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All Creatures Great and Small: The Power of Pets

by MarianBeaman | Apr 27, 2016 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Education, Family / Nostalgia, Memory, Nostalgia, Uncategorized

I missed National Pet Day on April 11 by a few weeks. But if you own a dog like Scotty or a kitty cat named Sophie, every day of the year is pet day. In 4th grade, I drew a cat and colored it charcoal gray. It appears I was as interested in making the wallpaper pretty...

Sastruga, Snowy Winter Blankets

by MarianBeaman | Jan 20, 2016 | blog, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Reflection

A long, wavelike ridge of snow . . . formed by the wind: Sastruga, a word of Russian origin. A snowdrift is a beautiful thing if it doesn’t lie across the path you’ll have to shovel or block the road that leads to your destination. Prehistoric Humps James...

Friends from Faraway and Long Ago: Kitsa and Lydia

by MarianBeaman | Dec 9, 2015 | Award, blog, Conflict, Education, Mennonite History, Nostalgia, Uncategorized

Kitsa and Lydia were among the very few women in my graduating class at Eastern Mennonite College who did not wear a prayer veiling atop their heads. Why? Because they were not Mennonite. Lydia Mattar from Jerusalem, Jordan and Kitsa Adamidou from Salonika, Greece...

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...

Quiet Lives Matter: My Brother Mark

by MarianBeaman | Nov 11, 2015 | blog, Cliff Beaman artist, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized

My brother Mark was my first baby. He was born when I was 12, and I soon became a mother to him. I even have a picture to prove it, a blurry movie still from one of Aunt Ruthie’s 16 millimeter camera shoots. I most certainly bottle fed him and changed his...
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