In 1903, when Josephine Herbst was six years old, her mother took her four daughters on a reduced-fare train ride to Portland, Oregon. We lived in Sioux City, Iowa, and we might have been dropped accidentally by some great auk on a transcontinental flight, so unreasonable it seemed that we were stranded in the middle of a country that offered…
In a recent post, I wrote about the old railway workers known as wheeltappers – those men with long-handled hammers who walked beside trains, listening for flaws. That search led me on a delightful detour into the world of vintage railway films. These tappers show up again and again. Night Mail (1936) tells the story of the mail train and…
The Hammer Test: What Happens When a Poem Rings Hollow? “I like poems you can tack all over with a hammer and there are no hollow places.” That’s a saying often attributed to John Ashbery. He never actually said it except when quoting the poet Robert Duncan, who offered the words in praise of Ashbery’s poem Spring Day: “I have…
This tweet about toasting marshmallows on a fire stoked with Harry Potters brought to mind an odd incident from my childhood. To the amusement of the world, my home town decided to ban a classic of medieval Italian literature as obscene and pornographic. The year was 1954 and book was Boccaccio’s Decameron. Until that point only three people in the…
There’s a comfort in routines and familiar sounds. Some towns have a noon whistle. If you’ve lived near a school or a factory you’ll know a routine. If you’re close to a children’s playground you can tell the time of day as it fills up with voices when school gets out. My childhood had the Swindon railway works steam hooters to…
The NAIS Annual People Of Color Conference opens this week in Atlanta. It will draw independent educators from across the country. They will gather in groups small and large; renew friendships and make new connections; listen to speakers and attend, participate in, and lead workshops and meetings. I am sure it will all be a necessary time of re-dedication, renewal and affinity.…
This is the Night Mail crossing the border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner and the girl next door. Just watch this clip from “Night Mail” – the documentary film from 1936 – and be transported to another time, another place. It’s the London, Midland, and…