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Tomorrow is "back to school day" for so many children including my two grand children who are getting ready for a new year. Sara will be going into third grade and Ben will be entering Kindergarten. Big yellow buses will begin to roll through the neighborhoods, and mothers will be frantic to see that their kids have everything they need for the day, and for the year. I cannot help but think back to my own mother who had to get two boys and five girls off to school every day with all the things they needed, and also, dressed in neatly pressed uniforms. Being the organized person that I am, this was always an exciting time for me. I loved going to buy new notebooks, lined papers, new pencils and pens, and to think about how I was going to use these throughout the school year. I loved a clean, crisp sheet of paper to begin, and a way to organized all of my subjects and classes. Perhaps I was a bit of a "geek" in this regard. We did not have backpacks as kids have today, and maybe our backs are better because of that. My most favorite time, in late August each year, was to go with my mother to downtown Shillatoes Department Store in Cincinnati, to purchase my new brown and white saddle shoes (see picture above) that matched our brown uniform skirts and blazers. Our shoes (with white knee-high socks) and uniforms were only sold at Shillatoes and this was a traditional trek with my mother to get everything I needed there. And after we were done, Mother and I would treat ourselves to lunch at the luncheonette in the indoor colonnade, near the Department Store. To this day, this is one of the happiest memories I have with my mother. My most cherished school years were high school at The Summit where we were taught by the enlightened Sisters of Notre Dame De Namur, a French Order, who created a very peaceful, structured and loving place for me to learn. And now as I see kids going off to school today, I wish them an enlightened, happy learning experience this year and for all the years. ahead.
Why am I thinking of "Charlotte's Web" today? Perhaps it is because, in today's paper, I read that the State Fair is beginning which makes me think of farms and raising animals (which my husband did in 4-H growing up) and particularly of pigs, those cute little pink animals that you want to keep as pets instead of the alternative. And though I do not like spiders, the thought of Wilbur leads me to thoughts of Charlotte, and the wisdom and truth of what she says. For example: ON FRIENDSHIP: "You have been my friend, (to Wilbur) and that in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that." ON BEING YOUNG/YOUNG AT HEART: "Go down through the garden, dig up the radishes! Root up everything! Eat grass! Look for corn! Look for oats! Run all over! Skip and dance, jump and prance! Go down through the orchard and stroll in the woods! The world is a wonderful place when you're young." ON ENCOURAGEMENT: "We must advertise Wilbur's noble qualities; not his testiness." ON PEOPLE'S VULNERABILITY: "People believe almost anything they see in print." ON FREEDOM: "An hour of freedom is worth a barrel of slops." (said by the goose) ON BOREDOM: "When I'm out here (in my pen), there's no place to go but in. When I'm indoors, there's no place to go but out in the yard." ON PATIENCE: "Charlotte was naturally patient. She knew from experience that if she waited long enough, a fly would come to her web." ON LOGIC: "What do you mean, less than nothing? How can something be less than nothing? If nothing is nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is." ON COURAGE: "Take a deep breath! Now climb to the highest place you can get to. Now make an attachment with your spinnerets, hurl yourself into space, and let out a dragline as you go down." (Charlotte explaining how to spin a web.) ON LAZY TIME: "What does sedentary mean? It means I sit still a good part of the time and don't go wandering all over creation. I stay put and wait for what comes. Gives me a chance to think." ON BEING HUMBLE: "Humble? Humble has two meanings. It means 'not proud' and it means 'near the ground.' That's Wilbur all over. He's not proud and he's close to the ground.? ON CREATING SOMETHING: "I don't know what a magnum opus is," (Wilbur) "That's Latin; it means 'great work.' This egg sac is my great work...the finest thing I have ever made." (Charlotte)
* Written with the help and quotes from book, "Charlotte's Web."
A very good friend of mine in New York, George Zano, has co-authored this stunning book about Marilyn Monroe and her influence on fashion. It is a book of shimmering elegance with hundreds of rare photographs of this iconic beauty, and is extremely well written. Even though I do not have a particular interest in Marilyn Monroe, this book is so classy and beautiful that it "knocked my socks off!" The book takes Marilyn from "girl-next-door" naive, shy brunette to the smart, sexy, poised model and actress she became in her very short life. The pictures are all here to tell the story! Marilyn arrived on the human stage when I was busy being a typical teenager,and our mothers were still wearing button-up blouses, long skirts and white gloves. Many an American housewife was surely shocked and perhaps a little envious of this brilliant beauty. And, you know they were all looking at what she was wearing! And unbeknown to most of them, she was being outfitted by some of the most famous designers who influenced fashion then and now. This is a book not to be missed for its amazing photographs,and story of a woman who continues to be as"present" today as she was "back then."
