3rd Edition Spring 2015 TRADITIONALLY YOURS A newsletter written by the residents, for the residents! Traditionally Yours !1 3rd Edition Spring 2015 Inside this Issue….. Peg Dockry——————2 Hess’ Dept. Store——8 Resident Showcase—-15 Sid and Ellie Butler- ——3 Flying w. Matt———-9 Sparky———————16 Count Your Blessings— 3 Singapore—————12 Chorus———————17 Prom————————-4 Zumba——————-12 Cuisine———————17 St. Patty’s Day————4 Poetry——————-13 Grandpa——————-18 Wise Sayings—————5 Mickie Seese—————5 Goodfellas—————13 Al and Betty—————18 Alexandra Chando——-6 Hairspray—————13 Jenny Kratch————-19 Oscar Party—————-6 As I see It—————-14 Nicole Eckrote———— 7 Destiny——————-14 Jokes————————-7 Peg Dockry, New Resident by Rita Litvin Peg Dockry, a fascinating new resident, was born in Morristown, New Jersey in 1924. She had a younger sister who is eleven months her junior. Peg’s father worked as a supervisor of a large estate whose owners had the family move with them to a new location in Millbrook, N.J. where Peg’s family lived in a house on the property. She and her sister went to a one room schoolhouse through sixth grade. They finished seventh and eighth grades in another building, after which Peg attended Morristown High School. On graduation day, Peg was hired as a stenographer for a trucking company. This business was located right beside the municipal airport and every day Peg observed the bright yellow student planes flying overhead. This sight inspired her to take lessons and she earned her flight license. Part of Peg’s job with the trucking company entailed going to New York City to check competitive railroad rates. While there, Peg met railroad employees who told her about a job within that office. Peg got the job. It was there that she met and eventually married her husband Joe. When the Korean War broke out, Joe completed a tour of duty. When he returned home, he discussed the possibility of adopting a little girl who was half American G.I. and half Korean. They recognized the plight of these poor children who had no one to care for them. Cecilia joined the family at just the time Peg learned she was pregnant. She had twins, a boy and a girl, and later, three other children. Peg will always remember their wonderful times square dancing with the family and her special job of ballroom cueing which involved helping dancers by calling out directions for their movements. Over the years Peg enjoyed writing poetry and short stories which were often published in magazines and newspapers including the New York Times. Peg’s husband was a teacher who also spent thirty years as a school principal. He passed away in 2000. Afterward, Peg sold their house and moved to Texas where she lived for twelve years near eldest daughter Kathleen and her husband. After their separation, Peg and Kathleen moved to Princeton, N.J. Peg moved into Traditions on Columbus Day 2014. Traditionally Yours !2 3rd Edition Spring 2015 Meet Sid and Ellie Butler, New Residents by Bob Flynn Sid and Ellie Butler joined the Traditions community in the fall of 2014. Their home for more than forty years prior to the move was in nearby Nazareth. The couple met while undergraduates at the University of Maine. Sid was originally from Silver Spring, Maryland. Ell hailed from Malden, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. Sid moved on to graduate engineering studies at Penn State. Sid was a professor of Material Science at Lehigh University from 1969 until his retirement in 1991. Prior to Lehigh, he worked in research for E.I. DuPont. Ellie’s main responsibility in those early years was raising a growing family which topped out at three boys and a girl. She briefly considered a career in education, but a trial year of student teaching changed her mind. What followed then was a twenty-five year odyssey in the fine art of grape growing and wine making. With only two acres on their Nazareth farmstead, the beginnings were humble and marked by long hours and hard work. Ellie learned the intricacies of grafting grapevines and nurturing the grapes through their three year growing cycle. Sid joined in by fabricating a homemade crusher and wine press. Later on, the Butlers purchased twenty nearby acres to transform their “hobby” into a productive commercial enterprise. Licenses were obtained for the operation of both the vineyard and the winery. Ellie hired stay-at-home moms to provide a work force while their kids were in school. It all worked. At its peak, the winery produced 3,000 gallons of varietals, both white and red bottled and labeled for sale directly at the vineyard. Ellie recalls that “it was nice to be open on Sunday while the State Stores were closed.” Count Your Blessings Anonymous, submitted by Ruth Markley • If you woke up this morning with more health than illness…you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week. • If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture… you are ahead of five million people in the world. • If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death…you are more blessed than three billion people in the world. Traditionally Yours !3 3rd Edition Spring 2015 Traditions of Hanover Senior Prom by Connie Huber At 6 pm on April 10, 2015, disc jockey Dave Werkheiser spun the first platter to begin our Senior Prom. Laurie, with the help of the entire staff of TOH provided the residents with “An Evening in Paris” that was a wonderful success. Helen Odenwelder, one of our Aged to Perfection residents, proved that age is just a number. She was the Bell of the Ball dancing with the men from the Omicron Gamma Omega Fraternity of Moravian College. When complimented for her dancing, Helen replied, “Sometimes I get tired.” With hot appetizers and champagne punch to keep us energized, everyone had a great time. Prom King and Queen were Art Troiani and Mary Fish. St. Patrick’s Day Celebration by Bob Flynn March 17th was a festive St. Patrick’s Day for all of us here at Traditions, Irish or not. Corned beef and cabbage topped off the dinner menu, along with bright green cupcakes and Irish coffee. Entertainment was provided by Eric Kearns who sang many Irish ballads including “Danny Boy” as well as pop hits from the 60’s and 70’s. Close to a hundred residents, staff and guests enjoyed renditions of “Sweet Caroline,” sounding just like Neil Diamond and the Willie Nelson classic “You are Always on my Mind.” The day wrapped up with a “recital” by the O’Grady Quinlan Step Dancers. Their stage was the carpet in the Fireside Lounge. Loud reports, almost like gun shots punctuated their elegant and precise routines. Turned out that the “gun shots” were generated by the dancers themselves, clicking their heels in mid-air. Traditionally Yours !4 3rd Edition Spring 2015 Wise Sayings Submitted by Rita Litvin • A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. • Winston Churchill • Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. • Reinhold Neibuhr • I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. • Thomas Jefferson • The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. • Unknown • The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubt. • Bertrand Russell • You can avoid reality but you cannot avoid the consequences by avoiding reality. • Ayn Rand • Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and understand. • Albert Einstein Resident Showcase: Mickie Seese On December 29, 2014, Mickie Seese gave a piano recital. She played selections from Johann Sebastian Bach, Tchaikovsky, Satie and Shubert. Approximately forty-five residents attended. Mickie played her electronic piano and closed the performance with Franz Shubert’s Ave Maria on the organ setting. The crowd requested three encores after rounds of applause! Traditionally Yours !5 3rd Edition Spring 2015 My Granddaughter, Alexandra Chando, Actress by Sylvia Troiani Alexandra’s show business career started when she was three years old and lined up her dolls on the living room floor. She would dance and sing to the dolls who were her audience. When she finished her show, Alexandra would put their hands together so they could applaud her. When Alexandra turned seven, she started taking acting classes at the Pennsylvania Youth Theatre. In elementary school, she sang and danced. In junior high school, she continued to act in little plays, and in high school she had many lead parts. While Alexandra was in high school, her parents hired a manager. She had an audition for the T.V. show Houseblend, which, unfortunately, was not picked up. Finally, at sixteen years old, she auditioned for the lead part in a television soap, As the World Turns. Her role lasted for three years. At twenty-one years old, Alexandra left for Los Angeles and continued to audition. She won the lead part in a new show called The Lying Game which was filmed in Austin, Texas. She played eighteen year old twins. This role also lasted three years. Alexandra then had a part in the T.V.