Driving Rosemary - Dinner Guests - Firefly Walk at Pennypack

After dropping off Rosemary at the Gary Charles Salon in the Fox-Chase section of Philly, I pulled into Dunkin Donuts for my first Iced Decaf Coffee of the year.

I ordered a Small, and then, after reflection, decided to buy a donut. Diabetics just love donuts!

There were teeny tiny ones called Munchkins.

  How many? asked the tall young man.

Just one.

He handed it to me in a tissue paper.

Aren't you gonna charge me? I asked.

He shook his head no.

Back at my table for one, I sat down and dunked it in the black iced coffee and munched away. Absolutely delicious!

Then I went for a 40-minute walk-off-the-sugar strut down the streets. The object was aerobic exercise, not to stop in the thrift shop, or the Fox Chase Library.

B/c of street construction, I continued my walk by going inside McDonald's thru one door and out thru the other. It was quite fun.

   My heart LEAPT when I beheld the Krispy Kreme Donuts place that Scott and I always drive past.

Did I go in?

Hello, said Sarah behind the counter.

I went right up to her.

I just came in to smell the delicious donuts and coffee, I said.

You know what she was doing?

Offering me a 'donut hole' - a munchkin.


Oh, I can't, I said, then whispered, I have diabetes.

It was delicious!

*

Meantime, my iced coffee was in my car, along with my book, Snow Country.

When I re-entered DD, I got a refill on my ice and purposely sat down near a woman so we could converse.

She lost no time in talking.



Mabel, who is 80, was drinking hot coffee, and her cane leaned against her table. She lives in an apartment just down the street.

Eight yrs ago she was walking in the neighborhood when she was hit by a car. The automobile just rammed into her. It took months for her to walk again.

That woman and many city people walk everywhere.

You mean, I asked her, you walk from your apartment all the way to the Presbyterian Church? (I had passed it on my 40-minute walk)

It's nothing, she said. Nothing. I live right down the street.

*



Company was expected for dinner at 4:30 pm. We had scallops with mushrooms and a variety of colorful peppers, sauteed in lotsa fresh lemon. And also one of those salads with everything in it.

They went wild! For dessert, Judy brought unsalted pistachios.

Oh, c'mon Judy, cheer up. Her mom Blanche is a svelte 89 years old. She walks very well.

Oh, the stories we shared.

First, tho we toasted our being together, to our good health. Judy said a brucha. She attends shul at the Frank Lloyd Wright synagogue.

The former Blanche Stuckleman attended Temple University and got a degree in journalism.

She found a great job and remembers calling her father, who owned a men and boy's apparel firm.

"Impossible," he said to her. "You couldn't have gotten a job at Curtis Publishing. They don't hire Jews."

This was after the War Years, she said. Did they know she was Jewish?

Blanche worked in advertising with Don Draper. They were an item. "I've always loved smart Jewish women," he said to Blanche.  

Back then Curtis published






This once iconic magazine folded in April 2014.  It survives as an online quarterly.


Jack and Jill magazine was launched by Curtis and is still around. One of the oldest children's mags in America, it's a bimonthly.



The beautiful Curtis Publishing Company, founded by Cyrus Curtis.

This, too, folded.



Blanche's son Rob is a disc jockey in New York State. Here's his morning show.  

He was interviewed here. Read about how he got interested in music.  He listened on his dad's


Blaupunkt tube radio - Rob still has the radio and it plays!

Blanche and Judy are readers. Blanche recommended



*

Now it's time to go on the Firefly Walk at Pennypack Trust.

.

 It takes a long time to get dark.

The walk began at 8:45 pm after the kids had their treats in the Picnic Grove. Luckily I got there late so I didn't smell the S'mores. 

 Brief intro in the office on fireflies.

Even their larvae glows and are called glowworms.

We went out on the trails, perhaps 20 people including loads of kids who had a great time!

Boys bought 'glow sticks' which can be purchased at Target. Hmm, good gift for Grace at her fourth birthday party in August.

What you can't see in this pic are thousands upon thousands of male fireflies blinking to attract females on the grassy stems below.

The kids had an uncanny knack of catching em mid-air, or finding females on the ground or on stems.

A different species of female firefly lies in wait for the male.

Oh, you are so hot! thinks a male we'll call Blaze.

He swaggers down right into the loving arms of the Marilyn Monroe of fireflies.

She gobbles him up.
  Our leader was Brad Nyholm, on the extreme right. His 10-yo son Jack or Jake was there. A really nice kid.

We walked over an hour.

I was so hot when I came home - I wore long pants and long sleeves, so I wouldn't get bitten up - that I stuck my head in the shower to cool off.

Earlier in the day I had spilled this expensive Nioxin Shampoo in the tub. Rathan waste it, I cleaned my entire baffroom with it, and when I put my head in the shower to cool off, I used it as shampoo and also washed my arms in it.

Anything else?