North Carolina July Visit

Blogging and Bananas

What do blogging and bananas have in common, other than alliteration? I have always been a fan of humorist Erma Bombeck. A particular story of hers has always stuck with me. One day Erma realized she was never eating bananas at the ripeness that she liked for them. She would buy fresh bananas at the grocery store. Once home however, so as not to be wasteful, she would eat the ones she had that were going to go bad first. By the time she had consumed those, the ones she'd just bought were a bit overripe for her taste. It eventually occurred to her that if she could be wasteful, just once, the vicious cycle would be broken. Why do I relate this story?

This is my third – and final – post about my OK/NC trip last month, July 6th - July 19th. I got behind in my blogging (see why in my post for 8/15/17) and since I am committed to obsessed with posting in the chronological order of my life, I have a list of post topics waiting to be presented that become less fresh in my memory and staler by the day as I instead use my time to detail the tales of this trip. Erma Bombeck could not throw out that banana. I am incapable of omitted a trip blog. So let me forge on ahead, finish this post, and then develop a catch up scheme for my other draft topics waiting in the wings, fading in my mind, withering away in their increasing irrelevance.

Saturday, July 15th - drive to Dean's

Maxine and I began our drive westward to her son Dean's home near Charlotte about 10:00 am. It is typically about a 3 hour drive but we were in no hurry and planned to stop at a fabric store I had read about on the internet.

Maxine commented about how when she and her husband Bob drove, he rarely wanted to stop en route. About midway to Dean's I saw a billboard advertising an antique store in Asheboro. We decided to detour a bit and take a peek at the store and its neighbors.  We found the downtown area of Asheboro to be quaint, steeped in history. 

The store was inviting and quite large. Its owners describe it as
Collector's Antique Mall is 35,000 square feet with almost 100 dealers. We have an array of antiques and collectibles, ranging from toys to primitives to fine wood furniture, as well as mid-century housewares, books, linens, costume and fine jewelry, and other vintage goodies. We also have a wide selection of North Carolina pottery, with collectible works from antique and some modern artisans.

We did enjoy browsing for a little while, but the day was oppressively hot. After ducking briefly into a few more non-air conditioned shops, we had had enough antiquing and wanted to get back on the road to Dean's – except we were turned around and could not agree on which direction to head to do that. We stumbled upon a McDonald's during our wandering and decided that a gourmet meal would fill our tummies and clear our minds. We ate and asked directions and were soon on our way. Maxine assured me that our longer-that intended off-road adventure had satisfied her curiosity of the area. We made no purchases but perhaps our sisterly bond had been strengthened. Then again, perhaps not...

Surely a trip to a fabric store would be uplifting and encouraging. I had read about Mary Jo's Cloth Store on the internet, the description stating:
Massive fabric store since 1951 with drapery, notions & supplies, plus a sewing center with classes. 

An article in the Charlotte Observer reported:

Mary Jo Cloninger started with a $500 loan and a few scraps of cloth in the back of a barber shop and spun it into a world-famous destination for fabric and sewing that drew customers to Gastonia from all over the Southeast... Cloninger started the store in 1951 when she was 19 and newly married. She had limited education and had never learned to read above a third-grade level. In her 30s, she learned she had dyslexia. But her knowledge of sewing and what customers needed helped her turn the store into an empire, with a mail-order business that filled orders from around the world.

Surely Maxine and I had to stop and visit such a unique fabric haven and slice of sewing history.

The store was large, I will give it that. Its wares however, were not to my liking. There was a heavy emphasis on bridal and upholstery fabrics and, in my opinion, not enough focus on quilting cottons. My purchases were sparse – only a small Christmas tree pattern and an end-of bolt remnant of a novelty runner/jogger print. This small quantity was certainly not much for having traveled about 3000 miles from California to get there. I fear Mary Jo's Cloth Store had better press than products. I was glad, though, that I could check the box on having visited this iconic fabric store of the United States. 

Before arriving at Dean's, I'd asked Maxine to make a brief stop at Walmart's so I could pick up a few gifts for her granddaughters, my great nieces. I did that in short order and we left the store, dodging raindrops on our mad dash to the car in the parking lot. Come to think of it, parts of our journey Saturday had been plagued with periodic downpours of torrential rain. After having been on the road for close to six hours, double our expected time, we finally reached Dean's and had a chance to kick off our shoes and relax... aaahh ... in air-conditioned comfort. Dean, his wife Nishaan, and daughters Camilla and Carmen arrived later that evening from their day's outing.

  

Sunday, July 16th – games with kids, reunion with cousin

One of the novelty toys I'd picked up at Walmart were two ribbon streamers for rhythmic dance. The girls loved them; they were a big hit. It was fun to watch them leaping about singing and dancing and waving those wands with the long strip of pink or red satin at the end.

We also did some quiet, indoor play with Camilla and Carmen. They are experts at the card game UNO.

I must admit, it has been several years since I played UNO. As I browsed Amazon to get a photo of the game I was amazed at how many versions there are out there: UNO Hot Wheels, UNO Ghostbusters, UNO Emoji, UNO Super Mario, UNO Despicable Me, UNO DC Super Heroes, even an UNO Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade edition. The version we played was UNO the Simpsons and I had a bit of a learning curve to catch on to what the stylized cards stood for. But I got it without too much difficulty and playing was fun.

Late morning my cousin Bruce and his wife Debbie arrived for a reunion visit. Bruce is one year younger than I am and I had not seen him in decades. When he walked in the door I said, "Bruce, I could walk right by you on the street and not recognize you". But as soon as he spoke and I observed his mannerisms it was like I had seen him just yesterday. We sat and talked, went out to lunch at a Chinese restaurant, and then came back to catch up some more on our kids and our lives since we'd last been together. We played Martian Dice and had a really good visit.

Debbie had baked and brought crescent shaped cookies covered in powder sugar from the Christmas recipe our Aunt Gert had used when we were children. They were excellent and just biting into them brought back a flood of memories.

Bruce and Debbie left late afternoon and Maxine and I were prepared to drive back as well. Dean and Nishaan convinced us to stay overnight instead. Since we had stayed, Nishaan, Maxine, and I were able to make a quick jaunt out to a local vintage home decor shop while Dean took the girls to the pool.

Here we are, two sisters just hanging out looking at "stuff". 

After dinner all five of us piled in the car to go out for ice cream. Carmen did not want to be in the picture so I told her I would hide her. She still smiled though as did her sister Camilla, happy to be out with their Grandma. 

Monday, July 17th - return to Maxine's

Maxine and I left in the morning. The drive back from Charlotte to Cary did not take us as long since we did not make as many stops. We got in just after lunchtime and ate at an IHOP before going to Maxine's house. We stopped by the lawyer to sign some papers regarding our dad's estate and then Maxine took me shopping at Steinmart. I often admire the sparkly tops she wears and I bought some for myself.

We were able to catch up with my nephew Eric for dinner after he finished his work day. He had just dyed his hair blond on an impulse and this surprised his mom, my sister. With his black horn rimmed glasses and new hair style, I told him he looked like Drew Carey.

Tuesday, July 18th and Wednesday, July 19th - restful and uneventful

Maxine had a doctors appointment, routine but it took up a good portion of the day, so I just relaxed at her place, did a bit of packing, talked with her husband Bob, and browsed through some of her many knitting books. Dinner and some TV in the evening pretty much rounded out the trip. I was flying back home to California the next day. I had been gone two weeks and, although I had packed in a lot and enjoyed myself, I was ready to go home.

And in Conclusion...

I started this post with bananas so I should come full circle and end it that way. Doing so also allows me to slip in a couple of cool photos of some educational signs we saw at the Science Museum in Oklahoma City.

"Knock, Knock."     "Who's there?"      "Banana, banana, banana!"

"Knock, Knock."     "Who's there?"      "Banana, banana, banana!"

"Knock, Knock."     "Who's there?"      "Banana, banana, banana!"

"Knock, Knock."    "Who's there?"
"Orange you glad I didn't say Banana, banana, banana!?"

With this three-part travel post completed, I can now allow myself to address those other bananas, I mean topics, poised in line to be pontificated upon.