Friday, October 3, 2014

NEW LONDON: A variety show with words, music and dancing

Last Saturday evening we headed to the New London United Methodist Church's "open mic" coffeehouse, held at the church at 1010 State Road, west of Route 896. The old-fashioned wooden-floored hall, with a raised stage at one end, was a charming venue. Mercedes Case, the pastor, told us it was formerly a Grange Hall and an Odd Fellows Hall, with the church on the second floor (until a fire destroyed the second floor).
I had no clue what to expect from the performers, but it turned out to be an entertaining evening. The headliner was a pop trio comprising a guitarist, a bass player and a drummer. There was audience participation in three of their songs: for one we were all issued percussion instruments; in another we joined in on the chorus; and in "Lean on Me" six of us were called up to form a chorus line. (I percussed, sang and boogied with the greatest enthusiasm. Just ask my long-suffering date.)
After the band, the next performers were a poet named Rosemary who formerly sold ads for the Daily Local News; a guitarist who sang a few lively Appalachian ditties; a fiddler who alternated playing and singing verses of a hymn; and a trouper of a woman who sang the classic "Unforgettable."
I give them all credit for getting up there on stage! And wouldn't you know, I ran into the poet outside the Jennersville Starbucks a few days later.
The next coffeehouse is Saturday, Oct. 25, starting at 7 p.m. Admission is a bargain: only $5. There are baked goods and drinks for sale.

KENNETT PAPER: The ancestors of "Unionville in the News"

Yesterday in the Kennett Y locker room I ran into my friend Joan W., who worked for The Kennett Paper way back in its infancy, some 25 years ago. We started reminiscing about previous Kennett Paper columnists from way back in the day, like F. M. Mooberry, who did a gardening column that was the equivalent of a master class in horticulture; the late John "Jack" Horty, who wrote a charming local-history column; and of course the late Teddy Browning, whose beautifully written "Notes from Turtle Creek" remains an inspiration.

UNIONVILLE FAIR: Getting my priorities straight at the preview party

Not only is the Denim & Diamonds party a fun way to kick off the Unionville Community Fair, it's also utterly irresistible to hyper-competitive sorts like me who need to know as early as humanly possible how our entries fared.
Normally at a party I'm a pretty standard guest: I look around, see who's there and where the food is, and start socializing.
Not at Denim & Diamonds. Oh, no. I check in and then make a beeline for whatever entry I'm most excited about (this year, it was the Adult Vegetables table). The result was most gratifying: a blue ribbon tied to the stem of my pumpkin!
Having slaked my curiosity, it was time to see how my friends had done. I had volunteered to text two equally chomping-at-the-bit friends who weren't at the preview party. I wandered over to the eggs section, where I was delighted to find that a friend's blue eggs took a Best of Show ribbon! I took a photo and posted it on Facebook.
Then I returned to the Adult Vegetables competition; a gym friend had asked me to see how his entries had done. Turns out he is one of the most skilled gardeners around-- I have seen his name on Fair entries for years but never made the connection. As usual, at this year's Fair he won at least a dozen blue ribbons for his wonderful vegetable specimens. I texted him about his success; it was a lengthy message.
Duty out of the way, I got a glass of Chadds Ford white wine and put on my sociable hat, yacking with all of the great "Fair friends" I've made over the years, including Karen D'Agusto, Karen Statz, Debra Swayne, Dave Salomaki, Sharon Parker, Berta Rains, Barbara Rechenberg (mother of this year's Fair Queen, Carly Rechenberg), East Marlborough Township Supervisor John Sarro, Fair past president Jayne Shea and this year's president, Danielle Chamberlain. Jaclyn McCabe was the preview party coordinator.
I bid on a few silent auction items -- a Foxy Loxy gift card and a batik gym bag -- but was quickly outbid. The highlight of the live auction was Embreeville resident Robin Mastripolito's mouth-watering gourmet cupcakes, which sold for $80 a dozen!
Triple Fresh of Ercildoun did the catering and made pulled-pork and roast beef sliders, cooked-to-order pasta and a very nice salad.

SUPERMARKET: Sometimes going to the store is full of stories

Most days a trip to the grocery store is pretty routine: checking off the standard items on the list, using coupons, saying hi to a few people, deciding on what kind of ice cream to buy this week. But not today.
First off, in the produce aisle they were selling small plastic cartons of end-of-season blueberries for $7.99. Worse, all the boxes had bruised fruit on the bottom. The shopper next to me watched me turn over ever box looking for a passable one.
"Just shows you how long they've been sitting there, at that price," she astutely observed.
Then there was a woman wearing a surgical mask over her face who bought the newspaper -- either she'd been reading all the stories about the Ebola virus or she was especially sensitive to germs, poor thing.
A group of friends was chatting in the lobby. I heard only one line: "He don't dance, he don't drink, he don't party no more." Judging from the woman's tone of voice, this was not an improvement.
In the parking lot I saw a kind employee loading a woman's groceries in her car trunk as she approached slowly, pushing her walker.
And finally I saw a sweet little kid wearing a fancy princess dress sitting in the shopping cart as her mother unloaded groceries. I complimented her lovely dress and sparkly shoes.
"Who was dat?" she asked her mother as I walked away.
"That," said her mother, "was a very nice lady."

Thursday, October 2, 2014

TYPOS: Autocorrect goes to the dark side

This week's autocorrect FAIL: I was texting a friend, telling her about my entries at the Unionville Community Fair. I typed "zinnias and gomphrena" and it came out "zombies and Gomorrah." That would certainly take the Fair to a whole different level, wouldn't it!
And in another example of the strange new electronic world we live in, I just used a $100 rebate card that I received from a Verizon tablet purchase to buy a $100 parking pass to the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup. That worked out well.

FAITH: Maury Hoberman explains Judaism

Maury Hoberman, president of the Kesher Israel synagogue in West Chester, gave this past week's "Faiths of our Neighbors" lecture at West Grove Friends Meeting on Oct. 1. An engaging and amusing speaker, he discussed Jewish history (very briefly), denominations (which vary widely in their interpretation of Biblical laws), religious practices and rituals (which again differ according to how observant the person is), and current trends in the faith. He believes it's important for rabbis to pursue continuing education and for congregations to keep and attract members by emphasizing the present-day relevance of their teachings.
He said that Jews are supposed to pray three times a day, mindfully and with clear intention. I didn't realize that Saturday-morning services last for three hours!
Dr. Hoberman used the interesting analogy of a human body to describe interfaith dialogue: different religions may be different body organs, but they're all necessary and they all have to work together to make up the whole. He also said that both vertical and horizontal connections are important ways of expressing faith: vertical connections with God and horizontal ones with our fellow humans.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

GED: Going back to the basics

A woman I know is studying for her GED (more power to her!). She was telling me she's having trouble memorizing the multiplication tables, because for decades she has just used a calculator to do any math she needed to do. And next on her semester's syllabus is algebra and trigonometry. I wonder how much of my high-school math I remember?
And speaking of getting stuck in a behavioral rut, I found myself annoyed that I had to park at the far end of the jammed parking lot at the Jennersville Y the other day. Fortunately I quickly realized how foolish this was: After all, the whole purpose of going to the gym is, in fact, to get some exercise.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

UNIONVILLE: Hood's will rise again

By the time you read this, Hood's BBQ "old" building will be no more. Demolition was set for Monday, Sept. 29, and when we stopped by the evening before, it looked as if someone had taken a sledgehammer to the place, with a pane of shattered glass and bricks littering the front parking lot. Larry Hood Sr. told us that people had even been stopping by to take commemorative bricks home with them!
The demolition will make way for the new Hood's, on the same site. In the meantime, the Hood's trailer is open behind the restaurant for breakfast and lunch.

UNIONVILLE: And God saw that it was good

My new guinea pig Gilbert was a champ on Sunday afternoon at the Blessing of the Animals at the Unionville Presbyterian Church: he didn't nip at anyone and he didn't object when kids wanted to pet him. Gilbert was one of two guinea pigs to show up, in addition to a rabbit and many dogs (while we were there we saw a pug, a King Charles Cavalier named Charlie and a Yorkie). We arrived a little late, and the Rev. Annalie Korengel was kind enough to put her vestments back on to bless Gilbert and ask God for a happy life in his new home. She also wore a special stole emblazoned with animal silhouettes.
Gilbert is now the proud owner of a personalized certificate with a verse from Genesis: "So God created the great sea animals and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good."

INSECTS: They might be Gnats

This weekend's adventures took us to Warwick County Park, which is off Route 23 near St. Peters Village. We discovered that the northern part of Chester County has been suffering from an invasion of gnats this summer. As soon as we stepped out of the car they started swarming around our heads. "Welcome to Warwick," commented a park ranger, seeing us trying to bat them away. We remarked on the pesky bugs to two other visitors and they said, "Oh, we're used to it." They said it's been like that all summer.
Fortunately they seemed to bother us only within the confines of the park. While we were being tourists at St. Peters Village, there were no gnats.
On the (indirect) way home we drove through the neighborhood where I grew up. Giant houses have sprung up everywhere. The perfectly nice houses where my friends lived have been massively expanded. I was sad to see that cool little modern house around the corner where I babysat--it was full of plants, dog hair, beaded curtains and hippie books--was torn down and replaced by a large, immaculate and perfectly landscaped house. A former farm down the street, where a venerable horse and a noisy donkey were always grazing near the fence, has been replaced by a mega-house. Instead of Duchess and Nick, there's only a weird wire statue of a horse in the front yard.