Mary's Musings

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Thankful Thursday - Easter

As we prepare this week for Easter my mind wanders back to our trip to Israel. In 2001, my husband and I were blessed with the opportunity to visit Israel with a large group. What an awesome experience. We were queried by others back home as to 'why we would want to go there?' Their reasoning is the volatile condition Israelis are in from day to day. We did see things that reminded us of how volatile Israel was and is....the teens coming by the bus load to the beach (the Sea of Galilee)...dressed in fatigues, carrying loaded guns...for practice; the metal detectors we had to walk through to enter a store or shopping area; the border to Bethlehem blocked off by Pakistan so that we might not be able to go to the place where Jesus was born.

Many 'warnings' back home almost made us think twice time about going but our theory always was - if it's our time to go (die) what better place should it be than in the land where Jesus was born, lived, ministered, died and rose again so that He could give ME eternal life! I'm most thankful this week for this. And that's what Easter is all about.

One of my very favorite hymns is "I Come to the Garden Alone' Words and Music: C. Austin Miles, March 1912. As I sing and contemplate upon the words it reminds me of another Garden we visited one day...a Garden where Jesus walked, talked, mediated...a garden filled with calmness, and the Spirit of the Lord everywhere...the Garden of Gethsemane.

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of his voice

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,

And the melody that He gave to me

Within my heart is ringing.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

I'd stay in the garden with Him

Though the night around me be falling,

But He bids me go; through the voice of woe

His voice to me is calling.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

He is not here: for He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Matt 28:6 KJV

Mary Post Warren

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Wordless Wednesday - Groschowitz, Poland

Monday, March 29, 2010

Marias Prized Possession

Maria Fietzek Motzko was 24 years old with a husband and a 6 month old baby when she and her little family immigrated to the United States from Poland. It must have been incredibly hard for them all, especially in the 1800s, to leave everything and almost everyone she knew and loved behind for an uncertain future. I am sure Phillipp and Maria were more than excited about what lay ahead, but unsure and scared as well. I cannot even begin to imagine what they must have gone through emotionally as well as physically to make this transition.

Maria never learned English...my grandmother (Mary Motzko Troyer) would have to translate everything for my mother and her sister when they would visit their grandmother. My mom and her sister knew little, if any, Polish.

One of Maria's most treasured possessions was this map of her homeland. She would sit for hours on end just looking at it. How she must have missed her parents, her brothers and sisters, her home. Did she ever regret that she left there? In the 21st century it's so easy to travel from one country to another and back again - but in the 1800s it was next to impossible.

Maria was fortunate her sister Francesca Reh (in picture on left) also came to the United States. They lived in the same area in Idaho and were able to raise their children together. I don't know if they traveled to the United States at the same time and on the same ship, or how long it was before they were together...but it must have been a huge relief for Maria (and Francesca) to have each other.

Mary Post Warren

Sunday, March 28, 2010

My Favorite Music

I LOVE most music...from classical, to big band, to instrumentals, to religious to pop, to country/western. About the only kind of music I won't listen to is rap. In the Catholic high school I went to we were required to take 'Glee Club'...I can't carry a tune at all so I was given the job of 'turning pages' for the pianist (even tho I couldn't read music either).

Today I enjoy singing the old hymns in church, making a 'joyful noise'.

Being a child of the '40s and a teenager in the 1950s and '60s I naturally enjoy rock and roll and the old favorites of that period. I'd run home after school everyday to watch "American Bandstand' and see all the 'up and coming' pop singers of that time, like Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, Connie Francis, and many others. I use to dance at the "Rainbow Gardens" in Pomona California to the tunes of Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson, and the Everly Brothers.

concert tickets

Over the years we've seen hundreds of live concerts from the very first one I went to in Laguna Beach, CA where at the "Festival of Arts" the Righteous Brothers performed one of their very first concerts. That was in 1962 or 1963. We lived in Las Vegas for 12 years (until about October 2009) where we again saw the Righteous Brothers perform several times before Bobby Hatfield passed away (2003).

In 1968 my husband and I went to an Elvis concert when he performed in Long Beach, California. I still have the tickets from that concert, we paid only $10 each! Today to see a top star you can't touch a ticket for less than $200. What a difference a few (?) years make. A couple of years ago Bette Midler (who played at Caesar's Palace) tickets started at $135 for the 'nose bleed' section and topped out at $900 (for VIP seating).

I found this great web site recently. It's a jukebox; but it's no ordinary jukebox. It'll play all of your favorite songs from 1950 through 1989. Each year has a scroll or drop down box that shows all the great songs for that year. Most years have over 40 songs. There is even a section at the bottom that allows you to listen to show tunes, TV show themes, DooWop and several others. And it is free.

Once you click on a song it will play and when it finishes it automatically plays the next song in the list and continues until it has played all the songs. It has a volume control which you should use in conjunction with your computer's volume control. One of the best features is that it will play in the background. Pick and play any popular song from 1950 through 1989 or go to the specialty areas. You can't miss them. They are listed in very bright colors.

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Psalm 98:4 KJV