THE 461/CABANA EVENTS
BIRTHDAY PARTIES
Catherine has a summer birthday and had many pool birthday parties while growing up at The 461. Others have had a party or two as well. The first picture below is from a joint/shared birthday party for Molly and Megan. While the picture is of the portion of the party when the ice cream truck came to the driveway and Molly and Megan doled out treats to their friends, much of the party happened at the pool and pre-cabana space. The second picture is from Piper’s first birthday party.
SHOWERS
I had originally planned to have Michaela’s baby shower in 2018 at the cabana…but May is unpredictable and it turned out to be too cold of a day. We did have baby showers for both Rachel and Sheila at The 461/cabana (technically pre-cabana for a lot of this stuff). I thought I might have photos from those two showers but can’t find them at the moment.
BYO LOBSTER
Below is a photo from yesterday’s Bring Your Own Lobster event at The 461.
TUESDAY PIZZA
Tuesday night pizza on the cabana has been a staple for a few years now. Incredibly, I don’t seem to have any pictures from any of these.
COUSIN (GENERATION) OUTINGS
BOWLING
It didn’t happen a lot but I do remember there being at least one cousin outing for bowling at Wickford Lanes. I know I have a picture of Dave from that day. I’ll post it if I can get my hands on it.
SKIING
Skiing is a cousin outing that may have been fewer in quantity of events and with fewer participants but I know my kids went skiing with some cousins. Fill me in, which cousins skied with other cousins?
Below is Michaela (rear, left), me (rear, right), Catherine (front, left), and Sarah (front, right) after racing (yes RACING!) at Berkshire East circa 1988.
APPLE PICKING
Now, this was one activity that I believe all the cousins got in on at some point in time.
AMUSEMENT PARKS
Riverside (now Six Flags), Rocky Point, Storyland, etc. Cousins, tell me which ones you remember visiting with your cousins.
PAPER ROUTE DIFFICULTIES
As previously discussed many in the sibling and cousin generations delivered newspapers either daily or weekly. Christmas tips were great but the job didn’t really have a lot of benefits…ya know?
VACATION COVERAGE
I guess this wasn’t the BIGGEST problem, I mean I was a teenager when I had a paper route, how much “vacation” was I going on? But… I did sometimes have trips to New Hampshire planned and working around vacation coverage was often a problem.
DOG BITES
I don’t know if anyone else actually got bitten by a dog while delivering papers but I did and It was always a distinct possibility.
WEATHER EXTREMES
Daily newspaper delivery meant we dealt with 95 degrees, a foot of snow, or driving rain. It’s like we were in training to be mail carriers.
INK TRANSFER
I believe ink technology changed during the time I delivered papers but I know I ruined plenty of light-colored t-shirts because of having a stack of newspapers pressed up against my side for an extended period of time each day.
Below is a photo of Karen getting ready to go out to help one of us younger kids with our appointed rounds.
PLACES GIL WORKED
MORROW
Last year, when I started gathering information for these puzzles, I asked Eileen and Ken about various places my mother and father had worked. We covered Claire in one of the first puzzles and the fact that Gil was a bellhop came up in a general “early jobs” puzzle. I learned from Ken that Gil had moonlighted at a small machine shop on Old Baptist Road. I never knew of this. I asked WHERE on Old Baptist Road and Ken gestured and said something like, “you know, down there in Davisville.” After finding a few articles and records for Morrow Manufacturing, I believe it was what was originally where the scrap metal and adjoining building are now. I can pull out the other articles I found if anyone is interested. Morrow Manufacturing was originally located in East Greenwich. I’m not sure how long Gil worked there.
IDEAL WINDLASS
I asked Eileen and Ken about Ideal Windlass because it was a name that stuck in my mind as some place Gil had worked. They confirmed this and also mentioned that Frank (my grandfather) worked there as well. It was located on the east side of Post Road just over the NK/East Greenwich line (in EG).
A NARRAGANSETT HOTEL
This was addressed in an earlier puzzle but in case anyone missed it, Gil worked for a few summers (in his late teens it seems) as a bellhop at a Narragansett hotel.
Based on a conversation I had with Aunt Judy, this is probably the place – a photo I took earlier this summer.
PROPANE PLACE
After Gil retired from full-time employment he worked a few part-time jobs now and again. One such job was at the propane business on Rt 2 in East Greenwich near Frenchtown Road (the Dunkin Donuts is next door to it now) filling customer’s propane tanks. Michaela says she remembers going there while he was working there so it must have been late 80s/early 90s. I think he sat out under a beach umbrella with an old static-y transistor radio just waiting for the weekend cookout crowd to come by.
7 responses to “August 2, 2025 – Puzzle Discussion”
Got this one in one try. Don’t think I’m getting any smarter. Nancy must be taking it easier on us.
Got this one in one try. Don’t think I’m getting any smarter. Nancy must be taking it easier on us all
I got this one but had to back out once. I never heard of Morrow. That’s the one that tripped me up. Should have saved that group for last!
I don’t think she was delivering papers but Karen also got bit by a dog. That was a real occupational hazard when we were kids!
I had forgotten about ink stains on my skin and clothes when delivering papers on hot summer days.
I actually managed to get this one in one try! I figured out the cabana events and cousin outings and managed some lucky guessing to get the other 2!
Molly and Megan had several combined summer bday parties at the pool and Molly had a few of her own! I love that ice cream truck pic!
I think that Berkshire East pic is 1998 – not 1988!
I also remember trips with you guys to Loon 0 and staying in those condos across the street.
Molly, Megan, Ellie and Abbie have all had cousin trips to Storyland!
And man, how I have wished over the years I still had that sweater I am wearing in that apple picking picture. Molly would love it LOL
What in the world was Ideal Windlass??
Ha! That was at typo I guess — Bean wasn’t even born until 1992!
Ideal Windlass was just over the line B4 the old Blockbuster
Sarah, Ideal Windlass… you know the place where you go to get your dream, your ideal windlass… actually I really don’t know. Since Frank and Gil were both machinists and I think it was a marine products company, I would assume they made marine windlasses.