Elizabeth Moore Excell

Several days before the Skyway Festival, my mandolin playing friend Reyna and I decided to hook up at her place of employment at the green house at Colgate University to practice. What a heavenly cake job she has in this state of the art green house! To be able to work in a steamy, tropical environment with exotic and colorful blooms in the dead of a New York winter would be the ultimate happy pill for me! So practice we did to my song Rim of the World the song I wrote after reading the highly acclaimed book promoted by Oprah called, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Which, by the way made total sense to me and I highly recommend it as a book to read and to keep it near. I go back to it quite often.
After our practice Reyna asked me if I had time to visit with a lady who works upstairs as her great grandmother once lived in my house! WOW! Of course I have time for a visit! Come to find out I already knew this lovely person from days gone by! Her name is Janice Holt and her grandmother was Elizabeth Moore Excell. Elizabeth, before immigrating to America was once a hand maiden to the queen of England! Janice also had a old shot of Elizabeth which she gave to me.
With this new treasure in hand I went home and showed the picture around the house in a ghostly dance singing, Elizabeth do you remember this room?...Or this room? Bill came home and I showed him the black and white shot of Elizabeth asking him if he recognized this woman. He said no of course an was quite impressed when I told him it was Elizabeth Moore Excell the great grandmother of my new/old friend Janice and she once lived in this very house! So here is the shot of Elizabeth un-retouched in all its cracks and flaws.
Janice's mother, Bernice remembers her mother, Elizabeth, saying, "Here comes Hanner", referring to Hannah Williams, who was her neighbor, and who lived on Williams Road."
Janice's mom, Bernice Excell Holt spent a lot of time with her grandparents on this farm which is now my home as a child.
I'd love to get my hands on a shot of the farm that was across Williams Road from my house. I have a garden out back of my house and when I was digging it out years ago found several horse shoes and chards of pottery and other relics from the past. Bill thought that area was where the old horse barn was.
So, this is the story of two woman who were friends in days gone by on my quiet country road and I'm willing to bet Hannah Williams lived in the old Victorian up on the hill where my dear friend Leigh Yardley lives now being the only old house near the old apple orchard. Leigh and I walk and meet many times on this road and I'd like to think Hannah and Elizabeth are both picking apples and chatting away in the old, but sadly overgrown apple orchard while Leigh and I do the same walking our dogs and discussing what ever we may.
I now am motivated to clean up the orchard out back and replant some tree's in both Elizabeth and Hannah's memory. I also did go down to the cemetery in Hubbardsville with Lucky Lou Fifty and had a look around for several hours in hopes of finding Elizabeth's grave but to no avail. Perhaps her stone is one of the oldest, broken stones there. Very unfitting if you ask me, her being the hand maid to the queen of England and all.

Father's Day Drink Special

It just seemed appropriate...I'm making the best out of these first's!

Closure

At long last, we got my dad planted. In a lovely shaded spot in the West Hill Cemetery in between Sherburne and Smyrna under a large maple tree. It was a short but sweet service with a luncheon at mom's after wards. I had a surprisingly tearful morning. I thought I was cried out.
Dad would of been rolling in his grave (but he wasn't in it yet...his ashes were sitting still above it) as he was the last one to arrive and was late for his own funeral. Mom forgot his picture and Jeff had to turn around at Lewis's to back tract three miles to get it.
So...on we go with our hearts full of love and memories. He was and is the best dad and pop pop...ever.

Skyway 2010

The 4th annual revamped Skyway was a small but sweet success! Its not the easiest thing raising money in a recession. Ya know!
With the Earlville Opera House on board this year and the Odd Fellows we were able to hire John Cadley and the Lost Boys to perform. Other acts included Chris White "Isto", Zero Flow, Ed Vollmer,David Williams and Maren Van Tine,the Adishaki Dancers and last but not least myself and Reyna Stagnaro.
This year we had signature picnic dishes donated by Nichols and Beal, The Colgate Inn, Rusches, Michaels and the Barge Canal Coffee House.
We didn't raise as much as I had hoped but the new venue down on the Hooks Wiltse Field is a keeper.
So many thanks go out to so many people!
Kathy Herold of the Hamilton Center of the Arts for painting this years Skyway Lounger. My husband Bill for building the lounger, Linda Sybist the photo shop queen from Van Tines for the posters, David Grace for the signs, the Odd Fellows, Rich Grant, all the restaurants, Patti Lockwood Blais and her husband Steve, Mike Jaquays, and David Hollis.
Here's a few shots!

Lucky Lou Fifty

He did it. My husband planned my surprise 50th Birthday. And I was surprised. After teasing him and the rest of my family that they only had two years to plan it. (The teasing and reminders started about when I was 48 or so..) my husband pulled it off. The closer my 50th got, the more guilty I had begun to feel at being so selfish for even wanting a surprise! I've planned many a party for many a person and it seemed like I should have surprise for my 50th. Then dad passed and everything became the first time with out him...Year of Firsts...First Thanksgiving, first Christmas, first New Years Eve and day. First mothers day...every day was a first sad day with out him. I came to dread my upcoming birthday. I honestly didn't know how I was gonna get through such a milestone with out him. I've spent probably every birthday with my father whether it was at his house or my house or out some where special. Thinking back to my 40th birthday, my gift to myself was a beautiful white cat. The first cat I ever bought at a pet shop. On that birthday, I also gifted myself with margarita glasses imported from Mexico with the blue rimmed edge. We all celebrated that year with a mexican fiesta at my house and Dad just having come back from a trip from the mid-west was telling us all that while listening to hours of the radio while on the road, this crazy DJ was wishing all the locals happy bert-days! Dad figured out the guy meant birth-day, but on account of the mid-western drawl going on he was pronouncing the word bert-days. So my new white kitten was named Bert. He was my happy bert-day cat. Dad named him.
Two nights before my May 19th birthday Dad came to me in a dream. I was in the bar at Michaels where I work, and walked across the lobby to the front dining room where a table was set up in the middle and my whole family was sitting around it. And there next to my mother sat my father. I was stunned and ran around the table to where he sat and cried and hugged his shoulders and said you're not supposed to be here. Over and over again he said "I know, I know." But he was there. I'll never forget that dream. I'm so glad to have seen him again...dream or not.
So the weekend before this dream and my birthday, Bill and I went to Stillwater for a weekend escape. At some point my mother asked me what I wanted. As she said no one can plan a party like you can Pam. I thought about it and in trying to keep it simple and not so costly. I said it would just be nice to have my immediate family and a few close friends just go somewhere in the Adirondacks for dinner and an over night.
So as we pulled into the Stillwater Inn, I was disappointed to not see any familiar family cars in the parking lot. No surprise party at Stillwater.
So Tuesday came an I went to work at Michaels for my five o'clock shift where Mr. Duke approached me and said he was sorry not to be able to give me my birthday off the following day as we were gonna be busy. I didn't have a problem working on my birthday...after all there are cell phones bills to pay.
Well the party was right there at Michaels in the front dining room where I had my dad dream.
I was surprised as any one could be.
What a spread! Great food and my closest friends, Rich, Linda, Di, Molly, Meredith, Chris, Mitch and Jesse, my whole family, Mel and Carolyn. I was sad to not see Jen or Ed and David.
It was a great party.
Nanny made me open my presents there...(I felt stupid and wanted to just take them home) but Nancy insisted and pushed me down into a chair where I started unwrapping doggy toys.
I kept looking at my daughter Aurora and asking her...am I getting a dog? I was almost scared!
The in came Nancy with a dog carrier and the tiniest little white dog with cream colored ears.
I was floored and quite tearful.
His name is Lucky Lou Fifty and I love him so.