Beyond the South End

Sonny’s

Sunshine Corner

Happy New Year to all of you out there who continue to enjoy “Beyond the South End” blogs every month. Readership is now over 39,000. Thank you very much. Thank you also for your feedback. Many of you have contacted me on Facebook or by email, especially in the past month. I appreciate your comments. Contact me by FB, email at southendstories@aol.com, or just type a comment at the end of a story you like on the blog. Once I read and approve it, it will appear in that space.

Nanci and I went to see “Frozen,” the Disney film, on Christmas. Going to the movies on Christmas has become a tradition with us. We enjoyed the movie very much and we both highly recommend it for people of all ages. The detail in the film was exquisite and shows how much Disney has come technically since the first animated Disney film I saw, “Cinderella,” which I re-watched on TV during the holiday season.

We also decided to give ourselves a break and pick an easy Christmas dinner. We choose baby back ribs from a local BBQ place. The South does BBQ the best of anyone, and we wanted to take advantage of it one more time before we eventually leave these parts. We added vegetables and apple pie and we were all set.

Speaking of apples, I recently met up with a Facebook friend from home, Ruth Wade, up at Starbucks off I-85. It was pouring rain but Nanci and I met with Ruth to pick up some Macintosh apples and Maine yellow-eyed beans, which I forgot to pick up this summer. You can’t buy either of them down here and she was nice enough to bring me both when she saw I was bemoaning that fact on Facebook. She was making a trip down to North Carolina and said she wouldn’t mind bringing me some. God Bless, Ruth and God Bless Facebook!

As for the year just passed, we lost three people we know: Mrs. Norma Tiffany, a high school teacher; Darold Poulin, a 1959 classmate; and Linda Knowlton Stanley, sister of one of my best friends in high school. We were happy, however, when our dear Aunt Virginia, who turned 103 on December 7, is back home after a fall sent her to the hospital and nursing home care for a while. We look forward to having her with us in the New Year.

Nanci and I followed another tradition of ours and went to the calendar store at the mall on New Year’s Eve day to pick up new calendars for the coming year. We always put up a cat calendar on the wall in the kitchen/dining area. This year we have Maine coon cats. Nanci picked up another Harry Potter daily calendar and I got my small pocket-sized appointment calendar to keep track of my appointments.

This past year my book, “The South End” continued to sell. I thank you all for that too. I am still working on the next book. One note about the story in December’s blog, “A Boy and his Dog…A Christmas Story.” The story is entirely fictional. I did use local references and the paper route is the actual route my brother Ted took when he had a paper route for the Courier when he was a kid about the same age as Quint. The name Quint also did come from a swimming instructor I had as a camper at Methodist Church Camp.

Coming up in the blog, once I can coordinate everything, I will bring you some of the research Austin Nagel has sent me concerning his connection to the Pillsbury family, long-time seafarers from Rockland.

If I get the information in time and am able to travel downeast, I may end up at my 50^th college class reunion at University of Maine at Machias, which was called Washington State Teachers College when I attended. We’ll see how it goes.

I leave you with a couple of fun things you might want to look into. The first is the sweepstakes for HGTV’s new vacation home in Lake Tahoe. You can enter in two places online: www.frontdoor.com/dreamhome; pick up the other link from there to HGTV’s site and don’t forget the second chance drawing for a GMC car. You can enter every day.

The other fun thing I just did online is a test to see what character you are most alike on Downton Abbey, which returns to TV soon. The link is www.buzzfeed.com. I came out as Anna. Nanci came out as Anna’s Mr. Bates. How’d that happen?

They describe me in relation to Anna as: “You have a heart of gold and are willing to look past physical attributes like pudginess and uneven walking ability. You even stand by your SO (whatever that means) when they’re convicted of murder. You’re Grade-A wifey material!”

So there you have it. Have fun and I wish you and yours a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. And please, won’t someone go down to my brother Ted’s house and unclog their frozen pipes. He says they’ve been that way for two days. Brrrr.

Butchie wishes everyone a begrudgingly good New Year.