Merchantvile Art Walk May 3rd, 2019

Eiland Arts Center is hosting the Merchantville Arts Walkon May 3rd, 2019 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.  At least six bands and musical performers will be present and numerous artists will have their work on display at various locations and store fronts in the Centre Street area.

This seems to me to be a very creative and enjoyable event, I hope you will attend, and if you are sleepy, stop by Eiland Arts at the Station (the old railroad depot) for a coffee and a sweet treat!  What could be a more fun evening?!

Some of the stores participating will be McFarlans Market, Ryans Retail, Sunflower Yoga, Merchantville Antiques, Gaskill/Brown Funeral, Spirit to Sole Herbal Remedies, Charlie's Creperie, Thera Sport Therapy, to hame just a few.

Take a nice walk on the Rails to Trails path while you are there, what is more lovely than an early spring evening.  I am afraid you have missed most of the daffodils on this rails to trails, but you can enjoy the unique Victorian architecture along the way.

Happy Trails!
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com

★★★★★★★FIRST ANNUAL SOUTH JERSEY HISTORY FAIR!!!★★★★★★★

I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THE FIRST ANNUAL SOUTH JERSEY HISTORY FAIR!

Today, I was reading the Camden County Historical Society Communicator, a newsletter I truly enjoy as a benefit of my membership in the CCHS.  Among the many interesting columns about interesting historical figures and places in Camden County, such as Snow Hill, there was the announcement of the first annual South Jersey History Fair to be held at the Gabreil Daveis Tavern, 500 Third Avenue, Glendora on Saturday, June 8th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I absolutely love the Gabreil Daveis (Gabreil's own preferred spelling of his name) Tavern and I am delighted to see South Jersey's fascinating history on display somewhere so close to me!  

Anyone in South Jersey history will admit to a bit of feeling left out in New Jersey's historical presentation of itself, despite our very large presence in everything from the Revolutionary War to every kind of trade and movement, we are always Cinderella to the, for some reason, favored Sisters of North  and Central Jersey.  Only recently through the efforts of various historians, has South Jersey's importance begun to be celebrated.

And Even more LOCAL:  HERITAGE TRAIL MAY 11, all day!

Built in Camden County Day features twelve historic sites open for touring all day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.  For more information visit www.HistoryAlliance.com

And if you want to receive the Communicator in the mail as well as the Camden County Heritage magazine now in Number 2, Volume 3, Spring 2019 edition, join up!  I have been a member for some years beginning with my genealogy research in their library.  I think if you are a senior, you can join for $10 - a bargain!  Find out what's going on in the Camden County History world and support a worthy endeavor, join up!  Hope to see you at one of these events!

Happy Trails,

Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com

Off the topic - Happy Birthday to Willy Nelson today!

Good Ideas for Holiday treats for kids

If you are like me, I was a mother who was always concerned with my daughter not having things that were bad for her teeth, for example gummy bears, and also, I didn't want to set bad habits for the future.  When she was toilet training, I bought bags of small animal models at the AAA Hobby Shop on the White Horse Pike in Lawnside (?) Magnolia (?) and I built her a simple Ark with a lid that opened.  Every time she had a successful potty experience, she got a pair of animals to put in her ark.

For Halloween, and for teaching when I worked, I bought about $50 worth of treats from Oriental Trading Company, the catalog for which came in the mail.  For Halloween I bought skull rings and spider rings, glow in the dark bouncy balls, little maze puzzles, orange and black pencils and op art pads, often I would get 50 items in a unit for $5 and generally, I would have enough left over for the following year - these things don't spoil.  Additionally, I didn't have the problem of eating a lot of candy myself because it was hanging around the house.  At school, I made a treasure box out of a xerox paper box, and used these items for rewards for helpful, courteous behavior, and for odd jobs done by students for the class.

So, this year, I was thinking about what you could put in Easter eggs for kids.  I decided if I were to hold an Easter Egg hunt today, I would have three containers ready, a burlap draw string bag, an box made into an ark, and a piggy bank.  I wold put marbles in some eggs, pennies and nickles in some, and little animals in others, also fun rings (another object obtainable from Oriental Trading Company in large quantities for little money).  For little crafters, beads could go into the eggs and be made into bracelets, and for budding geologists, precious stones for a rock and gem collection.

Happy Trails!
Jo Ann 
wrightj45@yahoo.com

South Jersey Apple Festival September 7, 2019

While searching for information on Ales on the Rails, I came across SOUTH JERSEY APPLE FESTIVAL, to be held Sept 7th, 2019 at:
Cumberland County Fairgrounds, 3001 Carmel Rd,, Millville, United States

I know this is kind of far in advance, but I  may not remember to post when it is closer to September and perhaps, having posted, I will remember the event and remind you when September rolls around.  I have never been to the Apple Festival an am not sure I ever knew it existed!

Happy Trails,
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com

Ales on the Rails Today, Mt. Ephraim and station AVe. in Haddon Heights

Well, I was walking my dog this morning and I noticed that Lambert Ave. was barricaded off.  A van pulled up and a person got out and I asked if she knew why Lambert was blocked off.  She said, "It's Ales on the Rails day."  I was on my way home and had a lunch appointment with a friend so I didn't stop for a chat to get more information.  I figured I would google it when I got home after lunch.

So, here it is after lunch and google has no more to offer in the way of information that my reticent informant earlier.  Something called "Ales on the Rails" is going on right now, apparently in the parking lot of the Spread Eagle Bar and Grill on Kings Highway and also, apparently, going to take place along the railroad in Haddon Heights, although that still doesn't explain why Lambert Ave. was blockaded.  And nowhere that I can find is there any other information what is happening except, I am inferring from the title, breweries are selling or offering tastes of their beers and ales from 2 pm. today to 7 p.m.  Perhaps there will also be music as the person I asked (with the van) said she was there to sent up the "sound."

At some point I will have to walk my dog again, and when I do, I will see what is going on along the rails and if it is anything interesting I will let you know!  As I don't drink, I wouldn't therefore, be interested in the ales.

Happy trails, maybe at the ales on the rails!
Jo Ann

Pinelands Preservation Alliance Plant Sale and more!

The Pinelands Preservation Alliance annual native plant sale takes place this Saturday (4/27) from 11am to 2pm.  If you are a member of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance you are invited to the pre-sale tomorrow (Friday) 4/26 from 3pm to 6pm.  The plant sale is rain or shine.  PPA is located on Pemberton Rd., Southampton, NJ

Have you heard of "Permaculture"?  I catch a garden show on nor every once in awhile.  I think it is called "You bet your garden."  I have learned a great deal from that show even though I don't 'garden' in the usual sense of the word.  When I first moved into my house 35 years ago, I planted over the next decades about 200 shrubs and trees  It was a haphazard, season thing - I bought root ball Christmas trees and planted them, and azaleas at Easter, always tulips and hyacinths, and from time to time, someone would give me a plant.  

I have a LOT of hollies, mainly because they love my sandy soil and propagate themselves, as has my Rose of Sharon succeeded in doing, and my day lilies.  Most recently I planted Lily of the Valley and they have thrived to my delight as the fragrance from them is intoxicating.  When I worked as a volunteer at the Gloucester County Historical Society, I used to catch a whiff of the fragrance when I parked in the lot outside the library where a bordering yard was three feet wide with lily of the valley.   A master gardener from the James and Ann Whitall House at Red Bank Battlefield gave me some plots of lily of the valley to plan in my yard and that is where my thriving village of them came from.

Although I don't plant, I do have a lot of plants to look after in one way or another so from the npr show, I learned to prune in winter when the holly are dormant and same with the forsythia.  Speaking of forsythia, my best forsythia tale is that the first summer when I had just moved in, a friend who had a landscaping business brought a clump of earth in his pick-up that was studded with chopped off stalks.  It was a very unlikely and  unlovely object that we planted out front, but for the next 34 years, it has flourished like stationery yellow fireworks.  We saved it from the dump.  It ha said thank you every spring since.

So, here are some things I have learned and believe:  It is wrong to poison wildflowers in your yard.  First off we have a worldwide catastrophe called "collapsing bee colonies" and poisoning the wildflowers also poisons the bees and deprives the migrating butterflies of needed nutrition.  It also seeps into the aquifer and poisons our drinking water.
#2.  Black licorice mulch ismostly dyed black and also poisons the earth and the water supply.  It is a current fashion but an unhealthy one for the earth.  
Personally I find the golf green year style of today boring, conventional, and uninspired as well as uninformed.  GO GREEN!  Keep the trees, let a little yellow into the lawn, enjoy the wildflowers and the butterflies and preserve the drinking water.  

You might want to check out the native plant sale at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance if you want to add to your garden.  How cool is it to plant native species!!!! And Ivy, by the way is invasive and deadly to your trees and shrubs.  It is the equivalent of a boa constrictor when it gets its greedy grip on your tree trunk.

ALSO this weekend - The Artisans' Fair at Rancocas Woods all day! and Benjamin Franklin appearing at Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield on Kings Hwy from 1 to 4.

Happy Trails,
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com

Laurel Springs Walt Fest!

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Walt Whitman, a poetry fest and tour will be held at the Whitman Stafford house in Laurel Springs, NJ on June 2nd, (rain date June 9th).  

Once some years ago, I took a trolley tour from Camden County Historical Society location at Pomona Hall and one of the stops was the Stafford Farm House.  There was (possibly still is) a natural spring that was said to promote health.  

It is interesting to think back to the 1800's when people believed in 'healing waters' and it reminds me of the serpentine walking water canal  at Egg Harbor where people would walk up to their necks in water for the 'cure.'  Natural springs were very popular in that time, and water cures continued to be popular in Europe into the 0th century. 

My first experience with Walt Whitman in New Jersey was in visiting his house in Camden and listening to the tour guide.  I went there a few times with library groups as part of a job I had in the 80's.  Then I did some research on his poetry in the many early editions of his works, including Leaves of Grass, held in the collection in the Library of Camden County Historical Society.  Walt Whitman was always one of my most beloved poets beginning with high school English classes, because of his warmth and accessibility and his love of humanity.  He was so expansive and so modern.  

Thinking about all this makes me want to read his work again! 

The historical sign marks the summer home of poet Walt Whitman (from 1876 to 1882), at 315 E. Maple Avenue. At that time, the home was called the Stafford Farm House. The name has since been changed to the Whitman-Stafford House.

Historical place in Laurel Springs, New Jersey

Address: 315 Maple Ave, Laurel Springs, NJ 08021

Hours: 

Open ⋅ Closes 10:30PM

Phone: (856) 784-1105

Easter in Ocean City 4/20/19

This Sunday, my daughter and her boyfriend, came home from New York and picked me up to take me to Ocean City for Easter.  

It was a picture perfect Spring day, cool and breezy but not chill, lots of warm inviting sunshine.

We took my favorite route which is Black Horse Pike to 559 (2nd light after the hubcap pyramid - my favorite landmark) and the long quiet road through Mays Landing and along the Winding River.  We stopped briefly at Lake Lenape to admire the blue lake under the blue sky just lightly ruffled by the frisky breeze, then stopped for lunch at the Somers Point Diner.  I had a breakfast burrito and my daughter and her boyfriend had Greek salads.  All of us were pleased with our lunches.

We weren't sure what would be open on the boardwalk where we usually have lunch at the Ocean Cafe.  Traditionally, Ocean City is manly closed until after Memorial Day in May, but most Ocean City traditions have been replaced for better or for worse, generally it is best just to move along with the times and not whine about the "good old days."  

We had all our favorite Easter treats - macaroons from Shrivers, fudge, Kohr's custard cones, and walked a mile or so on the boardwalk.  As always, I forgot my hat and had to buy one, usually we have to buy jackets and sweatshirts with Ocean City anchors emblazoned on them, but this time we did remember to wear warm jackets.  

What draws me to Ocean City every Easter is family history.  My grandmother moved to Ocean City in the lat 1930's to take care of her mother who had suffered a catastrophic stroke.  The lived in a small second floor apartment at 6th and Asbury, in a building owned by my grandmother's sister.  It was across the street from a tiny old forestation where, as children, my brother and I could watch the red engine come roaring out when there was a fire in town.  

Ocean City was a quiet, sleepy, little town in those days, thanks to the Blue laws which limited alcoholic use, and its history as a resort for people seeking health and religious uplift.  Also near 6th and Asbury was the Tabernacle where some chautauqua type religious gatherings took place.  

The people in Ocean City in those days were religious, family people, modest, and respectful, in small humble bungalows.  People dressed to walk the "boards" and enjoyed the innocent entertainment of movie theaters like the Village and the Strand (now gone) and the many miniature golf courses (still there).  Also, of course, the fun ride arcades which were mainly rides for children, and the most daring ride was the Ferris Wheel.  My grandmother sold tickets to the Merry-go-round in summer and worked at Stainton's Dept. store in the winder.  She walked from her apartments to the boardwalk and the department store for her work.

We visited often and I can remember so clearly the pain of walking home after a family day on the beach, with sand in our bathing suits chafing our little chubby legs, hauling our beach chairs, buckets and shovels and our picnic lunches back to Grandmom's house.  My father always stayed on the boardwalk.  He never put on a suit or came down on the beach.

One year, when my brother and I were grown, my brother hd just come home from vietnam and I had been divorced from my husband, and we went together to the boardwalk, and kicked around in a sandy lot where the old Merry-Go-Round, had burned down in a boardwalk fire.  I kicked up a brass ring, the prize we coveted but were always too small to reach as the Merry-go-round, revolved and we leaned out as far as we could to grab it from the Clown.  

Places that hold some many generations of memory are intrinsically sad.  My grandmother's apartment is gone, the house was demolished a few years back, and indeed, the whole town has changed so much it is almost unrecognizable.  People walk around on the boardwalk in bikinis and bare feet, the town is overflowing with showy look-alike summer rental houses, epic adventure movie music blares out from the arcades.  My grandmother is gone, her mother is long gone, my parents are gone and so are the parents of my cousins who would also go to my grandmother's house for Sunday dinners in the summer.

But the ocean remains its rhythmic, powerful, liquid evocation of time itself.  Instead of my old grandmother in the back seat of our station wagon and my young parents in the front, it is my daughter and her boyfriend driving, and I am the old lady in the back seat.

Still, just like the ocean is old and endless new, Spring and Easter is old and endlessly new and as the ear is reborn, so are we, though we may be old and stiff and slow, our hearts are quick.

Easter is the best time to visit Ocean City, before it gets too hot, too crowded and too much traffic on the roads although if you take the Black Horse Pike to 559, it is almost always a peaceful ride and you canst stop at the Sugar Hill Restaurant for a delicious lunch and a lovely view, and maybe pick up something interesting at the Lake Lenape Antique Store opposite the now closed and boarded up paper mill on Lake Lenape.

Happy Trails, and Happy Memories!
Jo Ann

Self Teaching and Mapping the World

This month's issue of Archaeology Today (May Jun 2019)  features a story on mapping the world and in the editor's opening comments, Pausanius is mentioned.  He traveled the length and breadth of Greece describing the most impirtant sites, but as the editor mentions, he also described such seemingly minor details as the wild strawberries growing on Mount Helicon and the pine trees on Elis' beach.  

That immediately brought to mind several things such as Herodotus who mapped and even larger part of the world by traveling and describing, and the way I got to read Herodotus, whose work is still available for purchase in bookstores and online though he wrote it in 484 BC or thereabouts.  

I read Herodotus because I was teaching Art History to my middle School students and I realized that I had no idea where Scythia was or Anatolia or Assyria!  I had just as good an education as any 20th Century  person, and possibly much better than most in that I went to college for 12 years more or less.  I had a degree in English from Glamssboro State, a degree in Art from Rutgers the State University, a Masters from University of the Arts in Phila, and I took courses in many art schools such as Fletcher Free School, and 
Academy of Fine Arts.  Still, the world is a big place and education is a big endeavor and school cannot do it all.  The best it can do is give you a basic introduction to things and tools to help you  educate yourself, which never stops.

In case you are wondering, Scythia is somewhere around the Baltic,  
and Anatolia is Turkey, and Assyria is Iraq.  The names of countries change, even in our own times (look at African nations or the former Yugoslavia now Croatia, Herzegovina and Serbia) and the borders of places change.  And what was once a Danish peninsula becomes a German peninsula called Jutland, and back to the Danes again, and the origin of Holstein cattle (Holstein Schleswig).

On of my most popular posts on this site was the Old Salem Road from Burlington to Salem on a winter day.  But in a way, all the posts here, or the majority of them, are a mapping of South Jersey as I found my way from place to place during my wandering years from 2006 to about 2016.  My wandering stopped when my car got too old to make this long trips, and my eyesight too poor to make finding my way around too difficult as I can't read street signs, so even the gps isn't enough help if it tells you to turn at a particular street and you can't read the street name.

I don't mind.  I have done a lot of traveling in my time - 38 countries of Europe and a colorful passport to prove it, and back and for from East to West and North to South and back again the United States, even once, across Canada.  As you can see, the mapping of my life has gone from large to medium to small, and these days, even smaller.  However, what I have always believed is that your imagination makes your mind the biggest place to travel of all, and magazines and books and film bring the world right into your own living room.

This reminds me of something I was thinking yesterday when I was walking my dog our twice a day mile.  We walk a rectangle from street down to a long street that goes to the railroad, along the railroad and back through a side street = one mile.  Along the way, I was take photos with my phone of the wide variety of wild flowers growing in the yards - wild violets, tiny wild pansies, my favorites the dandelions! and buttercups and many whose names I don't know.  It reminded me of my city childhood when I used to wander up our street of brick row homes, in South Philadelphia, to an alley beside a row of parking garages fronted by both paved and graveled drives.  I sad there with a popsickle stick and dug in the black gravel, marveling at how the sun shone on the crystals and made the gravel into jewels.  I watched the energetic ants everpresent in even so uninviting a landscape, as they hurried from one spot to another building their hidden empires, and in all of this, kept company but the occasional friendly roaming cat or dog.  In those days in the city, cats and dogs went out the doors and walked around on their own and came home when they were ready, if they weren't killed that day by a car or a poisoner.

In  a much earlier blog, I mentioned taking my map out of my closed and emptied old school which had been replaced by a new state of the art school.  That map had traveled with me from my English classroom in a high school to my middle school art room and it had gone from retirement in a storage closet in the high school to my classroom, when for mysterious reasons, teachers stopped having the maps hanging in the front of the classrooms.  Even teaching English is helped by maps of the world and of the United States.  Taking away those maps has increased the ignorance of our population about the geographical relationships of places and their locations.  Most people, I would bet, cannot find on a map, the countries our own soldiers are fighting in around the world, or the location of the countries spewing their abused populations into the borders of other lands right now.  I bet most Americans don't even know where Central America is let alone Guatemala.

In the book I read last winter on Marie Colvin, intrepid international journalist, I had to draw a copy of the map in my old encyclopedia of the Middle East, to understand the places she was covering in her reporting.  I had a hard time understanding the geographical relationship of Lebanon and Israel and Syria, for example.  

Someday, I would like to get out my New Jersey map and do a road by road, town by town blog of my favorite places, much like the WPA Guide to New Jersey - also still able to be purchased from amazon.com.

Happy Trails!
Oh I almost forgot, once on a trip to New England, I actually got to visit the DeLorme Map headquarters, sadly now closed, where you could see a two story tall globe of the earth!

You could still visit Ran McNally in Illinois, though.

Jo Ann

Fun for Saturday and Sunday April 13 and 14, 2019

Annual Collingswood Green Festival

Saturday, April 13 | 9 AM - 2 PM

Downtown Collingswood

Celebrate spring and all things green by joining your friends and neighbors at Collingswood's 11th Annual Green Festival! At the festival you can explore local sustainable food, organic gardening, water conservation, renewable energy, environmentally-friendly construction, and more! Learn more about smart green living from local activists and experts, and enjoy al fresco dining from local restaurants. There will also be local artisans selling recycled and upcycled goods. 

Spring Festival

Sunday, April 14 | 12 PM - 4 PM

Red Bank Battlefield Park, National Park

 

Take a step back in time and join Red Bank Battlefield for their Spring Festival! Enjoy family fun activities such as crafts and games, visiting with farm animals, hearth cooking, candle making and more! There will be crafters and vendors, as well as colonial demonstrations and sheep shearing demonstrations. For more information, call (856) 307-6456. 

An interesting Library event -cutting the cord on cable tv

I don't think I can make this event but I may try because I am ready to dispense with cable tv.  All I need now is internet because it has been two or three years since I have watched television via cable on my flat screen.  I watch Netflix and amazon on my laptop because:
1.  No incessant and annoying commercial interruptions
2.  I have diminished vision and hearing and a laptop on my lap table makes all that irrelevent
3.  I can watch what I want when I want

So here is the info I have on the event:

Cutting the Cord on Cable TV  Saturday, April 13, 11:00 am  Bellmawr Meeting Room  Do you think you are ready to say goodbye to your cable television? In this event, we will discuss if the decision is right for you and discuss the services and devices needed to cut the cable television cord.   Please register in advance.

If you are interested in starting your family history this may help!

Find your ancestors online with popular websites like Ancestry and FamilySearch using the quick start method to locate the best records for getting started. Presented by Shamele Jordan, Producer/Host of the television show Genealogy Quick Start.

 

M. Allan Vogelson Regional Branch Library - Voorhees

 

Tuesday, April 9, 7 p.m.

 

 

 To register:  call 856-772-1636 x7311.

 

Yard Sales, Flea Markets, Trash Pickers

Sunday, April 6, 2019

As a long time fan of 2nd hand stores, and let me stop right there to tell you my favorite:
URBAN PROMISE, in Maple Shade, right on the corner of the Main Street intersection - it is large, well organized and has some wonderful things.  To continue my first thought, I am happy when things can get a new home and a new life, a 2nd chance.  Why should a perfectly useful item that you can no long use, be discarded when it can go to someone who may have needed just that thing.  For example, last week, I saw two perfectly good walkers on the sidewalk at recycle day.  I think the people who put it there thought it was metal and could go in recycle.  It stayed there till the next day and if the weekend pick-up truck scavengers didn't get it, it went into the trash  Too bad, someone who needed a walker and couldn't afford one could have used that.

Many people know that you can call The Red White and Blue to come and get usable items or you can take them to Goodwill, but people who are burdened with the double trouble of putting their elderly parents into long term care, or even their deaths, and clearing out the house, are sometimes too distraught to go the extra mile and make the call or make the trip to Goodwill.  So in the last drugs of saddened energy, they put it on the curb where the next recycle may take pace.  I have seen the trucks come by and pick up the good chair, the bureau, the storage chest, the child's bike.  Perhaps it is headed for Columbus Flea Market, out Rt. 206 in Burlington County, or perhaps for another flea market such as my all time favorite NEW EGYPT FLEA MARKET.  You'll have to look up the address for that one on google as I haven't been there in years.

Last week the good weather brought out a lot of yard sales and I had an idea:  SUPPOSE A TRASH ENTREPRENEUR WENT AROUND AFTER YARD SALES AND MADE A BID ON THE LEFT-OVERS, say $25 for the lot  The homeowners wouldn't have to re-clutter their already overflowing garage, and the trash entrepreneur would have a whole new load for the flea market!

"USE IT UP
WEAR IT OUT
MAKE IT DUE
DO WITHOU"

That's an old folk saying that I think is good to memorize and help you resist buying what you don't need.  It doesn't always help me to stay off amazon.com but it gives me pause and it has from time to time gotten me to go through the closet or the attic one more time to see if I don't actually have that thing I NEED already.  

That said, I just bought a folding yard sale table at ShopRite for $40 because I need it for an Art Show at Atsion Mansion that I will be in this June, and because I am going to start trying to summon the energy to go through things and get ready for a town-wide yard sale this summer.  Now I have the table.  

It is hard to find people who really want your stuff. I have an expensive adults bike I doubt I would ever ride again, and I have several collections of books on subjects that interested me that I don't use any more like my Civil War collection.  

Now I have to be honest.  Yard sales don't always work and I already took part in one that I regret.  In a house clean out one summer, I took part in a yard sale with my sister in her side yard in Mickleton.  It was emotionally draining and kind of boring.  I don't really enjoy talking to random strangers and I HATE haggling.  You put a tag on something for $1 and they want to know if you'll sell it for 50cents!  I suppose that is part of the fun for some people, but not for me.  AND I sadly got rid of a few things I wish I had now - vinyl records.  We were so tired by the end of the sorting, hauling, laying out and selling all day, that what ever was left over, we left for the trash pickers, then for the trash.  I watched some of my things sit outside for a couple of days unwanted and abandoned before the trash collectors came.  We are all so glutted with stuff, no one even wants FREE stuff.

I haven't ever used it but I do hear FREECYLE is a good option.

That said, I may add, I am not a proponent of the recent craze for "Swedish Death Cleaning" whereby you clear out all your stuff before you die so you kids don't have to.  I am not erasing my life before I die.  There is a kind of mourning process and letting go that helps people when they take care of their parents leftover stuff and clear out the old family home.  It is a good distraction from the grief.  

I avoid yard sales myself, however, and don't often go into the 2nd hand stores either because it tempts me to buy things I don't really need and my attic and shed get all cluttered up again - baskets being a good example of that!

Good will has moved from the Black Horse Pike to the Audubon Shopping Center.  I am sorry I don't have the number for the Red White and Blue but I am sure you can find that on google too.  

Happy trails to you!
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com

Art Show Application for Atsion Mansion in June

Increasingly I would like to incorporate ART into this blog, not narrow it down to only Historic Places, however, this particular art notice is BOTH!!

Batsto citizens committee presents -
FIRST ART SHOW AT ATSION MANSION

CONTACT:  Harry - hcrheam@gmail or call 856-7681532

I will be bringing contracts for the show to EILAND ARTS at the Merchantville Railroad Station (upstairs) for their opening of LOVE 4 Corners tomorrow night, Friday April 5th at 7 p.m. if you want a copy.

The cost for the Atsion show registration is $25
The Show is Sunday, June 23, 2019 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Indoor spaces reserved for Art and Photography

The art show is for paintings, photography, crafts of South Jersey area crafters.  Dealers are admitted at 8:00 a.m. to set up.
The mansion has no heating or air conditioning, or electricity, being a 19th century building not renovated for these amenities.  Artisans will be assigned table space by the show chairman.  The space is large enough of a 6 foot table.  All objects must be displayed on free standing mounts as nothing can be mounted on the walls.  Dealers are responsible for providing their own tables, stands, chairs, etc.  BCCI is not responsible for any damage to items.  Contract must be received no later than May 24th (the sooner the better so the organizers know how many artisans to expect!  - thank you)

Hope this helps any other artists or photographers out there who want to show their work.  I think it will be a nice day in the woods amongst other artists, and a nice day to see their work!  I will be there, sending my application and check TODAY!!

Happy trails,
Jo Ann

James and Ann Whitall House, Red Bank Battlefield, National Park, NJ

The Whitall house will be opening for tours on Saturday, April 13^th. On Sunday, April 14^th we will be having our Spring Festival to start out the season. It should be a great day with a lot of interesting demonstrations, including a program on tea, colonial inventions. 

Volunteers Needed! If you are a history buff, you couldn't find a better place to learn our fascination Revolutionary War history and meet other people interested in our history.  You will learn so much, I guarantee!  I was a volunteer for about five years, until my back and knees bothered my too much to stand for that many hours.  They were wonderful years with wonderful people.

Information for anyone interested in becoming a volunteer:

We would also like to offer Battlefield Tours. Please get in touch with the Whitall House and let me know if you can help out. If you are a new volunteer please let the staff know and they will pair you up with an experienced docent to shadow. Just a reminder the house is open for tours Thursday-Sunday from 1-4, except for special events. I look forward to a great year.

The Red Bank Battlefield is located along the Delaware River in National Park, Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States. It was the location of the Battle of Red Bank in the American Revolutionary War on October 22, 1777. Wikipedia

Address: 100 Hessian Ave, National Park, NJ 08063

Opened: 1748

Area: 20 acres

Hours: 

Open ⋅ Closes 7PM

Architectural style: Georgian architecture

Gabreil Daveis Tavern in Glendora

This just in today's e-mail from Crossroads of the Revolution.  You can visit their web site and they have an events page.  I only listed the one item that was of interest to me and local to me.  The rest of the items in the e-mail were further north from here.  

By the way, I love the Gabreil Daveis Tavern (and no, that is not a typo or misspelling, that is how Gabreil Daveis spelled his name.)  The historic tavern is right off the Black Horse Pike and if you have good vision, you can see the street sign advertising it on the left, traveling east on the Black Horse Pike in Glendora.

I read a fascinating essay once at Gloucester County Historical Society Library, Woodbury, about trade on the Timber Creek.  It mentioned this tavern as a stopping off place since the Timber Creek is tidal and once the delivery had been made by boat, the boatmen would have to wait somewhere for the tide to change so they could make their way back to wherever they had come from.  The Timber Creek there is all silted up and overgrown and you would hardly be able to recognize it as a navigable body of water now, but once it was a very busy waterway for the movement of goods from local farms and mills to Philadelphia.

In fact, in the way that family history can intersect with general history, my ancestors, the Cheeseman family of Blackwood (You may have seen Major Peter Cheeseman Road beside Camden County College) had several mills on the Timber Creek, a sawmill and, I think, two gristmills.  A photo of a Cheeseman mill is in the Mills of Camden County book, a slim and fascinating book written by, I believe, Charles Boyer, indefatigable local historian.

Spring Open House and Re-enactment Weekend at the Gabreil Daveis Tavern in Glendora 

April 27 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and April 28 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 

Tour the tavern and enjoy demonstrations of blacksmithing, campfire cooking, weaving, musket building and more. Plus, games and drills for the kids. More information.

BE HERE NOW!

Beginning in the 1970's, that terrifically fertile period in our contemporary history, I have been interested in Buddhism, meditation, and Zen Buddhism in particular.

Yesterday, I jotted down my influences beginning with Alan Watts famous book on Zen Buddhism in the late 1960's.  Some people admire and crave excitement and mental stimulation.  I crave and admire a coolness of mind, a peaceful and serene way of being.  
The most influential adapter and promulgator of Zen Buddhism to the West in the 1970's was, of course, Baba Ram Dass who wrote the enormously creative, illustrated book BE HERE NOW, which is still on my bookshelf and into which I dip now and again.

Self possession:  I suppose what drew me to Zen Buddhism was the hope of being able to calm myself and own my mind rather than being buffeted continually by storms of emotion, currents of fear, and paralyzing anxiety.  When I say 'paralyzing' I am not exaggerating.  As a child, I had great difficulties with school and paralyzing anxiety was the state in which I lived as soon a my mother sent me out the door to that industrial monstrosity that was the school as I saw it  

My shyness and anxiety stayed with me into my 20's although as I grew and matured, I was able to overcome it.  I felt it but it could no longer paralyze me.  Then in my late teens and early 20's when I read Alan Watts and Baba Ram Dass, I began to hope there was a way out, a way to achieve peace, equanimity and cool confidence.  

Other people I have known who have suffered anxiety or depression have mentioned terms like "perseveration" and "cyclic thinking" and have talked about getting caught on a circling set of disturbing thoughts that go around and around and never come to an end.  I know that feeling mostly, these days, if I have a sleepless night.  That's when the worries march into town and lay waste to my quiet village - money, my aging decline, the future, the world, politics, the suffering of creatures, any number of things can roll in like a newsreel on an old film screen and keep me from calming down enough to get to sleep.

That is when I do the 64 points of relaxation exercise from my many old-time years of yoga, starting with my toes and also, using "Ocean breath" and generally by the time I get from my toes and reach my head, I am relaxed and clear again and can sleep.  It doesn't always work but it works often enough.

One of the worst times in my recent adult life was when my daughter dropped out of college and flew to California to break into the movies.  She was only 18.  I was almost out of my mind with fear and worry.  I went to two family counselors, one good and one awful, then I found my guide out of the snake filled jungle that was my mind, Pema Chodrin.  She is the Abbot of a monastery in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, I think.  Anyhow I bought all of her books, many of her audio books on cd and at night I put the cd's on and listened to them while I fell asleep, hoping that I would absorb the wisdom as I slept as well.  Her books have such wonderful titles such as:  In Times of Uncertainty, When Things Fall Apart, Smile at Fear, the Wisdom of No Escape, and my favorite No Time to Lose.  I think I found Pema Chodrin from reading a Buddhist magazine called Tricycle, or it might have been Shamble.  She spoke clearly and directly to me.  

Another helpful and interesting guru was Jack Kornfeld who wrote After the Ecstacy, the Laundry. that deals somewhat with how to live a Buddhist and mindful life in ordinary circumstances as contrasted with living in a monastery.  

In case you are wondering if there is any connection with New Jersey places, THERE IS!!  We have our own Zen Buddhist community in Shamong, New Jersey, PINE WIND Zen Community, McKendiman Rd.  There is a "My Meditation" at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 4th.  Thee were two others listed but they were so early in the morning, I couldn't imagine you, my reader wanting to go then.  

Also, there have been local Buddhist meditation workshops such as the one at the Collingswood Community Center.  I don't know if they are still being held there as I didn't attend but I believe it was $10 a workshop.  

I do my own meditation at home and from time to time, what I call my re-up through reading.  At present I am reading "Why Buddhism is True," by Robert Wright.  It is very good and offers science based support for meditation as a way to relax the mind.

Whenever I get stuck in some undertow of sad thoughts or fears, I bring myself back with a firm admonish to BE HERE NOW!  And I am right as rain again.  Hope you find this helpful!  And if you are interested, I suggest beginning with Pema Chodrin or even one of the magazines which you can purchase at Barnes and Noble in Cherry Hill at the old Racetrack circle which is now a shopping center with a Wegman's.  

Peace! (speaking of peace, I think today the vote is being taken for legalizing marijuana - that should be an interesting social experiment for our state, maybe we can get back to farming!)
Jo Ann

Donuts to Revolutionary War Heroes - Immigrants contributions to America

Last week in the ShopRite, I was led astray in the pastry and bread aisle by a brand new product not seen there before Paczki.  It was a box with four fat powdered sugar covered pastries visible through the plastic window.  

Now, a bit of personal history, many many years ago, decades actually I was married to a man of Polish descent whose mother cooked Polish food: golumpki, chruschiki, I can't remember any other names and can't spell them anyhow, but the point is I recognized the word as Polish.  So, I thought I would give them a try.  I was looking for a treat.

Actually I can't say that I cared for them very much.  I found them heavy, and dense, almost like white bread, and the jam filling was so sweet it was too sweet.  They reminded me of the jelly donuts of my childhood.

Tonight I decided to look them up and find out WHY they were in my ShopRite on that day and never seen there before.  I knew it had to be some kind of Polish holiday.  It was!  It was Casimir Pulaski Day!  It was also Shrove Tuesday, or the Week before Lent.  I don't celebrate those holidays anymore, the religious ones that is, such as Lent.  I do celebrate the secular ones, so I was putting up Easter lights, Easter bunny decorations and I made my daughter an Easter basket of treats gathered over the past months from places like Lines on the Pines (Hand milled soap and a beautifully turned wooden bud vase, for example) and some pure sized cranberry/walnut hand cream.

General Pulaski was a Revolutionary War hero who actually did some service in New Jersey, round about the time of the Battle of Chestnut Neck, after the burning of the ship building site and authorized pirate hide-out at the Forks.  American privateers used the Batsto and Mullica Rivers and the access they provided to the Atlantic Ocean, to attack and seize British ships.  They took the cargo and sold it and either re-purposed the ships or scuttled them.  The British became enraged by these attacks and came in force to burn the Forks.  Most of the people had escaped, some to Chestnut Neck where the battle continued.  General Pulaski was summoned to lead a group to the rescue.  He was too late for The Forks but he fought and died in the Battle of Savannah and is Memorialized for his bravery.  Since his birthday is in March, many Polish Americans celebrate then.  His actual holiday is in October.

Because Lent was on the way, rural farm people would use up their butter, cream and jams before the beginning of the fasting and hence the rich donuts were made and eaten the week before.

I have eaten one each day which was more than enough.  They aren't too bad with coffee, but I must say, I prefer chruschiki which are light and delicate.  This Paczki are sinkers!  Nonetheless it isn't every pastry that also provides a history lesson!

By the way, Benedict Arnold's long fall to disgrace is also connected to The Forks and Chestnut Neck.  He had invested in privateers and had a great deal of money tied up in a purloined cargo.  Rather than see it fall into British hands, he took unauthorized soldiers and marched down to retrieve it causing General Washington to be forced to rebuke him.  That disgrace started the simmer of disgruntlement that eventuated in his treason. 

New Jersey is rich in immigrant history as well as The Crossroads of the Revolution!

Happy Trails!
Jo Ann

Win some lose some - Art and music

Since the point of my blog is to introduce you to places to go and things to do, let me say right off that the point of this personal anecdote is to acquaint you with a place to go.

Yesterday a friend of mine from our college days, who is also a painter, and a member of Main Street Art Club, went with me to enter three works of art in a context at Croft Farm in Cherry Hill.

My friend entered 3 paintings, large landscapes painted in a very free, and flowing style, very different from my work.

I entered three small pieces, to 8x10 landscape and one 11x14 painting of an abandoned mill in Millville on the Maurice River.  My work is very representational, old school, traditional and very like illustration.  Needless to say, despite many years of college and many art schools, Norman Rockwell was my inspiration, and in my free retired years, I have returned to a very photographic style.

We had a nice afternoon, Robert and I.  We ate out at a Chinese restaurant that I like very much in Audubon in the Pine Plaza.  They have a lunch special, and I always get the Vegetarian Delight, which is mixed vegetables in a light sauce, and a generous helping of fluffy white rice.  It is filling, delicious and healthful.  It comes with either soup or an egg roll.  I always get a vegetarian spring roll (not as good as Bankok City's spring rolls which aren't as good as the ones I got at Saigon on Washington AVe. in Philly when I lived there, but they are good enough.

I had never visited Croft Farm before but I had heard of it and even passed it once or twice.  The barn has been converted into an Arts Center, and although I rarely mention music here, I picked up a couple of flyers and will give the information.  Croft Farm is located on 100 Borton's Mill Rd, Cherry Hill, off Brace Rd. phone 856-488-7868

If you want to go to the art show, the opening reception is March 24, from 2-4 and it is free.  The gallery is open on other days as well, 3/25, 3/29, 4/1, 4/3, 4/5 10 to 4 most days.  

Robert and I did not get into the show.  We both received our rejection e-mails today and are going to pick up our work on Monday.  I am not daunted, however, as my work DID get into the Eiland Arts Show and I will say hundreds of people brought work to the Cherry Hill Show.  Also, judging in Art is very subjective and highly dependent on the likes and tastes of the judges.  I have two more shows, one entered, and one to enter, coming up. so wish me luck!

Now the Music:  Trio Montage of the Cherry Hill Ensemble series will perform April 7 at 2:30 tickets $12, $15 and $5 for students.
April 10, 7 p.m. Cherry Hill Public Library.

There was a free magazine available - Spring 2019 Community Magazine featuring news, classes and events.  Presumably this magazine would be available at the Cherry Hill Library if you would be more apt to drive that way.  Or you can find it online at CherryHill-NJ.com/Recreation, or you can pick up a copy at 820 Mercer Street at the Recreation Dept Call 856-488-7868 for more information.  The magazine is filled with  information, classes, services and events, so it is well worth the effort to pick one up!

I will be dropping off my work for the Eiland Arts Center Show on March 30.  I am already accepted into that show, so if you want to see it, the opening is April 5 at 7 pm., the Merchantville Railroad Station off Centre Ave. in Merchantville, NJ.  The gallery is upstairs although there is work in the coffee cafe downstairs as well.

If you paint or have another art/craft and are interesting in showing your work, another upcoming event is run by the Batsto Citizens Committee, an indoor/outdoor event to be held in June.  Applications due by May 30 For an application or more information, you can contact hcrheam@gmail.com or call 856-768-1532.

Happy Trails!  
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com

Hair Cut and Heritage - St. Patrick's Day is coming!

Today, I engaged in yet another experiment in finding just the right hair color and length and style for my current life.  My dog adoption this past summer prompted enormous changes in my life.  First I had to hire trainers for the dog, then I had to buy and install temporary fencing (she is an escape artist and my old back fence was no match) and I have been experimenting with shoes - no success so far, because she MUST be walked twice a day no matter the weather or my state of mind or body.  Same with hair.  

Last summer, because we had to walk in the neighborhood due to my newly (then) adopted dog's nervousness and aggression towards others and esp. other dogs in the park, I had to get a short hair cut.  It was HOT in the neighborhood because my neighbors have all cut down their trees and shade is scarce, not like the park where there is plenty of shade and cooler walks.  So I cut my hair shorter and shorter.  Nothing came out quite right after I had to shampoo and style it myself, until today.  

Today, at the Cutting Room, where I have for 2 or 3 or more years had the BEST hair color and style anyone could wish for, I got the hair-cut and style that works perfectly - not too short, not too long, not in my face or eyes.  And the funny, chatty, and talented young women who gave me this great hair-cut were both Irish!  The shampoo woman, told me her father is Irish but they don't know anything about their family history because his father died when he was a small child, however, she said many people with her last name come into the shop and she always wonders if they are related.  

We talked about the Immigration Station in Gloucester City where the Irish fleeing the famine in Ireland in the middle of the 1800's, were sent when Philadelphia couldn't take any more.  They sent the ships across the river to what was, actually, an Irish settlement from the beginning.  Irish Quakers from the Newton Colony settled Gloucester, their pact was made at Proprietor's Park and they are buried in Collingswood at what was the Irish cemetery near the train tracks.  When the Newton Quaker Colony moved to Camden, they took some of the headstones with them but the historians protested and the stones were brought back and put into a heap inside a stone wall in the cemetery at the eastern end of the park.

My stylist today, Meghan,  comes from a huge Irish family of 13 children on her father's side, 7 on her mother's and they all celebrate together in what was her grandmother's house and which she bought when her grandmother died. 

My big half Irish family has scattered over the years.   My mother's side were Irish, my father's side were English and German.  As the grandparents died and then the parents, we all drifted off and even my own siblings rarely get together, geographically distant as we are.  

Tomorrow, however I will celebrate St. Patrick's Day with my old teaching friends at the Phily Diner on the Black Horse Pike, with my new hair cut and my St. Patrick's Day green shirt emblazoned with sparkling shamrocks. I used to call my Irish grandmother on the phone and sing "When Irish eyes are smiling," to her not that she put much store in sentiment or the American version of "Irishness" - she was a serious woman.

My two grandmothers could not have been more different.  The maternal  Irish one was pale, quiet, serious and kept to herself - no stories from her.  The German one was cheery and robust, outgoing, and social, and full of stories, but not much family history.  I wish I had known to ask them more.

When I was just beginning my career i teaching, back in the 1980's, oral history and family history made a big resurgence.  At teachers' conventions each year, there would be workshops on it and so I took to interviewing my grandmothers about their personal histories, but they were not terribly forthcoming and I was not gifted enough in the art to pull out the information.  

Over the years since, I have done a bit of family history research with the help of ancestry.com and I have even been to each of the countries of my family origin - England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany.  So has my own daughter.  

Whether you are are Irish or not, it is a good day to celebrate our ancestors and what they suffered to get us where we are!  Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!  And here's hoping the Brexit idiocy doesn't strart up the border war in Ireland again!

Happy Trails!
Jo Ann