by MarianBeaman | Jul 4, 2018 | Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Neighborhood / Environment, Uncategorized
This is a photograph of my mother, Ruth Longenecker, in the tobacco field located in our family’s acreage in Bainbridge, Pennsylvania seven miles from our home. Until the photo was restored, I did not realize the presence of a figure in middle distance, who I’m...
by MarianBeaman | Jun 27, 2018 | blog, Lists, Quotations, Tips, Uncategorized
Here’s the true secret of life: We mostly do everything over and over. In the morning, we let the dogs out, make coffee, read the paper, help whoever is around get ready for the day. We do our work. In the afternoon, if we have left, we come home, put down our keys...
by MarianBeaman | Jun 20, 2018 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Uncategorized
At Mark’s funeral, a church friend recalled his wisdom. The friend, who admitted to have complained about something trivial at the time, heard Mark say, “Oh, it’s not so bad. We’re just passing through this life!” My brother passed...
by MarianBeaman | Jun 13, 2018 | blog, Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Uncategorized
My dad was a workhorse. He plowed with mules in the 1930s in our field in Bainbridge Later I stood beside him on a mechanical “beast” here in the same field cultivating the soil with a Massey-Harris tractor soon to plant tomatoes. Poet...
by MarianBeaman | Jun 6, 2018 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
Once upon a time a five-year-old girl went to Cherryl Hill, a one-room school with a big bell on the rooftop . . . Early in the morning she rode over hill and dale In the back seat of the brown Terraplane Hudson with her teacher-aunt at the wheel . . . She...
