Top Comments: Extended Family Reunion #2 edition

                Have you read a Top Comment? Keep those cards-and-letters coming, folks.

An update to a Top Comments diary I wrote from five years ago … exploring the world of my more distant relatives, after the jump …..

But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).                                        Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.

I have written before about how lucky I am with my family — nobody holds grudges, someone who divorces needs our help and support, and we enjoy getting together for some laughs, old stories (OK, a lotta old stories) and … hey, let’s have some good food and drinking (especially the latter).

But this is with my first cousins (as my father had four sisters) and we are all close families — even though we no longer live within a 2-hour radius of each other in the New York metropolitan area. So we started having every-other-year reunions, just so that we would not see each other at funerals. (My mother was an only child, and so we had little contact with her relatives). Five years ago, the call came from my more distant relatives — the siblings of my paternal grandfather — to have a reunion. I was a bit skeptical of seeing people whom I had not met in decades … yet it turned out to be a blast. And I wrote extensively of it in a prior Top Comments diary (from five years ago) at this link. Now, an update. The call came again, five years later … and while I am at fiscal year-end at my (relatively) new job …… I couldn’t resist. My original diary has much more detail … today, i will focus on some new aspects that I learned. This time, we focused a bit less on buildings … and more on some (shared) family history. At a Saturday night dinner, we saw some home movies, including my Aunt Kay’s wedding from 1949 … in color (which must have been rare back then, huh?) Nicholas Healy & Ann Farrell Healy — Bay Head, NJ in 1930

This couple were the first of their generation born in the United States, were married in 1879 and had seven children who survived into adolescence. My paternal grandmother Catherine Healy was one of those seven … yet I did not know her first name was Catherine until my teens. We also called her “Gibby” — not short for Abigail, but because my oldest cousin Tom could not say “Grandma”.

That couple’s sons were involved in politics …. and one of the new exhibits we saw was this menu from a dinner at a Times Square hotel (that closed in 1967).

  The Beverly Hillbillies would have called this ... “The fancy eatin’ room”

On the Saturday morning of this reunion weekend, we met at the Greenwich Village church that Nicholas and Ann married in 1879. Side note: their folk band was finishing rehearsals when we arrived … and I have never seen a Marshall amplifier (albeit, a small one) in a church before that day!

Nicholas & Ann (and their children, the 2nd Generation) are long since dead, but in the center of the photo: you see three (out of seven) living members of the Third Generation. Yours truly (tucked way in the back) was one of many Fourth Generation attendees, with some Fifth, Sixth …. and a newborn Seventh Generation addition recently.

The gent in the yellow shirt in the back row center is Kevin White …. an event-planner by trade, and it was he who spear-headed this entire event.

At a Friday night gathering …. one of the clan is quite fortunate to live in this co-op on lower Fifth Avenue in Greenwich Village (you can see the relatively new Freedom Tower in the background) … and with the help of name-tags on lanyards: this social gathering helped me to learn more about some of these folks. And, to know that some of them live only an hour away from me … so, I have some resources previously unknown to me.

     Wotta location … near Washington Square Park and New York University

On our Saturday walking tour …. Peggy Healy (with the microphone) was our tour guide ….. and took us to the home of former NYC mayor Jimmy Walker (who some of my ancestors did business with). Some of the neighbors were surprised to see such a large group on the block: yet offered some tidbits that Peggy did not know.

Interestingly … she took us past the Stonewall Inn, which President Obama had just declared a national monument …. and my relatives were genuinely intrigued, having heard this on the news (with some even taking photos). Heartening.

          Across the street from James J. Walker Park on St. Luke’s Place in Greenwich Village

At the turn of the 20th Century, our ancestors moved to uptown Manhattan … and on Sunday, we had a picnic next to the Alexander Hamilton Grange— as you can imagine, this memorial is much more visited since a certain Broadway play debuted. The house was completed in 1802 and named The Grange after his father's ancestral home in Scotland.

    The home of Alexander Hamilton … located at 414 West 141st Street, New York, NY

Lastly … one of the things I most appreciated in attending this reunion was finding out things about my own clan — that I never knew before. Stories about my father (who died in 1977 and — like many men of his generation — was reluctant to talk much about himself) were wonderful to hear.

And then … someone brought this photo, of some women I know quite well (this must be from the 60’s, I think?)

My grandmother Gibby is in the center and around her are her four daughters (and thus my father’s four sisters) - my Aunt Agnes, Aunt Ann, Aunt Rosemary and Aunt Kay (L-to-R). All were alive up to 5-7 years ago …. now, only Agnes Farrell (on the left) remains, and she just celebrated her 91st birthday … albeit in a nursing home. But this photo (and the home movies) made this a weekend to remember.

           Aunt Agnes, Aunt Ann, Grandma Catherine (“Gibby”), Aunt Rosemary and Aunt Kay

So many of my friends have either dysfunctional (or vindictive) families. I am damn lucky to have relatives I am glad to see … and sorry to leave. I only wish we had more recorded history, photos with dates and the like. But this is a start.

Let’s close with John Mayall’s acoustic blues tribute to his Grandad — of which I am envious. William Tracey died years before my father married, and my maternal grandfather died when I was only five … and I’d like to know more abouth hem.

x YouTube Video Now, on to Top Comments: -------------------------------------

From Wee Mama:

In the diary by Randian about the upcoming general election — jagerran has thoughts handy for reference in the months ahead

From elfling:

In the front-page story on the Trumpster’s fundraising efforts— first, angry marmot channels Dr. Evil… to which ontheleftcoast laments the shortage of laser-armed sharks in the Presidential race. Won’t SOMEONE think of the sea bass?

From Eyesbright:

In the front-page story on the NRA efforts to prevent federally  funded gun-violence research — this may be the most appropriate use of this graphic I've ever seen and the comment is by jwinIL14 is even better  …………... and then, in the diary by oldmancoyote22 about government e-mail systems…. this is the sort of authoritative, well-written comment that caused me to sign up for Daily Kos nearly 12 years ago ….. because Im a frayed knot has real, in-depth expertise on the subject

From Middleagedhousewife:

In today’s StrongerTogether diary by SJohnson - I'd like to nominate this comment by reesetheone — who shows beautifully and powerfully… our current Congress' split personality between overheated political investigations and lack thereof regarding police shootings ... and of our need to vote.

And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........

In the diary by Walter Einenkel about an elderly white North Carolinian whose gun-waving and shooting did not result in a police shooting — both cwarrdc (and thereafter, Martin Gale) made note of murderer Dylann Roof  …. and hamburgers.

TOP PHOTOS July 6th, 2016 Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)

And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:

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