Honor Your Ancestors: Attend a Family Reunion



Alzieri Family Reunion - August 2012

Going to a family reunion is one of the best ways to honor the memory of our parents, grandparents, and other relatives that have gone before us.

The Alzieri Sisters

A reunion organized by cousins of my grandmother a few years ago attracted very few young families.  It made me sad because my Grandma would have wanted us to connect.  She would have been happy to see us visiting with her sisters, recalling her smile and the sound of her voice in theirs. She would have been delighted to see her grandneices, nephews, and second cousins once removed playing with my kids.   It made me proud to be examined by a cousin who proclaimed "You look just like Rose did when she was your age."   It was a way to keep her memory alive,  a testament of her genetic fortitude.   Throughout the day, stories were told -- some important, some trivial -- that might have otherwise been buried and forgotten. 

Grandma Rose wasn't there to see the exhaustive research on the family tree that my dad's cousin Jeff performed on Ancestry.com, but she would have been proud that we were there to see it.  A huge diagram was displayed on the wall, including photo copies of documents from Ellis Island that recorded the arrival of our ancestors from Calabria, Italy.



Dominic and Rose Angelo, my great grandparents

One of the most precious documents in my cache of important papers is an essay by our cousin Doloris, who wrote about how my Grandma Rose worked hard and sacrificed, not just to keep our family fed, but to teach the former Italian peasants the American way of life.  She writes about my grandmother: 

Grandma Rose, in the darker coat, foreground left

"Aunt Rose was 14 years old and the sole support of the family...she was the only person left who could speak both Italian and English...They lived in Mayfield.  Aunt Rose taught her family and the DiGravios how to shop...how to understand money, how to set a table, all the things that come so natural for us, but were so new to these immigrant families.  Not only did she support her own family, but she sent money 50 cents at a time to my parents to help with the medical expenses for my eyes.  Were it not for her, I may not have the vision I have today.  Aunt Rose is a remarkable person."

  

Where do we have Sunday dinner when we outgrow the kitchen table?
In the garage of course!

Would you believe that Doloris found me on Facebook recently and sent me a friend request?   There aren't many people left in this world who remember my grandmother's contribution to the overall welfare and stability of our family-- even my father, because he wasn't alive yet to see it.    I'm so grateful to Doloris for recording it, and to be living in a time where connection with her is so easy, even when living so far apart. Still, a Facebook reunion is not the same as a live visit. Funny how our self-reliance, mobility, and online connections can also be the enemy of family continuity.  Why fly to grandpa's when we can Skype with him?

An invitation to a family reunion is a precious opportunity to meet people like Jeff and Doloris.   Where else we bring the box of old photos and have the elders identify those we don't recognize?   We can take pictures and video, and then come home and write about it, too, just in case the future generations aren't on Facebook.

Check out this cool graphic that I got from my friend Scott's terrific genealogy blog Old Blue Genes.  If you're new to geneaology you might start with this post, Tips for New Genealogists:

The Gospel According to Woody Guthrie

Keth Crowley, Woody Guthrie Foundation Centennial Design Commission

This is a re-post. I think the first time I posted it was in 2009. I'm posting it again because it's Mr. Guthrie's 100th birthday and also because it's one of my all time favorite songs.  The melody is by the Austin-based singer/songwriter Slaid Cleaves  - I never get tired of hearing his version, and most mornings I do. When I first posted it, I included some of my favorite photos, but this time I'll leave it to you to envision your own promised land. I think that's the point, really-- to feel like this, even just for a minute every day, and have that little rebirth.

This Morning I Was Born Again By Woody Guthrie

This morning I was born again and a light shines on my land
I no longer look for heaven in your deathly distant land
I do not want your pearly gates, don't want your streets of gold
This morning I was born again and a light shines in my soul.

This morning I was born again, I was born again complete
I stood up above my troubles and I stand on my two feet
My head it feels unlimited, my body feels like the sky
I feel at home in the universe where yonder planets fly.

This morning I was born again, my past is dead and gone
This great eternal moment is my great eternal dawn
Each drop of blood within me, each breath of life I breath
Is united with these mountains and the mountains with the seas.

I feel the sun upon me, it's rays crawl through my skin
I breathe the life of Jesu and old John Henry in
I give myself, my heart, my soul to give some friend a hand
This morning I was born again, I am in the promised land.

This morning I was born again and a light shines on my land
I no longer look for heaven in your deathly distant land
I do not want your pearly gates, don't want your streets of gold
And I do not want your mansions for my heart is never cold.



If you are in the NYC area, I'm helping to produce a Woody Guthrie tribute evening at 92Y on Sunday, November 18 -- save the date!  Tickets will go on sale soon.

Garden Club of Nyack - Centennial Flower Show

The Garden Club of Nyack is celebrating its Centennial this year, and the annual flower show is this Saturday at Upper Nyack School.   Entry categories unique to this year include arrangments invoking the Titanic, the Girl Scouts and a rag by Henry Lodge.  Find out more here. 

Healing Through Horticulture

Plants have so many roles in our lives, especially for those of us who garden. This week in particular, as we remember 9/11, I'm thinking about how plants have the power to heal as well as symbolize growth and survival. There's something about planting a seed that makes everything just a tiny bit better.  The Brooklyn Botanical Garden will even be waiving their admission charge tomorrow, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, acknowledging this fact.

The Survivor Tree
I heard the story of The Survivor Tree for the first time this week. This was the only living tree found, stripped of it’s branches but still alive, on Ground Zero. It’s a Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana), a hardy but sometimes fragile variety often used in city gardens because of its compact, upright growth. The tree was removed, and nurtured in Van Cortlant Park in the Bronx, where it also pulled through several damaging storms.

Below is a photo of the memorial garden at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Volunteers planted 25,000 daffodil bulbs in plots that were shaped like the Twin Towers.  Although the garden is no longer there, this is such a perfect example of ways that a community can come together and heal through gardening.

Stacey's Garden

Stacey McGowan died on 9/11 and was a student at Valley Cottage Elementary when she was a little girl.  "Stacey's Garden" was planted in our school courtyard as a memorial to her. I didn't know Stacey, but I thought of her whenever I watered it. Her garden is the first thing that people see when they come into the school courtyard. It's lovingly tended by her mother and always has something in bloom.

A Hero from Nyack

Another member of our community who died on 9/11 is Welles Crowther.  He was known as the "Man in the Red Bandana." He was an equities trader and volunteer firefighter, only 24 years old, who helped a dozen people get out of the towers safely. Here is a link to an ESPN video about him. 

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6929979&categoryid=5595394

A couple of years ago, my daughter was asked to bring in an article about a 9/11 hero. She said half the class brought in articles about Welles. I will be wearing a red bandana tomorrow in his memory.

Frost Valley Winter Fun Awards 2010

The votes are in!


Best body toboggan - the whole tribe.


Best View - Hyde Watson Ridge

Bravest With a Snake - Zane

Best Hike – Maple Sugaring with Amber

Scariest Tube Launch – Maeve and Aria

Loudest Tube Lauch - Steve (and it’s on tape)

Best Cross Country Skiiers – Beth, Maeve, Sonia & Jeremy (Beth and Maeve are so good, you can’t even see them – they disappeared that fast!)

Least Confident Skiier - Jen (a rare moment upright)

Cutest Bunk Mate - Elsa

Best Babysitter - Evelyn

Best Icicles – Rainbow ice on Rt. 47

Best African Dancer - Dea (a.k.a. "Pogo Girl")

Best Climber – Carlo

Best Climbing in Snow Pants - Janine

Best "House of the Rising Sun" Rendition – Campfire Singalong with Alumni Guitarists

Most Colorful Hat – Layla

Most Colorful Face – Xeta

Best Field Trip – World’s Largest Kaleidoscope Museum (thanks to Squirrel, who knows all things Catskills.)

Most Intriguing Sign - Emu Ranch

Got any more awards?  Add them in the comments section!

What Color Is Love?

They say that children's books have the power to make a greater impact on your character than the books you read later in life.  When I think way, way back to the very, very first books that were read to me as a child, aside from "Pat the Bunny," and Richard Scarry, I remember this one:

When I read this book now, I hear my mother's voice.  Many years later, when I read it to my own children, I read it the way it was read to me, using the same emphasis and inflections. 

So my "Rainbow" garden this year is dedicated to Joan Walsh Anglund, and her book "What Color is Love?"

I can't imagine a better way to gently introduce children to the "we're all the same inside" concept, and get them thinking about emotions, tolerance and even world peace.

Colors are important
  because they make our world beautiful,
  but they are not as important
   as how we feel...
       or what we think.....
           or what we do.

Colors are "outside" things and feelings are "inside" things.

Below, she describes why her drawings omit the children's mouths and noses:

"I still 'see' different expressions on the children's faces. I think perhaps I am trying to get down to the essence of a child - not drawing just a particular, realistic child, but instead I think I'm trying to capture the 'feeling' of all children - of Childhood itself, perhaps. This may be too why I find myself dressing the children in a timeless manner, not really in any definite 'period' in time - but always with a vague sense of nostalgia."

Karen, of Greenwalks,  is our prize winner!  Karen not only won the drawing, but knew the title of the book as well as the illustrator, so her award is well-deserved. (Karen please email me your address at [email protected] so I can send you your prize.)

"What need we touch a child—

with our books and rules?

Let him walk among the hills and flowers,

Let him gaze upon the waters,

Let him look up to the stars—

And he will have wisdom."

What's the very first book you remember being read to you?

Name that Theme! (....and win a prize!)

Can you guess the name of the person that my vegetable garden pays tribute to this year?   Having a theme helps me narrow down the overwhelming selection of seeds that we're bombarded with this time of year. While I was seed shopping last week, I realized how much I love growing mixes. I love variety, color and the challenge of identifying the produce. I like the suspense and mystery. I wanted a more literary theme for the garden this year, since last year's was musical, and I wanted to honor a woman this time. Contenders included Beatrix Potter, Tasha Tudor and Laura Ingalls Wilder. When I thought about the array of plants that I want to grow this year, though, one little book came to mind, and one illustration in particular that is very close to my heart. Now I'm going to show you the drawing and a bit of text from this very special little book.

"In a garden, all the flowers are different colors....

but they live happily together side by side"

Ringing any bells?  Think Good Housekeeping magazine circa 1979....

Now I'm going to show you my seed order which might help you with a few clues. (I never got around to requesting catalogs from all those who took the Safe Seed Pledge like I intended. I didn't do all the research I promised myself I would. I ended up going with my two old favorites: Baker Creek and John Scheepers. Then I got the Abundant Life catalog, read up on their mission, and decided to spread the love.)

From Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Red meat radish, Sweet Dumpling winter squash, Five Color Chard, Sungold Select II Tomato; Big Rainbow Tomato, Stevia, Japanese Long Cucumber; Cimmaron Lettuce, Drumhead Savoy Cabbage

From John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds
Rainbow Cauliflower, Rainbow Radish, Lovely Lettuce Mesclun blend; Tuscan Kale blend, Super Snap Pea; Sweet 100 Tomato, Alpine Strawberry, Bob's Pumpkin Mix, Arugula

From Abudant Life
Red Okra, Cippolini Onion, Red Ruffles Pepper, DiCicco Broccoli, Wild Mix Ornamental Kale; Goldy Summer Squash, Brush Delicata; Butternut Squash; Black Beauty Squash

Can you tell me the name of this illustrator? Or any illustrator that this might remind you of?  One of my kids will draw a name at random from those who commented on Sunday.  The winner will win a signed copy of Gretchen Rubin's book "The Happiness Project,"  which has just hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.   If you can tell me the name of the illustrator, I'll throw in a packet of "rainbow" seeds, too. If you know the name of the book, you'll just have my undying admiration!

I know what you're thinking...."just place the dang seed order already!"

Have you placed your seed order yet?  If you're in my area and you're not into starting plants from seed, you'll be happy to know that Hook Mountain Growers is now taking orders for their organic seedlings.  Go over there and have a look - some unusual as well as tried-and-true goodies!

Something Ate the Broccoli (An Homage to Shel Silverstein)

Something ate the broccoli.
It’s rather sad to say.
Something ate the broccoli.
It started in mid-May.
We’ll never see her flowery head
Emerging from the compost bed.
I want those bugs not gone - but dead.
Something ate my broccoli.

Something ate the broccoli
Every single leaf.
They didn’t touch the soybeans,
I guess they weren’t so sweet.

We’ll never have it tossed into
A pasta salad or hearty stew .
They got zucchini blossoms, too.
Something ate the broccoli.

Something ate the broccoli.
It is absolutely clear
Something ate the broccoli
I’ll catch those slugs with beer!
It was a heartless thing to do
They leave a trail of sticky glue.
I simply can’t imagine who
Would go and (swat!) eat the broccoli.

The above poem was adapted from Shel Silverstein’s “Someone Ate the Baby." I assumed the poem could be found in either A Light in the Attic or Where the Sidewalk Ends, but it's not included in either book. That means I probably heard it on the radio. Did you ever listen to the Dr. Demento Show? Here’s a clip from the show featuring Shel himself reading the poem.