Thursday, February 2, 2012

Friends in Saratoga bring back thoughts of....history and the Kentucky Derby...

Well this has been a busy few days and the publishing end of the business is coming  long.  Visited Dick Leland and his wife this week and had a wonderful trip back to days when my family and I used to go to Saratoga.  Sometimes we brought Chris' grandmother with us.. 

Grandma Smith loved the horses, her son Corky took care of them at the local track, and her family kept horses in Indiana near Louisville, Kentucky for years.

Her family actually kept some very famous race horses "to board" there, and one of Chris' favorite possessions was a decoupaged picture of some of these horses via a Courier and Ives print that Grandma Smith made for her.  One of the horses was the Bob Tailed Nag of   Stephen Foster fame....Ironically, that horse was sired and stabled in...you guessed it Eaton!!!!!! Ahh..history.

As I think back I am so sad that Grandma Smith died before Chris, her and I could get off to Louisville and the Kentucky Derby.  One year she set it up with her horsey relatives so we could go and attend some pre parties and the Derby itself.....but then she became ill and died before we could try and do it another year.

Chris and I dreamed of going after I finished taking care of mom and dad  who were so ill......we would hold Derby Parties......but then Chris died....

We always cried when they played Old Kentucky Home...now I don't even watch the Derby..I cry anyway....but life goes on...maybe some day...................

But with a little luck I will get back to Saratoga .."in the season" this year..maybe revisit Dick and Sheryl and savor new memories.....

PS horse real name was Flora Temple.........

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