by MarianBeaman | Aug 5, 2026 | blog, Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, popular culture, Uncategorized
My first memory of a fancy wedding is drawn from the Zion Lutheran Church in Hummelstown, PA, a lovely edifice with stained glass windows, a pipe organ, and a bell tower. I was nine years old when I attended Mary and Howard Landis’ wedding there. ...
by MarianBeaman | Jul 29, 2026 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite History, Nostalgia, Reflection, Uncategorized
My baby book tells the story of my life from birth to age 3. My mother, Ruth Metzler Longenecker, recorded the details of my early life in a cushiony pink volume with dimensions, 6 x 8 inches, popular in mid-century America. Although the pages allowed for more, Mother...
by MarianBeaman | May 6, 2026 | blog, Education, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Travel, Uncategorized
Do you dream? Not just at night, but do you sometimes zone out in a pleasant way during the day? As Robert Olen Butler suggests in his book, From Where Your Dream, there is power in dreaming to create art.” Why? “Only the unconscious can fit together the stuff...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 25, 2026 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, neighborhood, Uncategorized
“It’s a spring cleaning ritual – but for your body,” touts reporter Jennifer Sheehan, extolling the merits of eating dandelion. “It cleans your blood and you get a lot of good vitamins from it,” another endorsement I read in Sheehan’s article from Lehigh...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 11, 2026 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, meditation, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Purple Passage, Quotations, Uncategorized
Fiery hot July signaled tomato-picking time in the Longenecker family in the 1950s. Two generations of women in our family worked hard in the fields in torrid temperatures. When I look at a film clip that Aunt Ruthie took of Mom in the tomato rows, I see her body...
by MarianBeaman | Jan 28, 2026 | blog, book review, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, Mennonite Lore, Novel writing, Novel writing, Quotations, Uncategorized
One Way to Stay Sane The author of Cherry Cola Book Club remarks, “Going to the library to check out my novels has always been my great escape. I get to explore someone else’s mind for a while. It’s a very sane exercise.” 219 Of course, you can find great...
