genejockey 

Should I be bard from poetry competitions?

genejockey 

My siblings and I have been discussing what we want to eat during our get together at The Ancestral Home this weekend. My list includes corn, tomatoes, peaches, scrapple, shoofly pie, and Utz potato chips.

LesterOfPuppets

For some reason the Orowheat Outlet store in Vancouver, USA carried Utz. What a rare treat to enjoy up in the Pacific Northwest.

genejockey 

Speaking of Utz potato chips (the best potato chips IN THE WORLD, the pride of Hanover PA), when I was looking for a place to retire a few months back, I found a nice house in Hanover, which seemed to be very conveniently located - walking distance from the Utz factory outlet, as well as a number of doctors and dentists, the hospital, and one or more undertakers. Perfect for the retiree!

genejockey 

Annoyingly, Costco has Utz 'Snack Mix', which seems to be sold everywhere, but NOT the potato chips.

LesterOfPuppets

Never tried the Snack Mix, as snack mixes are not really my thing.

I need to see if my sister still does Costco and have her get me some Melona. The very best things to have in the summertime...

Velo Vol 

DougRNS have you considered seeing one of these guys for your back ailment?

WhyFi

LPLO *sigh*

Velo Vol 

Never had "Utz." Probably not shoofly pie, either.

Oh well.

genejockey 

What about scrapple?

indyfabz

Maybe nostalgic for you, but I am not a fan of Utz snack foods.

Are you familiar with the controversy over the mansion Utz tycoon Michael Rice built in the dunes in Avalon, NJ? It's something like 14,000 sq ft and cost $30 million about a decade ago.

Here is an aerial view:

genejockey 

Not familiar with it. The news didn't make it to this coast.

WhyFi

$30?! I'll take two!

indyfabz

Fixed.

WhyFi

Damn! I hate missing out on ground floor opportunities.

Mojo31

Here's a good article about the house: Jobs and 'the rich' (inquirer.com)

It was a stimulus package for the times it seems.

genejockey 

10 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms? That seems an odd balance.

indyfabz

It's obscenely large. He and his wife already had a large house. And the new one was to be built in the dunes area. There was a lot of litigation to try and stop it. Ultimately, Rice won and got the necessary approval. The thing is super tacky looking from the street.

Avalon is a big $$ place at the S. Jersey shore. Perhaps No. 1. Certainly No. 2. My ex-GF's parents have a house that is not near the beach and is relatively plain and ancient by modern standards. IIRC, it only has two bathrooms. Maybe three. (I think the Utz place has 13.) Despite its age, lack of amenities and location, it was appraised maybe 6 years ago at $1.4 million. If someone were to buy the house today they would likely raze it and build an entirely new one. Someone just did that very thing a few doors away.

indyfabz

These days, you need at least one bathroom for each bedroom and a few for company.

I live in a small worker bee row home in the city. Three "bedrooms." One bathroom. Yet people raised large families in houses like that. My mom was one of six kids. At one point when she was growing up there were 8 people living there. Same thing: One bathroom.

Velo Vol 

Nope.

My people were Pennsylvania Dutch for 200 years, maybe. But I'm a generation too far removed to experience the culture.

genejockey 

Living here has completely skewed my understanding of real estate values. A couple down the street, who lived in a 3br/2ba postwar tract house on ~1/4 acre, were having a garage sale, starting to clear out their stuff after retiring. Someone offered the $1.5 Million cash for it - which they took and moved someplace else. That was maybe 3 years ago.

genejockey 

I'm the youngest of 6 kids. When I was 4 we moved into what is now The Ancestral Home. 8 people, 1 1/2 baths. To this day, reading on the john feels like luxury to me.

genejockey 

Oh, and just imagine what it was like when we all came home for holidays, with spouses and kids. After we'd all left home, and Mom and Dad were still living there, the sewer line had gotten thoroughly infiltrated with tree roots, but M&D never noticed because the flow was sufficient for two old people. 15 people, though - that was more than it could handle.

Mojo31

As you might recall, we just went to IL to visit my parents. They still live in the house my dad and grandfather built in 1960. I'm the oldest of six, and for the longest time there were the four boys in one room, the two girls in another, and my parents in the third, all sharing one bath. About 1500' total until dad finished the basement when I was in high school. I then finally got my own bedroom, albeit without any windows.

Fast forward, and I don't know how we would make it without our four bedrooms and five baths, with each of our two kids getting their own bed/bath "ensuite" (to use that term loosely). Now, being empty nesters most of the year, it's nice to have a place to escape where it takes some effort to be found.

I don't begrudge the wealthy their large and often ostentatious places. As the article points out, they typically create a lot of local economic benefit.

genejockey 

The Ancestral Home has 4 bedrooms and a finished attic, and the ages and genders of us kids worked out such that the two oldest (both boys) got the attic, which is a really big room. My oldest sister got one bedroom. My other sisters got another bedroom, and I, the youngest, because I'm a boy, got my own room. That was one advantage of being the youngest kid. More relaxed parenting was another. As my Dad said, "With the first kid, everything has to be sterile. By the time you get to 6, you let them eat out of the dog's bowl".