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Janet & Marian: A Tale of Two Houses

by MarianBeaman | Sep 7, 2016 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, Memory, neighborhood, Quotations, Travel, Ukraine, Uncategorized

My writer friend Janet Givens and I have both said Goodbye to houses this summer. She, to a vacation house on a canal in Chincoteague Island, Virginia, and me to our family homestead 12 miles from the beach in Jacksonville, Florida, geographically about 750 miles...

Climbing the Swiss Alps: 7 Steps Toward a Narrative Arc

by MarianBeaman | Mar 30, 2016 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Tips, Travel, Uncategorized

Events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order . . . the continuous thread of revelation. —Eudora Welty, One Writer’s Beginnings Writers find real life images to compare what happens as they mold life...

A Snow Bunny and a German Lullaby

by MarianBeaman | Dec 30, 2015 | blog, Christmas, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Travel, Uncategorized

On Christmas Day 2015 in Jacksonville, Florida, the temperature stood at 85, at least twenty degrees above the normal daytime thermometer reading for this time of year. Over most of the USA, Christmas day was warmer than usual, the forecasters predicting a near...

Souper Meals with Sabah and Mom

by MarianBeaman | Dec 23, 2015 | blog, Education, Family / Nostalgia, Gratitude, Nostalgia, Recipes, Travel, Uncategorized

“I have always relied on the kindness of strangers,” admits Blanche DuBois, an aging belle in Tennessee Williams’ classic play A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche has had the props knocked from under her and has nowhere to turn except to her sister Stella, also living...

Signs & a Wonder in St. Marys, Georgia

by MarianBeaman | Nov 18, 2015 | blog, Memory, Travel, Uncategorized

It’s true! St. Marys, Georgia is idyllic. Only a 40-minute drive north of Jacksonville, Florida . . .   . . . historic St. Marys has a storybook setting on the St. Marys River – white picket fences, charming Victorian inns, and majestic magnolia trees and live...

Help! Vintage Photo Needs Caption

by MarianBeaman | Nov 14, 2015 | blog, Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Travel, Uncategorized

Every week, The New Yorker magazine features a Cartoon Caption Contest, inviting readers to submit a caption for consideration. After three finalists are chosen, readers vote for the winning caption. Recently, in my cache of Kodak carousels I found a slide from the...
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