“Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all.” ― Emily Dickinson

I have to find a picture to continue with my posts from growing up.  For now this has been another week of waiting.  Weather has been dreary making my spirit pretty darn gloomy.  Lots of good things on the horizon, but this week came with some challenges.  I had a few days off to recoop some energy, but for now I feel pretty blah.

Don't forget a walk on the boardwalk in barefeet included a splinter or two

I am trying to come to terms with this waiting game we are in with our business.  Like I have been posting in 2013, I am sharing how I grew up and what my wishes looked like for my future.  I also, really never stopped with my visions of the future including the beauty of the past.  We have lived in towns that were built during Victorian times.  I have always appreciated the architecture and what has survived through all of these years.  But, now I am trying to come to terms with what our future is going to look like.  I came up with the quote as the title of this post.  Because, of the romance of the boardwalks, buildings and businesses that lined the boardwalk will never be the same.  The landscape of the Jersey shore has changed.  Spirits are high.......and people are strong but, sometimes I think the loss is too great to go on thinking.....we can do this.....we will be back stronger and brighter then ever.   A lot of this is so much of what will be done on the Jersey Shore is out of our control.  And, yes a lot will come down to the almighty dollar. We will always have our memories......and we have our experience of living in a little bungalow across from the sea where when the windows were open we could hear the waves of the ocean......or our store where I can't even begin to tell you what that meant.  But, let's face it at 2 am in our bungalow the windows had to be closed because all the rowdies leaving as the bars closed.  I would like to believe in the Romance of the Jersey Shore but, we've been working too hard.  We as a family never have enjoyed a day at the beach together.  We have had wonderful vacations and fun in our pool in the backyard.  And, I think this summer we should all go to the beach for a day.....but, all the reminders will be there.... the shore we knew and loved is gone and it is gone forever.  Alright, this is not my usual  bright and shiny attitude.  But, I am feeling the splinter and I haven't been able to get it out yet.  But, the lesson is there........if you want a nice day at the beach......WEAR your flip flops.  For me that means........get ready.......brace myself.....the emotions are still stinging.  A walk on the beach will never be the same again.....but, I need to forget about the romance and remember the pain will go away eventually....but, for now I still wonder.

Ippolito Globalized Blog #2 - Asbury Park

 Just found this yesterday....it was taken exactly a year ago.  What a difference a year makes.  I can remember this day.  I love it, because it someone else's perspective of Asbury Park and it shows our store of course.  I love how Glen comes in and goes to the back.  Sometimes, I use Disney as an analogy for our life.  I love the story of Wizard of Oz also.   When Glen goes behind the curtain I call him the Wizard.  That is where he makes the clock......He is the ALL Knowing and Powerful Wizard of my life!!!

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein

I am the optimist.....the glass is half full and everything is a miracle.  Just to meet a goal and write everyday is a miracle to me.  So many distractions make it hard to stay focused.  Today I am going to Weight Watchers where I have been a member for a year and a half.  I will try my best to lose some weight or just maintain where I am before we go on a vacation next month.  I am not motivated or feel the need to concentrate on my weight so much right now.  I would like to keep writing each day, work as much as I am scheduled and not feel so tired, get my finances ready for taxes and reopening the store.  Focus on the store reopening with a more optimistic attitude is a must right now!  Also, my children will graduate in May from college.  I have to work on my schedule in order to make everything run smoothly.  To reopen the store and focus on graduation will take some preparation to be able to do both  gracefully and the least amount of stress on everyone........counting on a miracle, for sure!

White Lace and promises........

This picture was taken in 1966 at the school I walked to for eight years.  It was a two block walk.  My parents thought of everything when they moved to the house we were in.  The bench is symbolic of the times too.  The downstairs of the school contained a cafeteria where those benches were.  In the beginning I remember they served hot lunches.  I always walked home for lunch.  But, I am not sure of the year, but we lost the cafeteria to computers. And, to me, it is very symbolic of the year this picture was taken.   Life, how we knew it, was going to change.   

This girl pictured was full of  hopes and dreams of an American Girl.   She was also a girl scout. She, at this time, was waiting to see what her story was going to be.  She didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up.  But, she definitely wanted the fairy tale ending of living happily ever after!

Living on a Prayer

 Oh Boy, if we could have been the three little angels like the ones pictured, my parents would have been very happy.  This picture shows a lot...my sister is doing exactly what she is supposed to and my brother Randy and I.......well she is not too happy about it as you can see.  We really had a tiny house and to think we had a piano in it for all those years.  My Mom did reach a point when none of us survived more then a year of piano lessons to get rid of it.  But, it was a wedding gift from her brother so it had a lot of meaning.  Reminding me we also had an organ my parents won when they were on the television show "Beat the Clock".  My sister, brother and I really loved to watch television together and it would be quite the challenge to find something we all shared an interest in.  I remember our favorites were Flinstones, Jetsons, the Munsters, the Brady Bunch, Mickey Mouse Club, Flipper, I Love Lucy and Sunday Night Disney and the Ed Sullivan Show.  Later my very favorite memories were of my sister and I watching Tom Jones show together and getting our curling irons out and using them as microphones.  My favorite memory of watching tv with my mom was watching the Elvis Presley in Hawaii concert and she was very vocal about how much he had changed and how talented he was.  My dad's favorite was the Mets and of course they were the Miracle Mets at the time...I will never forget 1969 when so many boys hid transistor radios in their pockets and put ear phones in so not to be seen or heard for the playoffs.....so much for that when the Mets would score they yelled and the nun went around and confiscated  all the radios.....never to be returned.  And, favorite brother memory would be all of them......he could do no wrong in my eyes.  I do remember he loved the 4:30 movies after school and I would be happy if it was Gidget week.

Just One Dream - Walt Disney in his Early Years

I had to share this video and how the internet keeps my spirit high and joyful.  I write my post......get ready for the day.....think I need some more inspiration......look on you tube for some inspiration from one of the greatest creative minds ever and this is what I see.  When I see the image of him in the pool with his child I think of the picture and what I have posted.  It is so hard and trying to keep our dreams of our childhood when life slaps you in the face.  Watching a video like this makes you realize you may get side tracked or even bamboozled, but you have to follow your heart......no one else's.....your dream......your hope.

This was the huge Salt Water pool that was just down the street.  It had a huge diving board that I would look at and think to myself......someday.  It was where my dad would endlessly teach us how to swim.  It was expensive, we as a family never had a locker.  Through the years the only beach time we had was waiting for my father to come home on a nice day.  We would go to Pier beach which was the beach closest to Sea Girt.  Mostly, it was my brother and I and that is when I learned how to ride the waves and I would dive under the waves like a dolphin.  He would say that a lot and I loved it because my favorite television show at the time was Flipper.  I faced all of my fears back then and eventually jumped off the large diving board before they took it down for safety reasons.  We also would do a lot of shell seeking with my dad.  We  looked for Cape May diamonds and shark's teeth.  Later, when Glen and I lived in Manasquan we loved to look for sea glass or mermaid tears.  When I got older in the fifth grade I told my mom I wanted a locker in the worst way.  She thought we would not get enough use out of it.  Her answer to me was go see if your friends will let you share a locker with them.  Well, they did and my mom paid the thirty five dollars for the badge.  The next year she said for me to pay.  And so I started babysitting and saved my money to buy a badge.  This is when I learned a very important lesson.....anything in life I would ever want I would have to work for.  Some of the best times I had at the beach were with different people.  One friend had a bunch of little brothers and the three littlest would go everywhere with us.  We would make a lunch get to the beach at 8am and drag our butts home at 5pm.  Then there were the high school days where I worked in the local hotels as a chamber maid, and the rest of the day was spent at the beach.  And then my favorites were when I could drive to the beach in Manasquan and finally buy a beach chair.  We would sit until the last possible minute and have it down to a science of when to leave the beach to get to work in time.  

And she was an American Girl

This is a picture of my grandmother and I.   My brother is there encouraging some fun in the waves.  My grandparents, by the time I was born had a big tudor house on the lake facing Devine Park in Spring Lake, NJ and Surfside, Florida.  They would rent the house out in Spring Lake and come up and stay for the month of May and September.   They were my Mom's parents.  My grandmother never drove.  She could sew, cook and could keep a beautiful house.  My grandfather was vice-president of Grand Union after working his way up from being a cart boy.   They did have housekeepers and gardeners.  My dad was an electrical engineer at Ft. Monmouth and retired at the age of 55 working there for 30 years.  He graduated from West Virginia University.  My mom was also a college graduate from the University of Vermont.  They married the September after her graduation and my dad was ten years older then my mom.  They settled in Neptune, NJ.  They first had a son named Randolph Donald (my dad was Donald Randolph) and then my sister Cheryl Ann almost exactly a year later very close to my mother's birthday.  When my mom became pregnant with me she told my dad she would need a bigger house.  While she was pregnant he did all the searching for a home and bought the house without my mom ever seeing it (I couldn't imagine that).  It was a small cape cod house located across from Wreck Pond in Spring Lake.  We could walk six blocks east to the beach, across the street was a pond for fishing, row boating, feeding the ducks and swans, and six blocks north was a foot bridge to cross Spring Lake and arrive in Devine Park with what we called Indian Trails around the lake.  We would then walk on to Main Street with it's stores where you could buy anything you needed.  The variety store (5 & 10) is still there and hasn't changed too much in all these years........thank God!  The church I was baptized in was influenced by St.Peters in Rome and I should really do a whole post on the beauty of Spring Lake with pictures.  It is and was a picture perfect town.  Well, anyway the point of this all is what are the hopes and dreams of parents for their children.   It is that you have a good life, but I really was lead to believe we should have a better life.  That one belief is probably the single most down fall of our generation.  My father was a hero fighting in World War 2......my uncle fought in Korea......my parents both graduated from college.......within two years they had a boy and a girl.......they lived in a picture perfect town, my dad worked for the government  and had insurance for us all and my mom never had to work....I was born an American Girl.....and how do those words go?????

Well, she was an American girl
Raised on promises
She couldn't help thinkin'
That there was a little more to life somewhere else

After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to
And if she had to die tryin'
She had one little promise she was gonna keep

Words sung and written by Tom Petty

Dream Baby, Dream..

Well, I wasn't going to share this yet.  But, all the signs and affirmations are here.  I was afraid to.  What was the fear about....someone stealing my idea.....yeah, maybe.  Someone judging me and not agreeing with me.  Well, this is my story.  I am ready to tell it.  It is MY life......MY dream.......it is MY story and if I can do that thoughtfully without hurting anyone......that is my plan.  I really need to write as much as I can from MY heart.  This is about the little light inside of you that you are born with.  When I went to Catholic school they told us we (everyone of us had it in us).  I was told this when I was so young the visual picture was a box and everytime you sinned the box would get a black spot and the idea was to go through life with your box as clean as possible.  This box was your soul.  I have been living for 50 years now and thankfully I don't take things so literal anymore.  But, I have a soul and each day I try to forget my sins and go on.  I try to find the inner light and keep it shining.  Not, that is easy to do all the time.  When I find a video like the one above my soul is soothed and spoken to.  Visually I relate to the bench which line the boardwalks of Spring Lake, where I was born and raised.  Belmar, where I worked in a restaurant for nine years and learned the best work ethic anyone could ask for.  Manasquan, where I have spent all of my married years raising my twins until this year.  But, Manasquan also holds a bench dedicated to my father in law and one for Glen who were volunteer firemen for many years.  Glen is still a fireman in Manasquan and Ian is following in their footsteps.  I am writing my story which in the end is our story.  Welcome to my world.

Bruce Springsteen -Can't Help Fallin' In Love

This is truly why I wanted to start this new blog.  I graduated from a college where the Director of Art was a nun and she taught Renaissance Art and I couldn't help fallin' in love with Italy.  I was able to go there with my mother.  I loved what I saw......every inch of it.  The fountains, sculptures, churches, museums, monuments, rivers, paintings, the food.......but, it wasn't home.  Home is where my heart is.  My dream was always to have the European lifestyle I grew up in.  A town called Spring Lake on the Atlantic Ocean in central New Jersey.  But, then I found my dream came true by opening a store in Convention Hall in Asbury Park, NJ.  It is my Europe......my home.  It is full of carved copper, della robia reliefs, copper tall ships, angel reliefs, iron dolphins and history on the ocean by the sea.  It was designed by the same Architects who designed Grand Central Station in NYC which celebrates it's 100th Anniversary this year.  It is not only my Europe.....it is my Disney Castle........it is a dream come true.  My dreams have been tested this year by a storm called Sandy.  But, that is my life.  I have reached and accomplished all of my dreams now.  All of them are reality now.......but, they all came with the test of reality.  But, they ALL came true!!!!  So, grateful for this life of mine......my dreams come true.  My marriage of 30 years.......my son and daughter graduating college and following their dreams and my store located, in my eyes, the MOST romantic place on earth.  It is a place where everyone........and I mean everyone can come and soak in the romance of days gone by and guess what?  You don't need no ticket.........