Wrapping up the holidays

So hard to take down the decorations. I do it in dribs and drabs, so it seems like an endless task. Just when I think I have everything boxed away, I notice another little angel or mini Christmas tree tucked away on a side table...and the pine needles will last until spring!

I'm sitting here listening to a great juke box website with songs from 1950-1989.  http://www.tropicalglen.com/. No good music after 1990, apparently. Pick a year and see if you remember the tunes.

Here's a follow up picture on the Midget Santa/Candy Cane story.

Who is this man and what is he doing with my father's candy cane?

Did you correctly guess that the smiling elf is none other than Midget Santa's helper, my brother Peter, all grown up and still looking good in a little red hat. Yes, he has the candy cane, but we still haven't figured out where it was in 1965. (Best guess: being repainted in the cellar).

More corrections to that story: the buyer of Midget Santa was my oldest brother Joe, who thought it would restore him to the good graces of my parents (something to do with missing dinner or staying out too late at night) Where the Santa was purchased is also being questioned. I was informed that there was no K-Mart in 1965 but a check of Wikipedia reveals that the first K-Mart was launched in 1962 in suburban Detroit and the chain had grown to 100 stores by 1965, so the one on Central Avenue in Colonie definitely could have been there.  I agree, though, the store was most likely Montgomery Wards or Two Guys (my father's favorites) or J.M. Fields (my mother's favorite store).

Enough with upstate NY trivia, here's some NJ history. I bid a fond farewell to the season of gingerbread houses with a visit to Lambert Castle in West Paterson, which featured a holiday display.

The real Lambert Castle




the Gingerbread version



nice porch

Other winning entries:

i think this was a historic jail

  

cute and a whole yard full of characters



  

Looks like the oversized house
 across the street from me

....and the NJ History lesson:

The castle was built in 1892 as a home and showplace for the art collection of self-made man Catholina Lambert. He emigrated from England at age 17, having worked since age 10 in the cotton mills of Yorkshire. A quick learner, he rose to prominence in the Paterson Silk Industry, becoming a partner in a mill by age 30. He married a wealthy woman from Boston, Isabella Shattuck, and they had 8 children. Sadly, only 3 survived to adulthood and this memorial window was dedicated to the daughter Florence who died at age 24 from pneumonia.(clearly she was the favorite child).

Lambert had styled the mansion after the castles of England he remembered as a child. Isabella died in 1901, after 44 years of marriage. Three years later he married her widowed sister (very biblical). Following the Paterson Silk Mill Strike of 1913, many of the mills moved to Pennsylvania which had a cheaper labor source (women and children). World War I and lack of credit further eroded his business and he eventually declared bankruptcy and was forced to sell off many of his art treasures. He died at age 89 in 1923 and his son Walter sold the castle to the city of Paterson soon after. It is now open to the public as a museum under the auspices of the Passaic County Historical Society and is part of Garrett Mountain reservation. (home to many epic high school cross country races)

 

Overlooking the city of Paterson,
 the first planned industrial city

 

The view from the front balcony of New York City skyline