Some Observations from the Hill
by H H "Hub" Brown

 Because my granddaughter Karen wanted to be sure that her parents would attend my 99th birthday celebration, she asked if it would be alright if we postponed it a week. Other years, family members and perhaps a friend or two, had met in the Parkview or as we call it Joe's Place, for Ag's and Jim's birthdays. They came a day apart. Then mine, and then our wedding anniversary. 

 Karen's parents were on an extended timeshare vacation in the south. She thought we should invite more people, so I told her I'd ask Joe to invite the Coffee Club. This is a group of mostly retired people from most all walks of life that meet when Joe opens at 10:00 am and enjoy his free refills of coffee. That wasn't enough for Karen so I turned my address book over to her. 

 So she soon had invitations going to California, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Georgia, Florida, South Caroline, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York. Some folks from Florida wanted to know why I had my birthday in such a bad time of the year. I told them it was something that I had no control over.

 Jo Anne, Joe's daughter, kept a dish of hot potatoes and ham and coffee ready for those that wanted it as well as wine and beer. She says there were at least 120 attending the affair. Most of these I knew though had to be reintroduced to some.

 My sister Luty and I did quite some traveling. First she and her daughter, Kim, and her husband Nicola flew out for the party. Their daughter Alexandra, who is in college in Chicago, flew out and right back the next day. 

 Next the four of us flew to Minneapolis and were there till the 15th. And then Luty and I flew to Orlando where we were met by our niece Diane and her boyfriend, Steve, and taken to St. Cloud. 

 This year because Luty had fallen and broken her right wrist, next to her hand, we didn't eat out as much as last year. I failed to mention that she fell up at my house and spent five hours in the emergency room at Lourdes and then five more in the hospital when we arrived in Minneapolis Sunday night. She had been under orders not to try to walk alone and now with the broken wrist, it took both Steve and Diane to get her in and out of a car. Because three of us were handicapped where one went five had to go. Luty was in a wheelchair and I walked with a walker. Virginia, though she is 93, she got around the best of the three. 

 In St. Cloud or Kissimmee, you really can't tell what place you are in if it wasn't for the little signs they put up every now and then, they have built a beautiful arena. Everything is under cover, they call it the Silver Spurs Arena but whether they had just hired some new hands or what the reason was most of the cowboys were real amateurs. 

 I kept track of one of the ropers who was helping catch the bucking horses after the riders had finished their ride or been thrown off and his rope came up empty every time.

 The bulls were well trained. They'd make three bounds, dump their riders, then hurry back to their stalls. No one finished their ride. The Rudins used to put on a better show at home. 

 Luty and I flew back to Minneapolis on the 30th of March and then on the 8th of April, I flew back to Syracuse. Jim and Bernie met me.