Let Us All Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day!

Photo by MarashGirl©2022

When can a horse move while standing still?

"When can a horse move while standing still?" Have you figured it out yet? Here's your answer! A horse can move while standing still when it's a wooden horse on a Merry-Go-Round! [Original Riddle by MarashGirl©2022] Above riddle written in memory of Uncle Paul and Newton's Norumbega Park where Uncle Paul always took us kids on the Fourth of July!!

Newton Proclaims Its Support For The Ukraine!

Photo by MarashGirl©2022 Above photo of Albanian flag taken in Newton Lower Falls this past Friday.

Pennies For The Parking Meters!

Remember when parking meters gave you 15 . . . sometimes 30 minutes for one pennie?  Those were the days, right?  Well, on one of those days,  Ann-Louise and Marash Girl were walking along a well traveled road . . . a road with lots of cars parked at parking meters soon to run out of time  . . . when who should the girls spy approaching the first of the cars parked at one of those parking meters?  Can you guess? 

Time's up!  

The answer? A meter maid with a pad of parking tickets in her left hand and a pen in her right hand. 

Marash Girl and Ann-Louise reached into their purses and grabbed as many pennies as they could find, and in an attempt to outrun the meter maid, popped a couple of pennies into every parking meter that was out of time . . . Their good deed for the day . . . or the week!

N.B. Luckily, the meter maid chose to ignore the girls' act of largesse.  Guess she figured it was less work for her!

Cheering Up The Neighborhood

                                                    Photo by MarashGirl©2022

       

The owner of this house decided to use colorful brushstrokes in order to cheer up the neighborhood! 

Miss Peoples and the 12 Inch Ruler

Driving by the "play area" bordering the back door of Frank Ashley Day Junior High School last week, (the door through which students attending Day Junior High School entered when the school sponsored dances for the students) reminded Marash Girl of the then assistant principal, Miss Peoples (Marash Girl can't believe that she still remembers that name) and the 12" rule! Day Junior High would sponsor monthly or bimonthly "record hops" (dances where the music was not live but rather provided by a would be "disc jockey" (probably one of the teachers) playing popular music from his record collection over the PA, i.e.,public address system. The music was often romantic, slow and sensuous, an encouragement for students to dance slowly and very close to one another, much to Miss People's dismay. As it happened, Miss Peoples kept a 12 inch wooden ruler by her side -- probably left from her days of teaching mathematics to 7th graders. Miss Peoples (and this is the truth, so help me . . .) would approach every dancing couple, and, using her 12 inch ruler, measure to make sure that the students were distanced sufficiently to fit the 12 inch ruler between what she deemed to be the two young (potential) lovers! Marash Girl wonders if any of the Frank Ashley Day Junior High School graduates of that day remember those dances in the gym and the indignity of being found remiss by Miss People's 12 inch ruler....

Santa Waves To All As He Heads South For The States!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

Santa Setting Off On His Yearly Journey!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

"Yes, We're Open. We Knead The Dough!"

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

A SIGN OF THE TIMES: STOP GUNSTORES IN NEWTON!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

NO GUNSHOPS IN NEWTON, PLEASE!

A LETTER TO MAYOR OF NEWTON RUTHANNE FULLER FROM A LONG TIME CITIZEN OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS I, born and brought up in the City of Newton, one who attended Newton Public Schools from kindergarten through 12th grade, one who has worked for the City of Newton at Newton High School, a former member of the Newton Parks and Recreation Commission, am writing to you with great concern. Allowing the opening pf a gun shop, albeit next to a marijuana shop (get high and grab your gun?) in Newtonville, less than a mile from Underwood Elementary School, Bigelow Junior High School, and a little over a mile from Newton North High School … such an action on the part of your office Is unconscionable, unacceptable, unwise, and certainly not in the best interest of Newton’s citizenry. Please do all in your power to prevent the possibility of guns being sold in the City of Newton. (Signature withheld to protect the author of the above letter.)

Elizabeth Warren On Reducing Gun Violence

From: Elizabeth Warren Date: May 10, 2021 at 7:39:33 PM EDT Dear "Marash Girl", Thank you for contacting me about guns. I meet mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, grandmothers and grandfathers who have lost children and grandchildren to gun violence - communities of people whose days will forever be marked by loss. I meet them, and I promise we will not forget. The facts are simple: over 100 Americans die every day from gun violence. Five of those people are children or teens. That's five a day, every day - young bodies piling up by the thousands year after year. If five children were dying of a mysterious illness every day, our country would do everything in its power to stop it. We must do the same for the epidemic of gun violence. Massachusetts has some of the toughest laws in the country. But strong gun laws in Massachusetts won't stop someone from going to a gun show in New Hampshire or Maine, states that don't require a permit or license to buy guns, and bringing those guns across the border. Congress must act. Our communities have demanded action to curb gun violence, but the Senate continues to fall short. When faced with the chance to vote for a bipartisan compromise to ensure that universal background checks prevent dangerous people from purchasing guns - something that 90% of Americans support - a minority of U.S. Senators blocked reform in 2013, again in 2015, and again in 2016. I support measures to improve background checks for gun purchases, increase penalties for gun trafficking, limit the size of ammunition magazines, and reauthorize the expired ban on military-style assault weapons. I will continue to speak out and to support efforts to pass a comprehensive set of reforms to reduce gun violence. There is no single solution for ending gun violence, but we must do better. We must honor the memory of those we have lost to gun violence and protect our children and families from these terrible tragedies. I will keep your thoughts in mind as I continue to look for other steps we can take. I believe that it is my responsibility as a United States Senator - and as a mother and grandmother - to reduce gun violence. Sincerely, Elizabeth Warren, United States Senator

And Speaking of Lilacs . . .

Lilacs, armfuls of lilacs that, every spring, Grandma Jennie (Marash Girl's mummy) would gather from the ancient lilac bush at the front of the family's big old white, wooden two-family house on Lowell Avenue in Newtonville . . . the living room and dining room soon redolent with the beauty and perfume of the purple lilacs . . .

Lest We Forget The Tragic Death By Gunshot Of Newton's John Frankenberger!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States_(before_2000) On March 31, 1954, in Newton, Massachusetts, Marash Girl's classmate, 14-year-old John Frankenberger, was accidentally killed during English class at Frank Ashley Day Junior High School when a pistol held by his classmate (a fellow who was sitting behind John in a first period class and had been seated behind Marash Girl an hour before during homeroom) -- that pistol was accidentally discharged. Marash Girl declines to mention the name of her classmate who was holding the pistol that went off, terminating the life of her classmate, John Frankenberger!! That shooting during English class ... granted, unintentional, an accident, -- the young man holding the gun "didn't know the gun was loaded!" -- yet the gun resulted in the tragic and immediate termination of life for 14-year-old John Frankenberger.

"It's snowing down south!!!"

"It's snowing down south!!!" Anyone remember that expression? Anyone know what it means? Anyone know what a slip is? Anyone remember when women used to wear slips? In the not so old days, women (no matter how young) couldn't wear pants to school; they had to wear dresses, or skirts and blouses. If a gal's slip was showing below the lower hem of her dress or the lower hem of her skirt, she would be reminded by all around her that she should correct the problem (immediately if not sooner), the critic reminding the errant young woman by using the code words, "It's snowing down south!!!" Now, dear reader, Marash Girl must ask you. "Do you know what a slip is?"

Skating on Bullough's Pond!

Bullough's Pond, where, many years ago, Marash Girl's mother taught Marash Girl to ice skate . . . Bullough's Pond . . . where, many years later, Marash Girl and her junior high school friends played CRACK THE WHIP (all of them on ice skates on frozen Bullough's Pond . . .) with Marash Girl at the end of the whip: when the whip snapped (or should I say "cracked"), young Marash Girl fell and . . . CRACK . . . yes . . .. Marash Girl had fractured her elbow!!! Ouch! And yes . . . Bullough's Pond . . . you guessed it . . . Bullough's Pond . . .where Marash Girl taught her four children to ice skate.

FEEDING THE DUCKS

Marash Girl learned about metaphor early on in life. The metaphor? "Feeding the ducks!" Do you, dear reader, know to what this metaphor refers? If you graduated from Newton High School, you may recognize the reference . . . A prize for the first correct answer!!!!

Mystery in Cold Springs Park

 

How long has this been there?  What is it?  One day left from the very old days? Or a recent planting?

Dirty Copper

 Every time Marash Girl finds a penny on the sidewalk, it reminds her of her elementary school classmate, David S., who used to throw pennies at police cars and shout, "Dirty copper!"  And guess who joined the police force of the City of Newton!

after graduating from high school?

Emily Dickinson Visits Newton Corner's Grace Episcopal Church