Among Preferred Photos, The Frank Byrne Family Visit 7300!

Around 1961 Lois introduced Frank Byrne to Mary Beth Rudden, who was living with Aunt Elizabeth. Frank had been working in Long Beach, California. Soon after they were married Mom drove cross country from NJ to CA with them.  We often joked that "Mom Mom Wimberg was a special part of their honeymoon"!

What a mom full of awe and what a wonderfully compassionate Byrne Family who we all love.

(Recently another photo found was one i took of the kids while i went to help out when Mary Beth was in the hospital and Frank went to stay with her.  Will post that later.  In the photo, the Byrnes kids were playing with a gift I brought from Mexico '68 for my dad who loved UNUSUAL things.  It was a live bug, decorated with rhinestones that lived in a little plastic cage and ate balsa wood.  My dad gave it a name, OLEY and took around town and even to a few bars.  His Christmas Card that year of course included OLEY.  Will find a few pics later or ask Betty, Frank's sister, who I stayed with for about ten days or more during the time I was salvaging photos and family history after the hurricane!

The Mary Beth, Frank and kids at the
Wimberg Homestead!

Mom Mom's Old Sweater Salvaged from Sandy

Now, keep in mind, I was compelled to return to NJ to salvage history which might some day enrich the Wimberg Legacy, primarily to honor my mom and dad. But every day that has passed, convinces me that there IS A BOOK IN THIS BASEMENT!  Unlike our Wimberg Websters in New Zealand and their awesome family journals, mom and dad's stories are in the letters, (prior to email, and photos, prior to digital).

But hey, there are other "COSAS" in this basement; things, stuff, Wimberg advertisements, treasures, or as the HOBBITS would say, "MATHOMS".

As the workmen with Aaron and crew from Chicago would say, "There are some cool old things down here, and you won't be able to find them at Walmart".

As the days got cold in November and one chore would lead to five more chores, I removed my shirt for one of those mathoms, MOM MOM"S OLD SWEATER!

There I am with my fabulous NEW-OLD SWEATER that has

pockets and incredibly great karma straight from Marion Wimberg!

(photo by Laura)

And...

There's my shirt (that I wore for five days straight) as I listened to Hawaiian music.

There's a woven Tongan fan, (mathoms like THAT love salt water and will survive any storm).

Am wearing my blue gloves, (Tried several gloves beforehand but couldn't perform detail work on photos so tips of fingers were getting tiny cuts and blisters. Thank you my favorite son, Don, the world needs problem solving dudes like you.)

There's that baby light in the background (...remember that?)

Of course, as in almost EVERY basement, the boiler and water heater! (Wouldn't it be great if someone designed functional items like that to be so beautiful they could all be placed upstairs in the middle of the living spaces...ya know, like the fire place used to be! Not down in basements where flooding occurs. Then SANDY or any hurricane that passes through wouldn't damage half as many!)

AND...above is the ceiling that mom and her bro, our Uncle Joe, painted years ago.  All those glorious pipes add to the ambiance which I have come to love...sort of!

"Goombye" Hard Wood Floors, Hello Blankets

Blankets for drying

...Dad's old Egg Harbor City letters and cards.

Jaws Arriving at 3 North

"Vaya con Dios" to any sacred thing that we could not salvage.

It Wasn't Santa with That Sack

...But it sure felt like Christmas when George 

arrived from the Mainland.

Sunday Visitors while Salvaging from Sandy

Skipped a few posts and will back track later but,
TODAY and TONIGHT:

Kelly Kunik, one of our star salvagers, comes like
an angel from above to make the season down here
KELLY-BRIGHT!

After Breakfast at 7300 with George and Mar, George III and his awesome Kelsey came to 
1 South to lift spirits on this first day of December!  Helped to clear out and make space.

This is where I spent most of the day, in the
PHOTO  SALVAGE  DEPARTMENT!

Yup, Mom's Aloe plants were frightened by
SANDY and hopefully will recover!

Went over for sour kraut and posk energy...YES!

Was delighted to see that these "historic" old
Olympic items from Mexico, Munich and
Montreal were almost all OK, sort of.
(Broadcasting name cards, like the black card,
were used in the analog old days!)

Must go back and insert pics of others that helped...like Betty, Don, Ron and so on...

The Georges and Family Visit 3 N. Post Sandy's Visit

George, Christy, Kelsey, Marilynn, George IV,
GeorgeIII, Tyler and Connor came to check out
 the basement "Archives" of 3 North,
November 25, 2012

To the left was the 'Drying Department', which was active with large fans for more than a week, drying old photos, documents and letters.  Many letters were simply addressed to "George Wimberg, Egg Harbor, NJ" from the 1920's.  Mom saved more than we thought! The 'Salvaging Department' along with the 'Digital Imaging Center' (sweet, aye?) which is ongoing, is off to the right.  George purchased new shelves which you can see in the rear to the right.  Dried a great old photo of Mom and Dad at a party and on the back of the photo Mom wrote..."Mother waiting the arrival of her son George any hour now---".  The old trunk which is to the right of our old sleds contains interesting items, for example, Dad's 1928 Chemistry Notebook which, no doubt, should be in a museum, a Wimberg Museum!? Wait till you see it! 

I have been using the macro option for close up photo reproduction, (which you all will have to share) and did not change the settings, oops, but perfection is not my target, ne!?

The Archives Visited by Sandy, Big Time

The power of our awesome ocean, that helps to sustain us, gives us a wake up call in 2012!

To be continued...