Welcome New Readers!

Senior Share Project has been seeing some momentum, recently, and we'd like to thank you all for stopping by. We've recently been lucky enough to have received TWO online reviews!

The first review is over at Blog Search Engine. No matter what your interests, you will be sure to find something to read here, and without the hassle of weeding through a general search on Google or Yahoo. Blog Search Engine is a listing site with ratings and reviews on all kinds of blogs. Please click on the picture below to go to our review, and once there, click on the stars to rate it, "like" it on Facebook or Tweet it to your followers - that will help us get ratings and even more exposure:

Our second review is over at BloggyAward.com! BloggyAward.com is a site that visits hundreds of blogs a year, and rates them based on the following criteria: Visual Aesthetics, User Friendliness, Reading Enjoyment and Useful Info. Based on ratings and what you like to read, BloggyAward.com is a great site to sift through, and find more blogs to visit. 

It's also great feedback for us, because with an outside opinion, we are able to make some changes to our blog, like implementing a label navigation bar (coming soon!)

Senior Share Project received a score of 9 out of 10!! Thank You, BloggyAward.com!

Click this picture to go to our review:

We are so thankful to have this coverage and recognition. But, the most important ingredient of Senior Share Project is YOU, our readers. We don't exist without your stories. 

Maybe the first time you visited our site, you had a little story in the back of your mind that you were reminded of when reading what others have written. 

• Did your parent or grandparent emigrate to the United States from a foreign country, like Carla Carozza's dad, Vince? 
• Do you laugh everytime you think of your favorite aunt, or when you remember a lesson your mom taught you, like Jeanette Kahwaji's Aunt, Winnie the Witch or Joe Finnerty's grape jelly fiasco? 
• How about growing up in the country like Lorene Hoover from Iowa, Holly Klapper from Northern Michigan, or Gordon Fredrickson from Minnesota?
• Did you sneak a radio into school so you could listen to the World Series, like Marty Roselius?

You know there's a story inside you. We want to hear it. Send it to us today! We'd love to hear from our international readers, too!

seniorshareproject@gmail.com

Thank you! Heidi and Eileen

P.S. Coming soon to SSP: Video interviews! Check back, or better yet, subscribe! 

Winnie the Witch

by Jeanette Kahwaji

My Aunt Winnie was a riot and a witch (so she thought, she was born October 30th 19??.)  I would never tell her age, she may come back to haunt me. She and my Uncle Alvin, God bless him I don't know how he did it, lived in the house behind us in Chicago. Winnie always had a scary story to tell us kids and she loved every minute of it as we stood there fixated on her every word, eyes wide open, there was always a "got ya!" moment that sent us running and screaming and left her laughing hysterically. 

Aunt Winnie

It was a warm summer evening and our parents had gone out, my sister and cousin were watching me and my siblings. Aunt Winnie came over and told us about the "Witching Hour." If I remember correctly it was around 9 or 10 p.m.; the little garden fairies were going to visit her gardens and she wanted us to see them. We were so excited and anxious we watched the clock counting every minute waiting for 9 o'clock to arrive so we could tip toe over to Aunt Winnie's yard and wait and watch for the garden fairies.

My brother, me (2nd from left),
my two sisters (middle and right),
and our cousins in the backyard.

Well, finally the time had come and my sisters, brother, cousin and I all huddled together squeamishly, anxiously, nervously laughing. We hung onto one another as we headed out across our backyard to Aunt Winnie's yard. There she stood on the back porch waiting with that serious look on her face, ready for the kill. She made sure we all stood in a very specific area of the yard in the grass then the wait began. She told us about the fairies and how at witching hour they will come out of the flowers and dance around the garden but we had to stand very still and quiet. We watched her, listening, not wanting to scare the fairies off as she counted down the minutes. It was dark and quiet, we were in a trance, waiting, waiting, waiting. Just then, she turned on the sprinklers in the grass! We jumped and screamed and ran as she stood on the porch uncontrollably laughing. Damn, she got us again!

 

We ran home soaking wet and had a good laugh ourselves. It made our night and has given us memories to talk about with each other and our children.

Aunt Winnie was definitely my favorite - our favorite - Aunt.

Uncle Alvin and my dad, Chris Shaw