Week #16 - Restaurants

Week 16 - Restaurants: What was your favorite local restaurant as a child? Where was it located and what was your favorite meal? Did you know the staff personally? What is your favorite restaurant now?

We rarely ate out as a family when we were kids(probably at least in part due to the fact that there were 6 of us so it was pretty expensive). However, when we visited my grandparents we were sometimes able to get carry out from a little pizza/sub shop named Milano's. It was located on Brown Street in Dayton on the edge of the University of Dayton's campus and a short walk from my grandparent's house. I don't remember ever getting anything there besides a grilled ham and provolone sub (no onions please) and an order of potatoes with extra sour cream. If the weather was nice, we would call in our order and then walk over with my grandfather to pick it up. The place was a little hole in the wall that was well loved by the college student population. There were often the same people working there who usually looked less than thrilled to be there, especially on busy weekend nights.

Today I would still count Milano's as one of my favorite places to eat. It's location has changed slightly, as they moved into a bigger and new location nearby a few years ago, but the menu still has my old favorites on it. Writing this post is making me hungry! If they only delivered, I would get my grilled ham and provolone and potatoes for dinner tonight.

Winter Memories

Week 2 – Winter Memories Week 2: Winter. What was winter like where and when you grew up? Describe not only the climate, but how the season influenced your activities, food choices, etc.

We grew up in Ohio so winter was, well, cold and often snowy. However, it's all relative. Those who grew up further North, even further north in Ohio, may be unimpressed with southwestern Ohio's degree of snow and cold. Regardless, we, like most Ohioans, are anxiously awaiting spring weather by at least February each year!

That's not so say that great winter memories didn't occur because they certainly did. When we were young, the anticipation of a possible day off school for a "snow day" was part of the winter season. There was one winter when we were all still in elementary school when we had several snow days in a row and Valentine's day fell in the middle of this. Since we were missing the fun Valentine's day parties at school my mom let us have our own at home. We made cookies and had a few friends and our cousins over to play. The exact details are pretty blurry to us now but it seems that watching MTV and building forts out of the couch cushions was part of the fun.

Another definite fun winter memory is going sledding! My grandfather would take us to a huge steep hill (no longer there, boo!) on the University of Dayton campus. We bundled up and brought our sleds and had a blast going down that hill! Thanks to the college kids who left stuff behind, we also discovered the exhilaration of flying down that hill on a cafeteria tray. Wow, those go fast!

Today in Ohio it's 26 degrees and there is snow on the ground but it's nice and cozy inside the house. Curling up on the couch with a book and hot chocolate sounds like a good idea.

Tell us about your favorite winter memories.

New Years Traditions

For 2011, Style My Tree will participate in the weekly series, 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History. It’s a joint effort between GeneaBloggers and Amy Coffin at the We Tree blog. Each week a new topic is introduced as a prompt for blogging about our own past and family history.

Week One: Did your family have any New Year’s traditions? How was the New Year celebrated during your childhood? Have you kept these traditions in the present day?

Being 3 sisters, and close in age, we share many of the same childhood memories surrounding New Year's Eve and Day. Our parents didn't go out much when we were kids but special occasions, such as New Year's Eve, were often one of the rare occasions that they did. For us, as kids, that meant a fun night with our cousins and our only real babysitters, our maternal grandparents. From a young age, we all knew that the life of any party was my grandfather. He was the source of most things fun - loud party favors, balloons, pop and the kinds of treats that we were not normally allowed to have (Hostess pies, candy bars, and ice cream floats). We played games (Charades was a favorite), watched TV, and generally got loud and crazy! My grandmother was there to keep things somewhat under control but when you have seven to eight kids 12 and under hyped up on sugar and able to stay up way past their normal bedtime, that's not an easy (or realistic) task!

Our grandparents, now in their 80s, continue to host New Year's Eve for any family who show up at their house. I believe that the party is considerably tamer these days though. This year our younger set of cousins (ones who missed out on the NYE parties mentioned earlier) spent the evening with my grandparents making homemade pizzas and playing cards.

No matter how the party changes over the years, we always appreciate New Year's Eve with family!

Who doesn't love a good yearbook photo?

Recently Ancestry.com provided our family with yet more interesting family history information. Through their site you can now search many US Yearbooks and by doing so we came across our paternal grandfather's High School yearbook photo, circa 1929. He's at the bottom - D. Austin Grubb.
Our father had apparently never seen this particular yearbook or photo and commented with the following "Interesting. Must be from West High School in Akron. I think he only spent his last year there. Before then he went to Western Reserve Academy in Hudson. But then his father died and the money dried up. I didn't know that he was "Bud" that early in his life."
The part that we found amusing was once again the strong similarities in the Grubb men through the generations. Beyond the physical resemblance which is again very apparent, there are definitely some personality traits that shine through even in the little comments next to his photo, i.e. "Hobby: Finding a suitable hobby." Apparently being a bit of a smart ass runs in the family because if we didn't know better we could attribute that quote to either of the two David Austins who came after him!

Fourth of July Memories

Do you ever ask a question and assume you already know the answer you will get? That's pretty much how we felt when we decided to ask 3 generations of women in our family to describe their most memorable Fourth of July. You'd likely assume, as we did, that you'd get a lot of descriptions of amazing fireworks displays, fun times with family, and good food.
So what happens when you get answers that are completely the opposite of what you expected? Well, let me tell you..
Our grandmother recalls that on July 4 of 1972, a family friend "dropped dead" at her local July 4th parade. That's the first "memorable" fourth of July that came to her mind. All the others were pretty much the same. Ok how can you top that one?
Our mother remembers being really excited to take her two young daughters to their very first fireworks display one July fourth. She vividly recalls how we (Jeanne & Susan) burst into tears when the very first firework went off and were soon so hysterical that she and our Dad had to pack up and leave early.
We (Susan, Heather, and Jeanne) agree that one of our best memories of a fourth of July is when we were allowed to climb on top of our cousins' back porch roof and sit up there watching a nearby park's fireworks display.
So, while the answers we got from our grandmother and mother were not quite as expected, they gave us something that we didn't have before. These were stories that we had never heard. They gave us stories and memories that were a part of their own life story that are now a part of ours.
If there's a lesson to be learned, it's to ask your family questions about their life experiences because you never know what you will learn (and who couldn't use a good laugh?)
What has been your most memorable Fourth of July?