Tag Archives: current-events

Dec24

Tea & Cakes….and perhaps some Welsh Rarebit

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If you have been reading the exploits of the Tin Man, you know that he often travels to Media, Pennsylvania to visit the Marvelous, Magical Mary.

…………so in usual Tin Man fashion, here is a bit of history of the place called Media….

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The borough of Media was incorporated in 1850 and  is the county seat of Delaware County, Pennsylvania.     

In June 2006, it became the first fair trade town in America.

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The history of the town goes back to William Penn, who was named proprietor of the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681 by King Charles II of England. 

William Penn

William Penn

  

The Delaware County Institute of Science was founded in Media in 1833.

Media promotes itself as “Everybody’s Hometown”.

 Peter and William Taylor bought the land where Media is now located, directly from Penn. 

Thomas Minshall, a Quaker, was an early Media resident, settling just outside the small village then known as Providence, along the Providence Great Road.  The village then included a tailor shop, blacksmith shop, wheelwright shop, barn and other buildings.  Minshall bought 625 acres from William Penn and arrived in 1682. The Providence Friends Meeting was established at his house in February, 1688, and a meetinghouse was later built on land he donated for the purpose.  The original meetinghouse was built out of logs in 1699 or 1700 and the current building dates to 1814. 

Minshall’s house still stands and was given to the citizens of the borough in 1975. 

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The John J. Tyler Arboretum occupies part of Thomas Minshall’s original  property.   This farm was used by the underground railroad.   The land was donated to a public trust in 1944 by an eighth generation descendant. The arboretum was started as a private collection by brothers Jacob and Minshall Painter.  In 1825 they began systematically planting over 1,000 varieties of trees and shrubs.  Over 20 of their original trees survive including a giant sequoia.

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Media may be best known for secret government documents which were illegally seized there by activists in 1971 and distributed nationwide.  On March 8 of that year, the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI raided a FBI ”resident agency” in Media. They later released thousands of documents to major newspapers around the country. These documents revealed controversial and illegal FBI tactics, like the recruitment of Boy Scouts as informants, and confirmed for the first time the existence of COINTELPRO, a FBI program to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” dissident groups in the US.

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Now back to the Tea Room…..

Downtown Media is a plethora of restaurants, shops and art….

We love to walk the streets and run across them to avoid the Trolley Cars, exploring all the marvelous culinary delights.

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On a recent trip, we went to explore the delights of an English Tea Room… Tea & Cakes

what a delightful and interesting place. ……. one of the owners sits in the Tea Room and joins any and all conversations she desires…and she is quite opinionated!

We had some delightful fare……

A plate of High Tea Sandwiches and Sweets…

….of course Welsh Rarebit with Toast Points….

and Tea…Marvelous Tea…..

….back outside to run in front of the Trolleys!…..wish me luck……….

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Dec4

Fells Point : Baltimore

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Fell’s Point is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, and home to a variety of shops, restaurants, coffee bars, music stores, and over 120 pubs.  Located on the harbor and famous for its maritime past, it now boasts the greatest concentration of pubs/bars in the city.  The pubs and bars in Fell’s Point provide excellent entertainment and nightlife.  This waterfront community is a much-visited location in Baltimore.   The neighborhood has also been the home of large Polish and  Irish populations throughout its history.  In recent years a steadily increasing numbers of middle to upper middle-income residents have moved into the area, driving up property values.    Fell’s Point is one of several areas in and around Baltimore that are listed on the National Register of Historic Districts, and the first from Maryland.

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In 1965, transit planners proposed to link Interstate 83|I-83 and Interstate 95 in Maryland|I-95 by building an elevated highway along the north shore of the Baltimore harbor.  This project would have entailed extensive demolition within Fell’s Point, and the highway would have cut off the remainder of the neighborhood from the waterfront.  A  revolt against the proposals was raised by local residents and derailed the project.  Fell’s Point’s addition to the National Register of Historic Places prevented the use of federal funds for the road project, and contributed to the project’s cancellation.

Barbara Milkulski

Barbara Milkulski

  One of the leaders of the revolt was Barbara Mikulski, who would go on to become a U.S. Senator.  We had the great pleasure of visiting with her at the Greek Festival in Baltimore recently.

 We love Fell’s Point and are so grateful to the marvelous Barbara for saving the place from becoming a highway! 

We found Fell’s Point from the Most Incredible Theadora whose blog is called People, Places and Bling! 

Now, every visit to Baltimore includes a day in Fell’s Point.

Our very favorite place to visit is The Thames Street Oyster House, small Pub located on the waterfront which provides the most delicious fare!

The Mussels are, quite frankly, the BEST I have eaten anywhere on our planet, including Belgium!

The bar is small and always full of locals eating and socializing.

The cocktails are most interesting and creative concoctions, we had the Moscow Mule………oh for YUM!

I sometimes dream of having lunch at Thames Street!

The streets of Fell’s Point are full of quaint and interesting shops…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the Police Department is charming….and it was featured in “Homicide: Life on the Streets”

 

If you are ever in Baltimore……….go visit Fell’s Point, it is a place lost in time……

May29

Does Your Vote Count?

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Let me begin by informing you that the photographs and much of the historical content of this blog is not my original research.

I received an email containing much of this information from my WONDERFUL friend of many decades (since she was my undergraduate English Professor, actually)

To see something of her click on: Reflections – A Visit to Pennsylvania 

………..so the story begins………A True Story of OUR Mothers and Grandmothers who lived only 90 years ago…..

 

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote……..

 
…………at one point, innocent and defenseless women were jailed for picketing the White House….

…… carrying signs asking for the vote……..

……..and by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden’s blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women. Women wrongly convicted of “obstructing sidewalk traffic”!!!
Lucy Burns, pictured below, was beaten and then left hanging from shackles on her wrists that were chained above her head…….she was left in this manner, throughout the night, bleeding and gasping for air………

Dora Lewis (below) was hurled into a dark cell, causing her to smash her head against an iron bed frame. She was knocked out by the blow; her cell mate, Alice Cosu, thought Dora was dead and became so terrified that she suffered a heart attack. Affidavits describe the prison guards as grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus was the unfolding of “The Night of Terror” on November 15, 1917.

This was the night that the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to ‘teach a lesson’ to the suffragists who dared to picket Woodrow Wilson’s White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women’s only water came from an open pail; their food was infested with worms.


Alice Paul, pictured below, was one of the leaders among the women and began a hunger strike. The guards tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. Alice continued to be tortured like this for weeks until word of her treatment was leaked to the press

Pictured below is Mrs. Pauline Adams in the prison garb she wore while serving her 60 day sentence.


………Miss Edith Ainge of Jamestown, New York………

……..Berthe Arnold Graduate of CSU…….

……….conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution at the National Women’s Party Headquarters, Jackson Place, Washington D.C.………
Left to Right: Mrs. Lawrence Lewis, Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, Anita Politzer, Alice Paul, Florence Boeckel, Mabel Vernon (standing)

It is jarring to imagine Woodrow Wilson and his cronies attempted to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized.

To his credit the psychiatrist stated that Alice Paul was strong and brave and that did not make her crazy.

Below is Helena Hill Week from Norwalk, Connecticut, serving a three-day sentence in a Washington D.C. prison for carrying a banner that stated: “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.”


……….so it is with this recollection of facts that I implore you to not let all this hard work and suffering be in vain…..VOTE

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