by MarianBeaman | May 29, 2013 | Coming of Age, Conflict, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite Lore, Uncategorized
Tomato Girl, Part I Lancaster County, early June 1953 – and I’m in the tomato patch with Mother and Daddy. Actually, it’s not a tomato patch, it’s over 9 acres of farm land not far from Elizabethtown in Bainbridge where we are about to plant a new tomato crop. Years...
by MarianBeaman | May 25, 2013 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Lists, Tips, Uncategorized
For years I have kept a ratty ole pin cushion from Grandma Longenecker in my sewing cabinet. It looks pitiful, but I’ll never throw it away because it came from my Grandma. Pierced through its dusty middle with some of her pins and holding one of my...
by MarianBeaman | May 15, 2013 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite Lore, Romance, Uncategorized
Baskin-Robbins offers nearly 60 flavors of ice cream at their shoppes. The varieties of dress among Mennonites and Amish, who split from the Mennonites, is nearly as long and equally fascinating. In recent research, I counted dozens of sub-sects. ...
by MarianBeaman | Apr 3, 2013 | Coming of Age, Uncategorized
MY STORY Wayne is good in math. He with the crew-cut and quiet, methodical ways can easily navigate math’s maze of numbers. We are both fourth graders at Rheems Elementary School. Unlike me, Wayne is a mathematical whiz; in a split second he makes sense of long...
by MarianBeaman | Jan 4, 2013 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, meditation, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Uncategorized
Prickly winter air . . . crunchy, crusty snow . . . Flexible Flyer sleds . . . wet mittens . . . white leather ice skates. All my memories of winter time in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, are good ones. Cold, soggy socks warmed up and dried out on the heat...