Movie Review - NOMADLAND

If you haven't seen Nomadland yet, I reecommend it. I first ran across this story as an essay in The Atlantic or Harpers, then I bought the book. The movie is wonderful! Having lived on the road once, myself, in my youth for a year, I could relate to the experience although I was young. Don't know how I would feel about it now in my 70's and definitely wouldn't want to be working for amazon in my 70's though lots of people are. I have met people living in campers in parking lots and in the woods at campgrounds, where you can stay but you can't stay long. What I found most comforting about the otherwise bleak and sad movie, was the way people helped one another and hwo they looked on the bright side and let nature and beautiful scenery lift their weary and burdened spirits. Also, as mystics have known for millenia, there is something about going off and living in simplicity and solitude that brings spiritual peace. The movie is beautiful and thought provoking. I hope you find it and enjoy it.

Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com

MOSAIC ARTIST AT EILAND ARTS

When I went to Eiland Arts this week with another friend to see the Moseaic show, I picked up the artist's card so I have more information in case you might be intereeted. It is a perfect time of year to visit the gallery, sit outside at one of the nice bistro tables and enjoy a coffee and delicious pastry after you see the gorgeous mosaic art.

EILAND ARTS CENTER

10 EAST CHESTNUT AVE.

Merchantville, NJ 08109

856-488-0750 >p/> Artist - Laura Lynn Stern

LaauraLynStern@gmail.com

facebook Laura Lyn Stein, sculptural Designs

This artist designs and creates for residential and commercial properties. But go see her work in person at the gallery and if you are feeling like a nice stroll, enjoy the rails to trails where the old train tracks used to be. I love how they repurposed the old railroad Depot. I enjoyed a lette' and a lemon scone! The pastry are delicious. It seems to me it is the perfect experience for a laid back spring day! ENJOY!

Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com

A Place To Go, A Thing To Do in South Jersey this week! - ART

Today, a friend and I had a splendid day. We had brunch at LesbiVeggies on Merchant St. in Audubon. I had the Hungry Woman Brunch and she had the peach cobbler pancakes. Delicious!

Next, we drove over to Eiland arts, IN Merchantville, right off Centre St. alonside the Railroad and the rails to trails path. I have written about Eiland Arts many times before because it is in a re-purposed railroad depot and I love railroads! Also, I have shown my paintings there many times and ejoy their group shows immensely.

"PIECES OF ME" - A solo show by Laura Lynn Stern

April 5th-May 31st

What a splendid show. The work is magnificent and very very reasonably priced. There were smaller pieces for as low as $50 adn absolutely gorgeous pieces, large and impressive for $200. The craftsmanship as well as the artistic vision were stunning. Even if you aren't in the market for some beautiful art, treat yourself to a wonderful experience and go see this solo show. My favorite pieces were the three crows. My friend's favorite works were the iridescent three square works as you enter the gallery.

This was a lovely way to spend a day. And our walk in Saddler's Woods (Just off Cuthbert Blvd., Collingswood, behind the shopping center) after the Art show was also delightful. The trees have their new green leaves, the sun shone down through the tree canopy and as always the devoted conservator/volunteers of Saddler's Woods had seen to it that there was no trash strewn around. If you aren't familiear with FOREST BATHING, let me say very simply, it has been proven scientifically that the chemical exhalations of trees are therapeutic for people and spending time in the woods is healthful even beyond the exercise. We timed and counted and saw that it is about one mile from one end of the main trail to the other and about 30 minutes. Hope you take me up on this tip and enjoy the forest, the artwork, and the delicious food. LesbiVeggies is not open on Monday or Tuesday. Another friend told me there was a tv piece about their restaurant last week.

This message just in from RANCOCAS WOODS for Saturday - Enjoy!

Hi friends! It’s that time again...the Rancocas Woods Craft Show is this Saturday 10-4. We’ve got over 90 vendors in back of the shops AND even more vendors in the courtyard at On Angels Wings! The Craft Co-Op is stocked full of lovely gifts for that special mama in your life! New items are coming in daily!

Also, mark your calendars...on May 8th the Shops in Rancocas Woods are honoring all mothers with a free flower! Collect a flower from all participating shops to make yourself a beautiful bouquet (while supplies last)! When you’re finished collecting your flowers, stop in The Artisan House and Miss Juanita will be happy to wrap them all up for you!!! And don’t forget about the Kids Craft Show and Flea Market on the same day from 10-2!

Lots of fun “in the woods”!

Hope to see you there!

Bill & Keri

Time Team Episode 5, Season 20

If you have visited my site before, you will have seen that I have posted aabout my favorite archaeology showBritain's Time Team. A team of archaeologists with narrator are invited by a town or a group to excavate ruins or mythical ruins and answer questions. The trick is, they only have 3 days to do their work. In the episode in the title, called WARRIORS, Time Team were invited to join the military in exploring a site in Wessex owned by the army, which is not far from the famous Stonehenge. It is a burial mound which the archaology investigation team of the army have been excavating for months.

What makes this episode to interesting to me is that the military has a program to rehavilitate severely wounded and or traumatised soldiers through the archaeology dig. The first soldier to come up with the idea was wounded in Iraq and when he came home he was in such despair he was suicidal, BUT, he became interested in the Time Team show and pitched the idea of doing archaological digs with traumatised soldiers to the military and they signed on. Dozens of soldiers worked at the burial mound at Barrow Clump, overlooking Figheldeen an ancient Anglo Saxon village below and in sight of the giant mound.

The wounded soldier who originated the idea of using the projects to rehabilitate soldiers sunk in despair and apathy, said he didn't know why watching Time Team was so helpful to him, but it was. His favorite TT member was Phil Harding, also my favorite, and I would guess everyone's favorite, for his outgoing and humorous nature and his ability to display his emotions. He has a childlike joy, especially when he finds flint, which is his specialty.

In this episode almost 50 Anglo Sacxon skeletons were unearthed, dating from the 500's. Also there were cremations dating from 2000 years ago, the Bronze Age, many artifacts such as metal shield bosses, which are the circular metal centerpieces in a wooden shield, as well as broaches and spear heads. It must have been strange for the soldiers to be unearthing soldiers who died, 1500 years ago, although there were also women and children in this burial which is an anomoly.

I have often wondered myself why this show is so engaging. After all, it ran for 20 seasons and I have to say I have loved all 20 seasons of it. Possibly, part of it is the ensamble of teammates, but also, their infectious enthusiasm, the anticipation of what they might dig up, and the marvel of the narratives they are able to spin from such minute pieces of bone and pottery. Also, it is like a visit with the ancestors and a comfort to think of long expanses of time which puts things into perspective. Well, I close now because I am off to episode 6.

Jo Ann

If you wish to converse with me, you may use my e-mail as comments has been hacked and ruined by spammer.

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Early American Life Magazine June 2021 - Historic Place Ideas

I have written many times about Erly American Life Magazine. Every single issue has something of interest to me even though I am no longer working as a histori site docent. For those of you new to my blog, I used to be a volunteer at half a dozen historic sites in New Jersey, but over the past ten years or so, I have had to cut back, and then the pandemic put a full stop to my final volunteer experience which was at the James and Ann Whitall HOuse at Red Bank Battlefield, in National Park, New Jersey. When I began there well over ten years ago, a brilliant and charismatic young curator, Meghan Giordano, sadly deceased at an early age, was an inspiration to everyone who volunteered there.

During that time, early in my retirement, I was introduced to EArly American Life by a librarian friend and I have subsribed to it ever since. Along with my passion for history, I have always had a fascination and respect for hand-made, hand crafted objects such as pottery, quilting, metal work, wood work and so on. It oes with the territory. I have a degree in Art and taught Art most of career of 35 years. Although I have a very large yard, oddly pie shaped, narrow at the front and spread out like a fan at the back, I was never much interested in gardening until I met the master gardners of Whitall House, in particular, my favorite, Joyce Connolly. She took me on a tour of her garden once, and she gave me Lily of the Valley, one of my most beloved little plants, the fragrance is intoxicating. And she gave me a mystery plant which she identified for me a couple of years after as Helibore. It blooms with tennis ball sized yellow blossoms early in the spring, about the time the crocus peak up their brave little heads.

AS I said, I usually read EAL from cover to cover, so I may be back after this entry with a review of another article but for this post I wanted to mention Greenfield Village, I think it is somewhere near Detroit because in the article the Manager of Greenfield mentioned moving the Detroit Central Market Building to their 80 acre, 83 historic structure site. What I found interesting was the wide array of events they sponsor there in order to bring in the visitors and to spark their interest and keep them coming back. That's how you get tax support to keep this historic treasures for the future.

At Greenfield they hold antique automobile shows, they do a big splash for Halloween and Christmas; they recently bought the farm of the founder of Firestone and they are plowing and raising farm produce and crops. The plan for the Detroit Central Market is to compare urban and rural food history, and to open the discussion on food literacy, the history of distribution, food deserts, and other topics of contemporary importance.

I understood the push at Whitall House after a big consultation effort to design the future, to focus on the specific main incident of Red Bank Battlefield which was the October 1775 Battle, but I always thought it was a shame to be narrow like that because one of the MOST popular events we ever held was a World War II Reenactment. Hundreds of people came and visited our site for the first time. And we could justify it at that time because there had been a WWII Sentry Tower on the site to guard the Delaware River owing to the stealthy patrolling of our Atlantic coast by U Boats at the time. They were slaughtering our Merchant fleet. My father had been a Merchant Seaman before he joined the Navy and so I was well aware of the dangers to Merchant ships at that time.

Personal history often plays a big part in the stimulation of and the depth of the appreciation of younger people for history. Since so many of my family members participated in so many big events in our history, it was all very real to me. My Grandfather Lyons was on the Mexican border during the first World War to protect our Sothern border. My father and his brothers wer in the navy during World War II, and my grandfather on the paternal side was a Merchant Seaman. My mother worked at the Navy Yard during the War before she joined my father in Florida and after she came home to Philadelphia when he shipped out.

One of the extra types of vents we still hold at Red Bank, however, is the annual Garden show which is popular and beautiful. Look for that in the end of the summer, and in the fall come to our October re-enactment. Perhaps by then, I will be back to giving tours! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com

Early American Life Magazine

16759 West Park Circle Drive

Chagrin Falls, Ohio 44023

1 Year, 7 issues - $28.00

Happy Easter 2021 - Old Photographs

Well, it has been a long and interesting and challenging year from March of 2020 to April of 2021. I won't get into the politics of it, because that isn't what this blog is about, and we have all had more than enough of the Pandemic, although I will take a moment to say that this past Wednesday, I closed out the month of March by getting my second inoculation of the Pfizer vaccine at the Mooestown Mall Mega Site. It was not quite as eerie as going for the first shot when I entered the process and the old abandoned Lord and Taylor Store for the first time. This time, I knew the ropes and I didn't have the fresh eye of the first timer. What was new, however was the enormous relief I felt when I left. I had no idea of the burden I had been carrying for a year until after my second shot and the burden of fear fell off my shoulders.

Again, I was fortunate and had no bad reaction to the inoculation. Many people I have heard about and have talked to have not been so lucky and have reported sore arms and muscle and joint pain. Some said they were wiped out for a day or two. I was perfectly fine - or at least as fine as I was before the shot.

But what I wanted to talk about today, was old photographs which I love with a romantic passion. Before my Grandmother Mabel died, she gave me a wooden box with old family photographs of hers in it, two of them date back to the early days of photography in the 1800's; they are her parents, Catherine Sandman and William Adam Young and Ipresume it must be wedding photographs or sometime around then 1884. I have old photographs from my mother's side of the family too, her parents and the early days of my own parent'ss marriage. My parents photographs ae from the second World War when my father was in the navy and stationed in Florida. They are so beautiful and carefree and young that it breaks my heart, but I am consoled when I think of what long and happy lives they had after the war when so many others lost their lives. My parents got to buy successively larger houses, move to the suburbs, plant a vegetable garden, grill on my father's elaborite brick backyard grill, swim in pools, have children and watch them all grow up, and they got to celebrate their lives in many ways. I have photographs of many of those ways, but surprisingly few from our many road trip vacations.

I was given a camera very early on and I took photographs from the start and regularly for the rest of my own long an lucky life. More than a decade ago, I began to do family history, and to share it with my siblings and their children, I also began to use the old family photograps. For example, I had a somewhat amusing photograph of my cousin Patty and I, around 1955, dressed up and posed in our Easter outfits outside a row home in South Philadelphia which may have been my family's first home. I made copies of it and mounted it on pretty floral scrapbooking paper, framed it, and glued button sized magnets on the back so it would stick to the refrigerator. I sent one to my cousin and put one on my fridge. For Halloween, I copied and hung a dozen old photographs from the 1940's and 50's on black screening and used it for a decoration with some fabric leaves glued on - very attractive. My biggest project was to have postcards made for several holidays from those old photographs - couples for Valentine's day with a red Valentine border, Navy and Marine portraits of my father and brother for Veterans' Day and Memorial Day with a red, white and blue border, and Christmas postcards of my brother and myself with anta around 1950. It wasn't at all expensive - it only cost around $40 for 50 postcards.

This year I came up with another use for some old photographs for Easter. My sister's house burned down 5 years ago in March and she lost most of her family mementos and photographs. From time to time, for the holidays, I make copies of the ones I have and give them to her in albums. For Easter this year, I framed si of them and put them in an Easter Basket protected in the green grass. She can't eat candy and she lives on a farm, so she doesn't need more flowers, so I thought a basket of memories was a good solution. ,p/> One year for Christmas, I gave all my siblings (there are 5 of us) a 2.3 foot framed family tree collage of family photographs which I had scanned and had copied and printed at Belia Copy Center in Woodbury, where I also had my postcards made. NEXT I am thinking of a way to use two dozen small black and white glossy photographs of toddlers who may be my father and his brothers from around 1920 which were mailed to my Cousin Patty by another relative. She had no use for them, but I found them enchanting, especially since those babies became men, had full lives and died, but here they are, forever at the beginning with their bright baby eyes and beautiful baby faces. Whatever Art Project I decide to use them in, I want to title it 100 YEAR OLD BABIES. I am thinking of trying the Mod Podge process of photo transfer onto fabric, maybe a white apron which I happen to have, or a baby blanket - time will give me the answer.

Well I hope this blog entry gives someone an idea of something to do with their old family photographs and as always if you want to converse more with me on this subject you can reach me at wrightjr5@yahoo.com. In the mean time, HAVE A HAPPY EASTER!

Jo Ann