Why I Oughta...

Our Indiana Street purple Iris is blooming (again).   I posted a photo showing the pointed foliage tips emerging from the mulch early this Spring .  And now, we're getting a purple flower show on the side of our front porch.  The Iris came from my Sister who dug it out of her (and our...for two years) neighbor Wes' garden before it was destroyed by a teardown.  Wes (and my sister and us) all lived on Indiana Street.  Hence...me calling this our "Indiana Street Iris". We don't have too many flowers in our garden and I think I've been conditioned to think of irises as a flower that would be in 'your grandmothers garden' and something pedestrian.  (note...I also don't know the difference between Siberian and Bearded Irises...) I suppose I put them in the same category as Daylilies.  Something that I'm sure is fine for YOUR garden, but not something I need in mine.   I'm not totally sure why I feel that way.  But, I'm starting to think ...

Back a few years, my sister gifted me a clump of purple bearded (I think) Iris that came out of her (and...for a couple of years...MY) neighbor's garden . His name was Wes and he had a couple of rows of Irises that lined his driveway.  Wes and his wife moved away and his house was torn down for a McMansion to go up on the property.  But, before the bulldozers arrived, Vic dug up some of the Irises.  I planted them on the side of our house and they flowered that first season .   Last Spring - in early April - I posted a walkabout that showed early foliage including these Iris tips .  Looks like these are about three weeks ahead of 2022.  See below for the tips: Wes' garden might be gone.  And, we might have moved off of Indiana Street.  But, with this plant, I can say that little bit of Indiana Street (and Wes' garden) are alive and well over here in Downers. 

 At the beginning of June, I posted a photo of the newly transplanted "Indiana Street Iris" that I received from my Sister Vic via her next door neighbor Wes and Suzie.  I'm calling it my Indiana Street Iris since it hails from Indiana Street.  After getting it in the ground, it surprised me by blooming pretty quickly - and you can see this purple bloom on the Iris in very early June - see the photo below:

We lived on Indiana Street in Elmhurst for almost ten years.  In two houses.  One of our own .  And one of Equation Boy/Man and my Sister Vic's .  Our last few years there, we lived next to a couple named Wes and Susie (hmmm...maybe Suzy?  Or Suzie? Who knows...I never asked how to spell it) who were good neighbors.  They had a hot tub and some nice Japanese Maple trees.  Wes was an artist who loved dogs and liked our little puppy (at the time) Lizzie.   One of them spent time in the garden.  (see Japanese Maples) And they had a front parking spot (not quite a driveway because they used the alley behind the house and had a garage back there) that was lined with Bearded Irises.  They always put on a nice show.   Fast forward to this Spring and Wes and Susie have moved out and someone is tearing down the house to build something new.  My Sister Vic was able to grab some of those Bearded Irises from the front and save th...

Over the weekend, I posted a vintage photo of my family 1 at Walt Disney World back in the early 1980's and talked about how I wasn't sure EXACTLY where the photo was taken nor was I sure why my sister and I were wearing these white tags on our clothes.  Here, again, is the photo in question below showing three of us wearing Mickey Ears and my mom looking very chic in the Florida heat. See those tags on me and my Sister next to me that seem to be pinned or tied to our shirts?  Earlier this week, I posted about the details and solved *that* part of the mystery:  those are "Lost Parent" Tags with Mickey and Minnie Mouse on them .    But, I still didn't know the location.  Of course, we're in a hat shop.  And, the cast member is wearing some sort of lederhosen-like outfit.  But, was it in Epcot @ the Germany pavillion?  Was it at The Chapeau in Magic Kingdom?  I wasn't sure.   But, I knew that someone WOULD know the location....

My sister Vic sent me this photo of us at Walt Disney World from when we were very young.  It is my Mom (very stylish, right?), my second oldest sister Sharon, my sister Vic and - of course - myself.  I'm assuming my oldest sister is the one taking the photo, right?  We're all wearing Mickey Ears and my mom is holding a fourth pair in the photo.  But, where are we?  It seems like we are (obviously) in a hat shop, but looking at the cast member's uniform, I wonder if there's a way to figure out the location.  Is this inside The Chapeau in the Magic Kingdom - the big hat shop?  Or, are those lederhosen that the Cast Member is wearing?  Could this be inside the Germany Pavillion at Epcot?   I can't confirm this, but my parents tell me that they went to Walt Disney World during the opening year of Magic Kingdom - so sometime between October 1971 and September of 1972.  And, if that is, indeed, true, might my Mom have booked another trip...

I was in the KotBT's room recently and saw that Nat had a stack of vintage felt pennants on his dresser that she was dealing with/sorting in an attempt to put some up on the walls of his room.  They ALL were pretty neat, but there are a couple from the collection that I think are worth documenting on this here blog. The first one is this one you see above - Fighting Illini Football Rose Bowl 1984.  This pennant is one of MINE - from when I was a kid.  I remember it well.  It came - along with a whole host of boxes from my childhood - from my parents when they moved out of my childhood home.  It was one of a few pennants that they (somehow??) saved. This one is of particular interest to me - and I love that it is going in our boy's room.  I had a sister that was a number of years older than me.  And one of my earliest memories is of visiting her down at the Six Pack in Champaign during her freshman year.  I would have been four or five years o...

I've written a few times about the Chicago Athletic Association here in Chicago over the years .  It is a place that holds a special meaning in my my life as it was where my oldest sister was married back in the early 1990's.  It has since been reborn as an uber-hip hotel with a cool rooftop bar (Cindy's).  I've been there for both drinks with friends and also work meetings/events .  On a couple of occasions, I've come across artifacts from the CAA at stores and estate sales.  Nat and I have bought a few serving pieces for my sister and her husband and given them as Christmas/birthday gifts over the years.  The CAA has a wide variety of serving pieces and dishes that have been sold/taken that have shown up in the market online, too.  This is a silver spoon from Reed and Barton that I when I saw it, I knew that I had to buy it.  When you pick it up, you notice that it is old.  It is tarnished and just feels old.  It is heavy yet ...

I didn't want to get too far away - calendar-wise - from Halloween before I got around to posting the pics of this pretty awesome vintage McCoy Pottery pumpkin Halloween mug.  Or...at least that's what I thought it was when I came across it the first time.  I saw it, picked it up and immediately turned it over to reveal this mark:  McCoy LTD USA.  Hmmm....McCoy?  But...McCoy LTD? I went to my phone to find out if it was, indeed, the McCoy that we have some pieces of (and my oldest sister Linda collects).  A quick turn to the McCoy Collectors Society page, reveals this subpage all about McCoy Limited .  And if you scroll down, you'll see a pumpkin.  Not this one, but a pumpkin.  And a close read of the copy tells us that this, is, indeed the real deal : Halloween is a favorite holiday of many and is well represented by various sizes of Jack-O-Lantern items. Among these are cups, napkin holder, salt and pepper set, and different s...