I emailed my dad to find out and he said New Jersey Avenue...

That's not enough info to go on (I'd really need the cross street as well). I wanted to get an old photo of the block or neighborhood and mail it to ya in time to give to your mom.

Lemme know if your dad remembers the cross street and I'll give ya one of the web pages I use and point ya in the right direction so you could print out a picture for your mother.

That is a pretty cool idea. Hopefully he'll remember...!

Geoff, how nice to want to give her something special. Her birthday is the same as my sister's birthday.

I never heard of black & whites either. Only movies and film.

Sometimes I really think I should be from NY/NJ. Anyway, happy birthday to Geoff's mom.


TIS

You should move here, TIS! Bone-chilling winters are "invigorating"!

(I'd say "no earthquakes", but then The Big One will come! lol)

Ha ha.. My kids laugh at me when I tell them that if I had the money, I'd buy a summer home (or condo or whatever) in NYC area. Yet, I am serious. Perhaps, if I win big in Vegas next week. ....Like that's gonna happen.

No, I would stay in CA in the winter without a doubt.



TIS

How about we share a timeshare? You can have winters in NYC, and I'll tackle the brutal winters of LA?

Ha ha...if we're gonna do that, we could just exchange each others homes and not buy anything. I get CA winters though.

I know it's off topic, but I have looked into a say, months stay somewhere in NY. It's between 3/4 grand (and up) a month for a 500 sq. ft. place. Of course, I have know idea what area I am looking at either. Anyway,sorry, continue on topic. I'm just blabbing. I'm on vacation as of today so I'm in a very "up" mood.


TIS

You're on vacation, yet still up at 6-7am?? You didn't read the vacation manual...!

Ha ha!!! I'm a very early riser as I get older. Plus, I'm going to see the grandkids today. And, they are all up bright and early as well.



TIS

I see now why you're not coming out to NJ... cuz at 10 AM when the rest of us are still in bed, you're impatiently waiting for 5 hours!

I hope you enjoy the grandkids as much as I enjoy my niece/nephews! Certainly worth getting up for!

Sweet! I had planned (and may still go) to Wegmans tomorrow (half hour away) to see if they had Fox's U-bet and black-and-whites. I decided to try the local Shop-Rite and they had both!! The syrup was $2/bottle ($3 online) and the B&W's were 2 for $2 ($40/dozen online ). They may not be authentic "Brooklyn" B&W's but Shop-Rite has a terrific bakery, and these look great (bigger than I thought!), so I'm not too worried. Got the selzer and milk, too.

I wanted to mostly go to Wegmans because I wanted to make a homemade pea soup and figured they'd have the best ingredients. I'll see if I'm to it tomorrow. She likes pea soup, too.

Buy her a copy of "The Excorcist".

Pea Soup is pretty simple, Geoff. You need a hambone, some water, a bag of dried peas, carrots and onions. That's pretty much it. You certainly don't need Wegman's for that. I don't know if you can buy a hambone, because I always make pea soup a couple of days after I bake a ham, so I just use my own.

I'm talking Gordon Ramsay -style pea soup! Not the add water to Manishevitz (which is fine!), but something a bit lighter for Summer...

Soak me some cherries and I'll save you some (if it's good)

Orange peel this year, although the cherries did go over well.

All right, this is the modest gift basket I came up with, all of which doesn't fit into the basket... doh!

Homemade pea soup*, 2 bottles of U-Bet, 2 bottles seltzer, 6 black-and-whites, 1 pkg Manischewitz Fruit Slices (candies I remember from when I was a kid), and 2 bars chocolate-covered Halvah (awesome sesame candy), milk...



...and a pound of fresh figs (finally!) for my dad.

*I went all out and made gallons of this stuff -- with fresh peas mixed in! I tried to make a less heavy pea soup that's a bit lighter for summer, but it still came out hardy. I experimented a bit, too, and included a pureed sweet potato into the mix, as well as fresh peas and snap peas. Took like 3 hours to cook. Came out pretty good, though.

Nice touch with the halvah and fruit slices (both a staple of Brooklyn Jews). A very nice gift basket!!! I'm sure your mom will love it.

(Is it too late to add something simple? Get a picture online of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers - they won the World Series and were much loved in Brooklyn. Here's a link to one - CLICK HERE ).

My mom quit baseball after the Dodgers left -- I'm sure many did!

I wanna try to get a DVD together w/ footage of the twins - hopefully I'll have time (have a couple hours)...

Very nice Geoff. Those are some huge cookies!

You're such a good son. Let us know what she thought of your gift.

She LOVED IT!!! She hasn't had some of those items in YEARS. Of course she was most grateful about the thought and effort behind it all. It's too bad she's sick right now and cannot really eat anything yet. Hopefully tomorrow! Thanks for all your ideas!

PS - She also loved the DVD I whipped together with about 5 minutes of footage I had of the twins. I think she played it 5 times

Cool, although I'm sorry to hear she's not feeling well.

I hope she feels better soon Geoffy.

I'm glad she was thrilled and hope she feels better soon to enjoy the basket. That's a very thoughtful present.

I get those same Glad storage containers. Good job.

JG, that is an AWESOME gift basket! Wow! I think you are a very, very good son, and, being a mom, I admit that such a gift would have made me cry.

Hope she's feeling better soon.

Thanks, everyone! She just called me a little while ago telling me the pea soup came out great -- but true or not, mom's will say that anyway. I'm gonna try it myself tonight...

Nice basket Geoff. A very thoughtful gift!



(Now I'm craving some Halavah and an Egg Cream)


You're a good son my friend!

Great job, JG! Way to make your Mom's day!

I don't know any mom who doesn't feel that homemade presents made from love are worth way more than store brought gifts. I'm sure this will be a gift she'll treasure a lot, just thinking of the thought and time you put into it.