A Leisurely Sunday and Goodbyes

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Our weekend in Kansas City passed all too quickly. Sunday was upon us in a flash. Luckily, our flights home were late in the day and we were able to enjoy a number of additional activities. They included brunch at the Intercontinental, a driving tour, including a stop at the Storrs Institute, a visit to the Nelson Art Museum, and a stroll through Loose Park.

The stop at the Storrs Institute (a

medical research facility) was prompted by an interest to see an impressive piece of modern art that sits in front of the Institute’s main entryway. My Uncle Jack commissioned this piece and worked with the artist on the concept behind the design. I am not a fan of most contemporary art, but this sculpture is exceptional and we spent several minutes walking around it and through it and taking pictures.

The Nelson Museum is another treasure in this city of treasures. We had limited time there on this particular visit so we confined ourselves to two of the current temporary exhibits. The first featured African art and its purpose was to demonstrate the influence of Westerners on African art. The second was a series of sketches by a Baltimore artist (whose name I cannot remember) who traveled the West during the mid-1800s.

We said our good-byes at Loose Park. It was a wonderful weekend, and we will have to do it all over again soon.

European Cuisine Conquers the Midwest

Saturday, October 2, 2010

On Saturday, my aunt and uncle treated us to lunch at a delightful French café in a small shopping center only a couple miles from their home. This is one of their favorite spots, and they frequently lunch here on weekends. Since all the staff knew them by name, and even knew their drink and meal preferences, they must surely be frequent patrons here. The food was excellent. The company was even better.

After dinner, we spent a couple hours with my Aunt looking through some old family photos (really old family photos – from the 1920s and 1930s) as well as some old family correspondence. The most interesting of the correspondence – to me – was a series

of four (4) letters written by my grandfather (my father’s father) to my grandmother in the year before they were married.Following lunch, we spent a couple hours shopping at the Plaza. The cornerstone store here is the Halls department store – which is a high-end store, much like a Nordstroms. We also shopped at the local grocery story because it was our plan (mine and Lisa’s) to make a nice Italian dinner for my aunt and uncle. The menu consisted of veal cutlets, risotto Milanese, green beans with olive oil and dill, and salad. Carla and Rocky joined us for dinner as well.

My grandmother had been previously married but was widowed at a very young age. Her first husband was a firefighter in Springfield, Massachusetts, and he had the very sad distinction of being the first Springfield firefighter to be killed in the line of duty. At the time of his death, he left behind not only my grandmother but their four year old daughter, my Aunt Rena.

Shortly after her first husband’s tragic death, my grandmother and her young daughter left Springfield and returned home to Portalbera, Italy – where her family could assist in providing for her and her daughter. Prior to my grandmother’s departure from the US, however, she had been introduced to my grandfather, who was similarly widowed and also had a young daughter. My grandfather must have been immediately taken with my grandmother because, after her departure from Springfield, he began to correspond with her in Italy.

My Aunt Rena has copies of four of my grandfather’s letters to my grandmother in Italy. They are real gems. They are so conservative in tone and yet they are very touching – as my grandfather slowly worked at convincing my grandmother to return to the United States and marry him. I never knew either one of my father’s parents. They both died long before I was born. These letters provide great insight into their character and their life together.

Photographic Roots

Saturday, October 2, 2010

My Uncle Jack is an artist. He has many artistic interests and gifts, but he is first and foremost a photographer, and for the majority of his professional life, he has made his living as a professional photographer.

It was his passion and talent for photography that brought him to this country (from Egypt), and it was his maiden voyage to the US on a cross-cultural trip for the purpose of showcasing his Egyptian photographs that provided the stage for his meeting my aunt – who became another great passion in his life. It was also my Uncle’s photographic and artistic talents that led him, and my aunt, to a job with Hallmark,

in Kansas City, in the 1950s. They have lived there ever since, and their roots there are deep ones. This city is clearly another of their passions.

My aunt and uncle have a beautiful home in Kansas City. They have lived in this same house now for over 40 years and it is filled with wonderful pieces of artwork and momentos from family visits and worldly travels over the years. Additionally, and this, of course, comes as no surprise, their house is full of photographs! They sit on every shelf. They crowd each other for space on the refrigerator. They compete with books for space on the shelves. They are hung on walls, doors, beams and columns. And they are wonderful reminders of a lot of love going on in this family.

My uncle, at the youthful age of 89, is still employed. He runs his own publishing business. In addition to editing and publishing a line of books, he has developed and marketed several lines of greeting cards and note cards (bearing his photographs). He also continues to show and sell his photographs. He has a photo “lab” and fully outfitted work space in his home (in the basement), and we were treated to a tour of his home office, which included a peak at some of his current projects – in various stages of completion.

He also proudly showed off his “real” office, located near the Plaza in a building owned by American Century. Most prominently on display in his office at present are a series of black and white photographs depicting scenes in Egypt. These photos were part of the photo show that

first brought my uncle to this country in the 1950s. He is planning a re-showing of these digitally re-mastered photos for some time 2011. They are quite beautiful. And the quality is amazing.

Kansas City Here We Come

Friday, October 1, 2010

I cannot understand why I do not visit Kansas City more often. My favorite aunt and uncle live there, along with their daughter, my favorite cousin, and I always have such a wonderful time there. Too often, life just gets in the way. I must earnestly try to do something about that.

In the late afternoon of Friday, October 1, 2010, my sister and I traveled – in coordinated fashion, of course (we are twins afterall) – to Kansas City, Missouri. It was a beautiful fall day and the entire weekend held the promise of great weather. Lisa set out from Washington, D.C. and I set out from Pittsburgh, PA, and we arrived in Kansas City within several minutes of each other.

We were met at the airport by our cousin, Carla, who had planned an evening of entertainment beginning with a “gallery crawl.” This took us to an area on the river and immediately south of downtown. It’s a surprisingly big area that is home to dozens of small art galleries and restaurants. We saw some very strange things masquerading as “art” and yet we also saw some very lovely things – especially at a gallery that was showing the work of a family friend.

We next dined at an Austrian restaurant, and the weather was lovely enough that we were able to enjoy our meal on the restaurant’s outdoor terrace. We enjoyed some traditional Austrian fare – wiener schnitzel and goulash. Following dinner, Carla took us to our hotel, the

Intercontinental, which sits overlooking the Plaza. Carla then had to depart, but she called her parents (who had attended a piano concert earlier in the evening) to meet us there. At about 10:15pm, we greeted our ever-energetic aunt and uncle in the lobby. We then spent a delightful hour visiting with them in the hotel lounge, where Uncle Jack proceeded to dance with all three of us!

Westward Ho, Young Woman!

Sunday, October 3, 2010:

My sister, Lisa, and I spent a wonderful week-end in Kansas City, Missouri visiting our Aunt Rena, Uncle Jack and cousin Carla. The weather was glorious and the company was even more so. We had a wonderful time.

My Aunt and Uncle are the absolute best hosts.

They know how to show guests a good time, and this week-end was no exception. They love their adopted home town of Kansas City. My Uncle Jack refers to the city as "the best kept secret." He is right.

We saw so many wonderful things this weekend, and one of them was the Kauffman Memorial Garden. What a beautiful place. It was a gift to the city by Ewing and Muriel Kauffman, wealthy benefactors who made their fortune in the pharmaceutical industry. And notwithstanding our visit on a date in early fall, there was much in bloom.

The Kauffman Garden is the perfect size. It includes many paths flanked by a wide variety of plants -- mostly flowering plants. There is a small building in the middle of the garden that houses some beautiful orchids. And on the west side of the garden,

there is a reflecting pool with some beautiful statues of dancers skipping across the surface of the water.

We saw flowers in blue, yellow, white, purple, red, orange and multiple shades of pink. We saw flowers large, medium and small. We saw flowers low to the ground, waist high and above our heads.

One of my favorite features in the Garden was a series

of mirrored balls that sat among the flower beds that flanked the reflecting pool. I had fun taking pictures of our reflection in the

balls!