“JIMMY and PAPA” friends since 1977 – best buddies – friends – the same little town in NWPA!!!
Jimmy and I have played softball together – volleyball – golf – corporate cup competitions – family vacations – for years and years.
Friendships usually do not last that long – but this one is still ongoing – and he retired from the same company I did yesterday!
Dottie – Sherry – Cindy – Buck – Jimmy and Papa – friends all these years – neighbors – three of us worked for the same company – now all retired except Dottie who has a little over a year to go.
These friends go all the way back to 1980 – through thick and thin – NWPA and WNY – still going strong!
New years eve together for years and years – Cindy – Sherry, and Jim – starting off the end one year and the new one coming in.
Jimmy has been there since Sherry and I were married in 1982 – many vacations together with families – many times visiting each other – and soon – golfing together more often when Dottie retires.
A day on the ICW with all our friends and neighbors from back in WNY! Mike and Carol John joined us for a few days!
Thanks for reading PAPA’S WORLD – A tribute to one of my best friends – JIMMY BROWN – the best is yet to come!
A call came on Wednesday – can you make 4:30 pm. if I make tee times on Friday?
Of course, we can – make them and we will be there – and so we did.
Sherry and I left early as we wanted to do some things in Wilmington, N.C.
Unless we go for a certain thing or event – we do not get there all that often.
We were golfing at Magnolia Greens located some eleven miles from the city.
Our friends live there and I think it to be one of the better courses down here.
Twenty-seven holes – and we were playing just nine this late afternoon.
Now it looks like we are looking for balls in the water – but we were in a huge sand trap on a par three – Cindy was raking the sand and Buck and I were picking up my ball and going to play his on the grass.
LOL story of my life!
We once again played a scramble against the ladies and once again we lost!
We had a couple bad holes – but we also played well – here we are on in two – par four hole and a putt for a birdie – which we did not make and ended up with a par.
You can see where Bucks putt went and I had still had to putt – did not make it and we settled for a par.
I love golf on TV!
It turned out to be a great day – beautiful weather – no humidity – 80 degrees!
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – my site: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
Papa’s World – Magnolia Greens – golfing with friends on a late Friday afternoon.
Eating dinner after our four-hour boat ride on the ICW at OIB Fish Company – OIB
The four couples have been friends going on 35 years and some over 40 years.
We try to get together at least once or twice a year –
made more difficult because some still live in WNY and another couple in Va. Beach.
While Sherry and myself live 32 miles from the McBrides now.
A little humor to start your day!
Sherry and Papa steering the pontoon boat on the ICW from OIB to Holden Beach
We all rented a pontoon boat for four hours to cruise up and down the ICW from OIB – to Holden Beach and back to Sunset Beach – where we saw a lone Dolphin for over 15 minutes diving for food in 8 feet of water.
Jim Papa and Buck
It was really busy being labor day weekend – countless boats going both ways and creating waves!
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
To be continued with more pictures of the ICW and friends.
Papa’s World – about to depart on the ICW with a young man getting us out of the crowded dock area.
PAPA’S WORLD – FUN TIMES – OLD FRIENDS – GETTING TOGETHER!
We all stay in touch – a group of friends from back in the days living in WNY and WPA!
All of us lived near each other or just across the Pa. line.
Slowly we all moved South – to now the N.C. region – Wilmington to OIB
with one couple in Va. Beach and the other couple still in WNY.
We golf together whenever we can – playing scramble guys vs gals – and one other couple – still lives back in WNY – sometimes they also make it down – this time they did not but they were here last year.
Jim – Buck – Papa – Mike
Mike and Carol still live back in WNY – own and operate a large painting business with crews traveling out to the midwest and everywhere in between – painting pipelines etc.
They have a lake house that we go up and stay with them.
The FOUR AMIGOS
Thanks for reading – to be continued – old friends coming together – going on 40-plus years!
Buck – Cindy Sherry – our first time golfing on the island.
We had seen this course when we vacationed here about ten years ago –
and we both said “SOMEDAY”!
Well – that day came and we met our friends Buck and Cindy there –
however – we could look out to the ocean and see a storm – thunder and lightning and
we had some sprinkles!
So we decided to go into the bar & grill – have a drink and wait it out!
Which after some 35 minutes – it looked like it had passed and we began.
I had already hit from the tees father back – and this is number one – this course I like because it is open!
MY GENERATION!
My phone takes a picture and if you hold your finger on it – it actually goes through the swing – I wish you could hear the sound on this tee off by Sherry – SMACK – she connected straight down the fairway.
This one is also her second shot off the fairway – “SEE THE SOUND” as I have been told!
YEP – ME! LOL
It was a good day golfing – the rain did come back on the last two holes but was just a sprinkle –
It was a good first time golfing here and we both want to go back.
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
OUR DREAM GOLFING – THIS TIME OAK ISLAND, N.C. WITH FRIENDS!
In the midst of the Alleghany hills – amongst the green and lush valleys – sits a little community-
Population – around 800 souls – and back then – I knew almost every one of them!
Eldred Pa.
The town sits on the Alleghany river which eventually flowed into Pittsburg – but – it flowed North first!
Yes – it left Pa. and flowed into NYS before flowing once again South through Pa.
It ends up in Pittsburg some three-plus hours away.
We would be considered the snow belt – some 80 miles south of Lake Erie and Buffalo N.Y.
I helped a friend of mine growing up with his paper route – his name was Brent – and we hung out.
He bought a go-cart with his money and he would let me ride on it.
He was two years older than I and eventually married my cousin.
Funny how that worked out – he graduated and I lost track of him.
The town nestled in the hills.
I would ride my bike everywhere – I had to be home each night for dinner and before the street
lights came on. Every night at 10 o’clock sharp – the siren from the firehouse would blow-
You could hear it all over the town – that was “CURFEW” for the streets –
I think no one under 18 could be out and about!
My first friend I can remember is the girl next door – her name was Sharon – and she had a big brother whom everyone called Sonny “KING” – and he dressed in a black leather motorcycle jacket and slicked his hair back like Elvis!
Sharon and I were like brother and sister – we would watch Lassie together – play on the front porch –
sneak a corncob pipe and gather silk from the corn and smoke –
puff it – in the big red barn behind the house.
We would walk to school together – and our route always was behind the main street along the tracks.
Behind the Eldred Garage and then on the tracks themselves.
Just before the creek – Lynches lived and behind their house was a tree –
like a little island raised up on a piece of land.
We would sit there and play our Kazoo’s together –
“THREE BLIND MICE”
That was all I knew how to play! LOL
She moved away and my sister and her husband moved in right next door!
Bill Luce – on the left – my brother-in-law.
Over his shoulder is the greenhouse I grew up in – my bedroom was the two windows on the second floor –
after my older brother Roger left for college.
Every morning I would wake up to the birds singing in the tree outside that window –
the Sunlight would come streaming in –
There was the main street – highway right out front –
and I would sleep and hear the sound of cars – trucks rolling by –
and then – the accidents that happen right there –
crashes would hit the cars parked there.
Some – I sept right through – others – would jolt me right out of bed.
That curb was where my best friend and I were sitting one early morning after midnight –
he was sleeping over and my parents had gone somewhere –
we got into the hootch under the sink.
My sister came out and grilled us –
“ARE YOU GUYS DRUNK”?
No I said and right at that time a car came
and the lights showed right on my friend – and he got sick –
and threw up all over the place!
” HE IS,” I said! LOL,
my sister always laughed at that and would tell the story many times over and over!
My friend and drinking buddy – lower right-hand corner!
We have reconnected about fifteen years ago at a class reunion –
he spent about a week here last October –
and we played golf once again – after some 55 years have gone by since we last played together!
My brother Roger and Sherry – a few years before he passed away – gone but not forgotten.
He was my hero growing up – ten years older than I –
named WHOS WHO in American colleges
OFFICERS TRAINING SCHOOL and a Lt. in the navy.
His bedroom became mine – when he came back I would sleep on the floor.
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – to be continued in livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
Just a little over a month later from our New Years Eve beach gathering and toast to 2021
We once again were back to see the sunset – only it was windy and cold –
far from the 65 degrees of NYE!
The approaching sunset peeking through the trees!
Papa – Diane and Sherry
We first parked and walked to the end of the street – here the last of the end of the houses –
and this then begins Bird Island – marshland protected and wide-open beach.
Our neighbor Diane
The tide was going out!
Here you see the last of the houses on the marsh and bayside – with the tide going out – This is the end of Sunset Beach and the beginning of Bird Island.
Sun setting – time to go to the beach.
This is where we gathered for NYE and drank a toast to 2021!
The pier and people walking the beach.
Sherry – braving the wind chill – it was cold.
As we looked out on the ocean – to think we can do this every night if we want to –
and there still is Ocean Isle Beach – living our dream.
One final look before we returned home – Sunset at SUNSET BEACH, N.C.
We have been here a half dozen times since we first came down to S.C. – North Myrtle Beach.
We have taken company here also.
It is a park – nature – walk out across the march along the ICW.
Walkways over the marshes.
We did not know what it was so one day we just turned into the entrance and drove a mile or so toward the ICW – and came to a parking lot-bathroom area – park – with swings and gazebos.
A view over the marsh to the ICW
The ICW is full of boat traffic and the two big Casino boats in Little River come right past here.
Ella Sarah Sherry walking across the marsh on the boardwalk.
You can hike miles in here – a map shows all the trails.
The trail map – other trails cross back and forth – but this is the main trail
The hiking trail through the woods
While there – you come to a MAKE A WISH section!
Thousands of seashells hang from trees and bushes
You find a seashell – bring a marker and string – make a wish – write down your name
And then you find a spot and tie your shell to a branch – take a picture so you remember!
It is a little magical place – a place to sit and just gaze out over the ICW – maybe see an eagle.
Our grandchildren have done this.
We go back – sometimes we find the shells – storms seem to take them out.
But – when we do find them – memories of times spent with family and friends return.
Thank you for reading Papa’s World – VAREEN GARDENS – “MAKE A WISH ON A SHELL”
Bobby and I go back to grade school in the mid-’50s and then onto graduation.
Jimmy and I go back to the very early ’70s and the start of playing softball for ten years or more.
Both have been in my majority of life although separately – never meeting one another.
That all changed when they both came to visit and now today they are also friends.
Bobby hitting first across the water to the green – Jimmy watching and will hit next – we played a scramble.
Bob’s wife Pam and my wife Sherry – went away for an extended weekend to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tenn.
To Gatlinburg and a health conference with 12 other ladies!
We decided to do this and play some golf.
We went across the street from Cameron Woods – Ocean Isle Beach where we live and play one of the BIG CAT COURSES!
There are four of them over there and this one is called Panther’s Run.
Jimmy putting it on the green with the second shot
They hit it off right away – Jimmy is about eight years younger than us – Bob knew his family but was long gone from Eldred when Jim and I started playing softball together.
Bobby laughed at something Jimmy said.
Jimmy after making the approach shot to the green.
Time to contact the wife!
Another approach shot on the green.
Nothing but the truth here! LOL
And of course, we headed to a Tiki Bar at Jinks Creek to have a drink and dinner!
Thank you for reading Papa’d World – WHERE FRIENDS MEET OUR FAMILY – FAMILY MEETS OUR FRIENDS!
My two oldest friends – Bobby and Jimmy – never met and now are friends! This is how it goes in PAPA’S WORLD!
A view from inside to outside from our newly built house – our covered and closed in Lanai. Our Tower Garden – in less than five weeks – lush green with tomatoes and cucumbers coming – fresh lettuce’s and herbs – no pesticides and all grown here in dirtless – weedless enviorment with nutrients and natural minerals from the earth developed into a tonic. Just add water and tonic.
We sold our home in Va. when the stock market took a huge dive.
Our 401K went down – but two things also happened –
Her on line business stayed the same – providing income along with SS and the 401K and pensions –
and the home values shot up in our neighborhood – it was time to SELL!
In just 19 days we sold – completly moved out and had enough to finace this new house in N.C.
We came South after almost three months living with our daughters and their families.
For nine months in searching – and then committing – we built our new home.
Now – I must say – we took a big hit on the 401K ( it since has almost come all the way back)
But – our partime on-line business continued – and we just moved it from Va. to SC to NC –
never missing a beat – and in the process – when we sold the house – we also sold 98% of the furnishings!
WE WERE STARTING A NEW LIFE ALL TOGETHER IN THE SOUTH!
eWe left behind families – but these three – instead of a camp – both parents work – thir parents bought them plane tickets – Sherry flew up and came back with them for a week with us!
We have three older granddaughters – two now in college and both starting on their college soccer teams.
The third is a freshman in HS –
we want to get them and their parents down for a visit –
but schedules have to be cordinated.
Our daughter of this family – also is a CERTIFIED HEALTH COACH
and has surpassed her mother in the same on line business from her home .
Achieving QMD in the company – working together with her mother.
Next month – 8 or 9 team members will travel to the Smokey Mountains to a cabin in the mountains –
for a retreat to once again reconnect –
which has the pandemic keeping them apart.
Although everything is on line -they miss being social and miss seing one another.
Keeping in touch – zoom meetings – calls – life goes on – friends – partners – phones – voxes – business as usual.
We do have friends here in N.C. and have for the last 35 years.
We have been visiting them for 25 years after they left our neighborhood in NYS!
We came to really like the area and made it a place to look –
but then along came NMB –
and then Ocean Isle Beach –
so we choose to settle there.
We still are 40 to 45 minutes away – but they play golf in our area –
and have for years and years.
We try to see and play golf once a week –
and we all are fans of the Bills ( we also like Washington)
There are many theaters and concerts we attend together –
FRIENDS –
A new life with old friends – and making other friends along the way.
There is a rainbow for us after relocating!
While it is hard to say goodbyes –
it also is so rewarding to hug and say hello when they visit!
We have been fortunate – a passive income –
a family that understands –
and friends for years.
Moving South has been a new adventure –
and thank you for reading this.
Papa’s World is a continuation of my life seen through my own eyes daily.
My motto remains the same –
“WHERE FRIENDS MEET OUR FAMILY & FAMILY MEETS OUR FRIENDS”!
We had just made our first slow loop around the cove on the tube – Cindy and I.
The sky turned gray – and we could see the rain coming – so we got back on the boat – pulled the tube up on the rear walkway – and headed into the covered dock area.
I had tried tubing – even if it were a slow trip around – and I was ready to go back out again and speed things up!
It was a quick rain shower and we drove onto the boat lift which is covered.
There was no lightening – just a steady rain.
We talked and decided to once again go tubing – this time a little bit faster – as the first time was sort of boring!
The rain continued for about a half hour – and we could watch it from under the canopy. We had some munchies and drinks – and were dry – the boat has a really good radio so we listened to music and talked.
Cindy and I – life jackets on – the rain almost stopped – for the time being – we were dry!
Thank you for reading Papa’s World – MY SITE: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog fitztdf@fitztdf
Next – after the rain – riding the tube and the waves – cross it off my bucket list.
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