Burlington County Events

October 1 – “Life of Margaret Hill Morris” – 2:00pm - Margaret Hill Morris was a

widow, mother, and doctor whose first-hand account of the Revolutionary War in

and around Burlington City, gives one of the most detailed and comprehensive

accounts of the time. Was she involved with an elaborate spy ring during the war?

Hear her story in her own words, through letters and her diary. Marisa Bozarth of

the Burlington County Parks Department will be the presenter for this program.

Cost is $10 per person. Presentation will take place at Peachfield (180 Burrs Road,

Westampton). To register visit www.colonialdamesnj.org

Westvielle: The Museum of American History at Deptford, NJ

138 Andaloro Way 856-812-1121 free (We missed the opening it was 9/1)  I'll add the new hours when I research on the web.

Vietnam Documentary Review and Personal Experience

Back in 1969, I was married to my high school sweetheart who had been drafted and to our great relief, sent to Germany.  I went with him.  My brother, on the other hand, had joined the marines and was stationed on the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.  My brother was only 19 at the time and I had night terrors and was also gripped by day terrors that he was injured somewhere in a rice paddy or captured and held in some bamboo cage.  It would just seize me out of nowhere, this terrible anxiety.

My brother survived and came home, and I came home too, and we both went on to have a child each, failed marriages, but happy and productive lives.  My brother lives in West Virginia now and we are both fairly old.  He is one year younger than I am.

Yesterday, while taking my ukulele lesson at Collingswood Music, I mentioned the documentary by Ken Burns that has been playing for the past couple of weeks on channel 12.  He saw parts of it.  I told him that one song I heard, continually over the years had brought back a single very short and entirely inconsequential memory, like a little color movie.

My ex-husband was a lieutenant and officers had the option to live off the army post (Wharton Barracks) in civilian apartments, which we did.  Periodically, I would walk the 3 miles to the post from our town, Heilbronn, to go shopping or take my German language lessons.  Once when I was walking through the army post gates, a young soldier in the barracks caught sight of me out his window and called to his buddies to come and see the "Fraulein" which they assumed me to be.  They all came running to the windows and were shouting out to me "Hey gutted tag fraulein" and so on.  Behind them, in the barracks, the song Season of the Witch was playing really loud.  

Needless to say, being young myself, and relatively shy, I was embarrassed to be a spectacle, but tried to hurry on my way in as dignified a manner as I could.  

Nonetheless, all these decades later, that one little moment, like a butterfly caught in amber, is encapsulated in my memory, wrapped in that song.  Here are the lyrics: 

"Season Of The Witch"

When I look out my window
Many sights to see
And when I look in my window
So many different people to be
That it's strange
So strange

You got to pick up every stitch
You got to pick up every stitch
You got to pick up every stitch
Mmmm, must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch, yeah
Must be the season of the witch

When I look over my shoulder
What do you think I see?
Some other cat lookin' over 
His shoulder at me
And he's strange
Sure is strange

You got to pick up every stitch
You got to pick up every stitch, yeah
Beatniks are out to make it rich
Oh no, must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch, yeah
Must be the season of the witch

You got to pick up every stitch
Two rabbits runnin' in the ditch
Beatniks out to make it rich
Oh no, must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch
When I go

When I look out my window
What do you think I see?
And when I look in my window
So many different people to be
It's strange
Sure is strange

You got to pick up every stitch
You got to pick up every stitch
Two rabbits runnin' in the ditch
Oh no, must be the season of the witch
Must be the season of the witch, yeah
Must be the season of the witch
When I go
When I go

Upcoming Events of Pennsauken Historical Soc. & Griffith Morgan Comm. Fall 2017

Upcoming Events of
Pennsauken Historical Soc. & Griffith Morgan Comm. Fall 2017 ===========================
First Sundays Open Houses at Burrough-Dover House and Griffith Morgan House Sundays, September 3, October 1, November 7
1pm—4pm—Free Admission and Tours
- -----------
Annual Meeting and Special Presentation Thursday, September 21, 7pm
Pennsauken Free Public Library
Mary Groce tells the story of her uncle
» Emory Conrad Malick «
African American Pioneer Aviator -------------

Fall Festival at Burrough-Dover House Saturday, September 23, 12pm—4pm
Living History Demonstrations, Free Tours, Kids’ Activities ------------

Halloween for the Kids at Griffith Morgan House Saturday, October 21, 11am—3pm _______________________________

Upcoming Events Camden County and Burlington County

September
Burlington County - Tour events same day, this Saturday, one is the Inskeep Farm House tour in the morning, then in the afternoon - Discover the Lower Village at Smithville Village" is a 1-mile hike starting at 1 p.m. with a Smithville historian. 

Discover a part of Smithville Village that has been a hidden secret to most people. Tours begin at the Smithville Park Visitor Center. For more information, call 609-265-5828.  (I will be on this one with Barb Solem)
Info on google, try historic tours of Burlington County

Camden County Fair Sept. 23 and 24, County Fairgrounds, 508 Lakeland Rd., Blackwood, NJ.  Sat. 11 to 7, Sun. 12 to 5.
Music and dance, hay rides, beer and wine garden, food trucks, rides and games, 4-H youth products, free parking and admission

The South Jersey Museum of American History has relocated to 138 Andalora Way in Deptford and is now open to the public.  Exhibits include Pre-Columbian pottery, unique tools and farm equipment, glass and ceramics, fossils.  Hours Thurs. Fri., Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  Gloucester City Library has two free passes to offer.

October
Brooklawn Fall Festival Oct. 21 noon to dusk
Brooklawn Waterfront at Timber Blvd.  (rain date Oct 22)
music all day, food trucks, Vallari Vineyards, Eight and Sand Beer Co., and arts and crafts vendor village, kids' zone.
Info on Borough's Facebook page

Charlie Brown's in Woodbury

I hate salad bars, but I have to say the salad bar at Charlie Browns in Woodbury is wonderful, crisp, clean, about 20 choices and all of them delicious.  I have been there three times recently with two different friends and we were all delighted including the friend who is a vegan.  
By the way, the building is over 300 years old!  It was a stage coach stop, Wilkin's Inn, a hotel, and it has been Brown's for 40 years.  You can visit the Gloucester Historical Society Library and Museum, if they are open, and if not, take yourself down to Red Bank Battlefield and enjoy a walk along the Delaware River.

Happy Trails!
Jo Ann

Picturing Camden Exhibition at Stedman Gallery

What a fabulous art exhibit!  It was exciting and inspiring.  There were marvelous representational paintings, very modern indsstrial views that were also splendid, and many gorgeous and evocative photographs.  The video was astonishing.  We were wondering how they managed to make that rolling over the rooftops and back to the ground effect.
I felt the exhibit really captured the soul of the City.
It also felt so strange to me to be back after all these years - about 25.  I graduated from Rutgers in 1981 and have only visited once or twice since then.  This time, I drove, with my companion another alum of Rutgers Fine Arts, down Broadway all the way to Gloucester City.  We were amazed at the changes all along Broadway, all the new buildings.  But still saddened by the decay and the losses such as the gorgeous old library on Broadway that I knew when it was in prime condition.  The carcass is across from Sacred Heart, still a beautiful cathedral.
You really should try to get to see this exhibit if you can, and if you care at all about Camden, past, present or future.
Happy Trails!
Jo Ann

Art about Camden at the Stedman Gallery and MORE

Picturing Camden is an Art Exhibition being held at the Stedman Gallery from Sept 11 through Dec. 8 Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The Opening Reception will be held Saturday, Sept. 23, from 2 to 5.
I am going there today with an old college pal who was in the Art Program at Rutgers with me back in the late 1970's and early 1980's.
Another interesting event in conjunction with this is the SKETCH/PHOTO WALKING Tour of Historic Cooper Street Sunday, Oct. 1 from 9:45 to noon, beginning at the Stedman Gallery and Rain date Sunday, Oct.8.  You need to reserve your spot by calling Miranda Powell at 856-225-6202.

Another event of interest to me as a postcard collector and artist is the PostSecret lecture with Frank Warren, Wednesday, Oct 4 at 7 p.m. at the Walter K. Gordon Theater on the Rutger's Campus.

The Stedman Gallery is also on the Rutger's Campus and for your gps, I will post this blog and go to google then return and add it!

Happy Trails
Jo Ann

Location
Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts
Stedman Gallery
314 Linden Street
Camden, NJ 08102

From the Sunday Courier - Theater events, art, and more......

If you don't get the Sunday Courier, you may have missed this:  10 Fall South Jersey Arts Events 

THEATER
1.Broadway Theater Pitman, 43 S. Broadway, Pitman "Return of the Phantom" just in time for Halloween $28 - Oct .27 856-384-8381or www.broadwaytheater.org

2.Eagle Theater, 208 Vine St, Hammonton, "The Fantastics" Nov.10-Dec.10 609-704-5012 www.eagletheater.org

3.Haddonfield Plays and Players, 957 E.Atlantic Ave. "Kiss me Kate" 856-429-8139 www.haddonfieldplayers.com


4.Ritz Theater, "Pippin" 915 White Horse Pke, Oaklyn www.ritztheaterco.org

5.South Camden Theater Co. "Ripcord" $20 www.southcamdentheater.org 400 Jasper St., Camden

MUSIC
6.Mainstage Center for the Arts, 27 S. Blackhorse Pike, Blackwood 856-93602467 www.mainsage.org Pumpkin Festival 17 S. Blackhorse Pike, Blackwood

7.Symphony in C musicians will perform at Macy's in PHila. 856-240-1403 www.symphonyinc.org

8.Perkins Centr for the Arts, DeCafe concert series 395 Kings Hwy., Moorestown 

856-235-6488

ART

9. Stedman Gallery, Rutgers Univ. "Picturing Camden" Sept 11-Dec.8, Third and Pearl Sts., Camden, 856-225-6306

10.Center for Arts in Southern New Jersey, Abstract Art Sept. 4-25 123 Elmwood Rd, Marlton wwwcfsasnj.com 856-985-1009

ARCHITECTURE;  Lighthouses - East Point Lighthouse has been restored.  The ribbon cutting was today (sadly we missed this) but you can call to find out how to visit or to volunteer 856-785-0349

originally the Maurice River Lighthouse was lit in 1859 and is maintained by the Maurice River Twp. Historical Society open 1-4 on first and third weekends of the month. www.eastpointlight.com

It's the season of festivals - Here are three Today, Sept. 9th!

Maple Shade hosts a Main Street festival today, which I will be attending.  I think it is a store-sidewalk sale.

All my info today is word of mouth and I have no details - sorry - just letting you know what people told me they were attending

Millville - VegStock - A vegan and vegetarian festival three of my friends are attending.  Two are tabling for the Vegetarian Society and one is keeping them company.  They are having lunch at Wildflowers in the Glastown Arts section.

Medford is hosting an Arab Culture Festival.  I don't know anything about it other than a friend of mine is going. So if it is of interest to you maybe you can find more information on it by looking online.

At the end of this month Greenwich hosts a Harvest Fest with Arts and Crafts that I have attended any times.  There is music and food and it is a really wonderful day!  I think it happens around the 25th.

Happy Trails!
JO Ann

ArtJourling Part Two

Today, I visited our local Thrift Store - HOPE Thrift, which is in the Brooklawn Shopping Cener where Kmart used to be (around the corner).  

As I mentioned previously, I like make my own small Art Journals, about the size of a hard-back book but not the thickness of one.  I cover cardboard with decorative paper (usually scrapbook page paper) and accordion fold the paper for inside (usually sketch pad paper - very large, cut down to the right height).  

BOX OF BOOKS I also think it is fun to keep the books in an unusual container.  My favorites have been cigar boxes, but today I found a nice old Oreo Cookie tin for 50 cents, and a small picnic basket for a dollar.  My most recent fun idea for a box for Art Journals was a lunch box.  I had a great old DALE EVANS box that I bought from e-bay for about $5.00 a few years back and I thought I would check out HOPE Thrift to see if they had any but they didn't.  I'll bet various antique stores would though, like the Red Mill in Mullica Hill, or Antique Emporium in Burlington, my next stops on the hunt!

An Art Journal I finished this summer was a memoir and a goodbye book to commemorate the closing of my old school, Mary Ethel Costello School in Gloucester City.  The two I am working on now are FIVE GRATITUDES, and Autumn Walking Journal.  Upcoming ideas - old theaters, and I would like to do one for Pakim Pond and one for Knight's Park.  Also, I have been collecting and storing in a folder, old photos of my daughter and myself and would like to do one on that subject.  Also, I started a very nice one on my house.

Happy Trails whether outdoors or in your mind!
Jo Ann
ps.  Forgot to mention, the cigar box was $2.00 from a tobacco store in a small strip mall across the street from McDonald's in Mount Ephraim on the Black Horse Pike.

rt Journaling

One of my favorite hobbies is Art Journaling.  I have been keeping journals for 50 years and have over a hundred of them.  Some of them are store bought books, some are home-made  Most recently, I have been making small ArtJournals that combine scrapbooking and diary keeping.  It occurred to me this morning it might be helpful to post tips and strategies for that practice here on my blog.

At the end of this month, I will be teaching Art Journaling at Main Street Art in Maple Shade, but you can do it on your own.  Sometimes easy things are difficult if you have never done them but if you want to give it a try, it might be easier to buy your first journal.  I like spiral bound art sketch books which I buy at A.C.Moore in Deptford, usually for $5 each on sale.  The Sunday Courier Post as coupons for A. C. Moore.

Themes:  There are as many themes as there are people, but to start, if you like a prompt, I would go with Five Gratitudes.  Recently I watched a documentary on amazon prime tv about happiness.  For the past few years, psychologists and brain researchers have been studying healthy minds, not only unstable ones.  Two things you can do to actually improve the health of your brain (scientifically proven via scanning)  are to get exercise and practice meditating on the five things you have to be grateful for.  Needless to say, meditation itself is healthful for your brain, too. 
Other themes can be a memory, holidays, family, travels, events (for example, I did a page in one of mine on the solar eclipse!) and even an autobiography.  Family history is a good one.

Resources:  One of my most frequently used resources is photographs.  I have dozens of albums of photographs and have been taking pictures since I was a twelve year old and got my first box brownie.  I take pictures of EVERYTHING!  A favorite subject is the park where I walk every day and that would be an excellent theme for an Art Journal - observations on what you see when you walk, the changing seasons, and photos of beautiful trees, scenes.
I print out my photos on my home printer, or I take photos to a copy center and get them color printed.  I recently did some at Staples and if you did it yourself (very easy) it was 49 cents a page.  Usually I go to Belia Copy Center in Woodbury, but they were closed the day I went.
You can also use maps, brochures, images from newspapers, magazines, catalogues and postcards.  For example, if you did an Artist's Journal on your hobby of gardening, you might want to use seed packets, catalogue pictures, and prints of your photos.  Also, I save ribbon, string, labels, and I buy stickers, stamps and ink.
For holidays, greeting cards are also useful.

I buy glue sticks at the dollar store, and I often use colored markers, colored pencils, and scrapbooking materials such as sheets of attractive page paper.  Walmart often has good buys on stickers - sometimes $1 a page.  You can buy attractive stick on trims too.

Four years ago, I took up scrapbooking to make a 30th birthday scrapbook for my daughter, and a 50th birthday scrapbook for my sister.  Then I made a 70th birthday scrapbook for myself.  It was fun and I have so many supplies left over that I use them in Art Journaling, which is definitely a cross over skill and practice.

Just now, I am working on a couple of Art Journals, one for Halloween.  My daughter loved Halloween so much when she was little.  And she had a wide context for her costumes, for example, she loved Jurassic Park so much, that I bought her a Velociraptor costume one year.  A page will feature the graphics from the movie, printed on my color printer off the internet, and photos of her in her Velociraptor costume.  Also, I have several items for Start Wars, which she loved, and went one year as Princess Leia.  I have a column cut from a magazine about the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, the movie, this year, 2017.  I think you get the idea.

The other Art Journal I am working on is Five Gratitudes, and a page on gratitude for my little bungalow home prompted me to do a book on the history of my time in this house.  I took pictures of the house from the first day I saw it for sale, and I have photos from all the seasons, and the holidays here.  The book I made has a simple house shape.

That reminds me of another theme - you could do one on foods your family favors, recipe's from your mother or father, and special holiday foods and the memories they bring back.  

I hope this gets you started and here is my e-mail if you want to contact me about this or keep in touch about your progress:
wrightj45@yahoo.com
Also, how could I forget - if you are a history buff, and if you are a volunteer at a historic site, what a great subject for your ArtJournal!
Happy Trails
Jo Ann

Two favorite Labor Day Songs

#1 -Brother Can you Spare a Dime, Yip Harburg

They used to tell me I was building a dream
And so I followed the mob
When there was earth to plow or guns to bear
I was always there right on the job

They used to tell me I was building a dream
With peace and glory ahead
Why should I be standing in line
Just waiting for bread?

Once I built a railroad, I made it run

Made it race against time

Once I built a railroad, now it's done

Brother, can you spare a dime?

#2 -Deportee
Woody Guthrie

The crops are all in
And the peaches are rotting
The oranges piled up
In their creosote dumps
You're flying 'em back
To the Mexican border
To spend all their money
To wade back again
Good bye to my Juan
Goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos Jesus why Maria
You won't have a name
When you ride the big airplane
All they will call you
Will be "deportees"

Some of us are illegal
And others not wanted
Our work contract's up
And we have to move on
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border
They chase us like outlaws
Like rustlers, like thieves
Good bye to my Juan
Goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos Jesus why Maria
You won't have a name
When you ride the big airplane
All they will call you
Will be "deportees"

Great Labor Day driving to Greenwich

For some reason today, Labor Day, 2017, I had a craving to see farms and crops.  I drove over to Blackwood to pick up a friend, and we headed down past Almonesson Lake,  south on 55, then down into Bridgeton, then down to Greenwich.  We were not disappointed.  The corn is so green and vibrant for this time of year, and all the other crops are as green as if they grew in Ireland.  

The sky was a radiant, well washed blue, and the creeks and ponds were all refreshed by the generous rain we have enjoyed.  

We stopped by some of my favorite buildings:  the one room stone school-house, the Friends Meeting House, and many of the beautiful historic houses along Ye Greate Street.

We drove to Hancock Harbor hoping that by some chance the  Cafe' there might be open, but it wasn't, so we looked at the boats, drove to the Greenwich boat-yard, then headed home again.  On the way we passed Lake Garrison where a number of people were having a happy and colorful picnic.  We also passed Wood's Farm where many people were picking apples.

We stopped at Charlie Brown's in Woodbury for their popular salad bar - DELICIOUS!  

With the windows down and the smell of new mown grass and fertile New Jersey blowing in the window, we returned home again, with nary a speck of traffic the whole way!  

Hope your Labor Day was happy and safe and that at least once you gave a thought to Peter J. Maguire, buried in Pennsauken, and the father of Labor Day and the 40 hour work week!

Happy Trails,
Jo Ann