Past Blogs

I walked into one of my favorite public school classrooms last week, and half the floor space was off limits. Since there are 42 children in this class, losing 50% of the floor is a big deal. But as soon as I saw why the floor had been repurposed, I was elated. The floor had become a giant map of the students’ town.

I am a firm believer that everyone should know where they live. This is not a ludicrous statement. These days, many children who are bused or driven to school are unable to find their way home via their own feet…..and this applies to some middle school and high school students as well.

Two amazing teachers masterminded this social studies project on community for their students ages six, seven and eight. They used Google Earth to map the streets and print photos of all the commercial and public buildings. Using the photos as reference, the students made 3D models. There is an ongoing emphasis on observational skills in this classroom, and it has paid off. The details and accuracy of these mini buildings is phenomenal. Then each child made an equally realistic model of his or her house.

I made a return trip to the school to see the completed project. Welcome to Shorewood, Wisconsin, a one square mile Village between the shores of Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River.

Bravo to these creative teachers who have given their class a true understanding and love of their home town. Who knows, maybe someday one of these kids will be a city planner.

My husband’s second home is Fleet Farm. Despite trying to cut back on his visits to this big farm supply and general store, he still does Fleet Farm runs several times a week. This is a natural occurrence when you have a herd of cats, an animal café in your yard and a house. Animals always need food and houses always need repairs.

He often makes the trip alone, but I sometimes tag along. I like the farm store. I am never tempted to buy anything that is not on our list. Everything in the store is either utilitarian or ugly.

When we go through the checkout, our two carts are heaped with huge sacks of bird seeds, cracked corn, cat food, kitty litter, dog food, salt and assorted hardware. The clerk looks at our carts and asks, “Is this for farm or home use?” We could save a fortune in taxes by saying “farm”, but we always smile and say “home”.

I came home from work recently and my husband said, “I had a funny trip to Fleet Farm today. I was in the checkout lane four times in ten minutes.”

“How could you possibly do that?” was my reply. His answer was a bit hard to follow, but here goes.

The first time he went to check out he THOUGHT  he heard the cashier tell the customer in front of him that there was $10 off on purchases of $75 or more. He proceeds to back out of the lane, park his cart, get a second cart, get more animal food and return to the checkout lane with his two carts and $75 dollars worth of purchases. But this time he hears the cashier say to the customer in front of him that everyone who purchases anything in the store today gets a $10 dollar off coupon for the NEXT purchase of $75. My husband now has two carts with $75 dollars worth of stuff and NO COUPON.

He backs his two carts out of the lane and parks them. He gets a third cart, hefts in one bag of bird seed, gets back in line, pays for the seed, gets his coupon and takes the one bag of seeds to the car. He returns, retrieves his remaining two carts, gets back in line and redeems his coupon……..plus, the cashier hands him another $10 off coupon on his next $75 purchase.

It’s a good day when your farm store gives you an incredibly better return on your money than your bank does.

Perhaps my love of Art Deco is hereditary. For their wedding venue, my parents chose an Art Deco masterpiece, The Ambassador Hotel, in the heart of Milwaukee. The year was 1933 and the elegant hotel was five years old.

The Art Deco style was born in Europe, primarily Paris, around 1900. Its design predecessor, Art Nouveau, consisted of nature inspired designs; tendrils, curves and arabesques. Art Deco, named from the Exposition Internationale Des Arts Decoratifs in Paris in 1925, was based on speed, luxury, new materials and geometry…..circles, squares and zig zags. It was thoroughly modern.

I recently had the opportunity to visit America’s Mecca of Art Deco, Miami Beach, Florida. South Beach is the largest National Register District in America having over 800 registered Art Deco sites. Although the area had fallen on extremely hard times by the 1980’s, it was brought back to its full glory by two amazing preservationists, Barbara Baer Capitman and Leonard L. Horowitz.

A long stroll up Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue is like being transported to a land of architectural confections. Pastel shades of mint green, lavender, pale orange, yellow, baby blue and pink make the geometric hotels resemble giant cakes with tasteful floral decorations. Every aspect of these buildings is a visual treat including the elegant Art Deco typefaces that proclaim their names.

A taste of America’s Riviera in pictures…

Click here for a lovely and poignant story about the man behind the colors. The color palette he chose is sublime.

And below is a movie of the pictures…

Today marks the start of  the eleventh year of The Suitcase Lady Blog. It began as my personal antidote to the Iraq War frenzy. All my favorite people and I were consumed with grief over that foolhardy venture. I turned to writing about positive things as a brief weekly escape into happier worlds.

Now, eleven years later, our country is in a far more dangerous place than those horrific war years. Many of us are struggling to find effective ways to resist the injustices and Constitutional carnage being spewed out daily by our new leaders. And we are also struggling to keep our personal lives balanced in this surreal environment.

I intend to keep writing about some of the things that bring joy to our lives: nature, art, travel, books, friends, food and humor. I do believe all is lost if there are no moments of laughter.

In that spirit, I wish to share four short passages from the book I just finished, Clownfish Blues by Tim Dorsey. I laughed through the entire 334 pages, a most welcome respite from the present American disaster.

In the first passage, Serge A. Storms, Tim Dorsey’s Florida history-loving character, has taken a temporary job as a grocery clerk and has been assigned to sell Florida Lottery tickets.

• Another customer stepped up to the counter. “Six quick picks, please.”
  “Jesus, don’t buy lottery tickets,” said Serge. “The store won’t tell you this because they’re in on it, but the whole thing is a fool’s bet. It’s a tax on people who are bad at arithmetic.
  “What the hell is going on here? Just give me the tickets!”
  “Buy food instead,” said Serge. “That’s a sure thing”.
  “I am buying food.” The man set an item on the counter.
  “I’m buying chips”.
  “But you’re buying the twelve-pack of small individual bags! It’s the worst possible cost-per-ounce scenario! Work the numbers, man!

 

• Traffic stacked up on a lazy, hot stretch of Old Dixie Highway running south from Miami to Homestead. A carpet-remnant outlet just held its eighth going-out-of-business sale, but the turnout was so anemic that they had to go out of business.

 

• The number one rule in life is when people point out that you lied, just flatly deny it. Of course The Daily Show will run clips of you saying it, but nobody’s paying attention. Don’t you follow elections in this country?

 

• These new babies are now called smartphones. I don’t know how I managed to get along without one! Tap, tap, tap. “I’ve never possessed a cooler gadget in my life, and I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of its potential. But from what I’ve seen so far, these phones are the pinnacle of human achievement. Forget nuclear fission and stem-cell research. Every culture on every continent now has instant, around-the-clock, multiple media platforms to share with the rest of the globe that cats like to sit in boxes.

I love old fashioned movies where the romantic couple finds one another and lives happily ever after…….with each other.

Unfortunately, most modern romantic films don’t work that way any more. Two people do find each other, they do fall in love and they do find happiness in being together. But in the end they go their separate ways because each needs to become a super celebrity or another Steve Jobs. End of movie. Stardom wins. It’s all about the “me”.

The fatal flaw, the big lie in this type of movie is obvious: only one in a jillion of us is going to be a superstar. Most everyone is an average, ordinary person muddling through life. If we hitch our wagons to a celebrity star, we most likely will end up in an emotional black hole.

I am not against ambition, determination and achievement. But finding time for each other, those who make our lives rich and happy, those who love us, is equally important.

Since I’m a hopeless romantic and it is Valentines Day, I will end with this statement from President Jimmy Carter. “The best thing I ever did was marrying Rosalynn.”

After 70 years of marriage, this couple proves it’s possible to be partners and succeed in both love and work. And it is also worth noting that they both have retained a terrific sense of humor.