Susie Duncan Sexton's Blog, page 43
October 3, 2011
beyond all sense of reason...
oh, dear...archery prowess encouraged in "youngsters" and thus the youth were prepared for the opening of deer killing season today? (deer flushed out onto roads and highways as a result.)
how sad for all involved. safety seminars conducted so that "everyone" involved will not be harmed? huh? turkeys, flying fowl also scheduled for official killing days through "safe" riflery. oh. tragic.
why ever teach children to kill...rather than to appreciate life and the beauty of nature...horrid...and dismaying.
to teach children to kill is absolutely beyond all sense of reason...dismaying. where are we headed? we must speak up at every turn.
this cowboy mentality now spreading over to girls, too...what was the impetus? sarah palin, cheney shooting trapped quail and another guy in the face, this country's pentagon machine killing more people including our own in manufactured war than during 9/11?
and how this is sanctioned in a "christian" nation boggles the mind. the two should never go hand in hand into "killing fields". sick and tired of it...THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
perhaps the cowboy channel should disappear...everybody and his brother swears by that re-televised return to john wayne swagger.
viagra (viagara? do not know how to spell that "drug") should be dumped into the ocean so that polar bears and dolphins and whales and seals can re-establish themselves and not go extinct! great proposal there! ;D
enough playing HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
how sad for all involved. safety seminars conducted so that "everyone" involved will not be harmed? huh? turkeys, flying fowl also scheduled for official killing days through "safe" riflery. oh. tragic.
why ever teach children to kill...rather than to appreciate life and the beauty of nature...horrid...and dismaying.
to teach children to kill is absolutely beyond all sense of reason...dismaying. where are we headed? we must speak up at every turn.
this cowboy mentality now spreading over to girls, too...what was the impetus? sarah palin, cheney shooting trapped quail and another guy in the face, this country's pentagon machine killing more people including our own in manufactured war than during 9/11?
and how this is sanctioned in a "christian" nation boggles the mind. the two should never go hand in hand into "killing fields". sick and tired of it...THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
perhaps the cowboy channel should disappear...everybody and his brother swears by that re-televised return to john wayne swagger.
viagra (viagara? do not know how to spell that "drug") should be dumped into the ocean so that polar bears and dolphins and whales and seals can re-establish themselves and not go extinct! great proposal there! ;D
enough playing HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL.
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
September 30, 2011
Fort Wayne News-Sentinel Coverage of "Secrets of an Old Typewriter"
From the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel: "Susie Duncan Sexton of Columbia City has published a new book, 'Secrets of an Old Typewriter: Stories from a Smart and Sassy Small Town Girl,' and it is available to read on all popular e-readers, including Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble NOOK."
Read the coverage here...
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
Read the coverage here...
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
September 29, 2011
How Many Roads Must a Person Walk Down?
“How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind…” ~ B. Dylan
Slap. Spank. WAAAAAAH. Boy? Girl? Free will? Predetermined fate? Conform? Challenge the status quo? Live until you die? Hide yourself away? Follow the crowd? Be an individual? WASP or a member of a habitually maligned ethnicity? Shut out or allowed in? Born on the right side – or wrong side—of the tracks?
From cradle to grave, follow someone’s lead? Think your own thoughts? Who among us hasn’t tried both? I much prefer the latter, and that feeling of freedom sustains me. Born to observe and to occasionally register enthusiastic approval and often, lately, my condemnation of unfairness and mindless group-think, I very nearly have been boiled in oil on occasion.
Bring it on. Standing as firmly as possible on my own two feet, I celebrate this sea-change or seismic shift and welcome the natural pull of evolution. I sense that I am as Homo sapiens-upright as a rehearsal piano—call me Susie Steinway. Nothing much in my bank account to will to anybody but plenty of chutzpah stashed legacy-wise. Happy to share. Wish I’d been so bold from the get-go!
My dear Facebook compatriot LeeAnn Bravick Munson (whose profile photograph is a cream-colored kitten sporting a perky turquoise knit cap) writes: "When I was younger, I used to bottle my emotions up so much...now, it’s like I have no filter anymore. And everything just comes out. Life is full of emotional moments. And now, I embrace that. ♥"
It’s difficult to remain silent for a lifetime, surely even from a wheel-chair -- one of many lining darkened hallways inside nursing homes -- with gray heads bowed and eyes glazed. Besides, probably Paul Simon’s and Art Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence”, practiced throughout one’s life, roar out as deadly damaging. Our son states that my “boomer” generation qualifies as grasping onto stationary door-frames declaring, “Hell, No! We won’t EVER go!” Staying power?
“Fools, (said I) you do not know silence like a cancer grows. Hear my words that I might teach you. Take my arms that I might reach you.” (…“But my words, like silent raindrops fell and echoed in the wells of silence.”)
On this journey, deaths impact us, and they should. We do not wish to let go – and we shouldn’t.
At age seven, I witnessed my parents’ grief when they lost my grandparents as well as a beloved and admired Blue Bell employee, supervisor of the Warsaw division. Jack was a 28 year old father, of three, who died prematurely, back when cancers seemed rare occurrences. Simultaneously, a dewy-eyed gorgeous Southern 24-year-old-bride named Lucy Shepherd, whom we adored, succumbed to leukemia.
At ten, I’d matured enough to experience shock, sadness, then acceptance, and finally curiosity regarding a young high school English/Speech teacher’s instantaneous death in an automobile accident on a European tour, when car collisions were quite common. She raced to return a rented Volkswagen to close out her summer’s trip and glorious, long-anticipated vacation with her soldier husband stationed overseas. A semi ran up and over the back of the tiny vehicle. We loved our neighbor Mary so; she lived in Virginia Lillich’s upstairs apartment, with her companion Scottish Terrier, two doors away from our house. I still treasure the tiny Dutch dolls she sent me from Holland along with a postcard featuring a pen-and-ink etching by artist Vincent Van Gogh.
As poet Emily Dickinson wrote: “Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of Hell…”
If we are fortunate enough to grow old, we naturally begin to perform an inventory as we sort through the past. If we are smart and wise, we appreciate the successes but become informed more by life’s failures which taught us to improve and to acquire patience and understanding and tolerance. There is no retiring from life which often plods along yet is also forever challenging.
Rock-star David Byrne’s lyrics capture this: “And you may ask yourself what is that beautiful house? And you may ask yourself where does that highway go? And you may ask yourself am I right? Am I wrong? And you may tell yourself MY GOD! WHAT HAVE I DONE? Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…”
Some solace is found in hoping that our good deeds live long after us as do our spirits…our views of the world…our hopes for society…our occasional humor masking pain…our loyalties to noble causes…and our individual contributions -- rather than our having blended in unnoticed, shy, reticent, hesitant and failing to stand up for what is correct in real time, which would be bordering on unethical behavior actually.
Whether I ascend to a fluffy cloud having earned my wings, polished halo and a harp to strum upon or descend into the depths of Hades while brandishing a pitchfork, or, most probably and realistically die as dead as a door-nail gone forevermore, here’s what I’ve learned that I’ll recall with fondness…from afar:
Patting, feeding, naming, sheltering and nurturing cats and dogs; saving lives of all of this earth’s animals human(e)ly possible; encouraging others; educating minds; opening hearts; books, music, movies and pretty pictures; satisfaction earned from forgiving; strength to be kind to bullies; acceptance that some things should but do NOT change and improve; sincere accidental compliments; perfect weather; going barefoot; remembering my wonderful parents’ fairness to all and their gentle instructiveness; playing cards; honest smiles; bravery to shout out -- in opposition to injustice; diversity; daring to be one’s self; thoughtfulness – always -- under any circumstances; abandoning vanity; speaking up boldly yet softly; easy conversation; the steady love of a child; empathy.
I shall NOT miss:
Dog pounds; puppy mills; nursing homes; intensive care waiting rooms; funeral parlors; hypocrisy; mind-sets; religions battling one another for dominance; schools; dormitories; clubs and camps; prisons; capital and corporal punishment; combative arguments; regimentation; slaughter houses; horse or greyhound racing; cock fights; rodeos; zoos; corrals; hunting; bull-fighting; victimizing animals for sport, food or entertainment; political parties’ vacuousness; dirty jokes; gossip; crucifixion of reputations; racism, sexism, or species-ism; killing; apathy.
Let us encourage ourselves and others to learn to lick our wounds, celebrate our joys, remove our doubts, quell our suspicions, rise above our fears and forever affirm life in all of its forms while we live, for that would be heaven on Earth.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs speaking inspirationally at Stanford University, several years ago, stated: “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it… Our time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice…”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Susie's eBook Secrets of an Old Typewriter is available to download directly from the publisher web site here... Available downloads include ePub (for most eReading devices including NOOK and Sony Reader), .prc (for Kindle) and PDF (to read on most eReading devices as well as computer).
Another great option for those who do not own a eReader is to download for free the Kindle for PC application. This will allow you to read books available on Kindle, including Secrets of an Old Typewriter, on your computer. You can download the application here
Anyone who has ever lived in a small town certainly knows that secrets are sometimes not so secret.
Susie Duncan Sexton has lived her entire life in a small town—indeed, in the same house where she grew up. As an adult, she taught at the same grammar school that she attended as a child, and many of the relationships she cultivated while growing up, including her marriage, have endured over the years. Always one to document the present and offer her sometimes unorthodox ideas and opinions, Susie Duncan Sexton has tickled the keys of her trusty old typewriter for nearly five decades, and now that venerable machine is ready to reveal its secrets.
This book may be about small town life, but the ideas contained within it are expansive. The written accounts of the life of a ‘smart and sassy small town girl’ are as urbane as those of any city dweller. From ’50s and ’60s nostalgia to modern-day values, and from the drama and insight of America’s great books and motion pictures to politics, religion and animal rights, Susie Duncan Sexton’s ‘secrets’ always hit the mark with unexpected candor and a unique perspective.
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
Slap. Spank. WAAAAAAH. Boy? Girl? Free will? Predetermined fate? Conform? Challenge the status quo? Live until you die? Hide yourself away? Follow the crowd? Be an individual? WASP or a member of a habitually maligned ethnicity? Shut out or allowed in? Born on the right side – or wrong side—of the tracks?
From cradle to grave, follow someone’s lead? Think your own thoughts? Who among us hasn’t tried both? I much prefer the latter, and that feeling of freedom sustains me. Born to observe and to occasionally register enthusiastic approval and often, lately, my condemnation of unfairness and mindless group-think, I very nearly have been boiled in oil on occasion.
Bring it on. Standing as firmly as possible on my own two feet, I celebrate this sea-change or seismic shift and welcome the natural pull of evolution. I sense that I am as Homo sapiens-upright as a rehearsal piano—call me Susie Steinway. Nothing much in my bank account to will to anybody but plenty of chutzpah stashed legacy-wise. Happy to share. Wish I’d been so bold from the get-go!
My dear Facebook compatriot LeeAnn Bravick Munson (whose profile photograph is a cream-colored kitten sporting a perky turquoise knit cap) writes: "When I was younger, I used to bottle my emotions up so much...now, it’s like I have no filter anymore. And everything just comes out. Life is full of emotional moments. And now, I embrace that. ♥"
It’s difficult to remain silent for a lifetime, surely even from a wheel-chair -- one of many lining darkened hallways inside nursing homes -- with gray heads bowed and eyes glazed. Besides, probably Paul Simon’s and Art Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence”, practiced throughout one’s life, roar out as deadly damaging. Our son states that my “boomer” generation qualifies as grasping onto stationary door-frames declaring, “Hell, No! We won’t EVER go!” Staying power?
“Fools, (said I) you do not know silence like a cancer grows. Hear my words that I might teach you. Take my arms that I might reach you.” (…“But my words, like silent raindrops fell and echoed in the wells of silence.”)
On this journey, deaths impact us, and they should. We do not wish to let go – and we shouldn’t.
At age seven, I witnessed my parents’ grief when they lost my grandparents as well as a beloved and admired Blue Bell employee, supervisor of the Warsaw division. Jack was a 28 year old father, of three, who died prematurely, back when cancers seemed rare occurrences. Simultaneously, a dewy-eyed gorgeous Southern 24-year-old-bride named Lucy Shepherd, whom we adored, succumbed to leukemia.
At ten, I’d matured enough to experience shock, sadness, then acceptance, and finally curiosity regarding a young high school English/Speech teacher’s instantaneous death in an automobile accident on a European tour, when car collisions were quite common. She raced to return a rented Volkswagen to close out her summer’s trip and glorious, long-anticipated vacation with her soldier husband stationed overseas. A semi ran up and over the back of the tiny vehicle. We loved our neighbor Mary so; she lived in Virginia Lillich’s upstairs apartment, with her companion Scottish Terrier, two doors away from our house. I still treasure the tiny Dutch dolls she sent me from Holland along with a postcard featuring a pen-and-ink etching by artist Vincent Van Gogh.
As poet Emily Dickinson wrote: “Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of Hell…”
If we are fortunate enough to grow old, we naturally begin to perform an inventory as we sort through the past. If we are smart and wise, we appreciate the successes but become informed more by life’s failures which taught us to improve and to acquire patience and understanding and tolerance. There is no retiring from life which often plods along yet is also forever challenging.
Rock-star David Byrne’s lyrics capture this: “And you may ask yourself what is that beautiful house? And you may ask yourself where does that highway go? And you may ask yourself am I right? Am I wrong? And you may tell yourself MY GOD! WHAT HAVE I DONE? Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…”
Some solace is found in hoping that our good deeds live long after us as do our spirits…our views of the world…our hopes for society…our occasional humor masking pain…our loyalties to noble causes…and our individual contributions -- rather than our having blended in unnoticed, shy, reticent, hesitant and failing to stand up for what is correct in real time, which would be bordering on unethical behavior actually.
Whether I ascend to a fluffy cloud having earned my wings, polished halo and a harp to strum upon or descend into the depths of Hades while brandishing a pitchfork, or, most probably and realistically die as dead as a door-nail gone forevermore, here’s what I’ve learned that I’ll recall with fondness…from afar:
Patting, feeding, naming, sheltering and nurturing cats and dogs; saving lives of all of this earth’s animals human(e)ly possible; encouraging others; educating minds; opening hearts; books, music, movies and pretty pictures; satisfaction earned from forgiving; strength to be kind to bullies; acceptance that some things should but do NOT change and improve; sincere accidental compliments; perfect weather; going barefoot; remembering my wonderful parents’ fairness to all and their gentle instructiveness; playing cards; honest smiles; bravery to shout out -- in opposition to injustice; diversity; daring to be one’s self; thoughtfulness – always -- under any circumstances; abandoning vanity; speaking up boldly yet softly; easy conversation; the steady love of a child; empathy.
I shall NOT miss:
Dog pounds; puppy mills; nursing homes; intensive care waiting rooms; funeral parlors; hypocrisy; mind-sets; religions battling one another for dominance; schools; dormitories; clubs and camps; prisons; capital and corporal punishment; combative arguments; regimentation; slaughter houses; horse or greyhound racing; cock fights; rodeos; zoos; corrals; hunting; bull-fighting; victimizing animals for sport, food or entertainment; political parties’ vacuousness; dirty jokes; gossip; crucifixion of reputations; racism, sexism, or species-ism; killing; apathy.
Let us encourage ourselves and others to learn to lick our wounds, celebrate our joys, remove our doubts, quell our suspicions, rise above our fears and forever affirm life in all of its forms while we live, for that would be heaven on Earth.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs speaking inspirationally at Stanford University, several years ago, stated: “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it… Our time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice…”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Susie's eBook Secrets of an Old Typewriter is available to download directly from the publisher web site here... Available downloads include ePub (for most eReading devices including NOOK and Sony Reader), .prc (for Kindle) and PDF (to read on most eReading devices as well as computer).
Another great option for those who do not own a eReader is to download for free the Kindle for PC application. This will allow you to read books available on Kindle, including Secrets of an Old Typewriter, on your computer. You can download the application here
Anyone who has ever lived in a small town certainly knows that secrets are sometimes not so secret.
Susie Duncan Sexton has lived her entire life in a small town—indeed, in the same house where she grew up. As an adult, she taught at the same grammar school that she attended as a child, and many of the relationships she cultivated while growing up, including her marriage, have endured over the years. Always one to document the present and offer her sometimes unorthodox ideas and opinions, Susie Duncan Sexton has tickled the keys of her trusty old typewriter for nearly five decades, and now that venerable machine is ready to reveal its secrets.
This book may be about small town life, but the ideas contained within it are expansive. The written accounts of the life of a ‘smart and sassy small town girl’ are as urbane as those of any city dweller. From ’50s and ’60s nostalgia to modern-day values, and from the drama and insight of America’s great books and motion pictures to politics, religion and animal rights, Susie Duncan Sexton’s ‘secrets’ always hit the mark with unexpected candor and a unique perspective.
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
September 27, 2011
First Review!
From Myrna Bailey: "Susie, I just finished reading your book ['Secrets of an Old Typewriter'] and it was delightful. I loved reading about all the Columbia City people, most of whom I know. Ralph was pleased that you mentioned his name in it :). Looking forward to your next one. Love, Myrna"
Thanks, Myrna!!
My response...
Oh, Myrna, thanks so much! I am ready for a nursing home after all of this composing, editing, waiting for instructions and assignments from my editor in GREECE…yep, GREECE.
We even had a skype session with Roy and Susie talking with that gentleman and his wife…via computer screen. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have believed authorship of a book would come my way.
It is a trip and a half, to say the least. Your words have made this all worthwhile! Love you!!!!
Thinking there may be another one or two future books scattered around this house – if I can just locate them. I need some assistants other than cats for my staff!
Susie Q
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
Thanks, Myrna!!
My response...
Oh, Myrna, thanks so much! I am ready for a nursing home after all of this composing, editing, waiting for instructions and assignments from my editor in GREECE…yep, GREECE.
We even had a skype session with Roy and Susie talking with that gentleman and his wife…via computer screen. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have believed authorship of a book would come my way.
It is a trip and a half, to say the least. Your words have made this all worthwhile! Love you!!!!
Thinking there may be another one or two future books scattered around this house – if I can just locate them. I need some assistants other than cats for my staff!
Susie Q
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
Snow Globes, Grape Vines, and Hockey Pucks
"Susan Duncan, your mother's on the telephone?" head-librarian Mrs. List half-questioned. One of the sweetest ladies in town, she slowly wandered throughout the entire square footage of Mr. Peabody's namesake "bibliotheque", ducking in and out of the aisles among towering shelves of books and artifacts. Juvenile fiction, biographies, autobiographies, novels, reference works, globes, ship replicas, Indian dolls--you name it. I scampered about, hiding from her. Why? I have no idea. I never roamed far from home. Not even to this day. My friends might judge me as "over-protected", I feared, IF I accepted the incoming call. Thus, I continued to avoid her approaching steps, and possibly stern visage, while I maintained my stealthy "rebel" status crouching behind stacks of literary paraphernalia in that multi-"storied" building!
Maturing in a small town, "where everybody knows your name", carries the potential for both advantages as well as the accompanying disadvantages of life-time embarrassment. "Communication" in the 50s was facilitated not only by John and Hester Adams' two daily newspapers, one Democratic and the other Republican, but also by frequent telephone calls completed with the assistance of local operators asking, "Number, plee-iz?". The grape-vine aspect, sporadically aided and abetted by an intrusive "party-line" feature, meant that several locals might be eavesdropping on private intriguing conversations in addition to the caller and "call-ee". Galloping gossip. Who in this world needed that? Branded forever.
Scrubbing behind my ears one evening prior to falling into bed on a "school night", I turned off the bath tub faucet to hear my dad shouting, "Charlotte Fahl's on the phone and wishes to speak with you!" Me? Why ever would a popular high school cheer-leader ring up a pesky fourth grader? Truth's sometimes stranger than fiction. A grown-up person invited this goofy, klutzy, gangly, long-legged book-worm to proclaim at the top of my voice, "Eagles, we cheer for thee..." and "Two bits, four bits, six bits...a dollar!" as a type of mascot yell-leader for the very tall Columbia City Eagles whom my Southern mother curiously referred to as "Iggles"!
One of life's high points, however momentary. (My "let's do the splits if at all possible" career briefly endured, throughout a total of probably seven and a half varsity-caliber basket-ball games.) Now where to custom-order the maroon and gold outfit of my dreams which would sport a huge felt megaphone stitched onto my chest and a golden eagle swooping across the backside? Easy answer.
Blumenthal's "elegant" ladies' apparel shop, a glorious fixture for mothers and daughters, offered one-stop shopping throughout my "Betsy McCall-wannabe" elementary school days. Poodle or box-pleated skirts, angora sweater sets, party-girl organdy dresses, Princess-Style winter coats, corduroy jumpers, and fabled CAN-CAN crinolines (several of those to beworn simultaneously) cluttered the closets of most of C. C.'s "ingénues". Ben Blumenthal, his wife Bea, and their kids lived about a block from us in a beautiful brick home. Their family dog bit me as I skipped home from school one afternoon. My badge of honor! Their store, divine and air-conditioned, seems like a fairy tale now ...but I currently possess one of their purple-tinged cardboard boxes, emblazoned with silver printing, which contains my "mustard seed" necklace. Yes, Rod Serling, Blumenthal's actually existed.
Driving home heading west on Van Buren Street toward the setting sun, I am transported to an earlier era when our quaint downtown never may have inspired the infectiously perky beat of a Petula Clark tune but most certainly resembled a village nestled upon the toy floor of a snow globe. Frank Capra captured our little Thornton Wilder vintage town in his film "It's a Wonderful Life", warts and all. Friday OR Saturday night-time shopping. Kroger's, William's, or Yontz's Grocery stores. Raupfer's or Schultz's Dimestores for paper dolls, comic books, and mouth-watering cashews--within glass cases--funneled into white sacks via a silver scoop! Dropping by for a fancy, be-ribboned box of chocolates purchased from drugstore partners "Uncle" Walt Meyers and Garland Stickler, while ceiling fans whirred above our heads. Sugar cookies from Jones' Bakery! Can't you still hear that tinkling bell attached to their screen door? Deviled ham sandwiches enhanced by cherry cokes and potato chips in Seyfert's ruffled paper containers at Hollis Peeler's Walgreen's soda-fountain, twisting our bar stools from side to side then twirling 360 degrees? Ah, "Memories are Made of This!"
Sadie Rush, with her son Allan, operated The Style Shop. Mr. Rush, who passed on his love of and talent for music performance to his son Michael, managed to contribute significantly to my outlook on life. His knowledge of jazz musicians, that droll sense of humor, and our mutual appreciation for the exact same television comedians all appealed to my inquisitive teen-aged mind. He honestly chatted with me while my mom and sister disappeared into "dressing rooms". I always imagined that he, funnyman Carl Reiner, and talk-show host Steve Allen somehow got "separated at birth".
WHENEVER I glance into a mirror, I am reminded of an "enchanted evening" encounter with seven year old Mike Rush "across a crowded room". Rambunctiously, the two of us commenced sliding toward one another from opposite ends of the freshly waxed Elks ball-room floor circa 1952, immediately after viewing some black and white, reel-to-reel Abbott & Costello movie, courtesy of the Hancocks, while our respective parents partied downstairs. This cavernous "ice-rink" remaining darkened until an adult could switch on the lights, our two foreheads slammed together, and, personally, I never have been quite the same since. The resultant dent located dead-center above my eyebrows lends me a serious Clint Eastwood furrowed-brow scowl which rather sets me apart. For that signature look, I have Mike to thank...or was that Tommy Roe? Jury's still out.
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
Maturing in a small town, "where everybody knows your name", carries the potential for both advantages as well as the accompanying disadvantages of life-time embarrassment. "Communication" in the 50s was facilitated not only by John and Hester Adams' two daily newspapers, one Democratic and the other Republican, but also by frequent telephone calls completed with the assistance of local operators asking, "Number, plee-iz?". The grape-vine aspect, sporadically aided and abetted by an intrusive "party-line" feature, meant that several locals might be eavesdropping on private intriguing conversations in addition to the caller and "call-ee". Galloping gossip. Who in this world needed that? Branded forever.
Scrubbing behind my ears one evening prior to falling into bed on a "school night", I turned off the bath tub faucet to hear my dad shouting, "Charlotte Fahl's on the phone and wishes to speak with you!" Me? Why ever would a popular high school cheer-leader ring up a pesky fourth grader? Truth's sometimes stranger than fiction. A grown-up person invited this goofy, klutzy, gangly, long-legged book-worm to proclaim at the top of my voice, "Eagles, we cheer for thee..." and "Two bits, four bits, six bits...a dollar!" as a type of mascot yell-leader for the very tall Columbia City Eagles whom my Southern mother curiously referred to as "Iggles"!
One of life's high points, however momentary. (My "let's do the splits if at all possible" career briefly endured, throughout a total of probably seven and a half varsity-caliber basket-ball games.) Now where to custom-order the maroon and gold outfit of my dreams which would sport a huge felt megaphone stitched onto my chest and a golden eagle swooping across the backside? Easy answer.
Blumenthal's "elegant" ladies' apparel shop, a glorious fixture for mothers and daughters, offered one-stop shopping throughout my "Betsy McCall-wannabe" elementary school days. Poodle or box-pleated skirts, angora sweater sets, party-girl organdy dresses, Princess-Style winter coats, corduroy jumpers, and fabled CAN-CAN crinolines (several of those to beworn simultaneously) cluttered the closets of most of C. C.'s "ingénues". Ben Blumenthal, his wife Bea, and their kids lived about a block from us in a beautiful brick home. Their family dog bit me as I skipped home from school one afternoon. My badge of honor! Their store, divine and air-conditioned, seems like a fairy tale now ...but I currently possess one of their purple-tinged cardboard boxes, emblazoned with silver printing, which contains my "mustard seed" necklace. Yes, Rod Serling, Blumenthal's actually existed.
Driving home heading west on Van Buren Street toward the setting sun, I am transported to an earlier era when our quaint downtown never may have inspired the infectiously perky beat of a Petula Clark tune but most certainly resembled a village nestled upon the toy floor of a snow globe. Frank Capra captured our little Thornton Wilder vintage town in his film "It's a Wonderful Life", warts and all. Friday OR Saturday night-time shopping. Kroger's, William's, or Yontz's Grocery stores. Raupfer's or Schultz's Dimestores for paper dolls, comic books, and mouth-watering cashews--within glass cases--funneled into white sacks via a silver scoop! Dropping by for a fancy, be-ribboned box of chocolates purchased from drugstore partners "Uncle" Walt Meyers and Garland Stickler, while ceiling fans whirred above our heads. Sugar cookies from Jones' Bakery! Can't you still hear that tinkling bell attached to their screen door? Deviled ham sandwiches enhanced by cherry cokes and potato chips in Seyfert's ruffled paper containers at Hollis Peeler's Walgreen's soda-fountain, twisting our bar stools from side to side then twirling 360 degrees? Ah, "Memories are Made of This!"
Sadie Rush, with her son Allan, operated The Style Shop. Mr. Rush, who passed on his love of and talent for music performance to his son Michael, managed to contribute significantly to my outlook on life. His knowledge of jazz musicians, that droll sense of humor, and our mutual appreciation for the exact same television comedians all appealed to my inquisitive teen-aged mind. He honestly chatted with me while my mom and sister disappeared into "dressing rooms". I always imagined that he, funnyman Carl Reiner, and talk-show host Steve Allen somehow got "separated at birth".
WHENEVER I glance into a mirror, I am reminded of an "enchanted evening" encounter with seven year old Mike Rush "across a crowded room". Rambunctiously, the two of us commenced sliding toward one another from opposite ends of the freshly waxed Elks ball-room floor circa 1952, immediately after viewing some black and white, reel-to-reel Abbott & Costello movie, courtesy of the Hancocks, while our respective parents partied downstairs. This cavernous "ice-rink" remaining darkened until an adult could switch on the lights, our two foreheads slammed together, and, personally, I never have been quite the same since. The resultant dent located dead-center above my eyebrows lends me a serious Clint Eastwood furrowed-brow scowl which rather sets me apart. For that signature look, I have Mike to thank...or was that Tommy Roe? Jury's still out.
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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
September 26, 2011
Zuzanna Orzel, artist who created the cover for "Secrets of an Old Typewriter"
Meet the talented artist who created the book cover for "Secrets of an Old Typewriter"! Here is her profile...
Zuzanna Orzel is from Poland & writes on her blog: "Greetings from Poland! I am happy to announce that today already appeared the book 'Secrets of an Old Typewriter' by Susie Duncan Sexton, whose cover is .... strangely familiar. :) If you are interested of buying this books I refer you here And if someone wants to buy the original cover art - I invite you to visit my site here"
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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
Zuzanna Orzel is from Poland & writes on her blog: "Greetings from Poland! I am happy to announce that today already appeared the book 'Secrets of an Old Typewriter' by Susie Duncan Sexton, whose cover is .... strangely familiar. :) If you are interested of buying this books I refer you here And if someone wants to buy the original cover art - I invite you to visit my site here"
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
September 25, 2011
More Coverage of "Secrets of an Old Typewriter"
Coverage in the Busco Voice! "From typewriter to popular blog to worldwide eBook, Secrets of an Old Typewriter by Columbia City, Indiana author Susie Duncan Sexton chronicles an iconoclastic life lived in small town America."
Read here...
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
Read here...
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
September 23, 2011
Susie Interviewed by Her Pal Colin Lively on "The Colin Lively Show"
Episode description: "NYC hairdresser to stars and socialites dishes with Denise Spanek who created a cosmetic line for flyers (as in airplanes), and the ever vivacious Susie Sexton, talking about 'Secrets of an Old Typewriter: Stories from a Smart and Sassy Small Town Girl.'"
Listen here...
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
Listen here...
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette: "Author Published!"
From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette:
"AUTHOR PUBLISHED - 'Secrets of an Old Typewriter: Stories from a Smart and Sassy Small Town Girl' by Susie Duncan Sexton of Columbia City has been published and is available for purchase at susieduncansexton.com"
Read the article here...
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
"AUTHOR PUBLISHED - 'Secrets of an Old Typewriter: Stories from a Smart and Sassy Small Town Girl' by Susie Duncan Sexton of Columbia City has been published and is available for purchase at susieduncansexton.com"
Read the article here...
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
god is present in these beautiful faces...
god is present in these beautiful faces, that we ignore the haunting and pleading expressions on, as we allow other humans to slay these living beings. when we kill, we kill god...we destroy nature...we make ourselves vindictive gods with no concern for the beauty we put an end to...dead is dead.
"RIP" is an escape mechanism...nothing rests in peace unless we are speaking of naps from which we awake. these second to second slaughters must end--they cannot be rationalized by NO MORE ROOM, PARVO, UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS, MANGE, ETC.
those who care get blown off...those who cannot speak for themselves become lifeLESS and are thrown into trash receptacles and then bulldozed into land-fills. if we purport to love god...then killing for the sake of convenience or for manufactured rationalizations must end now.
enough. enough mindless killing. PLEASE???????
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
"RIP" is an escape mechanism...nothing rests in peace unless we are speaking of naps from which we awake. these second to second slaughters must end--they cannot be rationalized by NO MORE ROOM, PARVO, UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS, MANGE, ETC.
those who care get blown off...those who cannot speak for themselves become lifeLESS and are thrown into trash receptacles and then bulldozed into land-fills. if we purport to love god...then killing for the sake of convenience or for manufactured rationalizations must end now.
enough. enough mindless killing. PLEASE???????
____________________
Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter - print and ebook versions available. Also available in both formats at Amazon.com
Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page
Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com
Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or won't
