Cousins – Sherry sisters daughter and her family – the JONES – and Debby and two of her daughters – the Myers!
We journeyed to Sunset beach – to catch the sunset – it so happened that the JONES was visiting and the Myers were also here at the same time.
Through the years we have tried to be all together – but families spread out and lives are different – so many things going on in each family.
Grandmothers and granddaughters. On the beach in Myrtle beach – after some shopping at the outlet mall and some dinner all together at Barefoot Landing.
The little ones are growing up so fast – years seem to go by before we meet up.
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PAPA’S WORLD – COUSINS COMING TOGETHER – MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. livinglifedoingitmyway.blog
Today – I look back – back to the little ones – who now are the older ones and the next three whom I now call the little ones!
All six of the grandchildren several years ago before we moved to the Carolinas – this at our home in NVA!
Today – the oldest graduates from college – the second oldest is a Sophomore in college – the third oldest is a Sophomore in H.S.
The twins are in sixth grade and Bode – is in second grade.
All have been down to visit us – and the younger ones have spent a week’s vacation with us here at our new home!
The twins – Cassidy on the left and Taylor on the right – with Papa – they were so small when born – both just three pounds plus!
Today – Taylor – then Sarah ( who is 5’10”) and Cassidy – who is actually now growing faster than Taylor!
Sarah is a Sophomore in H.S.
MORMOR – Sherry – and Papa – at the beach shortly after Sherry retired early to pursue her Juice Plus business full time! She is a certified health coach and guides me in healthy eating.
Today the three oldest are with their parents – Maddy – then Ella and Sarah. They have all grown up!
Our memories of times gone by – forever young in our minds! Maddy – Sarah and Ella!
TAYLOR – love her smile!
Cassidy – the little determined one – loves her feisty attitude!
Bode – the only grandson out of five granddaughters – my little buddy – PAPA and BODE!
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PAPA and little CASSIDY.
PAPA and TAYLOR – who has turned into a horse rider and works in the barn!
Taylor – Sarah – Cassidy and Bode – cousins – at the ION ice rink in Leesburg, Va. There also is a full-size ice hockey rink here other than what you see behind them – with thousands of seats!
We got together with Sarah and her mother Debby for a two-hour skate – the kids loved it and they all helped Sarah who hasn’t skated since she was little!
The adults sat here at the table with a full view of the rink – I also went to the hockey rink and watched the youth hockey play – full pads!
Quite impressed with the arena which could rival the pros!
We were able to have food and drinks while watching the kids and they could join us for food!
Taylor who is 12 is almost as tall as Sarah who is 16 and around 5’10! Cassidy has been catching up to Taylor for the last year.
We then went to the grandkid’s house – for a short visit – exchanged clothes – and say our goodbyes!
Here are Sarah – Sherry – Debby – Cassidy and Taylor!
The afternoon ended too quickly but we all had such a good time and all the kids loved the ice skating!
Thanks for reading Papa’s World – livinglifedoingitmyway.blog Sarah – Cassidy – Bode – and Taylor go ice skating!
PAPA’S WORLD – just another day in our life – living life to the plus – one day at a time!
Sherry – Troy – Papa – it is hard to believe that the years have gone by so fast – here he is another year older – the man who builds houses from the ground up – everything – he is like my father – who as a young little boy – called him “FRITZ”!
Proud Papa – today he has hung up the house building and runs the insulation and energy side of Shawn’s business. Working on becoming able to also do the audits and be certified by the state.
Kindness – patience – loving – he got all of this from my mother – who, when he was young would go and stay with her as she was alone.
Today he and Andrea live together and do everything as one – hoping they both will come back and visit us!
In this picture, the eyes and smile so remind me of my older brother!
Before he went into the business of my younger son – a fireplace he built in a house he built!
My son – happy birthday and many more to come – love dad.
Troy – Papa – Shawn – oldest and youngest – love dad.
Papa’s World – livinglifedoingitmyway.blog To my oldest son Troy – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Our happy place awaits you to come back to – love Dad!
He had red curly hair – a smile a mile wide and a laugh and giggle that you knew right away who it was.
He was my younger brother – we were like a second family for my parents –
Donna and Roger were 15 and 10 years older.
We had a sister who died at birth in between the two sets of kids.
We fought like cats and dogs do – but we also were close.
He instigated a lot of it and would scream bloody murder as loud as he could when I had enough.
I was the one who into trouble but mom always knew as she later told me.
He was just o darn likable with that hair and giggle.
MOM ( Mary) Sue ( Susan) his wife and Mike ( we look alike here I think.)
We played all the time together – cowboys and Indian’s – running the neighborhood –
He was always hurting himself – one time he climbed up on top of a attached shed at a neighbors house.
He was going to ambush me but I saw him and pretended to shoot him.
I saw what he was going to do and I yelled STOP – but he did it anyway –
always acting real life he sort of collapsed and rolled off the shed to the ground as if dead.
But there was a stone bird bath under the shed roof and when he came down he hit his elbow on it!
Off to the doctors office we went and then in the ambulance to the hospital to have surgery on the elbow!
He had to have a pin put in and that elbow was off to the side -making his arm seem crooked.
Mom ( Mary) talking to Mike’s daughter Jennifer at the kitchen table.
A few years later – we were on the front porch – and he had climbed up onto the porch railing – I told him he had better get down before he fell.
Well – as always – he gave me that silly laugh and giggle – and I could not help but smile until he did fall.
At the end of the porch beneath that railing – a 2 x 10 stuck out – he came down and hit that board with his other elbow and we repeated the same thing all over again with another surgery – now he had two elbows exactly the same!
But -it seemed like it was a perfect solution for him as it perfected his golf swing and he had a lot of power and strength in those arms – one time I was with him – and this was way before anyone was hitting the ball 300 yards.
We were playing the old number one hole at Smethport – he was a Freshman – me just beginning my senior year –
He hit that ball and because of how his elbows were now shaped – he hit it straight with power. That hole was a gradual uphill some 305 yards!
His ball ended up past the hole and into the yard behind it! Some 50 or 60 yards past! Uphill!
If I had not been there to see it – I would not believe it!
Gene Fazio – who was a card member of the PGA and a premier golfer in the Pa. and NYS area –
told me – “IF I HAD MY SHORT GAME AND MIKE’S DRIVING – I WOULD GO ON THE PGA TOUR”!
Mike was a scratch golfer even with those elbows.
Mike later with a red beard and that red curly hair!
Mike ended up bigger than me – he was as tall as my father who was a little over six foot tall.
The brother’s – Roger – Mike and I got our curly hair from my dad – my grandfather was bald.
Mike ended up around 215 pounds and played football – but he could kick that ball just like he hit golf balls.
Far and straight – he became a field goal kicker way before that was common in H.S.
His kick offs were always through the end zone and he went on to college at Mansfield University of Pa.
Where he became the kicker for the college football team.
He graduated in Criminal Justice.
My step dad John – Sue and Mike.
As I said before he was always doing something and getting hurt!
He was riding my bike one day and I told him to get off as he was not big enough to ride it!
His legs could barley touch the pedals – sure enough his foot slipped and he came down on the cross bar –
off to the hospital we went again – operation for a rupture!
My brother in law Bill nick named him JUICE!
I really do not know why other than he was like electric – energy running through him – always a live wire!
Then one day Bill and I were sitting on the front porch –
and he said “HERE COMES JUICE”!
And then Bill said “JESUS CHRIST”!
And Bill hollered at him – “JUICE- PUT THE ROPE DOWN”!
But too late!
Mike was walking up the street twirling a dog rope with a clasp on the end of it over his head like a cowboy!
He got it too low just after Bill yelled to put it down and it started to wind around his head lower and lower.
It came around and smacked him right on the mouth –
“KNOCKING OUT HIS FRONT TOOTH”!
Off to the dentist office we went – oral surgery to extract what remained in his mouth of that tooth.
THAT IN A NUTSHELL WAS MY BROTHER MIKE!
Red hair – bearded – always smiling and that silly laugh – giggle.
I MISS HIM as he passed away when I was 35.
Sue Mike Jenifer
My brother MIKE – loved – close as brothers are – gone way too young – but never forgotten.
Family from WPA – far away but close to our hearts – MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
While they live far away – they are always near our hearts – love them and hope they come back down again!
Back in NVA – the little ones as I call them – MORMOR and PAPA we are to them – they always want us to come home! It was hard leaving them as they were with us constantly – but so far the three little ones have been down twice for a week to two weeks being with us – memories – fun times and “WHAT ARE WE DOING NEXT”?
Before there was Bode – now they are mostly grown up or about to be teenagers – memories – memories – not forgotten – loving
life.
Back just north of Winchester, Va. the oldest now – two in college – one in H.S. where has the time gone?
Two oldest played soccer in college – one her senior year this year – one a sophomore – the youngest a sophomore in H.S.
PAPA and SHERRY – family means a lot to us – memories of times gone past and memories of times to come!
CHRISTMAS DAY at our home – our first we have been here to celebrate – soon the young ones will come – MEMORIES!
CHRISTMAS – FAMILY – MEMORIES!
PAPA’S WORLD – livinglifedoingitmyway.blog – fitztdf@aol.com
We traveled back to NVA to have Thanksgiving with the Myers family – as we will not see them for Christmas.
We stopped and saw the Krohn family on our way north and spent a night and day with them as they will come down after Christmas for a few days and be with us.
Our three oldest granddaughters – Sarah – Maddy and Ella in the sunroom – working on some crafts and laughing!
Debby – Mike and Sherry getting the dinner ready. It was the best-tasting turkey I have had in a long time and the stuffing was even better!
The three granddaughters set the table – the Tower Garden in the background – growing year around indoors!
Chef Mike prepared the turkey and then cut it up! I do not know what he stuffed it with – but it was really juicy!
Ella – home from Randolph College – Sarah – A Sophomore in H.S. and Maddy – A Senior at The University of Lynchburg.
Debby lighting candles at the table for Thanksgiving dinner. Time for giving family thanks.
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PAPA’S WORLD – THANKSGIVING WITH FAMILY AT LAKE HOLIDAY, VA. THE MYERS FAMILY!
Now that I am 70 years old ( young ) – time to reflect -just how did I get here and where am I going down that long ( sometimes) journey of life !
My niece Terri and my brother Mike – with me in the middle
When I was born – I already had a brother ten years old at the time and a sister fifth teen years old . So – I was like the second family – and it stayed that way until I was four plus ten months – and then Mike came – shortly before that – my sister – who had married – gave birth to Terri.
My early childhood – was spent with my Grand Ma – who lived with us at that time – she was in her late 70’s and early 80’s. She was Penn. Dutch – and they had twelve children. They lived on a farm and grand pa – was a big man. The story goes during the depression – he would carry meat and flour to the neighbors to help them out. There was no money – but he had a kind heart. I never knew him as he passed before I was born in ’49 – he was hoisting a pig up to the barn rafters and suffered a heart attack. There is a family history of heart attacks on this side – all his sons suffered the same .
David and Nora Aiken – my grand parents -who lived ” Down Home ” in Pa.Corsica.
She cared for me while my parents worked – my Mom at Alcas – now known as Cutco – in Olean N.Y. and my dad as a supervisor in the oil fields for South Penn oil company , known as Penns. oil.
Tom at around age 2 or 3.
It was at this time my mother would not let me take my shirt off outside – she said ” People will think I am starving you ” ! You could count every vein and bone on my chest ! Today – well – you would be hard pressed to find either ! Where did that go !!
My great – great grand father and grand mother – Frank Schick and Sara.
I do not know much about them – other then when young – my grandmother Nora – left home and followed the lumber camps through out Pa. cooking meals and that is where she met my grand father David. But – I am told that they were Pa. Dutch .
My father – Clarence Russel Fitzsimmons
My father – he would take me to work with him when I was young- to the oil fields – I still remember the smells and the sounds. The chill air and all the big bull dozers. The tool houses that they pulled around and me riding in the seat next to Pat Murphy. Then there was Junior Greenman – and a host of other colorful men – the mud and Earth chewed up by the tracks of the dozer. My dad passed early in my life – when I had just turned 19. His family came from Ireland – County Tyrone – so I was told. A tale of FIVE brothers who came here in the mid 19th. century. Seeking fame and fortune, only to find that IMMIGRANTS such as they were – looked down on – and treated very badly – in that aspect – not much has changed – will we ever learn ?
My mother – Mary Aiken Fitzsimmons who lived to be almost 98 !
Mary – as most people called her – MOM to me – she was small but feisty – she ruled – talked soft – but I listened to her – we all did. She outlived my younger brother and my older sister. She wore a ball cap that said – ” I’M THE BOSS ” ! But she also could bake – pies – buns – cakes and home made bread ! She was known all over for that. And she also was known to a LOT of people. She would sit on her front porch – and all day long – as cars went past – horns would honk- windows come down and a big ” HELLO MARY” would come forth. If I were there – I would ask her who that was -she would just say ” OH , SOMEONE , THEY ALL DO IT ” !!!!
My brother in law Bill and my sister Donna & me.
My sister Donna – she also helped to raise me – my Mom would walk my brother and me down the street at 5:45 am. We would walk the long steps up to their apartment – and lie down in the little room set aside with a couch. Here we would sleep another hour until she would wake us up to eat and then off to school. Bill – my brother in law – was the town Police chief – but also drove all over the East coast delivering meat for White Hawk Meat Company. One time up near Boston – he was at a truck stop – and in came a crew from a radio station. Looking for a human interest story. They interviewed him – as he was both a Police chief and a truck driver – and that show aired on the radio – he got a copy of it – Larry King did the interview ! My mother outlived both of them.
My brother Roger and me.
Growing up – I had one hero in life – my brother Roger, I looked up to him and tried my best to be just like him. He was my idol and ten years older. He went away to college and became a national ” WHO’S WHO” – from all over the USA. He went into the Navy in OCS- and was a LT. during the ‘NAM war. He never came back to our home town to live – I moved into his bedroom after he left for college. I still remember all the things he left behind – on the walls – the club room he and his friends had in our basement. In his later years – after his wife passed – we would spend our Winters with him in The Villages in Florida – where this picture was taken. Hero’s and idols – I had one – and it was him.
1967 – senior picture – Tom Fitzsimmons
My life as I know it – I am writing this now because I am the last one living. All have now gone before me. I needed to get it down for my sons – grand children – great nieces and great great nephew. My brothers children and their children. A history of growing up in a little town called Eldred in NWPA. In the mountains so lush and green.
I am in the autumn of my own life – and the main purpose of this blog is to record the memories I have. As I have been writing daily for the past 8 years – only to have them somewhere in face book land.
Tom & Sherry Fitzsimmons
I owe this all to my wife – Sherry – who encourages me to write it down as she often says. So – with that being said – going back to the beginning –
“Where does it say we have to “ACT” our age ?”
As long as it makes me happy and I’m not hurting anyone –
” I WILL ACT WHATEVER AGE I WANT TO ” !
Besides – I learned a long time ago – when you are married –
” IT’S NOT FOR ME TO QUESTION WHY – BUT FOR ME TO DO OR DIE ” !!! LOL
Our family from WPA came to visit – driving some 16 hours – a very long trip!
First time for my two sons and their families to make the trip South.
Troy the eldest – Papa and Shawn the youngest.
We tried to work as much into the seven days as we could –
sometimes letting them go off on their own as we had other commitments
but we did sunrises and sunsets all together – beach time and places to eat out together.
Visiting the area and nature walks along with mini golf!
Andrea and Troy – selfie!
Our time together was priceless and I encouraged them to fly next time to be able to spend
more time on vacation and less time driving!
When we moved south to NVA in 1999 – they stayed in WPA for their families and jobs.
Relaxing on the mainland side of Sunset Beach in the park.
Our garage became a favorite place to meet and talk during rain and hot sunshine while at the house.
Shawn and Troy
Shawn runs his own Energy Auditing business contracting with major energy companies for the states of Pa. and firms from NYS. Troy works for and runs the insulation side of the business for Shawn and government and state programs for the elderly.
In the morning they left to drive back to WPA – not saying goodbye but until we meet again.
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