Blog – Page 14 – Plain and Fancy

Signs and a Wonder: St. Simons Island

January 21, 2015January 23, 2015 marianbeaman61 Comments

Nestled in the marshes east of Brunswick, Georgia, is charming St. Simons Island. Golfers, bicyclers, and fishermen revel in its delights. Fresh Atlantic shrimp were available at the Mullet Bay Cafe during our week-end getaway. Tourists, like us, strolled along the streets of St. Simons village, canopied with centuries-old live oaks.

Some of the oaks had mutated into this:

Here the limbs from ancient live oaks gracefully curved downward, touched the soil, forming a self-sustaining tree, and then over the years grew upwards until it grafted into its mother tree, a type of amazing Möbius structure.

Cute shops, one which boasts “Extraordinary Things You Don’t Need,” display books, curios and signs like these:

And for the canine lovers:

If you are crafty, Pane in the Glass is your source for stained glass hobby supplies. You need a week, not just a weekend to explore St. Simons Island.

Away from town, two other attractions grabbed our attention: Fort Frederica, a military town on the colonial Georgia frontier, which defended the settlers from Spanish invaders and Old Frederica Church, also called Christ Episcopal Church, where Charles and John Wesley preached.

In 1961 author Eugenia Price discovered St. Simons Island on a book-signing tour, “In the cemetery for Christ Church, she saw a tombstone for the Reverend Anson Dodge and his two wives. This inspired her to research the area, including history and famous figures. She would spend the remainder of her life writing detailed historical novels set in the American South, many of which were critically acclaimed. Her early works, particularly the “St Simons Trilogy” which consists of the books “The Beloved Invader” (1965), “New Moon Rising” (1969) and “Lighthouse” (1972) were extensively researched and based on real people.”

Finally, we behold a lovely wonder, the signature stained glass window in the church, depicting the original plain structure, which could easily pass for an early Mennonite meetinghouse, without the steeple of course.

Have you visited an historic town recently? A charming town you can recommend for a weekend getaway?

Coming next: Mad, Sad, Glad: Emoticons Show It All

Purple Passages: Rich Word$

January 17, 2015April 23, 2015 marianbeaman47 Comments

On December 29, author/blogger Joan Rough published a post declaring her optimistic intentions for 2015 and pondering a single word to characterize this new year while contemplating words of wisdom used other years. Some choices she suggested: Believe, Dare, Trust, Patience, Forward. Even the word Intention would be a good star to steer by, she mused.

Other commenters suggested words like Flow and Connection. Thus, Purple Passages for January is constructed from 3 of these words: Dare, Intention, Flow

DARE

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”
― E.Y. Harburg

INTENTION

Any time women come together with a collective intention, it’s a powerful thing. Whether it’s sitting down making a quilt, in a kitchen preparing a meal, in a club reading the same book, or around the table playing cards, or planning a birthday party, when women come together with a collective intention, magic happens.

― Phylicia Rashad, the valiant wife in The Cosby Show

Artist Cliff's intention turning to action, recycling old technology — Artist Cliff’s intention turning to action, recycling old technology

FLOW

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
― Louis L’Amour

“I am rooted, but I flow.”
― Virginia Woolf

ADVANCE: My word for 2015

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau, Walden

What do you think?

“Just go with the flow” is an expression offered sometimes as advice for tough times. How do you experience “flow” in your life now? How about daring, ― or intending?

Have you picked a guide word for 2015?

* * *

A final word: Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Coming next: Signs and a Wonder: St. Simons Island

Moments of Discovery # 4: A Flash Bulb and a Doll

January 14, 2015January 13, 2015 marianbeaman42 Comments

A snapshot of a baby boy dressed as a girl and an old flash bulb. Those are some of the items we find clearing out Mother’s house. Last October my sisters and I began the arduous task of sorting, saving, or recycling the accumulated store of her possessions having lived in the same house for over 73 years. You can read about it here.

Today’s post features snapshots, both photos and artifacts, from both Mother and Daddy with a surprising find at the end.

MOTHER: Some of what I found from Mother could be filed into 3 categories of nurturing:

Feed

Our metal lunch pails carried many a bologna sandwich, usually Baum’s Bologna from their shop north of E-town. After Mother pulled back the burlap, she sliced thick rounds for sandwiches on buttered bread – always butter . . .

Read

Every picture, every story seems familiar in this Bible Story Book with pages, crackly brown with age. Sniffing into the spine, I roll back in time to the little girl on her lap. I loved the art work then. Now I love its charm even more. Did Daddy read these stories to me too? Maybe so, but I can’t remember.

Remember

Cameras freeze time, preserving memories. Mother didn’t write in a journal, but she consistently recorded our family’s story over time. The old box camera is long gone, but here is a “flash” of memory possibly from her last camera . . .

DADDY Some of what I found representing my father was surprising:

Although I have several photos of Daddy holding me as a baby, my father was a man’s man: a tractor-driving, motor-fixing, field-plowing, deer-hunting guy. He even hammered on the piano keys. His work clothes were of black moleskin cloth, matching the grease he was in close contact with at the shop. I am certain he never wore pink. Yet here he is posed for the camera in a dress, flanked by his parents, Henry and Fannie Longenecker, my Victorian grandma not yet attired in Mennonite garb that would characterize the rest of her life. Daddy’s dress is not a christening outfit. There was no christening among Mennonites. I suspect that babies of both genders wore dresses to make diaper changing easier.

Henry and Fannie Longenecker with son Ray

Needlework

Our scavenging took us to the attic chest filled with treasured quilts. My sister Jean and Mother tagged each one a few years ago, so there would be no doubt as to their provenance. Apparently, Daddy drew his needle through a white quilt, stitching animals in red. I see a camel, sheep, chicken, pig, duck, an elephant. Even an ostrich.

Here is just a teaser. (Look for Daddy’s full quilt on a later post!)

Quilt with animal stitching by my father, Ray M. Longenecker

Nickname

Daddy’s nickname for me was Pocahontas, not so much because I looked native American, but probably because of my thick, dark braids and big eyes. When I found this doll, I decided it shouldn’t be given away, sold, or recycled. It now sits on the dresser in our bedroom with “strubbly” hair, not braided!

Final Note: A Curious Find On our first visit to Mother’s house in October after the funeral, we saw a wicker basket on top of a hallway chest with a poem entitled “Safely Home,” something we had never noticed before. Were we blind to it earlier? Having a premonition of what was to come, did Mother put it there for us?

I am home in heaven, dear ones; / Oh, so happy and so bright. / There is perfect joy and beauty / In this everlasting light . . . .

(Anonymous, Osterhus Publishing House) . . . a mute but eloquent affirmation

Your turn: Are you holding on to something you treasure from a loved one? A photograph? A small gift?

Snow Falling on Anchor Road

January 10, 2015January 10, 2015 marianbeaman46 Comments

Every single memory of snow in my childhood is pleasant. Sparkling flakes in luminous free-fall as I look out the kitchen window. Snow festooning evergreen boughs. Then bundling up in snowsuits, knitted caps, mittens. Getting out the sleds.

After more than one snowstorm, Aunt Ruthie grabbed her movie camera and trained her sharp eye on some big, tall sledders who went coasting down the hill from our house to Grandma Longenecker’s.

Then she captured our anticipation of trumping through nearly hip-high snow and finally (my favorite) Mother pulling my sister Janice and I on the Flexible Flyer sled along Anchor Road.

Another parent and daughter are observing the snow in The First Snowfall by American poet James Russell Lowell, a poem I remember Mother reciting.

Mabel marvels at the beauty of the snow and inquires of its origin . . .

. . . but as the father’s replies to Mabel, he remembers the snow which hides the scar of another child’s burial plot.

Then Mabel feels her father’s gentle kiss, a kiss she will never know was intended for the daughter beyond his touch. The last stanza leaves Mabel in child-like wonder, her father in pensive grief.

This post began with snapshots of fun in the snow and ended with a reflection on loss. But snow can be the setting for other memorable events: a frolic with friends, a car accident, a marriage proposal (I’ll save that for another post!)

You probably have memories of snow, recent or long ago. Here’s your chance to share them.

Sue, Sarah, and Handful: Reviewing The Invention of Wings

January 7, 2015January 7, 2015 marianbeaman27 Comments

Sue Monk Kidd, best known for her debut novel, The Secret Life of Bees, has published her third novel, the acclaimed The Invention of Wings (2014).

My Review

A full-page spread advertising Sue Monk Kidd’s latest work of historical fiction recently appeared in the New Yorker, which tells readers something about the stature of this work. Set in Charleston, SC, the novelist creates parallel stories representing two strata of early nineteenth-century America, alternating chapters with the voices of two engaging characters: the aristocratic Sarah Grimke and the hand-maid (creative name for slave) assigned to her, Hetty Handful Grimke. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten-year-old Handful. Over the next thirty-five years, both strive for a life of their own “forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love” as one reviewer characterizes it. Woven into the fabric of this novel is the alliance of the Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angelina, who advocate for the equality of slaves and the rights of women.

While the unfolding plot intertwines other historical figures, both factual and imagined, Kidd held my attention with her metaphors and other descriptions. I was particularly intrigued with the exquisite quilts Handful’s cunning mother Charlotte fabricated, often using the image of blackbird wings as a triangular motif in the design. In the acknowledgements section, the author mentions too her reference to the American black folktale, from which she drew inspiration about “people in Africa being able to fly and then losing their wings when captured into slavery.”

The two main characters in this book effectively invent their own wings, Sarah by tirelessly advocating for human rights and Handful by staging her own escape to freedom. Her often repeated refrain:

If you don’t know where you came from, you have to know where you’re going.

That's one determined woman — Sarah Grimke, one determined woman

Quilts

Have a look at some of handmaid Hetty’s exquisite quilts on this website. Possibly the best seamstress in Charleston, the quilting of Hetty and her mother Charlotte offered her freedom spiritually as she recorded her family’s history, and freedom physically too by enabling her to fashion a disguise that may have enabled her to escape.

Q & A with the Author

Sue Monk Kidd has created an intriguing story from mountains of research including historical dates and events, articles, letters, all inspired by viewing Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party referred to in my last post.

See the intriguing Q & A with Sue Monk Kidd, who observed separate water fountains, black women sitting in the backseats of white women’s limousines, and the story of Rosa Parks in her own youth.

How could the author visualize Hetty so vividly?

How is Hetty or Sarah like Lily in The Secret Life of Bees?

How could Sue recreate the dialect of 19th-century Charleston on paper?

Your turn!

Sue Monk Kidd was published first in Guideposts and Readers’ Digest. Do you remember her writing from back then?

Can you relate to any of the characters in Sue Monk Kidd’s writings?

Who’s Coming to Dinner? Food with Art

January 3, 2015January 4, 2015 marianbeaman43 Comments

How do you see yourself – Kitchen Goddess, Diva of Design, Mom’s Taxi, Writer Extraordinaire, Care-Taker?

Artist Haley Hasler paints herself as a strong woman in super-abundant settings usually with children and often with food.

Currently displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, FL, Hasler demonstrates the resurgence of realism with bold strokes on large canvases. It is impossible to miss her exuberance. As she explains on her website, “The self-portrait confronts the viewer with an outward representation of the inner self.” And what an energetic self that must be!

She depicts her figures in fanciful costumes of daily life “balanced at the precipice of chaos” (a quote from the gallery that features her work.) Her paintings may recall life at home for you in days gone by, but I’m guessing on a less-grand scale.

Tooth Fairy - Hasler — Tooth Fairy – Hasler

Sunday Brunch - Hasler — Sunday Brunch – Hasler

Young girl peeks out from under the tea table while playing a violin as boy (possibly her brother) snoozes or at least pretends to.

MOCA permits photography of art works for non-commercial purposes

* * *

Like Haley Hasler working in the same decade of the 1970s, artist Judy Chicago portrays not just one but 39 women in her famous work displayed in the Brooklyn Museum, NYC. And instead of a single canvas, Ms. Chicago’s installation entitled The Dinner Party features a huge triangular table measuring 48 feet on each of its three sides honoring famous women throughout history, each with a symbolic place setting: a napkin, utensils, goblet and a plate.

Also a part of this installation, on the Heritage Floor of the museum appear white tiles of gilded porcelain inscribed with the names of 999 more notable women. Among these is the name of Sarah Moore Grimké (1792 -1873) an American abolitionist and writer who did extensive public speaking opposing slavery and supporting women’s rights.

Sarah Grimké is one of the dual protagonists in The Invention of Wings (2014), the much acclaimed historical novel by prize-winning author Sue Monk Kidd, who was inspired to write the book (she admits in her Acknowledgements) while viewing Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party installation. Sarah, speaker, writer, and suffragist, helped change the course of American history with her activism.

Sue Monk Kidd’s book with the two main characters, Sarah Grimké and her handmaid Hetty Handful, will be the topic of next week’s blog post. Stand by for action!

Maybe the words Diva, Goddess, Tooth Fairy or Activist don’t come to mind when you think of yourself. But you do have a title whether it’s Sister, Cook, Doctor, Teacher, Grandmother, a combination of the two, or something else entirely.

Tell us yours.

Happy New Year: a card and some flowers

December 30, 2014December 30, 2014 marianbeaman24 Comments

Happy New Year!

My wish for you in 2015 is expressed in a card sent to Grandma Fannie Longenecker in 1913.

And some fresh camellias too!

Happy New Year ~~ Happy New Year ~~ Happy New Year

Next post in January 2015: Who’s Coming for Dinner? Food with Art

Purple Passages, Time and Tiny Tim, December 2014

December 27, 2014December 29, 2014 marianbeaman25 Comments

Christmas: Time to Feel the Spirit

Christmas is not [just] a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. – President Calvin Coolidge

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. – Dickens

* * *

Time to be Aware

Time back tracking: Hezekiah prays for a longer life, and the sun moves backward 10 degrees, for a sign of that promise fulfilled.

Isaiah 38:8b So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees [on the dial thereon] it was gone down. KJV

Time standing still: Joshua asks God for the sun to stand still to ensure victory for Israel.

Joshua 10:13b So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down a whole day. KJV

Fretting over time: “But at my back I always hear / Time’s winged chariot hurrying near. . . “ — Andrew Marvell “To His Coy Mistress”

According to a recent study cited by Jennie L. Phipps (top 20 weekday activities), many retirees spend most of their time sleeping and watching TV or movies.

Apparently, not everyone hears “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near!”

Mother's wristwatch — Mother’s wristwatch

Time, in Balance:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV

* * *

Holy Curiosity: Time to Stay Alive

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. – Albert Einstein, German-born physicist

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. – Eleanor Roosevelt

Time for Blessing

GOD BLESS US, EVERYONE! Tiny Tim

Your turn: How does the passage of time affect you? What are you most curious about? How do you keep the spirit of Christmas (or Hanukkah) alive after the season passes?

What’s Red at Christmastime?

December 17, 2014December 17, 2014 marianbeaman40 Comments

Color psychologists say red represents energy, passion, and motivation to act. Red is everywhere this season: Santa’s costume, cranberry dishes, poinsettias.

I’m seeing red too. In Ian’s Santa cap at the Orchestra Zoo . . .

In Mother’s cranberry fruit salad recipe which I took to a Christmas party at a friend’s house last week . . .

(Everything with the word Mom in it is my scribbling. The rest is in her own handwriting, a keepsake in my recipe box.)

Beautiful pots of poinsettias!

One more thing read at Christmas, the beautiful Christmas story from Luke 2:1-20

What can you add to the red – or to the read in your tradition? The conversation starts here.

Coming next: Short and Sweet: A Belgian Christmas Card

Downton Abbey Gala Redux: Season 5

December 13, 2014December 12, 2014 marianbeaman31 Comments

When I registered online for the 5th season premiere of Downton Abbey, there were fifty-nine (yes, 59!) salutations to choose from on the drop-down menu. These included Father, Monsignor, Cantor, Rabbi, Lieutenant Commander, Dean, Major, Mayor, and the humbler Mr. or Ms. I didn’t see “Lady”! Other designations included Sister and Professor. At different stages of life I have been both: Sister Longenecker and then Professor Beaman.

Downton Abbey is a cross-section of the social strata of post-Victorian England, an assemblage of characters from both upstairs and downstairs. Here it is reflected in the postures and apparel of cast members in the series: maids in aprons, ladies in plumed hats, men hatless or in fedoras.

Last year when our PBS station invited us to a gala celebration for Season 4, we stepped right into the show along with other party goers wearing period costumes and cast members appearing as life-size cutouts for picture taking. You can see it here.

This year we were greeted at the door with a trivia card. Among the questions was this: Lady Violet thinks her new gardener, Pegg, has stolen what item for her home? The choices are knife, cane, bell, or nutcracker. I don’t remember, do you?

With souvenir tea bag and an invitation to join in the #BIGsip with #DowntonPBS

First, we met a maid from downstairs with duster in hand . . .

A clansman from across the border, clad in plaid . . .

Middle-class Americans making a vain attempt to mingle with the British aristocracy . . .

Sister Janice and I pose before the entire cast with headgear rivaling the goofiness of Princesses Beatrix and Eugenie at the wedding of Will and Kate:

And finally, the genteel Jennifer Pastore, proudly garbed in a more-than-100-year-old dress worn by her great grandmother, Elizabeth Vann, the first woman editor of a newspaper in Florida (Madison, FL). A flawless little black dress – a perfect fit!

And then, the climax of the evening: the screening of episode 1, season 5, which begins in 1924 – the radio a hot, new technology.

We were on the edge of our seats as each scene unfolded, asking, What happened to Edith’s child? Where is the fire? What about Anna?

And then of course, scenes with seeds for future episodes:

Who outwits the wily Thomas?
Who wears a wedding gown?
Does Mary have a new love interest?
What is Carson up to?

Throughout the movie, there were more zingers than usual from the Dowager Countess, Lady Violet: “There’s nothing more simple than avoiding people you don’t like!”

Do you think Dowager Countess Violet is right in either quote? Why or why not?

Care to comment about social class in the show? Or in present-day society?

P.S. Despite rumors to the countrary, the station manager announced unequivocally that there will be a Season 6!

Coming next: Purple Passages and Tiny Tim

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