by MarianBeaman | Sep 13, 2023 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
As a kid, I helped my aproned Grandma Longenecker pick strawberries in her garden close to Anchor Road. As a teen, I packaged bologna at Baum’s Bologna company near Elizabethtown, PA. During my sophomore year in college, I worked as script editor for WEMC, the station...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 30, 2023 | blog, book review, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Uncategorized
“If we’d open people up, we’d find landscapes.” ~ Agnès Varda I found this provocative line in a book I read recently (You Could Make This Place Beautiful by poet Maggie Smith, whose life has been rooted in Ohio). Seeing this line in her memoir, my mind...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 23, 2023 | blog, Conflict, Education, popular culture, Uncategorized
School of the Americas poster, circa 2001 Carolyn Phanstiel archives
by MarianBeaman | Aug 9, 2023 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Gratitude, meditation, Memory, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
Early in the morning on my birthday three Mondays ago, my friend Carolyn sang me the birthday song on my iPhone. I heard her warble the notes to “Happy Birthday to Yooooo” with heart and soul. As always, the notes struck a chord with me. We have exchanged the familiar...
by MarianBeaman | Aug 2, 2023 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, meditation, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Romance, Tips, Uncategorized
Would you trust marital advice from a long-time mistress? Would you have confidence in a woman who has carried on a clandestine affair with a married man for nearly thirty years? Yet, the Mistress in this book believes she has wisdom to offer, Advice to...
by MarianBeaman | Jul 5, 2023 | blog, Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, popular culture, Quotations
Roz Chast’s June 19 magazine cover is explosive! She imagines shopping for novelty fireworks in a store of her own wild imagination: Friendship Ender Lawsuit Huge Rent Increase Pointless Rage Shingles Root Canal Sense of Doom Red Tape Guilt Bomb ...
