Carol Bourne

Carol bought and drove a 1957 Chevy convertible. How cool is that? So cool that this was the first car featured in a James Bond movie, Dr. No. where a young Sean Connery starting his iconic role as James Bond was picked up at the airport in Jamacia by a bad guy driving a 1957 Chevy convertible.

Carol was very much the Queen of 4th of July and Christmas decorations. Due to allergies of myself and my father, we only had artificial Christmas trees. Decorating it, the house, the front of the house outside, grew in magnitude over the years. We went through the electric train phase, and I remember setting up track so the train when around the tree and around the room going under furniture, etc., so people had to be careful and mindful of that. Carol bought this Dicken's Christmas set which looked right out of "A Christmas Carrol" with a London Street scene and many characters which she built up over time. It really was impressive and she enjoyed it.

Mom and Dad lived in the original 3 bedroom 1.5 bath home they bought in Whitefish Bay. In 1977, rather than looking to buy a larger home, they decided to put a full addition on the house, making it a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath home with an office, a 3 season porch, and large finished basement. Dad built a dark room in the basement while Mom expanded the kitchen greatly to include a second sink. This was because every fall she and three of her friends would do a massive canning operation for several Saturdays each fall. We would go to the farmer's market and buy bushels of apples, peaches, pears, cucumbers (small ones to pickle), and tomatoes. It was a real operation with 5 or 6 people working and two pressure boilers on the stove at once, but timed to offset each other. We filled hundreds of Ball two quart canning glass jars each fall. A fond memory was one of Mom's friends would order and pick up lunch for us at Hienenman's Restaurant on Silver Spring Dr. just two blocks away. Maybe we were all hungry from the hard work but I remember it tasting really great and looked forward to it. Carol believed in both the cost savings and healh benefits of canning your own food. We also had a food storage cellar in our basement.

While I was in 8th grade, and Jim in 5th, Carol went on a very bold trip to Algeria with Dad. This stems from a mother-in-law story, as Mom used to say every marriage needs a good mother-in-law story, and this was theirs. Verna Hodge gave Dad a book on ancient cave paintings, which was an area of interest for him. The author was an internationally acclaimed artist who reproduced ancient cave art paintings. After a few years of seeking out and corresponding with him, Dad was invited to go with him to Algeria, Africa, to photograph 25,000 year old paintings. The artistic underwrote expenses by inviting a select few, but this was a unique experience. The amazing thing was Mom, Carol. decoded to do this even though it was hard core rustic and in the Sahara Desert. They had a Tuareg guide and their supplies were carried by donkeys as they walked. Their guide had never seen socks before and Dad left him three pair. The point is, Carol could rough it and was that adventurous to do this..

Back when Jim and I were kids, we went on a trip to Cancun. Dad wanted to see the ancient ruins, which we did, but we also took a party boat to Isla Mujeres. They had a contest where a Conch shell had the end cut off so it could be blown like a trumpet. Out of say 50 on board, the person who could make the loudest sound could keep it as a prize. Shockingly to me, Mom won, for real. If you were ever in the Family Room and saw it sitting on the bookshelves, that's why and where it came from.