Well, we went to the Rhinebeck Fair, the birds and the beasts were there. The big baboon by the light of the moon was combing his long black hair. The monkey he got drunk, he sat on the elephant's trunk. The elephant sneezed, and fell on his knees and that was the end of the monk...that was the end of the monk. The Rhinebeck Fair has been a part of our lives for the almost 40 years we have lived here. Each year the kids would get a job there and earn their money for back to school clothes. Paul went a few days before the fair opened and he and his friends had the job of assembling the rides. (That's enough to keep me off the ferris wheel.) Maria worked the lemonade stand, in fact that is how she met Kevin. I guess he thought she was cute, and bought a drink from here...see how things can start. She would come home the last day of the fair, with handfuls of one dollar bills, sticky from the lemonade, all bunched together. One of her favorite stories was when the young guy she was working with was cleaning up. The owner yelled to him "Watch out for the wires!" and he heard "wash the wires" and started to do so, while the carny had a fit. Sabra worked different booths, one time in a booth that you had to throw darts and break balloons. She was about 15 and my friend Chrissy and I were in that section of the fair looking for her. I grabbed Chrissy arm, stunned at what I saw, Sabra next to a carny, leaning over the booth, smoking a cigarette!! Her job next year was much better, working in the booth with costumes, where the fair goers would select a certain look and then have their picture taken dressed up. So, the fair has a lot of memories...this was the first year that we went without Maria, so that was a big difference. But it was like she was there is some ways...she had encouraged me to enter my embrodery last year, and I had entered three pieces, winning only a second prize for a pillowcase. This year I asked my sisters Barbara and Diane to loan me back the Christmas presents I had made them, aprons, and I won first prize for each of the aprons. Also, last year Maria had said to me, "Ma, you should enter your postcards...the winner wasn't half as good as yours." So this year I entered four of my Tivoli postcards, and won a blue ribbon for them. Thanks Maria. You just can't get away from that girl. Maria's clothes always had a certain very pleasant smell about them, different than most. Sabra asked Rachael what kind of detergent did your mother use and found out it was Tide, in the purple bottle, with vanilla and lavendar. Sabra started using it and I looked for it on the grocer's shelf and bought it too. So everytime I grab a shirt, or hang up clothes there is Ria's smell. The Fair, the laundry, my birthday. My birthday came and went last week. Last year Maria had a party for me at her house, a pirate party, and we all were dressed like pirates. I have the picture of us all, hanging on the wall, handy to the eye. And the thing I love most about the picture is that Ria and I are the only ones going "Arrrrrrr". That is a wonderful picture, a wonderful day, and a wonderful memory.

Gravestones, that's the latest item on my mind. Actually, it's not that new. We grew up on Falconer Street which ran both ways perpendicular to Washington Avenue. On the other end of our street was a large cemetery, one my mother often took us to on a walk. There we would search the stones for one with our name, or our day of birth, looking for a certain angel or checking out the resident's picture featured on the stone. Yesterday Sabra and I went to Maria's grave with a cardboard cutout of her proposed stone. When I write this, it seems a little bizarre, but actually it makes a lot of sense. The stone so far, will be 36" high, with 12" under the ground, 30" wide and 3" thick. So, we placed the cardboard "stone" up against the wooden cross that's there to see the height and compare it to Patty's stone which is right next to her. Then we went to the old part of the cemetery to see how it used to be done. When we first told the memorial man that we wanted an "old style stone" for Maria, he said, "It's about time to put an old looking stone up there on the hill." And, he's right. They all look about the same. When my father died, my brother looked for an appropriate stone for him. After seeing all the same stones, he asked, "Do you have anything in a sport motif?" and they found him an old book with a skier on a stone. Perfect. Now, the interesting thing is at that time, the skier stood alone in the cemetery as far as a sportsman theme. But, soon a stone with a man fishing appeared and then a golfer. Daddy was a tread setter. Maybe Maria will be one too. Recently a friend of Sabra's was on Martha's Vineyard and found John Belushi's gravestone which is an old style slate with skull and crossbones. I read that the stone is not near his body, for fear of vandals. But anyway, the old style stones are so interesting. Please look at www.capecodgravestones.com to see samples. Years back Maria, Jer and I did stone rubbings in the Wellfleet graveyard. She gave one to Sabra which is the one we selected for her stone. It can be seen on the website above..look for the name George Brown. It is an angel, young, with an hourglass on her head. I was drawing an example to show Timmy and when I drew the stone, putting the angel on the top rounded part, my angel's wings were too large, and the hourglass looked like a little hat. In fact the whole thing looked like Dumbo ready to fly. I laughed out loud, and asked "Hey, Ria how about you have Dumbo on your stone?"
s