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Annette Gendler's Blog, page 5
September 11, 2020
Remembering 9/11 by Remembering Some of Those Who Lost Their Lives
Today is 9/11. Somehow it strikes me as odd to remember that day in the middle of a new calamity.The COVID-19 pandemic certainly is a different calamity altogether. I’m not even sure it’s appropriate to compare the two but that’s where my mind is going.
Remembering 9/11 also makes me so conscious of the passage of time.
9/11 was 19 years ago! It’s interesting to think about who we were then and who we are now. My youngest was a baby in 2001. Now he’s a twenty-year-old stuck at home as his colle...
August 14, 2020
During the Pandemic, Traveling by Book is the Best Kind of Travel, Provided You Read a Magnificent One like The Lost Pianos of Siberia
It is precious and rare to fall in love with a book. It is even more precious to get lost in a book and be swept away to another world.This just happened to me with Sophy Roberts’ wondrous The Lost Pianos of Siberia. I finished its 350 pages in three days. Then, hungry for more, I read its hefty source notes and historical chronology. Now I’m reading the articles on Roberts’ website.
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What fun to have found a writer I can be a fan of! It’s been a long time since that happened to me. That’s al...
August 7, 2020
Soothing for the Soul – A Day of Wide Open Horizons and Thundering Waves at the Indiana Dunes
For weeks my daughter had been nudging that she wanted to go hike trail 10 in the Indiana Dunes.
She wanted to relive a childhood experience. We had taken the kids on the woods part of that trail way back when. It is fairly flat and thus easier to manage for little legs. But we had never gone in the summer when the woods can be stifling and full of mosquitoes.
Here are the kids on trail 10 in 2005.
I was reluctant: At 5.5 miles, trail 10 is the longest in the Indiana Dunes State Park. Half of i...
July 28, 2020
July 24, 2020
Sharing Impressions from an Epic Trip to Peru Last Year: A Sand Storm Threatens a Flight over the Mysterious Nazca Lines
On our trip to Peru last year, we first traveled south, past all the depressing shanty towns of Lima, mainly to see the pre-Columbian Nazca Lines.
This post continues my series celebrating the trip to Peru I was fortunate enough to undertake with two of my kids last summer.
The current difficulty of travel due to the Coronavirus Pandemic has made me realize, even more than before, that I am a traveler at heart.
Four months into travel not being a thing, I am getting antsy. The only way I can as...
July 17, 2020
Sharing Impressions from an Epic Trip to Peru Last Summer: Beginning with the Shocking Poverty of the Shanty Towns of Lima
Seeing the shanty towns south of Lima on the very first day we were traveling in Peru last summer left an indelible impression on me.
Never in my life had I seen people living in such dismal conditions. Not even on my trip to Manaus in Brazil a few years ago.
And yet the shanty towns were an appropriate introduction to the complexities of the colorful and challenging country of Peru.
A year ago today, two of my kids and I embarked on an amazing trip to Peru. That voyage seems even more epic now...
July 10, 2020
Hip Labral Tear Surgery (Hip Arthroscopy): My Experience and My Take On It Two Years Later
That’s me one month after the surgery in the body brace I had to constantly wear for six weeks post op. This was on my first trip to the grocery store!
This week marks the two-year anniversary of my hip labral tear surgery.
Anniversaries always make me want to reflect on the experience, especially one that was life altering.
I offer this write up as information for anyone contemplating this surgery.
I hope my experience will help someone decide or at least prepare for what might lie ahead.
On Ju...
June 12, 2020
During these Uncertain Times, Trips Down Memory Lane Warm the Heart and Provide an Anchor
In these days of the Coronavirus Pandemic, urban unrest and ensuing heightened uncertainty, I have found trips down memory lane especially meaningful and calming.
They connect me to my former self of happier times. They also ground me in various aspects of my family’s traditions, experiences and history. All of which is such a welcome anchor.
There are many productive ways to travel down memory lane, such as:
Preparing a recipe from the past (see my post on Erdbeerkuchen )
Creating photo albums...
June 5, 2020
How to Bake the Perfect Treat for Strawberry Season: German-Style Strawberry Shortcake (Erdbeerkuchen)
When I was a kid, my mom always made Erdbeerkuchen, i.e. German-style strawberry shortcake for my birthday because it falls at the beginning of strawberry season.
Erdbeerkuchen was pretty much the only German cake recipe my American mother adopted from her German mother-in-law. In fact, she loved it so much that on a six-week trip to the U.S. when I was fifteen, she brought along the tart pan and packets of the glaze mix and baked it for every family we stayed with. While everyone loved the cak...
May 29, 2020
What to Do When You Want to Write a Story from Family History But Don’t Have Enough Material
Welcome to another installment of my advice column where I answer readers’ questions about writing compelling stories from family history:
Hope asks: I would like to write about a great-aunt who always fascinated me because she was locked away in an insane asylum. The family does not talk about her beyond very basic information. How do I go about this?
My answer:
This is a common quandary. When writing family stories, we invariably come upon intriguing characters about whom we don’t really know...
