This past week my daughter and I watched a movie together called Kit Kittredge. The movie itself was fine: good triumphs over evil, as it should in a movie for a 7-year-old. It takes place during the Depression in the 1930′s, and the people in the film experience loss and lowered economic status. There were some underlying, Hollywoodish type themes – for example, is Robin Hood a good guy? Is it OK to rob from the rich and give it to the poor? (the film seemed to imply yes, and I would say no – rich people should give charity, not be the victims of theft). The mother of the main character, a girl named Kit, decides to take in boarders in order to be able to keep their house. Somehow “selling eggs” becomes symbolic of stooping low, and near the end of the film the mother does acquire some chickens so they can sell eggs as well, which Kit is not happy about (but she accepts).

What bothered me in particular about this was that my paternal grandfather sold eggs in the Depression! That was how he supported his family of seven (five children). He would venture out to the egg farms in New Jersey and bring them back to Brooklyn to sell. My father said at some point he helped with the accounting; at the end of each month, my grandfather would have no money left and need to start a new. There was never any savings, but at least they had food to eat.

What was your family doing in the 1930′s?

Update: See Risa’s post about her grandfather who had a store in Brooklyn.

On My Blog

  
I didn’t have much time to blog this week, as my kids are off from school and we went on vacation to the Berkshire Mountains.

If I had more blogging time this week, I would have done a Nature Notes post about both Tu B’Shvat (the Jewish holiday of the trees) and Parshat B’Shalach, before which one is supposed to feed the birds. Here is a nice story about the Maharal, feeding birds, and teaching children.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Describe Person Experiment. You are still most welcome to participate!

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• Mother in Israel quotes a news report: “…what will kill people is not an earthquake. What kills them is the building” – this is similar to what Rutgers Professor Lee Clarke said about buildings in the Midwest.
• The colors of Robin’s flower and Ilana-Davita’s Swedish shed photos are similar in palette, yet the photos are so different in subject matter and in photographic style.
• Mimi cooks up a Tu B’Shvat feast; and G6 has all the seven species ready for her table.
• Raizy shares the wonderful world of parenting teens and cell phone texting charges; we can relate.
• I really enjoyed Michelle’s videos after the rain then during the snow. She’s funny, whether she means to be so or not… listen to the goldfinch who didn’t get the January memo.
• Having been born Jewish, I often find it curious why someone would convert…”There are Jewish roots in my family, on my Dad’s side,” says Rachel. <- I suppose that helps
• Eva Abreu in the Home News Tribune wrote about how people use Twitter to connect and produce new business relationships. She included the example of how I connected with Kacy Campion Renna of CCW Insurance, and I wrote up a post about Eva’s newspaper story.
• Last by not least (or in Hebrew, Aharon Aharon Haviv) Batya hosted KCC #50, the 50th Kosher Cooking Carnival.

Sky Watch Friday is a photo meme with photos of sunrises, sunsets, blue skies, gray skies, pink skies, dark skies and any other kind of sky posted by bloggers all over the planet.

Three photos from the same vantage point: the first one was taken on January 26, a day of some sunshine and wonderful skiing with the family. You may notice that all the snow in the second photo has been washed away by the rains in this one. But Jiminy Peak in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts does a great job of snow making and grooming, so skiing was fine.

On this day, January 25, it rained so much and the winds were high so the mountain was closed, unusual for January.

Everyone was asleep except me and the friendly desk clerk.

Last Friday RJ Flamingo (who blogs Flamingo Musings) described me (leoraw) on Twitter as: “nature-lover and WordPress maven.” I liked that description. I am in the Berkshires now on a ski vacation, and so I will be checking to see what you write on Thursday. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will be busy skiing and then traveling home to New Jersey. I hope to post some Sky Watch pictures on Thursday; the skies are beautiful in the mountains here.

The idea is that as children we are often told to be humble (or some of us were), but as adults we need to learn the balance between tooting our own horns and being too loud about ourselves and thus arrogant. By describing your own positive attributes, you will then present your best face to the world. Or you can help someone else by describing what you see as some of their positive characteristics.

On My Blog

  
  

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• Ilana-Davita asked some good questions about the parsha (which is Bo, about the end of the ten plagues and is quite violent).
• I finally finished reading Laish by Aharon Appelfeld, which is reviewed beautifully here by Jew Wishes. I cannot even begin to imagine being a 15 year old without parents who is raised by this caravan, but in some ways it is similar to Aharon Appelfeld’s story, who also lost his parents quite young.
• Mrs. S. is playing one of my favorite games, Othello. But she seems to be changing the rules.
• Muqata has an eye witness account about the IDF field hospital in Haiti: “A doctor and nurse from Germany came. They heard this is best hospital in Haiti. An emergency room team from Colombia arrived with all their equipment and asked if they could set up next to us to be part of our hospital. England is the enlightened country in Europe, the one which has an academic boycott of Israel; twenty British doctors and nurses asked to work with us.”
• Melissa wrote “It Takes a Community.”

Corner of South Park and Eighth Avenues in Highland Park after December 31, 2009 snowfall. I loved the bright green against the white and gray.

Thursday Challenge theme is WINTER (Ice, Icicles, Snow, Tobogganing, Skating, Frost, Winter Clothing,…). And next week is MESSY.