Bird's-eye View Newsletter: October-November 2021

NUMBER 03

OCT/NOV 2021

NEW HEIGHTS

BIRD’S-EYE VIEW

WALKING THROUGH AUTUMN AT ROGERS PARK

SOME SAY AUTUMN SOME SAY FALL It’s Autumn Butternut Squash season.

Yum! BOO!!! w

e love all things pumpkin; carving, pie, (with LOTS of whipped cream) any kind of pumpkin coffee (yummy), pumpkin ice cream with crumpled cinnamon graham crackers. I know a lot of people born in October, including me. So to me, it’s the start of celebrations and the upcoming holidays.

I love the colors of the leaves falling, walking through them, kicking them and hearing them crunch under my feet. And finally my favorite holiday is Halloween. My favorite movies are Hocus Pocus and Nightmare before Christmas.

Dressing up is also fun.

-Antoinette

October is fun for kids!

Remember when we had all the fun?

The thing I remember about Halloween was in childhood. I liked the big and black lollipops-the licorice ones. I used to run home from school, get my pillowcase, put my costume on and run out to trick or treat. When I got home I emptied the pillowcase and my mom and I went through the candy and anything that was opened my mother threw out.

She said some people tried to poison children and that is why we went through it.

In 1996, I had purchased a new van.

The next day was Halloween. I had just regained custody of my daughter. She was 16. I also had a 6 year old son. My daughter wanted to go trick-or-treating in her old neighborhood but apparently her friends were upset that she had to move.

And they EGGED MY CAR!

-Roseanne

My days and nights as a vampire on the stage during November were busy. I would speak as Edgar Allan Poe. I remember my friends’ sons’ being asked “how do I dress at home”, to entertain friends.

This Halloween, Helen my girlfriend, bought me a Dracula costume. I like Dracula because he’s my friend.

-Al

-Dolly

-David

“MY FAVORITE THING ABOUT SEASONS CHANGING IS THE OPPORTUNITY TO LOOK DIFFERENT.” — TAYLOR SWIFT WHEN AUTUMN LEAFS, WINTER ARRIVES - SEASONAL PUN Stay Summer, stay i will no longer be green with envy I can and will change i can’t bare to see you leave…

I hope that love will find me again -Jeff U.

A

s a child I loved to jump on the leaves. In school. In second grade, we would collect different colored leaves and paste them on construction paper. We also traced the leaves and colored them in. For fall, leaves are my theme.

-Roseanne

A

t work, I love pumpkin spice cookies. They are delicious. I like watching the leaves turn. I put away my summer clothes. And I now wear long pants in the fall and winter, and long shirts or sweaters.

The weather is nice and crisp.

-Mindy

F

all has long been my favorite season. I didn’t always like the “back-to-school” part of the year, but the changing light and color in Connecticut is amazing. The sound of the fallen leaves crunching under my feet is a real ASMR trigger for me, creating a feeling of deep relaxation. And I’ve become, like most others in the past few years, a ridiculous pumpkin spice fanatic.

-Greg

Purple Thursday, October 21, 2021:

A national day of action each October during Domestic Violence Awareness Month is used to raise awareness about domestic violence and for people to show their commitment to promoting healthy relationships.

Autumn is a season of fundraising. My own business, producing videos, was busy this year working on fundraising gala’s for the Lupus Research Alliance and the Hospital for Special Surgery.

The LRA raised 7.5 Million this year for their “Breaking Through Gala”, at the Ziegfeld ballroom, and simulcast online.

For HSS Pediatrics, we profiled Michael, a longtime patient who was born with cerebral palsey. This year he ran a 5K race with the help of his HSS surgeons and a lot of human spirit.

WHEN HALLOWEEN ARRIVES, GET

COSTUMED O

ne year during my marriage, we didn’t have money for either of my childrens’ ( one boy, one girl) costumes. The local church was having a “bag sale”. My son attended the nursery school at the church, so I stopped in. My son wanted to be a Ninja, and my daughter wanted to be a princess (of course!) (Some things never change). Well, lo and behold, I found long black stretchy pants, a black turtleneck, and a black scarf. Yahoo! One outfit!!! Then I searched some more, and found a gold dress. AGAIN Yahoo! I used my limited but sufficient sewing (on a machine) skills and it became the best Halloween of their lives, which is still talked about today.

N

ot my favorite costume, but I wanted to go out as a ghost.

My mother took a sheet and put holes for my eyes. I was so excited! I was about 7 or 8 years old.

My mother, sister, and I went out to trick or treat. Within an hour, the sheet started ripping over my head.

People started thinking I was an angel. We always went to the firehouses, and my mothers’ friends, and our relatives’ houses and one year we went to my Aunt Joanie’s house. She gave me some candy and something in foil. She said I was the only one getting the foil treat. I was so happy! I was her favorite niece. I went back to the car while my mother and Aunt talked. I couldn’t wait to see what was in the foil. I opened it and to my surprise, it was NOT a treat! It was a trick!

My aunt put dry cat food in it! I was mad. But I also got a good laugh over it!

- Dorothea

JOIN OUR BEV WRITING TEAM AND ENJOY PARFAITS AND BISCUITS FOR YOUR STORIES.

- Antoinette

BINGO!

I

was having a happy Halloween in Upper Marlboro Maryland in the 70’s. My friend did not wear a mask, he wore make-up. My other friends’ father was an architect, and made his son R2D2 from Star Wars. We all were out trick or treating. We went to one house, and a person dressed up like a vampire gave us treats. Funny thing was – he was a REAL vampire! I love the Halloween season- kids are happy, and I love giving them candy, tricks, and treats. After Halloween, our community will be celebrating Thanksgiving- I look forward to that. Talking to my family and getting together. On Halloween I’ll probably dress up-looking forward to the occasion!

-Colin

SOME HAVE A WAY WITH WORDS We like to reserve a place, so we thoughfully made this space :)

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VETERANS DAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2021

L

ike most days, I drive by the Vietnam Veterans’ memorial in Danbury on my way home. On November 11th, the changing leaves looked like a movie, a burst of Napalm on the CVS across the street. I took a few pictures while waiting at the red light. The statue of an American soldier carrying a Vietnamese child is a powerful image and deeply meaningful for me and my family. was only six years old when my family adopted my sister from Vietnam. I loved getting fingerprinted at the police station for adoption process, and taking the train into the New York City to be interviewed. We adopted through Catholic Charities, who had airlifted the orphaned babies to America at the end of the war with VIetnam. or most Americans, Vietnam remains a difficult war to understand. In the 1980’s, there seemed to be a need to emotionally process, with popular films from Stanley Kubrick and Oliver Stone. Still, it took another thirty years to begin to recognize the unjust hostilities that even our own soliders had to endure when they began returning home in the 1960’s. arly in the 1990’s I traveled to Vietnam for work. I filmed a documentary about artists emerging in a new open culture called Doi Moi. We talked to painters, writers and poets. One writer was even called the “Vietnamese Oliver Stone”.

His stories of Vietnamese soldiers mirrored the experiences of American soldiers portrayed in the movie Platoon. It was eye-opening to learn how much the Vietnamese people really are just like the average American.

-Greg

I F E

How do you celebrate Holloween?

O

ne Halloween I made costumes for my two sons. One was dressed as Elton John, and I made a piano for the other boy out of a box. My favorite part of Halloween is to go to a gorgeous home and peek in as far as I could see.

-Keven

How do you celebrate Thanksgiving Day?

I

have a beautiful tablecloth on my table that says “Give Thanks”. I take it out every autumn.

I prepare for the holidays by saving money. I bought some more gifts and they are already wrapped. I prepare by keeping all my holiday items in boxes and store them in the closet.

-Roseanne

I love leisurely drives, to see all the leaves in their splendor. Dotting the hills are the evergreens poking their forever splendor, reminding me that- among the changes, some things still remain the same.

- Dolly

AUTUMN HUMOR: IF YOU DON’T STAND FOR SOMETHING, YOU’LL FALL FOR ANYTHING!

How did NH celebrate Thanksgiving?

B

ecause of the pandemic, this was the second year we couldn’t organize a Thanksgiving Day Celebration. Our members decided to organize their own gathering, and come together to show thanks, share a pot-luck meal, and make new memories.

WE’RE GETTING PRETTY GOOD AT THIS

CREATIVE CRAFTING @ New Heights There are proven benefits to all this “work”.

Helps to REDUCE ANXIETY Helps to IMPROVE MOOD Helps to INCREASE HAPPINESS

STARGAZER’S DREAM

Don’t miss the next Bird’s-eye View and find out if Stargazer’s dream comes true!

Bird’s-eye View Staff Editor-in-Chief: Greg Assistant Editor: Dorothea Writers: Roseanne, David, Dolly, Antionette, Andrew, Jeff, Mindy, Greg, Al, & Colin Photographers: Keven, Greg, & Big John Models: Jeff, Hemant, Sophia, and our NH Staff

Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence.

- Vince Lombardi