Nine Days to Seventy

Writing these posts have made me realize how truly amazing we all are to experience and survive such action-packed lives, especially for those of us who let our paths reveal themselves instead of trying to plan every event.

Decade three started with the whirlwind of engagement parties, showers, and long distance planning for the big fat Polish wedding in June. For a honeymoon we spent a few fun days in New York City. Pack rat that I am, I found the receipts for the wedding in my bridal album. Flowers for all 6 female attendants, the two mothers, two grandmothers and the altar vases was $105.25. The NYC hotel near Broadway was $13.00 a night. We saw The Unsinkable Molly Brown among other shows. I have no idea what the ticket price was, but I'll bet it was less than what we pay today for a Sunday New York Times. Returning to Chatham from New York City we bid the whole family a tearful goodbye - saying goodbye in our family (known as the "Birofka Goodbye") takes longer than the average Sunday Mass. We drove across country to our married veteran student housing (Polo Village, built around an old Polo Field). Joe had college classes and 3 jobs (so what's new?) waiting for him. I was going to go back to college - but a few things got in the way:

• 1962 - Colleen Jo Crawford was born ( named for Joe)


1962 - first Thanksgiving - I invited 13 people and had to call my mom on a pay phone to get cooking instructions


• 1963 - Kevin Edward Crawford was born and got his middle name from my dad who died that same year
  
• 1964 - Joe graduated from U of A - no jobs in Tucson so we -


• Traveled to Chatham to visit my mother and wound up living a block away from her and..


• Joe got a great job in New York ( think Mad Men) and became a commuter and....


• Jody Lynn Crawford was born (named for a friend and me)


• We got our first clothes dryer


• 1965- Terry Jeanne Crawford was born (named for Joe's sister Jeanne)


• 1967- Kelly Ann Crawford was born ( named 'cause we liked the name)


• 1969- Jacky Diane Crawford was born ( named for Grandpa Jack and Diane Conlan)
  
  Is it any wonder that I missed the 60s altogether and Jody had to send me a book on it. I never learned to do the twist,- but I did manage to join War is Not Healthy For Flowers And Other Living Things and get an MIA/POW bracelet and become an election judge and get involved in Democratic Politics in our very Republican WASPY (2.5 kids and a dog) community. The kids went to my alma mater, St. Patrick's.
  
  Love is blind. Getting a clothes dryer with the third child is Ecstasy. Living a short block away from my mom and 3 loving aunts is nourishing. Living a short carriage walk across the Passaic River to my "bopchi's" house in Summit was the way we should all grow up - it was fattening, but nothing can replace those wonderful visits to the Matriarch who fed our souls and bodies.