If Only I Was Special!

By: Joanne Carol Boling Dickinson and Grandson, Robert Joseph Dickinson IIIJune 12, 2021 Below is a short story that I wrote as a writing assignment when I was 13 years old and attending Junior High School. With help from my eldest grandson, Joe, we recently added a few descriptive adjectives and adverbs and updated the …

Lives, Duties, Levels of Commitment

The beloved Canadian, Alex Trebek, game show host of Jeopardy for 36 years and over 8,200 episodes, succumb to pancreatic cancer on November 8, 2020, following his very transparent and valiant effort to stay with us a while longer. I like to think of him as "The Old Guard," who honored, protected, and preserved the integrity of …

Meet Amanda Gorman, The Youngest Inaugural Poet In U.S. History

“The Hill We Climb”By: Amanda Gorman, National Youth Poet Laureate (Age 22)Inauguration Poem, January 20, 2021 "We've braved the belly of the beast, we've learned that quiet isn't always peace. And the norms and notions of what just is isn't always justice. And yet the dawn is ours before we “knew it, somehow we do …

Simeon Ford and Daughter, Lauren

A Portfolio of Paintings by Lauren Ford 0 comments Posted by Kristine at 8/22/2010 07:37:00 PM Madonna and Child From the cover of Life magazine, December 25, 1944 - this was the only color cover of Life during World War II. Adoration Lauren Ford transplants the scene of the Nativity to a barn in Connecticut much …

in the Footsteps of Hawthorne, Melville, and Thoreau

This story is dedicated to the wife of our eldest grandson Joe, Corrie Priola Dickinson, a history lover, hiker, and nature enthusiast. Corrie, originally from Chicago, is an avid hiker and has hiked through the hills and woods or skied the same mountain paths as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Henry Thoreau. The three writers …

MEDIA WATCH: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SELLS TO FOX; OWNER RUPERT MURDOCH IS CLIMATE CHANGE DENIER

FYI: As a follow-up to yesterday's blog:  Extra, Extra, Read All About It! Another 127-year-old renowned printed medium placed in the hands of a media mogul. Should we be delighted or concerned? By Miriam Raftery, September 12, 2015 (Washington D.C.) – First published in 1888, the National Geographic magazine has long been one of the …

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

My Short Time in the Newspaper Business My second job out of high school was working in the classified advertising department of the Washington Star Newspaper (1852-1981).  Until its demise in 1981, The Star was universally regarded as the “paper of record” for the nation’s capital. Published under such titles as Washington Star-News and The …

William Langson Lathrop–“The Pennsylvania Impressionist”

Father of New Hope, Pennsylvania Art Colony My sixth maternal cousin (2x removed), "The Pennsylvania Impressionist"  William Langson Lathrop (1859–1938) was born in Warren, Illinois, and raised at his family's farm in Painesville, Ohio, by his parents Byron P. Lathrop, a physician, and Isabella A. Langson Lathrop, who was of Irish descent and a lover of the arts. …

Family Connections and Christmas Letters

Family Connections and Christmas Letters Yesterday, I received a surprise Christmas letter from John and Deidra Doan who had just returned home from his 28th season of Holiday concerts and second year of calling it “Christmas Unplugged – Reclaiming the Holiday Spirit.”John's timing was uncanny and I feel as though we are both ancestrally and spiritually connected, though …

How’s Your Pre-Christmas Spirit?

Have You Been Scrooged or Is Family Your Focus? How's your pre-Christmas spirit going this year?  Have you just about had it with all the hustle and bustle that leads up to the big day?  Has your focus been on the reason for the season or has societal pressure and extreme commercialism pulled you in? …

Blessed Assurance

"Blessed Assurance" is a well-known Christian hymn. Fanny J. Crosby, famed blind hymn writer wrote the lyrics in 1873 to the music written by Phoebe Palmer Knapp, (both were members of the St. John's Methodist Church in New York City). It may have been blind Miss Crosby’s example that encouraged Phoebe Palmer Knapp (1839-1908) to write …

Help Save Portrait of Bolling Family Founder

Portrait of Robert Bolling (1646-1709), Oil on Canvas Photo Courtesy of Muscarelle Museum of Art - Williamsburg, VA This portrait depicts Colonel Robert Bolling, founder of the Bolling family, one of the "First Families of Virginia", where he became a wealthy landowner and an active participant in the political affairs of the colony. He arrived …

The Robin Williams – A Fellow Baby Boomer

Like so many others my emotions flew from disbelief to sadness, to a true sense of personal loss--almost as though he were a greatly loved family member.  We were fellow baby boomers who experienced some of the most incredible and incredulous moments in life on this planet.  No disrespect intended, Robin had been a part of …

Coincidence, Perfect Timing, or Premonition?

Coincidence, Perfect Timing, or Premonition I was pleasantly surprised today when visiting the Internet to see a 1970 TV clipping--in full color--through my computer screen of a portion of a Bob Hope TV Special celebrating the 4th of July.  (Note that my computer screen is bigger than our first few black and white TV's--which by …

The History and Demise of Cursive Writing

Cursive, the Secret Language of Adults  Cursive Handwriting - A Centuries-Old Art1   "For centuries, cursive handwriting has been an art. To a growing number of young people, it is a mystery. The sinuous letters of the cursive alphabet, swirled on countless love letters, credit card slips and banners above elementary school chalk boards are going …

Oldest-Known Holocaust Survivor Dies; Pianist Was 110

This blog would be incomplete if I failed to include references to the good, the bad, and the uglies of this world. So when I came upon this story of Alice Herz-Sommer, I realized it had all of those features and many more. Alice's spirit, in only moments, touched my heart. I believe she survived …

More Perspectives Into Our Southern Ancestry

Since its founding in 1845, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has been helping its members to research, record, and tell their own unique family stories. The following story was published in the American Ancestor Magazine in April 1986 and lends yet another perspective into my southern ancestry.  I have added some sketches, pictures, maps, …

Mother of the Modern Hospice Movement: Rose Hawthorne Lathrop/Mother Mary Alphonsa

Here's yet another story of our Lathrop family lineage that adds to our long and growing list of notables... It further exhibits their societal/cultural status as well as their talents and gifts for writing, painting, illustrating, and their lifelong philanthropic dedication and commitment. Rose Hawthorne Founder of the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer (1851-1926) …

Chance Encounters and Instant Connections

As Bob made a very long and wide turn from the drive with our Ford F-150 truck to park it in a handicapped space another car came from the opposite side of the drive and pulled straight into the space next to us. We were both laughing about our similar aches and limps as we …

As Busy As A Spider Spinning Day Dreams…

... a key lyric in one of the popular songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein's score for the 1945 movie State Fair. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ijcvw5IfdY Add to this fact that schools nationwide just started back for the year, kids sports and music lessons and events get underway, new and returning TV shows start premiering, and the lovely Fall …