Retirement Aug.22,2020

Retirement post date August 22, 2020 As is so often the case, blogger has improved upon something that was working perfectly well so now I can’t use it properly anymore! I am resorting to writing my blog on a word processing program and transferring it over. I can’t make the type larger anymore on blogger. In Sept., I may no longer be able to blog since blogger only let us borrow the ‘old’ version until Sept. 1st, when the new model is imposed and I can’t blog on it at all. Last week, I met a couple of friends in the park who are not yet retired. I retired 13 years ago, as soon as I could. My health had begun to deteriorate and I wanted to spend the next few years as a free woman exploring my options and my world. My first year, I took off entirely. Some days I would get up and get in the car, pick a road from my New Jersey Road Atlas, and just drive to see where it would take me. In this way, I discovered so many wonderful new places such as Bivalve and the Bayshore Discovery Center there. After my year of total freedom, I settled in to volunteering for the next half dozen years. I volunteered at several local historic sites such as Red Bank Battlefield, Alice Paul Foundation, Gloucester County Historical Society, Camden County Historical Society where I also worked part-time for a couple of years as a suitcase history storyteller in schools. These were such fruitful years because History was a bit outside my former fields I taught English and Art in my education career. I loved it! Learning about the history gave me additional places to seek and discover. For instance working at Red Bank Battlefield opened the whole world of Revolutionary War History to me and we, the volunteers formed a club and took many field trips for instance to the homestead of William Penn. On my own, I explored South Jersey sites such as the site of the Battle of Chestnut Hill and Trenton Barracks, Battle of Princeton site, and Monmouth Battlefield. Now I had the opportunity to join the Outdoor Club and explore hiking and kayaking. So many new places were opened up to me such as Jim Thorpe, in Pennsylvania where I hiked up a waterfall in summer and when it was frozen in winter. My knees and back began to give me trouble so I was no longer able to manage stairs, or long hours of tours. I took up painting again and got re-acquainted with some old Rutger’s College fellow artists from the print-making program. We formed an Art Club. Soon I had a lot of paintings and I began to look around for local, group show notices. I showed work at the first annual Atsion Arts and Crafts Fair, Fortnightly Annual Scholarship Art Show, Haddonfield, and at, my favorite, Eiland Arts Center, located in the old historic Merchantville train station where, this Spring I won first place in the BRAVE 100 Art Show celebrating the Centennial of the Women’s Suffrage Amendment. I began to write again and participated in Poetry readings, a couple of writing groups, Riverton Writers, for a decade, and Owl Grove for two or three years. After putting an entry in The Mad Poets Society Annual Poetry Contest, I was thrilled to win first prize and get published in their Journal with my poem RAIN. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? But that’s not all. I also now had time to try my hand at writing books and I wrote three which I independently published: a historical novel called White Horse Black Horse, a relationship novel called 181 Days, and a memoir called 1969 On The Road. When I worked all the time I had neither the energy or the time for any additional hobbies or even a social life. At that time, also, I was raising a child and by the time I retired, she had grown up and launched herself on her own creative and independent life. I was free from responsibility and had only the usual household chores to hold me down. As they say in advertising - WAIT!! There’s more! I had so much free time that I tried some new hobbies in arts and crafts. I made a scrapbook for my sister for her 50th birthday, and my daughter for her 30th, then one for myself for my 70th! And I began a long and, of course by its very nature, endless foray into family history. It is amazing what you can do when you are free! So if you contemplate retirement and don’t know what you will do, perhaps this will help you just a little to explore a few ideas I have posted. Some of the things my retired friends do, now that I have time for friends too, are: volunteering at Animal Shelters, Wildlife Rescue, Political Campaigning, gym memberships and fitness, a few have written books, some have developed new careers that are offshoots of the old careers they had, and many do art and writing. A few have taken cooking courses and one or two like to travel. One gardens and one has done various projects related to her church. Many friends are history volunteers, which is where I met them, and the ones I met in the Outdoor Club still hike and kayak. Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

A Memorial to Rob Sweetgall - a Life Well Lived

Back in 1981, when I still lived in New Jersey near the Cooper River I had the opportunity to see the Edward Payson Weston 6 Day Race. It was held on a little running track on the Pennsauken side of Cooper River. For 6 days, ultra marathon runners ran/walked/jogged as many miles as they could stay upright to finish. I was a lap counter volunteer and I counted laps for Rob Sweetgall. Shortly thereafter, Rob and I began to date and I did a few small things to help him start his biggest accomplishments his dream and his goal for his life, to run around the perimeter of the United States. It was to kick off his new business in Creative Walking for Fitness. He had been a chemical engineer for Dupont but his family history of heart disease propelled him into life changing career in promoting fitness by walking. Hw wrote about a dozen books on the subject and reached countless thousands with his lecture tours to promote walking fitness in corporations and schools across America. While he was on his year long odyssey, our paths diverged. He went on to complete not only his 10,000 lie perimeter walk/run program, but to walk in all 50 states and yet another 11,000 mile walk run. Eventually Rob married an herbal healing expert named Darcy Williamson and by all I found doing research on them, they lived a healthful and happy life in MCCall, Idaho. Rob died in 2017. I didn't know he had died until I looked him up the other day on google and found his obituary. He was a kind and sensitive man and I am glad he had the opportunity to live his creative and fulfilling life to promote wellness and fitness. Rob loved the outdoors and I am happy that he lived the rest of his life in McCall, Idaho, which by the photos on Maven's Haven (his wife's herbal medicine studio) looks like a beautiful place of mountains and forests. And I am happy that he had a wife who shared his passion for the natural world and for healthful living. Both of them wrote many books which are available on amazon. Darcy Williamson has written many books on herbal medicine and edible wild plants as well as some history of her homeland of Idaho. Rob has a dozen books on walking for fitness as well as one he and Darcy wrote on fast and healthful meals to go with an time-economical fitness program for people with busy lives. In honor of Rob, I plan to plant a couple of trees in my yard in September, and I will buy one bookworm each author. Rob had a powerful impact on the lives of all who met him and he was an inspiration to us all. To my sorry, I found that at least 4 of the original Payson 6 Day Race marathoners have since passed away, Harry Berkowitz, Wes Emmons, and Sabin Snow, as well as Rob. Wes was the oldest and died at 83. Rob was only 69. He died of cancer. Their stories are living examples of how people can live the life of their dreams and how you can step out of a life that doesn't fit and make a success of another lifestyle, outside the conventional path you may have found yourself on. I hope this blog post inspires any readers to look up Rob Sweetgall, Darcy Williamson and Edward Payson Weston, all heroes for health and for the environment. Happy Trails, wherever your life may lead you! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

So sorry - it didn't work. The old blogspot format just deleted all my paragraphs and my attempt to enlarge the font.

Pandemia Journal - My Blogger book club - The Janes 8/5/2020

Don't know if there will be another blog post after this one. There is a "new and improved" format for blogspot that no longer allows me to post so this may be the last one. I can only do this one because there was an allowance to use the old format one more time, however the old format was not the one I used and it doesn't allow me to make the text larger - sorry! So, I can barely see this type as it is. Maybe I can type it on 'pages' and past it in - I will try! Blog Post - My blog book club and my invisible friend. Recently, after spending a few evenings watching El Chapo as part of my Latin American experience, i watched one episode of Immigrants, a series on illegal immigration and the ICE debacle. I got so depressed by the brutality and heartlessness in both of these series, that I needed to take a break and visit a gentler, simpler, imaginary place - AVONLEA, Prince Edward Island. When I was a confused, terrified, misfit child, I found Anne of Green Gables in my Grandmother Lyons’ basement bookcase. As I have said before about this bookcase, I have no idea why it was in the abasement and no one but me had any interest in the books at all. I don’t know whose they were originally, although my Uncle Joe Lyons told me the Tarzan book was his father’s, my grandfather, Joseph Lyons, Sr. Anyhow, there, I found a girl like me, a dreamer, a book lover, a storyteller, who was humiliated at school, and traumatized in a number of ways in ordinary life. Anne showed me you could survive and thrive despite it all, and I did! Watching the series again, with new fresh eyes, I realized what a profound impact the book had on my life. My lifelong interest in one-room schools, my 35 year career as a teacher, my love of writing, and so much more (my love of trees and my feeling of empathy and comradeship with animals.) This time, I noticed how as my life moved on, so I became other characters in the story - during my motherhood/teacher years, I became a kind of Marilla, and now in my old age, I have softened into kind of Mathew. It came to me that the delicious details, the deepening profundity of the simplest dialogue, the momentousness of ordinary little things, came from a world where a woman was so confined by culture, community and law, that she was forced to ponder and use for her resources, the long littleness of life. Then I thought, how much L. M. Montgomery, Charlotte Bronte, and Jane Austen had in common. Their focus on the psychology of the intimate life, the customs, the hypocricy, the conventions in constant jousting with human nature, was created by their very confinement within the Victorian cage of their times. If I had a book club this would be what I would like to discuss. But being a freewheeling, follow my own trail kind of reader, I don't join book clubs. Last month would have been the start of a long period of Latin American authors. Well, I hope something gets improved so I can continue to talk to you, my invisible, imaginary friend. You are like the imaginary friend in the china cabinet that Anne Shirley spoke with in her years of solitude -Katie in the clock! Happy Trails, Jo Ann

Pandemia Journal - Mexican politics in the El Chapo era

Perhaps you, too, are watching the Netflix series on EL CHAPO.  Probably, I wouldn't have been watching this if it weren't for my recently re-discovered interest in our southern neighbors.  In fact, at the time when El Chapo was in the headlines, I was already disturbed by a kind of 'Robin Hood' 'Pirates of the Caribbean' mythology that was growing up around him.

After we all saw the bodies hanging from the overpass in Juarez, we began to become aware of the murderous pathology that had infected the politics and economics of Latin America.

It was a sad eye-opener to watch the three season series, which was about 30 episodes and very detailed.  It was all far far too complicated for me to try to summarize, by the way the corruption spread upwards like a kind of social gangrene, was interesting to see in a map kind of way.  

Needless to say there were many profound thought inspiring aspects to this film series as well as to the political and social world the series portrayed.  It is a work of art, not a documentary, but sometimes they are the very things which touch on the ineffable, the hard to see, hard to comprehend things.

One repetitive aspect that was occurring to me was the answers to the question:  What is the best way to live to be happy?
To the drug lords, it seemed to reside in willful domination over others, power through emotional manipulation and intimidation as well as bribery, expensive accessories such as Rolex watches, sports cars, the acquisition of as many 'prize women' as possible, into a kind of harem with beautiful models and celebrities at the top of the list.  The material goals were far more than these, and so were the desperately clever strategies to capitalize on an opportunity to achieve the means to get those goals.  A big one was the goal to be "The Boss."  Kind of like a one god only model.

I couldn't help by contrast that philosphy with more Eastern ones like Buddhism, where the main goal is to recognize your mind, comprehend your thought patterns and de-throne them so that you can achieve peace through inner power rather than outward materialism.

And then, the other contingent weighs in, the reformers who devoted their lives to worthy causes to support and assist their fellow human beings. 

The same argument falls into the history of the Quaker religion, when the individual spirit, direct communication to god from within, revelation oriented Quakers came to debate with the orthodox Quakers who wanted a kind of imposed conformity and a profession of spirituality through action rather than say, meditation.

I don't claim to know the answer or to even think there is one, but I have tried most of these approaches at some point in my life and I have become what I am, a simple, solitary, somewhat materialistic human (as in I have a house and a car and pets), and I do manage to fall into periods of meditative state periodically throughout my day.  I have felt spiritual yearning from time to time in my life, but conventional denominations and church groups were unappealing to me and I have serious and well-thought out opinions on such things as 'holy books' or 'spiritual leaders,' or even the 'one god' concept.  I can appreciate it as a unifying force in society but utterly irrelevant and superstitious seeming to me.

What would I think is a good life at this moment?  Well, I try to think of the things I have done that I feel were good - my long career in education, raising my daughter, managing to independently buy a small, humble, but utterly comfortable house, I got educated and I still educate myself,  I seek to understand other people and the world around me and I have values I hold to be high oral ones that eventuate in good for the most people, abstract concepts that reveal themselves in law such as justice, equal opportunity, fair play, honor in making agreements, and so on.  Also I believe that right behavior begins at home in kindness and compassion towards the animal companions who come into your life, understand an support for family and friends. 

Well, I didn't want this to get too long, so that's a good enough start.  By the way, we don't have the old standard "Crime Doesn't Pay" for no reason.  Depending how things evolve over time, I believe that crime doesn't pay in the real things like peace,, happiness and a sense of self worth.  I am sorry for those who are denied by circumstance the opportunity to have a long relationship with the joy of those things.

Happy Trails,
Jo Ann

Pandemia Journal - Taking a Lessons from Home-schoolers: Education in the Pandemic

History teaches us so many things, not least of which is the long evolution of education.  A perfect and local example  is the Clara Barton one-room school in Bordertown.  In the Colonial period, children were taught at home by both their at-home parent (usually a mother) and hired tutors.  

In 1852, an ambitious and high motivated young teacher came to Bordertown, New Jersey, from Massachusetts.  Her name was Clara Barton.  The community gave her a ramshackle little one room building to begin the first public school.  On the first day six children showed up and they all pitched in to clean up and ready the school for more.  Clara Barton's efforts eventuated in 500 students.  She was so successful, that she was put under the supervision of a male administrator which outraged her, as it should, so she left to found first the registry of wounded and dead during the Civil War, and finally the Red Cross.

My point with this blog entry, however, is that there were models available to us to use as temporary solutions during the pandemic.  
My idea is that a group of PTA type parents and retired educators could form a cooperative.  If there were, say four teachers, on hourly tutoring wages, and a set of perhaps ten parents, A teacher could meet at the backyard of the Brown family on Monday and tutor in (if it were me) English, Art, and History.  On Tuesday the small group of 5 to ten students could meet at the Green family backyard for Math and Phys Ed.  Whys Ed could be croquet, while ball, bad minton, and if there is a pool, swimming and pool safety.  
On Wednesday, a parent volunteer and chauffeur could help the tutor take the children on field trips to, for example, Red Bank Battlefield for a history lesson, Bivalve for a science lesson, Funny Farm for a lesson in science, the planetarium (I think there is one at Glamssboro) for astronomy, There are literally hundreds of small museums and historical societies and nature centers like the Palmyra Nature Center, that could be used as learning destinations. 

I think this could actually be done with three tutors!  Possibly even with two!  I know I, personally, could do History, Art, Literature and Language Arts, and probably lower level Science.  A Science tutor could perhaps handle pays ed.  

The Home Schooling folks could teach everyone a lesson in how to do education on your own.  Don't get me wrong, I think children are better off in school and that home-schooled children miss a o, including exposure to diverse cultures and personalities, however, in times of pandemic, home-schooling could offer us a way out of children not having any education.

And by the way, home tutoring was the only education until the 1800's.  One room schools came next.  

Some of the advantages of the home-tutor idea aside from safety from the danger of large groups confined in building which we know makes a perfect way to spread corona virus, would be children would have more one to one attention, and tutors with small groups would be better able to get them to wear masks!  Taking temperatures could even be a way to teach health and science!

Heaven knows there are plenty of talented teachers who have retired who may be willing, on a temporary basis and hourly tutoring wage, to do such a thing.  Detrimentals would be the fear of litigious and fault finding parents.  There would have to be some legal involvement to begin with because there is always a parent who would become aggrieved over something or other who would see an opportunity to go to court like going to the bank.  

The parent group would have to be carefully selected, as would the tutors.  There would have to be some protection for the home-owners as well for the same reason.  And there remains the bathroom issue.  My suggestion would be a team of parent chaperones who could help with bathroom issues and lunch (although a brown bag from home would be best for this, especially in view of nut allergies and so on).  

In the Sunday New York Times today there was an article on POD SCHOOLS which sparked my idea of home-schooling models.  If the tutors were paid even a generous hourly wage, it could be supported by a contribution arrangement, so for example, a $50 an hour, could be covered by - well, I can't teach math and trying to figure out that cost per 10 families, for example, is already making my head tired.  We would need a treasurer/accountant.  If you had a truly cooperative group, probably most supplies could be individually supplied by the parents for each child and some plan for students who have low income families like a scholarship.

Needless to say there would be some risk for the tutors even with such small groups and if a teacher is retired, she or he probably is old enough to have some of the health concerns related with aging, high blood pressure and such.  Lots of legal releases would need to be drawn up and signed.

Just an idea that creative and energetic parents and teachers might like to consider!  I have always loved the one-room school model in education history, and I have done a bit of tutoring for enrichment, privately, as well as the full range of home-tutoring when I was still employed  I did English as a Second Language, home-bound tutoring for students absent for medical reasons, and many community ed night classes as well as Lab School experience.  One of my favorite courses at Glamssboro State College for my first Bachelor's degree was in ALTERNATIVES IN EDUCATION!  Back in the 1970's this creative approach was very popular and many models for learning came from it.

Happy Trails!
Jo Ann
wright45@yahoo.com   (my e-mail)

Best Day in 6 months - BIVALVE, NJ

A TRUE FRIEND - If you are like me and fall in love with PLACES, you will understand how happy I was today when a true friend volunteer to take me to visit a place I loved from the first moment I laid eyes on it:  BAYSHORE DISCOVERY CENTER, in Bivalve, New Jersey.

At one time, Bivalve was a busy, wealthy, thriving community of oyster fishermen, and rich people's summer vacation homes.  Hundreds of box cars rolled in and out of Bivalve each day carrying oysters to Philadelphia and New York.  It was a golden harvest until the mid 1950's when a bacteria was brought in via bilge water in ships and infested the oysters and killed them.  Almost overnight the devastation destroyed the oysters, the communities that built up around the harvest of them.

My dear friend and fellow history buff, Barbara Solem volunteered to drive me down to Bivalve to see the new exhibit, a temporary exhibit of relics brought up from shipwrecks along the coast.  Some of the most interesting items pointed out to us by the tour guide were round bottom bottles designed to keep the corks wet by not standing upright on flat bottoms, and a ships telephone in almost pristine condition, giant lobster claws as large as baseball its, some beautiful china, cutlery and many other items of interest.

I didn't think I would ever get back to Bivalve because it is an hour and a half from my house and not many would be willing to go there.  In the past, when I drove, I could persuade people to go with me but now that I can't drive that far (old car - 14 years old and 200,00 miles on her) it isn't possible for me to go to many of the far away places I once loved.

I was a tour guide at Bivalve for a couple of years till my car began to suffer from its old age and I didn't feel safe driving so far anymore.  

BIVALVE is a kind of ghost town with a boardwalk and a series of old shops for sails, ships engines, a post office, a shucking shed and an oyster cafe among others.  That's on the land side, on the water slide there are decks and we were able to sit at a table out there and eat the lunch we bought at a Wawa we passed when we hit the bottom of Route 55.  It was so cool on the docks, a brisk breeze came in off the water and we sat beside the remains of the old masted schooner CASHIER which has been slowly and sadly sinking into the mud and disintegrating.  The wheelhouse of the old Cashier was rescued, but sadly there was never enough money to dryadic the Cashier itself and make the necessary repairs which became or of a millions of dollars project of replacement than repair.

Fortunately, this being as Saturday, we did not run into shore traffic.  The tour guide told us the traffic is mainly bad on Friday nights and Sunday nights.  We hit one or two slow spots due to a flat tire repair in one lane, and a bottle neck where 55 forks and the left side becomes 322 to Denisville.  The way home was entirely traffic free.

Something about the lonely, even ghostly quality of the place spoke into my heart and I became infatuated with that place.  I read everything I could get my hands on about it.  Many of my old entries are about books I read abut this most southerly part of New Jersey, the old SOUTH JERSEY magian the history one, not the new travel one, and many books like MAN, THE SEA AND INDUSTRY, andTHE MAURICE RIVER.  I was captivated by the story of the old man who all his life wove the baskets they used by the thousands in the oyster industry.  I saw a photo of him from the WPA days, sitting in front of his little one room house, weaving the baskets.  For some years I tried to find one of those baskets to buy but no luck.  When I found them on-line, they were too expensive.

As much love and happiness as I experienced there was also a feeling of sadness for the day when I was a volunteer there and got to go every week and spend time there.  It made me aware of how trapped I have been during the pandemic, and even before, by my failing eyesight, bad knees, and old car.  My roaming and adventurous days have come to an end and I miss them.  

When I went there in the old days, I took all kinds of turns and side streets to explore the area, I roamed freely with hours of free time since I was retired and had no reason to hurry home, no dog waiting for dinner, no schedule to keep, such freedom,  It was one of those times you think will never end but they do.

Much thanks to the generosity and friendly love that brought my friend Barbara Solem to volunteer to take me there and share the day with me.  As we ate lunch on the dock, the cooly elegant Meerwald schooner came slowly gliding along like a swan.  I took photos and after I rest up, I will post some here.

If you haven't been there, you should really go - you won't be sorry, and there are no crowds!  But you must wear a mask!  Entrance fee is $5 for seniors and $7 for general public.  If you aren't vegan or vegetarian, you might want to have lunch on the docks with something from the oyster Cafe' which is what the family we saw visiting that day were doing.  Other than that family lunching on the docks it was quiet there as I always remember it being, and peaceful.  What a lovely day and a great friend to spend it with.

Barbara Solem is the author of three books on the history of the PineBarrens so we share a love of old places and history.  Other places I miss dreadfully are Pakim Pond, and the Maurice River Bluffs where I used to hike and take Captain Dave's boat ride. "Those were the days, my friend I thought they'd never end..."

Happy Trails!
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com