May 26th: Another nonagenarian? 95 years in the making

May 26th, 2017 Year 6 Day 26

FREE PRETZEL #26

Today was another planned day that had its hiccups.  Today was one of those days that took some careful planning, but was for a special person that I could not wait to get to.  My Aunt Joey Seville is my great aunt. She was my Mom-Mom's younger sister.  She is what I think of when I think of summer and 4th of July. That's because 4th of July in the Casale house means the annual Wenonah 4th of July parade in Wenonah, NJ and it's where I have had so many childhood and adult memories of celebrating our nation's birthday.

Pretzel Selfie with Aunt Joey

My Aunt Joey could always be seen in her chair watching as the parade goes by, making sure that everyone had what they needed.  Did they have enough food?
"Eat, eat. We have plenty of food," she would say.
She would be in the kitchen cooking or cutting up rolls, or even in the backyard cooking at the grill.  She was still doing this within the last 5 years, definitely even after the age of 90, not to mention all the previous years before.

This house has been in the Morris/Seville family for over 75 years

The house, sitting right on Mantua Boulevard, directly on the parade route, has been in our family for very long time.  My mom grew up in this house and then in 1959 it was passed on to my Aunt Joey and Uncle George. I have only ever known it as their house, but it is cool to hear the stories my mom tells about her and her sisters living there. This was the house where I threw water balloons at my cousin on the 4th of July and where Aunt Joey would turn on the sprinkler in the backyard for us to run through.  Then we would have to decide when we were going up to the races at the park, or when we would ride the fire truck.  On the side of the house is where we would beg our parents to let us stay and go down to Wenonah lake and hang out for the afternoon.  There are so many memories, that I would be here forever trying to recount them all.

The side of this house will always remind me of the water balloon fights that we had.

On this crazy Friday or Memorial Day, my mom had contacted Aunt Joey to make sure they would be there. Joey figured it would just be a quick visit and had no idea I would be coming.  Her daughter Libby, who has been following the blog, was there and knew I would be coming as well.  After explaining to Joey why I was there, she said she loved pretzels, but that she had a little bit of indigestion and that she would have to eat it later.  It was awesome spending about an hour with her just chatting.  4th of July is usually a pretty hectic time and I can count on both hands the number of times that I have been to her house when it hasn't been July 4th, so it was nice to just relax and enjoy the time.

Getting there was another story.  I was coming straight from work and my google maps showed me that 295 was jam packed so I thought that I could beat it by trying the back roads.  I was wrong, always trust computers.  I tried circumventing 295 and I inch-wormed my way through Lawnside, Barrington and Bellmawr before finally getting to 42 and then 55.  All this time my Aunt Joey was apparently worried sick about my mom and dad braving the horrible traffic to come visit.  She apparently had been following along on the news and saw all of the backups and congestion that was prohibiting us from getting to our destination smoothly.  She shared this info with us when we got there.  She was genuinely worried for us and our safety.  Luckily we made it in one piece.  

For those of you that do not know about the Wenonah Parade on July 4th, it is a pretty intense parade, going down Mantua Boulevard and then coming back up.  When I was a kid, my brother and I rode our bikes two straight years.  It was pretty cool and that tradition still occurs today.  The parade features many of the same marching bands and floats over the years.  Although it seems like we push repeat on the day every year, its great to see the same things happen over and over again.  I'm a sucker for tradition. Maybe it's why I can't stop doing this blog.

This 4th of July may be a little different since both my sisters will be having babies right around this time and we are still unsure as to who will be able to make it.  The kids and I will be there, even if just for a little while, because hey, its tradition.  Thanks Aunt Joey for keeping this tradition alive and for always making me think of Wenonah, your house, you and our family on 4th of July.  I'll see you then

Until tomorrow...