June is here and it appears like a perfect summer may be headed our way. Our Spring has been just beautiful. Just enough rain, not hard downpours, like we usually get. My home is surrounded by the Ludlow Creek State Forest, and it is breathtaking. It looks like the Garden Of Eden must have looked. Everything is a deep green, the birds are always singing - and they are happy songs - not the angry ones I used to hear when I live in the city of Vestal, NY.
I have had reasons lately to go into the city nearby, Binghamton, NY. It makes me so sad to see how that city has changed. My mother grew up there and it was a whole different world back then. My grandmother raised chickens right in the city, grew a huge garden every year and canned all her produce. She worked, of course, at Endicott Johnson Shoe Factory (most people did back then!), and her co-workers shared their bounty with her. She always took it and canned it. My mother's family did not suffer from no food in the depression, because my grandmother knew how to provide it. She was raised on a farm in Pennsylvania, so of course she knew what to do.
She raised all her girls to know how to do all those things and more. They learned to sew, crochet, knit, and whatever else they had to do to take care of their families in bad times. Back then when someone lost their job and did not have any means to take care of their children, the parents would take the children to the orphanages and leave them there. My grandmother fought against that and did whatever she could to hang onto her children.
Anyway, I have been moving all my merchandise out of my eBay store. Somebody said that eBay was broken and I think they are correct. It is no longer feasible for me to keep my items for sale on there, especially when my own website, www.larrylupole.com/catalog gets way more traffic. So I can even lower my prices there and charge a very minimal shipping fee with no handling fees! It is just great. And so much easier to maneuver. I have been adding many different products there this week. So if you get a chance come take a look and see what you'd like!
