Debra LaValley's Blog

Sunset Valley Quartet (circa 1950-2):
Betty Ross – Red Perkins – Tom La Valley, Ralph Spencer

Last night, I was up too late and caught a segment of Community Auditions (I didn’t know it was still on – but I am not usually watching tv after midnight on a Sunday). It reminded me of a story that my parents told me years ago. They were almost on Community Auditions in the early 1950s when they were in the group The Mello-Tones. The Mello-Tones were my parents (Tom & Betty), Francis aka Frank Nadeau, Ralph Spencer, Red Perkins, and Paul Tousignant. They were all set to be on the show when Frank who was their drummer was drafted (Korean War).

The photo above was of the Sunset Valley Quartet that my parents were in along with Red and Ralph. They sang at the Princess which was a dance hall. It then became the Princess Carpets building and it still a rug store today . . . Concord Carpet – I believe. It is near Cumberland Farms on Fisherville Road. My dad played the bass and the two other guys played guitar. Ralph and my mom were the main singers. My mom told me today that they also sang on WKXL. The Harmonettes – a group of 3 or 4 girls – also sang on WKXL around the same time.

I have an old scratched 45 that I believe one of my uncles gave me. It was supposed to be of The Sunset Valley Quartets or The Mello-Tones. It is very scratched – I don’t know if it would play. I have to find someone with a turntable that will play 45s and has one of those thing-a-ma-jigs that go in the middle so you can play them on the turntable.

Have a great evening!

2/19/1952 Ralph Spencer, Dad (Tom La Valley), Red Perkins

Jackie, Bill, and Matt

I can’t think of much to say today, so I decided to share some photos that my parents took yesterday. They drove Jackie and Bill to Portland, Maine to visit their son Matt. They had not seen him in about two years. They spent a very nice afternoon with Matt. They had a tasty meal at the Olive Garden too.

Dad, Jackie, Bill, Matt

Bill, Jackie, Matt, Mom

Bill & Matt

Frog Bellies

Frog Bellies

I wonder how many people are out there teaching the younger generations about Frog Bellies?

My mother taught us when we were very young. First you pull a leaf off of the Frog Belly plant. After that, you carefully pinch the leaf until it looks “wet.” Once you finish this step, you make a small tear at the base of the leaf and then put it up to your mouth and blow into it. It may take a few tries or more pinching of the leaf.

Frog Belly Leaf (already pinched – and blown up)

A Successful Frog Belly 🙂

Side View of an Inflated Frog Belly

You have to wonder – who originally thought of doing this . . . and how many years ago?

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Summer Fun

The weeks of summer are flying by once again! It has been a very warm summer too. This weekend, I am just relaxing. It is too hot & humid to do much. We had a small shower and some rolling thunder but nothing too exciting in the Penacook/Boscawen area. My folks are in Weare camping and they have been having some very big thunder storms – with a lot of rain. My mom just called and said it they knew it was going to rain so much tonight – they would have come home. They return tomorrow morning.

My folks have always loved camping, and when we were little – we spent almost every summer weekend camping as a family in our 6 man tent. It was great times. I loved the sound of rain hitting the canvas and my dad saying “Don’t TOUCH the tent it will LEAK!” My sister Jackie and I were sitting in the canvas screen house with my folks last weekend and were reminiscing about rainy days in the tent. We chuckled about my dad always yelling to us not to touch the tent.

Food always tasted better cooked over a fire or on the Coleman stove my dad had. There is something about eating outdoors that makes food taste better, and at the same time, makes you hungrier. I always seem to have a huge appetite when eating outside.

My favorite part of camping growing up (and even now) was the fire! I love building a fire and sitting around the campfire. It is something primal in us, I think. Ever since man was able to start a fire – people have sat around the campfire to tell stories, sing, or just watch the flames dance around the logs under a star-filled sky. It is so peaceful. I love it – especially if there is little chill in the air.

Last week, I visited my folks at the campground. After supper, I built a fire and toasted marshmallows. You also have to make s’mores! What is a campfire without a s’more!

Yum!

Good times and summer fun!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Cue JAWS Theme . . .

It is July and once again the news is filled with shark sightings and shark attacks. You would think folks would know by now that sharks LIVE in the ocean. It is their space. I feel sad when I hear that a shark is being hunted because it thought a surfer or swimmer was a seal or other food choice. I feel badly for the humans – but really – kill the shark? I also heard on the news that shark populations are actually decreasing – and humans going into the water are increasing. I will get off my soap box now.

The other day – there was big news about a great white shark following a kayaker. There was a photo of the guy in the kayak looking back at a large dorsal fin. A surfer was in the foreground – looking on (this surfer had alerted the kayaker about the shark). No one was hurt – but I bet that kayak had to be rinsed out big time!

I think I have mentioned this before – but this photo reminded me of something I saw back when the movie JAWS first came out. I was at Wellington State Park in Bristol that is on Newfound Lake. In the distance was a boat pulling a water skier and behind the water skier was a giant dorsal fin following him. It was one of the funniest things that I had ever seen. I wish I had a photo of it. Of course – it was funny because there are no sharks in Newfound Lake.

SO folks – this is a reminder … it is July and thar be sharks in the ocean. Just sayin’

I will take my shark in a Blue Lagoon in Honolulu thank you! 🙂

Mr. & Mrs. Thomas C. La Valley

Today is my parents’ 56 wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad! It was hot and humid today, and my mom said it was the same 56 years ago. She and my dad went to Blake’s Turkey Farm for lunch today to celebrate their anniversary. I have been truly blessed having then as parents. They have filled my life with many memories that I will cherish forever! Enjoy your day – Mom & Dad. Thank you for being such terrific parents!

My Nana had this photo (it is one of 3, I believe that I scanned) of the “Indians” that came to Penacook for many years at 30 Pines – back in the day when there were actual pine trees around 30 Pines! I thought I would share the memories that my Uncle Bob had of the days the Indians spent the summers – putting on shows and teaching the children about the Indian culture.

From my Uncle:

“I really can’t remember what years that they came to Thirty Pines but it was at least two and I figure I must have been around twelve + years old. Thirty Pines really did have lots of pines and where the strip mall was built there were lots of big trees and there were picnic tables spread out among the trees. People used to stop a Thirty Pines for gas (5 Gallons for $1.00) and would park in the shade of the trees for a picnic lunch. They got hot dogs, hamburgers, Tonic, ice cream, etc. at the store, there was quite a bit of traffic as the highway was the main route to the mountains, lakes and the ocean. During the motorcycle weeks the picnic area was a prime stopping point.

The picnic area was where the Indians set up their teepees and stayed for the summer season (at least two years as I remember. The “Tribe” was led by “Chief Thundercloud” and he was a real nice person, and all the braves and squaws were equally personable. I can’t remember where they came from but I seem to remember that they were from North Carolina. I guess they could be characterized as being gypsies with varying degrees of Indian bloodline.

There were a few of us from the Manor that had a lot of free time so we gravitated to Thirty Pines as there wasn’t a whole lot of action other than sandlot baseball (it was great !) and weeding the garden (not so great). Chief thundercloud took a few of us under his wing and we learned a lot about the culture from him and others. We learned how to do beading and made bracelets and belts. The most fun for me was when they would take us out in the woods to find the perfect small trees to make bows and arrows. We would spend hours looking for just the right tree with no knots to carve into a bow and learned how to make the arrows. We also made drums using coffee cans with rubber stretched over the cans and tied with leather strips.

Mom would give us food (bread, pies etc.)to take over for the people and they loved her food. The Chief and a few others came to the house for a meal as I remember. We always let Mom know where we were and many times she would send Mary or Betty? to let us know it was time to come home.

The “Tribe” used to put on shows for the tourists, they danced, sang, played Indian flutes and drums. They also sold beaded goods to support themselves and people would donate after the shows. Thirty Pines used to give them food also (The Welch family owned Thirty Pines I am pretty sure) as they brought a lot of customers to the store…”

A great snapshot of a simpler time – when summers seemed to last forever. Have a great summer everyone!
Summers certainly seem to fly by now. Can you believe the first week of July is already over? OMG!

Uncle Bob – Thanks for sharing your memories of the Indians at Thirty Pines, Uncle!

Debbie 🙂

It is a lazy Friday night.  I am sitting on my couch, and I am on my laptop.  I came across this photo of a Creepy Crawler spider that I have on my phone at work.  I had taken it off to snap a photo some time ago.  It is a spider that I made probably 20 years ago with my nephews “new” version of the Creepy Crawlers set.  The new set was made mostly of plastic and heated the Goop by a light bulb.  It was NOTHING like the set that I had growing up that I LOVED!  My set was made of sturdy metal and had a tiny electric “stove” that would cook the plastic Goop that I would place in metal molds.  I remember having a dish of water for cooling the very hot metal plates.  That was back in the day that we actually played with toys that years later were deemed too dangerous and had to be either yanked from the shelves or remodeled.  I don’t remember ever getting hurt with my “dangerous” Creepy Crawler set.  It was one of my most favorite toys, and I spent hours making plastic bugs.  I really like the Glow in the Dark Goop!  To this day – I like things that glow in the dark.  Which reminds me – fireflies are out now!  I love watching fireflies!

My entire apartment is vibrating from the fireworks being set off in the neighborhood tonight!  Remember back when sparklers were the only legal fireworks to have in NH?  Now, private citizens seem to be setting off major fireworks.  It sounds like a war zone out there.  Molly is not impressed.  She has been hiding under the bed the past few evenings. I better sign off and see if I can coax her out from under the bed.  🙂

June 1951 Ken Ross

My parents’ let me borrow a couple old photo albums, and I have been scanning some of the photos. I had not seen this particular photo of my Grampa Ross before. I knew that he could play the guitar and harmonica at the same time even though, I never remember him playing. In fact, I was the only grandchild that he ever knew. He died too young of stomach cancer on December 24, 1958. I turned one on December 26, 1958. I think that I would have really loved spending time with him. From what I have been told and from the photos that I have seen – he was FUN! On the back of this photo is written (in what looks to be my Nana’s handwriting) “June 1951 – One man band – Doughnuts and Coffee Ken Ross.” I wonder what silliness he had on his head?

I can see my mom and brother Tom in his face in this photo too.

Another photo that I came across:

Ross and Preve Family

Top row: Ralph, Nana, Uncle Leo (Preve), Aunt Cookie, Grampa Ross
Bottom row: Rich, Mary Jane, Jim, Ken (Preve)

One more photo Down Memory Lane – before I was on the Lane! 🙂

1953 Prom Penacook High School

My mother said she was thrilled (not really) that her parents were chaperones for the Prom. I am sure every high school senior would want his/her parents to join them at the prom. 🙂 Pictured – Ken & Alba Ross (aka Grampa Ross & Nana), Betty Ross & Tom La Valley (aka my parents).

Have a great day everyone! I will be posting more old photos soon on my other tabs – so check back!

Hot Cuisine

HOT CUISINE

Today is day two of temperatures in the 90s and very high humidity. I am not a fan of this kind of weather. Yesterday, my parents invited me over to supper – so I didn’t have to think of what to have for supper.

I arrived home tonight around 5:30 PM – my apartment a comfortable 74 degrees with the AC on. I knew that I would be having a nice cool salad for supper. You wouldn’t catch me heating up the apartment by using the stove. So, I fed the cat. Molly always has to eat first because she is STARVING to DEATH from not having me around during the day to beg snacks from. I took out a plate – filled it with prepackaged salad and crumbled up a slice of 50% Cabot cheese on top. I then opened the refrigerator to get the salad dressing and noticed that I didn’t have any! What to do? What to do?

Luckily, I am known for my Haute Cuisine, and looked at what I had. Hmmm – a half jar of RAGU No Sugar Added spaghetti sauce! That would do. I measured out a 1/2 cup (1 Weight Watcher point – much better than the 3 points for 2 tablespoons of a low calorie dressing, by the way). I poured it over my salad.
(Yes, I live a lone … I don’t know how a spouse would take such a meal – would one of you try it out and let me know how it goes?)

I was brought up to always clean my plate, so I got out one piece of diet bread (1 WW point) and spread some Smart Balance margarine on it to soak up all the goodness left on the plate. Viola – a clean plate.

Don’t knock it until you try it. It was not bad at all! Any port in a storm as they say. By the way, if I had cottage cheese in the house, I would have had cold baked beans and cottage cheese for supper. Now that is GOOD food!

Keep cool!