TBT: It's difficult to believe that it's been ten years since I was called by a new title... my firstborn made me a Mother of the Bride.
It was a gorgeous day in a beautiful setting in Atlanta.
A lot has transpired since that glorious day of May 7, 2016....
MIDWEEK MUSINGS have me sharing a long overdue spring chore needing to be done.,,
I admit I was the one who got up on the ladder to clean gutters in the End of the Rainbow Valley and Natureman's 'good enough'approach to cleaning windows was eventually replaced by a guy who did them for $2/window, including screens.
So confession time: My children swore me off the ladder once I moved to Litte Rock. And for my 5 years here, the 'entire' house's windows and screens have never been cleaned.
The facia, overhang, screens and windows were done. And you know what? I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
tUESDAY tUNES is a lovely message delivered by soulful Jada Monroe 's version of KEEP GOING
Maybe its message is just what the doctor ordered...
MONDAY MUSINGS is about a drop-dead gorgeous spring weekend in the South with blue skies and an occasional breeze to cool-off 80-degree days. There was no way this gal was sitting inside if I didn't have to...
I started Saturday by tackling mowing the front lawn early before it got too hot. I apologize to my neighbors because it was the time their yard guys usually start on weekdays.SORRY. There's definitely a sense of accomplishment of looking at a newly mown lawn. It is also another one of those spring signs - the smell of freshly cut grass. Ya know, Girls just wanna have fun...
Hopefully, I can get the class photo, but in the meanwhile here's mine, chosen for its simplicity of just one large bloom.
A river walk followed mid-afternoon with a stop at the 'ole homestead for my niece's garage sale to pick up an air fryer, and then home for my art project outside 'til dark forced me inside. Ya know, Girls just wanna have fun.
Sunday, planting filled the am and then off to listen to Cliff &Susan, one of my favorite duos at BoBrooks Farm's River Bottom Winery with a good visit with a high school buddy Laura, We got the last 2 seats.
Great visiting, music, cheese, charcuterie, and a couple Berry Mania slushies, made for a terrific outside afternoon. Here's a clip of Twist and Shout with one guy amidst all those girls. " CUZ You know, Girls just wanna have fun!
FOTO FRIDAY: The colors are a' changing, especially with all this rain.
And with the overcast skies the colors are more extreme...
I almost feel this could have been one of Georgia O'Keefe's paintings.Those of you familiar with her work know what I mean...
MIDWEEK MUSINGS is about one of my favorite activities here in Little Rock which is to attend the Clinton Presidential Center's wonderful programming.
Page is one smart journalist, who you may remember moderated the 2020 Pence-Harris debate. She is also a prolific writer with bestsellers about Barbara Walters, Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Bush.
Her Little Rock visit was to talk about her newest book. Hot off the presses two weeks ago, is The Queen and her Presidents: The Hidden Hand that Shaped History, a fascinating compilation of behind-the-scenes stories of Queen Elizabeth's encounters with 13 Presidents. Yes, 13.
Both President Truman (when she was still a Princess), followed by Eisenhower both were like fatherly figures to the would be crowned 27-year-old Queen in '53.
Queen Elizabeth known for her colorful hats was much more and quite a strategist as she followed her Prime Minister Churchill's advice to stay close with the Americans- influencing everything from the Suez Crisis in the Falklands, her warm bond with Reagan over horses, cooperating with JFK, LBJ's avoidance of elitists, Nixon needing her help during Watergate, warm connection with Obama and Trump's admiration of her since his childhood.
We heard many snippets of stories of her 70 year reign. As we used to end our book reports as elementary school students... If you want to know what happened, you need to read the book. LOL. See, not only can Susan Page plug her book, so can we who heard her speak...
TBT: APRIL 30th 2012 14 years ago, I finished a new collage of the Year Anniversary Rally in Madison just in time for this past weekend in Viroqua for the War on Women Rally. It's important to get people registered in order to be able to vote both on May 8th and June 5th. Talk it up... 200,000 who signed the Recall Petitions were not registered.
FYI : I donated my political collages after their participation at various locales around the Coulee region. The La Crosse Historic Society have them for their Political Art collection in the city's museum. I feel honored that they will be preserved and viewable for future museum visitors.
tUESDAY tunes is Alexia Jayy's powerful rendition of One and Only which has been on mind for a couple of weeks now, and I just have to share if you haven't heard it /here it is to hear again. I can't wait to hear more of Alexia Jayy.
Enjoy...
TBT: LADY LUCK shone upon me in letting me know what unconditional love IS. Seven years ago we went for a Family photo to be taken in the La Crosse Public Library.
I met my Natureman z"l in '02 and our furry Balto z"l after the flooding in Texas when so many dogs lost their homes.
I am so lucky to have had these 2 Baltos in my life. I am so glad we went to take a family pic...
Ridvan is the holiest and most joyous of the Bahá'í faith as it marks when Baha'u'llah declared his mission as G-d's messenger.
Slides and readings shared the story of beautiful rose gardens with bird song as perhaps Baha'u'llah had seen and heard near Baghdad's Tigiris River and named Ridvan (Paradise). This holiday's first, ninth, and twelfth days are especially holy as believers don't go to work on those days
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There were 6 of us visiting from our international film class. What a treat! I so appreciate being able to spend time enjoying their holiday on the first day of Ridvan.
tUESDAY tUNES made it happen. It's about time. You are the first to know I have a new boyfriend and his name is Marco Ferrero. How can one not fall in love with a guy with this voice? I fell hard.Listen and you'll know why...
Here is a COMPILATION of his, in case you, like me, want more...
It still amazes me that such a large choir in the South has perhaps one member who is not a white man. Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas with a large black population. How are there not black males who'd try out for the choir?
After the concert, I commented on how ironic to have black gospel songs in the program with only one minority member. My friend commented that one of their black choir members had moved, but he was often featured. Whoa!
THIS is 2026 and we are sitting in a program about freedom and the faces definitely don't reflect the country we live in... We can usurp others' music yet truly reflect the political climate of those white, protestant men running the White House... G-d help us.
More performances: Monday the 20th at 7pm
Thursday the 23rd. 7pm
St James United Methodist Church
321 Pleasany Valley Dr.
Little Rock, Ar 72212
Did you know that upon leaving office every President is able to take cuttings from their favorite plant to give to friends.
Now adding green at my address will be one of those many cuttings from President Obama...
(Greenhouse is located off of Markham between War Memorial Stadium & UAMS on 7th & Palm Streets. Signs posted... )
Proceeds go to support Master Garadener projects throughout the city.
TBT: Last year at this time my Wisconsin book club was visiting my new home here in Arkansas. We had a wonderful time making new memories. FYI it's strawberry shortcake time again here...
Last night I joined a ZOOM call with 4 of the Happy Bookers as we discussed our upcoming trip to Croatia. Yes, Croatia.
I am truly blessed...
This transplanted Hungarian-Canadian now Texan biochemist, shared his story with a brief geography and history lesson of Hungary, interspersing his family's and Jewish community's fate as a result of the German and Russian tactics.
One of the occupation tactics was to move all the Jews into a 6 block radius, a Jewish ghetto, to be burned, but this was foiled with the arrival of the Russians.
We listened to what our speaker's Mom lived through as the youngest in her family having to move in and share a 2-bedroom apartment with 17 other family members. Then, when it was time for the family to evacuate and go to the train station where trains awaited to take them to the camps, his Mom, a secretary, ran into an acquaintance who invited her to lunch. This woman, living in the apartment, was the maid of the apartment's owner, a Jewish doctor who had been taken away. She offered false papers to help his Mom escape.
Andras, her 15-year-old son, had been left in an orphanage for a week and his Grandparents got him out. He and another boy contacted scarlet fever and were isolated. Surprisingly, when the soldiers opened the door where the 2 kids were being kept, they didn't go inside not wanting to contact the disease. The boys were left there until they were transported to a military hospital, where they were given 3 hot meals/day. It was such a gift in a dark time. When the Russians were getting closer, the Germans left in a hurry. The 15-year-old boys awoke one morning to an empty hospital. The temps were 20 below, and they headed to the basement of a nearby factory, hiding out there for a bit. They, then found his childhood home's street and his home, where there was no electricity or wood.
The Russians took about 3 weeks to occupy the city in 1945.
Andras and his Mom were reunited.
700,000 Hungarian Jewish lives were taken. Dr. Lacko's family amazingly had a high survival rate of 80% , albeit with some close calls. Dr. Lacko now lives in Dallas, but he immigrated to Canada from Hungary at age 17.
tUESDAY tUNES this week is another steamy one.
Take a listen to ARENA Y PROMESA (Sand & Promise)
by the Velvet label under Spanish Soul Blues. Short and poetic.
Who hasn't written in the sand at some time?
Sand and Promise...
"I wrote your name in the sand before the wave arrived
The words lasted seven seconds.
The promise remains whole.
The water erased what I said
the salt kept what I feel ..."
"Every tide brings your name written in another language of foam"
What the sea takes, the heart keeps..."
MONDAY MUSINGS: On Thursday about 5:30 am, the Atlanta crew pulled out of the driveway and left me with evidence they had been here...
These items can be returned, and the leftover foodstuff can be eaten, but there are a couple of other things. Things one can not buy, like the new family memories and a very undeniable 'quiet'...
This Bubbe is having withdrawal..
FOTO FRIDAY: RESTLESSness can occur at any time, but it's pretty obvious when you see this little guy all tangled up in his blankies that he is working hard in his sleep.
TBT: 2017 There was a new Kid on the block on this day in the End of the Rainbow Valley since this birth happened while I was on the phone with daughter Lori Sinapellido and her hubby Evan Lee, they got to choose the name. Drum roll, please: And the final answer is: Alex Tribek. ( I know, good luck to their Baby Tater Tot's eventual name.)
Chad Gad Yo... Looks like "an only kid" for Jacqueline.
Alex Trebek sure was cute...
MIDWEEK MUSINGS: Now that I have lived 7 decades, I am really seeing a correlation about life. Perhaps you also have heard it said that folks nearing death hold on until - a loved one can arrive/ a special occasion occurs.
Special occasions such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and holidays. For our extended family (machatunim- family of in-laws) we experienced it here this year in Little Rock. My brother married into this extended family and we have spent many holidays including special birthdays together.
Every stroke had been robbing him of his loves, first golf and then piano playing. Jerry was a man of many talents, although he couldn't read music, he composed and wrote songs. One made famous even by Jerry Vale! Those royalties went to the purchase of a car, another of his passions. He also followed the Trojans, our local basketball team and the state's Razorbacks. He coached Junior League Baseball and even one of his grandson's baseball teams.
Jerry sat at the Passover table, Thursday, celebrating what no one knew would be their last Passover seder together. He will be missed by many besides his wife, daughter, son, their spouses and an adoring set of grandchildren, who called him Pops, along with a community where he was a hypnotherapist, musically present, and even a voice in the paper's opinion page. We will miss him...
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tUESDAY tUNES : SIN TI , SIN Mí (Without You, Without Me) by Los Miranda, a Mexican vocal group made up of four siblings. They have a wonderful, tight sound and a great repertoire of boleros and other Latin styles."
MONDAY MUSINGS of "Foiled Again" should have been last week's entry, as it is exactly why I didn't have time to write. I wouldn't say I'm a procrastinator until it's time for really deep cleaning. Fortunately, Spring cleaning coincides with Passover when I have no other choice.
Passover has many more storage bins than Chanuka because I do use different dishes and storage containers. They all need to be brought in from their home in the storage area behind the carport. Then, cabinet shelves need to be cleared for all the Kosher for Passover dry foodstuff. Rearranging freezer and fridge space is also part of the process, add to that cleaning out silverware drawers, ( How do those food crumbs get in those drawers when only clean silverware is ever put in there? )
Anyhoo, I was behind. My counters needed to be prepped if the week's food prep was going to happen. Yes, Passover actually lasts an entire week. Some folks cover their countertops with contact paper but I still use the old way of using aluminum foil. I upcycle it afterwards for the grill, oven, and toaster oven catch trays, etc...
Everything has to come off the counters in order to apply the foil. But the finished result is very fulfilling. It has gotten a workout already and it will take a lot less time to remove it Thursday. So you see "foiled again" takes on a whole new meaning in my household.
Have you stopped recently and listened to how spring has sprung?
The birds are really making a lot of noise...
Last week's FOTO FRIDAY was Tshirts in their Perfect Settingg
TBT: 7 years ago, my next-door neighbor caught this pic... Here are his words: Patrick Bosley Beausoleil is with Karen Sherman.
tUESDAY tUNES : Looked who crossed my feed this week -Jeremy Keith from the Voice Knockouts. I like this artist's rendition of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing"
Take a listen.
What do you think?
Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
TBT : It was just 6 years ago when our worlds changed ... It was a blessing to live where we lived a natural isolation in the back of a valley. Natureman could receive his chemo and return to our mask-free world called home in the woods... the End of the Rainbow Valley...
In honor of WOMEN'S month the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) provided a peek into a special community relationship between Arkansan white and black women and insight of the relationship between Jewish women and Black Christian women.
The program was entitled Memories of the Ottenheimer Brothers and Rocket Plant on 10th & Spring Street even though we diverted to hear a bit re: libraries which were separate but not equal.
Full integration didn't start until after her. Black Adults were allowed in '51, 7th grade and up. This was before Brown vs Brown.
We also heard about the Women's Emergency Committee (WEC)1400, mostly white, well-off ladies from the PTA , AAUW secretish as they were laws around ties to NAACO but they pulled together. White and Black, Jews and Christians. Open Our schools.Door to door, car pooling to polls and nudging of husbands. Yes, the power of women. Improving community lives.
So how do the Ottenheimers come into the story. They were the first factory owners to hire a Black Women work force and help improve lives more than these workers could have ever earned elsewhere although not equal...
Take a look at the chart below.
This made a big difference in these women's lives. The company eventually merged into Kellwood who sold to Sears and local Jewish-owned department stores like Cohen's and Blass.
I am looking forward to learning more. But history was made... And we can learn from history and try to do better with each generation. Thanks to strong women, yesterday, today and tomorrow.
*Some of the workers' families were present for the program.
tUESDAY tUNES this week was heard while listening to the movie The Children Act with Emma Thompson who not only played this song on the piano but also sang this song. What a moving story and beautiful tune...
Take a watch'n listen: DOWN BY the SALLEY GARDENS...
