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| The throne room |
The island of Crete, Greece, sits in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and is huge in comparison to the other Greek isles. Crete measures 160 miles wide from west to east, and varies in width from 7.5 to 37 miles from north to south, making its area 3,218 square miles. Crete was an independent nation from 1898 until 1913, when it joined modern Greece.
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| Harriet Robin New Orleans School of Cooking |
In sum, fiction—the ultimate untruth—must,
of necessity, be based in truth, and supported by facts. Our written untruth must be believable. Thorough
research is how we attain this believable untruth. Research is the lifeblood of
good fiction. If it doesn’t ring true, the reader will soon be bored and more
likely to put our novel down and, worse, add us to their “do not read” list.
Happy Father's Day, Delbo G.!
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| Delbert R. Gardner and Adele Gardner |
Growing up, I had the time of my life sharing the writing path with my father, Delbert R. Gardner, a talented writer of poetry, fiction, humor, and essays, who during my lifetime worked variously as a professor of English literature who taught creative writing, and as a writer/editor for TRADOC who felt a special mission to improve training materials for the Army thanks to his experiences in World War II. I’m writing this on the eve of Father’s Day, so I just wanted to share how much it always went to me that Dad was my writing mentor, always encouraging me, providing feedback when I wanted it that was always on a level I could benefit from while growing up, just sharing the joy of the writing life together, and also showing me all the ropes with submissions. I started submitting my stories at fourteen and had my first poems published at sixteen thanks to Dad’s guidance. We were also writing pals—sharing writing sessions; offering one another encouragement; sending out manuscripts through the post every month; celebrating one another’s acceptances and tips about editors who might like each other’s work. (And now I’m his literary executor; and it’s in that capacity that I first began using statistics to track our submissions.) Since he helped me so much, and since I got such a lucky break having such a father (in terms of being a writer, naturally; but also, he was just simply an extraordinary Dad, so loving and wise, playing with us, sharing jokes, helping us with our homework and with life—our best friend) I feel strongly about passing on some of the things I learned thanks to Dad—things he taught me, and things I went on to find out as a direct result of his influence.
That's the year my teacher tasked us with writing a report on a country. Ugh. Tedious. Then she said our reports had to be bound in a hardcover binder. The uphill assignment suddenly took on the wonder of a trip to Disneyland.
I could hardly wait to get home, choose a country, pull out my brother's World Book Encyclopedia and get down to some shameless cribbing.
Okay, I cared a little about
the content of my report. First, I wanted a country no other eight-year-old Glen Cove student would pick to write about. Second, the nation had to be
manageable in scope. Switzerland and Germany were out.
My choice was Ruanda-Burundi, a photo
of which I'd seen in a National Geographic.
In nineteen-fifty-eight, kids used
two-hole ruled paper and printed neatly on sheets of it in pencil. My
teacher asked for the reports to be sectioned into Customs, Culture, Social
Groups, Arts, Clothing, and History. Luckily, Volume R of the World Book
had those bases covered.
But I was working toward that
cover. For the blissful moment when I'd place my penciled pages of paragraphs into the black hardcover binder my mother let me purchase from the
school supply section of Newberry’s (yesterday's Dollar Tree).
I glued a large red and
white paper label (used by Mom to mail packages) on the front cover and boldly
wrote on it with red pen:
RUANDA-BURUNDI
by Judy Fowler
I sat cross-legged on the floor and held that covered beauty in my hands. I peeked inside to look at those penciled
pages snuggled up inside it. True North.
Holiday card-making exposed the same compulsive urge to cover the "Roses are Red" dreck I'd written for my parents and grandparents. It wasn’t a card until I'd nestled it inside a
homemade envelope, even if the card never saw a mailbox and only had to go
upstairs on a tray.
A few months ago, a story of mine
became downloadable in an anthology titled Rock, Roll, and Ruin,
edited by Karen Pullen of North Carolina’s Triangle Chapter of Sisters in
Crime. The stories are fantastic, but what I wanted to see most? The e-book cover.
Most manuscripts I read to my colleagues
leave me less than thrilled until I get them covered. I love the magic of Fiver. They take
my ideas and in two days a cover appears. I can even tweak it and
get it back again in a few hours. It's an itch my discretionary income allows.
So, whether my story appears alone or last or
eighth in a manuscript's batting order, I’m just happy to know it's inside something. I judge a book once it's covered.
The History
For some people,
Juneteenth is just another day off work or school, but there is so much more
behind the holiday and its history. It is an important part of U.S. history, which changed America in many ways. The freedom it represented for so many was astounding.
Juneteenth is
short for June Nineteenth, the day in 1865 on which slaves in Texas were
officially freed. On June 18, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas. I'm sure the people of the city were wondering what was going on. The following day, as Major General Gordon Granger walked through the town and informed the community about President Lincoln's signing of the proclamation, I'm sure some folks were not happy about it. Some enslavers were probably pretty sure being slave owners would be part of their lives forever. Perhaps some of the slaves thought they died and went to heaven! Some may have been scared and not sure they were hearing the news correctly. Although Emancipation Proclamation was issued two and a half years prior,
enslavers were held responsible for telling the enslaved they were free, and
some ignored the directive. Major General Gordon demanded Galveston locals
comply with the proclamation. This was a day that changed many lives forever.
The former slaves rejoiced in their new freedom. They began celebrating through prayer, song, and dance. One can only imagine the encouragement and feelings of empowerment the former slaves experienced emotionally. They must have had the euphoria after two hundred-plus years of African Americans being enslaved and suddenly, they were free!
Texas being the last state in which the proclamation was announced, was the first state to
recognize Juneteenth statewide. The annual holiday to commemorate the official day
enslaved African Americans in Galveston were freed began in 1866. When African
Americans migrated from the South, the holiday spread across the country.
Juneteenth is also known throughout the world as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Black Independence Day, Cel-Liberation Day, and Second Independence Day. Congress passed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in June 2021, one day after the Senate unanimously passed the bill. It became a federal holiday when President Joe Biden signed the Act on June 17, 2021. After the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Democratic Senator Ed Markey first introduced the Juneteenth Bill in 2020, however, it didn't get passed.
"Today’s Senate passage of our legislation to commemorate Juneteenth as a federal holiday will address this long-ignored gap in our history, recognize the wrong that was done, acknowledge the pain and suffering of generations of slaves and their descendants, and finally celebrate their freedom," Markey said after the bill passed on June 17 of 2021. (USA Today, 2022)
The Flag
The white star in
the center represents “Texas, the Lone Star State” and the freedom of African
Americans in all fifty states.
The burst
outlining the star is inspired by a nova, meaning a new star.
The
arc extending across the flag's width represents a new horizon - a new freedom,
a new people, new opportunities, and promises that lay ahead for Black Americans.
Red represents the millions of Black
men and women who lost their lives while enslaved, as civil rights leaders, and those unjustly murdered.
Black represents the melanin of Black
people, the rich soil of the Nile valley, and the unification of
the African diaspora.
Green
stands for fertility, productivity, and prosperity and is the
fertile cradle of Africa.
Juneteenth
is celebrated in many ways around the world which include:
Flag-raising ceremonies.
Cookouts
Parades
Festivals
Block parties
Church services
Ceremonies to honor community service
I attended Jubilee events at Powderhorn
Park in Minneapolis, MN as a teenager with my sister and friends and later with
my husband. Although I didn’t really know the history of Juneteenth during
those times, I always enjoyed the festival. I love the unity of people honoring the importance of Juneteenth. I felt
connected with fellow Americans, of all races in attendance and the celebrations.
This year I plan to attend various Juneteenth events with my family. My husband and I discuss each holiday's history and its significance with our grandchildren. Trust me, we will be discussing Juneteenth
with them again this year. We want to ensure they understand the holiday and why it is an
important part of history to be celebrated as other holidays they are familiar with.
Juneteenth celebrations can be small and personal or huge and elaborate. Have you celebrated Juneteenth in
past years? Will you celebrate Juneteenth this year? If so, how?
Not sure how to celebrate Juneteenth?
You can find suggestions and listings of 2023 Juneteenth Events near you on the
internet.
References:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/06/15/juneteenth-us-federal-holiday/7582744001/
Related Articles
and Videos
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/what-is-juneteenth/
https://www.juneteenth.com/history/
https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBtIHTcDfYg
It’s been called "The House Wine of the South," by Dolly Parton in the movie Steel Magnolias, which was never a truer statement. Talk about the South and sooner or later sweet tea comes to mind. In the South, tea is appropriate for all meals, and all occasions, and you start drinking it before you can walk. Sweet tea makes Southerners think of home, tradition, picnics, and hot afternoons “sippin” sweet tea on the front porch. Southern girls are taught how to make it by their mama’s thirst-quenching recipes.
Until the
1900s, iced tea was made from green tea leaves rather than black tea leaves. The oldest recipe in print was when sugar was first added by a housewife
and socialite named Marion Cabell Tyree from Charleston, South Carolina. Her
recipe was published in the cookbook, Housekeeping in Old Virginia in 1879.
While sweet
tea remains a Southern delicacy, originally Southern-style sweet tea was made by
dissolving cups of sugar in batches of boiling water in which green tea leaves
were steeped. Once the water cooled and the leaves were removed, the tea was
ready to be served.
But depending on the amount of
sugar dissolved, the original sweet tea of the 18th and early
19th centuries had a sticky—simple syrup taste that was too
sweet. That’s when alcoholic “Green Tea Punches” became popular among the
British aristocracy. Then southerners created a “Planter’s Punch” made of sweet
green tea with pineapple, and citrus juices, and cut with near-lethal amounts
of rum, whiskey, and bourbon to tolerate the sweetness.
By the late 1820s, America’s love affair with a “strong drink” began to cool as a growing number of Americans began identifying as “Teetotalers,” advocating against alcoholic beverages. Iced tea was at the top of that list and the South preferred sweet tea sans the alcohol.
1904 St. Louis World's Fair - Cold Black Tea Takes Center Stage
World War II - Tea Importation Cut off
A British soldier with the 2/7th Middlesex Regiment shares a cup of tea with an American infantryman in the Anzio bridgehead, on Feb 10, 1944.
Tea Stats - Over 1,000 Varieties
Today, there are over 1,000 varieties of tea, most classified as white, green, oolong, and black. Tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world next to water and can be found in almost 80% of U.S. households. It's the only beverage served hot or iced, anytime, anywhere for any occasion. On any given day, over 159 million Americans are drinking tea and 75-80% of it is iced.
Aside from a frosty beer, no
drink quenches a thirst like a glass of iced tea. In the South, it’s served
sweet and unsweetened. But in the Northeast, Midwest, or West iced tea is
usually served black—meaning unsweetened.
Any kid can tell you where Santa Claus is from—the North Pole. But his historical journey is even longer and more fantastic than his annual,...
