A Sentimental Afternoon...

Hello everyone. I hope you are all enjoying your week.
I am sitting here with my cup of tea and reminiscing ....

Tomorrow, July 27th, would have been my father's birthday. Had he lived, he would have been 85.
Like my hubby, he preferred strawberry shortcake to birthday cake!

My Daddy favoured the Royal Albert Old Country Roses pattern and he had a couple of pieces of it which were passed on to me but he never did get a teacup. So, my darling hubby got me one in recognition of  Daddy's birthday so I could drink from it, in remembrance of him. My hubby is the best!

I will use it only on special occasions and give thanks for the wonderful father and husband who God blessed me with.

As I sit here with my cup of tea and reflect upon my memories of Daddy, I cannot help but think of those days gone by when he and my mother loaded up the car with my brother and me, and the camping gear, and headed for two glorious weeks at the beach.

My brother and I loved building sand castles on the shore and running through the woods to the canteen where we bought Popsicles and Lick-a-maids. We liked to explore too.

Come the end of July or early August, we always headed for the big Family Picnic. My mother always packed the big picnic basket to take with us.

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We would leave early in the morning to catch the ferry to Nova Scotia, which was where my father was from.

Courtesy of the Internet

Once we drove off the ferry, we would make the drive to my grandparents' or one of his sister's homes, and we would spend the weekend.... Are we there yet?

I would sing all the way over and all the way back. I was the family canary!

The yearly Family Picnic was one of the highlights of summertime. My brother and I were so excited to get together with our many cousins and eat as much pie as we wanted!

When Daddy's family got together, there was always lots of laughter. He had five siblings and he was the baby of the family. He was a character, so he kept everyone in  stitches. He really was just a big kid himself!

At the picnic, there was wall-to-wall food and everything was home made back in those days. There was creamy potato salad, {Mum always made the best} succulent fried chicken, juicy hamburgers, ice cream, fruit cobbler, and of course those mouth watering pies! 

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I remember well... One whole sideboard or table would be filled with those pies. The ladies in the family must have been baking for days for there was apple, blueberry, cherry, coconut cream and butterscotch, pumpkin, lemon meringue, raisin, mincemeat, and rhubarb. I may have forgotten a couple. And the best part; we could have any kind we wanted and as much as we wanted!

In those days my favourite was always blueberry and my mouth could attest to that! Nova Scotia, especially the area where my father grew up, is the blueberry capital of the world so blueberry pies were very plentiful.

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We played lots of games and at night, we sat around the campfire to roast marshmallows and hotdogs.

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Staying up late was a real novelty because my brother and I didn't get to do that very often.

This is a picture taken at one of those family get-togethers. I believe this was at my grandparents' 60th Wedding Anniversary. My father, my first baby boy, and me.

I miss those days! Most of them are gone now; my grandparents, most of my aunts and uncles, and even some of my cousins. After my grandparents passed, my father was the first one in the family to go. I have two aunts and an uncle left on my father's side of the family, and they are getting up in years. Time passes so quickly!

If you still have your father with you, give him a big hug and tell him how much you love him!

Thanks for the memories, Daddy. You will always be in my heart. 

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi