Magical Memoir Moments
Taking a Turn Toward the Sixties, Mennonite Memoir Style
1966 That’s the year I heard the gravel crunch in the driveway of our Pennsylvania farm as my parents drove me and a few worldly possessions to Eastern Mennonite College. Today I’m suddenly curious about the world I lived in then and alert to the many other windows to the past currently online. Today I’ll…
Does BLUSH Have a Sequel?: The Box in the Basement
Readers have been asking if Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World has a sequel. My honest answer is that I don’t know. However, this box has been whispering to me. “Come look.” From out of the stack of albums pictured below, a little voice squeaks: “Play me, Shirley, Shirley bo burley.” So, I am…
Carpe Diem: A Tribute to Robin Williams
When I heard the news of Robin Williams’ death on August 11, 2014, I felt it viscerally, along with so many other people around the world. I’ve seen most of his most famous movies, but the one I thought of immediately was Dead Poet Society, a film I have often watched with English majors. The…
On Being Not Quite Amish: A Mennonite Perspective
Last evening, as Stuart and I came into Union Station by train here in Chicago, we followed two young Amish families. They walked rapidly, carrying a matching powder blue luggage set without wheels, assorted other bags, and several babies. The men wore black hats. The women black bonnets, black hose, and long dresses. Everyone around…
Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Grandma Hershey’s Way of Peace
When I think of peacemakers, I don’t think of soldiers or guns or even the Peace Corps. I think of this verse from the Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Then I think of Grandma Hershey. Grandma Hershey was soft. When I was sick,…
The Tie that Binds: How Mennonite College Friendships Grew from Twig to Vine
I’ve just said good-bye to my three closest college friends: Mary, Tina, and Gloria. We gathered in Gloria’s home, State College, Pennsylvania, just to renew our friendship for three days. This photo was taken next to a pergola covered with trumpet vine. The story of how the vine grew over time, told by Gloria the…
Not Quite Amish: Photos of Simplicity Rooted in a Mennonite Childhood
I like the honesty of this website name: Not Quite Amish. Here’s the explanation of the name from the home page: Maybe you’d like to be Amish…but not quite. You want more peace in your life, in your home, in your family, and in your heart. You want to try a new recipe and pick…
On the Road Again: Coming to a City Near You?
Forty-five years ago, these two merry wanderers decided to set off on the journey of life together: We used the image of the Conestoga Wagon to dream together, having been influenced by the story that a Mennonite invented the wagon, and having read lots of Little House on the Prairie books, we somehow associated freedom,…
Catherine R. Mumaw: A Different Kind of Mother's Day Tribute
Who mothered you in addition to or instead of or beside your biological mother? As we celebrate mothers this Sunday, I invite you to answer this question. For me, there were many such women. Women in my family; Mary Lauver, our pastor’s wife and a leader in her own right, and many others in my…
How to Get Ready to Die: Easter Lessons from My Mennonite Mother
“Just don’t say, ‘She fell into the arms of Jesus.’” We were talking about death and funerals, fun topics for a 65-year-old woman and her 87-year-old mother. When Mother described the clichés and embellished phrases of some obituaries, we both howled in recognition, eager to reduce the serious, universal, subject of death with just enough…