About Decoration Day: Memorial Day - Lilacs in a Fruit Jar

This morning I poured over the newspaper to see what events are happening here in the Twin Cities on Memorial Day 2011.  So much has changed since I was a child ---duaaaahhhh!

Yes, as a child, I knew it as Decoration Day - the day when we remembered falled soldiers foremost.  One year as a Girl Scout I marched in the parade in Zumbrota, MN stopping on the bridge over the Zumbro River to drop rose petals into the water in memory of those who died at sea before proceeding to the cemetery to put rose petals on the graves of soldiers.  Then somewhere along life's path it became Memorial Day - a time to remember fallen soldiers and deceased family members.

Every year...without fail...tradition held that our first stop was my grandparents farm where the kids gathered lilacs, peonies, lilies of the vally, put them in quart jars full of water and then carefully handed them to family members who would hold them carefully in the car as we drove to the Old Concord Cemetery to place them on graves of our ancestors among the graves of soliders marked by brand new flags placed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  Sometime during this ritual, we'd hear the West Concord High School Marching Band begin to warm up pulling us to the south end of the cemetery for the annual Memorial Day Program of music, prayers and a patriotic speech.

It was a time when my elders would see friends they had not seen since the previous year who returned for this annual event - my relatives came from the Twin Cities, Rochester, Pine Island, Zumbrota and Marion, IA.  Soon the kids were spilling out all (respectfully of course) over the cemetery and had to be rounded up when it was time to return to grampa and gramma's farm for the annual feast of a gazillion salads, "Dodge Center baked beans" (Aunt Jane brought them), deviled eggs and everything rhubard!  If grampa hadn't mowed it also meant us kids could make dandelion necklaces, bracelets, smear "dandelion dust" on ourselves and each other!  Many years these events included four generations of our family.  The yard and driveway were lined with cars - mostly grey or black until the year Grampa Willie bought a brand-spanking new red Ford " just for Gramma Elsie."

So, Memorial Day 2011 is two days away:  I have sent off emails to family members whose father was a prisoner of war in WWII (declared killed in action but returned home a year later after the prisoner of war camp was liberated by the Russians) and died April 19, 2010; my family no longer goes to Old Concord and gas prices are now over $3.75/gallon, so I will plan to stop by on a day when I am down in Rochester to stroll from the graves of my great-grandparents to my mom's and  "pay my respects" remembering them by dropping flower petals on the graves as I go; this year I will attend the Veterans for Peace Memorial Day Service at the Vietnam Memorial south of the Minnesota State Capitol at 9:00 a.m. and then let the day unfold quietly here in the city.

I have no lilacs in my yard but not to be deterred, I know where to get some which I will put in a quart jar and set on my kitchen table - and I will make rhubard/strawberry crisp to share in the days ahead.  Decoration Day/Memorial Day was one of my favorite traditions growing up.  I miss its richness...

About broken hearts



Simon Linder

 I moved to Randolph Avenue November 1998.  It was then I met the kid with the brightest red hair and vibrant always smiling face and quick hi over the fence who lived next door.  I came to know Simon as a great neighbor and friend, son of my friend/neighbor, Lynne, a tremedously talented musician with a creative mind that was always always creating, and I came to know about the heart condition that he was born with...a condition that reared its head from time to time - and each  time Simon rose to the challenge and healed.

Last September he married the love of his life, Steph, at a Girl Scout Camp along the St. Croix River near North Branch. They married in the log building overlooking the river on a brilliant sun filled late summer day surrounded by family and friends of all ages.  They rented the whole camp, so guests stayed in tents and cabins and Yurts...his mom and I shared a Yurt! A first for both of us. 

There is so much to say...and I can't seem to say it ... you see Simon's heart stopped beating around 1:00 this morning and so many hearts are now broken... sometimes there just are no words with any real meaning. 

When he was hospitalized for two weeks on life support a few years ago, I visited him in the ICU as his "Aunt Ginger"...so I could be with him and his mom...tonight "Aunt Ginger" just wanted to see a picture of him and decided to go to Google Images where I entered "Simon Linder Saint Paul Minnesota"...and there he was ... smiling!

I saved Lynne's message telling me "his heart stopped and he died last night"...I have replayed it ... I have talked to her ... hugged her and...promised to keep my cell phone on if she needs anything night or day...and tonight everything moves through tears.  It can be NO other way.

About Beautiful Yellow Flowers

"Beautiful Yellow Flowers"

I met Abby during my years as household coordinator for Sarah's...an Oasis for Women, a Ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul Province.  She came to the United States seeking asylum from Ethiopia, leaving behind her family, friends, culture and so much more - and she brought them with her changing forever how I see the world in so many ways.

One beautiful spring afternoon she returned from her English classes and found me working in the yard at Sarah's.  We visited under a brilliant sapphire blue sky while scanning the neighborhood.  After a few minutes she asked, "how come we have so many beautiful yellow flowers in our yard and these (her eyes scanned the neighborhood) are only green?"  That was the day we talked about the word weed,  how it means any plant that grows where someone does not want it to grow and how many people decide that the dandelion is a weed.

At that time, we chose not to kill the dandelions in the yard at Sarah's because of the cost to the environment, the cost to humans and animals who are impacted by the toxic nature of most weed killers available at that time.  Abby and I decided that dandelions are flowers, NOT weeds!  I also explained that our choice not to kill them probably meant some people in the neighborhood with very green yards wished we would kill them so the seeds would not take flight in the wind and threaten the manicured green "beauty" of their lawns.

Our conversation also reminded me again of my childhood when dandelions were a welcomed sign of spring - when we made beautiful amazing dandelion necklaces and bracelets and fat bouquets that filled out little hands and gleefully presented to our moms and grammas and teachers.  We also rubbed the flower on our cheeks to "put the sun there" for all to see.  Like Abby we saw spring beauty.

I just looked out my den window and discovered that on this very very cool spring Saturday morning, all that is growing with any intensity are beautiful brilliant yellow dandelions - and the less vibrant but equally tenacious lavender creeping charlie, another "weed," yikes! 

Yesterday as and friend and I took a drive into the country, we noticed dandelions abundantly gracing lawns and farm fields and cemeteries and road ditches.  But we didn't see any children gathering them into bouquets or making necklaces or bracelets out of them.

Since meeting Abby I am wonderfully reminded of days gone by when dandelions were a sign of spring bring joy and no one I knew considered them weeds.

About - the third week of Easter

Civil Rights Memorial
Southern Poverty Law Center
Montgomery, AL

Early the morning of April 27 we flew to Midway Airport in Chicago enroute to Birmingham, AL to begin our Civil Rights tour of Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery.   At the conclusion of our tour we planned to attend the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Southern Poverty Law Center and attend the workshops on topics like hate in the mainstream, hate crimes directed at law enforcement/government, and the civil rights of immigrants and more!

Little did we know that our trip would be wrapped around the devistating tornadoes that struck Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and other cities in north and central Alabama.

We heard the founders of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Morris Dees and Joe Levin Jr.; Julian Bond, first president of the SPLC; Pam Horowitz, one of the first attorneys at SPLC and leaders at SPLC today describe the journey from a two man law office committed to litigating civil rights cases regardless of the ability of those most impacted to pay to an internationally recognized civil rights organization employing 185 persons.

The SPLC overlooks the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church were the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as senior pastor and is one block from the Alabama State Capitol where the Selma to Montgomery March for civil rights culminated  - and is just blocks from where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus.

The event attracted nearly 2000 persons from 49 states!  There is so much to say - and learn from the work of SPLC.  The best way is to visit http://www.splcenter.org/ to learn about teaching tolerance, hate in the mainstream, current litigation, current documentarys that focus on cutting edge civil rights issues of the new millennium.

Though I have been home a week and a day - and I am even more commited to the work of the SPLC than I was two weeks ago.  And, I was not sure that was even possible when I left!  It is not only possible, it is very real. 

About Easter

It is a very gray and cold Holy Saturday which will warm up soon when I begin to make Gramma Elsie's homemade dinner rolls and Hot Cross buns made with black currents, just like Gramma used.  No citron ... candied fruit that we used exclusively for our Christmas Fruitcake.

While Easter was held in my home for many years, I am now a guest who brings something to add to the table.  Each year it is homemade dinner rolls and this year I will add the Hot Cross buns that were the most consistent treat at Easter dinner at Gramma Elsie's. 
It is brightening outside, it is time to begin this wonderful warm fragrant and delicious tradition!

Spring Sewing Bug

Over the course of the winter "me and my 1966 Viking Huskvagna sewing machine" mended clothes, shortened pants and curtains.  Just about all I have done in recent years, alter and mend! Strangely, these mundane tasks I take so for granted and going with friends to a fabric store to pick out accessories rekindled my desire to sew clothing for myself.

So Friday morning I bought the most amazing irridescent blue silk to make a tunic to wear over my basic black older than the hills still perfectly good dress for my upcoming "spring flings."  And wouldn't you just know it, my Viking  for the first time in 44 years needs to go to the repair shop for something other than a good cleaning and basic adjustment.  It winds bobbins but it refuses to sew!

So, I took out my "older" antique sewing machne.  It is a portable Singer in a round topped wooden case and operates when the "sewing arm" is attached to the right front of the machine. A light press of the knee sets it in purring  motion sewing straight even beautiful stitches which is all I need to make the tunic and most of the time all I need to mend, hem, alter clothing and curtains.

Today the pattern is trimmed and pressed, the bobbin is wound and I am ready to create real clothes again!  It is a gorgeous spring morning with people walking and jogging while birds whisk by my den window.  A perfect day to sew!  It is also Palm Sunday, Wuthering Heights Opera at the Ordway and tonight a Seder meal with friends.  This joyful project will be created during Holy Week - in the evening - and it is good.

Next Sunday is Easter and I will wear the tunic and once again celebrate that this side of my creative self is back in gear ... sure am glad I have the old Singer for back-up!

About antiques



My antique rocker

 Yup, I have two of these amazing rockers in my living room along with an 1800s camel backed upholstered and mahogany sofa.  Lovely and "sweet." But they no longer serve my needs in the way they have for the past twenty years.  My grandchildren are growing up, no babies to rock and the "grands" no longer find the rockers fun - the sofa was once a parlor piece - used only on special occasions.  These days I need solid and serviceable.

The time has come to update my living room furniture with perhaps a hide-a-bed sofa and a couple of upholstered chairs.  The "family trunk" must stay as well as my mom's primitive hutch.  Because of its size it too is in the living room, it is really too large for my small dining room.

I also have a late 1800's drop leaf country school table in my upstairs office.  For a time it was my dining room table - now it proudly holds my copier/printer.  I open one 30" drop leaf when I have paper work to do.  That is NOW! Tax time is here and I cannot put it off another day.  It is really quite wonderful taking up only 15 x 40 inches of the floor space most of the time - 75 inches when both leaves are up.  It too is ready to move on so I can get a small desk where I can work on my lap top, write notes and do paperwork.  I have an antique walnut doctors chair that was used at the Mayo Clinic years and years ago that will be perfect to use with the desk.  The printer, telephone and wireless router will move to an inexpensive side stand that hold office supplies.

Now all I have to do is figure out how I can sell these wonderful antique pieces.  The first "expert buyer" arrived yesterday - commented on the beauty and exquisite condition of these pieces - but declined to buy - yup the market is "flat."  I may just need to use all these pieces a little longer...or I may need to do more research and keep calling until I find the right buyer!   Just thinkin' about calling until I find the right buyer...