Monthly Archives: January 2020

love notes

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pizap

Truly, it never ceases to amaze me what people think it is acceptable to say to another human being. And online for the world to see no less.

This was on Facebook today.  In a gardening group.  Directed at me from a total rather Angry Married White Female (remember the horror movie Single White Female?)

I hate this word.  It’s an angry, vile, hateful, even violent word and it shouldn’t cross the lips of any woman (or man).  It’s one of those words that will never be acceptable in polite company or anywhere.

That is not to say I don’t occasionally have a potty mouth.  I can drop the F-Bomb on occasion. Heck one of my dear friends actually bought me an F-Bomb paperweight when I got diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011.

But no matter when I like many others gets the occasional case of potty-mouthitis, we don’t use the C word.  We certainly don’t write the C word.

The woman who decided I was like the devil or something is a mother, with young enough kids.  And this is how she leads by example with her children? Alrighty then.

Now I could have just shown the screen shot with her name but I chose not to out of respect for her family and her children. I even did it out of pity for her because how can you not pity someone who thinks this is OK?

Did I have words with this woman to precipitate this? Nope. Had I ever interacted with her? Unless you count approving her for a gardening group, nope.  Wouldn’t know her if I saw her in the grocery store.

But she decided she did not like something I wrote and that was her solution.  Mine was to remove and block her.

We do not have to like one and other. We don’t have to agree with one and other.  But the great thing that USED to occur in this country is you could disagree on a topic and not get vile. But not any longer.  Everyone is a keyboard tiger.

It would be nice to bring civility back.

 

Image result for f bomb

sometimes you need a tea party

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One of my best friends surprised me today with an awesome treat! She brought me tea sandwiches and scones from A Taste of Britain in Wayne, PA so we could have a grown up tea party for lunch!

I supplied the tea and had fun dragging out some pretty dishes, napkins, and tea cups and some cheese and crackers to have along with the goodies my friend brought out.

The tea sandwiches were delicious and so were the scones. And I will tell you that this shop makes a lemon curd that is to die for.

The tea came from a company I buy loose leaf tea from called Golden Moon Tea. I mixed Irish Breakfast and Lapsang Soushong.

I don’t know about a lot of you, but usually lunch is something eaten on the fly, or at a desk at work. It was really nice to hit the pause button and have a tea party. 

Thanks for stopping by.

way back when

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A friend of mine brought me treasures today. Mementos of a different era. Souvenirs of a Philadelphia and surrounding area that lives no more.

First is a weekly entertainment guide printed by Majestic Press. The week of April 8, 1940. Movies that were a very big deal being shown in theatres that no longer exist. There is even an ad for a burlesque show at the Troc and a photograph of the late great Maestro Eugene Ormandy as a young man.

The other treasure won’t appeal to as many people but it appeals to some of my friends and I because we lived it in the 1980s and late 1970s is the program book from the 1963 Philadelphia Charity Ball.

It’s like a walk through Philadelphia history. The grande dames of society and their husbands.

Ads for Philadelphia businesses that no longer exist, including all the fabulous fashion and department store shopping that used to be in the Philadelphia area.

To most people this means nothing, but for me to see a Kelly for Brickwork ad is something really special. Or for financial institutions that are long gone like Butcher & Sherrard.

What is so different from the way the program has evolved is there are no pictures of debutantes in the program book. The committee got out there and sold advertising space and basically filled an entire book with it. That’s hard work. I used to help my mother get a donors for the Philadelphia Antiques Show programs years ago.

One of the things that totally made me laugh was the ad for the Bryn Mawr Trust Company. It’s completely stuffy, pompous, and sexist. The irony is I’m not sure how much they’ve evolved to in the present day.

Some of you are going to think I spent way too much time taking screenshots of old program books. But I think this is really cool. It’s a social history and the history of businesses gone by, and a way of life that no longer exists. And its total mid century ad copy as well. And I love the fashion illustrations.

But this is also from an era when there was society and it meant something. And yes that meant lots and lots of rules. It was also kind of civilized.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little bit of area history. A time capsule of the 1940s and 1960s. Take special note of the “President’s Message.” it was written literally right after President John F Kennedy was assassinated. I wasn’t even born yet and it gave me chills.



“cooking with soup”

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This cookbook. I know my readers must be so tired of me going on about my love of vintage cookbooks but this is one right out of my childhood. The edition you see above is the first edition which was from the 1960s put out by the Campbell Soup Company.

I got this at an estate sale this past weekend. As a matter fact I haunted the person holding the estate sale to make sure I would get this cookbook!

This is another one of those great shortcut bearing mid century cookbooks that had two recipes I remember from my childhood. 

One of the things I love about this cookbook other than it’s as it was when it first came out in the 1960s, are the notes found in the cookbook. The lady who owned this cookbook left notes and recipe recommendations throughout the cookbook. As a matter fact I have been peeling off now rusted paper clips of where she had marked recipes she found especially good!

One of the recipes I wanted was the original tuna n’ noodles casserole recipe. Growing up, that was the our parents are going out and leaving us with a babysitter meal. I swear my mother practically made this every single time we had a babysitter.

The other recipe was their short cut version of turkey tetrazzini. And I actually did want that recipe because we had a frozen turkey that we cooked at the end of last week and I have to figure out what to do with the leftovers.

This cookbook is like a little time capsule. It goes back to a time when everyone and everything was probably a little more innocent. Is it necessarily the healthiest cookbook in the world? No, but sometimes I wonder how hard it would be to update these recipes for a more modern kitchen.

I still think this is a cookbook that every kitchen should have a copy of. And the 1960s edition that I have is found easily on Amazon and eBay and with used book dealers just as the 1970s version.

Add a little vintage to your kitchen! You’ll be glad you did!



gone too young: r.i.p. kobe bryant

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When I saw the news break I thought it was one of those celebrity fake news death hoaxes. When I began to realize the news wasn’t fake and shared a media report on my Facebook timeline, one of my friends had the same reaction “This is a JOKE RIGHT!!???”

But it wasn’t a joke. Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna (she was 13 or 14), alongside others died in a fiery helicopter crash.

It’s just sort of inconceivable. He was only 41. And he came from the area I called home for decades, Lower Merion Township.

I am not some giant professional sports fan as my friends and family will all tell you and laugh. It’s just not me. But even I followed Kobe Bryant because he went straight from Lower Merion High School to being a professional basketball player. If you lived in Lower Merion Township , his career was always just kind of part of all of us because he grew up here for a while.

We all loved the prom photos years ago. He took Brandy and they just looked so cute together:

That is a screenshot I found on Google. You didn’t often have a high school kid with a bona fide celebrity prom date. It was a lovely prom fairy tale even for grow ups. After all when you are in high school you always want your prom to be something magical, right?

I kind of would follow him via my local paper (Main Line Times/Main Line Media News) because long time news photographer Pete Bannan covered him throughout the years. (Click here to check out the photos on Main Line Media News.)

Kobe Bryant was also always generous to his alma mater Lower Merion High School. He donated over $400,000 to the new high school gym around 2010. He made the gym dedication into this really cool event.

There is a video snippet of the helicopter going down. I will admit I don’t like helicopters. They scare me.

At least some of Kobe’s family still live in the Philadelphia area.

And Kobe Bryant also won an Oscar. Yes, that Oscar. Last night they saluted him at The Grammy’s. Alicia Keys was just amazing. That brought tears to my eyes.

Life is so short and precious as we are reminded once again. Like millions of others, I didn’t know Kobe Bryant. But he was from where I used to live. He never forgot that which I respect enormously. He was generous and gave back.

Read this column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I kind of loved it. And don’t take life for granted.

Don’t try to make sense of Kobe Bryant’s death. Just remember his greatness, and hug your loved ones | Mike Sielski

Updated: January 26, 2020 – 7:34 PM

So where were you? What were you doing when that sickening trickle of news started to drip, drip, drip into your mind and heart? Kobe Bryant … dead? That can’t be. Kobe is strong. Kobe is always smiling…So now, do me a favor, and do yourself a favor, and do someone you love a favor. If you’re reading this, shut off your phone, close your laptop, or put the paper down. Go to your wife or your husband, or your mother or your father, or most of all your son or your daughter, and give him a hug. Give her a hug. Call them. Visit them. Tell them you love them.

even in the rain, chester county has incredible beauty

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Yesterday traveling around with my husband in the pouring rain I was struck once again with the beauty of Chester County. So I hope you can see beyond the rain drops.

This is why I get so upset with the relentless march of development, cursed pipelines, and things like digital billboards.

Happy Sunday!

rainy day estate sale

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Picked up some amazing vintage linens today that are already soaking in the sink! The woman who lived in this lovely little house liked to sew so I have some amazing full- coverage aprons and vintage pillowcases. I also picked up these cute little hand stitched clothes pin bags!

Another great vintage score was an entire plastic container full of trimmings and sewing notions. Lace and ribbon and different kinds of trim. This is a crafter’s delight and I will use this stuff in many ways over the years to come.

Finally, I also picked up some amazing cookbooks. I think the Amish Dutch cookbook is my favorite but running a close second was the first edition James Beard cookbook I also found.

It was a cute little house way out and beyond Strasburg Road. I was in heaven as we drove by farm after farm because it was so nice to see some stuff that hadn’t been overtaken by development. Even in the rain, Chester County is so beautiful to explore.

Stay dry!



old bells

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Thai Elephant Bell

Do you love bells? I love bells.

When I was in elementary school I was actually in a handbell choir for a brief amount of time. I remember feeling very special with my white gloves to handle the beautiful bells. But I am not so musically inclined, so it didn’t last long. But while it lasted it was fun!

Bells are a happy sound to me. Everywhere I have lived since I was born has been in close proximity to some kind of church bells.

Vintage English brass dinner bell

I have little bells scattered all over my house. I also have them scattered all over outside. I love them in my garden. Mostly I have old bells. 

An old copper goat’s bell

The bells in my garden are mostly little bells I have hung that just make this delightful twinkly sound when the wind blows or I tap them. I will admit I do have a larger cow bell in one tree, and that has a much deeper tone to it.

Bells are just part of me , I guess. I find them all over because a lot of people just don’t want them.

What I really would love except I’ve never been able to find one that is intact on its own pole is a farm bell.  i’m not sure where I would put one but I would gladly dig a post hole and set it for the right bell. Not a huge farm bell, just a moderately sized one.

Thanks for stopping by!

Old cast bronze bell of unknown origin.



a look back at another community

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I am a big fan of Main Line Parent, Philadelphia Family , Family Focus Media. I love what they do, and actually for a few years I was a freelancer with them. I wrote a couple of articles for them, but mostly I was their calendar girl. That is to say for a few years I hunted down and loaded events into their events calendar. I never talked about it much but it was something that was a lot of fun to do. And the ladies who are Main Line Parent are amazing!

Yesterday one of their folks posted the screen shot above. That mural went up in Ardmore in 2012, after I had moved to Chester County, but had been in the planning stages of a group I belonged to for many years, The Save Ardmore Coalition.

Main Line Media News Ardmore to get new mural

By Cheryl Allison callison@mainlinemedianews.com September 21, 2011

The Save Ardmore Coalition has finally found a location for its long-planned community mural, and the search has brought the group back home.

Lower Merion Township commissioners last week gave the green light to the organization’s application to install a mosaic mural on a wall of the Suburban Office Equipment building at 49 E. Lancaster Ave.

The unanimous vote by the Building and Planning Committee was to be finalized at a board meeting Wednesday night….The Save Ardmore Coalition has been seeking a site for a community artwork in downtown Ardmore for more than two years. In June 2009, the organization received a $20,000 grant through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s Community Revitalization Program to be used for a mural and other community projects.

A portion of the grant money was used last holiday season to put up advertisements at local train stations to encourage township residents to “Discover More in Ardmore” and shop local, said SAC President Sharon Eckstein.

The $15,000 mural project had taken longer to get off the ground, though, because of the difficulty in finding an appropriate location. Eckstein said the group had talked to a number of property owners before focusing on Ardmore’s historic Lancaster Avenue business district.

Main Line Media News: Mural dedication in downtown Ardmore

By Cheryl Allison callison@mainlinemedianews.com Nov 4, 2012

The Save Ardmore Coalition celebrated the completion of its Ardmore Mural Project at 49 Lancaster Ave.in Ardmore Sunday The new mosaic mural depicting a street scene has been taking shape this summer on the side of Suburban Office Equipment, across Lancaster Avenue from Rittenhouse Place.

 Artist Jessica Gorlin Liddell was on hand to talk about her work. Special guests included state Sen. Daylin Leach, through whose office a grant was provided to support this work of public art; Suburban Office owners Scott Mahan and Peggy Savery; SAC Mural Coordinator Sharon Eckstein; and other SAC members.

A Penn Valley resident, Liddell specializes in creating architectural mosaic installations…..The Save Ardmore Coalition formed in early 2005 to fight against Lower Merion Township’s potential use of its eminent domain powers to take down several buildings, including the Suburban Office building, in a controversial Ardmore Transit Center and downtown development project.

While a later vote by township commissioners officially precluded the use of eminent domain for the redevelopment project, SAC, as the grant recognized, went on to focus efforts on community advancement by organizing community forums and supporting programs like First Friday Main Line.

The years have passed on by and those of us who made up The Save Ardmore Coalition have moved on with our lives, and some like me, literally moved out of the area. By the time the mural was dedicated in 2012 I was living in Chester County, and had not been part of Save Ardmore Coalition for a while. But the people I was in that group with will always be dear to me like family.

We accomplished a great deal. We actually won a whole bunch of awards locally, regionally, and even one nationally. We were apolitical and beholden to neither political party. And yes, one year to stop the craziness in Lower Merion Township we changed the faces of who governed us and flipped half of the board of commissioners, essentially. We walked into a room together once upon a time as all strangers with a common goal to want better for our community. We left those first rooms and meetings as friends.

The mural is kind of the last thing many of us did together. Once in a while some of us get together and a lot of us are in touch with one and other. But seeing that mural pop up in a photo reminded me of the good community can do.

Be kind to one and other today and never be afraid to stand together for the greater good.