by MarianBeaman | Mar 28, 2015 | Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Uncategorized
A centenarian! That’s what my Aunt Cecelia is today. Born March 28, 1915, Aunt Ceci is one-hundred years old. According to one source, only 7347 U. S. citizens are now 100 years old, and today my aunt has joined their ranks. Special things will happen to her...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 18, 2015 | Coming of Age, Education, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
Where did you study? Was your desk a dining room or kitchen table? The couch? A separate room? Did you listen to music as you studied? Or did you tune out the noise of the household when you crammed for a test or wrote a report? Louise DeSalvo author of The Art of...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 4, 2015 | Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized
I am sitting with my three friends, Gladys Graybill, Hazel Garber, and Millie Zimmerman near the pulpit in front of Bossler Mennonite Church to be baptized. At the prompting of our Bishop Clarence E. Lutz, we kneel, and as we kneel I hear the crinkle of the skirt of...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 28, 2015 | Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Quilt, Uncategorized
Bossler Mennonite Church was the hub of the Longenecker family’s spiritual life and the school beside it, Washington School, the place where the Women’s Sewing Circle fabricated comforters, baby clothing, blankets and quilts to help clothe the needy...
by MarianBeaman | Feb 7, 2015 | Education, Memory, Mennonite History, Uncategorized
My high school yearbook The Elizabethan sports such 3-syllable last names as Aschendorf, Biesecker, Espenshade, Hippensteel, Oxenrider, and Zimmerman. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania any roster of names would be heavily represented by families of German-Swiss...
by MarianBeaman | Nov 26, 2014 | book review, Family / Nostalgia, Gratitude, Lists, meditation, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
My secret joys (and struggles) show up in my gratitude books. You can see some of them here. But my list this week has sprung from my 9-day trip to Pennsylvania to visit family and take care of Mother’s house in mid-November 2014. In her devotional book One Thousand...
