Writer. Educator. Artist.
Yesterday
is gone
never to be relived
remembered, yes,
never relived
today
is better for it
tomorrow
may never get here
or be irrelevant
today
is joyous
wonderful
delightful
because of
yesterday
and the promise
of tomorrow
Arlene Sandra Bice ©2015
In case you didn’t know…..the latest book on Bordentown (NJ) from Arcadia Publishing is a postcard book. It’s full of pictures of the postcards printed about Bordentown for over 100 years. The newer ones represented, are the motels and restaurants in the township. Patti DeSantis and I collaborated to bring you another book about our beloved town for their Postcard History Series. While many of the postcards may be familiar to you, there are many more pictured that are rarely seen, even by postcard collectors.
For your convenience, Randy Now’s Man Cave on Farnsworth Avenue still has some books in stock. The cost is $21.99. Barnes & Noble in the Hamilton Marketplace carries them and of course, Amazon on-line.
Check it out. Look for your favorite postcard and those that you haven’t seen before. Enjoy!
PurpleStone Press Ezine © not published
A Monthly Newsletter to keep readers informed on news in the book world, about moments not easily explained, stretching out to other genres, a personal story, events going on, comments from readers and more. Readers are welcome to comment or add their thoughts to the next newsletter.
Issue: January 2013 Wishing You A Healthy, Prosperous New Year!
Happenings & News Look for “A Gathering of Artists & Poets” coming on February 19, Tues. at the Warren County Memorial Library details to follow …….
What’s Goin’ On? PASSAGER, a press for writers over 50 website at: http://www.passagerbooks.com/?utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=311d33937a-Winter_2012_Newsletter11_8_2012&utm_medium=email
They publish two issues a year, a poetry contest for the spring/summer and an open issue for the fall/winter. They suggest you browse previously published work before submitting. Their next reading period begins 1 Jaunary 2013.
Stories…Joseph Bonaparte & the Jersey Devil
Southern New Jersey still boasts of its Pine Barren with its natural setting of trees and swamps that have been since before the first settlers came. In those early days of the 1700s Mrs. Leeds lived there, mostly by herself while her husband was gone so often. She helped maintain her home and raising her house full of twelve children by using her skills as an herbalist and healer. She was known to help anyone who needed it.
While her birthing should have been an easy one, it was not. The reason was not recorded but it was repeated by the midwife that reported hearing her say, “the devil be this child” or something to that effect. Later the midwife swore the child was born with cloven hoof and wings.
Bonaparte’s Bordentown Gate House-still occupied.
When the Bonapartes began losing battles and power in Europe, Napoleon’s brother Joseph came to Bordentown, New Jersey to live ca. 1817. This was much more to his liking than ruling any country. The great men of the day all stopped to pay him a visit and enjoy his famous hospitality.
He was a naturalist and created a park-like setting on his approximately 800 acre estate which he thoroughly enjoyed. While out hunting in his wood one day he was surprised when he nearly bumped into a creature with cloven hoof and wings. The creature was as startled as he was, hissed at him and flew off never to be seen again. Joseph only found that it was the Jersey Devil when he gave a description while asking local Bordentonians what it was. People are still reporting Jersey Devil sightings. © Arlene S. Bice
Blogs, I Get Blogs ….. There are so many blogs out there that it is like going to a celebration buffet where nothing is stale from sitting too long or unhealthy because someone sneezed all over it. It’s easy to just take a taste of this and that…..and you don’t gain any weight or have to exercise extra hard to work it off. Just pick and choose what you want to read about.
London Calling at : http://general-southerner.blogspot.com/?wref=bif is one of the blogs that I’ve been enjoying for awhile now. Tony is a retired teacher and seems to jaunt around England taking great photos. His posts are varied but here are a few: A Tea with Jane Austen, Bath, Nicolas Cage and Johnny Depp (in Bath), Virginia Woolf, Colin Firth, The 6th June 1944 D Day The British Beaches, Charles Dickens , and he has trekked up to see the Bronte sisters home. He has also done the Beatles and much more including modern subjects. Photography is his inspiration, so there are many lovely and creative shots to view.
This Month……While working on Bordentown stories, I’m also collecting North Carolina true ghost tales for the next book. If you know of anyone who would like to tell me their story, please put them in touch with me at: asbice@aol.com or 252-257-4838. Thanks ahead of time.
Book Review…. Since I was of the generation who enjoyed Burt Reynolds naked on a bearskin rug for Cosmo magazine in 1972; generally worked in a field dominated by men in those years that followed, I thoroughly enjoyed: Always Wear Joy: My Mother Bold and Beautiful by Susan Fales-Hill. An Afro-American television writer-producer looks back on her struggles and that of her mother, elegant dancer, actor, entertainer Josephine Premice. Although their struggle was partly their heritage, it was the same struggle many of us women fought through to attain the rights we deserved during those years. A good read that brought an earlier time back to my mind.
The Latest……. Ghostly Spirits of Warren County NC & Beyond (Soft Cover-2012 PurpleStone Press) $18.95 A candle in the window, a man who walks through walls, a woman from long ago…..peek into the personal stories of hauntings from those who wish to remain in their place on earth instead of going forward into the after-life. Warren County was a wealthy, thriving place during the antebellum years. Warrenton was the hub of activity, a destination on market days where friends gathered. These imprints were left and remain today.
Also Available…. Ghosts Of Bordentown (NJ) $14.95, Haunted Bordentown … (NJ) $14.95, Life & Labyrinth …Memoir & Poetry $17.95 , Major Fraser’s.. History $19.95, Images of America Series -Bordentown, Bordentown history, New Egypt & Plumsted Township, A history, Bordentown Revisited, More history including its surrounds $20 each.
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Open your mind. Keep reading. Be kind. Be gentle.
PurpleStone Press http://purplestoneblog.com/
Back in the 80s when the mortgage rates dropped to an all-time low, I trained and became a real estate appraiser, thanks to Ed MacNicoll owner of the business of that name. Architecture had long been of interest to me and that position fueled my passion for it. I often got the assignments for the big, old Victorians or farmhouses that took more work and time to appraise. I loved the challenge and still do love it .
Little did I know that what I learned in that profession would be called on when I wrote Major Fraser’s, but expanding in a different sense. Yes, the house is the basis for the story but Major Fraser and his family are the heart of it carrying the story from Bordentown to South Carolina and into France.
He came from Scotland in the 1700s, reason unknown to me but many families lost all they had after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Even if they fought against England during that conflict, many that took the forced loyalty oath, adhered to it and fought for England during our Revolution. Thomas Fraser did, fighting his way up to the rank of Major.
During the War he married Southern belle Anne Loughton Smith. After the War they lived in Charleston and Philadelphia. They came to Bordentown during the dangerous summer seasons to get away from big city killing diseases.
Major Fraser’s, whose daughter married Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew, is a dip into the past history of our country revealing the personal stories of people who lived before we were a country and on up until the present.
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