by MarianBeaman | Sep 11, 2013 | Lists, Purple Passage, Quotations, Reflection, Tips, Travel, Uncategorized
Writing & Stories 4.10.99 Why stories are so effective: The best stories begin as mental pictures which turn into personal mirrors before they become insightful windows through which we’re able to view life with greater clarity and understanding. Anonymous...
by MarianBeaman | Sep 7, 2013 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Folk Songs of the South, Lists, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
Valentine parties, Easter parades, Hallowe’en fun houses in the basement, Christmas programs, we had them all, but those were special occasions. At Rheems Elementary, a two-room school, we had our daily ritual: Bell ringing from the school-house steeple (always...
by MarianBeaman | Sep 4, 2013 | Coming of Age, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Recipes, Uncategorized
I never think of myself as a Daddy’s girl, because I get along with Mom better. But there I am in plain daylight grinning as I ride the tractor with Daddy. We’re cultivating the 9 acres of land in Bainbridge for the next tomato crop. I stand on the tractor’s floor...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 31, 2013 | Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Recipes, Reflection, Tips, Uncategorized
Before I dashed off to my college classes each morning, I had a 10-minute oasis of breakfast time around 6:30. With a modest-size repast of tea and lemon, bagel with peanut butter or cream cheese + a piece of fruit, I told God, “Thank you for this food and the leisure...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 28, 2013 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
In Florida, most people take baths once a day. It’s too hot not to. And it’s a safe bet most people in contemporary America take more than one bath a week. Not so in the olden days. Mildred Armstrong Kalish writes of her family’s once-a-week bathing in her...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 24, 2013 | Coming of Age, Conflict, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
CIRCLES: I am in a small room of our church standing in a circle of women and girls in the presence of our Bishop and Deacons who will ask each of us 2 questions: * Are you in harmony with the rules and regulations of the Mennonite Church? * Are you at peace with God...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 21, 2013 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
Rings CareBear Cliff has given me a diamond ring for Easter, baked in a blueberry muffin with a plastic bunny-rabbit stick on top. It is my first piece of jewelry ever and I’m 25 years old. Imagining everyone is as thrilled as I am, I flash the sparkling stone in...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 17, 2013 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
Bonnets “Tie your head shut!” – An oft-heard admonition from my mother, my Aunt Ruthie, and Grandma Longenecker. Translation: If you tie your head shut, you won’t get sick with colds, sinus trouble, what not. And so our heads are tied shut with...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 14, 2013 | Coming of Age, Conflict, Family / Nostalgia, Lists, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Southern lady friends, Uncategorized
Bee Video / Facebook The bees came the summer of 1964, the summer I turned fourteen and my life went spinning off into a whole new orbit, and I mean whole new orbit. Looking back on it now, I want to say the bees were sent to me. I want to say they showed up like the...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 10, 2013 | Conflict, Family / Nostalgia, Lists, Memory, Purple Passage, Uncategorized
Purple Passages made its debut on July 10. Here is the August 10, 2013 installment. Why people read 1.7.94 We read books to know we are not alone. William Nicholson Love to children 4.2.89 The love you give your children is like black paper: it absorbs and you...
