Hillman Family Connections

February 22, 2025 – Puzzle Discussion

SPORTS TEAM SPONSORS

DUNKIN DONUTS –

Mike played on several youth soccer teams. Among team sponsors were DUNKIN DONUTS and RYAN’S MARKET.

JACK’S TV

My brother RIck played baseball on a team sponsored by JACK’S TV. I remember this place being on Post Road but I can’t place it exactly. Also, I didn’t realize any of my brothers had played Babe Ruth baseball.

BABBIES TEXACO

A few of the Hillman boys played on Little League Baseball teams sponsored by BABBIE’S TEXACO, I believe. One year the team was coached by Gil and Mr. Ford. I have the team photo somewhere but couldn’t get my hands on it in time to scan to include this week.

CLAIRE MISHAPS

GARAGE DOOR, NO MORE

Uncle Ken tells me that when the garage was built at The 461 (winter 1977/78) it did not initially have overhead doors. I’m not sure how long things were like this but apparently long enough that Claire got used to backing out without concern of pesky doors impeding her departure. I’m told that once the doors were in place she backed through one of them.

I don’t remember this. Do you?

TRIP TO VENDOR = FENDER BENDER

Super vague memory for this one. I remember going to Apponaug (4 corners, back in the day) for some reason with my mother and she got into a fender-bender in the parking lot of whatever retail store/business it was that we were going. Anyone remember this?

I’M NO LIAR-SHIRT WAS ON FIRE!

This one I am not making up, I was there, I witnessed it. My mother was cooking something on the kitchen stove. I seem to think she had something in a pressure cooker. She used a pressure cooker often. Regardless, while she waited for the heating/cooking to happen, she leaned up against the stove (her back to the stove) reading the paper. Her shirt caught on fire. All I can say is, the shirt came off rather quickly.

FOURTH

WENT TO FENWAY PARK WITH NANCY

CECIL AND CATHERINE-FOR 12 MIN

On August 7, 2019, the Boston Red Sox took on the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park. There was back and forth scoring throughout the game but the score was tied 4-4 after 9 innings so play moved into extra innings. Along with the Royal’s first batter in the 10th inning came the rain. After a nearly two-hour rain delay the game was suspended. The game would not be completed until Thursday, August 22nd.

The Red Sox honored tickets held by those in attendance on August 7th but also offered free attendance to anyone 18 or younger and offered $5 tickets to all others with ticket sales going to The Jimmy Fund.

The game was resumed at 1:05 p.m. August 22 and was wrapped up 12 minutes later with the Sox coming out on top 5-4.

In August 2019, Catherine had finished grad school but had not yet moved to Vermont and I was babysitting Cecil one day a week. Catherine and I both — independent of each other — hearing of this special game conclusion, thought we should go and bring Cecil with us. I switched the day of the week I babysat and off we went. We laugh that it took us longer to get into the park and to our seats than the actual game play.

I remember specifically being concerned about Cecil (14 months at the time) because it was definitely a different/new environment for him. Lots of people and noise levels far beyond any that he had previously been exposed! I also remember that his attention was definitely caught by action on the field. I’m not suggesting a keen interest in the game at 14 months — it was absolutely about the somewhat isolated movement and motion happening in the patch of green enveloped by a contrasting visual and auditory cacophony.

Cecil knows nothing about baseball today. He’d probably tell you baseball is played in a baseball rink and that the teams score goals — so be it, it was a great day.

Here’s a picture of the three of us at the completion of the game.


SARAH&M&M – LEFT NK AFTER 6PM

SARAH, MOLLY AND MEGAN, AND WE ONLY LEFT NK AFTER 6 PM

Sarah once got a great deal on Red Sox-Yankee tickets (I think they were free) and they were probably the best seats I’ve ever had at Fenway. The offer/pickup of tickets didn’t happen until late in the day so as a result we didn’t leave North Kingstown until after 6 PM. We made really good time driving there though and surprisingly didn’t miss much of the game. I believe it was the first time (only time?) Molly and Megan went to Fenway Park.


NORMA- BIG NEWS -SOX WIN/LOSE?

NORMA HAD BIG NEWS, AFTER THE GAME WE COULDN’T HAVE SAID IF THE SOX TOOK THE WIN OR IF THEY DID IN FACT LOSE

Norma and I planned to go to a Red Sox game in the fall of 1980. I met her at her office at Dean Steel. I arrived just as she was finishing a phone call informing her that the pregnancy test she had taken a few days earlier was positive. We went to the game, but looking back I don’t know why. We were SO distracted by the news that we didn’t follow the game at all. Several times over the course of the evening we realized we had been totally unaware of game happenings — “wait, when did they change the pitcher?” and “when did the sox take the lead?” kind of stuff. We talked the whole game about the prospect of Norma and Chris having a kid. I wonder how annoyed the people sitting around us were.


BEAN&JAN & IT RAINED & RAINED

BEAN AND JAN, AND IT RAINED AND RAINED AND RAINED AND RAINED AND RAINED

For a few years running I had this thing about going to Fenway Park for Opening Day and for the last home game of the season. One year, when the last game rolled around, I had four tickets and Catherine and a friend of her’s (Lesley Howard), Jan and I went to the game. Our tickets were for the roof pavilion in right field. This is kind of a fun location to watch a game from. It is probably a lot more fun when it’s not pouring buckets. It rained SO MUCH that day! During one of the multiple rain delays we went across the street to the merchandise store to buy socks (yes, they were red) because everyone’s were soaked through. I remember Jan being impressed with the rain-themed playlist during the delays. It’s Raining Men is the only song I can come up with off the top of my head that they played. What would you included in a rain delay playlist?

PERCEIVED COLDEST VS ACTUAL COLDEST DAYS

ANY FROM 3 SISTERS JAUNT TO VT

ANY DATES FROM THE TIME 3 OF THE SISTERS TOOK A LITTLE TRIP TO VERMONT

While Norma, Karen, and Nancy may not have believed the temperatures during their time spent at Lime Kiln Camp in Ascutney, VT had reached an all-time low for all dates, we were pretty sure they were all-time low for Columbus Day weekend. Again, we were probably wrong. I don’t know which year we took this trip, my best guess is mid-70s but the lowest temperature on record for Vermont in the month of October is 5° F on OCTOBER 27, 1962, in Stowe.

Bottom line: we might just be whimps.

I think I should note that I had planned a corollary “hottest days” grouping but there honestly was only one day that sticks in my head as “the hottest” – the day Michaela and Jay got married. I own a pool, so maybe hot days seem commonplace and non-distinctive. While I was looking at the cold temperature information I did some checking on high temperatures for Rhode Island (Providence Airport…so Warwick). Turns out, Michaela and Jay certainly got married during a heat wave. The day following their wedding saw the highest temperature recorded in 2016 — 96° F. August 11 and 12 both saw temperatures of 93° F but the day of the wedding (the 13th) doesn’t show in the top 8 temperatures for that month/year. Hmmmm, weird. It was definitely hot that day, but like I said, those hot days all seem to run together. For the record, the highest recorded temperature for Rhode Island since 1948 is 104° F which occurred on August 2, 1975. I’m pretty sure I was in the pool that day.

SOURCES: Vermont United States Record High and Low Temperature
vermont-record-high-low-temperatures

Providence Weather in 201
providence/year-2016#highest_temperatures

NORMA, KAREN AND ANGELA BLAIS (?) (L – R) IN
THE CABIN AT LIME KILN CAMP IN VERMONT MID 1970S


ANY FRM SIBS TRP 2 N-Y-C IN 23

ANY OF THE DAYS THAT THE SIBLINGS SPENT ON A SHORT VIIST TO NEW YORK CITY IN 2023

Although family members that traveled to NYC in February 2023 for a few days thought any of the those days would surely have been the coldest ever recorded, this is not the case. The lowest ever-recorded temperature in NYC is -15° F on FEBRUARY 9, 1934. The 4° F temperature recorded during our trip doesn’t even make it to the top 20 lowest-temperatures for NYC. The lowest-recorded temperatures for the city in our collective lifetimes (siblings and following generations) is -2° F which has been recorded several times; in 1961, 1963, 1977, 1985, and 1994.

SOURCE:
Lowest Temperatures – New York City

(l – R) NANCY, JAN, BILL, MARY, KAREN, AND
OUR RESIDENT SELFIE-TAKER, NORMA TAKE ON
NYC’S FRIGID WEATHER IN FEBRUARY 2023

Nancy Knott

33 responses to “February 22, 2025 – Puzzle Discussion”

  1. Sorry, I was a little late posting this week. I had some last minute adjustments to make.

    Not my favorite puzzle and I know you’re all NOT fans of the puzzles within the puzzle…

  2. I got it! Full disclosure I did have to back out and go back in a couple times! The cold days I got in the first try. I got the sponsors for the sports teams but didn’t know what the connection was just that there was one. I do Remember Mom backing thru the garage door. She may have done that more than once.

  3. This was a fun one. I’ll come back with more comments later but had to jump in with
    Here Comes the Rain Again and
    Purple Rain
    for a rain playlist!

  4. Speaking of bad weather trips to NYC – I will also add my parents and Mike and I went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade sometime in the early 90s on the first time it had snowed in NYC on Thanksgiving in like 100 years!

  5. Have you ever seen the rain.
    Raindrops keep falling on my head.
    Also I love when you come up with newspaper articles!

  7. Got it after multiple tries. Got the team sponsors first, just picked NK businesses. Though to be honest I thought DD was something to do with Norma, one of her many jobs.
    Second I got Fenway Park. Got this on trial and error. Forgot about the Nancy, Norma trip. Duh. I kept thinking you were talking about the “frat boy trip”. Nancy, Norma and Karen, 3 days in Boston. Still Fenway though. Forgot how young Cecil was when you brought him to the game!
    Third, I got this finally though I knew three of them from the beginning.
    I do remember Mom backing out into the garage door, but forgot that it was because they weren’t there at the beginning. Bill, did you do this too?
    Definitely remember the shirt on fire episode! Don’t remember the fender bender but figured this went with the other two. Accident – Fourth??
    Last to get THE COLD!
    I believe it was Columbus Day weekend 1976. Norma had “the dog from hell” with her, though at that point she was only “the puppy from hell”. I have researched this place and now I’m not sure if it was in Vermont or NH. I know we did cross the river into VT but that might of been in error.it isn’t in Ascutney. We drove through Ascutney on the way home and stopped at a farm stand (farmer’s market)? Anyway I left with two kittens, Ascutney and Columbus. Columbus was a great cat!

  9. Karen I think you’re right about Jacks TV. The Frat Boy trip…there was a lot of Fenway that weekend!

  10. Karen – so much info, so much to comment on!

    1 – Norma worked at a Dunkin Donuts?

    2 – I had so many Fenway trips to pull from. When I started thinking about it I was amazed by how many memories (good and bad) I have associated with Fenway Park. The frat boys trip, going with our brother Rick and him talking about the state of the outfield grass the whole time, the 4th of July game that Russ and I went to and had borrowed Norma’s VW – broke down, towed, stuff stolen from her car at the garage, went with Michaela and Catherine the day Mayday ate mouse poison at my house, opening day with Tommy and I ended up getting on the T going the wrong way after the game (only did that once), went with Bill and Mary and Jan and John once when there was a bike parade around the field before the game that was really fun, went to yet another game with a rain delay but also managed to get a sunburn at the same game. I even went to few games where nothing out of the ordinary happened.

    3 – Claire mishaps… can someone come up with a fourth? I had one but ultimately decided against including it as it is more vague than the fender-bender.

    4 – Coldest Columbus Day – there is so little I remember about that trip other than huddling under blankets in the cabin (was it one giant room?). I don’t remember Cortney the dog being with us but I do remember getting kittens. You mentioned recently that we had hiked and it snowed, again, don’t recall that at all.

    5 – Jack’s TV —- oh yeah!

  11. Oh. Karen, not sure if you got this but I’m using FOURTH sometimes to complete a group. Sort of a wild card. Sometimes I really want to include a group but only have three items so I’ve opted to use FOURTH in those cases. This week it was a last minute scrap of an item in a group.

    • Now I remember about the fourth.
      Could of used mom driving to Ladd, I’m trying to make it very early on in that job. It was snowing, something makes me think she was in Bev’s car, a barracuda??? Maybe??? She spun out, ended up doing a couple of 360’s right by Rolling Greens. Somehow nothing bad happened.

  12. Wow! I don’t remember my VW breaking down and stuff being stolen!
    Honestly the only thing I remember about the Columbus Day trip we got lost going up and spent the night in the van. I think it was raining? We pulled off the road and parked on some guys septic system(is that right Karen). He was not happy the next morning!

    • Yep. But there were other cars there. It was kind of like a grass lot with a gas station/repair shop near by. That’s why I think we picked it. Also because it was a weekend we figured we wouldn’t be in the way.

    • I remember Nancy and Russ breaking down. I forgot the car had been broken into. The other robbery was the cost of the tow and the repair job. I remember Dad being livid. Could of been because of the stuff being stolen too. Walpole,Ma, I remember thinking about that for years everytime I drove by the exit on 95 for Walpole.

      • I thought it was Sharon, MA. Exit 10 —- I remember this because we left a message for mom and dad on the answering machine (no cell phones!) and told them Exit 10 but didn’t mention if it was RI or MA. I think they were out all day helping Norma move. Don’t know the new exit number, but like you, I thought of it every time I drove by there for years. Still do I guess.

        • I think Sharon and Walpole may be the same exit. I think they’re on either side of the highway and seeing that you were the one that broke down, you would remember better.

  13. I worked at the Dunkin Donuts in East Greenwich. Back in those days they actually made the donuts in house. I worked the early shift was in at 5:00. I got there one morning and the lights were on and the donut machine was running but I didn’t see the guy who made the donuts. I was actually kind of scared. I finally found him in the bosses office passed out drunk on his desk.

  14. Haha, I remember that rain game, but forgot all the rain themed music. It was very clever.
    Nancy, were you at the game with the bicycle parade before the game? I think it was a fund raiser. They played Over the Rainbow.
    John’s grandfather left John and his siblings some money. John used some money to sponsor a soccer team. The team was called AOPN, the grandfather’s initials. I think, I will have to check on that.
    A drunk doughnut make!! Wow!