Because my work is in New York I get to travel there alot. A truly beautiful city like no other in the world. While in Mt Vernon (where our plant is located) I would take the train to Grand Central and spend a few hours walking around the streets of New York. I especially enjoyed Times Square and I decided that one day I would spend a weekend at Times Square and finally did over a gorgeous weekend in late August.

The highlight of this trip was seeing “The Phantom of the Opera” which I had seen in Toronto twice. The weather was perfect and it was simply a great weekend visit to probably the best city on earth.

Continue reading “Time Square New York 1998” →

The Christmas display is now encompassing the entire basement. The blue tarp goes completely from one side to another and their are about 70 of the small animated figures. The first animated figure (and most of the others) were bought at Forest City in Taylor. Since then we have gotten them from all over including Ray Hunters and Bronners but by far most came from Forest City each year. Buying them over the years creates a true variety of characters in the display, yet they are all pretty much in scale with each other.

Forest City was Home Depot and Lowes before their was a Home Depot and Lowes and has now vanished from the retail landscape, however its Christmas sales of animatronics is well represented here.

One year as a surprise for Kenny we flew his son in for the Christmas holidays. You can see him here with Criss and Kenny in the picture to the left.

Continue reading “Christmas 1997” →

Friends who I went to grade school with are affectionately known as “the little friends”. Here are some of the little friends on a trip to Philadelphia to do a little bit of sight seeing, eat some cheese steak sandwiches, drink some beer, and watch a Lions game (or I should say a Lions loss, never saw a team like this that loses so much but has such great talent like Barry Sanders). The tailgate party by far was the highlight of the day, did not really want it to end but eventually we had to go into the stadium and watch the Lions.

Turns out the game of kick the can in the parking lot was better than the actual game in the stadium.

Continue reading “Liberty Bell and Football Game In Philadelphia 1997” →

Our friend Ernie and his family have a cottage up North and we decided to spend a day fishing at Houghton Lake. The first stop was to get fishing licenses and such, then we went to the pontoon rental place and rented a boat which we proceeded to stock with the finer accessories of fishing (ie brew).

We ended the day pulling into a bar that was on the dock and had dinner, then returned the boat safe and sound back to its owner. Jim was the only to catch anything other than sun that day, but he let the fish go once he got a picture of it.

Continue reading “Fishing on Houghton Lake 1997” →

When Dorothy Marie Kleiber was born on May 25, 1919, in Michigan, her father, Benjamin, was 25, and her mother, Mildred, was 22. She married William F Sokel on April 2, 1942, in Henry, Ohio. They had one child during their marriage. She died on July 2, 1997, in Cheboygan, Michigan, at the age of 78.

Growing up I did not see much of Aunt Dorothy, however when I went to College (Henry Ford Community College, aka Hank High) she lived not far away and when driving home I would stop off and see how she was doing. I got to know here pretty well during these little visits and we had fun chatting about this and that. A very lovely person.

After 42 years the Detroit Red Wings broke the curse and won a Stanley Cup, here we are celebrating downtown the day of the parade. It was an extremely hot summer day and we waited downtown for hours, so we were quite parched when the parade finally ended at Hart Plaza. We did not stay for the speeches, only the parade. We went to a great bar with an outdoor barbecue and one of the Red Wings showed up to get a bratwurst off the grill so that was kind of neat.

Great time was had by all and congrats to the Detroit Red Wings. Now if we can just do something about those Lions…

Continue reading “Red Wings Championship Parade 1997” →

Christmas dinner at the Kleibers is a great way to spend the holidays. Once again the entire basement is decorated and this year we had a special guest, Santa Claus.

Dinner was served by Grandma Loretta who waited to get the best ham in Michigan, it was really delicious. Plenty of deviled eggs, pickles, and scallop potatoes rounded out the meal, along with every snack and candy imaginable.

This was about the third party we had here during the Christmas season. So much effort goes into the decorations that we felt we should have multiple parties with friends during the holiday season. Of course the main event will always be Christmas but we certainly got our moneys worth out of the Christmas basement this year.

Continue reading “Christmas 1996” →

After a 15 year absence from the Orient I found myself back, this time for my work as I flew into Beijing and then went on to Chon Quin. Probably the biggest thing I learned was there was not any Chinese food in China, at least not what they have at the China Buffet in my home town.

This was actually a visit for my work, and I spent about 10 days working but did have the one day for sight seeing and did manage to see the Great Wall of China. I remember buying the camera that took these pictures from a tourist booth and when I went to take the picture, some of them were already taken. It was a used disposable camera. I also found that everything in China is negotiable. If you go into a store in America and its marked $5 the cost is $5. If you go into a store in China and its marked $5 that’s simply where the negotiating begins. In fact, in order to close the deal and get the final 10% of the sale for my company, I had to give up the tools that I brought with me, losing them during negotiations with the Chinese Government representative.

Continue reading “Great Wall of China 1996” →

Our Christmas Party is now in its sixth year and has really become a bit of a tradition. This year we have had neighbors and friends over for multiple little parties before the big party on Christmas.

As usual, Mom cooked a huge meal and had two choices of main entree’s which was unique to me. Usually its ham, turkey, or roast beef. At this party we generally have two of the three and sometimes all three. Turkey gets the lowest preference since it is more a Thanksgiving meal.

This is the first year without my father, who past away earlier in the summer. Although he never came down to join the party (he was physically unable to but probably would not even if he was, he enjoyed people coming to see him and showing off his big screen tv). Because he pretty much lived in the living room with a medical bed and such, we began the party downstairs. Now that he passed we are going to continue having the party in the basement since we have more or less designed it around the basement.

Continue reading “Christmas 1995” →

According to our sources at Ancestry.com (currently worked by his grandson James) when Charles Thomas Kleiber was born on April 14, 1917, in Detroit, Michigan, his father, Benjamin, was 23 and his mother, Mildred, was 20. He married Loretta Rose Graf on February 15, 1941, in Wyandotte, Michigan. They had three children in 14 years. He died on May 30, 1995, in Oakwood, Michigan, at the age of 78.

Charles T Kleiber was a WW2 Veteran and father of 3 children. He was James Grandfather but died several years before James was born. Charles was a huge baseball fan and a very good player himself. He got a single in a game against Hal Newhauser who went on to become a hall of fame player. Growing up in Lincoln Park he was a pitcher and Barney McCloskey (who played for the Tigers) was his catcher. Although he was drafted by Cleveland, World War 2 came along and he never played in the minor or major leagues. However he did lead the Ford team to several world championships during his 37 year career with the Ford Motor Company.

Continue reading “Remembering Charles Thomas Kleiber 1917 – 1995” →