Monday, January 30, 2023
One Hundred Year Anniversary of the Rosewood Destruction
In January 1923, a white mob of Floridian men burned a prosperous and peaceful African American town named Rosewood, to the ground. They were hunting for an escaped chain gang convict who had been accused of assaulting a white woman. There was no evidence to support the accusation nor was there an evidence that the escaped convict was in Rosewood, nonetheless, the mob tortured and murdered a crafsman who lived there trying to get him to tell them where the convict was. Then they killed 30 men women and children and burned the town down. The survivors fled via a train.
Recently people were made aware of the torching of the "Black Wall Street" of Oklahoma which took place in 1921 when another, much larger, very prosperous business and reidential center of Africa Americans, near Tulsa, was also burned to the ground and several hundred peope killed and buried in mass graves which are currently being excavated, bodies identified and given proper burial.
If you have been following the re-surgence of African American History, you have probably been aware of the Oklahoma massacre, but possibly not the one in Rosewood, Florida. You are probably also aware of the renewed attention to the history of lynching for racial intimidation that took place throughout the South. Several memorials and monuments have been erected to honor those murdered under these terrible circumstances. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama is the most recent and most renowned.
As most of us have agreed, the crimes of history must be remembered lest we repeat them, also so that we can understand the repercussions they leave behind. For this reason, a great deal of effort has been put into Holocaust History, and just in time, as in recent years, Holocaust deniers have spread their horrendous lies
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This is a well known quote from philosopher George Santayana from his book The Life of Reason, 1905. At the very least we must remember and acknowledge the pain and suffering and make a vow to prevent the reocurrence of it.
The 1619 Project made the point that many of our current ills have their roots in our History of Slavery. HULU, a streaming video channel is currently hosting a documentary based on the bestselling book The 1619 Project which first appeared as a Sunday New York Times Magazine long article. I read it and was impressed and have since watched the first two episodes of the HULU series. It is shocking and mind expanding even to those of us who have made an attempt to educate ourselves about the Civil Rights struggle and Black History in general. I strongly urge anyone who has HULY to watch it. And if you are interested in finding out more about Florida's racial history, you can buy Historian/Educator Marvin Dunn's book, A History of Florida through Black Eyes in paperback for $30. I think it especially important at this contemporary moment as Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis passes increasingly restrictive acts against teaching race history.
It is an interesting paralell to me that as, thanks to the Women's Rights Struggle, women were increasingly able to move up the educational ladder, they began to research and publish more of the 'lost' and forgotton history of Women in America, and similarly thanks to the Civil Rights Struggle, more and more Black scholars have been able to research and resurrect lost and hidden History of African American citizens. At the same time, I would like to thank all the devoted local historians both informal and formal, who have kept our history alive to be found and shared in the present and the future.
Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
Friday, January 27, 2023
CALL FOR ARTISTS
https://hmhsfeminism.wixsite.com/mysite
The web address above is the contact for an upcoming Art Exhibition and Contest being held by the Haddonfield Fornightly in cooperation with the 50 50 Club of Haddonfield High School. Registration fees go toward scholarships to girls all over the world for higher education. It is a worthy effort in every way.
The piece I am working on, for their theme: S T E A M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) is based on the piece I wrote about in the previous post POCKETBOOKS, only this time it will be one Pocketbook, and a larger size. My subjects for the small portraits are: Patricia Bath, who invented and patented the Laserphaco probe, an opthalmologic device to remove cataracts, Rear Admiral Grace Paley who developed COBOL the major compiling computer programming language for decades in the development of computers. She also worked on the UNIVAC. And my old favorites, Frances Moore Lappe, whose book DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET, emphasized the role of animal agriculture in climate degradation, and Rachel Carson, whose book SILENT SPRING drew attention to the the impact of pesticides on the health of the earth as well as the rest of the creatures living on it. Finally, I always want to mention Rosalind Franklin, whose electron/microscopic photograph of DNA gave Watson and Crick the last piece to the puzzle for assembling the spiral helix of the DNA Model.
The deadline for registration has been extended, so to any artist out there who might want to join this noble effort, you have time! Registration is 2/9/23.
The show only goes up for a day, so you drop off on Feb. 24th and pick up on the 25th after the show. Even if you aren't interested in entering a work, you might want to take the opportunity to see the work! It is always a good show! Oh, and I almost forgot, there are cash prizes!
This is a project full of Heart, so I think I can use this as my wish for you to have a Happy Valentines Day! Also, think of this as a good early motivation to get something special for that one you love be it a friend, a lover, a spouse, a parent, a sister/brother, neighbor, whoever. Hopefully you have lots of people to love! By the way, the Winter Group Show is still up at The Station, 10 E. Chestnut, Merchantville, NJ and you can not only have a GREAT meal there, but the shop is full of wonderful things for a unique valentine gift, as well as delicious baked goods for the same purpose, if you arent' ready to spring for something big like a work of art, although the prices on the Art there are very very reasonable! Also they have cards, and you can always get a gift card for a lunch for that special someone!
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com
Monday, January 16, 2023
The Root of Inspiration
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Happy New Year and Resolutions
Today I am going to Cooper Health near the Cooper River in Cherry Hill for X-Rays to begin my first and foremost Resolution for 2023 which is to improve my fitness with an eye to the future and staying independent in my own home through my old age. On Thursday I begin Physical Therapy to address issues that have arisen recently, as in the last year or two: increasing knee stiffness and inability to bend my leg for basic functions such as putting on socks and tying shoes. Hips issues: I stopped going to the gym in the middle of November because a couple of the machines I was using caused hip pain which I hadn't experienced before. I decided to see my doctor and get physical therapy before I continued at the gym to make sure I am not causing new problems. My spine has been stiffening over a couple of decades since I was diagnosed with desiccated disc disease,which means the little pads between the vertabrae are drying and becoming brittle. I had inured a couple of those discs in my active outdoor life in my 50's, lifting a kayak off a car and that's how I found out about this problem. So Number 1 Resolution - find out how to safely strengthen and increase flexibility so I can ontinue the life I enjoy in the home I love.
The second resolution is one I have been working on for about three years and that is improving and increasing social relationships. As with most people who worked, I had a wide string of friendships created at my job, teaching, and a few groups in which I had membership after retirement: I was a volunteer at a couple of historic sites, and I was an active participant with the Outdoor Club. As age and disabilities increased, I had to let go of these activities and over time, the relationships I had formed, kind of drifted away. In a recent essay based on a Harvard study of happiness that followed nearly a thousand people over 3 generations, it was concluded that social relationships were the number one factor in happiness in life. I decided to do wwhatever I could to increse and improve my own. First, I formed a Seniors group with the help of the mayor of the town where I live. I wrote a proposal to use the Senior Center that had been created in the old firehall and it was presented to Mayor Wolk and then the town council which approved it. I didn't need money or budget, just a place and our Senior Center was PERFECT - handicap accesible, close to my home, and clean and comfortable with a little kitchen. We have been meeting for about 3 or 4 years once a month, though we close down in January and February for weather concerns and then begin again in the Spring. There are about 8 of us who are regulars and a few who drop in to see what we do.
The second thing I did was I joined the Woodbury Friends Meeting. I had been feeling for some time, a need for a spiritual community and spiritual practice and the Woodbury Friends Meeting is less than a 10 minute drive from my home. Here I have found a half dozen new friends with shared values and a chance to develope my spiritual life. Increasingly as we get older, in the modern period, family members move away and there have been numerous articles and even on PBS. last night. a segment on loneliness in America and the negative affect it has on health. A spiritual community is like family in many ways, I find, and the shared values of respect, compassion, kindness and ethical behavior make it a safe space.
Many of the essays go into detail about social relationships and healthy but not as many give actual steps to improve your situation. One that I recieved in e-mail did and I took the first three steps: 1.analyze your existing relationships 2.Make an effort to do an 8 minute phone call with a friend you haven't seen in awhile 3.speak to a stranger. I did all three and the 'stranger' in my case a neighbor, has become a sometime dog walking pal since we began to chat on days when I passed her house walking my dog. Herea re more tips I found:
Make Yourself Available. Building close relationships takes time.
Stay Connected.
Attend Social Activities.
Develop Your Communication Skills.
Build Trust.
Show Up for Others.
Well, this is only the first two weeks of my two big resolutions but I do feel as though I am putting in a good effort and making a good start. All these things take time to develope, like planting a garden, and from time to time, I will post on progress. First I will let you know how my physical therapy experience is going. I am so pleased that I have a caring and proactive general physician, Dr. Deborah Ubele at Cooper Health. When I told her about my incresing proglems with sitting down and standing and other functions, she got right on board with setting a program to address these problems. I feel hopeful.
Have you made resolutions? How are they going? Walking is a great way to begin a fitness effort and my dog helps to keep me on board with that one. My e-mail if you wish to talk about any of these things is: wrightj45@yahoo.com
I don't use the comments section on this blog because it is polluted with robo spam and such detritus that it takes too long to delete all of it, and it is too discouraging to see it when I delete it.
Get Going on your Happy Trails! By the way when I write Happy Trails, I still Hear Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing it!
Jo Ann
Thursday, January 5, 2023
Peachfields
Peachfields is hosting a Virtual Tour of the oldest one-room school in New Jersey which is located in Mount Holly.
There is a request for a donation with registration. The Zoom Tour is January 12 and you can visit peachfields.org for more information and to register. Years ago, a teacher friend and I were fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit the one-room schoolhouses of this area of South Jersey from Burlington County to parts of Camden County. I have always loved the One-Room School houses of our nation's history and what they represent in the great experiment of educating a nation. My personal favorite one-room school house is in Greenwich, way down south in historic Greenwich on the Cohansey River. It isn't as old as the one in Mount Holly though. My second favorite is the Clara Barton one-room school in Bordentown which I have visited on those special days when historic tours had it open to the public.
Happy Trails! Jo ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
Whitesbog
A hike that I often enjoyed back when I was able to do such hikes, was the Moonlight Hike at Whitesbog. In addition to the advice given in the copied and pasted information below, I add that a head-lamp is very useful. Sometimes night hike leaders do not want unnecessary light in the forest but if your leader permist it a head-lamp can be a lifesaver.
This is a beautiful and mysterious hike so if you are still able to do such hikes, I recommend this one!
Moonlight Hike meets at the General Store, no reservations are needed. We recommend you arrive a bit early to ensure you meet the group and have time to check-in. Check back here in case of poor weather. The hike will continue in light rain.
Trails can be very bumpy, sandy and it will be dark! You are responsible for your own safety. We recommend bug spray, sturdy shoes, a flashlight to check for potholes in the path, and water.
Come explore the village and the bogs by moonlight, this special opportunity is scheduled on or as close to the full moon as possible. An experienced guide will share insights about Whitesbog and the nature that surrounds us.
Meet your guide in the General Store before the start time and look around prior to the start. All walks are 3-5 miles in length.
Trail paths are sandy and can be bumpy or wet. Dress is weather appropriate.
$10 per person suggested donation.
Members of Whitesbog Preservation Trust $5
If it is your first visit we recommend you set out early to allow time to find the village and park in the parking lot.
GPS address: 799 Lakehurst Rd., Browns Mills, NJ 08015
Please check Facebook for weather updates on Moonlight walks.
PLEASE NOTE: The Start times vary by the date due to the time of the year.
Reservations are NOT required! You can call and leave your name, phone number, and the number of participants at 609-893-4646, but it is not required!
If improving fitness is on your list of New Year's Resolutions, then you may want ot join up with this hike!
Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
Saturday, December 31, 2022
"A January Fog will Freeze a Hog"December 30, 2022
A mild and mister mid-winter morning brought that old Appalachian saying to mind today. At first I couldn't tell if my windows were dirty from the midwinter snow and rain and wind or if it were really foggy outside but a trip to the back door with my Husky/Lab Uma quickly revealed that we had a January fog. I love FOG, the mystery of it, the soft focus like looking at the world through a veil or a sheer curtain, the softness of it. Although I love a fog, it didn't inspire me as yet to walk my dog. I had chores to do - but - I didn't get them all done because I got DIVERTED!
The topic of this post is the POETRY OF DIVERSION. Despite the fact that I have forged a compromise with my poetic and artistic soaul to avoid allowing too much diversion into my day, nonetheless, I do believe that diversion and the drift of the dreaming mind is the well spring of much of my creative work - whether painting, poetry, or writing of any kind. One of the things I lament in the modern of life of children is that they are so scheduled that they rarely have th eluxury that I enjoyed as a child which was long afternoons, regularly of unscheduled dreaming time to read or draw or simply study the ants on the sidewalk. And I did study the ants on the sidewalk and the crystal pebbles in the alleyway at the end of our street in Philadelphia, and the similarly unscheduled, unleashed and roaming neighborhood pets who
dropped by to visit with me.
So, today, in the midst of one chore, I got diverted. I had been searching the attic for more blankets to take to the man who helps the homeless and I ran across some photoalbus that DO NOT belong in the attic. I know how they got up there, though. Periodically if I am having company, generally it is my daughter, I round up my clutter in the living room into a storage tub which I then put into the attic. The albums were recent ones filled with photos for projected projects: photos of local train stations, local theaters which are now gone, mixed with current photos of family get-togehers, my brother's Joe's birthday. And I found an old old art piece. That was very DIVERTING! It was a rough handmade canvas bag onto the front of which I had sewn some plastic covered items: a postcard with two photos from the black and white photo strips you could get in machines at the seashore, of Lavinia, aged one or two on my lap, and on her father's lap. Above the photos of us were a postcard from the seashore bought that same day, and shells collected from the beach that day. This 'pocketbook' art piece was in the mid period of my pocket book art series.
The first pocketbook art works I did were when Lavinia was born. I bought a bunch of items at a 2nd hand store for their fabrics, silken lingerie, a faux fur collared top, something in velvet, curduroy, satin, and each of these items I cut into a square. In the middle of each square, I sewed a fabric pocket and into each pocket, I put a fun object for discovery, a shell, a plastic animal toy, an interesting button, and so on. I sewed all the squares together into a kind of book and I sewed a long strap to the spine to make it a carry item. I called it "Pocket book" and it was for Lavinia to play with, to enjoy the wonderful variety of fabrics and to find the wonder pieces in the pockets. She loved it. Somewhere in some trunk in the shed or the attic it sits now along with two Vietnamese pajama outfits from my brother sent to my sisters, some Turkish slippers I sent to my sisters while I was traveling, and some little dirndle dresses I made for them when I lived in Germany.
Anyhow, that pocketbook was in the 1980's as was the seahore memorabilia one. The most recent one was the one I entered into the BRAVE 100 Show at Eiland Arts in 2019 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Passage of Women's Suffrage.
So I got diverted by these albums and the canvas pocket book and it took me time traveling like Billy Pilgrim in SLAUGHTER HOUSE FIVE, one of my lifelong favorite novels by Kurt Vonnegut. He so captures how time travel can be so real it steals you right away from the present.
Against my better judgement, I sent a photo of the seashore pocket book piece to my daughter but it wasn't a good idea because I think she finds these kinds of interludes intrusive and interfering with her present life and mood. I have learned that I should save these forays for my Journals and friends and for this blog, after all, each of us have our own 'state of mind' and it is, in fact, kind of intrusive for someone to impose theirs on yours. I am kind of sorry now that I sent that photo and text message to her.
Anyhow, that dreamy state of diversion, for me, is the fertile field from which comes the emotion that drives the inspiration to make or paint something. It seems that it was the perfect diversion for a January foggy day too.
Hope you have plenty of open space in your life for a day of dreamy diversion!
I will be back for the New Year, this is just my entry for New Year's Ever. My next one will be on RESOLUTIONS!
Happy Trails, Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com (for comments, avoid the comments feature here as it is polluted by robospam)
Friday, December 9, 2022
Away in a Manger, No crib for his Bed
The other day when I was getting some Christmas Carol Lyrics printed out for our Woodbury Friends Meeting Christmas Get-together tonight, Friday, when we sing and decorate the tree, I was struck by the line about Jesus Christ having no crib and it reminded me of the homeless people in tents in Camden NJ and Kensington, Pa. Fortunately, today, when I was up in the attic looking for something else, I found a brand new, never used red sleeping bag and a fleece comforter, which I was able to drop off at Mr. Jim Piscatelli's garage door today while running errands. He is a volunteer who takes clothes and food and other useful items to the homeless in the tent cities mentioned above. This will be the fourth delivery I have managed to make of bags of clothes and canned foods from friends and neighbors and myself.
When I texted him to ask if the homeless had dogs and cats to feed and if they could use dry food, he said they could but to limit it to smaller bags and boxes of biscuits, so next week, I will buy small bags of dog and cat food to drop off at his garage, hopefully, in time for his Christmas in Kensington event.
In case anyone reads this and would like to help, Mr. Piscatelli's house is on the corner of St. Martin's and New Jersey Ave, in Haddon Heights. Take a right turn off Kings Hwy if traveling north, onto St. Martins until you come to New Jersey. His house is 1901, the corner, and you can turn left and put your items, in plastic trash bags for safety from the damp, by his garage door. I usually call first and let him know they are coming. I will be dropping off the dog and cat food next week. His phone number is 609-332-9484 and his mailing address is 1901 New Jersey Ave., Haddon Heights, NJ 08035 in case you ight want to send a card and a donation instead of dropping off bags. I believe when he does Christmas in Kensington, he gives the people little decorated Christmas Trees so a donation can help with that! I may send a donation as well. If you want to read an article about his work, look him up via google and there is a column in "The Sun" about him and his volunteer helpers.
I can tell you from the way I felt dropping off that sleeping bag and blanket, that it is a Christmas blessing to think you helped someone cold and homeless to have a warm place to sleep.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Jo Ann (you can reach me at wrightj45@yahoo.com if you have a comment. Please don't bother with the comment function on the blog as it is polluted with robot spam)
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
AAA Newsletter of things to do in SJ for Christmas
In case you aren't a member of AAA automotive organization, here are some things from their bulletin that you can do to celebrate the season:
WinterFest Ice Sckating at Cooper River North Park Drive on the right or East side over the bridge.
Dec. 16 Merchantville Holiday Party 6:00 pm to 8 pm, Downtown Merchantville, food and crafts along the way.
Drive through Light Show at Diggerland, 100 Pinedge Drive, West Berlin, Wed. through Sunday until Jan. 1st 2023, $35 per car
Drive through Creamy Acres Winter Wonderland with Christmas Musicd, warm up at fire pit and get snacks from food trucks #30 per car 448 Lincoln Mill Road, Mullica Hill through Friday, Dec. 31st
The other events on the list are already over. This Friday, Woodbury Meeting Members will gather to sing carols, decorate the tree and eat Pizza and then Christmas cookies for dessert.
My Christmas tree is up and decorated as is the bannister (with garand and lights and stockings) in my living room, and my outdoor lights are almost finished as soon as my Landscape guy comes back to hook up the last extension cord. Somehow between last Christmas and this one, I lost two of my extension cords in my shed. Truth be told, my shed is not as tidy or organized as it used to be or that it should be, or the Elves may have been at it - who knows? Anyhow, today they should be finished as well.
This time of year always evokes sentimental trips down memory lane and when I drove over to Carr's Hardware Store on Broadway in Gloucester City where I go for EVERYTHING hardware or yard, I couldn't help thinking of my old teaching days in Gloucester City, when the kids came in with jingle bell bracelets and ankle bracelets and Santa hats and the halls were filled with their anticipatory energy at old M.E.C (Mary Ethel Costello School). The teachers all outdid one another with decorated Christmas sweaters and all the classrooms were filled with Christmas projects. In my Art Room we made stained glass window ornaments with black construction paper and colored cellophane which decorated our windows. Also, outside the Art Room was a display of pets' photos for our food drive for local animal shelters which was run by me and a colleague, Dr. Jacky Brady. I collected and she delivered. It was a fun time. Poinsettia were on the desks of teachers and the main office, and our classroom doors were decorated with Christmas lights. We all looked forward to the long winter break.
I also miss the family I used to be able to visit in the old days when I was a child and my parents would take me and my brother (the one closest in age, Joe), to visit the grandmothers and uncles and aunts. They are all gone (not my brother - he will by up from W.Va. for Christmas). On my bureau is a doll I have had with me through all those years. She is almost as old as I am and was given to me for Christmas, by my beloved Godfather Neal Schmidt, also long gone.
It isn't good to look back too much however, best to keep your eyes forward as in driving. Enjoy where we are and live i the moment and let the past stay where it is, in the past. Inevitably, when you look too hard at those old memories, the hardships come up as well, the struggles with money in the early days, trying to juggle Christmas preparations with full time work and housekeeping - all that! But, now I am old and retired and I can snuggle more easily into the season and contemplate the deeper meaning, to me, of this holiday, which is the Passage of Time and the celebration of the season and survival and all the other living things, the things that remain green in the depth of winter's sleep. The part of the Christmas season that is older than the Christian aspect.
For me, the decorated tree, the trappings, the warmth and comfort of having survived long enough to retire with the companionship of my animal friends, these are the real holiday treats these days. But it is good to get out and about and share the seasonal celebration with others!
Happy trails, through the snow, the leaves, the Christmas Lights! Jo Ann
and if you wish to contact me please use my e-mail - comments funtion has been poisoned by spam. Merry Christmas be well, be safe and be happy!
wrightj45@yahoo.com
,
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
This Weekend - Starting off December
Holiday Parade! Friday Dec. 2nd
Stop in at the STATION for a taste of their variety of hot chocolate drinks and stay for the opening:
Our current show:
Works by the The Studio 18 Collective
Is running form November 4th - December 31st
Meet the artists: December 2nd from 6-9pm…
DECEMBER 3rd, Woodbury Meeting members will be enjoying the candleight tour of the James and Ann Whitall House at Red Bank Battlefield! We will be there at 6:00 p.m. Check their web site or facebook page for more information.
Happy Trails and Happy Holidays - Jo Ann
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Christmas Fun, Train Show in Deptford, NJ
The Museum of American History at Deptford, NJ
Hours:
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
10 am to 3 pm
Admission - Adult $4.00 Child $3.00
138 Andaloro Way,
Deptford, NJ 08093-1627
phone - 856-812- 1121
email- sjmuseum@aol.com
The 20th Annual Antique Toy Train Show
November 25th, 2022 thru January 29th, 2023
December Fun Event in the Pines - BATSTO VILLAGE
Get in the holiday spirit at Batsto Village!
Sunday, December 11th
12:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Come join us for…
Hot cider and cookies in the Post Office Museum!
A fun children’s craft activity on the porch of the General Store!
Mansion tours!
Having your holiday mail hand cancelled at the Post Office (with no zip code!)
Taking holiday pictures! (with a sleigh?)
Listening to the St. Nicholas Aurora Carolers as they stroll through the village!
A visit to the Nature Center!
Taking a wagon ride!
*There is a charge of $10 / rider for the 20 -minute ride to help us offset the cost of providing this activity
Friday, November 25, 2022
Woodbury Friends Meeting - Soup and Bread Day
Although most people call this day, the day after Thanksgiving 'Black Friday' to the Woodbury Friends Meeting in South Jersey, it is Soup and Bread Day. We celelbrate a tradition where the day after Thanksgiving we get together to eat soup and bread and we bring canned goods to donate to local charities. This year, we honor the Indigenous people of South Jersey, the Lenni Lenape, by using two American Native recipes: Three Sisters Soup, and Acorn Bread. I am making the soup and it is basic and easy and I learned about it from an Aetna Heart Healthy brochure I recieved in the mail. It is simply canned pmpkin (not pie filling) and beans and corn. Also, the recipe calls for diced onion and celery which I don't know for sure were ingredients available to Indigenous Americans before the colonialists arrived. You can find the recipe on-line.
We had our Thanksgiving feast last Sunday after meeting and it was vegan and vegetarian. One member brought a Gardein roast (delicious) and I brought green beans in mushroom sauce, another member brought acorn squash with maple syrup and another brought a spiced cranbury/apple punch. Some brought corn bread and a variety of other treats were contributed by other members, too many to list them all. Also at that time, many brought canned goods. This year we have chosen a Womens' Shelter to donate to as well as Senior Citizens United of Camden County whcih runs both a food pantry and home delivery of bags of groceries to income based elderly.
In case you haven't ever heard of or visited Woodbury Friends Meeting, it is more than 300 year old historic Meeting House on a small hill as you enter the business section of the main street of Woodbury, Broad Street. There is an old cemetery ground and many very old and beautiful trees on the site.
The Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers (think of Quaker Oats) is a religious sect that arose during the Reformation in England, in the mid 1600's. A prophet named George Fox had a revelation of a simpler, more basic and peaceful form of Christian worship. He believed in simplicity, peace, equality, community and a more Christ-like less political and corrupt church. His followers were persecuted by the King who tried to force his own religion upon the people, so many of them fled to the 'new world' and most of South Jersey was settled by early Friends who lived mostly in peace and harmony with the native Lenni Lenape. Most people are familiar with probably the most famous Friend, William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania as a Quaker settlement.
Most South Jersey towns, especially along the old Salem/Kings Highway from Burlington to Greenwich have old and still used Friends Meeting Houses somewhere on their main streets, as for example in Woodbury, Mickleton, Mullica Hill, Woodstown, Salem and so on, all the way to Greenwich where there are two historic Meeting houses on Ye Greate Street. Quaker Meetings are open to those who wish to join for Silent Worship on Sundays, generally around 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. Friends have no official pastors or ministers because we believe there is that of "God" what we call "The Light Within" in everyone and none of us need intercessors to speak directly to the divine. Most Friends view the Bible as a record of the religious experience of early Christians. Often people ask if Quakers are Christian and, yes, we are. You can find out more about Quakers by listening to our podcasts or on YouTube and by finding resources via google. Our book is called Faith and Practice and there are three Meetings in Philadelphia, the Yearly Meeting, the most active is just off Broad Street on Cherry Street. There are also Society of Friends Schools, in Philadelphia, and Moorestown, and Mullica Hill. Also there are Friends Meetings all over the United States, I was just focused on South Jersey.
I have been an attender at Philadelphia and am a member at Woodbury. Our building is very interesting and I believe you can access a video tour on-line.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
Thursday, November 24, 2022
Thanksgiving 2022 - Adapting to change
My Thanksgiving Feast of Bounty was celebrated at Woodbury Friends Meeting last Sunday, and today I will enjoy left-overs from that feast - a vegan Gardein roast, green beans in mushroom gravy, and I bought a pumpkin pie at Shop Rite.
Earlier today I set off with intention: I wanted to get the celery I need for the soup I am making for Soup and Bread day at Meeting tomorrow and money for Bob the Yard Guy to do some more lighting work in the yard for Christmas, and I intended to stop in Wawa and get a flavored coffee to give me the boost to get started on my Christmas decorating. I am too sensitive to caffeine to be able to enjoy coffee any more, but I can have it for a treat once in awhile, and since I don't drink it often, when I do have some, it gives me a big boost of energy which I need to tackle those Christmas tubs in the back room.
First treat of the day wqs the day itself - cool but warm, upper 50's, sunny and a light friendly breeze. Second bit of good fourtune, the ShopRite wasn't crowded and I was second in line in my counter. Third good luck was I took my old Wawa mug, 20 oz. size for the coffee boost, and it was FREE! I got gas in the car while I was out.
I was hoping to get home in time for the annual radio play of Alice's Restaurant, the Arlo Guthrie song of my youth about how his misdeamenor trash arrest saved him from the Vietnam War draft. It brought back so many memories. I remember all the young men I knew waiting in dread for their number to be called and for their freedom to be taken from them and for them to be tortured in basic training and then sent to kill or die in a foreign hell hole far from home and anyone who cared for them. My brother went, my then boyfriend was called up, but he was sent to Germany and I went with him. For me it was the adventure of a lifetime, for that part of my life anyway. My brother survived and survives and I just spoke with him on the phone. He had walked the dog, put his wood burning stove together and was peeling potatoes to cook a meal. He is 75 and I am 77 and we are both well and fairly vigorous.
My chore of the day, my intention is to get started on the inside Christmas decorations. I would like to get the bannister done, and the tree, and perhaps find the trains for a display at Friends Meeting. They said I could put up my trains there this year for Christmas and my little German village.
If I got all that done today, it would be a huge success.
Biggest treat of all was a great phone call from my daughter who is working on a film project in Colorado. It was wonderful to hear from her and I am so thrilled at this step in her career. She will make so many contacts and she will learn so much, what an adventure.
We have reached a good place in our relationship mainly because I have made a great effort to adjust and to fix myself. Adaptation: A huge step in any parent/child relationship is to let them go, and let them be themselves and make their own lives. I learned from mistakes people I knew had made with their children, that you cannot try to make them be your best friend or solve your problems or assauge your loneliness. You have to fix all that yourself, make new rituals, find new family, find new friends and give them the space they need. Also it has been a struggle for me to learn not to keep trying to teach my daughter stuff or use my experiences to alter her perspective. She is done, our work is done and she is now the successful and accomplished adult. She doesn't need or want that from me anymore. Her world is so different from mine, I couldn't really be an guidance anyhow. I need to use my energy to find my way through the foreign territory that is my own new adventure - OLD AGE.
So, I had intented to get home in time for the full play on the radio of Alice's Restaurant, but I walked the dog instead and missed it. I haad the radio on for a time to help me get a rhythm, but I turned it off to do this blog and take my phone call. Now it is time to get busy and get the decorations up.
Instead of an old family Thanksgiving, I have a new Friends Meeting Thanksgiving, and my new tradition for the day will be to listen to the radio and put up the decorations!
And what am I thankful for today, this day of gratitude: 1. My independent, resourceful, intelligent and accomplished daughter, 2. My cozy bungalow on the dog's leg of Green Avenue in the bounteous democracy of America, 3.My healthy and life and the health and life of my family, 4.The glorious benevolent weather of New Jersey today and this whole autumn, 5.The great good fortune that has shone upon my existence throughout my life!
I need to add 6.the warm and loving companionship of my cats and dog!
Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
An Homage to Cat Companions
This autumn one of my cat companions died. He was a marvelous fellow, confident, friendly, trusting and loving to a remarkable degree. He was rescued from New Cathedral Cemetery in Philadlphia, where he lived outdoors several years ago when I was visiting that cemetery while doing family history. My German relatives are buried there, the Sandman and Young (Jung) families, my maternal grandmother's ancestors. I named this cat after my great Uncle Yock, who looked kind of like a big cat himself, the same watchful and mischievious eyes.
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One of the things I find so endearing and sorrowful about cats, as about all the vulnerable ones, is their trusting, hopeful, and confident natures. Little Yock came right up to me, innocent as an animal in the garden of Eden, innocent of the evil of people. The cemetery worker told me the cat would lead us to the family grave site, and he did! I am sure it must have been his favorite place because there was a tree there and he may have liked lying there in the shade or climbing the tree. He came back to the car with us, too, my sister Sue was with me. The keeper said "You can take him if you want, when I am not here he has no water or food!" So I told the cat, "If you come with me, I will give you a home." He let me pick him up and put him in the car so I took him to my vet straight away and he lived with me from that time forward, about 8 years.
He was a commanding cat and he immediately established himself as the top cat in the household. He was bigger and stronger and had some kind of indescribable charisma as well as cat behaviors invisible to me, that demanded respect from the other cats and even the dog. He was fearless. All the cats are different just like we are. I have had cats for companions my whole life. Most of them were rescued during my childhood in the city or actually, chose us to live with.
Presently I have 6 cats, all of them interesting, all of them with their own little stories. But Yock was bigger than a 'little story' and he had so much presence, he was as big as a remarkable person.
The thing that is mysterious to me is how cats live in this human dominated world, both in our houses and at large in the neighborhoods. Both of these places have such limitations but the natural world no longer exists for them as it no longer exists for us. They must accept the limitations of the indoor world as we do, and it is better, I think, than the challenges and sufferings of the outdoor world, especially in winter. Like homeless people, homeless cats must scavenge for a living and they are at the mercy of the killers, whether human or animal. I have tried to give my cats a bit of the outdoor world by having constructed a "CATIO" which is something I saw on an animal show on tv. It is a 6 foot tall chain link enclosure, much like a dog run, about 12 feet long and 8 feet wide, with a cat door installed in a window so they can go out and in as they please. This is a compromise that allows them outside time but doesn't put the birds at risk. I once saw an old cat of mine, long deceased now, eating a blue jay out in the yard, but some cats cannot be kept in. Little Yock had to go out and he was a master at escape. Because he was about 3 or 4 when I took him in, he had spent his formative years in the outdoors. When I was home, he loved to be in the house, by my side on the sofa, or at my feet in bed, but each day he went out on patrol, usually when I went out to walk the dog. And when he was out and I came home, he rushed to greet me and the dog and he rubbed up against our legs purring loudly in his joy to have us back home again. He rushed to the car when I came home from the store with similar joy at my return. I don't think anyone was ever so glad to see me before or since.
My cats curl up with me whereever I am, on the sofa or in bed, and they purr and they sometimes lick my hand, tiny little cat kisses. And when I pet them, I can feel my blood pressure going down and my body relaxing. It is true that they are expensive and take a lot of care. I have to scoop the six kitty litter boxes pretty much every day, and one of my cats, the oldest, Black Honey, has recently cost me a total of about $400 in veterinary bills. She got thinner and thinner and was constantly screaming to be fed. I would feed her wet canned food and tuna and chicken, and she would gobble it ravenously and then scream for more. No matter how much she ate, about a can or two a day with 6 or so feedings daily, she still wasted away. The vet told me she had a hyperthyroid condition due to her age, which is about 17 years old. Fortunately, the medication is efective and fairly easy. Each morning with her breakfast, and at night with her bedtime snack, I put on a rubber glove and a drop of medication cream on a finger tip and rub it in her ear. She is gaining weight again and doesn't scream in pain and alarm all the time as she did before. Becaue I have had her for so many years living with me and becasue she is a link with so many parts of my life, and because I, too, am an old lady now, she has a special kind of poignancy for me. She can't make the jump from the floor to the kitchen table anymore. She doesn't have the control over her back legs that she used to have, they are wobbly and a bit shaky now and don't provide the push she needs to make the jumps she formerly made effortlessly. She eats on the kitchen table because the other cats and the dog will take her food. The dog steals it from the kitchen table too.
I suppose Black Honey will die within a year or two, much like Little Yock died this past autumn. One evening, he gave a loud cry, then came down from the attic, panting, and went into the hall and keeled over, dead. probably heart attack. He hadn't been sick at all and he had been eating and drinking and behaving as always. It was heartbreaking to lose him, to put him in a box and bury him in the back yard, all his beauty and personality reduced to that.
All the expense and the work is worth it because they bring such joy and delight into my daily life, and love and affection. It is an honor and a wonder to share my existence with people of a different species, to watch their interactions, to eperience them growing from kittenhood to adulthood, to enjoy their warmth by my side on the sofa as I read or watch a tv program on my laptop, to feel their little warm bodies curled up beside me in my bed at night.
From the earliest years when I sat in the alleyway of our South Philadelphia row home, and visited with the free ranging cats, they have been my freinds in every sense of the word.
It alarms me When I read the ocassional articles making war on cats. There was an article in the Smithsonian about Australia being over run by cats and the rangers were killing them. Shortly after their war on cats they were overrun by mice. It seems like Austrailia is always off balance with some kind of animals they want to kill. Also in Outdoor Magaine there was an article about killing the cats in Hawaia becaue they were a danger to indigenous birds. We all know there are better ways to control populations than wholesale and wanton slaughter, but men seem to need to kill. I canceled that subscription in protest. Lately in a sicience magazine there was an article about cats being an "invasive" species and destroying birds. We are all invasive species depending on where on the migration clock you turn the dial. Aside from birds, cats also keep down the rodent population and they have been guardians of the grain larder for thousands of years.
Well whatever the articles may say, cats are here to stay. Every friend of mine has two or more cat friends living with them. I can put aside my worry about the way they are treated by donating to cat rescues like The Alley Cat Allies and by looking at my cats, well fed, well loved and well cared for in every way and knowing I do my part and have always done my part for the cat friends.
Tp celebrate his life and beauty, I made a painting of Little Yock and my sister and brother bought me a cat statue for his grave. If there is an ocean of consciousness where ours returns after our corporeal body disintigrates, I may meet up with all my former friends in the cat world some day! Until then, I wish the cats the dogs, all the other creatures and all of us -
Happy Trails, Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Model Trains -
Hi Everyone!
It's time again for the Annual Toy Train Show at the Museum of American History at Deptford, NJ! Starting November 25th, 2022 and running thru January 29th, 2023, the Show will be feature O and O-27 gauge toy trains, from the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s. Lionel, Marx and American Flyer engines, with cars attached, will race on two different platforms, each one decorated with vintage buildings, and other structures to give a traditional holiday appearance!
The Museum is open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 3pm.
I am attaching a flyer for you. Please feel free to share! Hope to see you soon at the Museum!
Jeffrey Norcross
The Museum of American History at Deptford, NJ
138 Andaloro Way
Deptford, NJ 08093
856-812-1121
sjmuseum@aol.com
Friday, November 18, 2022
A Walk around Town - Happiness and Contentment
November 18, 2022, noon temperature 44 and sunny with a brisk little breeze.
My dog Uma and I have just come back from our morning walk around town, about 4000 steps or 2 miles. I have to credit her with this good new habit because when I would malinger, she will not let me off the hook! And I have grown to really love this slow ramble through the town and the seasons and the years. Some of the things I have seen are the change over of the lawn ornaments with the seasons, all the Halloween stuff is down and only the pumpkins remain for Thanksgiving. There are even two early birds who have put their Christmas lawn ornaments up and I don't blame them one bit. It is freezing cold after Thanksgiving but relatively mild just now and more friendly to hands and face and feet to do the outdoor decor now. My favorites are the 3 dimensional snow men and lit up reindeer. My least favorites are the new popular air pump fabric ones which tend to wilt into what looks like laundry on the lawn.
Each day we pass the school yard and I marvel at the screaming that goes on, high pitched squeals and blood curdling screams. I always think I should record it, I don't know why, just because it is an auditory marvel. They just let go, the kids, and sound out in unself-conscious shrieks. I don't think I ever have, myself.
It is also interesting to see the seasons change the row of 60 to 70 Cherry trees that line the railroad tracks on Station Ave from Kings Highway down to Northmont. In spring they are blushing in pink blossoms, verdent green in summer, fiery red and orange in late autumn and bare until snow comes along to give them lace collars and cuffs. And speaking of trees, there is my favorite the giant Willow Oak that faces the Cherry Trees. It has long slim blades for leaves in summer, large bulging knuckles of roots popping up from the ground covered with iridescent green mold in damp weather and a surprising array of fungi growing in its folds in season. The huge trunk rises in a spiral like coiled rope up up over the rooftops. I have done many paintings of this tree!
It is always amazing to see the things people throw away on Friday, trash day. I have been the beneficiary of this cast off largesse on various occasions: a perfectly nice polite windsor chair that needed only a bit of wood glue on a rung that had sprung loose from its mooring and which now sits in my kitchen, repaired and comfortable in its new home and grateful to have been spared the land fill grave. There is a humble and practical little table with a drawer, a shelf, and wing arms, that can be raised or lowered, that sits in front of my sofa, offering its gratitude for the rescue that saved it from the land fill as well. I have rescued a serviceable book case, a nice wooden desk chair, a small garden table and once, an entire set of garden chairs of the type that had the picket fence post backs. That garden set, sadly, is long gone. Many coats of oxblood red paint kept it serviceable until wood rot finally defeated us.
Most recently I rescued a pine cone Christmas wreath, painted red, which I hope to re-home at the Woodbury Friends Meeting on the back door. If they don't want it, my porch will accept this refugee from a family move. Somehow, I anthropomorphise objets until they almost speak to me; "Save Me" they cry from the curb. Over the summer I rescued a beautiful old weathered wicker basket with an unraveled wicker handle that only needed the wicker parts of the handle removed to reveal a nice solid bent-wood handle beneath. It is on my patio with a plant in it, happy to have a new home and a new life.
It is rare for me to pick up anything these days, however, because I am in the paring down phase of my life. I have everything I need and far more than I want. Trash day offers a cornucopia of astonishing items however, which I am sure the scavengers retrieve before it is too late and the metal teeth of the trash machine grind and swallow them. I have seen entire dining room sets, many many kinds of perfectly useable tables, and even sad little tableaux of what I assume to be the possessions of recently deceased grandmothers and grandfathers, such as a white wicker chair I once saw with a matching white wicker basket filled with colored skeins of yarn and knitting needles. A couple of chintz pillows indented by someone's back and posterior sat forlornly waiting for the person who used to sit and knit to return.
There are flower beds I enjoy visiting as well; around the corner is Mark's joyful half block long bed of seasonal flowers, yellow daisies, purple spears, red roses, all sorts of flowers whose names I don't know. It is a special treat to visit this little garden border every day. There are other trees I like to visit too, three lovely tall young pines, fifteen years old, fragrant and dropping pine cones in season.
I have my favorite houses, too, to visit. and sometimes a neighbor is out. We have watched a neighbor on Northmont for MONTHS, rebuilding the woooden dam that holds his raised lawn. The old wooden frame had rotted and he took it out, sunk new posts in cement, dug out the dirt, installed wooden sheets to hold the dirt back ntil the cement could harden, and I presume he will fill it in again before the snow, but who knows? He built new steps in the meantime.This neighbor has a dog who looks identical to mine, probably another yellow Lab mix. Mine is a husky lab mix of a creamy white that darkens to a pale caramel on her back and ears. She has enormous brown eyes and a large pinkish nose and huge snow shoe paws. We visit other dogs on our way, too, a nice shepherd on Green, and we had two favorite little Boston Terriers we visited daily but they moved this summer.
Happiness really does lie in your own backyard. I try to make it a point to take note of when I feel happy, and I always feel happy after Uma and I have taken our neighborhood walk each day. In fact, before I injured my knee early this week, we had taken to doing two walks a day, our usual morning one when we greet the postal carrier and the trash collectors, and an afternoon walk. As soon as I am recovered completely I plan to go back to two walks a day again. I hope this little ramble inspires you to go out and walk around your town!
Happy Trails, Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Cheating
Among the many evils made into norms by Donald Trump, one of the worst is the acceptance of cheating as a way to win, a viable strategy. I often think about the "social contract," the way we keep large groups of people in a stable and orderly society, it is by agreeing to the rules of the game.
Once, when I was in West Virginia visiting my parents, this time with a man I was dating, my sister, father and nephew were playing monopoloy This being the age when grandparents didn't have internet or X-box, we all played games together regularly, Monopoly, checkers, scrabble. As my intelligence and skill set are mostly derived from art and reading, I am not particulary good at games and I often misunderstand the parameters. I stopped doing crossword puzzles when they began to allow words stuck together and anagrams and abbreviations. Squeezing through the cracks of the rules by allowing the use of cheat apps and, for example, allowing obscure and unheard of words to make scrabble has undermined my plesure in playing any of those games. I deplore cheating. My sister caught the man I was dating cheating at the monopoly game which only added further proof to what I had begun to see as a growing case against him in regard to values. He was all about winning and getting what he wanted by whatever means. This to me was akin to cowardice or other signs of weakness. You should be able to win by true ability not by rigging the game.
Donald Trump supported the concept of cheating as a way to win with his entire career and rise to power. He committed fraud throughout his business life, cheated throughout his marriages, cheated his employees at his business and promoted the attitude that playing fair was for suckers and winners should do anything to get the power they craved.
Herschel Walker is a prime example of a Trumpian cheat and deceit platform. He promoted a 'no choice' policy for abortion to win over Fundamentalists votes in Georgia, then lied and denied when he was exposed as having paid two different women for their abortions while in relationships with them. He is tied with the Democratic candidate, Warnock and we won't know, perhaps until December who will win.
Throughout our relationship with the Indigenous people of North America, our local and federal governments have used the same deceitful and fraudulent strategies in robbing them of their homelands, much the same kind of behavior cheated African Americans of their lands in the South, which was exposed in the news some time back in regard to the state taking over the homesteads of poor Black people who died because there were gaps in their paperwork, leaving their descendents robbed and cheated of their family inheritance.
It's George Bailey versus Potter all over again. And this time around, the Potter is Trump, and DeSantis and all the Republican toadies who have adopted his cheating and ceceitful strategies to win no matter what.
In this sports obsessed country, I have to wonder what would happen if the same kind of strategies began to take over football and baseball?
Yesterday I voted, in person, as always because I love to see the same poll workers each year and to celebrate the joy of the vote because I know how hard fought the battle for that right was for women, and how so many women suffered to bring it to vicotry!
Fortunately, I live in a Democratic state.
One of the things I took from the Hannah Freeman story in the book "A Lenape Among the Quakers" by Dawn Marsh, was to be wary of becoming a 'ward of the state' or of anyone for that matter, because that is how you lose your freedom. There are so many ways elderly people get cheated through health care as well as their financial lives when they become weakened.
As for our country, I don't know how we are going to climb out of this pit of cheating and deceitfulness that has claimed so many in government and so many citizens. I hope at some point they see the connection in regard to the sports they love and once again begin to be aware of the essential component of fairness in our dealings with one another in the world.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Pandora's Seed and The Last of the Mohicans
Our book relationship takes some interesting turns at Woodbury Meeting. Sometimes we are all reading a chosen book at the same time, and sometimes one person brings a book and we pass it along. The most recent book was of the latter process, Pandora's Seed.The unforseen Cost of Civilization, by Spencer Wells. This fascinating wide ranging look at human civilizatinn begins with the hunter gatherers and the rise of agriculture, to ponder all the many consequences from the effects on our health of a less diverse diet and less active life, to the growth of population and the effect of these consequences on the environment, among many other considerations.
Many of his strands of thought wove into philosophical roads I have traveled over my life, such as population control. From the 1960's, when birth control became more widely available, I have been a big believer in limited population growth for a couple of reasons: 1-Women who can control their onset of motherhood, can get an education, a career and become more capable of independent survival if they can put off childbearing past their late teens and early twenties, and 2-Our planet has been stressed to the breaking point to supply the resources needed to sustain unregulated population growth.
It has long been a visible process how population growth leads to deforestation for agriculture, and eventually desertification due to the loss of the forest component of moisture retention in the soil and in the air as well as the cover the canopy provides to protect the soil, especially during drought. As we speak, the amazon jungle, known as the "lungs of the planet" is being destroyed
for mining and lumbering profiteering and the last of the hunter gatherers are being murdered by these exploitive forces.
Obviously we cannot go back. We can't return to Eden and become hunter gatherers again, too much has already been destroyed and we are not fit for that world any more, nor would we want to. My thoughts in regard to wilderness survival is always, "What happens when you have appendicities? Or a compound fracture from a fall?"
But there are things we can do to slow or halt the destruction, and to conserve what we have left and to use our great big brains to find a more sustainable way to live so there is a future for planet earth other than to leave it a dry, dead, dusty ball like the moon.
It ocurred to me recently when I was trying to find a way to watch my annual Thanksgiving film, The Last of the Mohickans, that it was only a couple hundred of years ago that the people who populated North America were living exactly that balanced hunter gatherer lifestyle that left a balance in the natural world. Thinking that way gives such a different slant to the arrival of the Mayflower to the continent.
I have been making some paintings in celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, one of Chief Tamenand who make the disastrous land deal with William Penn's family, and one of a man and woman of the Wampanoag Tribe of the village of Patuxet who were wiped out by a smallpox plague brought by Dutch traders (it must be noted that for the most part this was accidental as in the 1600's no one really understood how diseases spread.) A fact I only recently discovered was that one of the items taken from the 'New World' by Dutch traders were kidnapped Native people who were sold into slavery back in Europe. They were lured onto the ships for trading purposes and became trade items themselves. A few of the Wampanoag were kidnapped and one, Tisquanto, known as Squanto, spent nine years in England and then returned to Patuxet to find his village a ghost town. He stayed on to help the pilgrims by showing them how to farm and how to harvest other edibles in order to survive. He was the 'Last of' his branch of the Wampanoag tribe.
A note on literature. An 'exotic' child for my time and place, I was raised on the dense forest of late 1800's and early 1900's classic popular literature. I was exotic because I was a devout and obsessive reader in a red brick row house neighborhood where you would have been hard pressed to find other children with such as strange predilection. My access to this literatue was via the basement of my grandmother's house where the left over library of some previous ancestors sat dusty and forlorn on bookshelves taken down to the basement to unclutter the living area. I was given free reign to these books, a treasure trove of Dickens, Twain, classic American literature such as Moby Dick and The Last of the Mohickans as well as European Literature that had been purchased as a set in a dark blue clothcovered hard back binding; Emile Zola, Guy dePaupassant, Bocaccio. I bravely beat my way through the jungle of the prose of that era like a possessed explorer hacking her way through an impenetrable tract of mysterious terrain.
When my daughter and I, on a girl scout trip many many decades after my childhood, visited Plymouth Plantation, I couldn't help but be struck by the dearth of reading material, not that there would have been time for such a luxury as reading, nor adequate lighting for reading in the time available after the work of food growing and production was complete. That time, anyhow, would have had to be given over to spinning and weaving and knitting and preserving.
Replacement Theory: One of the driving forces in the rise of the RightWing political movement is the fear of the European White Christian population being replaced by foreigners, brown and black skinned, uneducated masses. It isn't new, it is just newly invigorated. It existed when I was growing up in South Philadelphiad in the last five years of th 1940's and the decade of the Baby Boon 50's. The AngloSaxon and Irish remnants of early waves of immigration were fleeing the onslaught of the Sothern Meditteranean immigrants. Our neighborhood resonated with the sound of the Romance Language and the smells of Meditteranean cooking. The Irish pubs were slowly being replaced by pizzerias and Italian restaurants. There was an uneasy friction between these groups as slowly but surely, love precipitated an intermingling of these European groups, and the huybrid Italian/Irish families then prospered and moved to the suburbs or across the river to New Jersey. My family was the result of an earlier melding of the older German inhabitants of that area of Philadelphia, with the new Irish arrivals. Even amidst these disparate ethnic groups there were frictions and tribal factions. The Irish were riven into Protestant and Catholic factions, representated by my Episcopalian Irish-American Grandmother married to my Catholic Irish-American Grandfather. Her immigrant Irish-American mother had married into an earlier English settler family along the Timber Creek in New Jersey. And so the slow blending evolved. The children of the Irish-American grandparents married Italians.
A friend recently bemoaned that educated white women weren't reproducing enough because they were pursuing education and careers and so the 'dumbing down' of the population was happening. But I reminded him that the majority of the great thinkers, writers and artist of the world came from humble origins and not from upper class educated white mothers, as for example Charles Dickens, born in a workhouse and raised in poverty. A whole list of such success stories could be provided, the old rags to riches tale. The intelligent and enquiring mind will arise, it doesn't require a hot-house. And I believe the world needs more and more educated women without the constraints of motherhood, to take over roles of leadership in this far too patriarchal world.
Well, that's it for today. It is time for me to get out and vote!
Happy Trails my fellow mixed breeds! Hope you all have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving! Jo Ann
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Gratitude is GREAT but don't forget SHARING at this time of the year - Thanksgiving!
This morning, I took a little rest after walking my dog and searched for some authentic imagery for a painting I want to do for a display at Woodbury Meeting for November. Although I am well aware of the benefits of gratitude and I practice the five gratitudes every day, this month, I am thinking how that can sometimes be a little self-congratulatory and is missing a vital component - SHARING! Often I meet someone, or read a piece in the news and my eyes are opened to something that has always been right there, in a new way. In a local news item, a couple of years ago. I read about a man and some volunteers who help him collect and distribute clothing to the homeless. That first year, three of my friends were closet cleaning and we took half a dozen bags plus some purchased items (peautbutter crackers and hand sanitizer) to the home of one of the volunteers to help them.
This week, I have been gathering more things of my own to take to Jim Piscitelli, who lives in Haddon Heights. You can find more information about him and his work by looking up his name and the word "Homeless" and you will be brought to the original article which appeared in the Sun.
For years, before I retired, another teacher and I used to run a canned goods collection for animals! I had a huge billboard and I would allow students to post pictures of their pets if they brought in canned food for for our collection. The other teacher would take the collected items to various shelters. We also collected other items such as cat carriers, dog collars and leashes, and water bowels. The stories that went with the donated items touched my heart.
So, this year, to begin with, I am going to make a painting of the Lenni Lenape ancestral inhabitants of the lands where we, in South Jersey, now live. I want to honor their memory and the tragic consequences of their interactions with the British colonizers of these lands. (full disclosure, I am definitely a descendant of those colonizers and immigrants from other European nations as well.) Secondly, the painting will be part of a display to inspire members of my Quaker Meeting in Woodbury to contribute to: 1-canned goods for food banks, and 2-clothing, blankets and supplies to help the homeless. After all the first colonials from Britain were saved from starvation by the sharing of food and planting tips from the Wampanoag people
Along with being grateful for all you have achieved and all you own, maybe you might want to expand that gratitude to sharing some of your bounty with others less fortunate, and I say fortunate because so much of what we have achieved and own is to some degree the result of our good fortune as well as our hard work. I know for myself, along with my good choices. hard work and plentiful education, there was the original gift of a sound body and mind - a gift! Not something I earned. So many homeless are victims of their unfortunate brain chemistry, addictions, tragic experiences which have left them traumatized (as with our many homeless and struggling veterans, as well as the survivors of domestic abuse who just cannot earn enough to support their children) as well as physical disabilities which leave people unable to earn enough to support themselves in this time of high rent and higher home costs.
Local Post Offices as well as Municipalities often run canned good donation drives to make it even easier, as do most churches, ask around or google for more information. If I find more information, I will add it in another post.
Have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving! Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com
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For more information on the Lenni Lenape and original settlers see:
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Philadelphia's Forgotten Forebears: How Pennsylvania Erased the Lenape From Local History
hiddencityphila.org
Philadelphia's Forgotten Forebears: How Pennsylvania Erased the Lenape From Local HistoryHow Pennsylvania Erased the Lenape From ...
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Sunday, October 30, 2022
November always brings thoughts of gratitude for the many gifts we have been given and also of helping those less fortunate who may be going through hard times.
Some time ago, a local news post on yahoo mentioned a local man in Haddon Heights who volunteers at the Cathedral Kitchen in Camden and also collects and distributes clothing for the homeless. The man’s name is Mr. Piscatelli and clothing can be dropped off at his home 1901 New Jersey Ave., Haddon Heights, NJ but he requests that you call and let him know when you will be dropping off donations. 609-332-9484
Last year three friends helped me with their unused clothing and we were able to drop off several bags of pants and shirts, sweaters, jackets, socks and shoes which helped us clear our overstuffed closets and helped those in need. We also chipped in and bought packages of cheese crackers, moist wipes, and sanitizer and toothbrushes from the dollar store.
I will be using this as inspiration to go through my drawers and closet for extra gloves, jackets and other kinds of clothing that I don’t use and that might be able to help someone in the coming cold weather who is living in a tent.
I would be hard to live with the sadness of knowing how many are suffering if it weren’t for the opportunity to do something helpful. It gives us all hope. Our Meeting is beginning a canned goods collection to add to a local food pantry.
One of my favorite ways to give canned goods is in groups of cans which put together form a meal:
for example: (1) 2 cans of lentils + 1 can of potatoes, 1 can of carrots = easy lentil soup (2)1 can of potatoes + 1 can of corn + 1 can of sweat cream corn=corn chowder (3)1 jar of salsa +1 can each of white beans, red beans and black beans = quick chili! Also, I may add a can opener this year just in case.
By the way, there is an electronics Recycling Center at 5070 Central Highway in Pennsauken, just off the Cooper River. 856-333-0991 Call for directions and hours. It was a bit difficult to find, but we asked a nice woman who allowed us to follow her to the site. It is called Magnum and they are EPA registered. I took some phones, digital cameras, and a tablet and an old laptop.
Wishing you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!
Jo Ann
Senior Citizens United, Audubon, NJ - 08106
(856) 456-1121
Food Pantry Location: 1.52 miles from Haddon Heights
Email Website
Provides Emergency Food Bags and Meal On Wheels.Hours:Monday - Friday9:00am - 4:00pmFor more information, please call. ... this year just in case.
Saturday, October 22, 2022
Civil War History Day Sunday, Oct. 23 2022
From 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Historic West Jersey Train Depot at 354 Oakwood Ave., Glassboro, NJ you can dress up with Aunt Corrine, or hear performances by Beck's Civil War Band, and view Artifacts and miniature battle exhibits. Meet the "Old Baldy" Civil War Roundtable and the 12th NJ Volunteers for this Living History Black Powder Musket Drill. For mor information contact 856-881-9230 ext. 88149 and visit www.glassborohistory.org
You have no idea how I wish I could go. It has all the stuff I love including the historic train depot, fully restored. I hope you can get to go.
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Happy Trails - Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com
Thursday, October 13, 2022
Angela and Loretta - October 2022
My parents were among the more than 20 million loyal viewers of “Murder She Wrote,” a tv series starring Angela Lansbury which ran for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996. They loved that show, though at the time, I hadn’t stopped to consider all that it represented, most particularly a lead who was old, like them, not young and beautiful and sexy. The role was originally created for Jean Stapleton but she had recently lost her husband and was too lost in grief to be able to take on the project. Lansbury won Best Dramatic Actress awards every year that the series ran. Angela Lansbury was 96 when she died, just short of her 97th birthday. She was born and died in October.
I think one of the most interesting things I learned about Angela Lansbury, when I read about her life after her death was announced, was that her children had become involved in drugs during their family life in California, and her daughter was involved in a group of young drug users forming around Charles Manson! When Angela and her husband realized what was happening, they pulled up stakes and moved their family to Ireland, to Angela Lansbury’s birthplace. In that quiet, remote location, Lansbury took a year off from everything except taking care of her family and her children were able to recover from their drug addictions and get their lives back on track. Both are fine, healthy, successful people now. in late middle age, the age Angela Lansbury was when she began her long successful run with “Murder She Wrote.” Another of Angela Lansbury’s achievements was her 53 year marriage to husband Peter Shaw who predeceased her.
Loretta Lynn has also died in October, also in her 90’s. It has been written about her that she achieved a stardom that no female singer before her had. She’d had 16 number one hits, 52 top ten hits, and 76 records on the charts. Something that always stood out to me about Loretta Lynn was her pride in her working class roots. As anyone interested in history can tell you, the most invisible stories are those about the lives of the working poor, and especially women. Loretta Lynn put the spotlight on those experiences and everyone listened. There is a wonderful Ken Burns Documentary on Country Music and a good portrait of Loretta Lynn in it. If you are every looking for some really fun history to watch on tv, watch that documentary. You can find it on www.pbs.org. This year, I donated $60 and received the abs “passport” and I can tell you that it is a bottomless treasure bo of great entertainment for the cold evenings of fall and winter.
As the year folds into itself and we prepare for our own versions of winter hibernation, we say goodbye to yet two more great figures of the entertainment world and the twentieth century.
I just ordered Loretta' Lynn's autobiography "Coal Miner's Daughter" which I will read to honor her memory.
Happy Trails! Jo Ann (as always, if you wish to contact me, use my e-mail not 'comments' which is filled with spam
wrightj45@yahoo.com)
Tuesday, October 4, 2022
Red Bank Battlefield Upcoming Events
SAVE THE DATES!
18th Century Field Day and Candlelight Tours
Mark your calendars for these exciting events at Red Bank Battlefield Park
NEW FOR 2022
18th Century Field Day is a Two-Day Event
Saturday Oct. 22-The Navy in the Revolutionary War
Sunday Oct. 23-Re-Enactment of the Battle of Red Bank
Field Day (October 23) is quickly approaching and we could certainly use some help! We have a great day planned with some new participants including 18th century cider making and laundry in the Revolution!
Free Activities and Programs Both Days for Adults & Kids!
More info and schedules to come
Candlelight Tours of the Whitall House
Friday Dec. 2, 6-9 pm
Saturday Dec. 3, 4-9 pm
Sunday Dec. 4, 3-6 pm
View the Whitall House filled with handmade decorations in themed rooms. More info to follow!
Just received this by e-mail fro Whitall House, Red Bank Battlefield, one of my favorite places and a remarkable local historic site. If you are at all available, you wouldn't want to miss these events! Hope you can attend! Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com
Friday, September 30, 2022
Tv REVIEWS - Books and BLONDE
AMY'S BOOK HUNT, PBS
Amy Brent, daughter of a well known book store owner visits flea markets, estate sales, and thrift shops to show viewers how books destined for discard can be worth a lot of money. This was a fascinating tv show to someone like me because my house is literally filled with books. I have floor to ceiling book shelves in every room. AND I have taken boxes of books to book depository recepticles like Better World Books and other places trying to cut down. I took cartons of books on Women's History to Alice Paul Institute Library, but as it turned out they were downsizing their library and going more for on-line research. I have also taken cartons of books to those libraries and book stores still willing to take them, but increaingly, it seems to me, outside of urban, literate communities, people don't read much anymore. Despite he proliferatiion of Book Clubs, I think the average people are getting all their informaiton from television, not even from newspapers so much anymore. I find that sad because I LOVED books and they have been my friends all my life and my lifesavers. The connection with BLONDE is the bridge of two kinds of lives, the scholarly and the entertainment. I exclude mentioning sports because the real connection here is a story about my daughter and a prom dress. Adding sports would be too much.
It has been said by many people over my lifetime that I have a negative view of men. It is true, I do. One of the many many things I like about being old, is that I am no longer the object of male desire. Now I have fallen into the category of Granny or Old Timey retired teacher, stout, white haired, sensible shoes and, as of this year, very short hair.
In my youth, because I developed early and was tall and pretty and blonde, I was the unwilling recipient of the kind of male attention that the Women's Movement has pretty much put a stop to - street harrassment, lewd comments from strangers, surreptitious touching on public transportation and all manner of invasive attention. I hated it and it gave me bad posture because I was inadvertently tryng to shrink myself and become less visible. I developed sloped shoudlers to camoflage my developing breasts, for example. Everyone always commented on my posture and tried to make me stand up straight, but standing up straight made you look proud and drew attention. I was shy and didn't want attention. My bad posture, however, made me more a victime because it made me look vulnerable.
BLONDE, the movie, was a lurid and disrespectful exploitation of a pathetic dead woman who was, her entire life, the victim of constant exploitation because she was beautiful and weak. She encouraged the attention because of her traumatic childhood and because she had learned it was the easiest and most reliable way to get attention which she confused with love. Unfortunately, the attention always turned negative and exploitive because it was based on her beauty and sexual allure and as Vanessa Redgrave once so eloquently said; "When you are beautiful, you learn everything that is evil at an early age."
Marilyn Monroe's mother was a paranoid schizophrenic and was so abusive towards her little child that she tried to murder her by drowning her in the bathtub. It reminded me of the case of Andrea Yates, who in 2001 drowned all five of her children in the bathtub and then called the police. She was convinced she had to save them from going to Hell and that she had to die by execution. She is in a mental institution at this present time, 2022. She had schizophrenia and had suffered a psychotic break fueled by her fundamentalist religion and the exhortations of a bible spouting family friend. Her husband, appaently, was oblivious to her mental decline.
Marilyn Monroe died in 1962 at the age of 36, and yet she remains the object of such fascination from the press and the public. Before I permanently deleted my facebook account, I frequently recieved 'sexy images' of Marilyn Monroe from people - odd and surprising! They sent them the way some peope send kitten and puppy pictures with butterflies circling overhead. It always made me think how Marilyn Monroe was DEAD and how sad and unkind her life had been.
When my daughter was a senior in high school, she wanted me to make her prom gown but I hadn't sewn in years and a prom gown wa far above my skill level at any point, anyhow. I didn't really know what she wanted, so she made it herself, a home-made version of what she perceived to be Marilyn Monroe's SOME LIKE IT HOT dress. I was sad and embarrassed by her outfit and it seemed a bit delusional to me. But, I tried to stoicly smile through it. What that dress represented to me was a girl used, abused and discarded by a cruel and wolfish world. What it meant to my daughter I cannot say, maybe glamour? I had spent a lot of money on beautiful prom gowns in previous years, more like Disney princess tulle and rhinestone frocks than the polka dotted knit dress she sewed. That was the second year of our drawing further and further apart in my daughter's teens. The truth is, my daugher was more her father's child and I don't think I ever really understood her. Furthermore, she really wanted to be out of my sphere of influence beginning in her teens. I saw books and the scholarly life as the way out, the way to a dignified, safe, and rich life. Like her father, Lavinia was more of a performer and she craved attention which I shunned. We were very different.
Well, it is all in the past now. My daughter is close to 40 and long gone from my life in most ways and she is safe and married and successful in her chosen world of theater and film, and Marilyn Monroe is dead 60 years now and the world has changed for the better in a lot of ways, at least in America and Europe. In the Middle East, however, blatant gender discrimination and abuse prevails. An Iranian young wonan, 22 years old, was arrested by the "Morality Police" for having her bangs showing in the top of her head covering. She was beaten and killed in jail and the women and many male supporters have been protesting and rioting for the whole week in Iran, to, I fear, no real use. The Fundamentalist leaders will simply arrest a few hundred of them, terrorize and intimidate the rest, and all will fall back into the groove that has been carved out in the culture. They had a free country once, under the American supported Shah, and women dressed as they wished, but the fundamentalist fervor swept over the country and all the liberal reforms were erased.
My recommendation - don't bother watching BLONDE (on Netflix) it will just depress you but do watch AMY BRENT's Book documentary and you might find treasure in a box in your attic! Although she didn't really explain how to get the book to the custormer willing to pay the prices allegedly listed on the internet. Maybe a later episode?
Oh, I almost forgot BLONDE the film was based on a BOOK written by Joyce Carol Oates.
Happy Trails,
Jo Ann
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Fun places to visit in fall
Barclay Farmstead is having a Living History day October 2nd from noon to 4:00 p.m. There will be candle making, quill writing, and Quaker History among other events.
One of my favorite places has always been the New Egypt Flea Market which is open again. I just received this information via e-mail:
The New Egypt Flea Market Village is a charming historic village filled with 40 climate-controlled buildings in New Egypt. This Ocean County staple is known for its wide selection of vendors selling collectibles, furniture, books, antiques, gifts, toys, tools, and a locally made goodsA stroll through these unpaved streets will take you back in time as you peruse through antiques, used items, and charming country stores filled with candles, crochet items, and clothing. The market also features an outdoor section in the warmer months of the year that's home to a giant yard sale. The merchandise at New Egypt Flea is constantly changing so no matter how many times you visit, you're bound to find something new and exciting.
The New Egypt Flea Market Village is open every Wednesday and Sunday from 7 am until 2 pm. To learn more about the vendors here and the annual events they host, be sure to check their official site out here.
Address: 933 Monmouth Rd, Cream Ridge, NJ 08514.
There is also a Colestown Cemetery walking tour coming up. You may have to look this one up yourself because when I clicked on More Information - nothing came on on the e-mail notification I received.
Nother place I love to visit EVERY SEASON is Platt's Farm on Cohawkin Rd. in Clarksboro. It is a great place to find exotic pumpkins and many other autumn decorative items as well as corn stalks and an enormous selection of trees, shrubs and flowering plants. You can visit the many rescue farm animals while you are there from hckens to donkeys, and a couple of cattle.
Happy Trails,
Jo ann
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Day of the Dead and Multiculturalism
It is often said that when you teach, you learn. In my experience it is entirely true. When I was first out of college, doing my student teaching at Willingboro High School, I was assigned to teach a class called Minority Literature. The woman who was supposed to be my mentor teacher, disappeared - no books, no instructions - nothing. She simply melted away to the teacher's lounge or somewhere else. I am grateful to her for that. Since I knew NOTHING about minority literature, I was forced to educate myself. And when you are going to face a group of high school teenagers, especially in the rebellious 1970's, you want to be prepared, so I prepared.
First, because I am an artist and a writer, I tend to think out of the box, so I had a broader idea of what constituted a minority. Also because it was the 70's, the era of Civil Rights struggles and farm workers struggles, the idea of who is a minority was open for discussion. I was an ardent feminist (and I am still a feminist, though I have gotten old and my ardor is faded away). So, naturally, I thought of Gender. And because I was teaching in a predominaently African American high school, Race was number 1 on the list of Minority groups. So I broke it down into broad categories: Race, Gender, Religion, Disability (the movement for access had just gotten underway) and Ethnic Minorities. I began to read everything I could find in each of these categories. My education in American Literature and World Literature had left ALL of these categories OUT - not because they didn't exist but because many of the middle-aged and older professors weren't aware of them and they had stopped learning or keeping up with the currents of our times. They taught what they already knew, the same curriculum year after year.
I can't list every kind of book I read to catch up, but I can give a few samples: for Race, among many others, I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Native Son, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. I had a whole host of books already gathered for Gender, such as The Second Sex, and the Feminine Mystique, and for Religion, I read Isaac Bashevi Singer's works and other Jewish writers such as Night, by Elie Wiesel, on the Holocaust. I read books about Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker's Movement, and books about the struggles of disabled people, and about discrimination against people due to age (the Gray Panthers). I also began to read authors on the Native American experience.
When I, a young white woman of 28, addressed my almost entirely African American class, , I asked I asked anyone who was part of a minority to raise their hands . All of them raised their hands and I raised mine and they looked at me incredulously but they were polite, thankfully. Some said, "What Minority Group are you?" and I began to talk about Gender bias and the long long struggle for women to win the Right to Vote (more than 50 years after African American Men won it. They were open minded and ready to begin. So, I listed the groups I counted as minority groups and why, and told them we would begin with Race. We started with Slavery and the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and segregation. I had essays and short stories xerox-copied for them to read. Also, I told them I was reading Malcolm X and if anyone wanted to get the book from the library, they could read it with me.
The moral of the story is that MY eyes were opened, and my mind was opened to the vast seething layers of humanity flowing across our country and the under-represented citizens and their stories.
For that reason, I am decorating and celebrating for National Hispanic Heritage Month. I like the Day of the Dead celebration because we honor those of the past whom we have loved and lost, and so I am honoring Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
Approximaely 18 percent of our population is Hispanic, our closest geographical neighbors and we know so little about them. So I begin with the literature (as with Isabel Allende) and then move on to the culture (Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera) and celebration of our diversity in this country.
Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month!
Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com
Saturday, September 24, 2022
Saddler's Woods
FALL STEWARDSHIP EVENT
Saturday October 15th from 9am - 12pm (rain or shine). Volunteers are needed to help pick up litter, mulch trails for the pumpkin walk, weed invasive plants, and reestablish native vegetation in restoration zones. Limit 70. Please bring your own snacks and water. Wear long pants, long sleeved shirts and sturdy water proof boots. Gloves and tools provided. Preregistration is required by October 12th. Email janet@saddlerswoods.org or call 856 869 7372. Please provide your full name, age, any physical limitations or allergies - especially to bug bites or poison ivy.
ENCHANTED PUMPKIN WALK
Saturday 10/22 from 4pm - 6:30pm.
Visitors will be able to walk a path in the woods lined with artistic Jack o Lanterns! We aim to have over 160 creatively carved pumpkins. To make this event a success, we need help from carvers who can create amazing Jack o Lanterns! So for anyone who can work some magic with a carving knife - we need you! In appreciation, carvers will receive one complimentary ticket.
Want to help but hate carving? We will need help transporting pumpkins to and from our artistic carvers as well as event day volunteers. To sign up for Team Pumpkin, email Steve Balogh at steve@saddlerswoods.org
PUMPKIN WALK TICKET INFO
For those interested getting their hands on the hottest ticket in town - take note! Dues paying members of SWCA get first crack via a pre-sale on 10/5. Members will receive an email inviting them to purchase tickets.
On 10/8 tickets will go on sale to the general public on a first come first serve basis. All ticket sales will be done via www.saddlerswoods.org and the tickets will be will-call at the event.
SPONSORSHIP
Interested in becoming a Pumpkin Walk sponsor? Donations are needed to offset the cost of pumpkins, decorations, mulch, and other supplies. Your business will be featured on social media announcements, website,and signage at the event. Contact Steve at steve@saddlerswoods.org for more info.
Thank you to this year's first sponsors: Heather M. Tran Attorney at Law, Abraham Tran, Esq., Franco's Place, Mark Weller Realtor, Dorothy Weller and Camden County Therapy Hens for their generous donations!
Happy fall,
Janet Goehner-Jacobs, Executive Director
Saddler's Woods Conservation Association
Friday, September 16, 2022
Observations on the TV Series THE CROWN
THE CROWN
SEASON ONE - Coming to terms with adulthood and responsibility
SEASON TWO - Marriage and Gender roles
SEASON THREE - Sibling Rivalry and family competition
SEASON FOUR - False notions about BREEDING & notions of Parental Control
To me, one of the most interesting aspects of THE CROWN, aside from the admittedly fictional aspect to the glimpse of life in a Royal family, is the universal themes played out not only in the tv series, but in the real world of the Royals as well as the real world of the rest of us.
As we all watch our younger family members struggle with the responsibility of adult life, and for some the added responsibility of new parenthood, we can empathize with Princess Margaret, newly married and trying to navigate that perilous patch of sea, and then suddenly being thrust into one of the most mysterious and difficult jobs a person could be forced into - governing a realm! What woman among us hasn't struggled with the demands of male/husband entitlement at the same time time as she struggles to learn how to run a household. Husbands newly removed from the total care of mothers (by which I mean mothers do their laundry, buy and cook their food, clean up the dishes and the kitchen, clean their rooms, and provide emotional support) and then a man gets married and expects all of that from a new wife who herself has just left a household where HER mother mostly provided those services. Now, she not only has to do all that but for most, if not all young American women, she has to hold down a full time job and maintain an attractive appearance to compete with television and advertising models of what women should look like. It is too much. It takes all we have in emotional intelligence and resilience to sort through these expectations and find a viable way forward. Then comes pregnancy and childbearing - WHEW!
Prince Phillip expected to be the Lord and Master and had such struggles with his wife's superior status within their world. His sense of male entitlement bubbled up continually, at least in the portrayal of Phillip in the tv series. Some of what I have read about the real Prince Phillip has denied that he, for example, refused to kneel before the Queen. They said that having been raised in a Royal household, he was used to deference to those of superior rank. Who knows? Society, however, has continually, supported the notion of male superiority in general. Male physical strength has been used continuously to uphold male domination over women, and the pervasiveness of it has become so much a part of the ordinary world that most people don't even notice it. Strip clubs and prostitution are just some of the continually evident forms of economic domination and female subservience and degradation that are taken for granted. Sexism, like Racisim is so prevalent that a lot of people don't even notice.
Sibling rivalry and jealousy has been a theme in a variety of TV Series lately, too such as in SUCCESSION allegedly based on the Murdoch family struggles over inherited control of the family business and wealth. Along with the struggle Queen Elizabeth had with her envious and reckless sister, there was the constant battle to keep the reckless and ego driven impulsiveness from sinking the whole family ship. Plenty of us in the real world have this constant battle with our impulsive and reckless siblings, as well as coping with mental illness and emotional disability. What family hasn't had tragedy related to depression, suicide, drug addiction, alcoholism and promiscuity? Frankly I don't know a single family that hasn't had to cope with at least one of these issues.
BREEDING - People have such foolish notions about breeding. Anyone who knows anything about the health of species knows that breeding-out produces the best defense against genetic abnormalities and diseases. Pure-bred means a recipe for disaster. The King Charles Spaniel is a perfect example of a poor dog bred to brain dysfunction through too much in-breeding. Breeding too close causes great damage to offspring. The Royal families should have learned that lesson by now, look at the damage inflicted on the children of the assassinated Russian Royal family - the hemophila for example. Even today in the everyday world, I meet people who have just spent thousands of dollars they probably shouldn't have buying a 'pure breed' dog of some kind. The old saying used to go that the healthiest dogs were the street dogs of Dehli because they cross breed and have survived every manner of deadly affliction. In the fourth season of THE CROWN, we are introduced to five poor cousins who were placed for life in mental facilities because they were congenitally disabled. The family marked them in the book of Peerage as dead, then hid them away and shunned them. And when poor Prince Charles was mated off with the appropriately young, healthy and single Princess Diana, all manner of catastophe unfolded, although I suppose it must be saud that the goal was fulfilled because she provided the Royal family with two healthy male heirs.
This is the second time I have watched THE CROWN, and as is so often the case, I have seen more and noticed more the second time around than I did the first. This time I watched THE CROWN in honor of Queen Elizabeth who had just died. And I honor her because although I am not pro-monarchy and most definitely opposed to hereditary monarchy and primogeniture in any form, she was an example of dignity under pressure and self-restraint, courtesy and forebearance in a world where such traits are increasingly rare. They used all the 'D' words for her: duty, diligence, dignity, devotion, discipline. And these are all admirable traits. Look at some of the other world leaders and compare.
Sadly, however it appears she was missing some of the 'C' words - in particular, Compassion. You cannot watch anything about the Royal family without being sad for the tragedy of Princess Diana, married too young, too unprepared for what was expected of her and unaware of the swirling deadly undercurrents stirred up before she was on the scene. Charles's resentment towards the control imposed on him by his role in the family spilled out like acid on the heart of poor romantic Diana. Nothing she could do could please him or win her the warmth and acceptance she craved from his family because they didn't have it to give. She was tormented, twisted, used up and discarded. And so much for wealth and privilege.
I can't help but wonder whether the monarchy will continue to toddle along in the leftover aura of the irreplaceable Queen, or if it will wither in the dry desert of the damaged and untalnented new King, a pompous and blundering man detached from the modern world and lacking the grace and perception of his mother. Like a pure bred dog in some rural breeding farm, he was taken too soon from the nurture he should have received from his maother, and denied the loving attention of a family pack and a father, and forced to bumble and battle his way to adulthood and finally his inheritance which may turn out to be a crown of thorns.
In November, we will see SEASON FIVE of THE CROWN. It is indeed an epic tale.
Happy Trails, Jo Ann
wrightj45@yahoo.com
(as always, if you wish to contact me, use e-mail not the comments section of the blog because 'comments' is pertpetually poisoned by robo spam. Thank you)
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