a little red hen

How She Was Remembered in the New York Times

Who'd miss this obituary of Fran Lee, a feisty activist who died earlier this month at 99.  The 1972 photo by John Sotomayor was 3.5 x almost 5.5 inches.  My gratitude goes to New York Times reporter, Margalit Fox, for a very respectful, long obit on a woman she described as a "preternaturally outspoken consumer advocate."

Fran Lee had a career of questioning many problems under many guises--Mrs. Fix-it, Granny Franny--but was known best as leading the losing battle for a more stringent pooper-scooper law than New York City planned in the seventies.  Picking up the stuff on the street was too easy, she claimed.  Dog owners needed to collect the stuff at home!  Before strolling outdoors.  Watch her on this vintage YouTube interview.

She had science behind her, explaining that a tiny roundworm found in dog feces was a health risk, especially for children.  The City did enact a fairly strict law; the streets are cleaner over the past 50 years.  Except in Greenwich Village and some outer boroughs.  The relentless determination of dog-owners to make a better place for their animals has extended to the creation of "dog runs" in City parks.  The link here describes recent energy on the upper East Side about the surface of a dog run--petitions too.

To her credit, Fran Lee had energy for many other battles described in her obit from cyclamates to asbestos to curious homemade candles.  Starting as an actress, this "force of nature" left four boxes of material in the NYC Library Archives.   Her son describes hearing his atheist mother as he passed her bedroom  at night, as she railed about world problems, "God, when I get to see you...am I going to tell you a thing or two."

Reading about questioning old women (did I mention that the lively 92 year old who lives down the hall, called me--in a very pleasant way--a "rabble-rouser"), soothes me.  We should all have Margalit Fox to write our obits.

More North Carolina, past and present

After many years visiting Cape Cod beaches in the 1980s-, we were ready for a less expensive venue.  Much as we enjoyed Welfleet, Truro, Provincetown, it was time for a place with fewer airs and crowds.  We also were tired of socializing with smart people who talked mostly about their great  real estate ventures.  That was the 1980s.

Judy Lombardi, our Baltimore friend told us about  Holden Beach, a barrier island near Wilmington,  North Carolina.  It was very different from the Cape, quiet and reasonably priced.  "Proud of what we do not have" is their motto. Going south was a change for us-- territory where we knew no one.  We found a comfortable house right on the beach, "PostHazel," named after a 1954 hurricane, "one of the worst of the 20th century on the east coast."

Through another Baltimore friend, Debbie Bedwell, we were encouraged to visit a gallery run by her friends, Tom and Stephanna Tewey above their printing shop in nearby Southport. Debbie and other artists from Baltimore Clayworks had exhibited in their  gallery, Blue Dolphin.    The second year we were at Holden, I showed some of my own work, necklaces of shells, beads, hardware.

They have sold the business and moved into Wilmington where we visited their house in the woods one afternoon on this trip.  Always active in politics and the environmental movement, we asked many questions about newspaper stories we'd read in the local paper--good news and bad.

January 1, 2010 marked the start of a smoking ban in restaurants and public places.  Who would have thought a tobacco state would do that!  The dark side was opposition by the county to permitting  high school grads who were illegal immigrants to attend the local community college.

As a northerner who expects the worst from the conservatism of the south about social issues, I was surprised by  this sign in a Wilmington gift shop (great selection of altered rubber duckies--as hippies, pirates).  Talking with the owner of The Black Cat Shoppe, about her strong commitment to health care reform reminded me--once again-- that there are people of reason everywhere.  She had made a trip to D.C. with her business organization, The Main Street Alliance, to talk with her congressmen.  She  joined the Alliance after becoming disgusted with the local Chamber of Commerce.  Check out her website.

Wilmington, an old port on the Cape Fear River, was a place we enjoyed when we were vacationing at Holden Beach.  Ron suprised me on my 60th birthday when he asked a women's trio (what were their names, my faulty memory wants to know) playing at a local bar to sing "Happy Birthday."  They were a group from D.C. with an hilarious extended version that delighted me--and the bar crowd. 

Here's the river at twilight...with a red kayak  in the background.

Could it be? Yes, it could. Something's coming, something good. Around the corner, waiting for you and me...

It is challenging to have the enthusiastic expectation of the lyrics in "Something's Coming" as the healthcare debacle rounded its own corner yesterday.  But I do want to believe the Senate bill to be, as Paul Krugman describes it in today's New York Times, "a great achievement."  Like me, that upbeat song from the musical, "West Side Story," contains a 1950s hopefulness.

Over these many months of strum and drang in Congress, our son, the urban historian, has assured us that something of substance would emerge.  Our daughter, the businesswoman working with people with disabilities, has held out hope too.  Since this is all more about their futures, what their children will experience, I think it's important to listen to them.  Nick says the bill offers hope for people in their twenties, younger than him, who feel so left behind economically.  Rachel too hopes the healthcare changes that  finally emerge will benefit her young employees.

Again, Krugman in today's New York Times:

         So progressives shouldn't stop complaining, but...congratulate themselves on what is, in the end, a big  win for them--and for America.

The view here is toward the north from our window on foggy Portland mornings.  Doesn't it appear to be  a storybook scene, a bit magical. One hopes...

And now I have knit chickens...

A few weeks ago, I went back to Close Knit, a favorite yarn shop here.  Last winter I bought Noro yarn and pattern there to make this vest;  finished when we returned to New York.  One of my more successful yarn projects.  It  helped that there was an already-knit version I could try on  to check out the fit. 

Knitting chickens, representations of them not the actual bird, has moved  along my plan to knit kids' toys.   First,  a yellow Polka-Dot Chicken from Susan B. Anderson's "Itty-Bitty Nursery."  I was going to give this to Zoe but decided to keep it.

I rationalized that her baby sister might tear it  and get into this bag of  beads used to weight the bottom.  Zoe shares my fondness for chickens,  chases  uncaged ones resident in the nearby schoolyard. Hope  they  make it through the winter.

Because she's partial to dots, I added them to another  Susan B. Anderson pattern for a striped chicken.  And produced this larger hen for her to take home.  On visits with us, she plays with the smaller one. Clara is the name she gave to  both.  Sounds  old-fashioned from a modern little girl.

 
Sent off this sweater for Roxie's Purple Bear that I made in August, just before we left NYC. I've started another animal for her,  a Hippo from Susan B. Anderson's new book, itty-bitty toys.  Did Susan and I meet at Knitty City?  I have a signed copy of the other Itty-Bitty. She is a very inventive designer who blogs here.

Feeling quite righteous because I'm only using yarn from my stash for these projects.   Found more funky chick patterns at Ravelry--that comes after the Hippo and another vest for myself, this time with Ron's yarn.

Recalling my hen obsession while she was in Paris, Maxine Levinson at Knitty City sent me a photo she snapped of a poulet store.  I lost it and effort to retrieve it via Google led to a blog called Paris Breakfasts.  Discovered many sides of  chicken enthusiasm among the French.  Something little red hens everywhere are trying to tell us?

Starting to use her as my avatar.  Please note the beaded necklace.

Posting less than I'd like because we continue to have a busy time in Portland, O, with taking classes, finding intriguing lectures.  This week the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard came through to promote his book, "Good without God: what a billion nonreligious people do believe."    Saw Philip Glass' new opera,"Orphee" and liked the music.   A group  sat in the lobby doing live blogging.

More  boxes await attention.   Though I feel frustrated about my ability to influence national politics, there are local issues to work on.  Oregon, like California, has votes often on initiatives outside regular elections.

The outcome of Initiatives 66 and 67  will have profound effect on funding for schools and social services.  "YES" is the word for the  January 28 election. 

"The Way We Get By," a movie for all of us--seniors & others

Tonight on the PBS program Point of View, I'll be watching again a beautifully conceived movie we saw last July before we left New York.  With a low-key title, "The Way We Get By", is one you will want to see no matter your attitude toward U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Is it anti-war?  Not exactly.  Pro-war?  No.

It is about women and men like us:  older citizens, looking for a way to make a difference, some hoping to relieve their loneliness as spouses and friends are gone.  There had been little publicity on the film when we saw a notice about it last July.  And I was not quite sure what to expect reading it was a documentary about a group of seniors in Bangor, Maine, who meet soldiers both leaving for and returning from war.

It's this airport where most soldiers leave the U.S. and the Maine Troop Greeters have welcomed home or said goodbye to one million of them!  I spoke with Gita Pullapilly, the film's producer, and asked if Grandmothers Against the War had been contacted for support.  She'd tried but had not heard back.  

But my effort to contact my friend in the group,  Joan Wile, did not get a response either.  Too bad because the story is not a pro-war or anti-war one.  The three "Greeters" focused on make that clear:  they wanted to do something for these soldiers to let them know we are aware of them, care about them.  My argument with "Grandmothers" always was that we of all people needed to find ways to do more than demonstrate; we could give time to families directly affected by the wars.

We even had a chance to meet the director (son of one of the Greeters) who has just married the producer (it's all on the PBS website.  We got an update and chance to talk with another featured Greeter  who had successfully recovered from heart surgery.  It was all very personal--and political--in the best sort of way.

If you do not have a chance to see it tonight, "The Way We Get By" is traveling around the country and may show near you.  Their dedication moved me so much as a pacifist who has looked for a personal way to express gratitude to women and men in the military even as I oppose the idea of war.

There's also a DVD out now that could be passed around among friends who are eager to see often-unseen older folks as caring actors in the public space.

Why Healthcare Reform Could Fail, or Please, don't stand next to me in the checkout line!

You are lying in a critical care bed in upstate New York.  A nurse approaches.  Has she washed her hands?  Maybe.  Has she had an H1N1 flu shot.  No!  How safe are you feeling?  If I were still living in NYC, this would be my newest concern.  Back in NYC, a large number of healthcare workers are refusing these shots because required to do so.  Oh, it would be okay if they could be in charge of the decision?

"We don't feel the government should have the right to force us to put any substance -- whether or not the government feels it's safe -- into our body," said Laura Ally, a critical-care nurse at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany. New York is the first state to mandate flu shots for healthcare workers.  According to this news report, a group of them will rally for their questionable cause  at the state capitol.  Makes me wonder how long before the U.S., led by folks such as these, will rid itself of a central government.

Ever since our daughter and son-in-law had their first child in Portland, Oregon, one fact worried me more than others.   Many parents here are opposed to vaccination for their children...read this scary story from last Fall.   The elementary school our 7 year old  attends has one of the highest rates of children whose families have opted out of innoculations for their kids.  Wondering if these same folks as as committed to the idea of reproductive choice for women as they are to making my grandchildren's surroundings unsafe.

We had a new sort of experience in getting our own yearly flu shots this weekend.  Three pharmacies in town had advertised FREE shots.  We'd missed the September dates at Wahlgreen's (where it was not clear whether we'd have to pay $25) and Rite-Aid.  At Safeway, we got an appointment for the next day, used Medicare.  If we had any doubts before, we now know that reform of the healthcare system could fail because the money does not follow our having a more rational system. And, reason two, there are a remarkable number of uneducated people standing in the checkout line. Powerful combo.

Mandatory-Healthcare-Factoid:  "Pilgrims who travel to Mecca this Fall Get Oral Vaccine," whether they like it or not,  as reported in Tuesday, September 29, "Science" section of the New York Times.  [sorry, could not find link]

Slow Knitting in the City of Roses

Yes, yes, I am way behind on details of our many good experiences, educational and environmental, in the place from which we are now voting--Portland, Oregon.  [NYC friends ask, "How you doing with the rain?"  What rain; it's been gloriously sunny.] 

Most immediate issue (after more and more

emails to our new congresspeople about single payer/public option health care legislation) is yarn.  How to store it and where it fits in my life.  Will I make something from this 50/50 wool and hemp?  Bought at some fiber fair a few years back, no memory of my plan.  Sunday we return to OFFF (Oregon Flock & Fiber Fest) in Canby. 

Will the PDX Knitters respond to the idea of Slow Knitting as a new category in fiberland?  Last year, they were  quite good-natured about modeling the Couverle Condom Amulet (a newsboy kind of cap.)  "So how is it different?" a knitter I met yesterday at the OSHER program (more on that later) asked me.

Needlecrafts have become explosively popular among younger knitters, I answered, so different from the days when one was simply "a knitter."  One example is the "Sock Summit" held at the Convention Center here August 5-7.  Someone needs to tell me whether the number who attended from around the world was 7,000 or 17,000; these women, and a few men, are intense and constantly producing.  That's fine but just one pair of booties is a big project for me.  Feels vintage to say to an enthusiastic foot-coverer, "I knit my last socks in the 1950s."

We all know that I definitely am vintage and have the incipient arthritis to prove it!  So Ron and I have had one of those talks about our visit to OFFF.  He will check out  fiber for potential additions to his spinning stash.  My own plan: locate other Slow Knitters.  But no new yarn purchases--would love to hear  ideas for  small things to make for family and friends-- with what's already on hand--like the 8-inch stuffed animal almost finished for youngest granddaughter. 

Speaking of Knitting Small...in  public ways to save the world as we know it--Oberlin College, my alma mater, has published a lovely piece about The Oberlin Condom Amulet in their current issue. Thanks to Google, the Alumni magazine editor called, then made the immodest proposal to the powers-that-be.

Rachel Walden of Women's Health News, an alum from a later decade, has mentioned it but there has not been a stampede yet from startled women over 50 gasping "...I never heard of that..."

By the way,  check out Rachel's post at Our Bodies Our Blog about a recent study  connecting  HRT and lung cancer...may raise more questions than it answers.

Elderblogging 2.0 Begins in PDX Retirement Community

Ten days into our altered lifestyle in the northwest.  Besides the physical part of getting settled, accepting that we really did not reduce our possessions enough, there's much to experience--in addition to our family.  Last week we went to  orientation for SSI, Senior Studies Initiative,  sponsored by the local community college.  We'd enjoyed a couple of their "Current Events" meetings last winter on our "deciding" visit.   There are six sites around town, only one close by. 

It took place in Lake Oswego, very leafy with big houses; I wondered how people get there without a car.  Intrigued that one of the groups has a presentation scheduled on Emma Goldman.  Looking forward to that.  Today, after a trip to an ENT doctor (nose-bleeding is my dramatic response to the move), I mentioned to Ron that our time so far has felt very suburban.  Must get out of the car soon, take mass transit buses and light rail which are very available from our place.

Saturday we stopped by the Belmont Street Fair, an annual explosion of  hippie-dom plus eviro and neighborhood consciousness.  Not the only one, of course; the city is filled this time of year with celebration, fruit festivals.  Young people come to several parts of Portland for the lifestyle of music and tatoos, live alongside young families who sort of like that atmosphere.  This is the world we know from visiting our daughter in a nearby neighborhood. 

Yesterday I went to the Terwilliger Users Group (TUG to insiders) and was amazed by how many people were there.  Must have been forty, men and women.  A woman gave a talk about Facebook which I was pleased to hear.  Each of our children, different as they are from one another, is now on it.  When I had dinner in New York before we left with Lisa Daehlin, the soprano/knitter, she told me I ought to consider it for the Condom Amulet project.  It's thanks to her that there's a group for it on Ravelry but Facebook does have some perks not available there. 

The staff tech person (how cool is that?) for Terwilliger Plaza had mentioned there were a couple of other folks with blogs living here, so I asked if the internal website might list them.  It's going to happen.  This is very different from New York City where I never met another blogger near my advanced age.

Tonight another Plaza activity, "Victory for Woman Suffrage in Oregon," a talk with great slides by Dr. Kimberly Jensen of Western Oregon University.  I have been too east-coast-centric about women's studies; was surprised by many western states voted to give women the vote ahead of the opposite coast.  Portland was a leader in moving the Oregon legistlature to do in 1912--on the sixth try and pioneered less ladylike approaches with mass advertising and public displays.  In  her recent book, Minerva, Mobilizing Women in the First World War,  Jensen has written about Dr. Esther Lovejoy, a Portland physician and local leader in women's rights, who was an Army doctor. 

For the coming 2012 centennial of woman suffrage in Oregon, here's a link to an active committee gathering ideas and material--particularly interested in finding photos and letters from the period. 

Zoe, our granddaughter, on a brief visit to our apartment, announced in her four-year-old way (birthday party last Saturday), "What a mess!"  One day we hope to present a better model to our descendants. If we can only figure out where to hang all the pictures, stow the books.

"Grandma, How many boxes left?"

"Quite a few," his grandmother answers.  And does not tell him that it may be some time before every one is emptied.  Tony Patterson, our mover, who did a great job, said there were 140 boxes.  And then there was the furniture--and the car.

Some of the resident chickens are settled and enjoy their view.  That's Zoe, standing rather than sitting, in the first day of nursery school.  Zach on his way to Tae-Kwan-Do class.

 

We are very happy to be here in Portland, Oregon, where people seem less stressed.  Okay, it's an illusion but that's a relief some times too.  So many friends and acquaintances were puzzled that we'd choose to leave the Big Apple.

Our last day in the City, AM, the free newspaper handed out at subway stops, ran a front cover to remind us of the enormity of our decision.  But this works for us--a smaller, gentler place: second stage retirement.

 

Knitting, Blogging, Leaving: the Gerund Review

Do you recall learning about  -ing words?  It was junior high,  1945, University City (suburban St. Louis).    Once again, I was in another new school-- the 8th one in my litany of public schools.  Having always been a good reader/speller, I was thrown off by having to learn RULES for grammar.

At the same time, I was required to take Latin and discovered the gerund.   With Latin as an organizing principle, I could now put together what came naturally to me and the RULES.  Present participles, however, are more elusive.

Since I began blogging three years ago, I've moved into "slow knitting," i.e., less production.  Finally completed the chicken sweater for Zoe in Portland (large enough to last through next cold spell).  Her mom and baby sister are in the photo background; her expression a result of instruction to stand still.  It's a match for the white one made for her cousin Roxie in NYC.  Pleases me that granddaughters will have "matched" garments.

Meanwhile, yarn from Close Knit in PDX (bought on our winter visit), vest for myself, finished last month.  Just in time to store in closet.  Imagine as worn by ample female walking into Powell's in October.  Noro Kochoran wool/angora/silk, pattern is Rowan Colorscape Clunky Collection.

 Then there's the other vest.  Takhi pattern looked easy.  Did not realize the cotton yarn had to be doubled.  Photos demonstrate virtual body it has become--only one of its "issues."  Much help from Knitty City here in NYC but will not be wrapped up before we leave.

Speaking of knitting, August 5, my natal day,  began with a long coffee  klatch with Kay Gardner of the blog (and cottage industry?) Mason Dixon Knitting.  Talking with Kay is always very special:  my fantasy is that I would have been sharper and kinder (you figure that out) like her if I'd been born 20 years later, gone to law school.  And a more independent knitter.  And funnier. 

Kay along with her blog and book partner, Ann Shayne, model a way of collaborating  we could use more among women.     [photo of Ann and Kay, left, introducing second book, "Knitting Outside the Lines,"   last Fall at Knitty City.]

Fiber has been an amazing community in the 15 years back in the City.  The other day a very sweet goodbye email came from Judi Seal of the UWS Knit Circle after my message to unsubscribe from their Yahoo group.  This Upper West Side gathering at a Starbucks carried me through many ups and downs in the early years of this century.  It was my introduction to  remarkable changes in knit techniques, styles, yarn  since my previous go-around in the 1980s.  I never would have thought fiber would fulfill so many of my needs.

Then there's blogging. Many thanks to all of you who wished me well on my last post.  Knowing you're out there, open to my not-very-regular appearances has been a boost during these months of  "the selling process."  Westward there are new friends from blogging-- a meet-up with Anne Gilbert of 20th Century Woman and more encoounters with Hattie of the Web.

The mover has been here to assess the project,  gave us packing/leaving dates.  We close  August 28.     "Waiting," that power-filled gerund, never my strong suite, but it's feeling within reach now.