38 minute read
calendar
December–January
Monday–Friday 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
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Celebrate: Annual Winter Show. Goshen Music Hall, Goshen, NY. Hosted by Goshen Art League. Info: www.goshenartleague. com.
10 a.m.–6 p.m.
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Holiday Market. Peters Valley Gallery, Layton, NJ. Info: 973.948.5200, www. petersvalley.org.
December 2nd
Friday 4–7 p.m.
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Holiday Date Night. Branchville, NJ. Kick off holiday shopping. Tree lighting at 6 p.m. Info: 862.268.5184.
December 2nd–4th
Friday–Saturday 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Sunday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
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German Christmas Market. Sussex County Fairgrounds, Augusta, NJ. $7–$10. Benefits Sussex County charities. Info: 973.534.8628, www.germanchristmasmar ketnj.com.
Friday 5:00–6:30 p.m. Saturday 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Sunday 2:00–3:30 p.m.
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A Christmas Carol. Grey Towers, Milford, PA. $20–$25. Dramatic reading. Info: 570.296.9630, greytowers.org.
December 3rd
Saturday 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
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Holiday Craft Show. Kittatinny Regional High School, Newton, NJ. Everything handmade. Hosted by Kittatinny Players Booster Club to benefit the theater program. Info: www.thekpbc.org.
10 a.m.–7 p.m.
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Light Up Milford. Milford, PA. Activities, cookie swaps, photo booths, tree lighting with Santa. Info: milfordpa.us.
5 p.m.–9 p.m.
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Goshen Christmas House Tour: Lights. Goshen, NY. Self-guided tour of outside Christmas decorations. Hosted by Catholic Charities Community Services of Orange and Sullivan. $35/carload. Info: 845.294.5124, www.cccsos.org.
December 3rd–4th
Saturday–Sunday 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
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Wreath Fineries at the Wineries. Shawangunk Wine Trail Wineries, NY. Selfguided wine tasting tour & wreath decorations. $15–$65. Advance tickets only. Info: 845.256.8456, www.shawangunkwinetrail.com.
2:30–7:00 p.m.
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Old Time Christmas. Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm, Stroudsburg, PA. $18/ adults, $10/children 3-12. Also December 10–11. Info: 570.992.6161, www.quietval ley.org.
December 7th
Wednesday 7:00–8:30 p.m.
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Lights of Life Tree Lighting. Newton Town Square, Newton NJ. Hosted by Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice. Also December 8th, Memorial Park, Milford, PA. Info: 973.383.0115, karenannquinlanhospice.org.
December 8th
Thursday Noon–2:30 p.m.
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Holiday Lunch. Sparta Ambulance Bldg, Sparta, NJ. Music by No Strings A Cappella. Hosted by Sparta Historical Society. Info: 973.726.0883, www.vankirkmuseum.org.
December 8th–11th
Thursday & Friday 7 p.m. Saturday 2 & 8 p.m. Sunday 2 & 7p.m.
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It’s a Wonderful Life & Miracle on 34th Street. Dingmans Ferry Theatre, Akenac Park, Dingmans Ferry, PA. A live radio show format. $10. Info: dingmansferrythe atre.com.
December 9th
Friday 6:30 p.m.
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Roaring 20’s Gala Extraordinaire. Lafayette House, Lafayette, NJ. Dinner, dance & auction. $85. Hosted by the Sussex County Arts and Heritage Council. Info: 973.383.0027, www.scahc.org.
December 9th–11th
Friday–Sunday
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Hawley Winterfest. Hawley, PA. Music, holiday fare, house tours, carriage rides & more. Hosted by Downtown Hawley Partnership. Info: 570.226.4064, visithawley pa.com.
Friday–Saturday 7 p.m. Sunday 2 p.m.
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A Christmas Carol. Old School Baptist Meeting House, Warwick, NY. Performed by the Greenwood Lake Theater Company. In partnership with Warwick Historical Society. $20–$25. Info: 845.986.3236, www.greenwoodlaketheater.org.
December 10th
Saturday 9 a.m.–3 p.m.
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Winter Wonderland. Sussex County Fairgrounds, Augusta, NJ. Holiday gifts, tricky tray, pet adoptions. $5. Hosted by Eleventh Hour Rescue. Info: 973.664.0865, Facebook: Eleventh Hour Rescue.
10 a.m.—noon
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Eagle Watch Volunteer Training Day. Highlights Foundation Retreat Center, Boyds Mills, PA. Includes visits to Van Scott Nature Reserve & Eagle Observation Areas. Info: 570.226.3164, delawarehighlands.org.
December 11th
Sunday 1:30 p.m.
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Christmas A Capella. Milford Theater, Milford, PA. Calmus Ensemble Leipzig. Hosted by Kindred Spirits Arts Program in cooperation with Milford Hospitality Group. $30. Info: 570.409.1269, www.kin dredspiritsarts.org.
2 p.m.
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Christmas Around the World. United Methodist Church, Milford, PA. Performance by Delaware Valley Choral Society. Free. Info: dvchoralsociety.org.
December 16th
Friday 8 p.m.
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Frank Sinatra & Friends Holiday Show. Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center, Chester, NY. $35. Info: 845.469.7000, www. sugarloafpacny.com.
Colors and Sounds of Nature
Rhee and Brian Kastan
Left page: Paintings top right and bottom left by Rhee Kastan; photography top left Photos courtesy of Rhee and Brian Kastan and bottom right by Brian Kastan. I t was a beautiful day for the Hudson Valley Jazz Fest. A late summer heat wave with bright sun, just the way I like it. A month before the autumnal equinox, yet there was so much more to accomplish before the summer’s end.
I was meeting my friend and client Brian Kastan, virtuoso acoustic and electric guitarist/electric and fretless bassist, accomplished composer, and arranger. Brian’s trio was one of the opening groups for the HVJF Saturday line-up. Brian was also a sponsor of this year’s Jazz Fest. He performed a Free Jazz/Improv set with his group, Brian Kastan & Guests. The stage was set under a tent, with oscillating fans, at the Open Space, a fine art, photography, and music performance venue at 97 Windemere Avenue in the Village of Greenwood Lake. It was so hot under the mid-afternoon sun that the trio had to forego any encore, much to the disappointment of the enthusiastic “free jazz” fans.
We packed up the instruments, closed-up shop and headed over to the Blarney Station on Railroad Avenue in the Village Green in Warwick for an early dinner. The main event and closing performance featured the Oz Noy Band, right across the street on the Railroad Avenue Stage. Brian and I had quite a bit of catching up to do since we have only been communicating over the phone, email, and messaging since the Covid pandemic restrictions went into effect in 2020. There was much more on our plate to accomplish in the next month, primarily the rebranding of the gallery and the release of his wife Rhee’s new album, color my soul.
Rhee and Brian met while attending Brooklyn College and wed in 2005. Along the way, they had two sons and lived in Queens for nine years. City life was getting frantic, and Orange County, NY, offered what they wanted. They also wanted to take their fine art and photography to a higher level. In 2014, the family moved to a home on a wooded lot in Warwick. They enjoyed being close with local musicians, artists, and generally creative people. Around this time, Brian would fly off to domestic and offshore exotic locations to shoot photos seldom seen through the camera’s lens.
Rhee is an American-Filipino artist and singer-songwriter. She describes her art in this manner: “I create and build oil paintings, sculptures, and drawings that are held between two worlds—the figurative and the conceptual.” In addition, she states, “My work consistently reveals the female form in quite a flux, exploring themes of freedom and containment or falling and searching.”
Rhee has shown her work at the Arad Biennale—Romania, Tucson Desert Art Museum, the Seligmann Art Center, the WAH Center, and many other international galleries. She has permanent work in public collections, such as the MIDAC Contemporary Art Museum in Italy; Brooklyn College, CUNY Art Library; and a mural at Lincoln Hospital, Bronx, N.Y.
Brian is an award-winning nature photographer with shows in New York City, Europe, and Asia. He has shown his photography alongside many artists, including Milton Avery, Willem De Kooning, Francoise Gilot (Pablo Picasso), Jean- Baptiste-Camille Corot, Ernest Fiene, Manuel Ayaso, Rudolph Ernst, George Beecham, Childe Hassam, and Edwin Austin Abbey.
Rhee and Brian opened Kastan’s Art Space in Greenwood Lake in October 2019 after an extensive restoration of what once was the Village post office. The couple started lining the walls with Rhee’s fine art and Brian’s photography, along with the work of other artists.
Brian, who had always worked and recorded with the most eclectic and avant-garde jazz musicians, started using the gallery on weekends for performances and recording sessions.
He recorded a couple of albums with jazz bassist Juini Booth. Juini played double-bass with the great jazz innovators of our time—the legendary McCoy Tyner, Tony Williams, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones, Sun Ra, Chico Freeman, and so many more. I sat in on the last session with Juini.
In February and March 2020, I started promoting Brian’s trio (which included Peter O’Brien on drums) to New York City contemporary & straight-ahead jazz clubs, which almost always require an acoustic double-bass player in the group. I targeted the clubs that would be willing to book the trio’s “improv/free jazz” style.
During this period, there was talk of the coronavirus, but no one seemed to take it seriously. On March 16, 2020, however, everything came to a screeching halt due to the Covid pandemic. Restaurants, music performing venues, movie theatres, and other public gathering places had to shut down. The Art Space was no exception, and it had to close as well, no fine art and photography exhibits and no music. All projects were off. Sadly, Juini passed away on July 11, 2021, and our creative musical project succumbed with him.
The Art Space, now called the Open Space, had been a dream of Rhee and Brian’s since moving into Warwick. They owned and operated a small gallery in Sugar Loaf and were ready to own their own gallery, made to their own multi-use specifications. They felt comfortable with the ambience and the local vibe in the area. Their dream seemed to shatter with the onset of the Covid shutdown. At the time, it seemed that the dream would not become a reality.
Determined to make it happen, the Kastans did online sales, and Rhee spent more time painting and drawing in her home studio and writing the music for her new album. Brian spent more time outdoors, taking landscape and wildlife photographs throughout the Hudson Valley. He also performed outdoor concerts on the gallery grounds during the warmer weather. They endured the Covid pandemic. through. One of Brian’s collaborative photo-paintings on canvas, Badlands National Park, South Dakota, sold through Invaluable online auction for $175,000. As Brian puts it, “When taking landscape photos, I feel more connected to the earth.”
Indeed, the city couple adapted well to the Hudson Valley. Now the dream was coming to fruition for Rhee from Brooklyn and Brian from Long Island.
The future now looks bright for the Open Space. In addition to the fine art gallery, photography, and music performance/ recording venue, the space will be available as a lecture hall for guest speakers in 2023.
The couple completed an album for Rhee, her second. She had started performing at a young age with the iconic Amato Opera House in the East Village, NYC, and moved on to performing in Italy at sold-out stadiums with 15,000seat capacity. She has written and recorded for film and has performed in the Greenwich Village, Soho, and Tribeca music scene.
Rhee says, “My music is eclectic and consists of warm female vocals and detailed stories accompanied by Brian on acoustic guitar.” Adding, “I project deep imagery in my lyrics, with a myriad of rhythms and tonal play on my new album, color my soul.” Her music has been played on Long Island radio stations and played worldwide on different internet platforms.
Rhee’s first album, Sweet Unknown, was released in 2007 and remixed seven years later in 2014. Rhee explains, “The interplay of the emotion-driven acoustic guitar allows the lyrical storytelling of this album to place each song in the heart of the listener.”
Her new album officially launched during a CD release party on November 19th at the Old Tappan Brewery in Bayville, NY. The music is folk with a flavor of Americana, an amalgam of American music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the musical ethos
of the United States such as jazz, folk, blues, country, and bluegrass. Rhee explains, “The storytelling takes center stage with poetic word play and rhythmic articulation surprises in every song.” Reassuring that “we can hear influences of singer-songwriting, rock and country music filtering through this album, with sensitivity of the vocal range and articulation from the raw to the sweet.”
In addition to Rhee’s performances, Brian will continue to perform and record. He has released 40 albums as a band leader and/or band member, incorporating his photos into most of his album covers (with graphics by Rhee). He played his electric Fender jazz bass and electric fretless bass on 13 of the albums.
Brian was back in the studio in mid-November to record a free jazz genre album with two-time Grammy winner Rachel Z, acoustic pianist and electric keyboardist, and Peter O’Brien, the drummer with the band Orleans and the Edgar Winter Band.
After his next album, Brian will be going on an African Safari for a photoshoot that includes both landscape and wildlife. Regardless of where his travels take him, whether photoshoots or recording sessions, Brian’s thoughts remain the same, “Once I finish recording an album, I want to take more photos. On the flight home, I think about the next album.”
The talented and enterprising couple plan to fill the gallery with their fine art and photography, including the photos from Brian’s upcoming African Safari, which will give Open Space a bold new look with wildlife, vast deserts, tropical rain forests, rugged mountains, and fertile grasslands.
As Brian and Rhee Kastan know, there has always been a natural connection between contemporary jazz and fine art, in particular a connection between free jazz with modern expressionism art, and they are living examples of those very connections. ........................................................................................... Through the end of 2022, the duo plans on bringing their music to: UpFront Exhibition Space, Blairstown Theatre/Roy’s Hall, the Falcon, Outpost in the Burbs, Krough’s, the Town Crier, and Tomi Jazz. For more information, visit www.rheekastan.com and www.briankastan.com.
Tom Mulligan is a writer, literary agent, and publicist. He represents Rhee and Brian Kastan, and other musicians including Rachel Z, Christine Spero, and Arthur Sadowsky.
One doesn’t have to look very far in the greater Pike County region to realize the impact of the Greater Pike Community Foundation (GPCF). Its work and philanthropy reach every type of need and all corners of the region, as if it were a thick fiber being woven through this tapestry of a community we call home.
Although I had known of the Greater Pike Community Foundation, I never had a full understanding of what it did until I was invited to become its outreach coordinator in September 2021. Before I felt comfortable saying yes, I did some research.
As I started looking around, I was amazed to see its effects: at food pantries and festivals, scholarships and schools, historical sites and holiday events, streetscapes and sidewalks, libraries, museums, animal shelters, and the list goes on! I needed to learn more. Join me on my journey of discovery….
The first thing I learned is that a community foundation, according to Fidelity Charitable, is a public charity that typically focuses on supporting a geographic area, primarily by facilitating and pooling donations used to address community needs and support local nonprofits. A foundation builds endowments and permanent funds for current and future community needs, fosters philanthropy, focuses the impact of collective giving, finds solutions to community challenges, and allocates grants.
Whoa! Greater Pike does all this? But how? I was surprised to learn that Greater Pike has become the largest philanthropic source of funding for local nonprofits. It has been around since 2012, a relatively young organization that was started by a small cadre of civic-minded people who recognized the
GPCF’s board members
need to create a stable and sustainable way to support local organizations that contribute so much to our quality of life.
A few years later, with the ambitious vision and a generous donation from Milford’s well-known civic leader Richard L. Snyder, Greater Pike was able to build upon—for lack of a better image—a foundation that would support a community with changing demographics and burgeoning social and cultural needs, not just for one year or in the moment, but forever.
Today, the Greater Pike Community Foundation is managing 33 different funds set up by individuals, families, and non-profit organizations or left as a bequest to Greater Pike. The largest grant program is from the Richard L. Snyder Fund, which provides funding for a wide variety of causes, including those supporting the arts, health and wellness, historic preservation, and civic improvements.
Other funds are focused on a specific field of interest or may serve as an endowment for a specific organization. Most are “donor advised,” meaning that the individual or family that establishes the fund appoints a fund advisor to provide guidance to Greater Pike on distributing grants from their fund.
“Establishing Greater Pike gave donors an opportunity to set up an endowment and let it grow and fund things over time instead of someone giving a one-time donation,” said founding board member John “Duke” Schneider. “The first decade is always a period of growth. We are now at a point where we can see the effects of this growth. The board can set goals and plan for the long-term sustainability of our community.”
Greater Pike board chair Gail Shuttleworth has prioritized strengthening networks: “It’s a way for us to help connect donors with the nonprofits, to create a network of donors and recipients.”
And connect they have. Celebrating their “Decade of Dedication” 10-year anniversary also marks another milestone for Greater Pike as they have distributed more than $1.1 million dollars to the community in the form of grants, scholarships, and funds for emerging and urgent needs, such as when they responded to the COVID-19 crisis by distributing more than $70,000 to nonprofits to mitigate unforeseen and unprecedented community emergencies.
I wanted to hear from the organizations and individuals who are receiving the funds and was surprised to learn how many things that I participated in were recipients. I asked: Is Greater Pike helping them provide much-needed support in the community? Are the lives of our neighbors improving from these donations? Is our community benefitting, growing, advancing, and improving from the altruism of others? Here’s what I heard from just a few.
“Pike County’s Ecumenical Food Pantry in Milford is extremely grateful to the GPCF for the funding because we’re seeing a steady increase in the number of families coming to the pantry,” explained Nancy Potter, Food Pantry director. “So far this year we are averaging about 60 families per week, which is a big increase for us, and we see new families each week.”
A short time ago, Greater Pike awarded more than $100,000 from the Richard L. Snyder Fund to 28 nonprofit organizations. Family Promise of Monroe County, which recently purchased a building in Milford to open an emergency shelter for at-risk and homeless children and their families, received funding to help with renovating the site. “We’re so grateful to Greater Pike and the Snyder Fund for understanding the need for an emergency shelter and their support of our efforts to help the Pike County community,” said Enid Logan, executive director of Family Promise.
Portions of this most recent distribution of funds also will support a Living History program in the Delaware Valley School District, animals in need at Pike County Humane Society, the purchase of emergency response equipment for Westfall Township Volunteer Fire Department, and improvements to parks and holiday lighting programs throughout the area.
Looking beyond community nonprofit support, I discovered another thread in the tapestry that is touched by Greater Pike: student scholarships. For example, this year GPCF presented scholarship awards totaling $33,800, including $9,200 in multi-year renewals to past recipients, Delaware Valley and Wallenpaupack Area high school seniors who are now pursuing a variety of academic interests in colleges and universities.
Hugo Huerta-Alcaide, a 2022 Delaware Valley High School graduate, now attending Penn State University, received $20,000 in multi-year support from the Reggie CheongLeen and Peter Spielhagen Fund to pursue a degree in pharmacology. This scholarship is awarded to graduates who are first-generation children of immigrants and who demonstrate both academic excellence and financial need.
Hugo and his family find the financial support a relief. “My parents have always helped me out and were again going to help me in college. However, hearing that I would get financial aid took some weight off their shoulders.” Hugo’s parents immigrated from Mexico to the US in 2003, and he is the oldest of four siblings and the first to attend college.
OK, I’m beginning to see a pattern of a wide array of support. But I was curious about where the money comes from and wanted to explore how Greater Pike encourages
I learned that individuals can set up and contribute to funds, dispersing money to causes that are priorities for them. Funds can be set up to memorialize someone or as a legacy for future generations. Nonprofit organizations can even set up endowment funds that will help create a financial base to assist with long-term planning and mitigate the annual “chase the money” syndrome that so many local nonprofits fall victim to. Or community members and community-minded businesses can donate directly to the Fund for Greater Pike, created to support emergency situations and unexpected needs in the community.
I wanted to learn more from some of the individuals who set up these funds or choose to donate to Greater Pike. Who are they and what motivates them?
“Folks give back in order to push the community forward,” said Luke Turano, one of Greater Pike’s newest board members, who recently moved his young family to Milford and is hopeful for future generations in the community.
Local entrepreneur and Milford resident, Chuck Petersheim, whose Petersheim Family Fund has grown to six figures in three years, hopes he can now take his charitable giving to a new level. “I was giving consistently to a wide range of organizations but switching to a donor-advised fund with Greater Pike gave me a more mindful and satisfying experience,” he explained, noting that he has been contributing to various arts, social, and community initiatives in the tri-state area. “I knew I wanted to be more thoughtful and establish a way to have long-reaching effect and impact,” he added.
Other individuals, such as David Greenbaum of Shohola, said that the philanthropy and sustainable community support that is integral to Greater Pike’s success resonated with him and his family. He not only donated his first COVID stimulus check to Greater Pike, but now donates all proceeds from his pasta-making business to them. “I read about Greater Pike and learned more about them, and all their work seemed worthwhile,” he said, adding that since he wasn’t making enough pasta to “broadly dispense to the world,” he decided he would keep it local.
“This is our way to scratch the itch to give back,” said his son Granger Greenbaum. “We make the pasta, Greater Pike will disperse the dough,” they joked. With proceeds donated to Greater Pike, the funds can be distributed back into the community, where the need is deemed greatest.
Community-involved Eileen Smith was motivated by her belief and confidence in the equine therapy programs offered by GAIT to establish the GAIT-ACE fund with Greater Pike. “We felt that by working with Greater Pike, we could help provide scholarships for equine therapy in a continuous fashion instead of doing a one-time fundraiser to come up with quick funds,” she explained. Now when they conduct a fundraiser the monies raised are invested and can provide long-term relief for families who need the services. Petersheim agreed with the approach. “My advice to others is that if you find yourself giving to multiple organizations but feel you are unfocused and doing yourself a disservice, consider working with Greater Pike, whose board and staff educated me and enabled me to focus my giving goals.”
“I am so proud of what Greater Pike has accomplished,” said Jim Pedranti, who served as board chair from its founding through 2021. “In addition to the regular funding cycles, we are also able to move quickly, when there is a natural disaster or other crisis,” he added, citing the COVID relief funding.
So what does the future hold for Greater Pike Community Foundation? Can it sustain its remarkable growth and ability to stretch this tapestry beyond the borders of traditional need and geography? (At last count, it was managing 33 funds with a goal of 50 in the near future!)
“I hope for nothing but blue skies and sunny days,” said board member Turano. “But that’s not always the case, and the Foundation is here for when it’s needed. Think about what a foundation is,” he explained. “The foundation of a house or other structure…it never goes away.”
Just like the Greater Pike slogan says: For Good. Forever. .................................................................................... Lori Danuff McKean has lived in the Upper Delaware region for 35 years. Retired from Grey Towers National Historic Site and founder/director of the former Eagle Institute, she currently is the Outreach Coordinator for Greater Pike Community Foundation. For more information, visit www. greaterpike.org.
A Great British Christmas Tradition
My family hails from all corners of the British Isles: England, Ireland, Scotland, and even Wales. Although many of my ancestors would be giving the side eye to England for historically unkind behavior, all the relatives were united in our enthusiasm for its traditional Christmas dinner, featuring roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. This custom traveled across the Atlantic from the north of England to New York with my grandmother’s grandmother over 160 years ago.
Growing up, it seemed to me that my parents were totally obsessed with the fictional world in the BBC’s serial, Upstairs, Downstairs, the Downton Abbey of the 1970s. This genteel milieu probably offered an escape from the humdrum reality of stagflation and PTA meetings into a more elegant life. By squinting really hard, my parents could pretend our small suburban Tudor home was part of that world. It only required, as my father, the professor of English, might say at the dinner table, a willing suspension of disbelief.
In this world, my father claimed his Upstairs role as pater familias and lord of the manor, while my mother assumed dual roles. Upstairs, she graced the scene as the lady, hosting memorable dinner parties, while working Downstairs as chief cook and bottle washer.
We kids were cast in various supporting roles Downstairs, scurrying around excitedly, getting ready for Christmas, the best day of the whole year. We had already toiled for hours. We polished the sterling silver flatware and platters, ironed the napkins and tablecloth. We laid out the serving pieces and dishes on the sideboard, then set the table with precision. We had also peeled, minced, chopped, crushed, and diced various fruits and vegetables with willing excitement.
Daddy, planted by the fire in a wing chair, was doing a great job giving off the “to the Manor born” vibe. Already wearing his deep red velvet dressing gown with gold piping and a family crest on the pocket, he held a book in one hand and his pipe in the other. Daddy had spent the afternoon recovering his equilibrium after a tumultuous morning filled with squeals over gifts and wrapping paper strewn about. The scent of pipe tobacco mixed pleasantly with the smell of the fire and pine.
Lights twinkled happily on the Christmas tree. Gifts were examined and admired again. The smells from the kitchen grew more tantalizing with every passing minute. The sweet scent of fruit pies from the morning was now supplanted by the more substantial odor of cooking meat, with hints of onion, tomato, and herbs.
Dinner could not come soon enough. We were dressed in our new Christmas outfits and assembled by the fire, sampling hors d’oeuvres, a prelude to the main event. With the Yorkshire pudding rising in the oven, the countdown had begun.
Mom took a moment for herself to relax and enjoy the beautiful celebration she had created. Cultured and artistic, my mother also possessed mad skills in the kitchen. She crafted memorable meals that were traditional and inventive at the same time. While a massive cut of beef was always the centerpiece of the meal with the beloved Yorkshire pudding a trusty sidekick, my mother’s Christmas dinner featured a rotating cast of side dishes. Continued on next page
The roast, cooked to perfection, was served medium rare, with a crisp outer crust we all fought over. Some years we had potatoes roasted in the pan alongside the beef. Other times the potatoes were mashed or scalloped. Steamed carrots tossed with butter and thyme, cherry tomatoes garnished with dill cooked slowly on the stove until they popped, creamy mashed turnips with a hint of nutmeg, green beans sautéed with caramelized onions were all vegetable dishes based in the British tradition, then enhanced by my mother’s talented hand.
The Yorkshire pudding was baked at high heat as the beef rested. Served straight from the oven, it dictated the precise start of the meal. When the timer went off, it was time to light the candles, serve ourselves from the sideboard and take our seats. After saying grace, a reverential hum of contentment and silver on China plates settled over the dining room as we savored every bite.
I worked my way clockwise around the Spode plate, starting with the roast beef. Next was a buttered chunk of Yorkshire pudding. Turnips, slightly sweet and earthy, were balanced off by the brightness of carrots. The fresh acidic taste of tomatoes with dill balanced out the crunchy green beans and onions. Potatoes were the last flavor, leading back to a new bite of roast.
No higher compliment can be paid to a cook than quiet enjoyment and appreciation of a meal. Eventually, we found our voices and dinner conversation resumed. Merry Christmas to all. “There’s always room for dessert” was the unofficial family motto. Although everyone had eaten their fill, a variety of sweets followed dinner. Besides the standard apple and cherry pies, some years we branched out to include chocolate cream and mince pies. In a nod to our British heritage, my mother always included one “veddy veddy” traditional dessert, one that only she and I liked: plum pudding.
This was the only dish Mom did not make herself, confessing that Crosse & Blackwell made a better pudding than she. It was served with much fanfare and a rich boozy hard sauce. After heating, Mom gently transferred the pudding into an enameled silver bowl, then ladled warm brandy over it. For a dramatic finish, she struck a match and small flames glowed from the bowl, to our collective delight. This offered a magical end to a magnificent meal. As my father would say, with deep admiration, “Lilyann, you did it again.”
Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, was our traditional day to relax at home. It was also the day my mother made her famous beef barley soup using the leftover bone. Although this soup is a simple home recipe, it is a satisfying and nourishing late Christmas gift, extending the holiday cheer one more day. I think of her every time I make it.
My mother reigned over our holiday table, with an innate regal presence. She was the queen of our Christmas celebration. This year, with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, I would like to pay homage to them both. Long live the Christmas traditions of Great Britain.
Yorkshire Pudding
(Serves 6 to 8)
2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 4 eggs 2 cups whole milk 5 tablespoons butter/roast beef pan drippings
• Mix the first four ingredients in a bowl until smooth and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. • Place a 12 inch cast iron pan in the oven for the last 20 minutes of the roast beef cooking. When the roast beef is out of the oven, increase the heat to 425 degrees. • Use pan drippings and butter to make 5 tablespoons of fat, and add to the pan in the oven. Take the batter out of the refrigerator and give it a nice stir. When the fat has melted and started sizzling, pour the batter all at once into the pan and return it to the center rack of the oven. • Bake for about 35 to 45 minutes. No peeking! It is done when the top is puffed up, crisp and browned. Cut into wedges and serve hot.
(Serves 6 to 8)
1 nice beef bone 2 tablespoon olive oil 3 cups leftover roast beef, chopped into bite sized chunks Salt and pepper 2 tablespoons flour (or gluten free flour*) 2 cups chopped onion 5 carrots, chopped 2 stalks celery, diced 2 garlic cloves, smashed 1 pound (about 2 cups) chopped mushrooms (or more*) 1 cup pearled barley (or farro, toasted*) 1 tablespoon tomato paste 10 cups hot water (or vegetable broth*) 2 bay leaves 3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot. Mix the flour and a liberal amount of salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl. Toss the beef chunks to coat, and brown in the oil over medium heat. Remove the beef from the pan. • Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic and cook over low heat for 10 minutes to soften. Add the mushrooms, tomato paste, sautéed beef, beef bone, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, and 10 cups of water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, and simmer for 45 minutes or until the barley is tender. Adjust seasoning before serving.
*Notes for the vegan and gluten-free communities. This soup can be adjusted by using more and various types of mushrooms, plus a tablespoon of vegetable concentrate, such as veggie base. The addition of a whole onion with brown skin on will impart a golden color to the broth. Gluten free is another story, as barley contains gluten. One option would be to gently toast a cup of farro over medium heat to develop the nutty flavor. Add to the soup in the last 20 minutes of cooking.
A Couple Doing Good Around the Globe
Edson and Barbara Whitney
If Edson and Barbara Whitney had a world map with a pushpin on every country they've ever lived and worked in, it would be quite dotted with pins. Add to those a pin for every country they’ve traveled to, and it would look like a dense pincushion. Now based in Milford, PA, and “semi-retired” (meaning not really retired), they continue to be intrepid explorers of the world.
Recently, I interviewed Edson by phone, as we were curious about the work he’s done in third-world and developing countries over the years. So I asked him to begin with a little bit about his background.
“I was born in Port Jervis, NY. Finished high school there and went on to Gettysburg College and got a degree in history.” He then taught middle school for two years in Port Jervis, specializing in social studies, English, and reading. While there, he used the “brand-new” technology of hand-heldvideo cameras to record student-written and -performed historical plays. He must have been a wonderful teacher.
He had first met Barbara as a teenager while staying in Twin Lakes in Shohola, PA, where their respective parents had summer cottages. Barbara, also trained as a teacher, taught remedial reading and other subjects in Milford. They quit their jobs in June of 1975, married in August of that year, and boarded a Russian ship, The Alexander Pushkin, in Montreal, Canada, in September, landing in Le Havre, France.
Well, you have to realize it was the 70s! They had been saving money “like crazy” Edson informs me. The couple backpacked through Europe with Eurail passes for four months. “You could do things on $5 a day,” he tells me. They visited France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy and at the end of November, took the ferry from Brindisi, Italy, to Athens and toured the Greek Islands. On the first of January, the Whitneys flew to Cairo, Egypt, and from there went to Khartoum, then on to Kenya, and up the coast to Lamu. “We hitch-hiked to Tanzania and the Serengeti, climbed (Mount) Kilimanjaro, hitch-hiked to Dar es Salaam, then took the TanZam train to Zambia. After that, it was local buses to Lilongwe, Malawi, where we spent the month of April with friends.”
From Malawi, they caught a flight to South Africa and subsequently took a train up to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to see the Victoria Falls. A bus took them to the Okavango Delta in Botswana where they had a “too close encounter with a lion who kept us up all night just across the narrow channel from our campsite.” Luckily, they survived. Back in South Africa, they then “hitch-hiked to Swaziland (now Eswatini) and managed to get local contract teaching jobs from June 1976 to August 1978.”
That two-year stint on a local contract was rewarding but without any health benefits or a ticket home. Over their travels, they had met volunteers from the Peace Corps and found out those positions seemed to be what Edson described to me as a “step up.”
To apply to the Peace Corps, though, Edson and Barbara had to come home to the US. Happily, they received an appointment to Thailand as Educational Specialists. While in Thailand, they created and demonstrated teaching materials and lesson plans for rural schools. They also worked to address the problems of isolated, rural teachers and implemented a new curriculum for English Language instruction there.
Returning home after their assignments were completed, they wanted to help address the refugee crisis that was looming in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. They got positions at a Refugee Processing Center in Indonesia that was a former
POW Camp for Japanese inmates during the war. Edson relates, “We were on the equator with no amenities and no infrastructure at this resettlement that was run by the Indonesian military. The 15,000 refugees suffered the worst living conditions.” But it was clearly heart-warming for them to train teachers and implement cultural training programs.
“To see the progress of these survivors, who were thrilled to be coming to America, was wonderful.” Edson tells me it was a bonding experience, and they are still in touch with a few of the people through a Facebook page.
In 1984, when the couple returned from Indonesia, Edson attended Cornell University on an international scholarship where he pursued a Master’s Degree in Developmental Communications. This led to a career with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs beginning in 1987 and continuing to today.
He first was hired as a Senior Program Officer, charged with responsibility for programmatic and administrative support to more than twenty projects in several countries, among them Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Nepal. The work included designing national and institutional family planning and children’s health materials and strategies for implementation.
Over the years, his responsibilities increased, and he and Barbara worked and lived in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Jordan. (His resume is dizzying!) Baltimore was his base, but much of his time was spent in the countries he was working with.
“Communication programming” means figuring out ways to get important information (nutrition, family planning, breast feeding, equality in marriage, healthy life practices) across to different populations and cultures. Edson notes that his work has involved a variety of approaches such as having music videos and television dramas made, using What’s App, creating contests, making posters and pamphlets. He has even used verses of the Koran to support some of their efforts in Muslim populations.
The impact these campaigns have can be dramatic. Data shows fertility rates dropping, safe birth delivery numbers going up, and millions of people watching national television programs that model safe and healthy lifestyle practices. He’s recently helped countries deal with HIV, Ebola outbreaks, Covid-19 and other zoonotic diseases. It’s work that never seems to end.
Edson and Barbara’s commitment to helping has led to various associations with UNICEF, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Catholic Relief Services, the United Nations Works and Relief Agency, and other NGOs (NonGovernment Organizations). Barbara has acted as a consultant to all of these agencies and has been an active partner throughout.
Somewhere in this heady mix of travel and work, they managed to raise two sons, Christopher and Sean, both
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now married. There is also the happy addition of a 3-year-old grandson, appropriately named Jordan.
And like so many people born in the tri-state area, Barbara and Edson returned “home.” They built a house on property they bought years ago and, of course, became very involved with local community organizations.
Edson is vice-chair of the Greater Pike Community Foundation, which funds local art programs and other initiatives, and is currently chairman of the board of Pike Artworks, which has sponsored the Milford Readers & Writers Festival for seven years. The couple shows up at everything...if they’re not in Asia or somewhere else.
Edson has attempted, unsuccessfully, to retire and says he tries not to work more than twenty hours a week. But his last email to me mentioned he was off to Zambia for another project!
He tells me how much he has appreciated his education and how he feels “very fortunate to have had the life and career that I’ve had.” Then he adds, “Barbara and I both encouraged each other and shared this adventure. We have been able to view the world with a broader vision. Look for us to continue to give back locally.” ............................................................................................. Julia Schmitt Healy is an artist, writer, and professor who lives and works in Port Jervis, New York. Her work is represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago (westernexhibitons.com) and her website is Juliahealy.com.
