At some point, probably in the early 50s, my mother’s parents, John and Edith Sale (Mike and Nanny), had a house on Dogwood Road in a area called Woodlawn. Woodlawn is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland. It is currebntly the home to the headquarters of the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Next door to Nanny and Mike was the home of their daughter Virginia, then married to Herman Wagenfer and having three sons: Steve, Neil, and Barry. The Wagenfer home, on Colonial Road, backed up to a small creek, and this was always a nice place to visit and play. The Wagenfer backyard was fairly large, and it had plenty of room to play games and it also had a large brick outdoor grill and a horseshoe pit. The Sale home’s backyard was not nearly so large but it housed a garden that Mike took very good care of.

And the Independence Day weekend backyard picnic at the Wagenfer‘s seem to be always on our family calendar. When we were not eating grilled hamburgers and hotdogs or enjoying family softball games, I played with the Wagenfer boys. Steve was the oldest; Barry the youngest. I was a couple of years older than Steve. I also remember searching through Nanny and Mike’s basement every visit because Mike had some adult magazines there that I liked to sneak a peek at.

One of the highlights of every picnic there was the horseshoe game. I was too young to play so I just watched. My dad played horseshoes just once a year – at the annual Sale-Wagenfer picnic – but he could throw horseshoes almost perfectly ... flat with a one-and-a-half turn that resulted in ringers with just about every throw.

Unfortunately, this story does not have a happy ending. Near their house was built the Social Security Administration. The building had a large amount of paved parking spots, as one might expect. Unfortunately, when an area is paved, rain water does not get a chance to soak into the ground but runs off. In this case all that rain water ran down into Dead Run Creek behind the Wagenfer house and not only flooded the creek but flooded the Wagenfer, Sale, and two other nearby homes. There homes were flooded at least twice. Ultimately the city or state exercised its right of eminent domain and bought the properties they were now subject to flooding. As a result the Wagenfer‘s found a home in one location and the Sales moved into a small condo apartment it was not nearby. Our Independence Day weekend picnics were no longer. Shortly thereafter both Nanny and Mike passed away, and we were left just with their memories.

More information on Nanny and Mike Sale and on Herman and Virginia Wagenfer can be found in the "Family Album" section of this Website.