We miss you, Judy!

Judy Manning was a healer and masseuse who had a big following here in the country.
It's a little surprising that her clients were so loyal. She specialized in a form of deep massage, which could be pretty darned uncomfortable. She made us listen to bizarre music. And she always had some laughably oddball new treatment: I remember her dangling a little bottle of milk over my belly to see if I was allergic to dairy products. (She thought I was.)
So why did we keep going back? Because she was so much fun and so loving. She always had the latest news to share about local people and parties, and she was always upbeat and cheerful. Despite her encounters with brown recluse spiders and carbon monoxide fumes from her car, she was remarkably energetic and health-conscious and you could often see her striding through her beloved Laurels or along country roads.
Her ovarian cancer came as a complete shock to all of us. She died in the spring of 2008 and I hope she's at peace -- and has found some better music than that Buddha Bar mix.

School choice

We just received an e-mail from the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District alerting parents to President Obama's yearly speech to schoolchildren.
"Students in Unionville-Chadds Ford, and across the Nation, will have the opportunity to view the speech through an Internet video stream," it read. "Last year, President Obama encouraged students to study hard, stay in school, and take responsibility for their education....Families wishing to have their child excused from viewing the Presidential address are asked to provide a note requesting an alternative educational opportunity."

Only in Willowdale...

does the convenience store have a boot cleaner mounted outside the door so you can scrape the mud, etc. off your boots before you go in and get your coffee.

Fashion victims

Attention, kids who are getting their school photos taken: Please, give your outfit some thought! These photos will haunt you. To much hilarity, my classmates have started posting on Facebook class photos from the 1970s. In the fourth-grade photo I'm wearing blue Keds and knee socks. In seventh grade I'm wearing a loud brown-and-yellow paisley dress.
So I beg of you: Think tasteful. Think classic. Remember, your kids will see these some day.

Afterward

What I remember most vividly is how quiet it was.
I mean, it's always pretty quiet out here, but for days after Sept. 11, 2001, there were no commercial flights, and the silence was pervasive. The rare times I heard a plane, I'd run outside and look up and wonder where it was going and what important person was on it. I'd check the news all day long to see if something else had happened, because there was a scary sense that there were no rules anymore; anything was possible.
And I remember the need we all had to talk about it, non-stop, and to be with other people. I remember going to the Y for our usual class and we just wanted to talk: Is your family OK? What have you heard? Cindy, our instructor, did her best to get class started, begging us, "Ladies, please, just give me an hour."
I was a little kid when President Kennedy was shot, but I remember where I was when I heard the news: a neighborhood boy cutting through our yard on his way home from school told my mother and me. Now people share their Sept. 11 stories: we still need to talk about it.

Yes on both counts.

Advertising sign in Jennersville from, presumably, an exterminator:
"Spiders?
Stinkbugs?"

Signs of fall

I don't think any other season has so many "indicators" as autumn does: back to school, chrysanthemums and pumpkins, football, ragweed pollen, gingersnaps and apple cider, hearing the hounds and the huntsman's horn, planting tulip and daffodil bulbs, walnuts hammering down on the roof, reaching for jeans instead of shorts -- and starting to get political ads in the mail.
Speaking of the latter: Could we please put a moratorium on using the word "idiot" to describe politicians we disagree with?

At rest

On the way home from Lancaster County over the weekend, we stopped at the small cemetery of the Friendship United Methodist Church, which is on Friendship Church Road near the village of Gum Tree, Highland Township. I was surprised at how many very old tombstones were there, dating from the early 19th century. Veterans from just about every war since then are represented -- the Civil War (the Grand Army of the Republic), both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam. Many of the old white stones are engraved with a willow tree and a Bible verse; some of the contemporary ones list the person's hobbies and have a photograph. It's a peaceful spot, and it looks as if relatives visit regularly.
I noticed a real estate ad recently that mentioned that the house for sale was next to a cemetery. For me that would be a selling point, but when I mentioned it to a friend, she shivered.
And speaking of nicely kept cemeteries, it's great to see that the old African American graveyard on the south side of Route 842, west of Ryan Road, West Marlborough Township, is being well taken care of.

The changing health-care landscape

I've heard good reviews of Premier Immediate Medical Care, the new health-care office off Baltimore Pike near Bayard Road (300 Old Forge Lane, to be exact). One friend went for some lab tests, another for a case of strep throat, and both reported that they were treated quickly and efficiently, at a reasonable cost. (And the latter is increasingly important to people without health insurance or those with high-deductible plans.)
The office is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., every single day of the year.

The Y Shuffle

Well, another shutdown week has come and gone, and everybody is back to his or her usual Y -- Kennett, Jennersville or West Chester. Each Y closes for a week in late summer so the whole place can be cleaned, floors revarnished, weights re-stacked, new equipment installed, new logo painted and the like. It makes sense: let's face it, every square inch at the Y takes a serious beating during the year.
But the Y administrators thoughtfully stagger the shutdown weeks so that at least one Y is always open for us diehard exercisers. And looking on the bright side, this means you get to visit a new Y and try out their different equipment and classes.

Girasole

Longwood Gardens' giant field of sunflowers at Schoolhouse and Longwood Roads is simply breath-taking. It's a sea of green and yellow. Don't miss it! Somebody on Longwood's Facebook page said it was like driving through Tuscany.
When I drove, by a couple of cars had pulled off the road to gawk, and a photographer was standing on a little stepladder taking photos.

Good food and good people

The Longwood Family Restaurant (where Hugo's used to be) fills a hole left vacant since the Barnwood went out of business years ago. The food is delicious, the service is quick, the atmosphere is friendly and pleasant, and the prices are extremely reasonable. You can go there wearing whatever you have on (which is always a plus), and I almost always run into somebody I know.
At a family dinner last night, I happened to see a woman I work out with, and was delighted to meet her family and introduce her to mine. And then a fellow diner overheard us talking about the Unionville Fair, stopped by the table and urged a young member of our party to submit his photographs in the Fair's photo competition.
I've been there for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the place never disappoints.