Farewell, "Winter"

Glancing at a calendar today, I realized that we're still in for another two weeks of winter. Or, you know, "winter," in the case of this year.

A SINGLE snowflake is probably being generous in representing this past season.

(Did I just jinx us - are we about to get hit with some massive Nor'easter and I'm going to have to unearth my Saturn from its icy clutches? Eh, I'm willing to risk it.)

It's coming up on your last chance to embrace some of the wintery elements of our community before spring arrives. And while there's not much snowshoeing or sledding or snowman building to be had, there are a couple of things I did recently that put me in a winter frame of mind. (You know, in a good way. Not in a have-to-break-the-frozen-padlock-off-my-U-Haul-with-a-hammer-so-I-can-move-into-my-new-place sort of way.)

The first is a little venture I like to call Finding Frost. As in:

Robert Frost

Frost, one of the greatest American poets of all time, is currently being featured on the Poetry Posts found in City of Elmira parks. Poetry Posts is a project developed by ARTiculation, a group of three Elmira poets who wanted to make poetry an accessible part of daily life. (Other contributing organizations include the Near Westside Neighborhood Association, ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, Community Foundation of Elmira, Corning and the Finger Lakes, SCT BOCES and the City of Elmira.) A variety of poets will be featured throughout the year.

Incidentally, in going out to track down some of these Posts, I had no idea there were quite as many parks in Elmira as there are. There are twenty-one parks in the city! Participating parks thus far include Brand, Cypress, Katy Leary, Jim Nelson, Brick Pond, Eldridge, Grove, Pulaski, Riverfront East, Mark Twain Riverfront and Wisner.

Mark Twain Riverfront Park. I spy a Poetry Post on the right.

 Featuring Frost's "Unharvested"

Jim Nelson Park, featuring Frost's "The Last Word of a Bluebird"

Not the only recent visitor, apparently...

 That's one crazy-long slide!

Brand Park, featuring "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Since this poem's my personal favorite of the group, I'll share.

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

Eldridge Park, featuring "The Road Not Taken"

The Posts are interesting to pause and check out if you're strolling or walking your dog through any of these parks - a nice way to add a lil' dose of literary inspiration to your day.

The other activity I did recently to embrace winter was to make an ice skating attempt at First Arena. The Rec Rink has a few hours set aside for public skate each weekend.

Scary prospect.

One of the first thoughts that entered my mind was that at least I was in close proximity to St. Joe's and Arnot Ogden. Probably because my one and only attempt prior to this was an early childhood one; I vividly recall holding onto the wall and other people, but doing no actual skating on my own.

I mean, I've rollerbladed for years, but who knew how that was going to translate to this?

I was guessing not terribly well.

Turns out, though, that it does, to a decent extent. Balancing on skates was no problem on the floor outside of the rink since I was used to walking on rollerblades. And once on the ice, getting used to the slippery surface just took a few go-rounds. (Like, for example, some laps spent holding on to the wall, not daring to let go of it to pass a four-year-old learning to skate.)

What's good about the Rec Rink, though, I realized as I went along, is there are skaters of all levels and ages, so nobody pays any mind if you're a pro or a beginner or anywhere in between.

And once I finally got up the courage to pass that four-year-old, I knew everything was going to be fine. I haven't learned how to stop (short of grabbing the wall), but I can, indeed, cruise along now, and found that I enjoy it. Plus, it was fun to try something new.

There's still public skate time scheduled for this year; make sure to check out First Arena's Rec Rink calendar online.

And enjoy the dwindling days of "winter" -

First Arena

155 North Main Street, Elmira, NY 14901

(607) 734-7825

www.firstarena.com

For Twain, Everyday Was Valentine's Day

In the spirit of Valentine's, I thought I'd impart what I believe is a lesser-known fact about our buddy Samuel Clemens. Something he isn't remembered for as much as his many famous works in the genres of humor, adventure, and social commentary and criticism:

Twain at 32.

Twain was also a hopeless romantic.

The object of his affection, Livy Langdon, at 24.

This discovery was brought to me courtesy of a recent program held at The Park Church, "The Love Letters of Mark Twain and Livy Langdon Clemens."

The event, sponsored by the Community Arts of Elmira, Chemung Valley History Museum and the church, celebrated the 142nd Anniversary of Sam and Livy's marriage with a reading of some of their letters by husband-and-wife team Charles and Liz Raudat.

Twain and Livy couldn't have been from more different backgrounds. She was from a well-to-do family here in Elmira, struggled with her health to the point of spending years as an invalid, and was religious and educated. He was from Missouri, left school at a young age to become a printer's apprentice, and spent most of his young adult years being a steamboat pilot, doing work for newspapers and traveling out West.

And then he fell in love with her picture. He was traveling on a ship, where he met her brother Charles who had a picture of Livy, and he fell in love with her portrait before even meeting her.

Twain visited Livy and her family, but they courted mostly by letter for two years, and even having only heard a sampling of their correspondence, was he ever 1000% smitten with her, from her beauty to her intelligence to her disposition. He wrote her letters, for example, urging her to sleep later in the morning for the sake of her health. And one of his letters, literally, had about six post scripts in which he continued to profess his love for her.

She actually rejected him at first, including his first marriage proposal. They came from such different social, geographic and religious backgrounds, and had such different personalities, views and values, that she wouldn't accept him. Seemingly just to keep her in his life, though, he convinced her that they could have a platonic relationship:

My Honored “Sister” –

The impulse is strong upon me to say to you how grateful I am to you and to all of you, for the patience, the consideration & the unfailing kindness which has been shown me ever since I came within the shadow of this roof, and which has made the past fortnight the sole period of my life unmarred by a regret. Unmarred by a regret. I say it deliberately. For I do not regret that I have loved you, still love & shall always love you. I accept the situation, uncomplainingly, hard as it is. Of old I am acquainted with grief, disaster & disappointment, & have borne these troubles as became a man. So, also, I shall bear this last & bitterest, even though it break my heart. I would not dishonor this worthiest love that has yet been born within me by any puerile thought, or word, or deed. It is better to have loved & lost you than that my life should have remained forever the blank it was before. For once, at least, in the idle years that have drifted over me, I have seen the world all beautiful, & known what it was to hope. For once I have known what it was to feel my sluggish pulses stir with a living ambition. The world that was so beautiful, is dark again; the hope that shone as the sun, is gone; the brave ambition is dead. Yet I say again, it is better for me that I have loved & do love you; that with more than Eastern devotion I worship you; that I lay down all my life that is worth the living, upon this hopeless altar where no fires of love shall descend to consume it. If you could but –

But no more of this. I have said it only from that impulse which drives men to speak of great calamities which have befallen them, & so seek relief. I could not say it to give you pain. The words are spoken, & they have fallen upon forgiving ears. For you dear sake my tongue & my pen are now forbidden to repeat them ever again.

And so, henceforward, I claim only that you will let me freight my speeches to you with, simply, the sacred love a brother bears to a sister. I ask that you will write to me sometimes, as to a friend whom you feel will do all that a man may to be worthy of your friendship – or as to a brother whom you know will hold his sister’s honor as dearly as his own, her wishes as his law, her pure judgements above his blinded worldly wisdom. Being adrift, now, & rudderless, my voyage promises ill; but while the friendly beacon of your sisterly love beams, though, never so faintly through the fogs & the mists, I cannot be hopelessly wrecked. I shall not shame your confidence by speaking to you in future letters, of this dead love whose requiem I have been chanting. No, I will not offend. I will not misunderstand you.

My honored sister, you are so good & so beautiful - & I am so proud of you! Give me a little room in that great heart of yours – only the little you have promised me - & if I fail to deserve it may I remain forever the homeless vagabond I am! If you & mother Fairbanks will only scold me & upbraid me now & then, I shall fight my way through the world, never fear. Write me something from time to time – texts from the New Testament, if nothing else occurs to you – or dissertations on smoking – or extracts from your Book of Sermons – anything, whatever – the reflection that my matchless sister wrote it will be sufficient. If it be a suggestion, I will entertain it; if it be an injunction, I will honor it; if it be a command I will obey it or exhaust my energies, trying.

And now, good-bye, my precious sister - & may all the sorrows which fate has ordained for you fall upon this foolish head of mine, which would be so glad & so proud to suffer them in your stead. I leave you to the ministering angels – for, daughter of the earth as you are, they throng the air about you – they are with you, & such as you, always.

Sincerely & affectionately,

Sam L. Clemens

The line that gets me is "dead love whose requiem I have been chanting." Strong stuff.

Eventually through the course of courting her (and courting her family), though, he did win her affection. If you ever get the chance to experience their letters, they're really interesting and eloquent, and well-worth the time.

They were married at the Langdon Mansion, across the street from Park Church, by the Rev. Beecher at 7 p.m. on Feb. 2, 1870 (because the Reverend had a meeting at eight :) They didn't want a big wedding, but the Langdon family was so prominent that there were about 100 people in attendance.

The Park Church event (in addition to having take-home "wedding" cake slices), also featured several artifacts from their relationship provided by the Chemung County Historical Society, including a shoe that Livy owned, their marriage certificate, a tea cup and saucer from the Langdon family china, and stenograph cards of the Langdon home:

So they were married, had four children, and the rest is history. As is the fact that Twain had this additional, sometimes overlooked dimension that I'll remember from here on out.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Community Arts of Elmira Inc.

413 Lake Street, Elmira, (607) 846-2418

http://communityartsofelmira.com/index.php, http://www.facebook.com/communityartselmira

Chemung Valley History Museum

415 E. Water Street, Elmira, (607) 734-4167

www.chemungvalleymuseum.org, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chemung-County-Historical-Society/115141548496444

The Park Church

208 West Gray Street, Elmira, (607) 733-9104

http://www.theparkchurch.org/, http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Park-Church-Elmira/176954225651556

Home for the Holidays

Behold what I've affectionately termed my "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree":

It's one of those assembly-required numbers with holes in the "trunk" to stick the branches into. I was all ready to call it quits with this tree this year, to be honest. It's older than dirt, a pain in the butt to put together, and my attempts at forming it into the right shape have for sure been subject to more than their fair share of yuletide scrutiny ;)

But then my mother helped me put it together, and broke out with the classic line from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" when Linus realizes Charlie Brown's tree isn't so bad after all. "Maybe it just needs a little love."

So, I decided to keep it around awhile longer.

I recently discovered that decking the halls is taken to a whole different level in Elmira every December. Annual Holiday Home Tours here feature some of my favorite qualities about the city, the gorgeous Victorian architecture of and history behind so many of its homes.

The Near Westside Neighborhood Association and Historic Maple Avenue featured tours on two consecutive weekends this year. I participated in the Near Westside's this time around, which included five amazing homes, the 4th Annual Gingerbread House Competition of New York State at the Ernie Davis Community Center, and a Dessert Reception and Open House at the Arnot Art Museum.

The tour is a great community event; tickets are sold at, raffle items are donated by, and tour volunteers come from local organizations.

There's also an element of storytelling to this tour that I really enjoy. A booklet is available to participants that tells about the background of each place, its architectural features, and highlights the decorative choices of the owners, all of whom put a tremendous amount of work into not just decorating, but repairing, restoring, renovating and maintaining these unique older homes.

So check out these feats of holiday grandeur:

528 West Water Street. Previous residents of which include Ida Langdon, the niece of Olivia Langdon Clemens and Mark Twain. She resided there from 1935 until her death in 1964.

627 West Gray Street. Built in 1868, and has radiators that have been sandblasted to imitate an original look.

424 West Church Street. This one featured some upstairs apartments as well, and was a church parsonage for the Christ United Methodist Church from 1914-1970.

A 12-foot tree decorated with antique cards. Had a bear skin rug tree skirt.

Yule Log!

I would have sat down and regaled my fellow tour participants with a tune, but I only have about four songs from my piano lesson days committed to memory. Zero of which are worthy of an 1876 Steinway & Sons Parlor Grand Piano that's only one of 250 in the U.S.

360 West Church Street. Full of apartments, and featuring its original circa 1876 porch boards, ceiling and banister, all restored.

318 West Clinton Street. It's a Stick Style Queen Anne painted in a Pacific Northwest color scheme. There was lots of talk of MacKenzie-Childs pieces here, which you could see throughout the house.

There were even Christmas trees in the bathrooms!

 Loved the light fixtures.

The 4th Annual Gingerbread House Competition at the Ernie Davis Community Center. Voting involves placing money in a container for the house you like the best. The house with the most money wins a prize, and all of the money collected goes to charity.

A whole different type o' architectural celebration going on here:

Yes, that IS the Wicked Witch of the East under that house.
Compliments of the Katie's Café team.

The Arnot Art Museum. (P.S. If you're looking for a last minute gift, the Holiday Art Market 2011 continues in the museum's Reading Room through December 30th.)

This sled belonged to the Clemens family.

If you didn't get a chance to sneak a peek inside some of Elmira's most beautiful homes this time around, this marked the tour's 27th year, so be sure to catch its 28th! Tickets usually go on sale around mid-November at various area businesses, and it's a great way to support the community and get in the holiday spirit.

Please enjoy this Yule Log as a token of my Happy Holidays wishes to all.

Near Westside Neighborhood Association

353 Davis Street, Elmira, NY 14901

(607) 733-4924, http://www.nwnainc.com/,

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Near-Westside-Neighborhood-Assoc-Inc/147589922098

The Arnot Art Museum, 235 Lake Street, Elmira, NY 14901

(607) 734-3697, http://www.arnotartmuseum.org/