PattyTrish

I recently learned that my grandfather’s parents came from Stoke-sub-Hamdon. They were from the Chant and Walters families. Someday I would like to spend time in this town.

Well, first I gotta get to Bellingham….

See more about Newtown Borough at: http://boro.newtown.pa.us/

I live down the street from the Brick Hotel. The first time I went, my niece and her future husband took me, and my parents, there for dinner. It was the first time we had met her future husband. He AND the restaurant were both very very nice and they now have two children (12 and 10) – my niece and her husband, not the restaurant!! We ate in the porch at night, such a relaxing spot

Then, we had a birthday party for one of my aunts. That was during the day and was inside.

Could it really be thirty six years ago??

When I was a young teen my Presby church youth group joined with several other churches’ youth groups for a week long summer camp at Camp Ockanickon, NJ! I believe I went two summers. I think each summer each girl, including me, had a new crush on some newly met boy….sigh….

We had crafts, swimming in the lake, canoeing, Bible studies, lots of games, and campfires at which we sat, sang funny and spiritual songs, and heard stirring preachers. It now seems oldfashioned but it was good.

I wasn’t overly fond of the cabins (sorry Bill) as they had spiders and other creepy crawlers, but I survived!

My experiences there were positive, the counselors and other adults treated me with respect (I bring that up because of all the bad stories that come out of church-related abuse) and I think they were positive role models for me.

I think, will have to look this up, I think the lake was cedar water? There are a couple of cedar water lakes in that region, very interesting swimming in it – neat smell…

There was a snack shop, I think it was called the “Indian Trading Post” (how politically incorrect now!) It was open for about an hour an evening and you could get candy or postcards, stamps, etc.

I’ll have to try to remember more…It WAS a LONG time ago!!!

The Flying W Ranch is a working, mountain cattle ranch located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that has specialized in western food and entertainment since 1953. In our high season we entertain and serve dinner to over a thousand persons nightly.

The Flying W has a winning combination of beautiful natural surroundings, an authentic old western town and mouth-watering food.

FROM: http://www.flyingw.com/

I love ice cream and I want to visit Bellingham!

From the Bellingham Herald 7-23-06:

From the boss: “Mallard makes gourmet small-batch ice cream out of real food ingredients, with an emphasis on local and organic ingredients. We’re serving extremely fresh gourmet ice cream in a really colorful, fun, welcoming environment.”

Ben Scholtz, owner
Reader rave: “I just love it because they use the flavors of the season, like strawberry. After the (Bellingham) Farmers Market we always stop at Mallard for ice cream. There’s a really nice feeling in there.”

Wendy Urquhart, Laurel
Highlights: It may have moved recently to futuristically furnished new digs on Railroad Avenue (nab a seat near the fabulous fireplace), but this local favorite still dishes out the same homemade, sinfully rich and exotically flavored ice cream.
A glance around Mallard shows a mix of families, college kids, high school students and young couples in hog heaven. They’re all slurping up cones and sundaes made from inspired concoctions such as mint chocolate chip, exotica rose petal and black pepper flavors.
For the calorie conscious there are fat-free (but no less scrumptious) fruit sorbets.

AND THE WINNERS ARE … 1. MALLARDS ICE CREAM AND CAFE

1323 Railroad Ave.

734-3884

Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday

My first visit to the Sistine Chapel was not the most pleasant. As I gazed ceilingward, a person standing next to me got sick to their stomach and promptly vomitted. I wondered if she got dizzy looking up so much!

Fortunately, that is a rare event, and since I lived in Rome 2 years, I was able to see the Chapel numerous times as I took friends and visitors around town for a tour.

I did this in the 1980’s so I haven’t seen the Chapel since it was cleaned. I would like to see that now, and to see how different it is in colors, mood, impact.

There is some terrific artwork in the Vatican Museums around the Chapel. Worth seeing, too.

Pat T

PEZ museum pops up in Pennsylvania

EASTON, Pennsylvania (AP)—Only about a yardstick high, Andrew O’Toole dashes back and forth with a fiery energy, shouting the names of his favorite superheros.
“Spider-Man! A Ninja Turtle! ... Batman!” he cries, his father shuffling alongside him.

Andrew is stalking every corner of the recently opened Easton Museum of PEZ, a cotton-candy colored world of PEZ products that can captivate young and old alike.

The museum is just paces away from The Crayola Factory, another childhood playground where kids learn how crayons are made.
Some 1,500 PEZ dispensers, all nestled in creative landscapes, fill the museum.

Disney PEZ sit in a 10-foot-high castle. Halloween-themed PEZ are displayed in a haunted house. And psychedelic PEZ are set beside a real Volkswagen Beetle that appears to be crashing through the wall.

Owners Kevin and Tim Coyle hope to entice some of the 400,000 or so yearly Crayola visitors to turn left out of the crayon factory and walk 30 seconds down a mural-filled alley to visit the shrine to the hand-held candy dispensers.

And if 4-year-old Andrew is the Coyles’ typical customer, then the brothers have a hit on their hands.”We were at the Crayola Factory and he wasn’t nearly as excited,” said Andrew’s father, Kevin O’Toole, of Garden City, New Jersey. “Plus they did a really good job. Everything’s at eye level for kids.

“You know what made me laugh when I came in?” O’Toole continued. “I had that Hulk one when I was little, and then you look at the price.”

PEZ collecting an expensive pastime

The Hulk PEZ that O’Toole was referring to was priced at about $75—and that’s on the inexpensive end for rare PEZ dispensers. One of the more expensive PEZ the Coyles have on display is a baseball glove, ball and bat PEZ from the 1960s. It cost about $400. Even that is not overly expensive. Collectors on eBay push prices for ultra-rare PEZ into the thousands. That rare PEZ dispensers can command such high prices is one demonstration of a recent surge in PEZ’s popularity.

Jill Cohen has run the PEZAMANIA collectors convention in the Cleveland area for more than a decade. The first event attracted only a couple dozen people. Now considered the premier PEZ convention by collectors, the convention can attract over a thousand.

“Now I have to get the biggest ballroom in Cleveland,” Cohen said. “I’ve outgrown three hotels.”

Interest in PEZ has spiked in the last decade, fueled by a nostalgia for childhood toys and the Internet. “For me it combines the two favorite elements of childhood—that’s toys and candy,” Cohen said.

The Easton museum, which opened in mid-July, is already getting positive reviews on PEZ chat rooms, Cohen said. And one name widely known in PEZ circles - Shawn Peterson, author of the book “Collector’s Guide to PEZ” - called the museum “a great place.”

“The location just couldn’t be any better, and what they’ve done with it is really nice,” said Peterson.”They’ve done a nice job with their displays, how they’ve got everything themed,” he said. “You may not see some rare things there, but they’ve probably got more work in their displays than anyone else.”

The history of PEZ

PEZ, derived from the German word for peppermint, pfefferminz, was first produced for adult smokers in Austria more than 50 years ago. The bite-sized candies have been in the United States for about 50 years. The Orange, Connecticut-based company says more than 3 billion PEZ candies are consumed annually in the United States.

The Easton museum, which lays out the dispensers by era and genre, shows how the candies have changed over the years.

There are NFL PEZ and superheros, Star Wars and Charlie Brown. Elton John and Santa Claus. There is also a “Where in the World is Waldo” game the brothers have set up on a wall display containing more than 500 dispensers.

There is a nominal entrance fee for the museum, and the store sells hundreds of PEZ products. Neither the Easton museum nor another PEZ museum in Burlingame, California, near San Francisco, is affiliated with the PEZ candy company.

“My brother and I have been joking to each other, ‘How do you like having $100,000 invested in plastic dolls?’” said Kevin Coyle, 37. “We could end up with a whole lot of Easter gifts.”

The brothers say they’ve received cooperation from Crayola, and they hope the PEZ museum gives people another reason to visit Easton, 50 miles north of Philadelphia on the New Jersey border.

“People are driving two hours from New Jersey. They don’t want to drive two hours and do one thing and turn around and go home,” Kevin Coyle said.

Given the museum’s smart location, and that PEZ appeals to just about everyone - men, women, young, old, blue collar and those with advanced degrees, as Cohen puts it - the museum may be bound for success.

“It’s something everyone can relate to,” Peterson said. “Whether it was a gift or a gag, everyone’s got a PEZ dispenser laying around in a drawer somewhere.”

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/10/13/offbeat.pez.museum.ap/index.html