mermaidcamp
Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
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Part of the Community
September 2, 2013
— 6 Comments
“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.” Confucius
Packing light is a good idea, but never leave your heart at home. To do justice to any travel experience an open mind and flexible attitude are both needed. You bring your culture with you, know it or not, and you either decide to break out of it and meet new ones, or not. It is now possible in the United States to stay in chain hotels, and eat in chain restaurants, shop in chain stores, and wear the exact same fashion to the point at all destinations can be reduced to a low and common denominator.
My trip to Pennsylvania was prompted by a reunion with old schoolmates. My curiosity was strong about the town where I grew up and went to school through 8th grade. I wanted to know how my old friends and classmates are now. The weekend was full of parties, visiting, and remembering our younger selves. I like the chance to be in different environments and see plants and architectural styles that are out of my normal range. Destination Oakmont, PA is almost the exact opposite of Tucson, AZ. Being present for leaves changing and the reunion parties has made this an exciting and fulfilling visit.
How do you choose the places you will visit? Do you always go to places where you know people? AirBnB is a great way to be a guest in a community and be part of it. The agency facilitates on-line rentals of rooms, guest houses, apartments and more in private homes. I have stayed in a spacious clean home with kitchen privileges, coffee machine and private bathroom en suite. My host family is helpful and knowledgeable about the area. I was given some local history books to read upon arrival that were excellent. Staying in a neighborhood also gave me the perfect location. Our class reunion party was only a block from my place. I do like hotels for certain purposes, but the growth and popularity of airbnb shows the increasing interest in a new way of traveling. It offers a chance to take part in the life of the community more than a hotel can. Before your next trip, take a look at the available rental properties in the system. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised. I have been more than happy both times I have rented with the company.
Ambiance Boutique, Oakmont, PA
August 31, 2013
— 4 Comments
I do not need to shop again for the rest of my life, but there are times that I am inspired to do so. While visiting my childhood home town of Oakmont, PA I found not only the inspiration, but also very high quality goods at rock bottom prices. Ambiance Boutique is run for the benefit of an organization called Bethlehem Haven. The upscale consignment retail store carefully selects and curates a collection of very high-end clothing and household goods. The system in place progressively discounts the item as it stays on the rack or shelf, so if it does not sell it becomes more affordable. I went in out of curiosity and was hooked. I scored such fabulous deals the first day, and was given a coupon for 10% off my next purchase. When I returned with the coupon and found the 75% off rack the next day, they almost paid me to take two stylin’ blouses off their hands. I thought I was done until I saw that black purse that was just too much of a bargain to leave on the mannequin.
If you live in Pittsburgh, and particularly if you have not been thrift shopping in the past, I urge you to go to Ambiance. The store is elegant, the staff is much more professional than the other retail stores I visited here. This is the kind of town where good customer service is reserved for people who live here, and the stranger is treated as an annoyance. This will NOT happen in Ambiance. You will be greeted and served as if you are the most important shopper on earth. Alexandra acts like a personal shopper at Nordstrom, but she is working for the betterment of homeless women in the Pittsburgh area. If I were ever going to use the phrase win-win, it would be to convince you to try Ambiance. Since I don’t use that phrase let me just encourage you to see if there might be something very special and very well priced in this store for you. Tell them Pam sent you and you want to see the 75% off rack.
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- Sue
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- personal shopper/Nordstrom style
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- merchandise
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- dressy
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- choices
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- high fashion
Recipe for Nostalgia
August 29, 2013
— 8 Comments
Take one elementary school class, add 49 years. Shake; don’t stir. Meet in the building where you attended elementary school and Jr. high, and sip slowly.
I study history, but my own personal past has not been investigated. I only have so much time to find all the facts about my ancestors, so biographical content has never crossed my mind. This week I am digging into it. I am on a quest to remember/discover my childhood, which was pretty idyllic. I grew up walking a block and a half to my school, playing in giant gangs of kids in my neighborhood. We went to swimming pools at country clubs in the summer, but we had a neighborhood of full time sports (wiffle ball) , games, dramatic productions, and parties..not unlike Spanky and Our Gang, I looked at the hill in my old side yard where we went sledding. It is much smaller that I could have imagined.. the entire yard has shrunk. It doesn’t look like it would hold big games of red rover, but I know that it did. I also had an archery target and a basketball backboard in the back yard. The prop we used most often was the player piano.
Both my next door neighbors and our family had player pianos in the basement. Our basement playroom was huge with the piano and a big bar. My parents partied heavily down there. Most of the time it was used for my piano practice or my play room. My mom supplied a giant box of dress up clothing of all kinds behind the bar in the laundry room. The kids would put on shows for each other, and sometimes for the parents, by dressing in the costumes and singing. The parents sat down at a lower level in the yard, and we would enter from stage right, behind the house. We had sort of an Ed Sullivan variety approach, with someone announcing the acts. One of our favorites (and very popular with the adults) was “Heart of My Heart”. We had a pantomime that was very corny. We did it all the time, so I can still do it after more than 50 years. I called my childhood neighbor, Peggy Jo, and sang it to her on the phone. It made me cry because the song sums up the whole deal. “Friends were dearer then”
Dog Days Officially End
August 27, 2013
— 1 Comment
cactus
This summer the dog membership at the Tucson Botanical Gardens has been a great benefit to our family. Each Tuesday we enjoy walking early in the morning with other member dogs and their owners in a shady oasis in the middle of town.
cool morning walk
Today is the last Tuesday of the dog membership. It rained last night, which is magical here. The garden was lovely and very fragrant for our last visit of the summer. Artemisia has always liked to eat sunflowers, which is verboten in a botanical garden, of course. As a treat and a little rule breaking on her last dog day I let her munch a couple of leaves on the bottom of a sunflower. She didn’t eat very much. She hopes to return next summer as a member dog.
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- basil
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- metal art
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- lemongrass
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- palm
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- desert rose
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- dog days
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- investigation
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- smelling the shed
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- sunflower
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- chomping sunflower
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- eats sunflower
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- metal decoration
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- globe amaranth
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- shade ramadas
Emiline P Nicholls, 3rd Great Grandmother
August 25, 2013
— 3 Comments
The grandmothers
My 3rd great-grandmother was born in Somerset, PA in 1837. She became the second wife of Thomas Peterson, a widower, in Ohio in 1855. Her parents had moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio before 1850. I know her father, Amos, was a teacher, but have no records of the schools, or the times. After the Civil War she moved with her husband and children to Kansas to homestead. She survived Thomas by many years, and in 1920 was living at the home of her daughter, Harriet. She is the short one on the right side of this photo. The age of my Uncle Ernest on the left side tells us this was taken in Ladore, Kansas about 1918.
Emiline P Nicholls (1837 – )
is my 3rd great grandmother
Harriet Peterson (1856 – 1933)
daughter of Emiline P Nicholls
Sarah Helena Byrne (1878 – 1962)
daughter of Harriet Peterson
Olga Fern Scott (1897 – 1968)
daughter of Sarah Helena Byrne
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Olga Fern Scott
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse
Since both Emiline and her mother were born in Somerset I have joined the Somerset Historical Society and have engaged the services of the professional genealogists on the staff. Next week I will have the chance to visit not only the place, but also have the fun of doing some fully professional investigation. I expect to learn a lot about the history of the area and what was happening when my family lived there. If I am lucky I will also find some information on Emiline’s husband, Thomas. Since I have been doing this research for so long I am excited to learn how the pros approach it.
George Harvey Taylor, Suicide Victim
August 23, 2013
— 3 Comments
George Harvey Taylor
I have found a true treasure today as I prepared to write this post about my grandfather, George Harvey Taylor. Somebody has placed his photo on Ancestry.com. I instantly knew it was he because he strongly resembles his children, one of my uncles in particular. This is the first time I have seen his image. He committed suicide ten years before I was born, and for at least the first ten years of my life he was never mentioned. I am not sure how old I was when I learned from a cousin that he had killed himself at home at night, his youngest son discovering the body in the morning. It shocked me out of my wits. It still does. The tightly held secret probably had some initial seed of the suicide of one of my cousins in about 1970.
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
is my maternal grandfather
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee Taylor
George Harvey was born in Texas in 1884 to parents who had moved there from Selma, Taledega to be precise, Alabama, after the Civil War. He met his wife, Hattie May Long, who had been adopted in Mississippi during or shortly after the war. Her adopted parents, the Longs, brought Hattie May with them to Texas, but seem to have left her brother, Fidel, back in Mississippi. After George and Hattie married they moved to Humble, TX, where George was a meter reader for Texaco on a very large oil lease. He rode a black horse around the lease and read various meters to document production. They had ten living children;Hattie lost a couple of pregnancies; then Hattie May died in childbirth, along with the baby….at home, in 1932. George Harvey was left to raise ten kids, the youngest being only two years of age.
grave in Waller TX
When my mother was near death and demented I asked about her father’s suicide and how she felt. She was not in the house that morning, but had gone to Houston to visit her sister. She said she was very angry at him; the reason given was that the lady next door turned down his proposal of marriage. He had carried on as a single father for 9 years and was severely depressed, I suppose. Suicide often leaves the family ashamed like my mother’s religious family. The taboo subject has strange and subtle effects on those who are left on earth. I know that it shaped my mother’s view of life.
Please join me in raising awareness and hopefully some funding for IAMalive.org. during suicide prevention week, Sept8-14, 2013. This 24 hour hot line is created to help people like my grandpa make it through an irrational moment of fear and loathing. This issue belongs to all of us. You can find the easy donation bottom here, along with a list of thank you gifts. My grandpa George and I thank you as well.
Memory Therapy
August 22, 2013
— 3 Comments
forsythia
One week from today I will be visiting the town near Pittsburgh where I grew up and went to school through 8th grade. I have not been there for almost 50 years, so things will be different…and yet the same. I tune in to the daily tweets of @thomasmooreSoul because I find them to be just the right amount of therapy for a single day. A long time ago he tweeted that talking about your childhood openly, telling stories you remember, is a great way to make sense of the past. I have been exchanging pictures and comments with some of the former classmates for about 4 months now, as we prepare to meet in Oakmont, PA for their (I was already gone) high school reunion. I can say that Tom’s advice about childhood stories is powerful. Each one of us remembers different parts of our class story; I am sure being physically in our old school will spark some memories we have not discovered. There is something unaltered about all our personalities that I can’t put into words, but next week maybe I will.
Before we all get hauled off to the memory wing of some care home we have the opportunity to get together to reminisce about our seriously good old days. A few of us are already gone, naturally. Such is life. It ends. I look forward to stirring up some memory/emotions from my childhood with the classmates with whom I shared them. I have travelled the world, but this is time travel in a sense. I am not sure what kind of deeper meaning will be revealed, but I expect it will be more helpful to my psyche than years of analysis might be (I am too thrifty to find out). Buckle up, gentle readers, and prepare to time travel with me to the ‘Burgh next week…back to the future.
Sarah Rebecca Lewis
August 21, 2013
— 2 Comments
Seal of Virginia
Sara Rebecca Lewis, my 7th great grandmother, was born in colonial Virginia. She married James Jones in 1665.
Sarah Rebecca Lewis (1643 – 1725)
is my 7th great grandmother
daughter of Sarah Rebecca Lewis
son of Ann Williams Jones
son of George Darden
daughter of David Darden
daughter of Minerva Truly Darden
daughter of Sarah E Hughes
son of Lucinda Jane Armer
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee
When her husband died she was given 4 human beings and the right to live on the plantation for life. Reading her husband’s will I notice how all the slaves, even the unborn ones, are willed as chattel to the members of the Jones family. The document starts with Almighty God and then moves directly into slavery. This is how Virginia was colonized:
Will of James Jones (I) (Chappell, Dickie & Other Kindred Families, p.63-4)
In the name of God. Amen. I James Jones (I) being weake and sick but of sound and perfect mind and memory, praise be therefore given to God, doe make and ordain this my present Last Will and Testament in the manner and form following, that is to say. First and principally I commend my soul into the hands of Almighty God, hoping through the merritts, Death and passion of my savior Jesus Christ to have full and free pardon of all my sins and to inherit everlasting life; and my body I commit to the earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executor, hereinafter named, and as touching the Disposition of all such temporal estate as it hath pleased Almighty God to bestow on me I give and dispose thereof as follows:
First. I will that all my debts and funeral expenses shall be paid and discharged.
Item. I will that my loving wife have the Labour of four negroes during her natural life, they are named Will, Robin, Maria and Betty. Provided they are not removed off the plantation I now live upon, if they are, then Immediately to return to my executor, which plantation I will my wife shall live Upon during her life.
Item. I give my wifes two sons two Negro children, one named James, the other unborn, the first child that either Betty or Maria shall bring to be the other, which two negro children to be Disposed of to my wifes two sons as she shall think fit, the unborn and the born child James to be and remain with their mothers till they come to the age of two years and a half year. My will is likewise that my wife have during her life what household stuff my executor shall see fit and that she have a reasonable yearly maintenance out of my stock.
Item. I give to my daughter Mary Dardin my negro man Jo –during her life.
Item. I give to my daughter Elizabeth a negro named Hanna to be at her disposal to do as she sees fit.
Item. I give to my daughter Hanna one negro named Jack to be at her disposal at her death or before as she sees fit.
Item. I give to my daughter Rebecca two hundred acres of land, lying in Surrey county, beginning from the Swamp up by the Spring, South, to the outline, that to be the headline, to her and her heirs forever.
Item. I give to my Granddaughter Eliza Glover, one hundred acres of land on the south side of Pond Runn, to be her and her heirs forever.
Item. I give to my grandson James Jones, this my plantation I live upon after my wifes Decease and all my land in Prince George county, after his father and mothers Decease, to him and his heirs forever.
Item. I give to my Grandson Thomas Chappell (Thomas Chappell Sr. (III)) one hundred acres of land lying in Surrey county from the Swamp South, joining upon William Cocke above the outline, to him and his heirs forever.
Item. I give to my Granddaughter Jane Cocke, daughter of John Cocke, one negro named Amy to her and her heirs forever as also one feather bed and bolster, one rug and one blanket, and if the ticke be bad Lett a new ticke be bought, as also two young cows, one young mair, One Iron Pot, two Pewter Dishes and one Doz.of Spoons.
All the rest and Residue of my personal Estate, goods and chattel whatsoever, I do give and bequeath to my Loving son James Jones, full and sole Executor of this my last Will and testament and I do hereby revoke, disannul and make void all former wills and Testaments by me heretofore made.
In Witness whereof I, the said James Jones (I) to this my last will and testament do set my hand and seal this the 6th day of April A.D.1719.
James Jones Seal (Sealed with wafer)
Signed and sealed in the presence of: Gilbert Hay Edward Prince Thomas Temple
At a Court held at Merchant’s Hope for Prince George County on the second Tuesday, in May, being the twelfth day of said month, A.D.1719, the above written last will of James Jones, deceased, was exhibited in Court by James Jones, his Executor, who made oath thereto and it being proven by the oaths of the witnesses thereto a certificate was granted to the said James Jones for obtaining a Probate in due form. Teste: Wm. Hamlin, Clerk
Wife’s letter to the Court:
Worthy Sirs: Having seen and heard read the Last Will of my late husband, James Jones, deceased, I therefore think fit to acquaint your W.p.T. that I think myself justly dealt by therein and to prevent further disputes I desire the will probated, I being willing to rely on the Legacy left me in said will. Given under my hand and seale this 20th April 1719.
Her Sarah X Jones Mark Seal (Sealed with red wafer)
Teste: E. Goodrich Mary Loyd
To the Worshipfull: His Majesty’s Justice of the Peace for Prince George County
Tribal Leadership
August 13, 2013
— 4 Comments
flower sky
flower sky
flower sky
The first invitation I received to join Triberr was from a group of bloggers known as Renaissance Roundtable. The introduction to bloggers in Europe, Canada, and all over the US was an eye- opener for me. Our chief retired completely from blogging about a year after I joined. What was amazing was that the tribe continued to function and amplify each others’ blogs long after the chief retired. This was a strong testament to the systems built by the Triberr big chiefs. I had never tried to build a tribe or join others, but decided that a tribe with no chief was not the only place I needed to be. I went to New York last September on the equinox to meet and greet the Triberr creators and learn more about how to use the system.
The Tribeup NYC meetup was everything I had hoped for and more. I met, in person, some friends I had known only on line for some time. I was given excellent instruction by several professional bloggers with deep experience in the art and science. We had a chance to schmooze with each other over some crazy good Haitian food after the educational component. In retrospect, the social hour was a high point to connect in real life with New Yorkers I will not see again any time soon. The speakers all gave superb presentations that stuck with me as I went home to build my own tribes.
I am now working to create and join active enthusiastic tribes. I see that bloggers come and go, sometimes active, sometimes quiet. Some tribes have few bloggers and many followers( whose work is not shared by the tribe), indicating a one way expectation. Other tribes show members who have not done anything in months. While there is nothing evil about being dormant within a tribe or as a chief, I have come to appreciate the active and interactive tribal brothers and sisters much more than the one way broadcasters. My new strategy is to follow tribes that look interesting, and request a membership. I study the member list and see if any members are active. If the chief does not give me a membership after a few weeks of sharing the tribal posts, I quit and invite all the interesting and active sharing bloggers to my tribe. As in real life, it only makes sense to go where your peeps are. Triberr makes this simple, but not automatic. My next important role to fill in life is that of an inspiring and uplifting chief, leading my tribe to blogging mastery. The sky is now the limit.
Talking About Race
August 10, 2013
— 2 Comments
My tribal sister Rayshay has attended a training offered by the Justice department to teach individuals how to have a conversation about race. I admire her courage and conviction in stepping up to the plate on this issue. She lives in Philly, and I live near the Mexican border in Tucson, so we have different perceptions of where we are today. I am also older, and lived in Texas in 1967-70, when civil rights were a really big deal, not in a good way. I would not take up this subject on my own. This is the first time I have responded to a prompt, but I think this discussion is important, so I hope some of my readers will decide to write a piece this week also.
In response to Rayshay’s next question: Where are we now? Where I live the strong elements of denial and us vs them mentality are damaging our quality of life. Racism is unfortunately integrated into politics and business. If you think national politics looks magnetized to the extreme, just take a walk on the wild side down here at the Mexican border of Arizona.
Here in Tucson racism is very likely to be emotionally bound to the border and immigration. The race/language/culture issues we have are about being Mexican and or Native American in a land once exclusively owned by your ancestors. Arizona became a state in 1912, so very different from Pennsylvania, one of the 13 colonies. The border itself is an unnatural place to stop anything or anyone. A long stretch of the Arizona border is on tribal land, which is a sovereign nation belonging to the people who were undoubtably here first, the Tohono O’odam. Arizona was part of Mexico; some land ownership in Arizona is documented by Spanish land grant. Rich mines belonged to the Apache tribes, and there were resources to create a thriving economy. Now we suffer from a water shortage that is unsustainable. Golf, cows, and general waste of our water has left the southwest in a pickle…literally. The salty groundwater leaves minerals in the ground that eventually make plant growth impossible. It is late in the game to decide who took what from whom; the resource of water has been depleted for everyone.
Politics in Arizona are tied to race, language, and Mexico. The school district in Tucson has been ordered to stop teaching a curriculum in ethnic studies. This complex and emotional issue brought out the worst in everyone. Some of the books from the program were apparently banned from all the libraries after the closure. There is bitterness on both sides of this issue. If public education becomes a reason to bicker, all students loose. Where we are in Arizona is nowhere near the place we need to be for a thriving and honest economy that serves the best interest of society.
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