If you are not a member of the Camden County Historical Society, you wouldn't be getting their newsletter: the Communicator, so, as I am a member, I am happy to pass on some of their news. First of all, their current theme is The Great War, of course, World War I.
This was of great interest to me a couple of years ago. In fact, I attended a series of lectures on the subject at Camden County College, that was possibly the best series of lectures I have ever attended, or, in my maturity, I am better able to enjoy such things than I was before. Each lecturer was a profoundly knowledgeable and interesting young man. I had, previously, encountered some very disappointing courses there on subjects that should have been interesting, some I found myself re-writing at home on my own because they had been so poorly done, such as the series I took on Dickens, one of my lifelong favorite authors. I've got to be honest here, the professor, emeritus, was tired, chair bound, no longer interested in his own subject. we were all respectful of his age, but you have to know when to stop Some people remain dynamic and passionate into their old age, others are worn out and should move over for younger minds.
Enough of the ranting. The Communicator offered a very interesting account of Camden County and the Great War, a photo of John Albert Overland, first Camden Marine to die for ins country and his father's response to this sacrifice. There were photos and descriptions of major battles as well a references to reference works that can be found at CCHS Library if you want further information.
EVENTS: 1.Living Hisory Presenttion on Henry "Bo" Brown and the underground Railroad Sunday, Feb. 19th at 1:00 p.m.
2.Paranormal Unveiling, Thurs. Mar. 9, at 7:00 p.m.
3.Pilot Emory Conrad Malick Lecture, Sunday Mar 26, at 1:00 (1st licensed African American Pilot)
4.World War I Exhibit Opening, April 9th at 1:00 p.m. in new Camden County Room on the upper floor of Pomona Hall (newly restored)
BIG EVENT: Lines on the Pines Festival will br held Sunday, March 12, at 11:00 to 4:00 at the Renault Winery, 72 N Bremen Ave., Egg Harbor City, NJ (CCHS will have a table there) Admission is free.
There was an update on the Historic Hugg-Harrison House ongoing preservation battle.
The CCHS library is open Wed. through Friday 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Sunday 12 to 3 and the new Library Director is Bonny Beth Elwell, a brilliant young genealogist, South Jersey Historian and author. She has been president of the Salem County Genealogy Society, for a number of years with some very energetic programming for that group, and she has been author of a long-standing admired column called Ancestor's Attic in the Elmer News, as well as Arcadia author of Upper Pittsgrove, Elmer, and Pittsgrove, available at amazon.com. Bonny Beth Elwell, along with all her accomplishments is a brilliant, charming, warm and helpful person. I am delighted to see her career branching outwards and upwards and happy to have her in my home county, Camden.
THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD; If, like me, you are an adventure reader, you will love this book. The author, Douglas Preston, takes you on a well-written and suspenseful journey into the Mosquitia Jungle of Honduras in search of the White City. It reminded me of so many of my closer to home forays in search of lost places, rambles along the mud beaches of the Delaware Bay now near Greenwich in search of Native American projectile points (arrow heads) or along Timber Creek in search of the Lost Fort Hudson, fur trading post of the Dutch and Lenni Lenape, or in search of the Lost Fort Elfsborg, Swedish fort of which only a road name remains. I believe you can find that adventure resides right in your own backyard. Look at the discovery of the Dinosaur Foulkii in Haddonfield off Maple Avenue.
I have had as much joy in finding glowing green remnants of the glass factories of the pines as if it were a gold nugget from an Amazonian tributary (without the snake bite and flesh eating bacterial infection from insects!)
Happy Trails! Maybe I'll see you at a CCHS lecture or at Lines on the Pines!
Jo Ann
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Paterson, the movie by Jim Jarmusch
Before the glow wore off, I wanted to post this review of Paterson, the movie just out by Jim Jarmusch which is set in Paterson New Jersey. What a beautiful and heartwarming movie. It happens that I love poetry, and back some years, did a good deal of traveling from coffee shop to cafe to attend open mic's and other poetry events. I even won a prize once!! However, even if you have no interest in poetry, this movie is delightful.
A Paterson city bus driver, also named Paterson, an "everyman" played marvelously by Adam Driver with such subtlety that he did reach that pinnacle of acting which was to so inhabit the character that he became him and you believed him as a real person. It was a perfect work of Art in every way, visually (without prettifying a gritty post-industrial city) it makes Patterson's aged face gorgeous, and the slow pacing that is so hard to carry in our hasty and impatient modern society, becomes meditative and allows you to fall into a reverie.
The characters are charismatic. You can't help but fall in love with the quiet manly chivalry of Paterson, the poet/bus driver, and his scintillating and lovely wife. The quiet contemplative style allows you to really see the characters in the bar and on the bus, not as some fast glimpse cliche, but as touching and human and real.
I have always wanted to visit Paterson because of its fascinating history as a silk capital in the world trade, and also because of the Falls! The camera returned again and again to the falls and the churning water that once powered the many mills of Paterson. My car is old and my eyesight isn't great (I have trouble reading street signs) so I don't know if I will be getting there any time soon, but I feel as though Jim Jarmusch took me to Paterson in a way more profound that an actual physical visit.
Also, I cannot leave this review without mentioning Marvin, the English bulldog, a powerful character in the movie in his own right. They should give an Oscar to animal actors and Marvin should get one for his nuanced performance.
Go see this movie and be enchanted both with a fascinating and historic city in our state, and for the pure Art of the Film! You can find it at the Carmike Ritz, Voorhies, NJ (Haddonfield Berlin Road).
A Paterson city bus driver, also named Paterson, an "everyman" played marvelously by Adam Driver with such subtlety that he did reach that pinnacle of acting which was to so inhabit the character that he became him and you believed him as a real person. It was a perfect work of Art in every way, visually (without prettifying a gritty post-industrial city) it makes Patterson's aged face gorgeous, and the slow pacing that is so hard to carry in our hasty and impatient modern society, becomes meditative and allows you to fall into a reverie.
The characters are charismatic. You can't help but fall in love with the quiet manly chivalry of Paterson, the poet/bus driver, and his scintillating and lovely wife. The quiet contemplative style allows you to really see the characters in the bar and on the bus, not as some fast glimpse cliche, but as touching and human and real.
I have always wanted to visit Paterson because of its fascinating history as a silk capital in the world trade, and also because of the Falls! The camera returned again and again to the falls and the churning water that once powered the many mills of Paterson. My car is old and my eyesight isn't great (I have trouble reading street signs) so I don't know if I will be getting there any time soon, but I feel as though Jim Jarmusch took me to Paterson in a way more profound that an actual physical visit.
Also, I cannot leave this review without mentioning Marvin, the English bulldog, a powerful character in the movie in his own right. They should give an Oscar to animal actors and Marvin should get one for his nuanced performance.
Go see this movie and be enchanted both with a fascinating and historic city in our state, and for the pure Art of the Film! You can find it at the Carmike Ritz, Voorhies, NJ (Haddonfield Berlin Road).
Sunday, January 22, 2017
The Biggest March the World has ever seen
Yesterday on Saturday, January 21, 2017, the biggest protest and affirmation March the world has ever seen took place in major cities in every country of Western Civilization from Australia through Europe and in the major cities of the USA. In Philadelphia, two of my best friends marched, with a crowd that defied belief. My daughter marched in New York City.
All day I watched on CNN. It was astonishing to me that a half inch of snow can call out helicopters and reporters in parkas on CBS, and NBC, but streets filled with a human ocean is ignored. However, BBC and CNN covered it, in particular CNN did a good job.
Another astonishing thing was that it was Peaceful! That many people marching in every city and it was peaceful. It was a world history event.
I wish I could have been part of it. I actually cried briefly at having to be left out. Three friends called me to ask if I wanted to go, but my bad knees and deteriorating spine make standing on concrete for so many hours impossible. I did my marching - to end the war in Vietnam, for Women's Rights, Civil Rights, LGBTQ rights, and Abortion Choice, from the 1960's to the 1990's. Now I am retired for real.
However, that said, I am going to a film screening today at Moorestown Friends Meeting at 2:00. The film is "Equality Means Equality!" It is open to the public and $10 a person, with books available for sale. I am going with an old marching buddy with whom I went to junior high and high school, and with whom I marched in the past.
PROFILE: Chris Borget, formerly known as Chris Gilbreath, was not only a high achiever in high school, but also a diligent and accomplished college student at what was then named Beaver College, now called Arcadia, in Pa. She became a teacher and was one of the founding members of the group that put their own homes up as equity to borrow a mortgage to buy the homestead of Alice Paul, the great Suffrage Leader and turn it into a learning center Paulsdale Institute in Mount Laurel on Hooten Road. It is a great place to visit for Women's History, Human civil rights history, New Jersey History, Quaker History, and Suffrage history. Chris and I were both members of NOW, and she probably still is!
Just now I am going to the convenience stores to buy the newspaper to read about the March. It has given me hope that things are not as bad as I had feared and that we are going forward after all, not backward into bigotry, capitalist exploitation, and ignorance.
I still believe that a great motivating force behind a nincompoop like Trump defeating an intelligent and experienced woman like Hillary Clinton, was gender bias. I think the reason the e-mail fiasco got the attention it did when so many more egregious crimes had been perpetrated by Trump such as income tax evasion in the millions of dollars was the e-mail sounds like female. Also, racial bias. I believe a lot of the anti-Obama sentiment was based on race because statistics show that despite being hobbled by the Republicans in the Senate and Congress, on almost every measurable front, Obama made progress - in reduced unemployment, providing health care, making peace in the world (Cuba), and scaling back nuclear weapons proliferation (Iran) and he was working towards progress in cutting back the pollutants contributing to global warming. All the things that Trump now wishes to scale back (since in his opinion global warming and climate change are a Chinese Hoax). God Help US!
Anyhow, enough of that - the Topic was a Million Women Peacefully Marching to show strength and hope and unity! What a day!
All day I watched on CNN. It was astonishing to me that a half inch of snow can call out helicopters and reporters in parkas on CBS, and NBC, but streets filled with a human ocean is ignored. However, BBC and CNN covered it, in particular CNN did a good job.
Another astonishing thing was that it was Peaceful! That many people marching in every city and it was peaceful. It was a world history event.
I wish I could have been part of it. I actually cried briefly at having to be left out. Three friends called me to ask if I wanted to go, but my bad knees and deteriorating spine make standing on concrete for so many hours impossible. I did my marching - to end the war in Vietnam, for Women's Rights, Civil Rights, LGBTQ rights, and Abortion Choice, from the 1960's to the 1990's. Now I am retired for real.
However, that said, I am going to a film screening today at Moorestown Friends Meeting at 2:00. The film is "Equality Means Equality!" It is open to the public and $10 a person, with books available for sale. I am going with an old marching buddy with whom I went to junior high and high school, and with whom I marched in the past.
PROFILE: Chris Borget, formerly known as Chris Gilbreath, was not only a high achiever in high school, but also a diligent and accomplished college student at what was then named Beaver College, now called Arcadia, in Pa. She became a teacher and was one of the founding members of the group that put their own homes up as equity to borrow a mortgage to buy the homestead of Alice Paul, the great Suffrage Leader and turn it into a learning center Paulsdale Institute in Mount Laurel on Hooten Road. It is a great place to visit for Women's History, Human civil rights history, New Jersey History, Quaker History, and Suffrage history. Chris and I were both members of NOW, and she probably still is!
Just now I am going to the convenience stores to buy the newspaper to read about the March. It has given me hope that things are not as bad as I had feared and that we are going forward after all, not backward into bigotry, capitalist exploitation, and ignorance.
I still believe that a great motivating force behind a nincompoop like Trump defeating an intelligent and experienced woman like Hillary Clinton, was gender bias. I think the reason the e-mail fiasco got the attention it did when so many more egregious crimes had been perpetrated by Trump such as income tax evasion in the millions of dollars was the e-mail sounds like female. Also, racial bias. I believe a lot of the anti-Obama sentiment was based on race because statistics show that despite being hobbled by the Republicans in the Senate and Congress, on almost every measurable front, Obama made progress - in reduced unemployment, providing health care, making peace in the world (Cuba), and scaling back nuclear weapons proliferation (Iran) and he was working towards progress in cutting back the pollutants contributing to global warming. All the things that Trump now wishes to scale back (since in his opinion global warming and climate change are a Chinese Hoax). God Help US!
Anyhow, enough of that - the Topic was a Million Women Peacefully Marching to show strength and hope and unity! What a day!
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Stamp and Scrap and Art for everyone
I found I had begun this post and left it unfinished, so I decided to tidy up. One of my newest and most enjoyed hobbies has been scrapbooking. I made a scrapbook for my daughter's 30th birthday because I wanted to give her something special and nothing says love like something you put time into making by hand. Then, I made a scrapbook for my sister's 50th birthday.
Today, I found a coupon for A. C. Moore and scrapbooks and insert papers were on SALE! You could get a packet of beautiful designed insert pages and a scrap album for 2 for $10, a good buy. I have found scrapbook can be very expensive, so I learned to look for sales. Also, I have found stickers and other accessories at very good prices at the Dollar Store in the Brooklawn Shopping Center, which is where my gym and supermarket are, so very convenient, and the Walmart at the Audubon Shopping Center. I'm not certain what the address is for A.C. Moore, but I go East on Black Horse Pike past Runnemede, and turn right at the Antique store that has Betty Boop and sometimes, the Blues Brothers statues outside. Soon the road splits and on the left there is a shopping center with a Babies R Us and A. C. Moore. If you branch to the right, a bit further down the road there is a shopping center with a Michaels where I have also bought scrapping stuff.
Valentines Day is on the way, and what better way to say to a friend or partner that you love them, than by hand making a Valentine card. Come on, you know you can do it - you did it in grade school! Once you have the pad of designer paper, some quality gem stickers and perhaps some heart stickers, you are on your way. I like to include photographs of my friends and I from previous years in mine, such as us hiking in the snow, or on a special occasion.
Another way to indulge or inspire the creative side in you is to check in at Main Street Art on Main Street in Maple Shade and see what fun classes are coming up, or buy a piece of jewelry or artwork for your loved one, or a gift certificate for a class or workshop - now that is creative! Maybe you could go together! What a great way to celebrate a birthday too!
Back in the 1970's I became enamored of rubber stamp art through a wonderful little book I just recently found again while looking for something else, Rubber Soul! At the time, I was an art student and I really got into carving my own stamps. I have mentioned before that I love Mail Art and I still like to embellish my envelopes with stamp designs. Most recently I bought a flock of birds stamp, and a set of snowflake stamps.
Soon my Valentine postals in the Family History Project will be ready at Belia's Copy Center, and I will stamp them Happy Valentines Day and send them to a dozen or so friends. If you would like to engage in a postcard share with me, send me a postcard and I will send one to you. Be sure to include your address however! Mine is 623 Green AVe., Mt. Ephraim, NJ 08059
Happy Mails! Jo Ann
Today, I found a coupon for A. C. Moore and scrapbooks and insert papers were on SALE! You could get a packet of beautiful designed insert pages and a scrap album for 2 for $10, a good buy. I have found scrapbook can be very expensive, so I learned to look for sales. Also, I have found stickers and other accessories at very good prices at the Dollar Store in the Brooklawn Shopping Center, which is where my gym and supermarket are, so very convenient, and the Walmart at the Audubon Shopping Center. I'm not certain what the address is for A.C. Moore, but I go East on Black Horse Pike past Runnemede, and turn right at the Antique store that has Betty Boop and sometimes, the Blues Brothers statues outside. Soon the road splits and on the left there is a shopping center with a Babies R Us and A. C. Moore. If you branch to the right, a bit further down the road there is a shopping center with a Michaels where I have also bought scrapping stuff.
Valentines Day is on the way, and what better way to say to a friend or partner that you love them, than by hand making a Valentine card. Come on, you know you can do it - you did it in grade school! Once you have the pad of designer paper, some quality gem stickers and perhaps some heart stickers, you are on your way. I like to include photographs of my friends and I from previous years in mine, such as us hiking in the snow, or on a special occasion.
Another way to indulge or inspire the creative side in you is to check in at Main Street Art on Main Street in Maple Shade and see what fun classes are coming up, or buy a piece of jewelry or artwork for your loved one, or a gift certificate for a class or workshop - now that is creative! Maybe you could go together! What a great way to celebrate a birthday too!
Back in the 1970's I became enamored of rubber stamp art through a wonderful little book I just recently found again while looking for something else, Rubber Soul! At the time, I was an art student and I really got into carving my own stamps. I have mentioned before that I love Mail Art and I still like to embellish my envelopes with stamp designs. Most recently I bought a flock of birds stamp, and a set of snowflake stamps.
Soon my Valentine postals in the Family History Project will be ready at Belia's Copy Center, and I will stamp them Happy Valentines Day and send them to a dozen or so friends. If you would like to engage in a postcard share with me, send me a postcard and I will send one to you. Be sure to include your address however! Mine is 623 Green AVe., Mt. Ephraim, NJ 08059
Happy Mails! Jo Ann
New Jersey Monthly January 2017 Review of Good Articles
You may not get to read as many magazines as I do because I LOVE them, and buy then half dozen at a time, so when I come across one that I think has articles worth sharing, I will bring them to your attention.
The first article in the above mentioned magazine that caught my attention was about the saved Martin Luther King residence in Camden, NJ. I am always thrilled when a building that holds historic importance is saved and can be repurposed to share that history with the rest of us. Martin Luther King lived at 753 Walnut Street in Camden for three years from 1948 to 1951 while he attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa. Patrick Duff, an independent historian discovered a legal complaint filed against a bar in Maple Shade, NJ in 1950. He and three companions were unjustly thrown out of the bar during what I must presume was an act of discrimination. Now, I grew up in Maple Shade, but we didn't arrive there until 1957, during the great exodus from South Philadelphia, created by the growing families of returned veterans of World War II, seeking larger homes and green yards, as well as better schools. The independent historian, Patrick Duff launched a campaign to save the house from demolition with a plan to create a history museum and NAACP office.
The second article I found useful was in relation to a New Jersey farm and medical practice dedicated to the proposition that food is medicine and can either make you sick or healthy. This is an idea to which I completely agree. I have been predominately a vegetarian for most of my adult life. The practice was set in motion for me by a book Diet for A Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe which I read sometime in the 1970's when my then-husband and I were engaged in a health reclaiming pursuit after he had suffered some severe problems inclouding an infection in the lining of his heart. We took up hiking, biking, and vegetarianism. At his Long Valley Farm, Dr. Ron Weiss grows organic foods in restored quality soil and treats sick people in a year-long program culminating in a 14 mile hike. He cites many success stories in the article.
The third article was about mindfulness which is also a practice I try to keep to on a regular basis. I find walking meditation helps me best and I often resort to the MANTRA: BE HERE NOW, when I find myself sinking into despair over some news story, or circling around and around a whirlpool of worries about the future or our country or the planet. Yesterday, a short burst of tears and sadness were instigated by an NPR interview with a chef who talked about her recipes using "baby octopus" and how much fun it was to catch them while they tried to escape. She claimed, "That's why they exist, to be eaten by us. That's their purpose" Unfortunately, I had just read an article in a science magazine about how smart the octopus is, similar in intelligence to a dog, and how much more sensitive and intelligent its limbs are. The idea of that chef chasing those poor terrified baby octopi around to kill them and eat them just made me sad.
But, back to the magazine. Needless to say, I got home, turned off the car and the radio, and did a little mindfulness to recognize that it was thinking, it was beyond my control, and I could reduce my suffering immediately by simply Being Here Now in my own vegetarian home where my animals are all safe and loved and where we try in as many small ways as possible to be compassionate inhabitants of the planet Earth. I don't believe any other creature exists to be used by me for any purpose. Even my animal companions have their own lives and I consider them friends who share my shelter not "pets" who belong to me.
The article on Mindfulness, page 29, is very good. Many magazines and books have featured theories and cases to demonstrate how mindfulness can improve your health. If you are wondering what that means, "Mindfulness" well in my personal understanding of it, it means being aware of your thoughts, your actions, and our existence in the present. Too often we dwell on the past, which is gone, the future, which hasn't arrived, and we let the richess of our present moment get hijacked. Mindfulness teaches you to recognize that your thoughts are only that - kind of like passing weather systems, and you can always turn them off and return to the present. Of course, needless to say you are better off getting some books and audio tapes and reading articles to teach you the fulness of meditation practice. My recommendation is anything by Pema Chodrin, who has been my teacher and mentor through many hard times. She has more than a dozen well written, clear and enlightening book, and I also have half a dozen of her audio cd-s that I play when I need a refresher. When Things Fall Apart, is a special favorite of mine. But perhaps you want to start with the magazine article. There is also a meditation group that used to meet at the Collingwood Senior Community Center, but I never attended that one. And there is a Buddhist residence in Shamong Twp. that holds Sunday meditations that a friend of mine has attended but I haven't been there either. Good Luck!
So that's it for today, 1/15/17, Sunday. As always, I hope my small and humble efforts bring some enjoyment or usefulness to someone. I have been told it is too complicated to leave comments for many readers so if you want you can contact me at wrightj45@yahoo.com.
Happy Trails! (Today was gorgeous, Trixie and I walked around Knights Park in the sunshine and fresh weather enjoying the beautiful trees.)
The first article in the above mentioned magazine that caught my attention was about the saved Martin Luther King residence in Camden, NJ. I am always thrilled when a building that holds historic importance is saved and can be repurposed to share that history with the rest of us. Martin Luther King lived at 753 Walnut Street in Camden for three years from 1948 to 1951 while he attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa. Patrick Duff, an independent historian discovered a legal complaint filed against a bar in Maple Shade, NJ in 1950. He and three companions were unjustly thrown out of the bar during what I must presume was an act of discrimination. Now, I grew up in Maple Shade, but we didn't arrive there until 1957, during the great exodus from South Philadelphia, created by the growing families of returned veterans of World War II, seeking larger homes and green yards, as well as better schools. The independent historian, Patrick Duff launched a campaign to save the house from demolition with a plan to create a history museum and NAACP office.
The second article I found useful was in relation to a New Jersey farm and medical practice dedicated to the proposition that food is medicine and can either make you sick or healthy. This is an idea to which I completely agree. I have been predominately a vegetarian for most of my adult life. The practice was set in motion for me by a book Diet for A Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe which I read sometime in the 1970's when my then-husband and I were engaged in a health reclaiming pursuit after he had suffered some severe problems inclouding an infection in the lining of his heart. We took up hiking, biking, and vegetarianism. At his Long Valley Farm, Dr. Ron Weiss grows organic foods in restored quality soil and treats sick people in a year-long program culminating in a 14 mile hike. He cites many success stories in the article.
The third article was about mindfulness which is also a practice I try to keep to on a regular basis. I find walking meditation helps me best and I often resort to the MANTRA: BE HERE NOW, when I find myself sinking into despair over some news story, or circling around and around a whirlpool of worries about the future or our country or the planet. Yesterday, a short burst of tears and sadness were instigated by an NPR interview with a chef who talked about her recipes using "baby octopus" and how much fun it was to catch them while they tried to escape. She claimed, "That's why they exist, to be eaten by us. That's their purpose" Unfortunately, I had just read an article in a science magazine about how smart the octopus is, similar in intelligence to a dog, and how much more sensitive and intelligent its limbs are. The idea of that chef chasing those poor terrified baby octopi around to kill them and eat them just made me sad.
But, back to the magazine. Needless to say, I got home, turned off the car and the radio, and did a little mindfulness to recognize that it was thinking, it was beyond my control, and I could reduce my suffering immediately by simply Being Here Now in my own vegetarian home where my animals are all safe and loved and where we try in as many small ways as possible to be compassionate inhabitants of the planet Earth. I don't believe any other creature exists to be used by me for any purpose. Even my animal companions have their own lives and I consider them friends who share my shelter not "pets" who belong to me.
The article on Mindfulness, page 29, is very good. Many magazines and books have featured theories and cases to demonstrate how mindfulness can improve your health. If you are wondering what that means, "Mindfulness" well in my personal understanding of it, it means being aware of your thoughts, your actions, and our existence in the present. Too often we dwell on the past, which is gone, the future, which hasn't arrived, and we let the richess of our present moment get hijacked. Mindfulness teaches you to recognize that your thoughts are only that - kind of like passing weather systems, and you can always turn them off and return to the present. Of course, needless to say you are better off getting some books and audio tapes and reading articles to teach you the fulness of meditation practice. My recommendation is anything by Pema Chodrin, who has been my teacher and mentor through many hard times. She has more than a dozen well written, clear and enlightening book, and I also have half a dozen of her audio cd-s that I play when I need a refresher. When Things Fall Apart, is a special favorite of mine. But perhaps you want to start with the magazine article. There is also a meditation group that used to meet at the Collingwood Senior Community Center, but I never attended that one. And there is a Buddhist residence in Shamong Twp. that holds Sunday meditations that a friend of mine has attended but I haven't been there either. Good Luck!
So that's it for today, 1/15/17, Sunday. As always, I hope my small and humble efforts bring some enjoyment or usefulness to someone. I have been told it is too complicated to leave comments for many readers so if you want you can contact me at wrightj45@yahoo.com.
Happy Trails! (Today was gorgeous, Trixie and I walked around Knights Park in the sunshine and fresh weather enjoying the beautiful trees.)
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
January 11, 2017 Alice Paul's Birthday
Today is the 131st anniversary of the birth of Alice Paul, the main activist who saw the struggle for the right to vote for American Women to its victorious conclusion in the 19th Amendment ratified on August 18th 1920.
Ken Burns did a wonderful documentary on this struggle: Not for Ourselves Alone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who fought the long battle until Alice Paul, younger and just as determined could take up the standard and see it through.
It is astonishing to me, a modern woman, to watch programs like the pubs series, Women and Power, which is the same battle fought in England for suffrage, and to read and hear claims by allegedly intelligent men that woman are 1. Not rational 2.too weak and would be debilitated by education and political thought (while some women worked 14 hours a day in the "Satanic Mills" that were making them rich. Of course, none of these arguments were based on any true belief, they were merely useful cliche's to build a wall to keep women out of power and subjugated to the economic and political control of men. Maybe they did believe it, I don't know, but I do know that no one gives up territory without a struggle and I am grateful to those women who fought that struggle so that I could vote, get a college education, support myself and my daughter, and find equal protection under the law.
Happy Birthday Alice Paul and that you from my heart!
Ken Burns did a wonderful documentary on this struggle: Not for Ourselves Alone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, who fought the long battle until Alice Paul, younger and just as determined could take up the standard and see it through.
It is astonishing to me, a modern woman, to watch programs like the pubs series, Women and Power, which is the same battle fought in England for suffrage, and to read and hear claims by allegedly intelligent men that woman are 1. Not rational 2.too weak and would be debilitated by education and political thought (while some women worked 14 hours a day in the "Satanic Mills" that were making them rich. Of course, none of these arguments were based on any true belief, they were merely useful cliche's to build a wall to keep women out of power and subjugated to the economic and political control of men. Maybe they did believe it, I don't know, but I do know that no one gives up territory without a struggle and I am grateful to those women who fought that struggle so that I could vote, get a college education, support myself and my daughter, and find equal protection under the law.
Happy Birthday Alice Paul and that you from my heart!
Monday, January 9, 2017
Alice Paul: Claiming Power, by J. D. Zahniser and Amelia R. Fry
Unless you have done a little study in the area of Women's Right to Vote, or Quaker Activists, or historic houses in South Jersey, you may be unaware of Alice Paul and her legacy.
For a year or two, I did a little volunteer work for the Alice Paul Foundation, located in the old Paul farmstead in Mount Laurel. I became acquainted with this Institute through my dearest friend from high school and our old neighborhood, Roland Avenue, Maple Shade, NJ, Christine Borget.
After Alice Paul's death in July 1977, her nephew, apparently a disrespectful man, was disinclined to allow researchers access to her papers, and in addition, was prepared to sell the historic family homestead and beautiful property to developers to become condominiums. A group of far-seeing activists who had met through their affiliation in NOW, pooled their resources and saved the farmstead for all of us. The governing board decided that Alice Paul's commitment to activism and her humility would be better served by creating an active Institute rather than a museum.
Eventually, her personal papers were also bought from the nephew, and work began on a good biography. Several books have been written on Alice Paul, but I believe the one I am reading right now is the BEST, the most well researched and most definitive. Moreover, it is one of those rare works of history that manages to be both scholarly, personal and interesting at the same time. Last night, I kept putting a marker at the end of a chapter and then finding myself going on to another chapter and another. How many history books can you say that about?
Alice Paul grew up a Quaker girl in the Mount Laurel, Morristown area and after college and graduate work in the emerging social work arena, she traveled to Great Britain where she met and was inspired by the fiery group of devoted Suffragettes struggling for the right to vote for women. She came home with their zeal and stout-hearted courage and worked for the rest of her life to achieve the right to vote for American women, and later, the Equal Rights Amendment.
It is astonishing to think that when my grandmother's were 21, they were American citizens, one of them a working widow supporting her own three sons and a niece, and paying taxes, and yet neither of them could vote. They were expected to give their sons to the nation in war, and to pay taxes and abide by the laws yet they were denied any voice in making the laws and any representation in the governing of the people. My grandmothers were not suffragettes, to my knowledge. One, Lavinia Lyons, was far too busy raising her own three children and the orphaned daughters of her sister who died young. My other grandmother, Mabel Wright, was working alongside her own widowed mother, sewing uniforms for the Schuylkill arsenal to cloth our soldiers, and raising her own four dependents. Mabel, did, however, take an active part in the political world as a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Women's Club of Ocean City. As soon as the law allowed, they did both vote and they did both have party affiliations and political opinions.
Alice Paul was one of the many women protestors and activists who were thrown into prison, and when they went on hunger strikes over being treated as criminal rather than political prisoners, they were thrown down, had metal funnels and rubber hoses forced down their throats and scalding liquid poured into the funnels. It was certainly torture and punishment meted out to American citizens fighting for a just cause, the right to vote.
Alice Paul was brave, unceasing in her efforts on behalf of half of the nation, and well worth remembering as an American hero. I am glad her book is so good.
It was given to me by that dear childhood friend who was instrumental in the group that saved Alice Paul's family farmstead, which is now on the American Historical Register and the Women's History Trail. They have a collection of posters, and a good film, and you can take a tour and learn more by calling for an appointment. They also have programs during the year. I gave a presentation once on Women's Diaries and their Help with History, in a summer program of Lectures on the Porch.
The book also offers a fascinating look at Quaker life at the turn of the century and reminds us of the vast Quaker influence on our state and our nation. We need a book on that subject!
Address 128 Hooten Road, Mt. Laurel, NJ 856-231-1885.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
For a year or two, I did a little volunteer work for the Alice Paul Foundation, located in the old Paul farmstead in Mount Laurel. I became acquainted with this Institute through my dearest friend from high school and our old neighborhood, Roland Avenue, Maple Shade, NJ, Christine Borget.
After Alice Paul's death in July 1977, her nephew, apparently a disrespectful man, was disinclined to allow researchers access to her papers, and in addition, was prepared to sell the historic family homestead and beautiful property to developers to become condominiums. A group of far-seeing activists who had met through their affiliation in NOW, pooled their resources and saved the farmstead for all of us. The governing board decided that Alice Paul's commitment to activism and her humility would be better served by creating an active Institute rather than a museum.
Eventually, her personal papers were also bought from the nephew, and work began on a good biography. Several books have been written on Alice Paul, but I believe the one I am reading right now is the BEST, the most well researched and most definitive. Moreover, it is one of those rare works of history that manages to be both scholarly, personal and interesting at the same time. Last night, I kept putting a marker at the end of a chapter and then finding myself going on to another chapter and another. How many history books can you say that about?
Alice Paul grew up a Quaker girl in the Mount Laurel, Morristown area and after college and graduate work in the emerging social work arena, she traveled to Great Britain where she met and was inspired by the fiery group of devoted Suffragettes struggling for the right to vote for women. She came home with their zeal and stout-hearted courage and worked for the rest of her life to achieve the right to vote for American women, and later, the Equal Rights Amendment.
It is astonishing to think that when my grandmother's were 21, they were American citizens, one of them a working widow supporting her own three sons and a niece, and paying taxes, and yet neither of them could vote. They were expected to give their sons to the nation in war, and to pay taxes and abide by the laws yet they were denied any voice in making the laws and any representation in the governing of the people. My grandmothers were not suffragettes, to my knowledge. One, Lavinia Lyons, was far too busy raising her own three children and the orphaned daughters of her sister who died young. My other grandmother, Mabel Wright, was working alongside her own widowed mother, sewing uniforms for the Schuylkill arsenal to cloth our soldiers, and raising her own four dependents. Mabel, did, however, take an active part in the political world as a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Women's Club of Ocean City. As soon as the law allowed, they did both vote and they did both have party affiliations and political opinions.
Alice Paul was one of the many women protestors and activists who were thrown into prison, and when they went on hunger strikes over being treated as criminal rather than political prisoners, they were thrown down, had metal funnels and rubber hoses forced down their throats and scalding liquid poured into the funnels. It was certainly torture and punishment meted out to American citizens fighting for a just cause, the right to vote.
Alice Paul was brave, unceasing in her efforts on behalf of half of the nation, and well worth remembering as an American hero. I am glad her book is so good.
It was given to me by that dear childhood friend who was instrumental in the group that saved Alice Paul's family farmstead, which is now on the American Historical Register and the Women's History Trail. They have a collection of posters, and a good film, and you can take a tour and learn more by calling for an appointment. They also have programs during the year. I gave a presentation once on Women's Diaries and their Help with History, in a summer program of Lectures on the Porch.
The book also offers a fascinating look at Quaker life at the turn of the century and reminds us of the vast Quaker influence on our state and our nation. We need a book on that subject!
Address 128 Hooten Road, Mt. Laurel, NJ 856-231-1885.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
Friday, January 6, 2017
Dorothy Stanaitis: Living History
Today, I had lunch with a dear old friend of over 4 decades. We met when Dorothy was Children's Program Director of the Gloucester City Library, back in the 1970's when I was just out of college. She hired me to work in a Federally Funded Outreach Program to deliver Library Services to children's homes.
Dorothy and I are both graduates of Rutgers The State University. Dorothy is also a Trustee Emeritus.
Since her retirement, her career has taken many turns, but the ones I wanted to mention here, because they have to do with writing and with history, are her program designs for her Storytelling career, and her family memory writings for various publications. Her storytelling career has moved from camps and libraries to assisted living centers and she is also an on-foot tour guide for the Philadelphia Association of Tour Guides. Some of her program titles have been "Scandals, Rumors and Dirty Rotten Lies" and "Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief."
Together some years back, we wrote and presented Moments In Time, "Red White and Blueberries" a program on Betsy Ross, Clara Barton and Elizabeth White. At that time, we also presented for Historical Societies.
Dorothy's published memoir stories number around 150 so far. We are in a writing group together that meets at Dorothy's home and so I have been fortunate in hearing many of the stories which were later sold and published. A number of them center on Dorothy's childhood on Ogden Street in Philadelphia.
One memory that Dorothy shared with me today had to do with the tree burnings after Christmas in Mount Ephraim, where we have both lived. A large bonfire was built of old Christmas Trees, supervised, of course, by the local fire brigade, and the fire whistle would blow to let residents know when it was time to light the bonfire. Hot chocolate would be served at the firehouse afterwards.
Today, I was thinking, after we had parted after our delicious lunch at Sabrina's in Collingwood, that I would like to write profiles on some of the people with whom I share an interest in history and who have put that interest to work.
To name just a few, I'd like to do profiles on: 2.Bonnie Beth Elwell, president of Genealogy Society of Salem County, and now head librarian at Camden County Historical Society who also had published for Arcadia, a book on Upper Pittsgrove, Elmer and Pilesgrove. 3.Barbara Solem, author of Ghosttowns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, The Forks, and most recently, Batsto, Jewel of the Pines. Barbara was also the main developer of the opening of Atsion Mansion for tours during the past 3 years or more. 4.Marilyn Schmidt, proprietor of Buzby's General Store in Chatsworth, NJ, and a publisher of numerous booklets on cooking and Pinelands history. 5.Vonny Camp, who wrote a fascinating account of her time as a nurse during the Burma Campaign in World War II. And there are many other people who live lives steeped in history and keeping history alive for others that I would like to interview and or profile here. Also, 6.Albert Horner, photographer of the Pines, who has also worked diligently in preservation efforts. Al also has a gorgeous book published of his works, which I bought and gave out as Christmas presents a year or two ago when it first came out. Last on this list, but certainly never least, my mentor and advisor, 7.Carol Suplee, who wrote a historical account of Willingboro, which is in its second or third printing. She made many presentations in regard to this book as well. It was Carol who saved me when I was trapped in the purgatory of 'formatting' and 'converting' recently when I was finished my third book. Having already negotiated these rough and dangerous waters, she generously offered her guidance in getting me through it I am sure as I move along in this project, more people will come to mind and the list will grow.
As Faulkner is often misquoted as saying, "The past isn't over, it isn't even past." And these individuals have helped to keep the past alive and lively! We have all shared a love of history and most of us a love of writing too.
Dorothy and I are both graduates of Rutgers The State University. Dorothy is also a Trustee Emeritus.
Since her retirement, her career has taken many turns, but the ones I wanted to mention here, because they have to do with writing and with history, are her program designs for her Storytelling career, and her family memory writings for various publications. Her storytelling career has moved from camps and libraries to assisted living centers and she is also an on-foot tour guide for the Philadelphia Association of Tour Guides. Some of her program titles have been "Scandals, Rumors and Dirty Rotten Lies" and "Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief."
Together some years back, we wrote and presented Moments In Time, "Red White and Blueberries" a program on Betsy Ross, Clara Barton and Elizabeth White. At that time, we also presented for Historical Societies.
Dorothy's published memoir stories number around 150 so far. We are in a writing group together that meets at Dorothy's home and so I have been fortunate in hearing many of the stories which were later sold and published. A number of them center on Dorothy's childhood on Ogden Street in Philadelphia.
One memory that Dorothy shared with me today had to do with the tree burnings after Christmas in Mount Ephraim, where we have both lived. A large bonfire was built of old Christmas Trees, supervised, of course, by the local fire brigade, and the fire whistle would blow to let residents know when it was time to light the bonfire. Hot chocolate would be served at the firehouse afterwards.
Today, I was thinking, after we had parted after our delicious lunch at Sabrina's in Collingwood, that I would like to write profiles on some of the people with whom I share an interest in history and who have put that interest to work.
To name just a few, I'd like to do profiles on: 2.Bonnie Beth Elwell, president of Genealogy Society of Salem County, and now head librarian at Camden County Historical Society who also had published for Arcadia, a book on Upper Pittsgrove, Elmer and Pilesgrove. 3.Barbara Solem, author of Ghosttowns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, The Forks, and most recently, Batsto, Jewel of the Pines. Barbara was also the main developer of the opening of Atsion Mansion for tours during the past 3 years or more. 4.Marilyn Schmidt, proprietor of Buzby's General Store in Chatsworth, NJ, and a publisher of numerous booklets on cooking and Pinelands history. 5.Vonny Camp, who wrote a fascinating account of her time as a nurse during the Burma Campaign in World War II. And there are many other people who live lives steeped in history and keeping history alive for others that I would like to interview and or profile here. Also, 6.Albert Horner, photographer of the Pines, who has also worked diligently in preservation efforts. Al also has a gorgeous book published of his works, which I bought and gave out as Christmas presents a year or two ago when it first came out. Last on this list, but certainly never least, my mentor and advisor, 7.Carol Suplee, who wrote a historical account of Willingboro, which is in its second or third printing. She made many presentations in regard to this book as well. It was Carol who saved me when I was trapped in the purgatory of 'formatting' and 'converting' recently when I was finished my third book. Having already negotiated these rough and dangerous waters, she generously offered her guidance in getting me through it I am sure as I move along in this project, more people will come to mind and the list will grow.
As Faulkner is often misquoted as saying, "The past isn't over, it isn't even past." And these individuals have helped to keep the past alive and lively! We have all shared a love of history and most of us a love of writing too.
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Camden County Historical Society Museum and Library
Tomorrow, Wednesday the 4th, after lunch at the Cooper House with a friend or two, I will be headed over to the Camden County Historical Society where I haven't visted in a few years and where I once worked as a volunteer.
The President of the Genealogical Society of Salem County, Bonny Beth Elwell, is now the Head Librarian and I see from their web site that they have new exhibits and a newly renovated museum area.
Cooper House is a particularly apt place to lunch before going to Camden County Historical Society because their main historic house, Pomona Hall, is the homestead of the founder of Camden, the original Cooper. I believe I wrote a blog on him and his sons some time back. He came from England in the last years of the 1600's and via Burlington, bought land along the Delaware and set up farming. Pomona Hall has been renovated and there is a very interesting display on the evolution of the house over the years.
At the time that I worked there, I also hunted up the houses of the original Cooper's sons, Samuel (his house still stands though burned out) and Daniel (his house too was vandalized and burned out after a costly renovation, down on the Point. And there is one Cooper House behind a big fence that is in good shape and I think was the original Cooper Ferry. It is in a shipyard.
I am sorry my information isn't more precise. It is late and I'm tired, but you and I can both hunt up my original blog posts on this subject for more info.
Tomorrow after my visit, I will let you know how things are at the CCHS, which is located behind Lady of Lourdes, down the road between the hospital and the Harleigh Cemetery.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
The President of the Genealogical Society of Salem County, Bonny Beth Elwell, is now the Head Librarian and I see from their web site that they have new exhibits and a newly renovated museum area.
Cooper House is a particularly apt place to lunch before going to Camden County Historical Society because their main historic house, Pomona Hall, is the homestead of the founder of Camden, the original Cooper. I believe I wrote a blog on him and his sons some time back. He came from England in the last years of the 1600's and via Burlington, bought land along the Delaware and set up farming. Pomona Hall has been renovated and there is a very interesting display on the evolution of the house over the years.
At the time that I worked there, I also hunted up the houses of the original Cooper's sons, Samuel (his house still stands though burned out) and Daniel (his house too was vandalized and burned out after a costly renovation, down on the Point. And there is one Cooper House behind a big fence that is in good shape and I think was the original Cooper Ferry. It is in a shipyard.
I am sorry my information isn't more precise. It is late and I'm tired, but you and I can both hunt up my original blog posts on this subject for more info.
Tomorrow after my visit, I will let you know how things are at the CCHS, which is located behind Lady of Lourdes, down the road between the hospital and the Harleigh Cemetery.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann
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