Thunder and Lightning

I've been practicing writing - truly practicing - since the Covid 19 Pandemic. In that time, I've filled many notebooks with writing - most of it from writing prompts - simple idea starters - and some of those sessions have yielded essays I've put out in this blog.

I've been feeling lately like it's time to move to the next step - as one of my writing gurus Natalie Goldberg writes ..."turning our flashes of inspiration – the thunder and lightning of creation – into a polished piece of work."

And that's where this book comes in - Goldberg's Thunder and Lightning. It literally fell off my bookshelf when I was cleaning up my office last week, Tucked between its pages was a yellow sheet of paper torn from a notebook. I recognized my mother's familiar scrawl. She wrote:

Essay by Robert Pope: "Beginnings may be entrances to a time and place, a culture and a faith, a moment, and eternity. The struggle to find first words creates great anticipation, if not great anxiety, in the writer searching for the voice in which to speak, for each writer hopes to reach the voice inside which is immortal."

I think she's trying to tell me something! 

... and our flag was still there

I have a stack of books  - essays, poetry and the like – to read while I enjoy a soak in my hot tub. Yes, that hot tub is a great luxury, I admit.

I sometimes need  - no I often need some inspiration - especially in these times when I feel discouraged and frightened by the course being set by the individuals steering the ship of government.  From the local where folks are ready to get out the tar and feathers because a school board member shared a meme on facebook, to our state representatives voting against funding that benefits their constituents and then turning around and taking credit as they hand out the checks. Then there's the Congress and the President, none of it good. 

So with the steam rising from the bubbling water surrounding me, today's morning read was from Small Wonder* a book of essays written by Barbara Kingsolver. The book was born after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Tthink of it - 24 years ago. 

Under the heading of "And Our Flag Was Still There," I read these words:

" . . The great attraction to patriotism is, as Aldous Huxley wrote, that 'it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation, we are able, vicariously to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.'"

She wrote later in the essay:

"... Only we the people have the power to demolish our own ideals. It is a fact of our culture that the loudest mouths get the most airplay, and the loudmouths are saying that in times of crisis it's treasonous to question our leaders. Nonsense. That kind of thinking allowed the seeds of a dangerous racism to grow into fascism during the international economic crisis of the 1930s. It is precisely in critical times that are leaders need most to be influenced by the moderating force of dissent. That is the basis of democracy, especially when national choices are difficult and carry grave consequences. The flag was never meant to be a stand-in for information and good judgment."

"... We're a much nobler country than our narrowest minds and loudest mouths suggest. I believe it is my patriotic  duty to recapture my flag from the men who wave it in the name of jingoism and censorship... I've been further alienated from my flag by people who waved it at me, declaring I should love it or leave it. I always wonder. What makes them think that's their flag and not mine? Why are they the good Americans, and not me?"

"... Americans who read and think are patriots of the first order – the kind who know enough to roll their eyes whenever anyone tries to claim sole custody of the flag and wield it as a blunt instrument. There are as many ways to love America as there are Americans and our country needs us all. The rights and liberties described in our Constitution are guaranteed not just to those citizens who have the most money and power, but also to those who have the least, and yet it has taken hard struggle through every year of our history to hold our nation to that promise..."

If you'd like to borrow my book to read the essay (and the others) in its entirety, let me know and I apologize in advance that it's a bit waterlogged!

*Small Wonder, a book of essays by Barbara Kingsolver, copyright 2002 by Barbara Kingsolver.

Rotary's Halloween Parade

When the fire siren blows and the high school band heads up Main Street tonight, how many know the Coudersport Rotary Club's annual Halloween Parade reaches back nearly 100 years?

from 2024

A piece written in 1969 by my grandfather, W.D. "Golly" Fish in The Potter Enterprise tells the story of Rotary's efforts ... and was confirmation of a story my mother told me of the night she was born 

Here are his words:

Hallowe'en pranks! Golly remembers Halloween of 1923 especially. That was the time our daughter Barbara, now Mrs. Joe Heimel, was born at the hospital on South East Street.

Retiring home to North Main Street was really like running an obstacle course. Everything that was loose was piled in the street. Doorsteps galore were in the jumbles along with pieces of porch furniture, bundles of shingles, rolls of barb wire and everything that was loose. What a mess greeted Sunday morning a few hours later. We believe it was that year Ed Stevens, small grocer, lost his wheeled popcorn or peanut cart from the front of his store. It fell off the East Second Street bridge. It never came back.

Then there was a change. Coudersport Rotary Club was established. The club took the matter in hand, organized a costumed parade for the youngsters, gave them a treat and sent them home. There was no hell-raising. All the years Rotary has performed this duty there has been no destruction.

The thanks of the whole town go to Rotary!

The October newspapers from 1924-1927 offer some insight on efforts  of local folks to stop the mayhem of All Hallows' Eve.

from 1925

from 1926

The first reference to an organized parade came in 1928 as far as I can tell from reading this in The Potter Enterprise on November 1.

 Below the headlines the following appeared in 14 pt. type.

Approximately Four Hundred Take Part In Holiday Festivities – Prizes Awarded for Best Costumes – Dr. R.H. Jones, Dr. C.H. Dudley and Mrs. Eugenia G. Benn Are Judges – Rotary Club Entitled to Credit – Next Year's Parade To Be Bigger With More Prizes – No Lawless Acts Reported.

The story goes on to tell us:

Hallowe'en was celebrated in Coudersport last evening in an orderly and fitting manner and some 400 children enjoyed taking part in the festivities, while probably a larger number of spectators stood on the sidelines and cheered the paraders. There was a great variety of costumes in the line of march – good bad and indifferent – and much originality shown.

... Kenneth Covey was first winner among the boys although his costume was that of a girl. He had to insist to the judges that he was a boy to get the five dollars.

... After the parade those taking part were treated to ice cream cones and crackerjack on the courthouse square. There has been no lawlessness reported, which proves the idea of an orderly parade is the correct one and already certain of the townspeople are planning for a bigger and better celebration next year.

The following year, Rotarians built on the foundation urging "Let's have a good time!"

I'll be standing on the sidelines this afternoon 'cheering the paraders' including the present-day Rotarians shepherding the costumed merry-makers. 

UPDATE:

Performing my annual fall move-the-furniture around ritual, this picture fell out of a photo album. Daughter Kate (the senorita) and Melanie Butler pulling their donkey (and very good sport) Denise Heimel in a long ago Rotary Halloween Parade. And in the background, good friends Arnie and Billie Haskins.