Gloria Ferris

Riverside Cemetery Jazz Festival

Sunday, September 18, 2011

2 pm until ????

Featuring

The Mike Jacobs Quintet

Horse and Carriage Tours of the Cemetery will be available

Free and open to the public

www.riversidecemeterycleveland.org Phone number: 216-351-4800

The Riverside Cemetery Association will hold its first annual jazz festival at the Cemetery located at 3607 Pearl Road. Thee Festival will honor renowned Cleveland jazz musicians, Roberto Ocasio, Robert Lockwood, and Robert "Skeets" Ross, all laid to rest at Riverside. The Jazz Fest will feature a New Orleans style jazz band leading a procession from the 135-year-old Chapel to a circle in the Cemetery where President-elect Rutherford B. Hayes dedicated the Cemetery in 1876. Following a brief program highlighting the lives of these three gentlemen, there will be a concert performed by The Highlighters, aka Mike Jacobs Quintet, noted for its regular Dixieland performances for Cleveland Indians home baseball games since the opening of the ballpark in 1994. The band will also perform traditional New Orleans style funeral music and lead a horse-drawn carriage throughout the cemetery.

Since When Does an Acronym “SPA” Replace a Neighborhood?

It doesn’t. For those of you not “in the know” SPA stands for Strategic Planning Area- a government nom de plume to designate those areas of a town or city that will divvy up the federal funds allotted to that town or city.In the past, these areas reflected the neighborhoods of Cleveland. Presently, SPAS are being combined and a many neighborhoods will no longer be the designated as a SPA.  Some neighborhoods will be combined with others, essentially, wiping out that neighborhood’s name on the map.  Here in Cleveland, as we have all know by now the $$$ that we send to the federal government that come back to us by way of HUD and other entities are constantly shrinking. Let’s pause for a moment- our dollars going to the government, the government taking a cut, and then, our much leaner $$ come back to us. Of course, those “in the know” would tell you that this routing of money is “fairer” because those areas that are “poorer” benefit from the largesse of the communities that have “more”. I never have truly believed this statement, but neither have I taken the time to research it. It just seems to me that a community that can keep money recirculating within the community rather than constant side trips would prove more useful.

It is my understanding that for an SPA to work well, the area must have a certain amount of “designated poverty” neighborhoods so that the area will qualify for federal funds, hence, the necessity to gerrymander the existing SPAS into “new and improved” areas. Over the past few days, my Gmail account has overflowed with the new nomenclature suggested for these SPAS. My question to you all is “why”? Why are we caught up in a discussion on “naming rights” and not the more important question of how does this benefit each neighborhood of the city?

A strategic planning area is NOT a neighborhood and does not replace a neighborhood. It is something created around a table by a group of planners, political wonks, and elected officials for doling out federal monies. It does not define your neighborhood or you unless you allow it to do so. Kamm’s Corners, Stockyards, Brooklyn Centre, Tremont, Barbara, North Broadway, Mt. Pleasant, Glenville, Shaker Square-each and every one of these neighborhoods will survive as long as the people within that neighborhood identify with that community of people. A neighborhood dies when the last person who knows its origins stops relating memories about its past and stops striving to keep it alive and well.

For some, the problem arises when neighborhoods are split in two or those on the edge of an SPA are not given clear direction as to who, what and where their services are provided. I personally have witnessed this situation during the creation of the Ward 14 CDO (community Development Organization.  An organization created before the NEW designations, and therefore, many neighborhoods have experienced confusion, frustration, and inadequate services. This problem is something that certainly needs to be addressed with the creation of these new SPAS. I for one would hope that ward boundaries would not designate how services are dispensed because they will continue to shift throughout the years. Rather, I would suggest that neighborhood boundaries be considered when creating new SPAs so that no neighborhood is split in two and that each neighborhood knows how services will be dispensed.

Side by Side comparisons of how the existing SPAS work and how new and improved SPAs will be better should be done before any changes are made.  In the long run, when SPA boundaries shift throughout the years how can metrics be compared and how can we know that monies are used efficiently and for best practices.  If SPA areas combine how will statistical data be used to make sure that the neighborhoods encased in a given SPA area are receiving the best value for the dollars invested,  and, if they are truly receiving the dollars that should be invested there.

I think we are on a slippery slope when our identity as a neighborhood is verified or nullified by an SPA designation. I serve on the Ward 14 steering committee, and I have asked my colleagues to resist the urge to name the organization with a combination of the three neighborhoods presently associated with the CDO because it was apparent that this debate would soon be upon us. In my mind, it is better to name the “thing” and say that the neighborhoods of Stockyards, Brooklyn Centre, and Clark Fulton are served by the “thing”. Right now, Brooklyn Centre is served by two councilmen and two CDOs. Who knows what our fate will be when all the new lines are drawn?

What I do know: Brooklyn Centre was settled in 1812, in 2012 it celebrates its 200^th birthday, and my neighbors and I are working hard to ensure that it survives another 100 years as a strong, prosperous community. Will we use the services of our local government? Absolutely! Will we demand accountability and transparency from our elected officials? Absolutely! However, strength and prosperity will come from the residents and businesspeople within the neighborhood, and therefore, it is imperative that we all understand and acknowledge what a neighborhood is and does. A neighborhood reflects the values and aspirations of its residents and business owners, not the name given it by the people who work for it. Neighborhoods will not be destroyed by people around a table; rather, they will die of natural causes when the last neighbor is gone. An SPA on the other hand will continue to shift as the dollars shrink and the workers gather around the tale.

When I was a child, each Memorial Day began when I watched the traditional parade down the main street of my hometown looking for  my dad, uncles and aunt as they marched proudly down the street. Every parade ended at the town cemetery where my uncle sounded cadence and my dad was one of seven who reported with the 21 gun salute. Taps was played and the flag was raised from half staff. When I grew older I marched as a girl scout and then later, marched as a member of the high school marching band.

How fortunate I am to live in a neighborhood where my friend and neighbor Rick Nicholson carries on a tradition started many years ago by the Brooklyn Centre historical Society in conjunction with the Early Settlers Association of the Western Reserve at the Brooklyn Centre Burying Ground located at the end of Garden Avenue off Pearl. Each year at 11 a.m. on Memorial Day we gather by the flagpole to remember our dead who fought to keep us free and to pray for the end of war. 

This year began with our organizer, Rick Nicholson, a member of the Cleveland Grays, leading us in The Pledge of Allegiance Reverend Neal Wilds handled the Invocation but first he talked about is connection to the Civil War, his boyhood home is near the site of the Battle of Shiloh. He then moved on to the Battle of Gettysburg and the loss of 51,000 American lives lost in the battle. He said it is hard to imagine the carnage of the three day battle and the lives changed forever.  He  then related that this bloodiest of wars was the beginnings of what we now call Memorial Day  He then said a prayer asking for the end of war and a world of peace.

Reverend Bob Andrew was next and his comments included facts about the cemetery.  Brooklyn Centre Burying Ground is the resting place of many soldiers beginning with the Revolutionary War and ending with World War II. He told us that he was drafted to serve in the Korean War as a chaplain and he was stationed in Japan and did not experience combat. He recited this poem by Cadet Major Kelly Strong Air Force Junior ROTC..

Rick Jaworski who served as president of Brooklyn Centre Historical Society for many years under the tutelage of Ruth Ketteringham read General Logan’s Order #11  which is the official beginning of Memorial Day which began the tradition of decorating soldier’s graves. For years, veteran groups sold crepe paper poppies to purchase flags to be placed on graves. I wonder how those flags are purchased now. Until 1967, when the last Monday in May became the official designated day instead of the original date of May 30th and the popular Decoration Day became known officially as Memorial Day.

After comments from the people gathered around the flagpole, Joy Parrish and her friend Doc played and sang a beautiful selection of songs. She started with this song by Simon and Garfunkel and ended the set with Let there be Peace on Earth -he asked us to sing along and we did quietly and then she performed  America The Beautiful. Along the way, Doc recited Poppies in Flanders Field with additional verses he penned to add soldiers beyond World War I. Joy set the poem to music but Doc forgot to give her ALL the lyrics so we will have to wait till next year to hear he WHOLE song. What she sang was beautiful.  Doc was concerned that John McRae would be upset that he took liberties with his poem. I told him he would probably be proud.

Everyone took a few flags to place on veteran’s graves to show us all how many of those buried there fought for the freedom we enjoy today. As the flags waved in the hot breeze, we said our last prayers for peace and solemnly stood looking out over the cemetery. I love the sound of “Taps” and I cherish the times I was asked to play it for soldiers’ funerals in my hometown. But, I never heard it played on a violin until today. Doc played it with a reverence and melancholy that I thought was reserved for bugles. We then bookended the service with a second recitation of the “Pledge of Allegiance”.

I am truly blessed to live in a neighborhood that knows the meaning of “Memorial Day” and knows how to celebrate it.  Mark your calendars we will be there next year.

Every Memorial Day our friend and neighbor Rick Nicholson organizes special tribute to our armed forces and the veterans who lost their lives so that you and I would have the great freedoms we enjoy because we live in America.  There are a few short speeches, music, a flag placing ceremony and conversations with friends and neighbors.  It is a great way to start a holiday that remembers the fallen and the dead who gave their lives so we would be free.  All are welcome.

JOIN US FOR A SERVICE AT THE HISTORIC BROOKLYN CENTRE BURYING GROUND, ALSO KNOWN AS DENISON CEMETERY. TO HONOR OUR MILITARY VETERANS.

11:00 AM, MONDAY

MAY 30TH 2011

MEET AT THE BURYING GROUNDS LOCATED ON GARDEN AVENUE, NORTH OF DENISON AND EAST OF PEARL ON GARDEN AVE BEHIND ALDI’S. CONSTRUCTION ON NEW GATE ONGOING.

THIS CEMETERY HAD ITS FIRST BURIAL IN 1823 AND WAS DEEDED BROOKLYN CENTRE BURING GROUNDS IN 1835. MANY WAR VETERANS, STARTING WITH THE "REVOLUTIONARY WAR", ARE BURIED IN THIS LOCAL HISTORIC CEMETERY.

ALL WELCOME TO CONTRIBUTE. PLEASE CALL RICK NICHOLSON AT 216 398 1494 TO SCHEDULE ANY COMMENTS YOU WISH TO MAKE. MUSIC WILL BE PERFORMED BY JOY AND DOC.

I just posted : “Impressive Stanard Farm Is a Must See” on Local Food Cleveland and I decided that this farm, greenhouse, and vineyard are things to celebrate about Cleveland.  All of these ventures were met with the usual naysayers in Cleveland but my friends preservered because they knew that had “an idea whoese time has come”.  These projects by people who love Cleveland, not because they think they can “get rich quick”, but because they believe in our community and they want to create jobs and offer excellent products to their fellow inhabitants of Northeast Ohio.  These people exemplify what “eonomic development” is.

Yesterday our local Cleveland Public Branch manager Mrs. Cheryl Diamond and I visited Stanard Farm for the first time.  Summer Sprout partnered with them this year to distribute the thousands of plants destined to feed Cleveland communities this summer and fall.  Since this was my first time to ever take part in this event, I have no comparisons but it was efficient, friendly and convenient- a good experience all the way around.

When you think about it, Superior Avenue seems a strange place for a farm, but is it?  Besides this farm, Community Greenhouse Partners has moved in to 6527 Superior Avenue, the original location of St. George’s Lithuanian Church and Blue Pike Farm is just up the road a piece.  I couldn’t resist using that phrase from my youth.  My grandfather and his pals ALWAYS  used that phrase to describe how far a lost traveler’s destination was.

If you are an "urban"  explorer on foot, by bike or car, you certainly should check out Stanard Farm, the other farms in the St. Clair-Superior area as well as Chateau Hough just a neighborhood away.  

The best place for French Toast in Cleveland  is at Cafe Miami in Old Brooklyn.  This morning the editors of the soon to be published (well, maybe not SO soon) first ever Brooklyn Centre Naturalists Cookbook met to continue collecting, editing, and working on this crucial fundraiser for our neighborhood group striving to become the next certified National Wildlife Community. But the first step to a good work session is a good breakfast.

And so, we ordered our breakfasts, sipped coffee, and settled down to work.  Cafe Miami is not the breakfast place for you on a Saturday  if you want a hurry-up and get going start to your day.  Larry’s place is a more of a read the paper, “what’s your hurry” kind of diner on Saturdays. Did I tell you that I LOVE the French Toast.  It is sublime. The inside is soft and the outside has a subtle crunch to it that offsets the softness. Delicious.

Every time I step through the door of Cafe Miami I feel like I have been transported to the Deep South. Maybe, it is the Mardi Gras posters on the wall, the Jazz feel to the place, or maybe I truly am transported to a different time and place.  I kid you not there is a magical feel to this cafe.  The salt and pepper shakers, the antiques, the books that are placed around the place which Larry always encourages people to read or borrow, and much, much more has to be seen to be believed.

Just as I think I can’t wait one more minute our food begins to arrive.  Recipes and computers are put aside as we dig in while the food is still hot.  As we talk about our week, we munch on toasted English Muffins, French Toast, eggs and bacon, I suddenly realize that we better get down to business, finish eating, and get back to work.   As we say good bye to Larry, owner chef, and his waitress, Marie , I glance at the clock realizing we have only used two hours of our Saturday.  I think to myself “how can this be” we finished  proofreading that huge stack of recipes, separated them by category, ate breakfast, and I feel as refreshed as if I had been soaking up sunshine on the beach. I stop cold as I look outside and see that it I am in cold and rainy Cleveland.   I kid you not I thought that I would be stepping out into the sunshine with a hot breeze tousling my hair.  Instead, I am dodging huge raindrops and am soaked to the skin by the time I reach the car.  I am telling  you that there is something magical about this cafe.  If you don’t believe me, visit it yourself, and prove me wrong.

Since my heart attacks, strokes and cancer two years ago,  I have paid much more attention to the role vitamins play in good health. Recently due to problems with muscle weakness and muscle pain, which I believe is due to a serious side effect from the statins—crestor and Lipitor, I have been taking. I have become very aware of Vitamin C’s role in heart health.

Now, today,  I read this article on Vitamin D’s role in cancer prevention, heart health and diabetes control.  At my six month check up, my primary doctor and cardiologist both said that my vitamin levels, enzymes and cholestrol readings were at good levels.  Next time, I intend to ask questions about the meaning of that sentence “What is good?” and “how could we enhance those levels”?  Vitamin K and I are already very good friends since the control of my intake of that vitamin is vital to my INR level remaining stable.  INR readings are used to make sure that your blood level stays within an acceptable range for clotting, and too much or not enough Vitamin K can alter those readings.  Obviously, Vitamin C and D are very beneficial to the health of the human body as well as the mind and spirit.  Optimally, getting Vitamin C thru diet is an option, but the “sunshine” vitamin not so much.  How could supplementing our bodies with these vitamins hurt us? Other questions I will ask my doctors’  are: What is the role of  the enzyme COQ10 in heart health  and how can I boost my body’s quotient?

May I suggest you ask your doctor these questions as well?  Granted, we have life giving drugs that can help us when  we are gravely ill,  but shouldn’t “healthy lifestyle” questions be part of every conversation with our doctors as we strive to become healthier and less dependent on “our drug culture”? It remains a mystery to me that our vitamin levels are based on studies made in the 30’s and 40’s when our society was much more agrarian in nature and the need to supplement vitamins was probably not the same as today in a fast paced world with little time for the outdoors and well balanced meals.  If this is not an endorsement for the ”local food” economy, I am not sure where else we could find one.  If we are to become the “healthy” society we can be, it starts with our conversations with our doctors and nurse practitioners.   I’m not sure that I am comfortable with a government agency relying on studies of sixty years ago and pharma companies dependent on the drugs they sell for revenue deciding how my doctor and I should control “my health”.  Are you?      

She was exactly 11 hours and 20 minutes old.  This morning as I do every year on my daughter’s birthday I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.  Although each year added creates a distance from the “main event” of the memorable Thanksgiving holiday, I mark off each memory and smile just as I did then.

Tim won a turkey from the Knights of Columbus yearly turkey raffle at Blessed Sacrament and decided that we should have his family over for the holiday meal.  He asked them all, and when he had their RSVP’s in hand he informed me that I would not have to do a thing; he would be cooking the turkey.  Thanksgiving was November 28th that year, and as all the “old wives” were telling me the first baby is ALWAYS late. My due date was December 2, 1985.

What was I thinking? Obviously I wasn’t because there I was with my little helper. Maureen. baking pies on Thanksgiving Eve.  After the pies were done, I decided that the kitchen floor needed mopping immediately.  Forget that Tim would be cooking all day Thursday and the floor would undoubtedly need mopping again.  On second thought, maybe I was guarding against a dropped turkey or some such other disaster. I should have known this task was not a good idea when Mo (Maureen) had to bend over repeatedly to pick up the mop and/or bucket as I laboriously worked from one end of the kitchen to the other.  Anyone who has had that first baby will see this for what it was:nesting on steroids.

Thanksgiving Day  dawned bright and early with frost definitely on the pumpkin. Tim’s turkey that year was exquisite and he handled the cooking quite well. For some reason, he retired that year.  The family arrived and just as we sat down to dessert, my mother-in-law Jeanne asked me if i was okay. I asked why and she said that my face was as red as the jumper I was wearing.  i told her that now that she mentioned it my stomach was cramping fiercely. All the women but me flew into action knowing that Katie Anne was on her way. They pushed us out the door telling us to forget about the dishes and Mo and Lady the dog. They would handle everything. 

We arrived at MacDonald House in a record fifteen minutes. Tim says twelve minutes, but I have really never thought that humanly possible.  As we entered with our portrait of a turkey designed by Mo, Tim’s pom pom shaker and our mix tape of Led Zeppelin tunes, we were prepared to spend the night awaiting Katie’s birth.  One resident had other ideas.  She told me that I needed to go home, put my feet up, have a glass of wine, relax, and I would come back tomorrow to have my baby.  When she left the room, I told Tim that there was no way that I was leaving that hospital.  Luckily, the nurse who patted my hand told me that I was going nowhere. She had already called my obstetrician.This vignette happened at 11:30 pm.  Katherine Anne Ferris was born at 4:11 am November 29.  

During my stay in the hospital, I dreamed of that piece of pumpkin pie I left on the dining room table. When Baby Kate was settled in with her Mamaw and big sister, I went to the refrigerator where there was nary a crumb of ANY dessert left.  When I turned toward Tim, his response was”I didn’t want it to spoil”.  I was gone for two days!  I immediately remembered that we had the sweetest “little punkin” who would be with us each and every day.  And KT, you knew I would say it didn’t you?  

Two years ago today I started a journey that not only changed my life, but also the lives of my family and friends. Looking back, it seems hardly possible that two years have passed since that eventful day.  When I woke up in December after spending 20 days in ICU, I could not walk, use my left hand, or stay awake for more than a few hours.

Days, weeks, and months went by and I although some days the steps seemed very small I continued to progress . My amazing friends and family have stuck by me the whole way.The staff at MetroHealth everyone included still tell me at every opportunity that if anyone was going to pull through they thought it would be me because of the wonderful support group that called, visited, and sat by my side during my recovery.

And, that brings me to the perspective  of my post today—friends. Before going further, I want to explain that family are friends and friends are family.  The two have been interchangeable all my life.  My mother fostered that mindset from the time I was small. Since I was an only child, she made sure that I was surrounded by cousins and friends on weekends and in the summer so that I would not become bored and the handful that I could sometimes be.  Ask Tim, he can tell you a few of m “brat” stories as he call them.

When facing a health crisis, I cannot stress enough how important a support system becomes and is.  I am not going to chronicle those important people in this post because I wouldn’t do anyone justice, but I am sure that through the coming years I will write about many of them and those i don’t will know that the reason I do not write  a vignette about them is probably because the connection is cherished in my heart and I feel I do not have the words to properly express the encounter.

Being a friend to someone who is facing a chronic illness can be a challenge, but not if we each realize that one in three of us will face such an illness or be a bystander to someone we love faces the challenges of a health crisis.  Dropping a card in the mail, stopping for a visit at the hospital, taking a meal for everyone to share when the patient comes home , many, many things that take a lot of time or just a smidgen of time can make someone’s day brighter and sunnier.  I know because my days have been much fuller and richer by the random acts of kindness that I have received from friends.

Two years later, they are still supporting me with words of encouragement, conversations over coffee, and including me in projects and decisions they are making so that I can forget my limitations and focus on the possibilities of my life.    

Thanks to Google, I was reminded of one of my favorite childhood authors Robert Louis Stevenson.  What ten year old doesn’t love Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Kidnapped?  But my true love was the poetry written by the man.

Again, thanks to Google I found “A Child’s Garden of Verses”.  Someone, on my eighth Christmas, gave me an edition of that volume of poems and the memory of that gift sticks in my head like it was yesterday.  The cover  was pale green with pink ribbons streaming down the front and back of the book, and my rush to open presents stopped, as I took the time to run my hand over the silkiness of the cover.  The real treat came that afternoon, when I sat curled in my favorite overstuffed chair with my collie,Duchess sleeping contentedly at my feet,  and I cracked that oversized tome for the first time to experience the poems of RLS.   The illustrations were memorable and when I read the poems again today those pictures of yesterday filled my head.  Some time over the years, I lost my book of poems, but I never lost my love for the poetry.

I’ve provided links to three of my favorites for just a taste of his grasp of a young child’s curiosity. I would urge any one who has a young reader on their gift list this holiday season to consider choosing an author, 160 years young, who will undoubtedly still stoke the  creativity of a child’s imagination for that someone special, eight or 10.    

The Wind                  The Swing                      My Shadow