Visit To New England
Thursday-Tuesday, Nov 20-24, 2009
http://www.stevegrande.com/photos/2009/11/2009k24a/

Thursday, Nov 20, 2009 - Flying to New England: We flew on Jet Blue from Long Beach, California, to Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, arriving very late in the evening. We rented a car from Enterprise and drove up to the Embassy Suites hotel by the Portland Airport (PWM) in Maine. Below are two photographs of the second room of our two room suite at the hotel:



Below is our view of the Portland Airport tarmac from our hotel room window including a view of a small FedEx prop plane probably used to deliver packages to the many small islands off the coast of Maine:

Friday, Nov 21, 2009 - Visiting Siblings On My Mom's Side: All my siblings living in New England except Vikki gathered at Karen's house in Standish, Maine. We did get a chance to visit with Vikki later in the weekend. For dinner we all went out to a nearby restaurant where Karen's daughter, Kristy, had just started working Unfortunately I didn't remember to take out my camera to take any photos!

Saturday, Nov 22, 2009 - My 40th Reunion of Malden High School Class of 1969: Below are photos of Barbara and Stephen in our hotel room at the Embassy Suites in Portland after we finished getting ready to drive down to attend the High School Reunion in Malden:




Below is a photo of the road as we made the 90 mile round trip drive
from Portland down to Malden to attend the high school reunion:

This was the only high school reunion I have ever attended. Being the 40th reunion I figured it would be a good idea to attend this one as I might not have the opportunity to meet my former classmates again. This is the link to the official website of the reunion: http://mhs40th.weebly.com/. I did not take photographs myself at this event but have provided a link to the website provided by the official photographer of the event: Three Pairs Photo. This link goes to a photo of the Malden High School Class of 1969 banner: Photo #1. These two links go to photographs of those Malden High School Class of 1969 Students who also attended Beebe Junior High School. We were the largest of all the Junion High Schools in Malden; I'm the third person from the left in the back row in the photos wearing a fedora hat: Photo #2 / Photo #3. These two links go to photographs where I am in the back row on the very left: Photo #4 / Photo #5.

Below is my badge from the reunion which
includes my High School Yearbook photo:

These are photos of the program handed out at the event:

Sunday, Nov 23, 2009 - Visiting Siblings On My Dad's Side: All my living siblings on my Dad's side that we have found were at this gathering, except for my sister, Barbara, who I have never met, and my brother Jim who we visited later on Monday. I met my sister, Ann Rich, for the first time at this gathering who had just found her way back to the family a couple of months ago. This was her first time meeting the rest of the family in person. There was a lot of sharing of photographs both ways. These aren't the best of photos of this event, but Gladys and Sandra took several photos of all the siblings together. When they send me copies of those photos I'll post them here also.

Ann Rich and her husband at their first gathering of the Bailey Family.


Gathering at Montello Meeting Room:

Monday, Nov 24, 2009 - Visiting My Brother & His Wife, Jim & Judy:

Driving down to Peabody, Massachusetts:

Eating out at a nearby Italian Restaurant:

Tuesday, Nov 25, 2009 - Uncle Joe's Funeral: By coincidence, my Uncle Joe (Piazza) died that weekend while we were in New England. He was 96 years old (June 20, 1913 - November 20, 2009) so it wasn't completely unexpected that his health might begin to fail. But he had been in relatively good health and we did not expect his health to fail so rapidly or that he would die while we were in New England. We had been planning to call the family and visit them on Monday, Nov 25, 2009. Instead, we received a call from his daughter, my cousin Lucy, on Sunday night with the sad news. She knew we were coming to New England sometime soon, but she didn't realize that it was this weekend. My wife and I already had intended to come to New England to visit with Uncle Joe and the rest of my family whenever it was that my Uncle Joe's health began to fail, but we never expected it to happen while we were already in New England for a short visit. We had planned to depart Boston on Monday evening, but since the wake was going to be held that evening and the funeral the next morning, we change our plans to instead depart on Tuesday evening so we could attend both the wake and the funeral.



After the funeral the family gathered at Lucia Ristorante & Bar in Winchester Center.

Tuesday, Nov 25, 2009 - Visiting Memories of Malden & Medford, Massachusetts:

Above Left: 68 Upham Street, Malden, Massachusetts. I lived downstairs in the above house from 8 days old to 8 years old. My Grandfather and 3 Aunts and an older cousin lived upstairs in that house. Above Right: A photograph of same house taken in 1951. The two front yards used to be each enclosed by very intricate brick walls with a tree in the middle of each. That is me sitting on top of one of these walls.

Above: 67 Upham Street. My best friend during that time, Lee Ross, lived in this house across the street.


Above: 132 Oakland Street, Malden, Massachusetts. The above is where I lived from 8 years old until my second year of college, about 20 years old. Above Right: This is a photograph of the same house that was taken in 1962.

Above: A six unit apartment house across the street from 132 Oakland Street. This used to be an empty field where I used to play with my friends until I was about ten years old.

Above Left: A field at the park around the corner where I used to play when little. Above Right: Used to be my Cousin Sully's Barber Shop in Charles Street in Malden, Massachusetts. This is where I used to always get my hair cut when growing up.

Above Left: The Emerson Elementary School in Malden that I attended 3rd through 6th grade. Above Right: Where my Uncle & Aunt and their three daughters lived, the Brandanos, across the street from the Emerson Elementary School.

Above: Harvard Pastery, now Harvard Market, an Italian Bakery across from the Emerson Elementary School on Highland Avenue.

Above Left: 36 Magoun Avenue, Medford, Massachusetts, where Barbara and I lived for the 5 years before we moved to California from about 1975 through 1979. Above Right: There was an abandoned train station a couple of houses down that has now been turned into an occupied building. An abandoned right-of-way runs behind all the homes on this street.

Click on any photo above for a larger image.