Sometimes friends ask me what I do when I visit the Sugarcreek area. It differs from one visit to another, but this past weekend, I was invited by some Old Order Amish friends to bring my family and enjoy an evening of music in their barn.
Sometimes, while researching, I stumble upon the most interesting books.
We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan by Elizabeth M. Norman is an award-winning book about nurses, written by a nurse.
Here’s the story: After Bataan and Corregidor fell, the Amy/Navy nurses stationed in the Philippines were herded into internment camps. There, they endured three years of fear, brutality and starvation. They were young, single women, used to flirting and dancing, suddenly thrown into a horrifying situation.
Dad was a pretty decent musician–fiddle, banjo and guitar, so during the Depression when there was no work, he made a little money by putting a small band together. Mom said it was terribly hot that first year, and he and his band started practicing down inside an empty, underground cistern on the farm where it was cooler. She described sitting on the back porch with her little baby on her lap, listening to the music come up from the ground.
…we talked about how he was a great warrior named Red Chief, who had to find food to feed the hungry people of his tribe. We also talked about the fact that he was such a big boy now, he would get to go to Kindergarten tomorrow…
I have a subscription to a very unique newspaper.
The Budget, published in Sugarcreek, Ohio since the 1890’s, consists mainly of hundreds of letters sent in by “scribes” from various Amish and Mennonite church settlements from around the world…
When my sisters and I were growing up, my mom owned a Jersey cow that kept our family supplied in milk, cream, and butter. Part of Mom’s daily routine was making certain the cow was milked twice a day and everything connected with the milking had been washed and sterilized.
Last night, I returned from another visit with my New Order Amish friends in Northern Ohio. As usual, I left with gifts. There was a box of mint rootings for my garden, dug up by my good friend, 81 year-old Martha. I had been so impressed with the “Garden Tea” her daughter served us, Martha […]
My kids, grandkids, and sister will be coming tomorrow around noon. Thirteen of us. The entertainment this year will be taking turns snuggling little five-week-old Adeline Ruth. I’m also deeply thankful that my oldest granddaughter, Hannah, is here safe and sound. She is a voice student at Pepperdine University out in California. Her school was […]
I spent a large chunk of this past rainy Friday in a hospice room at the Veteran’s Hospital. Visiting with my cousin, Neil, and his sister Eva, reliving our childhood memories was time well spent. Neil and Eva are my first cousins, part of a family of six siblings. Their home was only a short […]
Years ago, while fishing on Ice Lake on Manitoulin Island in Canada, my family and I discovered the ruins of a huge, mysterious-looking stone house overlooking the lake. There wasn’t much left standing except a few portions of the old stone walls. Later, we met a man in Michigan who had grown up in […]
Picture a hungry writer sitting in an unheated attic, wearing a ragged head scarf and moth-eaten sweater over shabby clothes. She’s blowing on her fingers, warming them just enough to dip the pen into the ink well again. Then she scribbles a final sentence “the end” on a page of cheap paper, lays it reverently […]
I recently discovered this old photo of my dad and me and I treasure it. The date on the back says December 15, 1952. I was one month shy of turning two-years-old. That’s my mom on the couch beside us wearing her bobby socks and Keds. Dad is dressed in his work clothes, so he […]