March 13, 2005

Cortland Weekend

Friday night Jon and I drove up to Cortland to visit with his parents. Getting out of the city took about an hour. Getting through the snow at the end of the trip took about an hour and a half. The hours in the middle were relatively easy.

We visited a friend of Jon's mother. Esther is nearly 100 years old. This is my second time seeing her. She is old but young at heart.

Today we visited with Eva, another friend of Jon's mom. She is younger than Esther but a little bit shier about her age. I'll respect her privacy and keep it to myself. In 1939, her parents moved their immediate family from Austria, to her aunt's house in the Bronx. She talked of being a refugee and told us about a friend of hers who had been involved in the Kindertransport program arranged by the British to get Jewish children out of lower Europe. Most of you probably saw the special on HBO. But I've never met someone who knew about it intimately. I enjoyed meeting Eva. She is a lovely woman and a good raconteusse.

Today, Jon and I hit the Walmart and Super K-Mart in Cortland. We made away with some good bargains. My favorite bargain are the Fruit of the Loom cotton sports bras that I got at 3 for $10.00. But we got all sorts of stuff; a new lamp/magazine rack; a garbage pail with lid for the kitchen and other sundries.

We're heading back home soon and tomorrow we'll be back to our daily grinds. How nice it was to get out of town for the weekend, even up in snowy Cortland.

It's nice to visit family so do it when you can.

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