Reader Response to Thanksgiving: The True Story

Patty Murphy, a graduate student in education, wrote: Penny Colman's book made me smile when she described the various ways we Americans celebrate Thanksgiving from watching or playing football games to adding our own ethnic foods to the usual Thanksgiving feast. . . . I loved her chapter "Turkey and Lasagna." This is exactly what we do in my family, as I am Italian. We dress the table with a lovely table cloth, fine china and silverware, and crystal water and wine goblets. We have a floral centerpiece and the best salt and pepper shakers. I never set up a children's table. The children have the same place settings as the adults and participate fully in this family feast. (They have never broken anything, not like some of the adults.) We start off the meal with salad and lasagna. Then we bring out the turkey, ham, potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach stuffing (it's delicious), green bean casserole, and don't forget the cranberry sauce. We pray and have a toast. We talk about what we are thankful for. Later we bring out the coffee, tea, homemade Bavarian shortbread, and an assortment of pies, such as pumpkin, apple, blueberry, and coconut. Sometimes we have chocolate and vanilla pudding with real whipped cream and Jell-O. We talk, play piano and enjoy our loved ones' company. We laugh a lot. The day is magical. Penny Colman's book made me remember all of the things I love about Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving: The True Story Readers' Responses

A group of graduate students in education at Queens College, the City University of New York, read a galley of Thanksgiving: The True Story. If so motivated, I asked them to write their response to the book and classroom connections. With their permission, I will continue to post their responses/ideas on my blog: Here are the first two:

Trina Gasper-Miller wrote 7 pages of chapter-by-chapter ideas and a response! First here is an excerpt from her response (I'll start posting her classroom connections in my next blog entry.)
The book allows readers to reflect on the different claims as well as the different activities surrounding the holiday. It gives readers the opportunity to understand the changes in America. . . .The book, written as a narrative, allows readers to reflect on their cultural celebrations as well as the American holiday of Thanksgiving. . . . The book is hard to put down once you start reading it. I would recommend this book for teachers to read anytime of year and for older students to read on their own.

Michele Nicholas wrote: Thank you for writing a book which enables the reader to truly look beyond the 1621 Pilgrim and Indian version of Thanksgiving. From Sarah Hale's relentless pursuit of an official day of Thanksgiving, the Native Americans' National Day of Mourning, pageants (with and without Indians), as well as Lydia Maria Child's classic poem, my favorite holiday has and always will be Thanksgiving! I look forward to the release of Thanksgiving: The True Story.

Thanksgiving: The True Story

Recently I received a box with 20 copies of galley proofs of Thanksgiving: The True Story with this printed on the cover: "UNCORRECTED PROOF
NOT FOR SALE." So what is a galley proof? It is an almost-but-not-final version of a book that is bound with a soft cover. It does not include the final corrections or all of the material, e.g. this galley proof is missing the map that shows the 12 competing claims for the "first" Thanksgiving and the index, etc. It also has a revised jacket image clipped to the jacket image on the galley proof. (The revised image resulted from concerns I raised about the original image). In addition it is printed on inferior paper stock so the pictures aren't crisp and clear.

Many publishers, including mine, send galley proofs to reviewers, bookstores, media outlets between three and six months before a book is officially released--that date, known as the publication "pub" date--is September 16, 2008, for Thanksgiving: The True Story. The point is to create "buzz," or excitement about a book.

I distributed my copies to teachers, librarians, and academics because I am eager to get their responses and ideas. I'll be posting their comments. First, here is what Myra Zarnowski, a professor of education and my colleague at Queens College, the City University of New York and author of Making Sense of History emailed me: "I finished Thanksgiving last night. It reads so smoothly! I just kept moving along until I finished. BUT the most important thing about the book is how you speak to the reader about your own thinking. I don't know of any author who reveals to children the process of raising and answering questions, searching for answers, who gives the reasons for thinking one way rather than another, who integrates comments of so many contemporaries, and who makes puzzling about the past both fun and important. The whole book is about historical interpretation.

Parts I and Parts II work well together. The first part will introduce children to thinking about the "truth" of competing stories. It can easily be extended in the classroom. The second part will likely get children thinking about Thanksgiving as they experience it. Again, easily extended in the classroom.

So Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! As a teacher, I see this book as being about Thanksgiving, but also about historical thinking. This is a great contribution."

Note: Myra is one of the many people who answered my Thanksgiving survey whom I quoted. She's in chapter 7, Food: Turkey and Lasagna--"Myra Zarnowski remembered the first time she spent Thanksgiving with her Polish American husband's family. 'After we ate the turkey and stuffing and all the side dishes, I thought we were through. But we were just getting started because then they started bringing out all the Polish dishes--kielbasa, pierogi, etc.'" (pp. 113-114)

Speaking at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center and Picatinny Arsenal

March is fun & interesting because I'm invited to speak to a variety of audiences who are celebrating National Women's History Month. The first image is the cover of the program for a terrific event at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. Before I spoke, five staff members gave presentations that were fabulous! What a treat to see them in action. Fern Billet showed glass beads she had made, Eileen Cox discussed her mosaic art, Marge Franklin sang her original composition, LaTonya Gibson read her poem, Pamela Jackson-Malik discussed her art work, and Martha Trudeau read a poem AND gave a karate demonstration. The next two pictures are from the women's history event at the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. A slide from my PowerPoint presentation is on the screen in the first picture. In the second picture, Sergeant Major Graves is presenting me with his military coin. Brigadier General Phillip also presented me with his military coin. It is an honor given for excellence that I greatly appreciate. In the last picture, I'm autographing books for Marilyn Phillips.

Adventurous Women and Borders Bookstore

Linda Crooks, the sales manger of Borders in Stroudsburg, PA, and Tina Zaragoza, business & educational sales account rep, greeted me as I walked into the store: "You must be our author," said Linda.
"Yes, " I replied. "How did you know?"
"You have that author-ly walk," she said. (Tina spelled "author-ly" for me.)
"And what does that look like?"
"You're comfortable walking into a bookstore, but you're not sure about where we've set you up to sign books."
And she was correct because sometimes authors are relegated to a far away corner. But not here--Linda had a table and terrific display of Adventurous Women right by the front door. For two hours, I had fun talking to people as they streamed into this great bookstore. There was the boy who asked his mother to buy Adventurous Women for me to autograph to his step-Nanny as a gift for Mothers' Day, a father who bought a copy for his teenage daughters Rachel and Alia because he wants them to "achieve their full potential," and the twin girls who zipped over to the display and grabbed a copy that their dad bought for them. He said he was glad that they wanted to read a book because he hadn't read one in three months. Jeanmarie was particularly interested in one of the women in my book--Alice Hamilton, a scientist who undertook hazardous adventures and established the field of industrial toxicology. Carol bought a copy to donate along with a quilt for a raffle at a breast cancer event in the Fall. We collaborated to come up with just the right dedication: "To all courageous women who are traveling down their own adventurous road."

Gardening and Narrative Arc

Sophie and I spent a full day gardening. Here she is digging a hole in which to plant the French pink pussy willow tree that was loaded with plumb catkins (in the foreground). As always, my various writing projects were subminally at work in my mind. Also consciously gardening reminds me of writing--designing, digging, planting, tending, anticipating, and the arc of the seasons. The narrative arc for Stirring Up the World: Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, A Biography of a Powerful Friendship is divided into Part I and II: intimacy, adversity, friction, renewal, distance, heartbreak. Part III is: the story continues. That narrative arc could sort of describe gardening too, couldn't it.

Sophie/Grammie Day--Art and Butterflies, etc.

Yesterday we started our Sophie/Grammie day with a long subway ride to Lafayette Street and the Children's Museum of Art, a great space with activity stations where children can do everything from drawing a self-portrait, making a boat, playing with flubber, bouncing on big multi-colored rubber balls, etc. On our way back uptown, we stopped at New York University to visit our friend Sue Kirch, who is a science educator at New York University (Sophie's Daddy's alma mater). Sue took us to her classroom to see butterflies and plants with eggs and caterpillars. In the picture Sue and Sophie are looking through a magnifying glass to scrutinize a piece of leaf that broke off from one of the plants in the foreground that has caterpillar eggs and newborn caterpillars. Behind Sophie, is a stand covered with netting with trays of plants and butterflies. On our way back to the subway, Sophie spotted a baby robin under a bush!
Sue's classroom is in the building at the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street, the site of the memorial to the 146 victims, mostly young women, who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, March 25, 1911. For many years, ceremonies commemorating that horrific event have been held around that date. In the picture, Sophie and I are reading the banner marking this year--the 97th year since the tragedy. Each stem of the white carnations has a label with a person's name. I learned about the Triangle fire during my research for my biography of Frances Perkins who witnessed the fire. The scene, she later explained "struck at the pit of my stomach. I felt I must sear it not only on my mind but on my heart as a never-to-be-forgotten reminder of why I had to spend my life fighting conditions that could permit such a tragedy." As secretary of labor, throughout the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Perkins did just that as the architect of far-reaching reforms and social legislation--safer working conditions, reasonable working hours, unemployment insurance, and, the establishment of Social Security.

We ended our day in Englewood coloring Easter eggs, playing a game, and eating pasta. Then it was back across the George Washington Bridge--home for Sophie & a trip to Teachers College for Linda to pick-up and drop off work. It was a fun, fascinating on-the-go day!

Dot from Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II

Teachers who are taking one of the courses I teach at Queens College, read Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II and were delighted to learn that Dot Chastney whose memories I use throughout Rosie appears (under her married name Dot Emer) in my forthcoming book Thanksgiving: The True Story. "After reading Rosie, I feel that I know Dot," enthused Patricia, a kindergarten teacher. "Please say 'hello' to her from me."
When I said that Dot had recently emailed a picture, they asked me to post it (a picture of Dot in third grade is in Rosie, p. 1.) With Dot's permission, here is a picture of her with the Lama Tenzin along with excerpts from her email. But first a brief update: Having retired as the children's librarian in Englewood, NJ, Dot and her husband Ralph (who also appears in Thanksgiving: The True Story) moved to Boca Raton, Florida where Dot is a middle school librarian at Saint Andrew's.

"We're having an interesting week at school," she wrote. "The Friends of the Arts have brought a Buddhist monk, Lama Tenzin, on campus to create a mandala. Have you ever seen one? It's a beautiful design all made of colored sand . . . . He's working on the mandala in the foyer to the dining hall and so all the kids get to watch him as they go back and forth to meals . . . . On Thursday after lunch they will sweep all the sand into jars and carry them to the pond for a ceremony, returning sand to the earth and spreading it throughout the world . . . . The Lama has a very good sense of humor and seems to enjoy talking to everyone."

p.s. Update from Dot in response to a request from my students that she send them a message: "I'll think about something relevant to write to your students. Right now we're on spring break until April 1. I brought home a stack of books to read from my new book shipment of about 400 books! Perhaps I could make some comment about doing that and my reactions to what I'm reading, AND my frustrations with some of the books. I can also make a few comments about non-fiction books I buy."

Rosie the Riveter

Rose M. Keene, a riveter and welder who helped build the Battleship New Jersey during World War II, came to my talk on "Rosie the Riveter" at the Camden Historical Society, Camden, NJ on Sunday, March 9. She recalled everything--the molding she welded around the officers' bunk, where she riveted, what she wore, and her boss Orville "Pop Robbie" Robinson. "He was constantly bugging me," she said. "So I took him home, introduced him to my mother, and he married her!"


In the top picture, I am giving Rose a close-up look at my PowerPoint. She was fascinated with the primary source documents--advertisements, photos, etc. We were a tag team as we talked about each image--me from my research, her from her first-hand experience. Along with an image of the sheet music for the "Rosie the Riveter" song, I had inserted the sound. When I click on the icon (all new technology for Rose), she immediately started singing along and dancing in her chair! Rose's granddaughter Debbie is standing behind her. Sovonne Ukam is standing behind me. Bottom picture: She also loved seeing all the pictures in my book, Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II. I, of course, gave her a specially autographed copy of my book. In the spring, Rose is taking her 8-year grandson Damian on a tour of the "New Jersey." She wants him to "know what I did to help win the war!" I am planning to go with them. These unexpected encounters are one of the perks about being a writer.


A modern picture of The Battleship New Jersey, now a museum located on the Camden side of the Delaware River (Philadelphia skyline is the in the background).

1st picture: Sophie watching me sign Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made A Difference at Borders Bookstore, Ft. Lee, NJ, after my talk on 3/8/08. 2nd picture: Charlotte Bennett Schoen is a long time friend and a super smart and effective councilwoman in Englewood, NJ. 3rd picture: Doris Baran Hirsch, another long time friend and effective activist and tireless advocate for women's rights. Thank you to everyone who came out on a rainy, windy day and to the staff at Borders--Mercedes Ramirez, district marketing manager and Alexia Loughlin, manager-sales.

Happy International Women's Day and Borders Bookstore

March 8th is International Women's Day, a day of world-wide events, including a two-day workshop in Saudi Arabi on women's economic rights, an anti-domestic violence event in Albania, a discussion about women's world-wide friendships and children's rights in Iceland, and a musical festival in Kenya. IWD dates back to 1908 and a march by thousands of women workers. The day was named in 1909 and widely celebrated by 1911, the year of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City that killed 146 girls and women. In the 1970s, the UN held a global IWD. I'll be marking it by speaking at Borders Bookstore in Ft. Lee, NJ, on Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made A Difference. My appearance coincides with a Sophie-sleep-over so she'll be there too; very cool because I dedicated that book to her!

National Women's History Month

A press release from the National Women's History Project. Check out their terrific website at www.nwhp.org

March 2008 National Women's History Month
Women's Art: Women's Vision
Each year, March is designated as National Women's History Month to ensure that the history of American women will be recognized and celebrated in schools, workplaces, and communities throughout the country. The stories of women's historic achievements present an expanded view of the complexity and contradiction of living a full and purposeful life.

The knowledge of women's history provides a more expansive vision of what a woman can do. This perspective can encourage girls and women to think larger and bolder and can give boys and men a fuller understanding of the female experience.

The theme for National Women's History Month, Women's Art: Women's Vision pays tribute to the originality, beauty, imagination, and multiple dimensions of women's lives. The history of women and art is quintessential women's history. It is the story of amazing women's accomplishments acclaimed at the time but written out of history.

Sophie/Grammie-Day

Sophie on the upper deck of the Staten Island Ferry. The boat is a Coast Guard vessel, one of two that escorted the SIF back and forth. A machine gun is mounted in the bow manned by a member of the Coast Guard. I'm posting this because, for me, it's a disconcerting image--the 4 year old . . . . machine gun ("What's that, Grammie?" she innocently asked.) . . . the Statue of Liberty.
What do you think?
Before boarding the ferry we had visited the marvelous National Museum of American Indians & seen a moving performance piece, "Keeping the Fire in the Dark Moon Times," infused with the oral tradition, dance and music of the home regions of five performers--Ani Lokomaikai Lipscomb, Hawaiian; Debra Dommek, Inupiaq; Stephen Blanchett, Central Yup'ik; Candida Rose, Cape Verdean; and Jonathan Perry, Wampanoag. According to the program, the piece honors ancestral stories and the diverse symbolism of the moon, its cycles and the many meanings of harvest.
We ended our Sophie/Grammie-Day by attending New York Philharmonic's rehearsal for the "Very Young People's Concert." Very cool, although Sophie noted that the narrator of a kids' story told to the music of Ravel mispronounced narwhal (she put an "e" on the end.) "That's what rehearsal are for," I whispered back. We had to leave before the storyteller finished. But we talked to a staff person before we left. "I wondered about that," she said. Then repeated (correctly): "Narwhal, narwhal, narwhal!" Sophie and I smiled!

Catskills, constellations, and women's history

This weekend we gathered in the Catskill at a house Steve and Sarah are renting as a writing retreat to celebrate Steve's & David's birthday. So serene! Amazingly quiet. Pristine snow. Clear dark night sky perfect for identifying constellations-- Sophie knew to look for the Big and Little Dipper; Orion; Pegasus; "the queen," Casseopia; and the Milky Way because of a wonderful nonfiction book for kids her "Auntie" Jan Kristo sent for her birthday in December (Tomorrow's a Sophie-day & I'll check the title when I pick her up.)

With March and National Women's History Month arriving on Saturday, I am preparing PowerPoint presentations & speeches for five engagements (listed on my web site). As always, one of my themes is women's history is everywhere & sure enough there it was in a remote memorial park to John Burroughs, the great naturalist who was raised in Roxbury, the closest town to where we were staying. Steve drove us there to see the photographs on the 3-sided display. The close-up is a photograph of a mule trip down Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon in 1909. On the mules, from bottom to top are: Dr. Clara Barrus, Harriet Ashley, John Burroughs, Olga Brant, John Muir. Do I know who the women are? Not yet because I've been immersed in Stirring Up The World & teaching, but ASAP I'll find out & post the information. Of course, if any of you know--please post an entry.


Continuing with this theme, on Monday I walked from 7th Ave to 5th Avenue along 34th street & Macy's Department Store and noted that a series of windows displays featured posters, art work, & information about Josephine Baker (1906-1975) US born, naturalized-French singer, dancer. movie star, social activist.

Snow

At about 6 a.m., I awoke to the sound of a neighbor's snow shovel. The weather predictions were correct! About 6 inches of snow & still falling & the bird feeders were empty. I put on my boots, grabbed a raincoat to wear over my nightgown and headed out to fill the feeders. The snowdrops, of course, were buried. The birds--cardinals, juncos, mourning doves, nut hatches, sparrows--had a feast.

Snowdrops

My mother and snowdrops are inextricably joined in my heart and mind because one of my earliest childhood memories is the arrival of February in our snowy part of the country and my mother digging in the snow--oftentimes with her bare hands--looking for snowdrops.
"Spring," she'd tell me. "I'm looking for Spring."

This crazy-winter-weather year confused the snowdrops in my yard into appearing in November. Of course, I was glad to see them, but they were out-of-sync with my memories. So, today--in February--I was thrilled to see them back again.

On Words, "Marching Ships," Writing, Sophie

Linda just appeared (from her office on the second floor down the stairs to mine in the basement) and asked me if I knew the definition of "secular." Of course, I did, and so did she, as in not being religious. What sent her down the stairs was how the word was used in an article she was reading for her class tomorrow about the prevalence of autism in which the author made a statement about the "secular increase of the prevalence of autism." Hummm, that use puzzled me too. While she checked my several dictionaries, I checked the Internet. Between us we found the meaning the author--who is Canadian--was using: "of or relating to a long term of indefinite duration." So, interesting!!!!

Unannounced the second pass pages for Thanksgiving: The True Story showed up on my doorstep Friday morning. (I found it when I went out to get the newspaper, so it may have been there since Thursday.) I stopped my plans for the day and scrutinized the manuscript so that I could return it before the day was over. I discovered this sentence had slipped by everyone who, to date, had proof read & copy edited the manuscript: "In late August 1565, ships carrying Menendez and hundreds of soldiers landed on the coast of Florida, and marched with trumpets blaring and banners flying into a Timucuan Indian village."

"Oh, no!!!" I exclaimed as the image of marching ships paraded in front of my eyes!!! Immediately I sent the editor an e-mail and corrected the sentence on the manuscript. As long as I've been a writer, it never ceases to amaze me how tricky it is to catch everything! So, what would I have done if it had slipped through into the printed book? Been embarrassed, recognize that readers would not necessarily noticed it, use it as an example when I teach/speak.

Next day update: At about 1:30 pm, 2/11, I received an e-mail from the assistant editor double-checking my change to what I will probably always think of as the "marching ship" sentence. Since at this stage, I had to make the least disruptive correction, I simply deleted "ships carrying" and changed "landed" to "arrived;" so now the sentence reads: "In late August 1565, Menendez and hundreds of soldiers arrived on the coast of Florida and marched with trumpets blaring and banners flying into a Timucuan Indian village." Oh, and if you're wondering what all this has to do with the true story of Thanksgiving; Menendez is involved in one of the 12 claims for the "first" Thanksgiving that I explore in my book Thanksgiving: The True Story.

I've moved forward writing Stirring Up The World and I'm really happy with what I've produced so far; it's such an intriguing story, especially with the race for the Democratic presidential nomination going on.

We had Sophie for an overnight. We rode a double-decker merry-go-round, etc. We also "talked" politics; from listening to all the political conversations swirling around she's concluded that "girls are for the girl and boys are for the boy."
Although it may seem that way, I told her, in our family some "girls" are for the "boy" and some "boys" are for the "girl."

On Ice Skating with Sophie

One thing led to the other & yesterday Sophie (my 4 year old granddaughter) & I ended up at the ice skating rink at Chelsea Piers, the mammoth sports facility on the banks of the Hudson River in New York City. It has been close to thirty years since I last put on ice skates: Sophie never has.
Being a sensibly cautious person (not one of my salient characteristics), Sophie finally put on her skates--after carefully observing everyone and everything & talking about the difference between ice over water that skaters could possibly fall through & ice over a hard surface--and off we went: the oldest and the youngest skaters in the rink. And, by oldest I mean by about 35 years! (Reread my earlier admission that "being a sensibly cautious person is not one of my salient characteristic" and you'll understand why I didn't wonder whether or not I'd remember how to skate; fortunately my muscles did.)
We started out with Sophie holding onto the railing with one hand & my hand with the other. Being focused on managing my own skates so as not to fall or trip Sophie, I didn't try to teach her anything except to briefly explain about pushing with the toe of one skate and gliding on the other, or something like that. About half way around, we switched to her being about 3 or so feet in front of me and me holding both her hands. My strategy was to keep pace with her by pushing with my right foot. Her technique came from closely watching other people & imagining she was a horse pulling me. After about an hour of skating and brief breaks, I stumbled and fell taking Sophie down with me. I sprawled: she sat down, kerplunk! We weren't hurt, just surprised, although I must admit I was embarrassed when the "rink safety person" suddenly appeared to help me up (was my gray hair magnetic, I wondered). No harm done we were up and off again. Another round and I stumbled again--one foot, then the other. Yikes! I thought. Then, amazingly I found myself staying upright. Why? Because Sophie, who was skating in front & holding my hands, kept me steady. When we took a break, Sophie said, "Grammie, I held you up."
"Yes, you saved me from falling. How did you know to do that?"
"I felt you stumble again & held you up," she matter-of-factly replied.

On Writing--Eventually you've got to start

Start what? Writing! Yesterday I took these pictures of the pingpong table in my basement office (not to worry, I'm not a complete mole, there are windows that face the bird feeders and sunset, although it is chilly!). The point of these pictures is how easy it is to get overwhelmed with material, especially with the amount of primary source material available via the Internet--yikes! From left to right: the brown with a pink stripe object is the 3-ring notebook in which I keep completed manuscript pages (I write and revise as I go, aiming for producing final copy.); there a couple of books on & under the notebook that I'm using for double-checking; a 1,000 piece puzzle is under the notebook--periodically working on the puzzle keeps me from solidifying in my chair and helps me focus; more books(many from the stacks at the Columbia University library--see early blog for picture of the stacks) and papers are spread out on the table; taped to the bookshelf in the upper right corner is a double-entry chronology--ECS on the left, SBA on the right, the green post-it & red note card taped to the side have contextual info. The second picture shows the box in which I keep all relevant information, including folders for each chapter. More books are piled up on the bureau (yes, that is a statue of Santa Claus that my father made in the early 1940s. It was never fired but has survived moves back and forth across the U.S.) p.s. the journals in the metal bookshelves belong to my partner who is head of the program in intellectual disabilities and autism at Teachers College, Columbia University. The file cabinet holds maps and my women's history photo archive.

Since the semester ended, I've been full-time into doing research for Stirring Up The World, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Powerful Friendship, except for days when I've needed to tend to the production of Thanksgiving: The True Story, which I'm very happy to report will be out in September. And, of course, my Sophie-days and family birthdays, etc.

Yesterday, I got an email from the department secretary reminding faculty that the semester starts tomorrow; not that I had forgotten, but somehow the reminder-email made it real. Fortunately my first class isn't until Monday, but that means just a few more days before I add more demands to my time and attention. So, clearly it's time to shift from doing research to writing, which isn't to imply that I haven't been writing, I have, but nothing that excites me. Nor that I won't continue to do research, just that I'll shift my focus and intensity.

So, after all that, if you're wondering whether or not I got up and started writing today? The answer is YES!

Winter Weekend at the Shore

Spent a winter weekend at the Jersey Shore with Sophie; her first without the summer crowds. (She--a New York City girl--commented on the lack of people and the silence.) On our way to our bungalow, we stopped at the fish co-op in Point Pleasant Beach (the home port of a fishing fleet)and got some flounder that Sophie--all by herself--rinsed and swished around in the egg and rolled in bread crumbs for me to fry. Sunday morning we bundled up and went at the ocean beach & ran around, made sand castles, picked up shells to paint later, and played in the frothy surf. As was probably predictable, in time, a wave splashed up and over Sophie's rubber boots.
Later when we returned to Englewood, Linda asked her:
How did you like the Shore in the winter?
I liked it, Sophie replied.
Wasn't it really different because you couldn't lie on the beach and go in the water?
Well I did go in the water, Sophie told her. My feet were wet and my boots.

Book update and Sea Stars

During the last class of the semester, I did a show-and-tell re the publication process for my students in my Issues in Children's Literature class at Queens College. How? I showed them the page proof of Thanksgiving: The True Story that had just arrived. The page proof being my manuscript now typeset and paginated with the placement of the text, illustrations, and other design elements. I talked about the back and forth of line editing, copy editing, revising, checking and double checking. They were astonished at the amount of work involved--truly astonished. Little did they or I know that within a few days(as the result of an email exchange with my editor) I would revise the first two chapters into one chapter and created a chart with information about the 12 claims for the "first" Thanksgiving!! An intense task, but the result s "thrilled" my editor, and me too! We're all really excited about this book.
Fortunately I finished in time to spend my one-day-a-week with my granddaugher Sophie, who just turned 4 years old. Happily she loves road trips so off we went to the aquarium in Camden, NJ. This is the fourth aquarium we've visited. We identify them with a unique exhibit, e.g., Mystic, CT, with it's beluga whales; NYC with the walruses, including the baby; Jenkinson's with it's albino alligator. This one has two hippopotamuses and a fascinating collection of sea stars. In the picture (l-r) are: bat sea star, sun (thirteen arms); another bat (dark color) ochra (can't remember what's beside it) and a rose sea star. They were in a touching pool, which was very cool.

Mars, the Moon & Christmas Eve

I'm finally surfacing from a month of intense work demands! And not too soon because today's the winter solstice. This morning I read a wonderful article in my local paper about the fact that Mars will be unusually bright this Christmas Eve and there will be a full Moon. Why? According to Jack Horkheimer, a planetarium director and host of public television show "Star Gazer: Because Mars will be directly opposite the Sun, reflecting the most light, and fairly close to Earth, only 55.5 million miles away. The full Moon will appear nearby, rising about an hours later. In honor of the event, Horkheimer wrote these lyrics in honor of the event. Sing them to the tune of "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer"


Mars is a red-tinged planet
With a very shiny glow
And if you look to see it
You will find the Moon in
tow.

All of the other Yuletides
Santa would have at his
side
The shiny nose of Rudoph
Acting as his big sleigh's
guide

But this very Christmas
Eve
Santa came to say;
Rudolph, now with Mars
so bright,
You can stay at home
tonight.

Then all the reindeer teased
him.
And they shouted out with
glee:
"Rudolph, the red-nosed
reindeer
Outsourced to astronomy."

Author Visit

Tomorrow I'm doing an author visit in Sophie's pre-school class at the Medical Center Nursery School in New York City. I'm going to read pieces I wrote for U*S*Kids: A Weekly Reader Magazine (no longer in publication)-- "Stamps!" a brief nonfiction article on stamp collecting and a short fiction story "I Like It When People Laugh." I'll introduce my readings by telling the youngsters that when I write fiction I get to make-up stuff and when I write nonfiction I don't get to make-up stuff. I checked with the teacher, and she's game for letting a room full of 3 & 4-year-old kids test out different laughs--YEAH for flexible, up-for-an-adventure teachers!!!!

On Writing & Getting Unstuck

Back to blogging after being distracted by Thanksgiving preparations and house guests and then a miserable cold that actually prompted me to cancel classes last week, a first. Happily yesterday I finally got back into writing Stirring Up the World & I want to make an observation about my writing process: when I'm stuck, i.e., I can't move my writing forward, there are two solutions 1. Unravel what I've written to the point that I get unstuck, i.e., find the place where I started down a cul de sac; 2. Resort to paper and pencil (always a mechanical pencil) to work out the problem, i.e., where to go from that point.

More on Friendship

As always, a book project has prompted me to solicit thoughts/ideas/reactions from various people; now, I'm thinking about--friendship. On 11/19/07, I posted an entry "On Writing and Friendship" with which there are also posted two comments about friendships.

Annie Unverzagt, a very special friend from the time we were graduate students in the mid-1960s, sent me her cherished copy of Gert & Frieda, by Anita Riggio (New York: Atheneum, 1990) along with her thoughts that she said I could post:
Annie on friendship: This delightful children's book tells a wonderful story about friendship. It seems to capture some essentials: emphathetic listening, acceptance of a friend's quirks and differences, enabling a friend to find their strengths, supporting your friend in good times and bad. Our family--especially the girls--have always loved this book, mostly because of "hugging around the middle" concept. I suspect we are attracted to the humor and whimsy that underlie friendship. No one is taking here--it is a relationship of giving on both parts.

As I get older, I am most appreciative of the timeless quality in a good friendship. It does not seem to matter if you last visited together yesterday or many years ago. There is the caring and interest in your friend's life and living that seems to transcend time, especially when feelings are mutual. You have moved beyond the level of getting something out of a relationship, even if it is only "does the person like me" to purely enjoying the opportunity to exchange in an atmosphere of acceptance.

I have always treasured loyalty as a time-tested strength of friendship. I suppose that is fruther refined to maintaining friendship without requiring anything in return. I think things are much trickier with political--or any other reason--friendships such as the one you are explaing in your book.

On Writing

Now that I'm in the writing phrase of Stirring Up the World, words, phrases, sentences spontaneously appear in my brain, including in the middle of the night. I went to sleep--or tried to last night--with an unsolved writing problem; about midnight a glimmer of a solution materialized. Humm, I thought, I wonder if it is worth getting up & trying this??? My body said no, but my brain was insistent--no, sleep for you until you see whether or not it works if you delete this and add that. (By works, I mean that I continue to move forward, i.e. that what I've written propels me onward, saying what I want to say, getting me to where I want to go, keeping readers turning the page.) So, I got up, stumbled in the dark down several flights of stairs to my basement office, and happily wrote and wrote until after 2:00 am! Double happily, this morning I reread my night-time writing and concluded that it works in the light of day too!

Grace Paley and The Great Hall at Cooper Union

Last night I went to "A Tribute to Grace Paley: An Evening of Readings and Remembrance" at The Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York City.
Paley was a poet, short story writer and political activist. Francine Prose, president of PEN American Center, opened the evening. She was followed by Paley's daughter Nora. Other participants, including Katha Pollitt, Sonia Sanchez, Walter Mosley, Michael Cunningham, and Vera B. Williams, read from Paley's works and gave reminiscences. The program opened and closed with a recording of Grace Paley reading her poem Responsibility that includes these lines: It is the poet's responsibility to speak truth to power as the/Quakers say/It is the poet's responsibility to learn the truth from the powerless/It is the responsibility of the poet to say many times: there is no freedom without justice and this means economic justice and love justice/. . . . It is the responsibility of the poet to be a woman to keep an eye on/this world and cry out like Cassandra, but be/listened to this time.
The announcement of the event had this quote from Paley:
Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.
Her dream for her grandchildren, Grace Paley said in a May 2007 interview was: It would be a world without militarism and racism and greed--and where women don't have to fight for their place in the world.
I was moved by the event and thrilled to finally be inside the The Great Hall of Cooper Union, the scene of many legendary speeches and meetings and events in American history. The Great Hall, which opened in 1858, has figured in several of my books, including Strike! The Bitter Struggle of American Workers from Colonial Times to the Present--where I wrote about the mass meeting of striking workers on November 25, 1909, when Clara Lemlich, a teenage worker who had been badly beating during her stint on the picket line, electrified the meeting with her words: "I am a working girl, one of those who are on strike against intolerable conditions. I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in general terms. What we are here for is to decide whether we shall or shall not strike. I offer a resolution that a general strike be declared--now!" Lemlich's call to action resulted in, what became known as, "The Uprising of the 20,000," a strike that dramatically demonstrated the power of semi-skilled and unskilled immigrant women workers and catapulted women into prominence in the labor movement, which had traditionally ignored them.

The Great Hall was also the scene of the first meeting of the U. S. Sanitary Commission that organized the hospital transport ships during the Civil War. I wrote about Katharine Wormeley, a lady superintendent aboard the hospital transport ships in Adventurous Women: Eight True Stories About Women Who Made a Difference. My essay about Wormeley includes excerpts of her letters. On May 31, 1862, from on board the Knickerbocker she wrote to her mother: It is a piteous sight to see these men: no one knows what war is until they see this black side of it. We may all sentimentalize over its possibilities as we see the regiments go off, or when we hear of a battle; but it is as far from the reality as to read of pain is far from feeling it.

And, of course, The Great Hall played a role in the fight for women's rights--meetings were held there and most of the male and female leaders spoke there, including the women I'm currently writing about--Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. At one time, Anthony had an office in The Great Hall.
p.s. I'm happy to report that two days ago I finally moved from the intense research phase to the writing phase of Stirring Up the World: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, a Biography of a Powerful Friendship.

On Writing and Friendships

The end of another long thinking
about--how am I going to structure this book?!?
Here's a picture of what my thinking "looks" like tonight. At one point in the day, I emailed my friend Dot: "What do you think about friendships??"
"Well, let's see," she replied. "Friendships are--rewarding, sustaining, inspiring, fun, frustrating, enduring or fleeting, friendships inspire growth, common interests hold them together, old friendships are a great source of comfort, new friendships are energizing and on some days, your pet is your BEST friend!"

Feel free to add your thoughts/ideas/experiences on the topic of friendships!

On Writing

Spent about 16 hours yesterday with the results of my research into the friendship of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. What do I have? Masses of material! Now the writerly question/decision is--what to do with all that material?!? How to turn it into a clear, coherent, compelling (my 3Cs of good writing)nonfiction narrative??? How am I going to structure this book? That question is constantly on my mind. In my sleep last night I was remembering the structures of some of my other books--5 strand interwoven multi-layered structure for Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II, a topical chronology for Corpses, Coffins, and Crypts: A History of Burial, a modified chronology for A Woman Unafraid: The Achievements of Frances Perkins. In an early post (8/7) I wrote about a structure I "saw"--"knitting something with a pattern, i.e. I've got two main skeins of yarn--ECS (I'm thinking she's orange) and SBA (perhaps green) and I'll be picking up stitches from other skeins as I go." One of my tests of the viability of an idea is whether or not it sticks with me--that one is still with me. The ultimate test, of course, is whether or not I can implement the idea & this one isn't there yet. So, back to work!

Cranberry Harvest

Our Jersey Shore bungalow is near the cranberry bogs in Double Trouble State Park in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Luckily this year, we--me, Linda, and Sophie, my three-year-old granddaughter-- managed to get there from NYC in time to watch the wet, or water harvest; an event I've been curious about, especially after writing my forthcoming book Thanksgiving: The True Story. The first two pictures (left to right) show a cranberry bog with ripe berries (cranberries grow on a dwarf evergreen vine in a peat or sandy bog), and two specialized harvesters that knock the berries off the vine. In that picture, the first driver has lifted up the bar that has 9 metal circle because he's about to turn around (see next picture). The other driver still has the bar down and the circles are rotating and knocking the cranberries off the vine (note the water in the bog splashing up). The man wearing the waders directs the drivers and walks in front of them to make sure they don't hit a rock or other obstacle.
"Hey," I shouted to get his attention. "What do you call those machines?"
"Knockers," he shouted back. "Also pickers, I call them pickers."
"What do most people call them?"
"Ask him," he said gesturing to a man standing a bit behind me. Jose has been doing this for fifty years."
Turning to look as Jose, I asked, "What do you call them?"
"Knockers."
The next two pictures are of the bog after it has been flooded with 6" to 8" of water. Since cranberries float, the workers corral them by encircle them with a very long piece of black, flexible material about 8" wide that floats. We could see two workers standing in the corral using a type of push-broom to move the cranberries around but couldn't figure out why. Walking to the side of the truck, we found a man on a ladder who was watching the cranberries fill up the truck.
"Hi," I called out, "We have a question." I didn't expect him to climb down, but he did and cheerfully explained that there is a tub just below the surface of the water with a suction hose that sucks the cranberries up to a platform on the back of a truck. The men in the water are moving the cranberries toward the tub. Periodically one of the men walks over and tightens the black strip encircling the cranberries, thus making the corral smaller; a task, we all agreed, looks like hard work!
The last picture shows the workers standing on the platform. They remove pieces of vine and use a type of push broom to move the cranberries onto a conveyer belt that dumps them into the back of the truck that will go to the receiving station in Chatsworth, NJ. That is where the cranberries get processed into juice and cranberry sauce. (Cranberries that are sold whole are gathered by a "dry harvesting" method by which mechanized machines "pick" the cranberries). As we were leaving, a woman wearing a "Piney Power" T-shirt hailed us to warn us about chiggers (happily no problems for us). Ever the journalist, I asked her about her t-shirt, etc. and discovered she has a cool website (www.pineypower.com) with lots of material about the Pine Barrens, including information about cranberries.

A "Nonfiction Moment" and a 6th Grade Science Lesson

Dot Emer--Emer being the married name of Dot Chastney whose true stories about being a kid during World War II appear throughout my book Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on The Home Front In World War II (there are also photos from Dot's life then), and who you'll meet again in my forthcoming book Thanksgiving: The True Story--is a middle school librarian in Boca Raton, Florida. Dot just sent me the following email about the photographs of the Monarch butterflies on my blog: "Hi Penny, Just want you to know that your Monarch butterfly photos provided a nice science lesson on Wednesday. I went to the sixth grade science teacher and showed her your blog site with the photos. We threw the photos up on the SmartBoard so the whole class could see them and the teacher read your description. She also told the kids that when her boys were young they vacationed in Cape May and there were so many Monarchs on the move that they were landing on the kids."

This is such a great example of a concept I love to introduce when I teach courses in nonfiction writing and nonfiction literature and that is--a "Nonfiction Moment" i.e. anything real that really happens during the course of a day--a conversation, an incident, an observation, a taste, a surprise, an unexpected encounter, something you overhear--that sticks with you. Something that you remember. It doesn't have to be momentous. It can just be a snippet or a sliver of something. It doesn't have to matter to anyone else, just to you is enough. All it has to be is something that really happened--nothing made up--that catches your attention and hangs around inside you.

Friendship--Dear Jan, Thank you

Just now, I was working on Stirring Up The World and thinking deeply about the 19th century friendship between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony when I heard a vigorously banging on my front door. Disoriented--remember my brain was in the 1800s--I opened the door & had to think a moment when the woman who was holding a big bouquet of flowers said: "Special surprise for Penny Colman. Are you Penny Colman?" The flowers, I discovered, are in celebration of my 20th anniversary as a freelance writer from Jan Kristo, my dear friend and colleague and co-author along with Sandip Wilson of the forthcoming chapter "Bold New Perspectives: Issues in Selecting and Using Nonfiction." Thank you, Jan, for the gorgeous bouquet, and thank you for the timely reminder of the joy and power of 21st century friendships!

Twenty-Year Anniversary

One month after my 43rd birthday, I became a full-time freelance writer. It was October 1, 1987. I mark that as my starting date because that was the first day after the last day that I received a salary from a full-time job with benefits, an office, and support staff. My first-born child--Jonathan--had graduated from high school in June and my second- and third-born children--David and Stephen, identical twins--were seniors in high school.

I had been writing on and off for years and published some articles and a one-act play, but I had never really focused on myself as a writer. Instead I had concentrated on being a mother, a community activist, a wife. I had also compiled a diverse resume as a teacher, a speaker, an executive director of a social service agency, and founder of an art gallery. But as I moved into my 40s, I became aware of an increasingly insistent internal need to write. So, twenty years ago, I took the plunge.

Although I have written fiction, my passion is nonfiction--real stories about real people, events, things, and ideas. In my quest for true stories I've paddled a raft through whitewater rapids; hiked out of the Grand Canyon; tracked down grave diggers; walked across a high wire strung between two trees: interviewed interesting people; spent countless hours at archives, libraries, and historic sites immersing myself in the lives and words and deeds of historic women; and etc.--all amazing adventures!

The picture is of the gorgeous gladioli we bought yesterday at a fall festival in Mays Landing, NJ (we happened upon it as we were driving a let's-try-a-new-route-home from a research trip in Washington, DC)--$5 for ten stems--yellow, red, purple, lavender, white, and coral. We've dubbed them the twenty-year-anniversary-flowers. I love the array of colors. I love the way a gladiola unfurls and opens from the base to the top. Twenty years ago I could not--did not--imagine the challenges facing full-time writers, especially writers who hope to earn a living. But I'm so glad I couldn't & didn't because I might have gotten cold feet and missed twenty years full of fun and adventure and satisfaction and the opportunity to get to know many marvelous people! Thank you to everyone who has cheered me on, including my three sons who said--Go for it, Mom! and Charlotte who never doubted that I would make it & who buys multiple copies of my books, and Dot who is full of information and stories, and, of course, Linda who is always here and there and everywhere.

Ocean Scene

Back to my home-base in Englewood to teach two classes
at Queens College tomorrow. This picture was taken at Island Beach State Park, ten miles of beautiful dunes and wide beaches at the south end of Barnegat Peninsula (really an island). My favorite beach walk is the mile from where the road ends to the Barnegat Inlet, the channel of water between Barnegat Penisula and Long Beach Island, the other long barrier island of the coast of NJ.

More Monarch Pictures