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Published: July 30th 2016
Cheryl & Cory
Our dear friend, Cheryl???? Off we go into the wild, blue yonder ???.
Remember, I told you in my last blog (Italian Fest & Louie's) that we had a mission when we decided to take a different way home from these fun places. ?? Over hill, Over dale - as we hit the dusty trail????. That was us as we twisted and turned our way through the back hills and winding roads to finally meet up with our good friend, Cheryl. Mission accomplished! She was on her farm (her second home).....5 generations of her family have lived on this very same farm. It's always so nice to be with Cheryl...we don't get together often and only on occasion, talk on the phone or email. But we always know where we can find each other. That's friendship. Friends forever. She is a wonderful person. I wish you all could meet her. She would be your friend, too. She is a loyal and devoted person. She loves her family and friends. She enjoys her retirement from teaching. She is sweet, funny and sentimental.
Her farmhouse was built in 1871! It has marvelous barns (2), the old granary, another barn for the horses, the smokehouse
Her farmhouse
Built in 1871 - to present time and the old milkhouse. The big barn has another milk house attached. All the farm animals are gone now as well as her parents, grandparents and older ancestors. The tree swing hangs quiet & still - waiting - from the big, old sturdy tree. What fabulous memories are spread throughout every portion of this old plantation. Cheryl has been diligently sorting through all the items that remained on the property. More was added to her piles as other relatives passed on. She is an only child (like me) so everything came her way. She relives her past and all its memories as she looks at everything left to her. She is trying to maintain this magnificent mansion from the point when her mother died and before. Originally (1871), the house had 21 rooms and no bathrooms. Now, it has 2 bathrooms and 19 rooms cause her father made three rooms into one large one. It's like a hotel. Cheryl has done an excellent job caring for her homestead, as you can tell, by the sturdy and beautiful condition of the house and buildings.
Now, you ask: who is this Cheryl person, anyway? What the deal with her? How did
we meet? I know you want to meet her yourselves. Time for you to make some spare time and just relax. You already know I can't make a long story short. Plus, I told you that you are really going to like this blog as I expose some of our very personal events in our lives. Some of it is shameful but it's all in the past. It is what brought Cory & I together while some of our friends (Cheryl) stood witness to our shenanigans. Have I perked your interest yet? I hope so. Get in your cozy, comfy nest and grab a cup of coffee or two or three or more. This is going to take awhile. Whew! Yawnnnnn.
In 1962, I graduated from Hornell High School and prepared to go to the University of Buffalo in the fall. First, there was freshman orientation in the summer. My mother drove me up and stayed in a motel while I shared a dorm room with another orientee. Guess who that other orientee was. Yes, you're right. It was Cheryl. My mother and her aunt were Home Economics teachers and had seen each other at meetings. Fate. Cheryl was
The old tree swing
A peek of original house foundation a great person. I liked her a lot right away. We became good friends. I was so fortunate to have been paired up with her through this humongous, scary maze of strange and unknown faces. When college started, my roommate was not Cheryl. It was Barbara from Hamilton, NY. She and I stayed close friends until her death almost 2 years ago. Cheryl was on the same dorm floor as Barbara and me. Her roommate was Merry. We all shared good times together and made so many memories. We all have stayed friends: Barbara and Cheryl always being the closest.
During the school year of 1963, Cheryl invited Barbara and me for a sleepover at her house: the farmhouse. Oh yeah! We were wowed by the house. We were wowed by her parents. Her parents were the nicest folks you would ever want to meet. The apple did not fall far from the tree...it's so true. Her father had a terrific sense of humor. To this day. I remember the fabulous chocolate chip cookies that her mother made for us. They were huge, like pancakes...they were utterly delicious, like a royal treat. I have never had any cookie similar.
2 barns
Backs of out buildings Not even close. Her parents let the three of us sleep in their king size bed. I had never even slept in a full bed let alone a king size one. I felt lost. Glad my two friends were there with me. Cheryl took us to a bowling alley in a nearby town. Here we met her boyfriend, Bernie. Cool guy. Tall, dark and handsome. Had big wavy hair like Elvis. We had a grand time "back at the farm". At a later time, the four of us double-dated and went to a big movie theater to see "The Longest Day". I think it was a war movie....probably too preoccupied to remember any details. "For the Good Times".
Cory and I were both freshmen at the University of Buffalo. He saw me first....said he liked my sweater. Hmmm. I told you how he threw the dinner roll across the cafeteria at me with his name on it. I liked that...original. He got my phone number and called me. Suggested we meet at the college library in the stacks. I thought his name was Gory cause it was smudged on the roll. Okay, I said. I made my way to
the stacks. Looked around. Ah...that must be Gory. A bright red headed gawky guy sitting at one of the tables. He had mega pimples on pimples. He glanced at me several times but made no move. How can this bun throwing guy be so shy now? Not wanting to judge a book by its cover; just wanted someone a tad more outgoing .....I decided he wasn't for me and backed my way out of the stacks and back to my dorm. Wasn't what I wanted or expected. Had been kind of hoping for a fun loving guy that resembled Pat Boone. Was I asking for too much? No! This guy was not even close. Oh, well....that's life.
The next day, I received a call from Gory. He apologized that he couldn't meet me at the stacks. He had been playing pool (his favorite game). Whew! A reprieve. Another chance. Tell me your name again - Cory - oh, nice name! So now we planned our official, first date. We would go to The Grotto....a pub across Main St. at University Plaza. He met me at the girls' dorm. What a pleasant surprise. He was beautiful! Pat Boone had a
brother. He didn't have a lot of spending change so he bought us beers to drink at The Grotto. I don't like beer but back then, with this interesting, funny, handsome guy, drinking them with me...they went down real fast. And so did I. Never could hold my alcohol well.....soon I was plastered. I mumbled something about liking the wine bottles that were inside tight little baskets...they hung around the walls. Wanting to please me (and he has always stayed this way...what a sweetheart), Cory grabbed one of the bottle baskets and tucked it in his jacket. No thought that this precious and sweet gesture was a crime. Karma would get us though. Keep reading......only if you can stomach gore.
We staggered and stumbled through the snow that had fallen. It must have taken us an hour to go just across the road and up one small hillside to get back to the dorm. Cory headed to the boys bathroom while I went into the girls. OMG....Jeepers - what had happened to me? I was a mess...covered in blood! From where?...how?...what?? Help! I washed it off best I could. It was not good...Not easy to wet a paper towel
and use it properly when you don't even know where your eyes are. Was Aunt Flow visiting? Good grief! No.....that wasn't it. But what? I went out to the main desk. The receptionist was looking Cory all over because he, too, was covered in blood. Had we been run over by a bus on Main St. and never knew it cause we were so intoxicated! Maybe. No matter, we were instructed to go to the infirmary for help. Had we been in a bloody fight? I didn't remember that. We could barely push the door open but by some miracle, we dragged ourselves to this hidden, distant infirmary. "Sign in here!" someone yelled. Cory was bleeding more so they took him back to the exam room. I had to do the clerical work. "Tell me your name again" I hollered....."CORY", he hollers back. With the pen grasped in my claw hand like a dagger, I managed to scribble his name. I really don't feel good! I'm going outside for fresh air. The medical staff located the bleeding problem. Cory had a nasty gash on his middle finger that needed stitches. He would have to go to the downtown hospital cause
Where a silo stood
Drying black walnuts in the cellar this infirmary was just basically a first aid station. Too weak to complain, Cory relented but first he wanted to say good night to me. He found me sprawled in a snowbank outside the door. "Are you going to give me a little kiss?"...he inquires. "Sure, cutie". As he holds me up, we draw close to one another, our lips prepped for the big smooch .....NO kiss! Instead, I threw up all over Cory! His face, everything! Yuck...disgusting. He tries to wipe some off with snow but now it's worse than ever. He shoves me in the direction of the dorm. The staff had come outside looking for Cory. They found him in this wretched state. Oh, God...they said....now he's puked all over himself. He can't even talk. They get campus security to drive him downtown to the hospital. He got stitched up but in the meantime, because they deemed him hurtful to himself due to inebriation, they put him in a cell-like pen to wait to be taken to the police station. Other pathetic derelicts looked him over. Cory pulled himself together and knew what he had to do next: escape! He hollered to the lock up guy he
Cheryl on king size bed we slept on
Her grandparents and a fine, old golf cart had to relieve himself and kicked open the gate. Once out, he ran. Run, Cory, Run! Through the bowels of this hospital, he fast footed it to the closest exit. He hailed a taxi cab. "Where to - young man?", the cabbie asks. "Take me to UB." And off they go. No money....spent it all on beers .....when it came time to pay up....Cory jumped out of the cab and hollered over his shoulder "Charge it to UB". He began running into the darkness with a bright white bandage on his middle finger to light his way. He made a phone call to me to apologize for this first date that didn't go quite as planned. He was greeted by my somewhat prudest roommate, Barbara, who told him what she thought about him and what he had done to me and that I never wanted to see him again. Clunk! Liar, Liar....pants on fire. Cory, by now, had figured out what had happened to us to turn us into bloody zombies. Crossing back to the dorm, he had shoved the stolen wine bottle into a snowbank. Karma....the glass broke and nearly severed his finger. Gag. He found it broken into
pieces in the snowbank. His blood colored the white snow all around it. Christmas red!
Okay....we have to back up right now. Back to where Cory shoved me towards the dorm after my vomiting performance. Not too far away...the dorm loomed right in front of me. I think I crawled for part of the distance....hard to remember when having a foggy, dead head. I still had emesis (puke), dirty snow and blood all over me plus now some dirt. It took me around an hour to go just a short distance. Somehow, I managed to get inside the dorm and onto the elevator. One scruffy girl (she was one to talk) hollered "what the hell happened to you?" I just mumbled and somehow figured out how to get off on my floor. I made way to room 810... our dorm room. Barbara took one look at me and screamed. Cheryl was there....her eyes big as snowballs. I spued out, with stinky breath, to them: "Well, let me tell you about my date....you won't believe it!" Barbara said she didn't want to hear any of it! No way! "But I have tell you"....NOPE! But then there was my friend, Cheryl.
Wonderful Cheryl. Loyal and devoted friend. "Go ahead, Go ahead, tell me. I want to hear it all". Thank you, Cheryl. So with my slurred, stuttering, babbling speech, I relayed the evening's activities.....best I could. I thought it was great! What a unique first date. Talk about fun-loving. Cory was one interesting, fun-loving, cute guy! I had found the perfect man! Can you see why I fell in love with him?
One fascinating thing that also happened that night was, while sharing my horrendous story, I was able to roll all my hair up onto 2 curlers! A true miracle. I was like Superwoman. I could do anything on this special, drunken night. i was invincible. But I looked like hell.
I didn't hear from Cory and missed him. Finally, I saw him at the cafeteria. "Hey, where have you been, Cory?" He told me about his phone call when he talked with Barbara and she told him I never wanted to see him again. Lie, Lie, Lie! I told him what a great time I thought it was....even though it had some ups and downs .....but look at the memory we have! From that point on, we
Drunk and puking
A bad good nite kiss became a twosome and experienced many more unique experiences together. Cheryl was always supportive of us even though she probably thought we were two crazy weirdos. Sit tight.....perhaps some of those unique events may crop up in a blog or two when least expected. Do I hear cheers in the background? So stay tuned, folks. There's always more to come. Go rest your eyes, now.
.......And that is how Cheryl became our friend! Oh, happy day! Remember to keep scrolling way down to see all the pictures.
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DeAnne
non-member comment
Please meet our good friend.Cheryl
Great story! I remember the Grotto-Les and I went once and believe we took a bottle as well-wonder if they still have any????