A journal of rediscovery
Stopped at a traffic light in the upscale bedroom community of Bedford, New York, I looked out the car window at what seemed to be a stone storage shed at the edge of a Catholic church’s parking lot. A sign indicated that it was a historic, one-room schoolhouse, and I
Continue readingSkull Talk: One-Room Schoolhouse 46 Miles from the Big Apple
There are two documented accounts of suspected vampirism in the community of Griswold, Connecticut. I heard the stories during one of my visits to the Jewett City Cemetery, in Jewett City, Connecticut, where my relatives are buried. The information in the stories came from Griswold Municipal Historian Mary R. Deveau’s
Rarely has the uncertainty of death been so succinctly and well-expressed, both in words and image, as in the gravestone of Phineas C. Wright. The large gray granite monument can be found near the northwest corner of Grove Street Cemetery in Putnam, Connecticut. The large graveyard is relatively flat, crowded
In July 2008, my 88-year-old mother, two sisters and I took a pilgrimage to Lithuania to discover our family roots. Both sets of my grandparents immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s and settled in New England. My mom and dad were born in this country, and when they
To feel the wind, sea-scented, on my cheek, To catch the sound of dusky flapping sail And dip of oars, and voices on the gale Afar off, calling low, — my name they speak! —Celia Thaxter, “Land-Locked” The Isles of Shoals, though located only nine miles off the New Hampshire
– John Cherek is the Director of The Catholic Cemeteries which maintains five locations in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota: Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights, Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul, Gethsemane Cemetery in New Hope, St. Anthony’s Cemetery in Minneapolis, and St. Mary’s Cemetery in Minneapolis.
Continue readingInterview with John Cherek, Director of The Catholic Cemeteries
– Poor Yorick is looking for photos of unique grave sites, memorials, or tombs to post on our blog site during the month of October. Our goal is to honor the remembrance of those past. Is there a famous person buried in a cemetery near you? Does a certain shapely
– When, like me, you’ve taught To Kill a Mockingbird to tenth graders for thirty years, you have a personal stake in Harper Lee’s only “other” novel, Go Set a Watchman, published a few months ago. For three decades, I’ve deconstructed Atticus’s airtight argument that proved Tom Robinson’s innocence beyond
Hosmer Mountain Soda did not start off as a soda company; it started as a fresh spring water delivery company. It was founded in 1912 in Willimantic, Connecticut by W.E. Clark1. The company went through two other owners before the fourth, Arthur J. Potvin, transformed it. In 1958, Potvin bought
– These six word stories were written in response to the textile bird clamp, an item from Europe that is at least a hundred years old. Thank you to all of the contributors, most of whom were WCSU MFA students and alumni. *Rest your wings/ at my table. -Ben Chase *Heavy