a Canadian Artist -Salmon Harris

Back in the very early 197's, my then-husband, Michael and I took several trips in our camper VW van across the United States and across Canada, East to West. On one of those trips, we picked up three hitchhikers, not an uncommon thing to do in the trusting 1970's whe so many young people had hit the open road for adventure and travel. We dropped off one, a Quebois whose name I no longer remember, but we kept two and brought them to New Jersey with us for a visit. We had picked them up while headed West and they had taken us around near Vancouver. We visited an artists home and studio, and we hiked up a mountain.

The mountain hike was a disaster for me. I was trying to be strong and equal so I carried my own backpack and I wore new hiking boots. Soon, I was left behind by the two Canadians who wore sneakers and carried very light. I labored the rest of the way in pain, out of breath from the high altitude and with bleeding feet. When I got to the top, I was rescued by a band of women Scouts who took off my blood soaked boots and socks, cleaned my feet and bandaged them while Mike and the Canadians went fishing. They had brought a pretty young woman with them who pranced up the mountain unburdened by anything, like a young mountain goat, free and happy.

I didn't hold a grudge or resentment, but I was sad and I did learn a lesson. I carried too much and since I wasn't as strong as the others, my ex having been in the military and trained for long hikes with heavy packs, I was a fool to carry as much (or more) than they did.

The Canadian artists were a tall, twiggy fellow with a long curly mop of red hair named Salmon Harris. He looked a lot like Bert Lahr as the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz. The other artist was a handsome blonde with a large sailing ship tatooed on his chest named Christian Schmidts. They were slyly humorous, good natured, and full of fun.

One of the things I admired most about them was that they had created a fictional vacation camp called Camp Camosun and they had printed bumper stickers and other paper art in relation to it: envenopes with a line drawing of a dog, a scattering of stickers, a World War II airplane for one. I may still have these items lost up in the attic.

I thought this was such a fun and clever kind of art project. They stayed with us in Collingswood for a couple of weeks in our top story apartment with the small landing that was perched into a tree canopy. It was summer. I can't remember a lot from that experience, but I think we took them to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Also, while they were with us, I had gotten an IUD inserted at Planned Parenthood. I had been told it was relatively pain free.

We took LSD while they were with us, and my IUD wasn't at all pain free - it was agonizing as my body attempted to eject the foreign object. My LSD trip was filled with malicious monkeys jeering at me from the tree canopy off our landing.

Over the years, we heard from them by mail. Once about ten years ago, I looked up Salmon Harris and got in touch with him. He was working as a storyboard artist for the film industry: 2010 The Twilight Saga - Eclipse, The Grey 2011 and others. He also published a book of his Art Work which is now out of stock on amazon and for $95 via Diatrope Books. We kept in touch a bit and when I next heard from him he was working as a tax collector in rural British Columbia so that, as he put it, he could be near his son who lived there. The last time I heard from him via e-mail, he was in advertising, developing souvenir materials for tourist development in Summerland, BC. H had, allegedly founded a company to that effect called Samalot. Of course, who knows if that was even true! I sent him some mail there but it was returned as undeliverable. I never heard from him again.

Yesterday, while I was watching a series of natural disaster documentaries, one about snowboarders was set in British Columbia and I thought of Salmon Harris. I googled him and a notice in a Canadian artists' registry gave his death as January 6, 2022. He was born in 1948, three years younger than I am. I couldn't find any more information about him at all, no obituary. I couldn't find anything about Christian Schmitz either. I did find out that Salmon Harris's real name was Frank G. Prodnuk at his graduation from Vancouver School of Art.

It i an all too common event for me now that I look up old friends and find they ahve died. It shouldn't be surprising as I will be 80 on my next birthday and by my age, a lot of people die. I was sorry that I lost touch with Salmon Harris. His comic spirit and his artistic talen were bright like 4th of July sparklers. I remember both of those young men, both young and beautiful, lithe and joyful, ready for life and adventure and full of creative energy and good humor.

During one of my searches, years ago, I had been able to find some of his film storyboard work. I wish I had it in my photo storage but it was long ago. I would have posted it here. He does have a listing in the Internation Movie Database under artists for his film work. Sorry to see you go Salmon Harris - Happy Trails!

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Making friends and living longer

My morning e-mail today contained a CNN report on how socializing is an essential to a longer life. As is so often stated, we are social creatures and increasingly people live isolated lives - delivered meals, work at home, delivered groceries. This CNN article mentioned some ways to find and make new friends. I want to add that making and keeping friends not only lets you live longer, but better!

Let me start with my two newest friends and how I met them and how we developed our budding friendships: A couple of years ago, my brother's granddaughter moved from Philadelphia, Pa. to New Jersey. I had tried off and on to make a greater/warmer relationship with her father, my nephew, but he didn't take to it. Like some other male relatives of mine, he tends toward morose and is not particulary inviting or friendly, so I gave up. His daughter, however, is in education, so we share a career and she is friendly and was receptive to my efforts. We have developed a monthly lunch routine. Today we will be going to lunch at one of two local railroad stations repurposed as cafe's. Developing friendship: I took an active interest in her house hunting projects as well as in her career and I avoided topics where we might not agree - politics, for example. I like my great-niece and she is easy to spend time with. She is polite, pleasant and cheerful.

My newest friendship developed out of an Art Show at one of the repurposed train stations I just mentioned. I show work there regularly in their group shows. At one show, I saw prints by a South Jersey Art Group and inquired into contact information since printmaking was my major at Rutger's the State Univ. for my second bachelor's degree. I contacted the group, joined up and there I met an artist who specializes in Art Journaling, something I have always wanted to get into. We met for lunch and she brought two of her Journals and I was stunned by the beauty and complexity of her work. I bought supplies and got started on one of my own. I hope to meet her again and I will get in touch to try to work out another lunch date, to a place closer to where she lives as she is quite a distance from me.

The CNN article suggested making small talk at group events with people standing or sitting nearby. You have the shared event for a take-off point. We just had a holiday and if you attended a group event, it was a great way to meet new people, staning on the side of the road watching a parade, for example. Attending historic site events as well as celebrations is great for meeting new people! I belong to two historical societies and I get e-mail notifications of their events, that is helpful, as are libraries! I met one of my best friends at a hike with an Outdoor Club decades ago. She wrote a book and I bought a copy.

Because I keep this blog, recently, I heard from a relative I hadn't seen or spoken with in decades. He read one of my blog posts and shares an interest in local history. We have been e-mailing one another weekly ever since! I am also very diligent about birthdays and keeping in touch with old friends and relatives, such as my cousin Patty who lives in Cape May. It is far to drive but I try to get ther one a year.

I have a small group of old work friends who meet seasonally for lunch. Some are still teaching. One of the group of about 6 always takes the initiative to set up our next lunch date.

The neighbor who kindly walks my dog for me each day has a couple of groups of friends he meets for breakfast regularly. Many articles say it is harder for men to maintain friendship groups but my neighbor is a chanpion at it. He has a golfing group, a hgih school classmate group, and he is always present at the games of his granchildren.

Helping a neighbor is a great way to make a friend, as is walking the dog. Both of these have brought new friends into my life. A neighbor I passed frequently while I was walking my dog has become a good friend; we started walking together! And a neighbor with whom I had been discussing an adjoining backyard fence has become a good friend. I introduced them both to one another and the three of us meet for lunch about once a month.

I hope this gives you something to think about and an idea to try out - it reminds me of the girlscout rhyme "Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold."

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Trends: housing, women's fashion (July 3rd 2025)

Today, in my news feed, I read two interesting articles from The Atlantic, a magaizine to which I used to subscribe before my vision failed so much I have too much trouble reading fine print. Fortunately on the laptop, I can enlarge the print. One article was about how so many people are still flocking to the sunbelt, in particular Arizona and Florida, which was interesting to me because I know of people who are doing that, both relatives of my friends, and people with whom I went to high school. It is surprising to me because I HATE the heat! And I mean I HARE it. I lay the explanation for that at my ancestry: British, German and Scandinavian. These are cool and moist places. My expewrience with Florida came during my marriage when my in-laws retired to New Port Richey on the bay coast. The steamy heat was like living in a sauna, enervating and unpleasant. My favorite seasons are and always have been autumn and Spring. Autumn takes the lead - the cool crisp weather, the taming of the sun.

The article went on to detail many of the detrimental aspects of living in the sunbelt, burned barefeet from the blazing hot sidewalks, windshield wipers melting onto the glass fo the car and the threat of an electrical grid failure which woul allow for people to die of heat in their homes. One thing they didn't mention, in regard to Arizona, was the lack of water. I read once before that deveopments were built that were entirely dependent on trucked in water supplies. The south is steamy and unpleassant, the west is dry dry dry and scorching. I hae a cousin with two sons who live in Arizona and the temperature is regularly over 100.

My other experience with heat was in Morocco, in the desert with my then husband, and the heat was so bad, it scorched my throat and mouth and I couldn't breathe. My body couldn't breathe. Same thing happened in southern Spain. It was unbearable.

If I migrated anywhere, which I would not, it would be north. I wonder why people are going to these places? They mentioned in the article, affordability. Sprawling developments made housing cheaper in those sunbelt regions. I do remember many older pelple talking about how it is more affordable living in certain states. They don't factor in the absence of municipal resoures we take for granted here, liek trash pick-up, municipal sewerage, and municipal water, all things my parents did without when they moved to the mountains of West Virginia. It didn't matter so much when they were in their 60's but when they reached their 70's it mattered a great deal. There was also no snow plowing on the back roads.

True, where I live, the taxes are fairly high. But it is so much easier to live here when you are old. Also there is the factor of old neighborhood living. My little house, where I have lived for 40 years this year 1985-2025, is a five minute drive from the grocery, the pharmacy, any kind of shopping mall or municipal entity. Also, because of our taxes, we have senior/handicapped transport if you don't drive anymore and senior income based housing available if you put your name on the list and wait long enough. I have neighbors I have nown for those 40 years and they help me with my trash and recycle and walking my dog. We share things with one another.

I have said many times before that I love my hosue and I love my neighborhood and town and even my state. No complaints here. No reason to move. I pay fairly high taxes and it is WORTH IT! Also, we have senior/freeze, so my taxes were frozen a decade ago. I pay the full freight but get the difference between the current rate and my rate when it got frozen back in a rebate in the summer which I use to pay the August quarter. My brother who lives in Wewt Virginia has very low taxes and no municipal resources at all. He is much more of a penny pincher than I am and he won't even run his air conditioner to save on electricity!

Here is where the housing and the fashion topics overlap - I thik people moved south and west because it was apopular trentd, something they all talked about and it became a 'fashion' - that's how so many of my high school classmates ended up in The "Villages" in Florida, just like a fashionable trend running through a high school, a kind of shoe (Weejuns) or a kind of backpack. Claire McCardle made a fashion for women that changed our lives in big ways, thank goodness.

I still have a few articles of clothing with no pockets, but not many. Epecially now that I have to carry my cell phone everywhere for my safety as well as convenience, pockets are a necessity, but it wasn't that long ago that most women's clothes had no pockets. And it wasn't that long ago that women worke shoes with high heels even in the daytime. I ust watched two Doris Day movies recently and she was cinched up and crippled into high heels all during her adveture. We had such inconvenient clothing. I grew up in the time before pants were acceptable attire, pretty much anywhere. To work each day all of us women in Phildadelphia offices wore high heeled shoes and skirts and dresses so our legs froze in the winter waiting for the bus!

So today, I am thankful for pockets, flat and comfortable shoes, pants, and those helpful trends. I am aslo grateful for staying in my small and comfy bungalow in a small town in a great state, my good neighors, and even though sometimes too hot, or too cold, mostly temperate and bearable weather. I live in paradise! Glad too that I don't have any arguments with a spouse over "money saving benefits of rural living." A lot of the people I used to speak to at the dog park or other public spaces, it was the husbands who wanted to go south or rural to get out from under taxes or paying for yard care of snow removal. The wives wanted to stay near the children and their communicty conneections. That was certainly the case with my parents. My dad wanted the woods adventure and my mom lost her church friends, ceramics class, neighborhood visits with lifelong girlfriends, and many other social benefits.

Hope wherever you are, you are happy there! Happy Trails! wrightj45@yahoo.com

Creativity - Three Parts

1 - Yesterday at 12:30, June 27th, 2025, I was driving to The Station Cafe' (Eiland Arts Center) on Chestnut St. in Merchantville, NJ to meet a NEW friend, Tamarie Bitgood, who is president of the Salem County Arts League. We met through Loren Dann who is a founder of the South Jersey Artists Collaborative (or Collective) the group that will be renting one of our buildings at Woodbury Friends Meeting.

The radio program I was listening to as I was driving on 90.9 fm was on creativity and the speaker was talking about two parts of the process: inspiration, and "Flow" He spoke of the neutral, relaxed mind that allows new ideas to spontaneously emerge. I have certainly found that to be true. But I also derive a great deal of inspiration from input, from magazines, stories, objects. I read a book on Flow once by the famous reseacher/author Mihaly Csikszentmihaly: Flow, the Psychology of the Optimal Experience. published in 1990.

My best description of what FLOW feels like when I experience it is that I lose all sense of time and of myself and I become one with the activity whether it is writing or painting. It feels like surfing the wave, a smooth melding of action and thought. Hours can go by and I won't notice. It is a calm center.

2-At our lunch, Tamarie brought two of her ART JOURNALS to show me. I had three pieces of art in the latest show at The Station on the theme - Travel/Collage. I have wanted to make Art Journals and get into the ArtBook field for years but I couldn't seem to find the inspiration. I have kept journals since the 1970s and have hundreds in a big trunk in the attic but they are mostly narrative. My prose mind takes over and very little art ever gets into the journals. I wanted to change that and get away from art that needs to go on walls as I have no wall space left and I don't sell or move enough work and I don't want piles of it gathering dust in the attic. I felt the best solution to continuing to be creative visually was to turn to Art Journals. Tammy's were beautiful and mind-blowingly complex, and she had mastered the combination of idea and image. Her work far exceeded anything I had ever seen in the many magazines I had bought hoping to be inspired: Somerset Publications.

3-The way the creative process works for me: I have, in my living room a one hundred year old Singer Sewing Machine inherited from my Great-grandmother Catherine Sandman Young who made her living by sewing from her teens throughout her adult life. She and my grandmother made uniforms for the Schuylkill Areenal in piece work which allowed them to mind the children and make a living at home. The Sewing Machine, to my mind is a great tool of women's survival and labor. There were so few decent ways for an immigrant/poor woman to make a living in the 1800's, mainly cleaning or, if they were skilled, sewing. Since all clothing had to be made by hand before the industrialization of that industry, many women were employed in the task. Men did tailoring and women did sewing and haberdashery.

That sewing machine is an inspiration to me and it is also an item of beauty. When I think of the era of home-sewn dresses, I can see the fabrics, the trims, laces, buttons, beads, and the spools of gem like colored threads. How beautiful!

Because I have also sewn in my life, both my own clothes in my 20's and my daughter's in her toddler years, I have an inside experience of the art. So at some point, I began sewing as part of my artistic output - I made the other symbol of women's experience: the handbag/market bag. The first one I made was when my daughter was one year old in 1984. I sewed panels like quilt squares with a pocket in each panel and then I sewed the together like a book with a shoulder strap so she (my daughter Lavinia) could carry it and sit and pay with the toys in the pockets.

My first artistic piece I made was a set of 4 'pocketbooks' of 5 panels each and a painting in each panel behind a clear pocket. It was 2019 and the two hundred year anniversary of Women's Suffrage celebrated in a show at The Station called BRAVE 100.

I expanded from that idea and did a set of 12 pocketbooks/market bags which I put up at Woodbury Meeting and then gave away to friends. My latest was a piece I called Ireland Market Bag, a black bag with pockets on the front with clear panels and in one panel a portrait of my daughter at Bunratty Castle in Ireland, and in the other pocket, some memorabilia (a set of Ireland postcards in a ribbon, a boarding pass, a set of Irish stamps) that I had saved from a vacation we had taken to Ireland when my daughter was in her mid teens. I called it "functional art" because you could hang it and look at it or you could use it to carry things from the market or the post office or wherever. I really liked sewing those bags, using my mother's Singer Sewing Machine which was, according to my sewing machine repair man, the best model ever made. My great grandmother's sewing machine, an electric cord model, I have never tried to get to work. It is so old.

This Ireland Market bag connected all of it, the female experience of sewing and shopping, the art of painting, and my experience of travel, especially since Ireland was the country of origin of the maternal side of my ancestry, the McQuistons. It joined my German female ancestor Catherine Sandman Young, to my Irish ancestor Lavinia McQuiston, and carried on my daughter's name which has flowed down through 5 generations of women on my mother's side and was my mother's middle name as well. That to me made this piece my most perfect artistic creation.

Happy Trails!

wrightj45@yahoo.com

ps. Tam's books and my bag have inspired me to do an Art Journal on women's tools, starting with sewing notions!

South Jersey Quaker Fellowship in the Arts

The theme of TriQ this year is "Growing", and, relatedly, the name of our Art Show is: "Growing Compassion through Art". As is usual, your visual or performances do not have to be all related to that theme. However, we would like to invite all visual and performing artists to showcase at least one piece having to do do with that if possible. Not a prerequisite to showing, though! Artists do not have to stay for the Gathering, though you might want to stick around at least for a day! Artists do not have to be members of a Monthly Meeting or FQA(Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts), although you might be interested in our website at fqaquaker.org

We always welcome new artists, whether beginners, amateur or professional. Spread the word to arty friends! If you've not yet told me you'd like to show, or if you want more info, email me at dpulone@comcast.net or text/leave a message at 609-670-7625.

Drop off for art will be Friday, Sept 26 from 4:30-7 pm and Sat, Sept 27 from 9:30-11:30 am. Art Reception is Sat. 3:30-5:15. Artists must pick up their art by Sunday, Sept 28, 3 pm.

Attached fyi is Intent to Show form. I will have them there at Art Building(DeMartini Building) when you drop off your art, or you can print out and fill in beforehand.

If you are interested in performing, let me know asap cause slots are filling up fast!

I'd love to hear from any of you!

Doris P.

The SAD IRON

In my living room is the turn of the 20th century sewing table holding the 1929 Singer Bentwood cased sewing machine of my Great Grandmother Catherine Sandman Young. My Great Grandmother born 1864 and died 1954, was a seamstress from her teen years (according to the Philadelphia federal census) I also have her 'Sad Iron' which weighs about 6 pounds and is solid cast iron. The name "sad" comes from the old English/German word for solid and this iron was in use for a couple of hundred years, at least until the 1880's when the first electric iron was invented. Since most households had a constant running fire in a fireplace or a coal stove, the iron was heated on a surface near it and then placed on a trivet.

The sewing machine that I have from Great-Grandmother Catherine is a 1929 Singer made in New Jersey and there is a longer blog about it further down the list. These two artifacts of female life are the oldest heirlooms from my female ancestors that I own. The oldest heirloom from a male ancestor is a deck chair from the early 1900's that belonged to my paternal Grandfather who was a Merchant Seaman. I don't know what significance this chair has or why he kept it but I was always fond of it from childhood because it has those desk arms for a book or a drawing pad. I saved this chair when my parents moved to West Virginia and my father was clearing out the garage attic where it had been relegated for some reason.

A kind friend fabricated a missing piece and helped me put it togeether as it had been disassembled.

These items have great emotional value to me, a connection with my forebears, and in particular the sewing machine has meaning because it is how my Greath Grandmother and my Grandmother supported themselves during and after widowhood.

I began to ask friends what their oldest heirloom from a female relative was and one told me hers was an afghan knitted by her Norwegian Grandmother who had raised 10 children mostly on her own. She had been a cleaner and she had done farm work..

I am very taken with the kaleidescope of thoughts connected to making clothes from the 19th century, the thought of the piles of fabrics, the wooden spools of gem like threads, the buttons, beads, lace trims, velvet trims. What a rich and artist resource.

Once, I did a lot of sewing myself. In my late teens and early twenties, I made all my own clothes from Simplicity patterns, and when my daughter was born, I made most of her clothes until she went to grade school. The putting together the pieces from the patterns, all the parts of the process of making an item of clothing from choosing the material on were pleasurable to me. Sewing on a machine is kind of magical and I still do some Art work usig my sewing machine passed down from my mother, the best model every made according to my repair man, Chuck McGrath.

AS it happens I have several heirloom items, one from my other Grandmother, the Irish line in Philadelphia - Lavinia McQuiston (married name Lyons) which is a chocolate pot made in occupied Japan. I have that pot because I admired it in her China Cabinet and she gave it to me. >p/> Once I made a scrapbook about the family heirlooms that I have so that when I die, my relatives will hold onto them and not jsut let them go to Goodwill or someplace anonymous like that. These came down, after all, hand to hand, relative to relative.

What is your oldest artifact/heirloom from a female anestor? wrightj45@yahoo.com

Northern Exposure Season 5, episode 11 - Childbirth

All This below is true but I hve to put in a foreword after thinking and say it is no small feat to create a human being! I guess you have to expect some pain and trouble to have the gift of creaation like that. You make a human being who grows up and reads and writes and sings and plays instruments and makes a family and makes friends and has a career and moves on into the infinite future! It i a godly gift. All mythic heroes suffer for their miraculous powers.

In later episodes, Shelly gets to meet her daughter at different ages and I was taken back to the days of my daughter at different ages and remembered the greatest adventure of my life which was being her mother. It is epic.

The Episode I just watched of Northern Exposure is about Shelly Tambo's baby shower. Women tell their horror stories, men make ridiculous comments about things they know nothing about yet feel entitled to lecture on. The truth about pregnancy and childbearing is never told. Too daring? No one ever tells the truth about childbearing. We can't. It is like there is a kind of unwritten law that you can never be honest about that experience. Well, you can neer be honest about your own experience of that event, even though it is your own. It is really a horrible situation. What happens is that you hide that truth from yourself and the rest of the world because it is too much to bear - the truth. Once it begins, gestation, after those first few months, there is no going back. You are committed and you have to go through with it. It would be interesting to r=write The Red Badge of Courage about Childbirth instead of war. Those last couple of months, just think about it, that baby is almost fully grown, you know how big that is, and it is inside you squeezing al your organs to the side, moving around like a little whale or a porpoise, inside you. And those months you have to contemplate that large lump of huanity squeezing its way out of your body.

I saw a movie once that came a little close - Tulley with Charlize Theron (2018). That is mainly about her post-partum depression after childbirth, facing up to the relentless demands of caring for anewborn when your body hs been through an unspeakable trauma. The pain of labor is mind-bending. Fortunately for me, I faced it with Yoga, meditation and breathing. Since there is no escape, you MUST fall back on something and just HOPE it will help you survive this unbearble agony.

Of course there is that miraculous moment when it is over and you have survived and the baby is alive and whole, and you are relieved, you are rescued, and you experience that flood of supernatural love. But it is quickly replaced by the ceaseless demands on your body, your energy and your mind. Your time is never again yours. All of your time and all of your attention and energy is bent towards the demands of the little person your brought into the world. You carry that little burden everywhere until your arms ache. You are grateful for a stroller, an aunt, a playpen, those stolen moments of physical freedom.

I remember what it was like to kneel beside the tub at night and just deeply wish my child would get old enough to shower so I could be divested of this nightly ritual. Most of us are not sorry we did it, at least at some point but equally, at some point most of us are sorry we did it. I am astonished at how many women do it again, and again. I don't get it.

It is another reason I am so against dog breeding - to put some enslaved animal through that pain and trauma over and over for money is brutality at its most basic lack of compassion. It is a basic lack of compassion that allows men to put women through this over and over again, that and the fact that they are never exposed to the reality of it, the agony, the trauma, the soul crushing enslavement of it. Even if they were, they would still do it 0 lust would triumph over compassion.

Thank heavens for birth control that spared me all those years for maturing, educating myself, getting a career so I could be independent and self supporting. Thank heavens for birth control, all the many forms, that allowed me the one experience and no follow ups, no sequels. Thank heavens for time, that allowed me gray hair and celibacy and a release from all that reproductive bondage. That's how I truly feel. And thank heavens my child grew up safe and sound and healthy and independent and self-sufficient so I got my life back.

wrightj45@yahoo.com Childbirth is in a real sense, enslavement.

Lazy Hazy Crazy days of summer - Film Fest Ideas

Hello, pwehaps like me you are feeling like a crocodile on a river bank on this hot hot day (it is 98 according to my phone app) I just have no energy, and apparently it isn't just me because my pets are all lying around too. We have air conditioning so it is quite comfortable in the house, but the outside world must be pressing us down. So I was thinking of my annual summer film festival. When I am stuck in the house each year during a heat wave, I tend to think of a themed film fest. Over the years I have enjoyed:

All the JAWS movies, the Jurassic Parks and even the Star Wars prequels, sequels and other quels

Surfer movies both old an new, beginning with Endless Summer and going up through Blue Crush among many others

Himalayan Mountain Climbing adventures like Everest 1998 or Vertical Limit 2000

If you want to jump way back and go lighter, there are the Beach Party Bingo movies and Gidget

Music Festival movies are a perfect way to laze out a too hot to trot summer afternoon and evening: Woodstock, the perrenial favorite and Festival Express!

Maybe a dip into the old paintbox: Vincent and Theo is a lovely look at the borother love of the Van Gogh siblings and there is At Eternity's Gate, and there is always FRIDA (2002)! and Georgia O'Keeefe (2009)

Perhaps you'd ike to re-visit the great epics: Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, War and Peace

And with July 4th coming, you might prepare with some Revolutionary War movies like The Patriot or Last of the Mohickans, or some series like John Adams and The Turncoat!

A series I am revisiting is Northern Exposure. I am in season 5. It is available for free on amazon prime.

You may be trapped in the house but your tv or laptop can set you free to roam the world! Enjoy!

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Demolition of Woodrow Wilson High School & thoughts on high school

Two summers ago when some of my teacher friends from Mary Ethel Costello School and I were meeting for lunch at Maritsa's in Maple Shade, there was a group of lively and cheery elders at a table nearby. I couldn't help but notice there was an array of high school memorabilia at a table beside them, they were alumni from Woodrow Wilson High School, class of 1955. Although they were obviously elderly with the usual short white permed hair and the seriously outnumbered men, they were joyful and having a great time. I think there may have been about ten people, about two or three men. There was a yearbook, a letter jacket, a large format class group photo, and a couple of other artifacts.

My own high school group still meets for reunion and I was surprised to find from several friends with whom I spoke about this event that other high schools didn't! Perhaps it is because my high school is from the old days of small local schools with smaller class sizes. We had 150 graaduates, about a hundred of us survive and about 50 of us come to the reunions.

I have often said that high school had little impact on my life but I was wrong. When my family moved from South Philadelphia to New Jersey, my life took a radical turn to the better. Merchantville High School at that time took tuition students from Maple Shade because they didn't have enough teens to keep the school open and the neighbor towns had the new developments springing up for the upwardly movile veterans of World War II. Lots of huge housing ventures sprang from that event and the resulting baby boom.

The kids at Merchantville were sophisticated, well dressed, well behaved and a good example to set a standard for those of us from Philadelphia. I dread to thin k what my high sschool life would have been like if we hadn't moved. The schools in South Philadelphia were notorious for fighting, bulgarity, and low class behavior of all kinds.

Immediately, I learned how to talk like the kids from Merchantville, and eradicated expressions such as "youse" and "I senen" from my speech. It also raised my expectations. My best frieds went to college, so it occurred to me that perhaps I could go to college too. Of course, eventually I did go to college and in fact, pretty much never stopped going. I got my fial dgree, a masters at age 60!

We are dwindling, the alumni of Merchantville High School class of 1963. Just a yeaar or so ago, I lost two classmates, my best friend Chris Gilbreath (married name Borget), and a neighbor and teen friend, Romeo Benrtura.

I am one of those people who feel that places hold a residue of emotion. Can you imagine the layers of teenage emotion that went into the dust of the demolition of Woodrow Wilson High School? I bid the building a sad farewell and a memorial honoring of the memories that now exist only in the hearts ad minds of the thousands of young people who once passed through those halls on their way to adulthood!

wrightj45@yahoo.com

July 12, 2024 Butterfly Festival Red Bank Battlefield, National park

There will be a Buttefly Festival sponsored by the Certified Gardeners of Gloucester County at the Red Bak Battlefield i National Park, on the 12th of July. There will be art, crafts, tours, and presentations soif you are free, what better way and better place to spend the day than along the Delaware in the lovely park grounds of Red Bank Battlefield! Here follows the program:

Check out the Event Schedule

11:00 All About Butterflies

11:30 The Buzz on Bees

12:30 Bugs on the Go Bug Show

1:15 The One Man Circus >p/> 2:00 Bugs on the Go Bug Show

3:15 Bug Parade- put on some wings and join the parade.

Happy Trails! wrightj45@yahoo.com

I am starting a new series which I have dipped into before without a thematic thread joining episodes. Annals of Aging

My episide today is the mystery of MOTIVATION and the m ysteries of NEW MEDIA

About two. or maybe even three years ago, I ventured to the apple store in the Cherry Hill Mall with an excellent tip from the local Verizon store guy to go just in time to be at the door when it slides open at 10:00.

Motivation: I had been going to the verizon store for help with my iphone which was failing in its mission to provide music for me at the gym. I won't go into that - it is a blog post of its own. Suffice it to say it was a wifi complication among other things but NOBODY had been able to solve it at the gym, or the verizon store and they couldn't solve it at apple either. The phone just kept cutting out so I was replacing it as it was old and the battery was failing.

At the apple store, I took advantage of the August back-to-school-special offers and replaced my old laptop (which had been given to me by my daughter some time before) as well as my old iphone and solve the issue of my ipod as well.

The ipod was dead, couldn t take a charge, and would never be replaced as they were being phased out by the iphones. After much time and struggling I emerged from the store with a new laptop and a new iphone at great discount prices (the whole thing for $1200) and a free set of wireless ear buds! At home, I was able to manuever my way through the new media with patience and perseverence but I was mystified by the ear buds. My daughter was due to visit at some point and when she did, she set up the ear buds rapidly and with a small display of irritation that I wasn't able to do so easy a thing. I couldn't do it because I had no instruction booklet, only a small square plastic jewelry box with two buds inside - period! She installed an app and said I was ready to go and she left.

I opened the box like a monkey finding a satelite phone and put it away in my coffee table drawer where it lay for two more years.

Recently when I returned to the gym, I decided at first to just listen to the cacophony of static and incomprehensible shrieking that is the sound system at the gym rather than again enter the fray of trying to make my iphone work at the gym and listen to music. Then, I discovered that my old corded ear buds didn't work with the new iphone anyhow and the new buds remained as pristine and mysterious as the day I first saw them. No buttons, no instructions. No clue how to make them turn on.

First clue: at the hair salon recently, getting my annual shearing before the heat set in, I asked my hair stylist, Shana, a young person that I presumed may have some knowledge of these things. She didn't but another stylist nearby, a few years younger did: "charge your buds with your phone charger first, then just squeeze the post on the buds and they will work automatically. Look on the case for a little light that is hidden until the buds are charged, then you know they are ready to go."

I charged adn charged and looked and looked and the mysterious light never came on. This morning, in a rare spell of apathy and laziness that my morning latte' hadn't been able to budge, I took out the box with the buds once more.

First, though, I had done some research via google on ways to listen to music at the gym that didn't require the phone or the buds and of course, I was referred to the venerable mp3 player, which I had used about 20 years ago until some innovation had outdated that as well. Hopeless, I took out the earbud box and opened it for one last look before I relegated it to the drawer for evermore, and lo and behold the mysterious light was ON INSIDE of The little white Box!!!

I put the buds in my ear and opened apple music on my phone and subscribed for 3 months FREE and listened to Joni Mitchell! I was ELATED! Out of the jaws of abject failure had come success and the sound was remarkable.

A surprising consequence of this victory was that I was motivated into two of my more avoidance prone chores - shower and replacing the dog covers in her dish tray.

MOTIVATION: Generally a Dunkin Donuts latte' is enough caffeine drive and motivation to get me to do the chores I find myself most reluctant to do - cat litter boxes, laundry, showering. You may have heard how older people don't like to shower and there are reasons for that. One reason is that it is dangerous and we know it. Our balance is poor, our joints are not reliable and it is hard to climb over the tub to get in and out of the slippery tub. I have handles which I had installed and my tub/shower enclosure has built in handles so that is a big help. I like to be clean and that helps. Usually, I parlay one chore with another as in, I will get the litter boxes done first and the bathroom will smell nicer and then I can shower.

My resolution of the $100 valued ear buds wasting away in the coffee table drawer for two years was such a powerful motivation boost that I changed the absorbant cloths in my dogs food try and got my shower in 15 minutes flat!!!

I would say this is a result of the power of learning something new which every kind of newsletter recommends as a healthful factor in countering the ravages of aging. I suppose most young people have other young people to help them figure out new media, or I guess they go to youtube for help (which I have tried for other things but I don't do well with auditory instruction - I am a reader and NO new media comes with written instructions anymore). Anyhow, when I go to the gym on Wednesday, I will have my ear buds, and Joni Mitchell to help me pedal through my 15 minutes on the stationary bike as well as rhythm up my repititions on the seated rower, the abs machine, and the leg crunch!

Persevere, my friends - ask for help, and keep on trying to move incrementally into the future!

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Movie Talk - 50th Anniversary of JAWS and more

For the past 2 or 3 weeks, I have been watching Northern Exposure which is 25 years old this summer, in JUly. It ran for 5 years from 1990 until 1995. Back when we had VHS, I boufht the series in a video club I joined and wasted hundreds of dollars on. Who knew that the obsolenescence of various media was around the corner. I have somewhere two storage tubs of videos that I couldn't bear to throw away, although I did throw away all my home videos because: 1.they were on a small format for my camera, and 2.they needed a caddy to play on a vhs equipped tv and the caddies were no longer available, and then the video tv were gone too. One summer in a radical cear-out necessitated by my small home and my tendency to save things, out they went. I do regret it. But you just can's save everything.

Every time I watch Northern Exposure, I am chrmed and touched and impressed by the complex and affectionate portrayal of the characters. They become like friends. Each time, I notice things I didn't think of before. Always in the past I have LOVED Chris of KBHR because of his erudite philosphical and artistic take on things and how he shares ith with his audience, never assuming they won't understand. He doesnt' patronize or talk down to his audience, he trusts them to make of it what they will. This time through (probably my dozen time through the entire series) I took note of the way Ed Chigliack understands the world through movie plots and narratives. I would say that I have understood the world through the prism of European authors who captured my young mind before I was twelve and marked it indelibly.

Often I have noted here in this blog how I rummaged through the ccollections of European classics in my Grandmother Lyon's basement bookcase. She let me read them all and they were way too old for me but I was ready! I read deMaupasant, Boccacio, Doestoyevsky. Edward Bulwer Lytton wrote the Last Days of Pompeii and to my last days, that will haunt me. I actually got to visit Pompeii when I was married back in the early 1970's.

But movies also have taught me quite a lot. This summer marks the 50th anniversary of JAWS, from the novel by Peter Benchley which was based on the New Jersey shark attacks in the early 20th century.

I think one of the plot engines that sticks with me is how the honorable and intelligent 'everyman' sheriff tries to protect the people whie the greedy businessman mayor is ready to sacrifice them for the profit of the season. This battle between the common good and greed is going on all the time all over the world and in particular in our own country which has been sold down the river to the greediest politician of all time - Donald Trump. That is one superlative he really does deserve.

But what is more rare is the exploration of GOODNESS to be found in TED LASSO, a contemporary and award winning series about a coach who puts the emotional welfare of the men in his team above winning - how rare is that! Northern Exposure, too, in its own more divided way examines how good people strive to do good in a complicated world filled with challenges to their character and their intentions. There is the struggle between the greedy selfish businessman, as always, in the form of Maurice Minnefield, the grandiose bellicose braggart and bully who exemplifies the persona so on display in our nationald theater at present.And there is Dr. Joel Fleishan, struggling with his ego and his ambition but always doing the best he can for his patients. Probably the most kind and thoroughly good character is Chris of KBHR. He is generous, non-judgemental, accepting and helpful to all. In some ways he reminds me of Ted Lasso.

Anyway if you are looking for something to watch, amazon video has Northern Exposure for free, and apple tv has Ted lasso which you can binge for free for a week and cancel your subscription before you get charged a monthly subscription fee. I am not sure about jaws, but I am about to find out. For some time, I have refused to subscribe beyond pbs and amazone, because I use amazon frequently for so many household and art supplies that it pays for the subscription in gas and delivery. I hate to shop and I love to have my stuff delivered to my porch in a day or two!

Happy hot day tv viewing and if you want to chat about the shows, you can reach me at:

wrightj45Wyahoo.com

Juneteenth Celebration

Cherry Hill Juneteenth Parade and Festival at Borton's Mill from 10:00 a.m. to 3:oo p.m. Check the internet for more details.

For those who don't know what Jeneteenth celebrates, it is a celebration of the day that the last enslaved people in Texas finally recieving the word along with the Federal army of their freedom.

There are so many ways to celebrate via pbs on tv, or by reading and familiarizing yourself with the heroes of the Emancipation movement as well as attending any of the many celebrations being held around South Jersey.

Another event coming up is Family Archaeology Day at Red Bank Battlefield, please check with google for more information. And for added Black history, many of the troops who defended Fort Mercer 1777, were from the Black RhoDE ISLAND REGIMENT. Inreasingly over the years both volunteers like Harry Schaeffer and workers at Bank have been doing research on these soldiers. There is a book on the Rhode Island Regiment of African American Soldiers that the volunteers at the time (I was one) read in their monthly book club some years back. We also read "Never Caught" about Ony Judd, One of Washington's escaped enslaved people who got away and was never captured, same as with his prized chef Hercules.

Happy Juneteenth!

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Finding and Holding onto Happiness

June 16, 2025 - As many of you who have visited are aware, one of my most frequent post themes has been on how to be happy. I get my tips from several wellness newsletters, magazines, friends, books, all kinds of places. Today from THE WEEK magazine comes this Yale University Study: "Take a few moments, a few times a day to slow down, pay attention and expand on those awesome moments." The awesome moments to which this sentence is referring were detailed in the article and included such small ordinary acts as stopping to admire some flowers, up close, on a walk with the dog, or the study the sky and the clowds while in a paprking lot, or to enjoy the swirl of a rising flock of birds leaving the ground and entering the sky. You can examine the veins in a dew dropped leaf on a tree beside your driveway, or enjy the yellow layer of buttercups in bloom rising up over a green yard, or the first bloom of the orange tiger lilies (which I just saw in their warm elegance along the fence at the end of my driveway. One of the ways I admire and get close to such things is to paint them! I keep a small 6 by 8 watercolor pad in the table by my sofa and a small Windsor Newton water color set there too and sometimes I just make some small watercolor paintings of, for example a group of red tomatoes from the supermarket joined by their green twisted branch, or a plucked branch of my neighbor's hydrangea which is a glorious shade of perriwinkle blue.

Anyway, the article goes on to say how these moments of awe and admiration can stave off depression. I believe that to be true and I believe it to be part of why I am so happy so much of the time.

Believe me, I am just as subject as anyone else to the sorrows of the world and the anxiety caused by the chaos and violence in our current period (the assassination of the Minnesota political couple, or the young Jewish couple in Washington DC the ongoing bombins in ISrael and Iran, the famine in Gaza, the suffering of the people in Ukraine). You would be blind and stupid to be unaware of all this, but as the serenity prayer reminds us all, we must be aware of what we can control and what we can't. I only have a few years left in this experience of being alive on planet earth and it is enormous - much bigger than these passing troubles.

One thing that reminds me of this regularly is to sit in silent worship at my Quaker Meeting in Woodbury where the Meeting House is 300 years old. As I sit on the benches made by the families of the founders and contemplate all the generations that have sat there worried about childbirth, crop failures, smallpox, wars (at least 4 in that span of time) the deaths of loved ones, the births of new ones, I am reminded that all things pass, but the aged trees in serene watchful splendor outside in the burial ground, and the old building are still here. All things pass. I will pass too, and my ashes will sit in the earth next to all the other human worriers who lived and loved an died and re-entered the earth from which we all originally sprang. So let me enjoy the infinity and power of the leaves, the trees, the birds, the clouds, the oceans, rivers, the squirrels, the purring affection of my companion cat and be grateful for what I have in this world of wonders.

Really importantly, if you are feeling down - GET OUTSIDE! Go for a walk or if you are too droopy to get up to a walk, go for drive and park in a nearby park and roll down the window!

Happy Trails!

wrightj45@yahoo.com

A small Father's Day memory

In the summer of 1985, my Dad came up from West Virginia to help me turn the attic of the house I just bought into a bedroom and playroom for my daughter. A new peaked roof had been put onto this little bungalow and the floor of the attic was a lumpy mess of the old melted roofing tar and asphalt scraps which I had to scrape off. The roof wasn't insulated, just the beams, boards and the asphalt shingles.

Over two excruciatingly hot weeks that summer, Dad showed me how to put the insulation between the beams, then put up the dry wall, then tape and plaster the seams. It was hard work and a short ceiling, so we couldn't ever stand upright and by then my Dad was in his 60's.

Because I am human, and a sibling, I got slyly competitive and asked, "Dad, do you think I am better to work with than my brothers? I fully expected him to say I was because I was following orders and working quietly and carefully. He said, "You're better in one way, you don't know what you're doing and you know it. Your brothers always think they know what they're doing and they don't."

It was a disappointing complement but so typical of Dad, and it was a great sacrifice of him to spend that summer in that baking attic.

Happy Father's Day

wrightj45@yahoo.com

NO KINGS Protest Saturday June 14, 2025

HADDON TOWNSHIP, NJ — Protesters in Haddon Township and across the country will take to the streets Saturday in "No Kings" rallies nationwide to coincide with a military parade commemorating the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary, which also falls on Donald Trump's 79th birthday and Flag Day.

"No Kings is a nationwide day of defiance," says nokings.org. "From city blocks to small towns, from courthouse steps to community parks, we're taking action to reject authoritarianism — and show the world what democracy really looks like."

Just a few of us will be gathered on the hill of the Woodbury Friends Meeting site with our own signs protesting Tump's ICE raids which have kidnapped people at work, at school, at college, and at municipal buildings where they have gone to work on their permits and visa applications. They claim through the propaganda Fox channel to be deporting gang members and criminals but in fact, they are kidnapping citizens, workers, students, families, storekeepers and farm workers. It is horrible that people working in the fiels must flee to the woods and hide from these ICE enforcers.

One trespass against our rights follows another. Trump is working on defunding public broadcasting, defunding colleges and universities, and criminalizing protest. In Los Angeles he sent military and National Guard against American citizens exercising their legal right to protest the invasion by ICE into communities to kidnap people, and his propaganda channel magnified the violence to inflame the public and lied about the people being arrested and detained.

What have we come to?

Here are some ways you can take action. Sat, Jun 21 @ 12:30pm

Roadside Rallies Against Fascism › Sat, Jun 14 @ 12:30pm

Safety Marshals for No Kings March and Rally › Sat, Jun 14 @ 1pm

No Kings South Jersey › Mon, Jun 30 @ 6:15pm

Learn Spanish Meetup! › Fri, Jun 13 @ 7pm

Pre-Mobilization Call for June 14 ›

All Information from Cooper River Indivisible

Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

June - Tips for Creativity

One of my health and happiness e-mail newsletter has been offering tips for boosting creatity and I thought I would share 5 of them with you:

1. Doodle! The propt they offered with this one was to take 10 circles and make something different out of each one.

2.Write a poem: What I would suggest is to learn a classic poetry form like the sonnet or the villanelle, read some of the greats and then work on one of your own. I suggest you leave the haiku alone unless you are going to try to do the form which is a season, a philosphical insight, and a 5 syllable, 7 syllable, 5 syllable form. Again if you do this, try reading some of the good ones first. Or ignore what I said and just write freeliy for the heck of it!

3.Daydream - observing free thought trails (not rehearsing ists of chores to be done) This is best done while engaged in a thoughtless activity like walking.

4. Do 10 percent more.

5.Try one new thing - take ukelele lessons, learn a language, try a new sport, attend a historic event, Try Origami

I just did my version of this when I did 3 art pieces for the neew show at th Eiland Arts Center at The Station, Chestnut Ave., Merchantville, a gallery and coffee shop. The theme was travel and collage was the suggested medium. >p/> Happy Trails! wrightj45@yahoo.com

Small Town Goodness 6/4/25

Yesterday when my sister and I took my Husky/Lab mix, Uma, for her daily walk around Martin's Lake in Gloucester City, she was fine! Last night, she started to be 'not herself' in that she didn't want to get up and go out before bed and she refused her bedtime dog treat - unheard of! This morning, before I even awoke at 7:00 she had had an accident on the landing to the back room, about a bucketful! I cleaned it up but I knew something was really wrong because she NEVER has accidents in the house and it was a ridiculously large puddle, like a small swimming pool of urine. She usually goes about a cup of uring on her walks.

She was collapsed on the floor when I finished the clean-up and she couldn't get up. I went to get my sister who often walks her for me and Uma ALWAYS wants to go in the car, it is second only to a walk in her list of most favored treats! She wouldn't get up.

When I got back with my sister, whom Uma LOVES, she did try to get up and we were hopeful. My sister got her as far as the sidewalk and Uma collapsed and couldn't get up. My sister yelled to me to get a bath towel that we could use together to hoist her up and carry her to the house and in the span of time it took for me to get the towel, a young man passing by came over to offer his help. His name wa Ely. Ely was able to pick her up gently in his arms (and she weighs 80 pounds!) and carry her into my house. He said "Dogs are in the center of my heart" and we agreed that was how we felt too. Also in that time, two neighbors from the across the street came over to offer help, and a police car stopped to ask if we needed help. After we were in, a neighbor who was doing yard work came over to ask if there was anything he could do.

Uma is collapsed on the gloor in the living room at present. I took my sister home. My vet, Dr. Sheehen in Fairview, is a wonderful veterinarian, but closed on Wednesdays so tomorrow morning, I will call and ask him to see her. As has sometimes been the case, she may be back up by then, who knows.

The point of this post is that in the face of all the horrible news of cruelty and murder that is headling right now like the smoke coming from the Canadian wildfires, here is a breath of clean, fresh, hope! All these people stopped what they were doing and came generously and lovingly to offer help to my sister, my dog Uma, and me. This is small town goodness.

Sometimes the goodness I experience in this small town of Mt Ephraim seems almost mythical. One neighbor told her babysitter about the house I live in when it was up for sale, 40 years ago. I saved her house from burning down when I walked by and saw her porch on fire. Her husband walks my dog every day. I helped a neighbor once who was stranded in a parking lot when his car broke down, he takes out my recycle and trash every week. When I thought his mother was alone too much after her husband died, I started a senior group for her which we ran together for 7 years!

My neighbors don't complain about the leaves from my trees and I share my driveway with them when they leap frog parking their two cars. We are all good to one another. This is the America of the Saturday Evening Post and Norman Rockwell. It isn't gone and it isn't a myth. It is alive and well in probably millions of small towns around America. I am so lucky to have found mine!

Happy and hopeful trails my friends, whoever you are who may be stopping by my post fence to chat! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

Origins of Memorial Day from American Experience PBS

Memorial Day Origins in the Civil War

The generation of Americans that survived the Civil War lived the rest of their lives haunted by its terrible toll. Contending with death on an unprecedented scale during the four-year conflict forced Americans to improvise new solutions, new institutions, and new ways of coping with the unimaginable loss.   There was no effective ambulance corps to transport wounded soldiers from the battlefields to aid locations. As late as August 1862, a Union division took the field at the Second Bull Run without a single ambulance. After numerous pleas to the government by public health advocates such as Henry Bowditch, an ambulance corps was finally established in 1864.   Soldiers did not wear dog tags or have any system of personal records. Hundreds of thousand of bodies remained unidentified, leaving families with no knowledge of how their loved one died, or where they might be buried. When officials did attempt identification, it was often unreliable, resulting in live soldiers being recorded as deceased and dead soldiers being marked as only slightly wounded. By World War I, soldiers were wearing official ID badges.   There was no official system for notifying next of kin. If a body was identified, a fellow soldier might take it upon himself to write to the family of the deceased explaining how their loved one died and offering words of condolence. In the spring of 1865, Clara Barton established the Missing Soldiers Office in Washington, D.C. Her organization eventually helped provide information for about 22,000 soldiers who would have otherwise remained unknown.   There was no Memorial Day. After the burial of many Union and Confederate soldiers, "decoration day" rituals began to spring up, which included placing fresh flowers on soldiers' graves.   One of the earliest known celebrations took place in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865, when the city's freed Black residents organized a proper burial for hundreds of Union soldiers who had died in a Confederate prison, followed by a parade to honor their memory.   In the spring of 1868, General John Logan officially designated May 30th "for the purpose of strewing flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the defense of their country," and Memorial Day as we know it today was established.

Vintage and Antique Toys

Richland Vintage & Toy Fest – Spring Edition

May 24th | 8 AM - 3 PM

Shoreline Vintage & Antiques

Richland Vintage & Toy Fest is back for our 4th Annual Spring Edition vintage, retro, toy, antique, pop culture, art and anything cool show! Free vending space & Free admission!!!

Sorry I couldn't supply more information on this particulary event, but I think you can google it. I got it from my Visit South Jersey e-mail newsletter. There were a great number of Veternas Day Events as well, many parades too.

I really don'thae many vintage toys, just one doll from the early 50's and I believe I have written about her before. My daughter however, has lots of toys in the attic and the shed incuding her American Girl Doll Collection. She also has Polly Pockets, if you remember those tiny gems. My one really old vintage childhood item is a Dale Evans and Roy Rogers lunch box, badly battered and rusty, but intact - no thermos of course!

he last time I went to a vintage toy fair, it was in Merhantville, NJ and I took a photograph of a box of mangled Barbi Dolls and printed and framed it. I entitled it "Oh Barbi, Is this how it all ends?" And in many ways, not just for Barbi dolls, time does often rob us of our hair, our glamour, our fancy fashions and we end in a box. But there is more than pathos in the vintage toy and doll world, there are the sturdy survivors! My daughters has, somehwere or another, a jeep and cast of characters from Jurrasic Park! We were both entranced by that series of films and the accompanying Museum exhibitions. That was a big cultural celebration! I think she may have a few dinosaurs somewhere too. All of her matchbox cars are gone as are her skateboard, her remote controlled cars and any other items I could pass on to my sister's son.

Looks like the weather will be good for the next couple of weekends so however you are spending yours, I hope you get outdoors. In my next post, I hope to do a review of Ted Lasso, the award winning tv series on apple tv. I took a free subscription to watch the series because it was recommended to me by so many people. It is in fact, GREAT! Happy Trails!

Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

Alleyways and Stone House Lane

Early on this splendid day, after my gym workout and walk around Martin's Lake, I drove down to the Delaware River through Gloucester City. On the way, I decided to drive around the Mill Blocks, oldest buildings in G.C. built in 1845 to house the workers from the two large brick mills that once stood just to the North of them, just before what was once the New York Ship Yard. Suddenly I realized the alleyways and remembered the ones we had between the rows of brick workers houses where I grew up in South Philadelphia, down below Oregon Avenue.

I hadn't given much thought to alleyways over the years, and how they disappeared in residential housing developmentw, although they were once a staple of village life both here and in England. The alleyways separated the the back yards of houses and made a track way for back yard entrances, probably very useful for cottage gardening and back door deliveries.

I remember the hucksters coming through my Grandmother Lyons' back alley in Spring and summer until autumn, delivering ice for the ice boxes we had in my earliest childhood before refrigerators were common, and selling produce. The hucksters had wooden wagons drawn by horses and as a small child in the city, I was amazed and entranced by the horses. Also, I have such a crystal clear picture of the tin weighing bucket and the gauge and how the black needle moved when the produce went into the bucket to be weighed and priced. I can also remember the large tongs the ice man used to haul out the big block of ice and bring it in our kitchen on Warnock Street for our ice box. My Grandmother's Alley was much better than ours. So many people where we lived on Warnock Street had cemented their back yards and had wrought iron fences, but Grandmom's back yards were all lants and flowers and trees and wooden fences. Also, the homemakers would gather around the alleyways to meet at the huckster for their produce and it was a chance to socialize.

My Grandmother in Ocean City, New Jersey had an alleyway behind her house at 623 Asbury Avenue too, also green with plants in the sandy yards and wooden fences. I never saw a huckster there, though, and perhaps the day of the huckster had already ended.

Our hucksters in South Philadelphia came up from Stone HOUse Lane, and ancient village reclaimed from the Delaware River estuary swamplands by enterprising early Dutch and German Settlers who dug canals and used the fertie soil to rais up agricultural beds where they grew the vegetables and the things they needed to feed the hogs and horses they kept there. Later the City took the land and the shipyard is there now, and the airport and industrial usage and Stone House Lane is almost lost to memory.

Although there were no interesting hucksters in my Gradmother Wright's backyard alleyways, I so well remember her meeting with her neighbor Mrs. Garwood, to chat over the fence.

Some things promote socializing and the alleyways certainly did that, so do gardents. I used to meet my neighbor, Mrs King, a German war bride, who kept a vegetable garden on her side of our fence in the backyard and when she was tending her garden and my small daughter was playing in her playhouse we would chat over the fence.

I hope you get out and enjoy this gorgeous, even exhilerating weather while it lasts. Go for a walk and maybe ghrow in a drive and visit someplace and find some wonders! Happy Trails - Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

Lens: Finding Stonehouse Lane, South Philly's lost ...

WHYY

https://whyy.org › articles › lens-finding-stonehouse-la...

Stonehouse Lane, Philadelphia, Pa from whyy.org

Sep 2, 2016

Social relationships and Health

CNN's 5 Good Things internet newsletter always offers good advice and today one of the five good things was about the much talked and written about effect of social connections on our emotiona AND physical health!

Having just had my sister over this afternoon, I was reflecting on how happy I am when we spend time together even though most of the time, we aren't hanging out, but she is helping me do errands and chores. My sister is 20 yers younger than I am and she is a mighty physical force. Every two weeks or so, she comes over for 2 to 4 hours to do shopping and heavier cleaning for me. I pay her $30 an hour this year. I can do the easy stuff like dishes and surfaces, tidying and feeding the pets and scooping the litter, but as my knees and back have worsened some tasks are very difficult for me -mopping, vacuuming, and the steps to the basement for laundry. She helps with these.

Movement, nature, art, service and belonging

The above are the CNN named "pillars" of socializing. Doing something together, getting outside into nature, doing things that put you in the zone, helping others and feeling as though you belong to some group. Our local Senior Center offers classes in fitness and chair yoga. Fortunately for me there are several parks of all sizes near where I live and I am walking around Martin's Lake evey morning. It is 1/2 mile. I take my dog and today my sister walked there with us.

For Art, I am fotunate enough to have been an Art teacher and I have done art all my life. Just about 20 minutes from my home is a charming gallery and coffee cafe called The Station and Eiland Arts Center. I am invited half a dozen times a year to enter work in their group shows and I just completed a painting and a collage for the upcoming show on the theme of TRAVEL.

Possibly the only service I perform preently is at my Quaker Meeting in Woodbury where I have been doing First Day School for our youngest member for a year. I have done other service projects there as well. I founded (with help) a gallery in the reception area of a building on our grounds which was not longer in use. We have had 3 shows so far. Also, I provided arm rails for our bathrooms, pads for some of our benches, and other things over the years. The Friends Meeting is also a place where I experience Belonging, the fifth pillar.

Previously I joyfully volunteered at a variety of local historical locations: Red Bank Battlefield, Gloucester County Historical Society, Alice Paul Institute, and Bayshore Discovery Project. My deteriorating joints sadly put an end to all that. I had a lot of fun volunteering and I met a lot of wonderful people. I strongly recommend it!

I tell you these things not because I am bragging but to give you an idea of specific ways you can implement the pillars in your life. Another thing, I have an adopted shelter dog and when I walk her, I meet many people and have made a couple of new friends in this way. Good for my dog, good for me! I guess that counts as 'service' and shelters are also great places that welcome volunteers!

Get cnnnected! Don't be shy about contacting an old friend and inviting that friend for a lunch. Send a card and your contact information to an old friend you haven't seen in a long time. A couple of years ago, a great niece moved into my area and I invited her to lunch and we have made it a monthly plan! I have enjoyed spending time with a young person and it is something we both look forward to.

Some other socializing I do that you could consider is, when I retired, some of my teaching colleagues and I set up a seasonal get-together lunch to catch up with one another's lives.

Lunch is my favorite way to get together, it is light and easy to drive, not too expensive and we have dozens of good nearby places to eat. Two of my neighbors and I go out to eat monthly now at Maritsa's. One of my old hiking buddies and I meet every 2 to 3 weeks at the Colonial Diner where they have a big VEGAN menu because she is a vegan. I like to get out to lunch about once a week.

I hope this gives you some ideas on ways you can boost your social interactions. I love solitude more than most people but I agree that it is importnt to nurture and enjoy the social ties with friends and family in whatever ways you can, for your good, and you may be surprised how much it might mean to others! Oh yes, I text with some friends on a daily basis too!

I just leanred there is an art workshop not too far from here and on a free Friday I may try that out as well! I learned about it from a visitor to the Friendship Art Gallery, the one I wrote about earlier in this post that was founded by me with the help of Friends.

Happy Trails, Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Health, Hope and Happiness

Today, May 6 - an update on one month of Restoration of my seriously failing health and fitness. After the winter this year 2024 - 2025, when I had stopped walking the dog due to ice and snow and a bad back and painful knees, I had fallen into serious decline (for me). For example, last summer, 2024 I could walk 4000 to 5000 steps a day which included a mile walk with my dog Uma each morning. By March 2025, I could hardly make it to the back of the ShopRite and couldn't walk a block, my back pinched so badly and my knees screamed in hot pain. I could hardly get up off a chair and had bought rails for my sofa! I had sent away for a catalog of adaptive devices for disabled people because I WAS disabled! It never arrived.

If that evidence alone wasn't enough, I visited my general practitioner in early April for my semi annual and my lab report was awful. I had gained 6 pounds and my blood counts had all gone into the danger zone. I was perched on the edge of diabetes.

Emotionally, I was bereft, no energy, lethargic, but there was still a glimmer of my old metal left. I pulled myself together and decided that each day when my neighbor, John, walked the dog for me, as soon as they came back, I would put the dog in the house and go to the Planet Fitness gym not 5 minutes from my house and do a short work-out, very easy, very slow, just to get warmed up and unstiffened.

My neighbor had taken over walking the dog in the winter when the sidewalks were perilous with ice and snow because he walks twice a day for his health. He walked faster and further than I could so I was glad for my dog's sake as well as for mine.

The first day in the gym, I could barely turn the wheel of the stationary bike. I told myself to try to just do 5 minutes. By the third minute my stiffest, worst knee, the left one, had loosened up a little and I began to believe I could do 5 minutes, and I did. Next, I went into the 30 minute workout room and did 3 machines that strengthen arms and back, biceps and triceps curl, 20 each, and seated rower, 20. I did 25 on the leg curl machine which I googled at home and found out is good for knees and lower back! I decided I would add a little to each machine and one minute to the bike each week. The second week, I did 25 repititions on each machine and 6 minutes on the bike, then 30 reps and 7 minutes and I added two abs machines and did 30 on them. This week I got to 9 minutes on the bike (my goal is 15 minutes and I will stop there and just do 15 each time so I don't wear out my knees but just keep them flexible and strengthened. I am up to 60 on the abs cmbined and 60 on the leg curl.

Sadly, my walking hadn't improved very much, my back still hurt and when I tried to walk my dog in different parks for pleasure and change, she was too excited and pulled so badly she hurt my back.

THEN, I got the idea of trying Martin's Lake in Gloucester City. I drove by it many times and found it perfect. It is paved; it is small and peaceful and beautiful. My neighbor and I measured it on my car odometer and it is 1/2 a mile around! So, today, I put on my dog's best training collar and had a stiff talk with her about walking nicely and not pulling.

We drove over to the Lake and parked near the chain link fence on one corner of the park. The chain link fence helped to calm my dog's excitement when she first got out of the car and she is smart enough to have understood at least something of the lecture I gave her, my tone if not my words, plus the training collar helps a lot. She walked perfectly and we made it around the park with NO PAIN, no pain at all in my knees or my back. A miracle. I could hardly believe it!

I began in early April and as of today it has been a month since. Now I can walk the 1/2 mile Martin's Lake and I am going to walk it every day, even on gym days and try by the end of the month to walk it twice and make it a mile! It was 1500 steps. There is a park across the street, Johnson's Boulevard jogging track that I would like to measure in steps and perhaps by autumn, I will be able to walk that park! Maybe by next Spring I can walk both parks!

In place of my despair and lethargy, I have happiness, hope, and much better health! My spirits are revived as well as my vitality. I tell you all this because I am hoping it might give you inspiration to do something to improve your health, if you need to, not to mention your emotional state! By the way, additional inspiration came for me by reading health newsletters in my daily e-mail. I get about 3 of them, one is called 5 Good Things and I forget the names of the others but they all promote exercise as well as social connections at top of the list for health, happiness and longevity. I am not so focused on longevity but I want to the have the best years, however many I may have left. To paraphrase one of my favorite poets, Dylan Thomas, I will "not go gently in that dark night, I will rage rage against the dying of the light!" Happy trails (may they be outdoors!) Jo ann wrightj45@yahoo.com (e-mail me if you wish to comment, the comment section is entirely Love Canal level polluted by scammers)

Are You Flourishing from 5 Good Things

In my e-mail just now, I read the 5 Good Things newsletter and two items struck me: Neighborhoods, and Are You Flourishing. The first was a response to a criticism that no one has friendly neighborhoods anymore. The writer begged to differ and mentioned several kinds of friendly interactions she experienced lately. I too, have a friendly neighborhood and I wanted to add my experiences. One of my neighbors walks my dog for me every morning. He walks further and faster than I can which is better for my dog who is a big husky/lab mix and needs a good walk. Another neighbor takes my recycle and trash cans to the curb for me on recycle and trash days. My corner auto repair is a blessing, the mechanic is kind, talented, and reasonable and he has saved me many times with car emergencies! i do try to reciprocate in my own small ways with gifts of small paintings, or baskets of fruit, or for my mechanic in the summer, a gallon of lemonade and some cookies. Good friends are a blessing. I also have a neighbor with whom I walk from time to time. I met her when I was walking my dog and her husband was painting their fence. Dogs are a great way to make friends!

From 5 Good Things: "'Are you Flourishing? It’s not the same as being happy. “Flourishing” more broadly describes what it means to live a good, full life, bolstered by good health, financial security and strong relationships, among other criteria, says the Global Flourishing Study, which polled residents of more than 20 countries to see whether they were really thriving. Indonesia has the highest rate of flourishing, researchers found. (The US ranked 15th."

After a fortunate experience yesterday, I would say I am definitely flourishing! With the approval and help of my Friends from Woodbury Friends Meeting, the reception area of one of our buildings which is now sadly abandoned, has been turned into a gallery. I had a solo retrospective there in December and a Friend, Diana Brose is having one there now. A small group of artists dropped by yesterday to see the building and Diana's show. The two from South Jersey Artists' Collaborative are interested in doing something with the now empty Underwood Building. An Art Show and good works in the future is plenty to make my life feel as though it is flourishing. My own solo-retrospective was so inspiriing to me that I wrote a book from it. Each painting represented a series of other paintings from a part of my life and seeing the works all up on the wall brought back so many memories.

I am having the challenges of my age, knees, back, eyesight, difficulty getting around, but, I am also recently engaged in going to the local gym and working out and that too is inspiring and helps me feel as though I am flourishing. Hope you are flourishing too, and if not at present, I hope you get some inspiration to do something that makes you feel as though you are flourishing! Happy Trails, Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

Happiness

The New York Times had a headline teaser that said "A Century of Happiness Research has yielded one big clue." They didn't tell you the answer unless you subcribed, but I googled and found the answer from several resources with the same title. The answer to happiness,research says the key to happiness is SOCIAL CONNECTIONS.

There are so many ways to make social connections. For example, after I had to give up a lot of former activities due to problems with my back and knees, such as The Outdoor Club, and my volunteer tour guiding, (both of these are great ways to make friends) I still had my lunch friends. From my career as a teacher and from these activities I had made one or two staunch friends who still meet even though I can't hike or kayak any more. We have lunch and catch up on what's going on in one another's lives! Two I am meeting this Monday have both just returned from traveling and will share their photos and adventures with me. We share many other things as well, family stories, best books, good movies, health issues and solutions, to name just a few.

Walking the dog also gives you the opportunity to make new friends. I met a neighbor who was painting his fence where I walked my dog and his wife and I have become good friends and often walk together. We have added another neighbor to our little friendship group and we three lunch each month together now.

Seven years ago, I returned to a faith community, the Society of Friends. I had been a member many years ago in Philadelphia, but lost touch after I moved to New Jersey. I rejoined at Woodbury Friends Meeting and I truly enjoy both our discussion group at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, and the Meeting for Silent Worship that follows from 11:00 to 12:00. I have made two new fast friends from this group, one of whom is an artist as am I.

Our Secniors Community Center in Mt. Ephraim has bloomed since we elected our new mayor, Susan Carney. She added classes in chair yoga, fitness, games and other activities and going to any of these is an excellent way to get fit and make new friends.

So, don't sit alone in your house watching a news channel all day, get out and about! Make friends!

Recently some Philadelphia family members of mine moved to New Jersey and now that we are geographically closer, I treat my young great-niece to lunch once a month. We have gotten to know one another much better and really enjoy that time together, plus it has brought a young person into my senior citizen world. Speaking of family, I am blessed to have a sister nearby and we get together every week or two. She means the world to me.

Attending some community events and historical site events is also a great way to meet people!

Happy trails! Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com (e-mail for discussion as the comments section of this blog spot is polluted by spam, thank you)

Have you been to Albert Music Hall?

It has been awhile, probably before the Pandemic, since I went to Albert Music Hall but I always enjoyed it so much! My friends and I would be the green tomato cake, a cup of coffee and enjoy the wide variety of folk groups and classic early rock groups that we saw there. If you haven't been, you should go, it is unique! Jo Ann

Albert Music Hall Anniversary Show

April 26th | 6 PM - 9 PM

Albert Music Hall, Waretown, NJ

Albert Music Hall will present a special show for the 50th Anniversary of the Pinelands Cultural Society(PCS). The PCS was established with a goal to preserve the cultural history of the Pinelands, including its music, literature, legends, and artifacts.

It used to cost $5, don't know what it costs now but it is worth it! Happy Trails!

April 27 Earth Day at Red Bank Battlefield Celebration

Head on over to Red Bank Battlefield in National Park on Sunday for a day of fun!

Don't miss out on all the fun!

Schedule of Events 11:15 The Life of the Honey Bee

12:00 Unusual Pollinators, Dr. Dan

1:00 Pollution Reduction Conservation Show

2:00 Colonial Conjurer Magic Show

3:30 Colonial Conjurer Magic Show

On going- Hearth Cooking Demonstrations

Glass Blowing

Pottery

House Tours

Battlefield Tours

Kid's Crafts and Games

Food and Ice Cream trucks

Craft Vendors

The event is free, we will be collecting donations for the National Park Food Bank.

What a great way to spend a day! Happy Trails, Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com

AVALON - A Great Film

Yesterday, Easter Sunday was a pleasant and peaceful day. We had omelette and pancake braekfast at Woodbury Friends Meeting, after which I went to my sister Susan's house. She rents a bungalow on Platt's Farm, so a visit there is Spring is a special treat: all the trees are in bloom, the chickens are running around, the rooster crowing, and happy people shopping for their spring gardens.

After a delicious ham and potato salad traditional meal (I am vegetarian, so I only ate the potato salad) we had dessert of Pisker's Easter Egg Cake and NY stule cheesecake! Delicious.

When I got home, I decided to watch Avalon, about which I had been thinking for a couple of weeks. It is one of my all time, top ten favorite movies. The writing, by Barry Levinson, is brilliant, evocative, profound. The acting Armin Mueller Stahl plays Sam, the main character, is superb, and at 93 is still alive. The film was nominated for nearly every catagory in the Oscars, and many of the other awards like the Golden Globes as well. To me it is the quintessential portrait of the rise and decline of the 20th Century. All the hopes and exuberance, the shiny metal flake dreams of the post-war era are brilliantly filmed in this loving portrait of a time, a place, a family. I have wateched this film many times over the 35 years since it came out in 1990 and it always makes me smile and cry. It is my childhood. It is all our childhoods, those of us born in the first half of the 20th Century. And in it. in Sam's decline, is ours as well as the world in which we lived.

The writer/director, Barry Levinson is still writing and direction and I saw another of his tv series awhile back, The Kominsky Method.

If you want a heartwarming, thoughtprovoking, and touching film experience, you can rent AVALON for 3.99 on Amazon prime. I thinkit is a masterpiece.

Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoocom (if you wish to comment, please use my e-mail as the comments section on blogspot is polluted and clogged with spam, thanks!)

AAA HOBBY SHOP for so many things - EASTER 2025

TODAY IN THE BRISK CLEAN BREEZE OF A NEW SPRING DAY, I DROVE OVER TO 705 N. WHITE HORSE PIKE, MAGNOLIA, NJ. I hadn't been to the AAA Hobby Shop in decades. My daughter is now 41 and she is the main one for whom I had shopped at AAA in the past. However, I have a nephew and I had bought him many things there as well, and I bought my father and my brother models there that they used to put together for my father's grandsons.

AAA Hobby Shop is my Santa's Workshop. They have EVERYTHING there. I bought my daughter's first set of trains there, and as she got older, her second set. And when she was a toddler, I bought bags of various kinds of animals for our potty training scheme. For anyone contemplating potty training (as my next door neighbors will be in a year or so) Here is a great idea! Of course you probably already know that the best training mode is positive reinforcement. Many parents make the mistake I think, of trainig with candy rewards. This is bad for their children's teeth and not a good way to encourage healthy food attitudes. The first great tip I got was from another mother at a party. She said she bought potty chairs at flea markets and put one in each room. My idea, in addition to this, was to make a wooden ark in my father's wood shop and I bought bags of different kind of animals at AAA Hobby Shop and whenever my daughter had a successfully potty event, she got two animals to put in her ark. My mother, in addition, bought her fancy panties with the days of the week on them, and I sewed her 12 little cotton print dresses to make it easy to get on the ptty. We bought the African wild animal assortment, the FArm animals, the ranch animals, woodland animals, and we even got creative and added some reptiles, dinosaurs and domestic pets. We had birds, too.

Many years later, I bought my daughter a radio controlled car there. This year, I went because my sister's grandson is 8 and spends far too much time on his IPad. He doesn't even want to walk around the farm anymore, where she lives, and visit the horses, cows, and alpacas. He used to love to do that.

These electronc games are stealing childhood. When he visits, he sits indoors captivated by video games on his IPAD. One thing he still loves, however, is Model Magic modeling material. So for his Easter Basket this year, I bought several packets of different colors of Model Magic and some cookie cutter shape cutters. AAA also has air drying clay! There are somany things there that would be great in an Easter Basket!

On one of my healthy living e-mail newsletters there were several suggestions of things to put in Easter Baskets with or instead of candy, jumping ropes, markers, bubbles, and depending on the age of the child, I recommend those bags of animals, and play dough - or better yet drive over to AAA Hobby Shop and look around! You might ind you have enjoyed the visit yourself! You might even find a hobby you'd like to try.

Happy Easter - Jo Ann

(please use my e-mail if you wish to comment as the comments function on blogspot is completey polluted by spam. Thanks!) wrightj45@yahoo.com.

World War 2 Exhibit

Hi Everyone,

This year we are really looking forward to the World War II Exhibit which starts on April 5th this year and runs until June 1st, 2025. Come celebrate the lives and memories of our veterans and fallen heroes. Among the items to be displayed are weapons, uniforms, posters and civilian paraphernalia, and we do have some new items on display!

Attached is the World War II flyer so that you can share with friends and family.

We all hope to see you there!

Jeffrey Norcross

The Museum of American History at Deptford, NJ

138 Andaloro Way

Deptford, NJ 08093

856-812-1121

sjmuseum@aol.com

Reminiscence

Today, age 79, I had lunch at Maritsa's which is a couple of blocks from where as a junior high school student, I had lunch with friends at a place called Shucks. There was a juke box and a dance floor in the room adjoining the conter where we ordered vanilla cokes and burgers and fries. Around the edge of the dance floor there were booths. We did a lot of line dances in those days, the 'stroll' is the one I remember best.

After I left Maritsa's, I passed what was the Burlington County Trust Bank, now for sale, where at 17, I had my first bank account because that was the year I had my first full time job right of high school at W. B. Saunders Publishing Company on Washington Square in Philadelphia. I paid board and the rest went into he bank or for bus fare. I loved watching that bank balance rise. When I left home, I had $2000.

Next, I passed our old house, the last one we had as a family, on Linwood Ave. next door to what was St. John's Episcopal Church where my mother was a faithful parishoner and ran the church suppers and my father mowed he lawn and did painting and some repairs. He made a stained glass "Mother's Day Window" for the chrch. My daughter was baptised there. It is now a Buddhist Temple.

I also passed the Congregational Church which is where I attended as a teen and where there was a pastor who had lost some fingers during his missionary days.

Further down the road, I turned onto Collins Lane and to the development our family moved into our first New Jersey home in the prosperous 1950's. It was a brand new house, and at first, we had a picnic table and benches for dining room furniture. Over the years, we had a large vegetable garden on the hill out back that bordered the corn field of the farmer who still ran a farm up there. It is a baseball field now. My parents gave me the best room in the house, upstairs front room with a large picture window. When I was away in camp one summer, they redecorated it beautifully with pink check walpaper, a white vanity with an organdy skirt, white louvered doors on the closet. I pitched a totally ungrateful fit because they had invaded my private space and transformed it without my having any say in the matter. I am, to this day, ashamed at my ingratitude after all their work and for crushing their anticipation of my happiness at their effort. It makes me cry and I wish I could apologize.

Around the Roland Avenue circle is the Pennsauken Creek that was in those days so polluted by overflow of sewage from the local sewer plant, which had not been updated to accommodate the new development, that 14 children got hepatitus from swimming in it. Boats used to float down the creek from the Delaware and other parts far away after storms and we would paddle around in them until they sank or left again on their mysterious journeys. I remember the water was black and giant dark green water plants with platter sized leathery leaves grew in it off long pale pipe stems from the black velvety mud. To my city child's mind, this was a jungle wonderland of plants and water, animals and birds. We'd had one tree on our city street and the only water we saw was rain water flowing in the gutters after a storm, or coming out of the fire hydrant in summer when young rule breakers opened the hydrants for us kids to run through.

Past the next development of modest bungalows where my first best friend Barbara D'Arcangelo lived, I reach what used to be the little white bridge with our initials carved in it, but which is now a metal railing bridge over the Pennsauken Creek. I drive by the little evergreen forest in the fenced off area around a municipal plant of some kind. We would sneak into the woods there and I remember the intoxicating fragrance of evergreens in summer sun and the wonderful pine cones all over the forest floor. Just beyond that forest was another spot on the Pennsauken Creek where we swam and there was a thick knotted rope tied to a tree branch that kids would hold onto and swing out over the creek and then fall into the water. I didn't do that - not brave that way.

Next I cross Haddonfield Road where the candy factory used to be on the corner with a girl, dressed in antebellum hoop skirt and sun bonnet, sat on a swing to lure the eyes of drivers over to the store to come in and buy candy.

Down the road into Pennsauken, I pass the high school where my first and deepest love had been a student. I was besotted by him, adoring, entranced, and I am glad now that i had a chance to know what that kind of romantic love feels like because now that I am old, I know that not everyone has that experience. It ended badly but I have no regrets. Even after all the ill will and bad feelings, as I drive down that familiar road that we drove so often in his sports car from his house to mine and back, I feel a longing for him and I wish we could be in contact but I have over the 40n years since our divorce, reconciled myself that he is as dangerous as a poisoned well I pass the Merchantville Train Station where I have been showing my paintings in group shows for the past 10 years. I have three flower paintings there now. Down Center Street over the intersection, I pass my old high school. There are kids in the playing fields and it reminds me of how much I hated hockey and lacrosse - all that running up and down and those dangerous sticks!

Finally, I am up and over Route 38 and passing the Cooper River where my then-husband and I bought our first house and all the kinds of adventures and bad experiences relating to that river.

There is TD Bank where I turn on White Horse Pike, where over the years I have made deposits to my daughter's bank account for holiday gifts. Up around Walmart on the corner of the Black Horse Pike and through the back streets of my town to my little bungalow and the big beautiful trees of my little woods.

I contemplate what it means to grow up and live in the same place all your life, the memories built and the landmarks to them. There is an ivisible tie of love and longing and memory that accompanies these landmarks and the thought of people I have loved who are gone or dead now.

Here is the driveway and the daffodills and the porch and soon, the door is open and the happy big cream colored dog is wagging her tail in joy and greeting.

My yard looks wonderful because I just signed up for a $900 clean-up from a landscape company that will be taking care of my yard from now on. How I used to love to run the big Toro Mulch Mower I bought to grind up the leaves for nourishment for the grass. Up and down making green stripes in the brown leaves, transforming the yard. I guess I was in my 60's when I couldn't do it anymore. I miss my intimate relationship with the yard and plan this year to walk around the yard even if I can't do the mowing anymore.

This is, in fact, my 80th year even though I had my 79th birthday and I have realized long since, that I am OLD. My lunch friend and I were talking about that today and all the things we used to do that we can no longer do but also all the things we can still do and enjoy doing. She still hikes and I write and paint. We are both happy and we have both had long, interesting, adventurous and productive lives. Being old is a challenge but it is also beautiful. Happy Trails, Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

Get Happy

Today, March 26th in my e-mail follow-up newsletters on the Happiness Project, the authors remind us that happiness, defined more as contentment, is a SKILL, something you practice and acquire more ability in achieving over time. That is something I have believed in for decades and why I have read so many books and incorporated so many recommended habits on happiness. I would like to add here that misery is also an acquired skill, and so is negativity and the more you practice that the more you ive it.

Each of the experts today shared some of their regular practices: eat something, get out of the house, call someone, exercise. I do all of the above. Also, I make it a habit to keep connections with friends and relatives, in particular cousins.

Some other tips were: Think about 6 months from now and whether the immediate unpleasant situation will have an effect on your life in that span of time. One expert admitted distracting himself with a tv program. I do that too and in particular I like long range history, like earth history. I avoid animal and nature shows when I am distressed because they always seem to end with extinction and endangerment after getting you to empathise and enjoy the animals. I also look for lighthearted series on family and community, especially Scandinavian ones like Bonus Family.

Now that I have become somewhat disabled by my degenerative spine and arthritic knees and hips, I do less exercise (although I do try to walk the dog) and I will hope in the car, with my dog who LOVES a car ride, and go to a park. Going for a drive has always been a tried and true strategy for me and I have some roads that are guaranteed to lift my spirits with their beauty like 559, the back way to the seashore.

One common thread is to Shift Your Attention, get out of your own head. One researcher says she does something nice for somewone else and basks in the happiness it brings to them. I find that true and I have neighbors who do nice things for me and I am sure it makes them happy. I return the favor with, for exampe a basket of apples or tangerines. Siunce I am alone, when I buy a bag of fruit, I can't always use it up in time, so I put it in a colorful tissue in one of the many baskets I have and give it to a neighbor.

One of the comments on the piece was from a disgruntled reader who said these people were happy because they didn't have hard jobs or hard lives or live in difficult places, but I do not find that to be true. I have known people with hard jobs, hard lives and who were happy nonetheless. You can find the joy in the smallest places, the slimmest periods of time. It is an attitude and a skill.

Finally, I have to add a comment of my own, pets! My dog and my cats make me happy every day and contribute to my contentment by sitting on my lap and purring, speaking to me in their various and interesting voices, and looking at me with love and gratitutde. My dog is beautiful and her beauty and gentleness and affection are a daily joy.

I just realized I hadn't heard from my cousin Patty who lives outsie of Cape May in the Villas, so I gave her a call. She wasn't home so I left a message and now she knows her cousin of a lifetime of family experience was thinking of her.

Also, I am on my way to give th edog a quick short walk and then meet two friends for lunch in a local restaurant to which I have never been. They advertise homemade pasta and I am anticipating enjoying that.

Hope these tips give you something to think about. I take these reminders as a gift to me and use them to refresh and re-energize my practice.

Happy Traisl Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com