by MarianBeaman | May 10, 2017 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Memory, Uncategorized
“What are these?” I queried, opening a photo sleeve in Cliff’s art studio. “Oh, my word!” I announced to no one in particular as I fingered the first picture. Then I laughed, paging through all the photos, fondly called Clifftoons my...
by MarianBeaman | May 3, 2017 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, neighborhood, Tips, Uncategorized
For nearly four months now, we have been clearing out the house our Aunt Ruthie shared with Grandma Longenecker. My sisters and brother have been doing the bulk of the work so far. But in April help came from some members of Bossler Mennonite Church. Their assistance...
by MarianBeaman | Apr 26, 2017 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
My Grandma Fannie never graced a pulpit wearing clerical robes. She did not have a theology degree either. Certainly, no one ever addressed her as a Reverend. Yet one spring day in 1951 Fannie Martin Longenecker preached to the residents at Orville Mennonite Home. Her...
by MarianBeaman | Apr 19, 2017 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
Crimson Album, a Golden Treasure Underneath a stack of stuff in one of the bedrooms my sisters and I sorted through, a red album appeared. It was really not very crimson, but more magenta in hue. To whom did it belong? What was inside? Behold! A scrapbook album my...
by MarianBeaman | Apr 12, 2017 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Easter, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
Easter Greetings: The Sacred, the Secular, and the Natural Many other postcards have been posted on this website since my sisters and I have been sorting through the house Aunt Ruthie shared with my Grandma Fannie. You can visit them here and here. This season I share...
by MarianBeaman | Apr 5, 2017 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Uncategorized
This postcard was sent to Miss Fannie Martin (my Grandma Longenecker) from Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. The postmark, dated October 15, 1909, is intact but the stamp has been cut out, deleting some of the text that would illuminate the meaning of the scene. Your mission,...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 29, 2017 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
A True Story Hilda lived in Pennsylvania. She had lots of friends in her hometown. Then she moved to Maine. When she left she took with her something special. This post will tell you what and how and why. Hilda Zeager loved Lancaster County farmland where she...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 22, 2017 | blog, Literature, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized
Balance is a good thing unless you are sitting on a see-saw and want to get off! Vernal Equinox On Monday, March 20, both day and night were about the same length around the globe. People in the northern hemisphere experienced the spring equinox. Those in the...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 14, 2017 | blog, meditation, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, popular culture, Quilt, Quotations, Uncategorized
How to Make an American Quilt, the Movie Women stitch quilt as a wedding gift for girl Girl doesn’t know whether she wants to get married. Women in quilting circle tell stories about life and love that fit the quilt’s theme Where Love Resides Wrapped in a quilt,...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 7, 2017 | blog, book review, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
Her Story The title for Rhoda Janzen’s latest memoir, Mennonite Meets Mr. Right, could be recast as Egg-Head Mennonite Intellectual Meets Pentecostal Hunk Mitch. I succumbed easily to her comic style, which engaged me while reading her first memoir, Mennonite in a...
