley and arrived back in Fayetteville during a rain storm. Safe travels to you all.

Motoring to Marathon

We finally got it together and decided to go with Maurice as he ran an errand to get some repaired motor/starters which were ready to be picked up. So we all piled into his car and drove north to Hartford and then east to Marathon, Starters were picked up, and then we had time to vist two antique stores. Being previous antiquers, this was like a busman's holiday, and we had a great time but did not succumb to temptation.

After our visits to the antique stores we lunched at The Three Bear's Inn. There was a sign outside that an inn had been here in this location since the 1700's. Most of the family had the daily special of shrimp which was good. Them home for spiedies for dinner which we are going to grill outside on this January thaw day. The eating around here is good and we are enjoying it and the fun of a good family gathering. Happy motoring!!!!!