Family Backgrounds: AKA The Gray Man

/ Jamey / 1 Comment

So as a part of Claire and I’s getting used to this whole “marrying each other thing” we’ve been talking a lot about our families.

One of the funny things about my family is that my mother loves ghost stories. When she was a kid -to hear her tell it- she had a pet ghost named Alice. The stories that my mother and her sister tell are both funny, and frightening, and probably why I still don’t like to sleep in the house they grew up in. The Grand Strand of South Carolina has been continuously inhabited (by non-Natives) since the 1670s. It’s seen countless skirmishes, slavery, a war, and all the other detritus & minutiae of human life. My mother says that these emotions and strife of people are what causes ghosts to appear and stay around a place. And since this is a woman who used to take all her high school friends on “Ghost Hunts” on weekends, I’m inclined to believe her.

When I told Claire about my haunted background, she was a bit apprehensive. But I have proof.  Continue reading →

Lunch Chat

/ Jamey / 1 Comment

Since Claire has put me on a wedding diet for our impending big day, we’ve been having lunch in a park down the street from our office.

Today we were sitting and chatting about the inanities of our life, when I spotted a pod of dolphin playing out in the river behind us.

You can’t see them in this picture, but this is the view from our regular table:

Our conversation went something like this:

Jamey: Oh, there’s some dolphin playing in the river!
Claire (turning to look): Where?
Jamey: Op, you just missed them.
Claire: So we’re eating lunch and dolphin swim by playing? This is ridiculous.
Jamey: And you talk about moving to Atlanta…

Moving Day

/ Jamey / 2 Comments

Since we’ve decided to stay in our lovely little carriage house, it’s only appropriate that I share this with you.

Apparently, New York City used to have a city-wide “Moving Day” every May 1 at 9am. All leases ended on this day and everyone moved. Davy Crocket witnessed it in 1834:

By the time we returned down Broadway, it seemed to me that the city was flying before some awful calamity. ‘Why,’ said I, ‘Colonel, what under heaven is the matter? Everyone appears to be pitching out their furniture, and packing it off.’ He laughed, and said this was the general ‘moving day.’ Such a sight nobody ever saw unless it was in this same city. It seemed a kind of frolic, as if they were changing houses just for fun. Every street was crowded with carts, drays, and people. So the world goes. It would take a good deal to get me out of my log-house; but here, I understand, many persons ‘move’ every year.

Apparently, this tradition continued until World War 2 when there weren’t enough men around to move everyone at once.

Luckily, we’ve got another year or so in our little, inconvenient, heavenly house.

Sangria afternoons

/ Claire / Leave a comment

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End of the weekend sangria. With a heat index of 115, all anyone can do is sit inside and absorb the air conditioning, unless you’re like me and head to the outlets mid-day. Therefore, sangria with a slice of orange is a necessary treat.

Jamey and I are making summer meatloaf tonight. We hope you all have had a marvelous weekend!