Fighting for those before us and after.
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Give thanks for our men and women of the armed services. Thank you.
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Steel
5 CommentsToday at The Lodge at Old Trail Senior Community construction site we are putting steel framing in. The steel has been arriving the last couple of days. We have two cranes about to do the heavy lifting. The foundations are all poured and basement walls for the underground parking are up and ready to support the steel beams. We will put all the beams in place and then put the decking on and pour some more cement for the main floor. Martin Brothers Contractors have been doing a great job pulling all of this together and on time, even with all this rain.
We have over fifty workers on the site today and more will be coming in the next few weeks. Its nice to know that while building The Lodge at Old Trail, a Senior Living Community, that is needed and wanted in this area, that we are also providing hundreds of jobs. A win win! Please feel free to come out and bring the kids to watch the cranes work.
Kaiser Rolls
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Kaiser Rolls
You might be wondering why someone would write about Kaiser Rolls in a Senior Living community blog.
I was born in Charlottesville, but moved to New York City decades ago. Growing up, I developed a fondness for what New Yorkers call, “a buttered roll.” On any street corner or deli–almost anywhere in NYC, for that matter–they sell buttered rolls. The rolls are actually Kaiser Rolls, baked fresh every day. They are crispy on the outside with soft, chewy bread on the inside. They can be cut in half and smothered with salty butter. There is nothing like a buttered roll and a cup of coffee, regular, (meaning milk and sugar) in the morning or later in the day to keep you going. Around the city, you can see long lines of customers waiting for this delicious treat on nearly every block. And if you want to speak like a real New Yorker, this is what you say, “Coffee regular, buttered roll.”
In my travels across the country I always ask people if they know where I can get a buttered roll. Buttered roll? They all seem to think I am a little off. I try to explain, but people never quite get what I am asking for: something that is reliable, that satisfies both a physical and emotional need. New Yorkers–or aficionados of buttered rolls–get this.
Now why I am I talking about this? After nearly half a century, I am back in Charlottesville (Crozet, to be exact), building a Senior Living Community. The other day, I met a lady who lives in Old Trail Village, which is the development where I’m building my retirement community. She had been a nurse for many years in Long Island, New York. While talking, we got on the subject of buttered rolls, a topic near and dear to my stomach and mind. She told me about her father, a former New Yorker who moved to New Hampshire. She says her 83-year-old dad leads an active life, driving all around the “Granite” state. The one problem he has is that he has yet to find his beloved buttered rolls. She says he loves New Hampshire, but feels bereft without his New York-style buttered rolls.
I told her not to worry because he would soon lose interest in finding a buttered roll. Of course, I knew this probably wouldn’t happen. Clearly, the longing for buttered rolls lingers. She smiled with a weird expression that begged for a follow-up question. “So, how long has your father lived there?” Her reply: “20 years!”
You see, certain feelings, smells, and tastes remain with us, no matter where we move. That satisfying taste, the scent of fresh bread, the crunch of the crust, the salty butter, washed down with hot coffee, will always stay with me. Now that I am opening my own Senior Living Community, my first priority will be to have the chef make buttered rolls every day. Here at The Lodge at Old Trail, which is in the middle of a multi-generational community, I plan on passing this wonderful taste to all those around. Children who visit, the neighborhood grandchildren of my residents walking by after school for a visit–all will get a buttered roll to store in their stomachs and memory banks. And hopefully, when my friend’s father comes down for a visit from New Hampshire, he will feel at home with a simple cup of coffee and a buttered roll.
Grandmother’s day
Leave a CommentSince it is Mother’s day, I wanted to share this article that my cousin, Page Evans, wrote. The picture below is of my Aunt and Uncle Tommy and my nieces. Uncle Tommy and Mary Page are exactly what I mean when speaking of active seniors. They are always on the go, enjoying their life and the lives of their children and grandchildren. Truly a family that understands and lives the concept of sharing what they know with the generations below them!
Tom and Mary Page Evans, Page’s parents, with daughters Peyton and Katherine Schwartz
“Life happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
If there were a manual for mothers, this quote from John Lennon could be the header. The truth is, we never know what we’re going to get. Our kids surprise us in every way imaginable. If we’re lucky, it’s mostly good. But we all know life–and our children–are not perfect. And we, as parents–and people–are not perfect. We need to try our best to stay positive and flexible when “life happens.” Then there are our computers. Yep, they can be imperfect as well–especially when our children make too many movies on them, overloading the system.
(Photo by: Page Evans) Happy Mom’s Day!
So on that note, let me tell you what just happened to me. I was busy writing a Mother’s Day column for The Georgetown Dish. Getting started was problematic. I couldn’t figure out what my message was. Did I want to write about my mother, my role as a mother, what we try to teach our children, what our children teach us. As I was writing, I knew I was teetering on being overly sappy. I was, as my minister Luis Leon likes to say, “indulging my nostalgia.”
In any case, I’m sitting at a table at Patisserie Poupon, fully loaded on carbs and caffeine, typing up a storm. Blah, blah, blah…Be kind…Be polite…Be happy…Be grateful…Help others. The screen goes black. Everything I’d just written was sucked into some black hole.
Help! I’m in the middle of writing about how grateful I am for my children and how important gratitude is in life. Hmmmmm. Looks like the computer is not so grateful for all the movies my little darlings have made.
So here’s my first thought: I think I’m going to cry. But I’m in a public place, so this isn’t a viable option.
Second thought: Smash the computer. Now what would I do if my children did this? Definitely not an option.
Third thought: Think about what I’d say to my children.
Good question. What would I tell them? I’d tell them what I always do: Take a deep breath, have a glass of water, and go for a walk. Things will be better when you get back. Have faith.
So that’s exactly what I did. And where did I get this advice? My mother, of course
