Happy Halloween 2026

I am mostly better after the September car crash, but won't have a new car for 2 more weeks, until my daughter comes home and goes with me to the Kia dealer to buy one. But if I could drive and find a friend to go with me, this is what I would do for my Halloween adventure:

Fall Foliage Rambler

October 31st - November 1st | Times Vary

Woodstown Central Railroad

See Salem County at its most colorful aboard the Fall Foliage Rambler. This two-hour autumn excursion travels approximately 32 miles over the full length of Woodstown Central Railroad, passing through Woodstown,Swedesboro, and Salem while showcasing forests, farmland, and fall scenery along the way. Spots are filling up fast.

I have always loved a train ride. My favorite ones were in West Virginia with my family, but I have also taken the Jim Thorpe train ride and another one in Pa. several times. The magic and excitement of the train ride will probably end with my generation as younger people only know speedine trains, not the old passenger lines, and I think it doesn't hold the same chache' - I could be wrong.

Anyhow, even to this day, the morning train that passes through my town reaches me with its lonesome whale song!

Have a Happy Halloween and I hope you enjoy your old time favorite scary movies with it!

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Happy Update after Car Crash - Monday 20/26/26

Toa was a banner day for me. My great-niece Alex came over and took me to the Nail Salon so I could get my toenails cut, then we went to the bank so I coul deposit two refund checks I received from overpayments.

The mail is so poor now that my bills come without enough time to get the payments back in time. So I get late notice and pay again and they refund the first payment. I tried, in vain, to add the accounts to my online bill pay but I couldn't do it and I went to the bank, and the bank clerk couldn't do it, so for two bills, I am stuck with the post office.

After the bank, we drove back to Audubon and had lunch at the Legacy Diner which was a big step because until today, I couldn't stay upright that many hours without neck and shoulder pain. That is how much better I have gotten. A big step. Plus I really wanted an omelette and home fries. On the way home Alex drove through Dunkin Donuts and I got my other treat, a large hot decaffeinated latte' - WHAT A day!

I am now doing laundry. My regular chores are all caught up and I only have my exercises to do. I am going to rest now and do my exercises a bit later. It was a long morning for me - up at 7:30 to shower by 8:00 when Alex was due to arrive, and then up and around until 1:00 p.m. My neck feels pretty good though - not much pain.

I will watch an episode of Inspector Lewis - the sequell to Inspector Morse, and then I will do my exercises and feed the cats and finish the laundry.

Today is the first day that I could actually say I felt happy again!

Happy Again! wrightj45@yahoo.com

Guides through the Struggles

October 24, 2025, Saturday and I am just finished looking at my e-mail news feed. I found two things that were not only worth reading but were bits of enlightenment: Allison Aubrey interviewing Patti Callahan Henry. an author, and my long time favorite Nadia Bolz Weber.

The theme of Nadia Bolz Weber's s=written piee was learning how to embrace and recognize the gifts of aging in what feels so much like a time of loss. Thi is a reallly good one for me at 80 having just reocovered from a terrible car crash that took so much from me. But really it is for all of us who are in the final chapters of our lives. At this point I have to quote my favorite Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown says wistfully to Snoopy "Snoopy one day we will die." And Snoopy replies "Yes but every other day we will live." This is one of the most profound statements I have ever come across and I have been finding and saving profound thoughts my whole life. A fascinating thought Nadia Bloz Weber brings up is about our common meal grace where we thank God for our daily bread. THe thought is that whether we find or recognize God's love (or whatever we think of in the place of God) it i still there. And our daily bread however we may conceive of that symbolic item is given to us with or without asking. I think of it as our daily life, our portion. What matters is if we recognise and are grateful for it.

The other theme in the Nadia Bolz Weber piece is about embracing the new rather than tryng to grasp onto what we have left. Old age frees us from so many kinds of struggle, including, to some large degree, the pain of self-consciousness. I always think of the saying "You would not worry so what folks think of you if you knew how little they do." What is meant is that people are engaged in their own stories adn you aren't a main character in them. Old people learn humility because we have no choice. I had to let go of my dignity and my pride in the hospital and in Rehab. I had to wear a diaper, like a baby for over a week when the trauma of the impact to my body had deprived me of control over my bladder! I had to take a shower with the presence of a female Physical Therapist (for safety) to show that I could manage self-care upon release. It has been decades since anyone saw me without clothes and I don't even appear in a bathing suit since I got old and stout, too proud! Well, I couldn't get out of rehab if I couldn't demonstrate that I could take a shower and wash myself, so I did it, unashamedly.

Also, I learned to ask for and to accept help when it was almost an instinct in me to say, "No thanks, that's okay, I'm fine." Well, I wasn't fine. I desperately needed fresh fruit and when a friend asked if I needed anything, I asked for apples and bananas and she brought them. Another friend took me to pick up my presecriptions, to pay my taxes and to mail things at the post office. Different friends, and I was blessed to have about ten people who fit that category, each took a task or errand and helped me through this month.

The topic of the Aubrey interview was how when a woman asked her daughter what she wanted to be when she grew up, she surprised her mom by sayin she wanted to be a writer. The mom assumed her daughter would want to do what she had done, become a nurse, a mother. The mom realized she wanted to write too, and her career in writing began and she went on to publish 19 novels! Just because you are an adult doesn't mean that you are 'finished.' You can be always 'becoming.'

Today, I have my ShopRite Home delivery coming in the middle of the day and I will put that away. I have two sets of exercises to accomplish, one set with weights that I do on the porch for strengthening my arms and legs, and one new set I just learned on Thursday at my first home visit PT which involves improving balance, to be done indoors near my bench with the back I use for support. I have a basket of laundry to put away as well.

Often in idle moments I think how I used to read, actually use books as life rafts on the ocean of the day and how now that I can't read, I no longer have that escape and that floating support. I have learned to use audio books but that is a far different experience than reading.

That space and time filler is when some women knit or crochet. I think this blog is my filler now. I love to THINK AND WRITE and share.

Happy Trails friends wrightj45@yahoo.com

Fatigue

A topic on the conversation of everyone in my age group is fatigue. We all complain of lack of energy, motivation and zest. I have a dozen friends with two at the far low end of the energy spectrum who have suffered for some years with this lack of energy, chronic exhaustion and both have sought medical help to no avail. At the bottom of the list is a man, the husband of a friend who has suffered some kind of motorneuron problem. Then there is a friend who moved recently and we both thought she was worn out from the rigors of packing up and moving, but she never got her energy back. Both of these two are are th lowest end of the energy spectrum, the man is gone from walker to wheel chair. Both are around 80. The woman is still functional. Then in the middle is me and 5 pr 6 other friends all of whom are mobile and functional but we suffer from lack of energy. I used to solve that problem with Dunkin Donut's latte' in the morning that would give me a little wave of energy that would carry me through the early part of the day. Then I would slow down again in the afternoon and tuck up for the evening.

I attributed my tiredness to old age. I am, after all 80 which is a very old age to which most people in the century of my birth did not arrive. I figured I was powering down because my body was wearing out, like any animal. My friends attribute their tiredness to some mysterious so far undiagnosed illness like chronic fatigue or an immune disorder of some kind. But what for a solution?

I was joking that it is too bad Dexatrim is off the market. It was a popular over the counter diet pill from the 70's to which many women became addicted because it was basically, SPEED! It was definitely a mother's little helper giving exhausted mothers that surge of energy to get the kids off and get the housework done and the dinner on the table. Sadly, as with all outside stimulants, the body becomes accustomed and you have to have more and more of it.

My only thoughts are that a habitual structure, for me, including lists and stated intentions, laid on a groundwork of character are all that I have to rely on. My two weeks mostly bed ridden after the accident and the pain that accompanied any effort to get up and move around, put me far behind. Since I have come home however the old tried and true of setting intentions and making a list including the simplest daily maintenance activities helps. Also, I try not to sleep late.

In summer, I awaken early usually around 7:00, then in winter I sleep to 9:00 because it is dark and cold. I try to keep to this schedule. I sleep at 11:00 pm. Sometimes I begin to drift to later sleep and later awakening, and I have to make an effort to adjust back. I am wary of creeping bad habits.

My daily journal is like my assignment book and my report card. It really helps me structure and discipline my days. Also, companionship helps a lot. Today, my top of the chart high energy friend Barb is coming for lunch. Last week she treated to pumpkin ravioli from Iliano's Cucina in Shamong, and this week I paid and she picked it up. I am not yet able to confirm that I could sit in a hair in a restaurant through an hour long meal after a ride in the car to the restaurant. I don't know if my neck will hold up and when it begins to hurt, I have to recline with a pillow right away. It hurts.

Yesterday a neighbor dropped by and I walked with him around the two sides of the corner on my CANE without a WALKER! Second time trying that and it was s success. It does tire me out though. I hope to build up stamina over time.

Still doing my exercises on the porch that were assigned from PT at the Rehab and waiting for a call from in-home PT to schedule an appointment.

Steady progress. My two top of the chart energy bunnies Nancy and Barbara, have always been high energy women and they both have always had the habit of daily exercise - hiking for Barbara 20,000 steps, and the gym and a personal trainer for Nancy. Now Barb has a gym routine as well and a fitness class every morning. They have always been high energy and I think it is genetic.

Well that's about it for today's blog post. For the middle of the "where's my energy" group there are about 5 or 6 of us who wonder why we are so tired. Two at the top, two at the bottom and 6 in the middle.

May the force be with you!

wrightj45@yahoo.com (I think they have fixed the comments section if you wish to give it a try!)

Post Crash episode - Bayata Nurse visit

Yesterday, I had a full evaluation from a Bayata Nurse. She was a warm and friendly woman who put me completely at ease. It in't unussual for older people to have trepidations about strangers coming into the house, but my Bayata Nurse was so kind and friendly she felt like an old friend. She did a vitals check my blood prssure has been running a bit high since the accident. My meds have kept it previously at a perfect level of 120 over 80 but it has been hovering in the upper 130's over 80 since the accident. She looked at my house to evaluate safety and my PT routine from the Physical Therapists at Atlas Rehaab. Everything looked good.

It turned out that the nurse's husband was also a teacher, his subject History, so we had that in common. Also we had dogs that looked identical to one another. She and her husband made me think about the army of the good - nurses and teachers. We are probably the most numerous of employed groups in the country. What other field has as many employed workers as nurses and teachers? And we are dedicated to doing good for our civiliization.

Today I am scheduled for another visit. I am no longer lcear what this one is for, but it is under the umbrella of post-release follow-up protocol. This is a Practical Nurse. I will ask her about my flu shot.

I will also look up the history of Bayata Nurses which I am sure is an interesting one.

Stau safe o the roads my friends, wrightj45@yahoo.com

Follow up on Car Crash, Week Four

As I mentioned in previous two blog posts, On September 19, I was in a terible car accident. Some reckless driver crashed right into me and totaled boy our cars. I could see him coming right at me and it was light being hit by a speedline train. I was i Cooper Traum for a week, then Atlas Rehab for a week and I have been home for two full weeks. October the 19th will be a month since the nightmare began. My daughter handled alll the Insurance paperwork and my sister was with me every day i the hospital and most days in Rehab. I have been on my own since I came home but I have had company every day - friends visiting, my sister came one day and vacuumed and did laundry, my nephew Archie came and my great-niece Alex; friends brought fruit and cake and soup.

My days have settled into a routine of awakening, getting breakfast, baana, mint tea, then some simple household chores such as the kittly litter boxes which my sister moved into the back room into one line so I coud more easily access them. I feed the cats, do my physical therapy exercises on the porch which are 30 prepititions with a 2 pound dumbell for arms and 30 repetitions of 4 exercises with ankle weights for my legs. The autumn sunshine and fresh air are invigorating and bring me joy as does watching the brisk breezes ripple through the holly trees and the maples which ar just beginning to turn colors.

Every day I am so happy to be home! I make lunch and feed the cats, then in the early evening I settle in to watch Inspetor Morse, usually 2 long episodes and then I watch You Tube aarchaeology documentaries, most recently one about yet another Viking Ssettlement in Labrador, or a standpup comedy show with one of my favorites, Kathleen Madigan, Josh Johnson, Zoltan Kascas, Nate Bargatze. Then I sleep from about 11:30 until 9:00 a.m.

Three times a day my neighbor acrosss the street texts to check in on my as do my friends/neighbors Debby and Eleanor! Aside from texting, I handle some e-mail stuff like yesterday when I printed out 10 pages of a lawyers paperwork for a lawsuit my daughter is arranging in regard to the accident. Also, I pay my bill on line and set up appointments for future things with whomever I can find who is willing to drive me - to pick up prescriptions, get my toenails cut at the nail salon, physical therapy (who is coming today for the first time at 11:00). Nancy drove me to Mt. Laurel to sign my insurance claim papers and to the bank, my handy-main pal Bob Fritsche came and replaced my door knob lock since my keys got lost in the accident.

ShopRite delivers my groceries for a charge of $20. And so it goes. Very cold today! though it looks like it will be mostly in the low 60's for the rest of the week. I am so happy that I have the lovely little porch on my house. There is a colony of small bees in the flagstone floor of the porch over by the side railing, but they don't bother me and I don't bother them in their mysterious little lives which are probably much like mine - their daily chores, meals, maintenance chores.

ot having too much trouble with my state of mind, fortunately, no depression or despair. Having company every day has no doublt been the main spring of my good mood. I think we have all read enough to know social interaction is key to mental stability especially for us old people who can fall so easily into solitude. We are social creatues.

My daughter will marry on October 30, and she has said someone will record it on a cell phone for me. Then in November she will come here and help me buy a car on the 11th and celebrate my birthday. I will be 81 on November 13th. Next comes Halloween and I ordered enough little party favor type trick or treats to cover about 75 kids. My sister may be willing to come here on that day to help me as I am not sure I can sit out on the porch in the cold all that time as my neck begins to hurt when I am up and about for a couple of hours. That is the remaining cost of that reckless driver who attacked me with his car - lingering neck and spine problems.

Still, I am HOME and happy and living my wonderful life filled with joy and wonders. My cat companions are hovering and holding onto me as they are so glad to have me back from my mysterious absence. Their world is once again safe and complete and so is mine!

There is no place like HOME wrightj45@yahoo.com

Car Crash Aftermath Oct. 15, 2025

One week in the Trauma Center at Cooper Hospital, One Week at the Atlas Rehab facility in Woodbury and 2 weeks in my beloved bungalow amidst the trees and sunshine. So far, so good. I am walking about 3 times a week for almost 1000 steps. The rest of the day is the small chores of home and self maintenance: dishes, meals, cat litter, trash out and in - and the main theme of this post: Friends and Visitors

All the years of knowing these people, I never realized how much they cared about me. Barb Solem brought a feast from Iliano's Restaurant and visited for 2 hours while the PSEand G repair man was here. John Krause came to visit and walk with me from my house to his on my walker, Diana Brose stopped by to visit on the day I came home, Joanne Wells brought fruit and apple cake, Nancy Thomas took me to the Insurance Company to sign the finalizing papers for my claim and she and Lori Stasium brought me Paneras soups and little pies for dessert. My great-niece Alex set up my Shoprite homedelivery and neighbor Eleanor took me to CVS for my prescriptions. Mark Cassidy continues to take care of my recycle can and trash can. And through it all Sue has been my strong right arm and my daughter has handled all the endless details of insurance and whatever else has come up. I have been blessed and my advice to everyone would be: Cultivate and Nourish your relationships. That is what really matters. Even my newphew Archie has stopped by gwice and is coming tomorrow for a visit. Once he brought his little boy Bryson along.

This has all been heartwarming and encoraging and I have made almost miraculous progress from the horror of that day when that car CRASHED into my car and trapped ma dnd totaled my Kia Soul. I had just paid to have the brakes done and new battery and iires too.

My daughter's help with the auto claim netted me enough from the estra value of my car to pay off my Bank of America Credit card which held nearly a couple thousand in Uber charges to make it possible for my sister to visit my hoouse every day to care for my caats and to visit me almost every day in Rehab and EVERY day in Cooper Trauma. She had to take a day off of work to do that.

So I can walk and do a lot but after about half a day upright, my neck begins to hurt and I have to lie down on the recliner with a pillow under my neck. I am amazingly well considering what happened to me and I am grateful.

My daughter will be home for her wedding Oct.30, and she will stay in the US for the month of November during which time she will take me to buy my next car. She will be here for my birthday too. I am so looking forward to seeing her. And I am so grateful for her help and her competence.

All Gratitude - For all that reckless driver took from my my friends and neighbors have pulled together to restore me! wrightj45@yahoo.com

Car Crash Part 2 - Week 3

Today, Sunday, I had two visitors - so nice to see people when trapped in the house. My neighbor stopped in and my nephew came by with a latte' for me from Dunkin Donuts - a treat!

Every day for 3 weeks I have said to myself "I can't believe this happened to me." And every day I think of the people in Ukraine and Palestine and in places with floods and earthquakes saying the same thing. It opneed a channel of empathy and compasion. I am one of them now.

Today was a good day though it was raining and I didn't get my walk. I had the visitors and I had the last bowl of the delicious Panera's btternut squash soupl that my friend Nancy brought on her visit. I did my arm exercises with the 2 pound dumbell and listened to my audiobook.

This series audiobook that I am listening too revolves around a master restorer of valuable antiquarian books and delves into the world of rich collectors of first edition classics and rare books worth thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars. As always, someone gets killed and the book resorer is forced to solve the crime. The main character isn't drawn especially well, and I find her kind of infantialized with out dated cutesy qups, but the stories are engaging enough. And there ss a lot about repairing valuable old volumes that I find fascinating I love old books even though I have given away my extensive library to the Free Books Project.

I have, more and more, wished to rid myself of stuff, of clutter and saving things I won't be re-reading or using, or that I just have too any of lke pants! I want my house to be simpler. It is a daily struggle thought my struggle the past 3 weeks has been to regain some measure of my former independence and mobility and pain free existence.

I have renewed desire to move things along and hope to be able to do just that as soon as I have regained my energy and motion. Meanshile, I have my exercises to do and my daily list of maintenance chores to accomplish. These have included: banking - paying bills, getting washed and changed in clothes, doing meals and dishes, scooping cat litter and feeding pets, wlking outdoor weather permitting, and so far, the minor repair of my heater/thermostat with PS E and G. My long range goals are to be driving by the end of October, and mostly back to normal by my birthday in NOvember.

All in all in the midst of my bad lucky I hae had very good luck because I wasn't killee or paralyzed or suffered head injury. All thoughts of dog adoption are on hold now until Spring because winter is coming and I can't face dog walking with snow and ice on the horizon. It is too awful that this accident happened one month after the death of my dog Uma and my cat Booty. A lot of blows, but, I have survived and I will have good years to come. Please forgive typos in blog posts about the accident it is so had for me to see the test on my laptop and I can't sit up straight for any length of time yet.

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Car Crash in Westville

Three weeks ago, In September, I was driving home from Clarksboro where I had dropped off my sister at Platt's farm where she rents a bungalow. I had a cheese hoagie in the car, a bag of produce, and a few pts of chrysanthemums to give to neighbors for things they had done to help me. I always drive the speed limit and I never have tickets or accidents. Unfortunately, this time a speeder came flying at me, I thought through the red light and crashed me car.

I saw the car aiming at me like a speedline train. Then as though hit by a bomb, I was crushed in air bags and smelled smoke and fumes. Iweakly cried "HELP" over and over again, and, help came. A man opened the passenger side door and leaned in and said, "Someone has called 911 and an ambulance is coming; I am going to stay with you until the ambulance takes you away." He took my phone and asked me who to call and I asked him to call my sister.

Soon the police and emergency men had pulled the door to my driver's side open far enough to allow them to cut away the air bags and allow the ambulance folks to pull me out and put me on a stretcher. That was the bumpiest ride, craking and clanking along like a World War 1 van. Every bump was like being stuck by lightening down my spine.

Soon, after the bumpy ride up the highway, I was wheeled into Cooper Trauma Center and my sisster got there by Uber ride. They had put a collar o to stabilize my neck and it was biting into my head. I was in so many kinds of pain - my front had been crushed by the steering wheel and the air bags, my hands hurt, my ribs hurt and I had contusions on my legs below the knees.

The main problem and pain however was my neck and shoulders and spine. They put me on a few kinds of medication for the pain, Oxycodeine, gabapentin, and some kind of muscle relaxant. I drifted in and out of awareness, drifted on a kind of half consciousness that I think was trauma as well as a slight concussion.

The days kind of melted together with painful transfers from one stretcher to another by being lifted by a blanket and shifted over whch jolted my neck and back painfully but I had to have tests: CAT scan and MRI. After each one I vomited several times. It was a kind of hell.

In a couple of days, I was moved to a room with a neighbor, Eileen, who had hit a deer down in Alloways Creek and her car had rolled over a couple of times. I had no breaks for fractures, all my danage was muscular and nerve. She had fractured ribs and vertebrae. After a few more days while we became acquainted; Eileneen was a retired school nurse with three kids, two middle aged daughters who were on the way to her, and one mentally ill son who lived in a seashore home they had bought him, her husband and daughters came to take her home. My next roommate was an alcoholic woman who had fallen and injured her head. She was pleasant and her kind and solicitious husband were there for one day before I was folled away again and moved to Atlas Rehab.

Fortunagely, although she was in England where she now mostly resides with her fiance' my daughter was able to do all the paperwork involving the insurance company and the coverage of the Rehab, and even with my sister's help, the choice of rhabe place. My sister had visited someone she knew at Atlas and she knew it was clean and beautiful and it was, although transfer was a nightmare.

A side effect of Oxycodein is constipation and at the hospital they had loaded me up with laxatives. The transport was supposed to come each day but didn't until late evening on a Friday night when one lone Emergency worker rolled me out to the parking lot in the dark and into another craking rattlin and bumpking ambulance to Atlas. When I arrived, it was dark night and no on was there. I wasn't yet in control of my bladder and urine just came out of me into adult diapers and the laxatives were working but I was in discomfort but not moving my bowels. One attendant a very young boy named Mel came and changed my dipaer (humiliating) but he was not permitted to help me into the bathroom and I was not permitted a walker until morning.

My next samaritan arrived in the early morning, a man named Ken. He said he wuld help me into the bathroom and he helped me brush y teeth and wash my face. He got me a clean hospital gown and pull on adult diapers. His kindness saved me. All night a woman with demetia had been crying out "Help?" and people had turned up their televisions to drown her out. It was a horror movie. I had called my daughter and sister to get me out of there; "This is a place where people come to die" I said. But after Ken's help, people from Atlas began to come in with clpboards about food choices ad nurse's takig my vitals, and Physical therapists with schedules. Things began to look up. It was in fact, a handsome place with kind and helpful people and no bad smells, clean and well appointed.

I decided I wanted to go home in a week. They gave me benchmarks to work towards: I had to do Physical Therapy to get stronger, I had to show that I could do a shower on my own, get in and out of the model car they had down in the PT gym, and go up and down steps. Over the week I worked o all of it. my neighbor John came to visit and he walked me from one end of he long hallway to the other and he told me it was round trip about two football fields. I did that every day morning and night. I got to ride 20 minutes on the stationary bike and I could walk without the walker although it was recommended that I continue to use it in the halls for safety and stability.

My life got into a new routine. I had been listening to audio books from the first day i Cooper Trauma, and the audiobooks kept my mind occupied so I didn't slide into despair over hwhat had been taken from me. Each day I got up, washed and brushed, walked the hall, had breakfast - terrible food - then PT, rest in a rcline position on the bed with an audio book, then lunch, hall walk, and phone and texting and visits from my sister. Sue had been with me every day since the accident, in the hospital and in the Rehab. She had to take an Uber from the farm to the Rehab, then to my house to feed the cats and get my house ready for me to returne. She had to move things out of the way for the walker, a book casse, cat litter boxes. And she cleaned and cared for my cats. Everything was ready for departure at the end of the week. My great-niece Ales had agreed to give me a ride home from Rehab on Saturday. I had reached all the benchmarks and had seen the doctors, nurses and had psychological evaluations. Then on Friday, the battle commenced.

The Social Worker, the fisrt person I had met who was neither kind nor supportive arrived. When I said I was going on the next day, she curtly demanded "Who told you that you could leave??" I was shocked. It had never occurred to me that I couldn't leave when I was ready. I began to answer in my own shocked and insulted way, and my daughter who was on speaker phone during the interview stepped in and calmed the stormy waters. That Social Worker was adversarial from the start for some reason, a conrol issue I think. AS in, who did I, a weak old lady, think I was to tell her what was going to happen!"

Next the kind and more discreet head of PT cane to my room and explained that because it was Friday, my release couldn't be processed and reach the Insurance Company until Monday morning, but that he would see to it that it was expedited and I would be able to leave on Monday morning.

I cried in front of strangers. I cried for 4 hours, struggling to pull meslelf together again. I was all packed up and raady to go p I wante to go home! The next two days I did my best to get into a routine and pass the hours and from my sister I got the promise that no matter what happened she would get an Uber and pick me up on Monday. Kenny, the nurse's aid had said, "You're reaady to leave, Miss Jo Ann , don't let them try to keep you here!." I felt so frightened, but my daughter did her magic behind the scenes with the Social Worker and all the documents got lined up in order and on Monday morning, Sue came and she called Uber and took my bags out. I signed some papers at the nurse's station and commenced phase 3 - home!

Phase 1 was Cooper Trauma, phase 2 was Rehab, and now I was going home First I was relieved that I could ride in the car without too much fear, then oh HEAVEN - my house! We sat on the sun dappled porch with the trees waving hello o me and my oldest cat Lucky criying out his welcome over and over. A neighbor, Diana, stopped by and sat on the porch with us. My sister walked over to The Spread Eagle Tavern and got us take-out andwiches - I had a tuna salad wrap. I was so happy to be home.

Now I have succeeded in a full week at home and it is Sunday, Oct. 11, around 9:00 a.m. Each day, I had company. One day my neighbo John Krause came, one day Nancy and Lori, old school teacher friends came an brought me food. My great-niee came and helped me set up ShopRite Home delivery and my nephew Archie came in time to bring the delivered grocieries into the house. My first challenge was that the temperature had dropped suddenly into the 40' at night and my house was freezing - the heater wasn't coming on. I called PSEG and they sent a man within the hour. My friend Barb Solem had brought a feast from Iliano's Restaurant and she stayed with me while PSEG fixed the heater. Only as soon as they left the heater stopped working again. I called again and this time the repair guy said it was the thermostat and replaced it. And so the week went.

The next big challenge was Nancy Thomas picked me up and took me to Progressive Insurance Company in Mount Laurel to finalize the claim and sign some papers. That was my first long ride on highways and I was ok. It was also my longes walk and that was fine too - on the walker. I was immensely grateful to Nancy for the visits, the food and particularly taking me to the Insurance Company to finish the claim. She also took me to the bank to deposit the check for the difference in the value of my car and what I had left to pay off. My plan was to use that differene to pay off the credit card. Each ride for Sue by Uver from Clarksboro to the hospital or Rehab, and then to my house and then to work cost an average of about $30 a ride or about $120 per day over 16 days or about $1600 on debit and credit cards. I wanted to pay that off. It turned out I have to wait until the check from Progressive clears, so that task will be today. Also today should be a visit from my neighbor John after church and from my nephew Archie. He also dropped by to visit one day which was nice.

Things are good now. I can sleep, I can walk. I can do the basic chores of home maintenance: cat litter, dishes, meal preparation, getting washed and changing my clothes. Until today I also sat on the porch in the un and fresh air each day, but today it is cloudy and overcast, rain predicted for the whole day. I am so happy to be home and I am working on avoided all thoughts and fears about the future, just cncentrating on the old adage "One Day at a Time."

So that is my sad tale of how the summer ended for me on route 45 in Westville when some reckless villain took my life as I knew it away But I am on the mend. And news - Lavinia will be home at the end of hhe month to get married to her fiance' James Lance, an actor from England. While she is here, she will also help me buy another car. I didn't feel confident aout getting a rental in the menwhilw becaue I thought a new car with all the hanges in starters and keyless locks and such would be too much for me to handle with the my driving fear since the accident. So I am waiting out the month. Also Eleanor came one day this week and took me to CVS where I get my prescriptions. Alex had picked them up for me but they sent eh wrong prescription and Eleanor had to take me to return it - it was $60 for Naloxone for heroine overdoses! Someone from Cooper Trauma had precribed it. I won't be taking the medications they prescribed becasue I don't need them now - gabapentin, a muscle relaxant and I didn't even put in for the oxycodeine - don't want to take anything I don't need and I am recovering sufficiently on my own. I am up for 2 to 4 hours then rest for 2 hours.

I wish anyone who reads this safe travels - it is dangerous out there!

Happy Trails to you! wrightj45@yahoo.com

Clover Market this weekend

September 20th | 10 AM - 4 PM

Downtown Collingswood

The award-winning Clover Market returns to downtown Collingswood on Sunday September 20, from 10-4 pm. Featuring a curated group of 100 handmade and vintage vendors, food trucks, live music, and even more shopping and dining around town.

This event and a couple of others came from an e-mail newsletter called Visit South Jersey.

Red Barn Farm, 391 Rt. 206, Hammonton, NJ 609-517-2711 All Autumn Fall Festival events including Sunflower fields, Corn Maze, October Fest, Food Trucks and other farm related events!

Happy Trails wrightj45@yahoo.com

Saddler's Woods Pumpkin Walk

There are a few events listed here and they are not in date order, so please read down for those that are coming up in September - thanks!

ENCHANTED PUMPKIN WALK - October

Saturday 10/24 4-8:00pm

This fundraising event is sure to get you in the Halloween spirit! Enjoy a short walk in the woods along a trail lined with over 150 illuminated carved pumpkins. New this year will be a chance to meet some beloved goats, Rosey, Dandelion, and Oats! Funds raised will help restore trails with handicapped accessible features, restore native habitat, and bring back the munching goats in 2027!

The email flyer I got for this also called for volunteers. If you are retired or retiring and looking for ways to fill your spare time meaningfully, there are a lot of great volunteer opportunities that will enliven your days and help you to meet new friends.

Certified Gardeners are starting a course Gloucester County 856-224-8045 Begining in January 2027

Learn about basic Planting tecniques, composting, plant care

Staff teh certified Gardens Community and Youth garden projects

grow produce for local food banks

Assist with special events (such as those held at Red Bank Battlefield

Benjamin Lay - Reading of the play

We’re excited! Three of our local Meetings will welcome Mark Povinelli, as Benjamin, reading a condensed version of the original play The Return of Benjamin Lay. Each performance will also include a discussion with the actor, joined by historian/playwright Marcus Rediker. Invite a friend or two!

The Return of Benjamin Lay explores the irrepressible prophetic witness of an 18th-century Philadelphia Quaker. One of the earliest revolutionary abolitionists, Benjamin stood for values that continue to need our voices in 2026. What, where, and when:

Each event is part of a series of three readings sponsored by Philadelphia-area Meetings, supported by a Membership Development grant from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Experience this stunningly beautiful and historically meaningful performance:

Thursday 15 October 2026, 7pm: At the Middletown Friends Meetinghouse at 453 West Maple Avenue, Langhorne PA, in collaboration with the African American Museum of Bucks County. Open to all, but can you help the event planners with an RSVP? Drop a line with your name and number of guests via email: pmervine@aamuseumbucks.org Friday 16 October, 2:30 pm: At Friends Village with support from Newtown Friends. This venue is located at 331 Lower Dolington Road, Newtown PA. Open to all, but can you help the event planners with an RSVP? Drop a line with your name and number of guests via email: info@friends-village.org Saturday 17 October, 2.30 – 4.30 pm: At Radnor Friends Meetinghouse at 610 Conestoga Road in Villanova PA. The event is free, and open to all, but your RSVP helps us plan. Drop a line with your name and number of guests via email: radnor.meeting@radnorquakers.net Read more about the play and about Mark Povinelli at BenjaminLayPlay.com.

Welcome back, Benjamin.

My note: For those of you who don't know who Benjamin Lay was, he was a Quaker firebrand Abolitionist. He was also a dwarf who lived for a time in what were once habitable caves in the banks of the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Lay was so impassioned about the crime of slavery that he gave activist witness at the local Quaker Meetings He denounced Quakers whobought and sold human beings and he was so passionate that he was cast out of many Meetings. He is a hero of mine. There was a beautiful graphic ovel about Benjamin Lay that I bought and gave to members of my Woodbury Meeting for Christmas one year.

XPonential Music Festival at Wiggins Park 9/18/26

XpoNential Music Festival Kicks Off on the Camden Waterfront Friday, September 18th

Settle in at Wiggins Park for an evening of live music featuring a mix of roots, rock, soul and indie sounds. Friday’s lineup brings Dawes, Cyril Neville Plays The Dead, Devon Gilfillian, Budos Band, Te Vista, and Daniel Villarreal to the waterfront for the opening night of the festival. Between sets, take in the views, grab something to eat from one of the food vendors, browse craft offerings, and enjoy the energy of one of Camden County’s signature weekends. We can’t wait to see you there! To learn more,

I don't go anymore but I used to and I enjoyed it. First off, moving the festival from the summer to fall was a big improvement because when I went before it was unbearably hot with no shade. My daughter's then boyfriend was playing the first year I wnt. he was in a band called "These United States" and I was delighted to be doing something with her and to seeing her boyfriend perform.

Now at 80, mostly what I do for an outing is go to lunch. I try not to dwell on the things I used to do and instead keep my focus on the things I CAN do! Still, I like to share with you things I used to enjoy and hope that you can enjoy them.

Happy trails wrightj45@yahoo.com

Woofstock for a lot of fun!

Sometimes you have to think outside the box for a lot of fun! I went to Woofstock a few times when it was further South - I think Woodstown, but wherever it is, it is worth the trip. My favorites were the square dancing dogs and the distance divers. The Labs dove out over the pool and the one with the furthest dive was the winner.

All the dogs were winners though and so were the people who enjoyed the wide variety of dog ability displays - the agility challenge was great too!

I hope you get to go!

wrightj45@yahoo.com

10 Days Til Woofstock 30! September 2026

Join us for the 30th Annual Woofstock Festival—a milestone celebration of community, compassion, and our 4-legged friends! 📅 Saturday, September 26, 2026

⏰ 11 AM – 4 PM

📍 Voorhees Town Center

💲 $2 per person | $5 per family

Places to go - Haddon Twp. Branch of Camden County Library.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. >p/> Haddon Township Branch (adults) Please register

Fighting for Freedom >p/> Explore a fascinating piece of African American history with the Haddonfield Daughters of the American Revolution. This exhibition seeks to embrace the stories of all those who pursued independence by centering on the lives and experiences of Black craftspeople and artisans from the 18th and 19th centuries.

My note: I thought this was particularly interesting in view of two notes:

1.Just watched a documentary on the slow demise of Colonial Williamsburg. This is a historic site that was once the go to vacation place for families in the 1980's and 1990's. My Father and Mother took me and my daughter there during summer vacation on our way to DisneyOrlando, which, by the way is part of the reason Colonial Williamsburg is dying. It has been overshadowed by a culture of amusement parks like Busch Gardens.

Colonial Williamsburg has a fascinating history and if you want a deeper dive into it you can find the documentary on YouTube. It was a salvaged and reconstructed village funded by Rockefeller money in the 1930's. The Bi-Cenntennial really gave it a lift-off.

2.One of the saddest things, to me, about the falling out of favor of Williamsburg as a vacation destination was the firing of the trained artisans who worked in the shops and interacted with the visitors: blacksmiths, seamstresses, wig makers, bakers, hearth cooks, leather workers/harness and saddlemakers, all these people were specially trained and experienced and devoted themselves to the living history of this period in the founding of our nation. What a loss. I am so glad my family and I and my daughter got to visit this marvelous and beautiful place in its prime.

It is ironic in our current period of what I would call national decay, that our 250th anniversary would be celebrated by cage fighting on the White House lawn as an entertainment - what a symbol of the times.

In my yard there is a very tall and beautiful pine tree that my daughter brought home from Colonial Williamsburg campground from our trip that year. It was a tiny siddling that fit into a paper coffee cup and now it is a stately and magnificent pine tree.

If you are reading this blog you are probably interested in history too and I hope you get to visit the lecture in the library and also the new Revolutionary War Museum down on Erie St. in the salvaged Cooper Tavern in Camden via the Camden County Historical Society. Both require a phone call for appointment or registration!

Happy Trails! wrightj45Wyahoo.com (note: the blog comments section may have been somehow rescued from the spam bots - I have had a message recently with no porno spam!)

Best Books Part 2

I feel guilty that there are books I owned, read and loved, gave away and missed so much I bought them back again and I never mentioned them:

Here is one that just fell out of a bag on my coat closet door today - Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters. Why?

A common thread for me was the glimpse into the lives of ordinary people, the monumentalizing of the people who go unnoticed in every day life, and who are US, our families, our neighbors, and whose lives are universal and significant. Every life is a book. Masters made these lives each a poem.

There is an admonition that I like "Be Kind for Everyone is engaged in a Great Struggle." Plato. And indeed we are all engaged in struggles every day of our existence. It is a shared experience and Spoon River makes us less alone.

Our Town is a book I have bought and given away many times in my life. I love it for the narrator's answer to the question of whether any of us are capable of realizing the magic and wonder and inexplicable beauty of ordinary daily life. He answers, "Poets maybe." But I think many of us have glimpses of that each day and that helps us to survive the struggle. There is a profound wonderfulness to the most ordinary of things which are brought out by Thornton Wilder, the smell of ironing a fresh starched item of clothing, the tiny perfect oak leaf stuck on your car window, the song of a bird as you sit on the porch, the call of a neighbor passing by. These are timeless and perfect.

I wonder now that these books which came to me so early - in my twenties, I think, when I was in college, have been so meaningful to me throughout my long life. Thousands of books have passed through my brain like passengers on a busy train line, but some stay with me. These two are sitting on my piano right now, reminding me of how much I loved them.

In the background I hear clamouring voices of other authors and books that want to be mentioned and not forgotten and indeed, this morning at my Quaker Meeting a friend mentioned her travels to Prince Edward Island and I was reminded of Anne of Green Gables, a book which I loved with all my heart. The magic of the descriptions of the landscape stay with me to this day, the blossoming trees of "The White Way" and I can almost smell the blooms. These small details or scent and natural beauty are a connecting thread through all these loved experiences. I did get to visit Nova Scotia on a few occasions but never got to visit Prince Edward island but it lives in my imagination forever.

On The Trail of the Lonesome Pine....

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Best Books

One of my favorite columns in the only magazine I can still read, is Best Books by.... An author is invited to share her or his choices of best books and explain why. I am going to fish out the latest issue and cut out the section and paste it into my daily journal because it is such an interesting idea and I enjoy reading the critical observations made by the authors about the books. In this issue, 9/18/2026 issue, Dan JOnes mentions some books and authors I have enjoyed in the past: War and Peace by tolstoy and Middlemarch by George Eliot.

I rarely talk about books anymore though they were my first and best love. I can't read anymore because my cornea disease and cataracts have robbed me of that gift. The only way I can read The Week magazine, is with a magnifying glass.

To be honest, now that I am OLD, I can barely remember the books I read, so many books. But I remember War and Peace because I watched the film annualy for so many years. It feels as real to me as my own life. Middlemarch is a different situation. What I remember of that book was going to Lebanon, Pa. on an annual autumn pilgrimage with Dorothy and Ray Stanaitis to eat at a favorite Amish themed family restaurant. We had stopped to shop at some kind of market with second hand books and I found a beautiful copy of Middlemarch by George Eliot for $10. At the time and for a long time, I was very poor and I didn't have $10 on me. Ray Stanitis would kindly treat for my lunch but Dorothy wouldn't let him buy me the book.

Also at that time, I was still in college and locked in a battle withthe English Dept. at Glassboro State College over the lack of any women writers in the World Literature survey course. The professor had suggested that I create a bibliography of worthy authors to add to a future course and I was reading up a storm and creating a wonderful bibliography beginning with the Japanese author Lady Murasaki Shibiku, credited with writing the first set of romantic novels in the early 11th century, the Tale of Genji.

This project was a great gift to me because it brought to me all those wonderful women authors who had actually achieved fame and note in their own lives but who were written OUT of literary history later. So as not to digress, I will mention only one or two authors as examples: Christine de Pizan, the Book of the City of Women early 15th century in an attempt to acquaint the world with famous women of history and Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin which President Abraham Lincoln said ignited the Civil War. Needless to say, Middlemarch was a much desired and worthy addition to my collection, but I didn't have the $10 and nobody offered to lend it to me so I had to let it go. Dorothy worked in a library and didn't believe in buying books. Eventually, though I did manage to get a copy.

Anyhow these 10 best or 5 favorites columns always make me think of my own but I couldn't ever limit them to these small numbers - there have been too many. It would be like saying my ten best memories - I have thousands. But I often think of the sweeping epics like War and Peace, by Tolstoy and Dr. Zhivago by Pasternak and Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Those books educated me and broadened my world and became deep layers in my entellectual development. I am sorry so few read or care about books today, or perhaps just that I have interactions with so few book lovers in my increasingly constricted life.

In that same issue of The Week magazine there was a piece on the latest book by Emily Wilson, the classicist who wrote a translation of The Odyssey that spawned a big market movie this summer. Her new book Crossing The Wine Dark Sea discusses among other things, the art of translation and how an author must move beyond literal translation to a deeper understanding of the meaning being conveyed since languages do not literally translate from one to another.

All of my books are gone now, box by box, set adrift like baby Moses on the drifting waters into other hands, the collection of a lifetime. I try not to think about that, or to mourn the missing. This morning I was missing my collection of diaries and the book that instigated that collection: A Book of One' Own 1984, Mallon. It is a casual history of great diaries. I miss it and the diaries I collected along with it. But they are gone and it is no use looking back because you turn into a pillar of salt.

Also this morning I read a news piece about a documentary being released in which the filmmaker interviews each of the succeeding "oldest people in the world" the last one mentioned in his work was 116 and lived in Brooklyn. He said she was so old she couldn't keep her eyes open and she died the following year. When I think about my possible goal of reaching 90, I do think that is old enough because I am neither trusting nor optimistic enough to feel that I would be safe being in the infant state that people older than that seem to fall into - diapers, wheelchairs, oh it is so depressing to contemplate, most of my friends in my age group fear it.

Those centenarians, somehow, seem to be able to sift down into it and give over to fate, so maybe that is the gift.

Well to drift from literature to old age is far enough. Time to get moving and deliver a book I bought for a friend: A Midwife's Tale by Martha Ballard, as it happens, a book about the diary of a midwife from the 1770's. It is a wonderful book and there is a lovely film made from it as well. The friend I am delivering it to was a teaching friend of mine, Joanne Wells, the school librarian. She and I used to walk in the park near our school on our combined lunch and prep periods. We are both long retired now - me 20 years, she 2 years.

Happy trails! wrightj45@yahoo.com

(please remember to use my e-mail to contact me as comments doesn't work well due to robot spam and that is also why I don't link my e-mail and just post it for you to copy and paste - thanks!)

South Jersey Museum of the American Revolution on Erie St. in Camden, NJ

In case you were wondering what has been happening with the South Jersey Revolutionary War Museum being created in the old Benjamin Cooper Tavern on Erie St. Here is an update:

The Benjamin Cooper Inn at 75 Erie St. in North Camden had a soft opening as the American Revolution Museum of Southern New Jersey. This happened after a $4.6 million restoration paid for with money from federal, state, and local grants. The New Jersey Historic Trust gave most of the funding.

The stone building dates back to the 18th century. Over time, it has been a home, a tavern, an outpost for the British Army, a shipyard, and a place where people built yachts. Later, it became a storage unit and a dump for toxic materials. Back in the 1760s, the land was where mass auctions of enslaved people took place.

Tours are now available but limited. You need an appointment. The Camden County Historical Society has a 30-year lease with the private owner that runs through 2051. They haven't said when the museum will fully open. "It's been a race to the end," said Jack O'Byrne, the society's executive director who will retire from his role on July 4, according to The Inquirer. "The project probably died like 13 times.

Zed Fox will be the next executive director. He said Monday that the board meets Wednesday to talk about the official opening date, hours, and cost. Fox thinks the museum will be at full capacity by fall. Joseph Cooper was a Quaker who built the 2 1/2-story Dutch Colonial stone home in 1734 for his son and daughter-in-law, Benjamin and Hannah Cooper. Benjamin Cooper ran a ferry. He also used the home as an inn and a tavern. British Col. Robert Abercrombie turned the inn into an outpost in 1777. Hessian troops marched through Cooper Point during the war. These were German soldiers who helped the British Army.

"The building itself is an artifact," O'Byrne said. "You know, it's the most historic building in Camden." Work still needs to be done. A temporary roof was put in after a 2012 fire and it's still there. Floors aren't finished. Bathrooms don't have doors. The second floor is blocked off right now and hasn't been fixed up yet. The society spent six years planning to open the museum before America's 250th anniversary. Success came years after they lost the Hugg-Harrison-Glover House, a Bellmawr home that survived the Revolutionary War, to a highway construction project in 2017. They fought to save it but couldn't.

A private company called 75 Erie St. LLC bought the property from Agathon Realty for $1.1 million in 2018. O'Byrne got the 30-year lease two years after that.

The society wants to raise $750,000 to match a New Jersey Historic Trust grant. This money will restore the tavern's upper level. Plans call for the museum to serve as the trailhead for Camden County's LINK trail, a 34-mile shared-use path that's being built across 17 municipalities.

Many years ago, I took photos of three of the ol Cooper family buildings in Camden, all but this one had been burned out and were in ruins. I am glad that they saved this and progress has been made!. Happy Trails! wrightj45@yahoo.com

September 10, 2026 A ride down Broadway in Camden City, NJ

Like many of my friends, I have had a minor relationship with the City of Camden. My relationship was down Cooper Street to the Rutger's University Campus where I went to college in the early 1970's and got my BA in Art. I remember driving from Collingswood through North Camden and crossing a little bridge near the Ben Franklin Bridge Plaza onto Cooper Street. I passed a seedy sad old hotel, some deserted churches, and a scattering of brick row homes, a few small stores and one or two long past their heyday graceful mansions. Once or twice, I drove to the south side of town and took photos of the deserted, graffiti covered, burned out empty streets behind the Walt Whitman house and south of what was then Mickle Boulevard.

My second time of travel through Camden was by the Broadway bus from 8th and Pine in Philadelphia where I lived at the time, to the library in Gloucester City. Broadway was dying. The department stores were burned out from the riots, there was one Ben Franklin 5 & 10. There were also a few eating shops no doubt for the workers at City Hall and Cooper Hospital. That would have been the 80's.

The Rand Transportation Center with the speedline replaced the bus stops and the shops all slowly disappeared from the city. A few times, I returned to a pizza place where poets used to meet under the leadership of a local colorful character named Rocky Wilson. He was a storyteller, poet, puppeteer, dancer, and all around aquarian hippy on a seemingly permanent trip.

When I retired in 2006, there was no need for me to return to either of my old cities, Philadelphia or Camden, until I began to donate books to the Free Books Project which at time was held at the Newton Friends Meeting located between Cooper Hospital and the Ben Franklin Bridge plaza.

Once again, I was driving down Broadway, this time from Woodbury to the Newton Friends Meeting where a hopeful group maintained a garden and from which they distributed free books to all the little free book libraries and book arks throughout Camden City. Broadway was a desperate and desolate stretch of road that would be a perfect setting for a zombie movie because clusters of homeless and drug addicted broken and collapsed people gathered on street corners near the few little corner shops that remained open. I would estimate their numbers in the hundreds from one end to the other of Broadway, that is from The New York Shipyard to the Bridge Plaza.

My sister works at the Hilton Garden on the riverfront in Camden City and I have had the occasion to drive her to work or to pick up her paycheck and our route is down Broadway from where she lives in Clarksboro - I can't manage the 676 overpass. The cars there drive so fast and are so aggressive I am afraid. The whole waterfront at the Hilton Garden is one of those all white corporate buildings on campuses (as they are called now) with a nice walkway along he river, in particular the American Water Building. The Rutgers Campus too has spread out and built dormatories and other buildings from the old campus down to the new corporate campuses. There is, of course, the Acquarium and the waterfront music venue along the river as well and the courthouse complex.

Along Broadway, however, the addicts have been disappearing and my sister has said it is the fentanyl killing them. She takes the bus most of the time and so did the addicts, but they have gone the way of overdoses, amputations and disease and they have thinned out. Along Broadway, too, the brick row house neighborhoods have been disappearing and are replaced by some new buildings and a great number of empty lots between little forlorn clusters of brick homes, some with a sad little effort of homemaking, little gardens or holiday decorations and neat sidewalks. My heart aches for the children raised in such places. It is far down below the city childhood I endured but there are similarities. The lonely and abandoned feral cats and dogs wandering around hoping for a handout, or a home, the magic of childhood that allows these poor children to find beauty in the wild weeds of the empty lots. I did it too - my gravel beach near the garages at the end of my brick canyon.

Back in the old days (70's) when I used to take the bus from Philly to Gloucester City, there were often old timers who would lament the city that had been with the ethnic neighborhoods and stores, the department stores, the library - and they would point to the burned out hulks or empty lots and paint their pictures of the lost world. They blamed it on the "Blacks" which of course was unjustified but they couldn't look beyond the riots. Those oldtimers made me so nervous on the bus because they weren't discreet at all and I was always afraid they would offend the other passengers and get me into a ruckus I didn't deserve.

Well those oldtimers are long gone and no people even remotely like them ever take that bus anymore. There are workers on the bus, though, like my sister and the people who work at the port which isn't New York Shipyard anymore, but HOLTEC, a shipping and cargo port with two and three stoy stqacks of cargo containers going onto ships to cross the ocean or coming from across the ocean.

The death of the city is such a deep and complex evolutionary tale that there is no way to pin the blame on anyone, neither the usual suspects - rapacious realtors and neglectful landlords, nor lazy and destructive residents who don't do their bare minimum of care. Maybe it was just old age. The city that once was a thriving metropolis just got old and died.

Well it is being replaced by something new which I will be long gone before it is realized. Once I knew people who lived in Camden, went to school in Camden and taught in Camden, but I don't know them anymore and have no idea where they went or what happened to them. When I pass my old campus, my memory of my college days there has become so faint it is almost as though it was a different person.

And so it goes.......

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Things to Do - Quilting

Right on the White Horse Pike in Audubon there is a quilt store that has classes for a number of kinds of projects and the most eye popping array of fabrics imagineable. Last winter I made a qulted sofa throw that I have over my legs as I type. My Grandmother and her mother were quilters and the women of my mother's generation practiced a bunch of fiber arts such as crocheting and afghan making that we have somewhat lost over the years.

If you are looking for a new hobby or craft to learn, you can check out the web site

earlygirlquilt.com

and see the classes and the fabric samples. It is also a good way to meet people and possibly make friends!

Happy Trails wrightj45@yahoo.com