Pennsylvania, HERE WE COME...

I've decided this would be a fun way to tell Kathy Keefer we are COMING FOR A VISIT!!

In 1973, John and I bought a house in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. Ross was born in that house. It had a little pond. John had a small barn for chickens...and a large garden...

Ross, me and John, Pine Grove, Pa: 1978

AND I HAD KATHY KEEFER. She was already well into the "I am busy raising-three-boys phase" of her life when we moved into the neighborhood. When I got pregnant with Ross, Kathy gave me a shower and every woman in the neighborhood came, and we had a picnic supper down in the Keefer Pavilion...

We talked every single day, when telephones had those long cords that kept you anchored to the wall. It would have been a rare day if we didn't visit. On the weekends, we'd go to auctions, and every week, we went to a TOPS meeting. Kathy gave me haircuts in her kitchen...and we knew what each other was making for supper every night. We'd get together to bake pies, and made doughnuts...(during a blizzard, and we kept blowing fuses besides...I think we had four deep fat fryers plugged in!!)

Fast forward 30 years...Ross got a job in Harrisburg, Pa.  He needed a place to park his U-Haul while he looked for an apartment.  Kathy and Denny insisted on moving him into their house.  They unpacked his stuff and returned the U-Haul.  Ross fell in love with the Keefers -- Kathy's cooking, Denny's good humor and Shoofly pie.  For his birthday that year, Kathy was in charge of his chocolate cake with peanut butter icing...

Kathy and Denny.  Ross's second Mom and Dad...

During our last visit, Kathy was learning how to sew! (she made her kitchen curtains)

So -- PUT ON THE COFFEE POT, Kathy and Den -- we'll be there in two weeks!! (I'm not worried about people finding out we'll be gone -- because Ross will be here -- taking care of the chickens AND Frankie!)