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Two Mennonite Nonagenarians: Mother Ruth & Aunt Cecilia

by MarianBeaman | May 21, 2014 | Education, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Tips, Uncategorized

Here is my mother’s family of four brothers and one sister in a farm meadow in the 1940s. They are children of Abram Hernley Metzler and Sadie Landis Metzler, a Mennonite family of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Standing in birth order are her brothers Landis,...

Fancy Dress Finds Plain Girl

by MarianBeaman | May 7, 2014 | Coming of Age, Conflict, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Purple Passage, Uncategorized

It’s spring concert time and I’m making my fingers fly fast over the strings of my violin pizzicato style, trying to keep up with the syncopated rhythms of The Typewriter Song. Noah Klauss, the director of our Elizabethtown High School Orchestra, is a fan of Leroy...

7 Things I Do that Remind Me of Home

by MarianBeaman | Apr 30, 2014 | Family / Nostalgia, Gratitude, meditation, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Reflection, Uncategorized

Over forty years ago I left Lancaster county and my Mennonite life. Though I have visited dozens of times since then, Jacksonville, Florida, has been my home. Nonetheless, every single day I notice myself repeating rituals that reveal the imprint of my early training....

Happy Birthday, Will!

by MarianBeaman | Apr 23, 2014 | Education, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Uncategorized

News Flash! To mark Shakespeare’s 450th birthday, “the Royal Shakespeare Company is spearheading a three year Jubilee, between 2014 and 2016, that will involve theatre performances, events and live streaming cinema around the world.” *  *  *  *  * It’s April 23 in my...

Mennonite Flashback III: Rabbits and Rings

by MarianBeaman | Apr 16, 2014 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Romance, Uncategorized

This is a sequel to a previous blog post: Flying the Coop: Leaving Mennonite Land with a link to my original story on Mary Gottschalk’s website. His Story: I proposed to Marian my Mennonite girl friend one snowy evening, my car stuck in a snow-bank. When she...

Purple Passages: A Dragon with a Gift, April 2014

by MarianBeaman | Apr 12, 2014 | Family / Nostalgia, Literature, meditation, Memory, Purple Passage, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized

LILACS April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots and spring rain. T. S. Eliot The Waste-Land   When Lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in...
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