As told by Gabriella Sartor:
When I think of Aunt Ruby, I think of the words funny and creative. She was so creative that she painted our nursery before I was even born. I also think of all the wild times we had together. Every summer, my sister Sam and I went down from Canada to Syracuse for a whole week and she always had so much for us to do. We’d go to the Erie Canal in Camillus where we would dress up like pioneers and get to see what life was like in the 1800s. There was lots of walking around, going to different parks, and we swam a lot in the pool, too. We were really never inside until it got dark when we’d eat dinner.
When I think of Aunt Ruby, I think of the words funny and creative. She was so creative that she painted our nursery before I was even born. I also think of all the wild times we had together. Every summer, my sister Sam and I went down from Canada to Syracuse for a whole week and she always had so much for us to do. We’d go to the Erie Canal in Camillus where we would dress up like pioneers and get to see what life was like in the 1800s. There was lots of walking around, going to different parks, and we swam a lot in the pool, too. We were really never inside until it got dark when we’d eat dinner.
 |  |
Now that I am older, I would like her food more, but I remember Aunt Ruby would make homemade mac and cheese and I wouldn’t eat it if it wasn't Kraft dinner. She always made nice homemade mac and cheese with real cheese and put it in the oven and it was all crusty on top, like how you would want it now as an adult, but we didn’t appreciate it back then. She also used to make this watermelon salad that we thought was a little weird, but now we make it all the time.
 |  |
After dinner we’d brush our teeth, get into bed, and then it was story time. Aunt Ruby would make up these crazy bedtime stories for us where it would get very theatrical. The funny thing about these stories is that when you think about bedtime stories, you think about stories to calm kids down, but these stories just wound us up. She would act out the parts and try to make us laugh. One time Uncle Ray even came in and said, “What are you doing winding up the kids?!” He was half joking for sure, but it was true, we had a hard time going to sleep after that because we had so much energy. I loved those stories.
Another thing I liked to do back then was to go behind Uncle Ray’s reclining chair where Aunt Ruby kept this library of children’s books. I liked sitting in Uncle Ray’s chair and reading those books at her house. She had all the Shel Silverstein books and now I own them as well. I have this little shelf right over here where I keep mine. She’d give me books sometimes too. One of my Harry Potter books even has her writing in it. When I think about those summers, it's always the stories that come to mind first.
RSS Feed