Ready For a Good Time

We think this picture was taken the last time we ever took Grampie Wayne's Mom out to dinner. As we remember, this was Mother’s Day and we were down from Maine to Wilmington, Illinois for a visit. Grampie Wayne wanted to go to Church with his Mom in Custer Park one more time. Grandpa Buza's mother went to that Church and after Grandpa and Grandma were married, he became pastor there. Grandma was delighted to be back there for a service and people were so happy to see her. We are so glad we went. We had fun that day, but she was more than ready to go back to the nursing home at the end of the afternoon.

Looking at this picture reminds me of the many, many times we went out to eat with Grandpa and Grandma Buza. He was liberal with the invitations and always insisted that he would foot the bill. The guys used to say, "order whatever you want. Dad’s paying!" Of course, they were just kidding around, but I took it seriously and thought they were terrible to say such a thing.

Grandpa had his favorites at the restaurants. Except for the times we went for fast food or the pancake house (which he truly enjoyed), you could almost guarantee that he would order a ham steak. But dessert was even more predictable. We still chuckle about the fact that Grandpa would ask the waitress, "What kind of pie do you have?" And after he heard the whole list, he would order pumpkin pie and coffee. We wondered why he just didn't ask, "do you have pumpkin pie?" But we have decided he must have wanted to listen to the whole list just in case they had something better than pumpkin pie. I think he ordered custard pie a few times, but that was a rare exception.

Dad was a picky eater. I thought his specialty was pretty strange at first, but eventually I learned to really enjoy his fried egg sandwiches. That love has been passed down to Timothy, who loves a fried egg and melted cheddar on flat bread. YUM. But I like mayonnaise on them. Grandpa Buza and my Grandfather Watson both detested mayo (and so does Timothy). Grandpa Buza always ate his eggs like I do: yolk broken and cooked "extra well". (Grampie Ellery used to say, "I want mine stepped on".) Grampie Wayne likes his "over easy".

Grandma Buza was a superior cook, and had a knack for pleasing Grandpa's taste buds, but she was also very creative and knew how to make a festive meal on a budget. When Grandma and Grandpa lived in Littleton Maine for awhile, he was pastor of the Lake Road Church and she helped cook at Ricker College in Houlton.

Grandpa and Grandma Buza dearly loved to play games -- especially word games. There was always a lot of laughter when we played Scrabble because sometimes he would "invent" a word that nobody had ever heard before. But when we turned to the dictionary, he was usually right.