A Coincidence, A Croon & an Indiana Home

"I'm discontented with homes that are rented, so I have invented my own" 

Tea for Two

radiodismuke.com

When we bought our first house, a momentous occasion for anyone, we were astonished and surprised by the generosity and support we received from community members, family and friends. I wish every young family to be so blessed. It seemed like a miracle (and some mornings, despite all of the inevitable perils & pitfalls of home ownership, it still does!).

Originally, we went to the Open House just to get my mother out of the house. The agent, Piedad Llerena, greeted us warmly at the door. When we walked in, we felt a peace about this place. We found ourselves coming back to see the house one more time, and I was shocked when my husband said we should go for it. The folks at Lingle helped us out, and with a special first time home buyer's grant our American dream became a reality.

Our house was built in the 1920's or the 1930's. I had always been attracted to the style of that age. So when we began housekeeping, I searched for an inspirational soundtrack while I worked in our kitchen. I found Radio Dismuke, a station out of Texas which plays the songs of the 1920's, 1930's, featuring big bands and Jazz. It seemed appropriate considering Richmond is called "the Cradle of Recorded Jazz". The station live streams the perfect breakfast making soundtrack! While there are certain things that passed in those years that we should not regret losing, it's nice to listen to the sweetness of the music produced by a bygone era when crooners sang so ardently of loving truly, dear.


Around the same time that we became home owners, my husband's beloved grandparents had recently passed away. They were global ambassadors, educators and devoted Hoosiers. Even though they lived to a ripe old age, we miss them always. My husband and I heard a special song, Tea for Two by the Comedian Harmonists one morning while listening to "my station". At our next Christmas gathering, I believe the first we spent without Grandma and Granddad, I happened to play the song for my husband. My Father in Law started. He said, "Did you know that was Granddad and Grandma's song?"

We had no clue. It felt like a special gift, a continuity and connection. Whether it was divine blessing or happy coincidence, it was a wonderful gift! The song and our home, we continue to cherish.

I believe it was owning our home that first made me feel rooted here. I never called myself a Hoosier, until we had our very own permanent address. I'm glad we chose to make Richmond, Indiana home. Here's another song, by the unforgettable Al Bowlly, for my fellow Hoosiers.

"Hang out the stars in Indiana; up in a sky of midnight blue.

Hang out the stars in Indiana to light my way back home to you. 

Have every robin sing a love song--a melody just meant for two. 

For in my heart there will be a love song. 

A song I long to sing to you.

How could I find the things I sought for?

No one delay or deny.

The very happiness I fought for was right back by your side. 

So wait for me in Indiana.

And when the long, long day is through--hang out the stars in Indiana to light my way back home to you."

<3

the Local Gal

PS

(Dear Lingle, (& especially Piedad), if you ever read this, thank you! Whenever we pass your advertisements on a billboard or bench, I pray that you are blessed. We could not have asked for a better first time home buying experience. Bless you.)

Related Links:

Listen to Radio Dismuke HERE

Lingle, Piedad Llerena

Star Gennett Foundation (dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of recorded jazz)

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Local Lady Featured Interview: Hoosier Girls STEM KickStarter Project

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As small children we are all primarily driven by a natural, innate scientific curiosity, but as young children mature into young men and women a divide occurs. Girls are not as actively encouraged to pursue math, science, technology or engineering as equally as their male counterparts. Erin Albert is passionately pursuing a plan to change this, especially in the Hoosier state.

Frazier Designs is a one woman Graphic Design company recently relocated to Richmond, Indiana. Pam Frazier is a part of Erin's Kickstarter project designed to encourage Hoosier girls to get involved in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) through an exciting story (written by Erin Albert) about Princesses who save the world from ignorance in The Amazing Adventures of the Princesses from Planet STEM.

The dynamic duo are on a quest to promote STEM to Indiana's young girls, one book per library at a time. I chatted with both author, Erin Albert & illustrator, Pam Fraizer below. Here we go:

Erin Albert/Pharm, LLC:

Statistics show that girls aren't encouraged to pursue STEM careers nationwide. What makes you especially eager to encourage girls specifically in your home state of Indiana?

"See this article I wrote for Inside Indiana Business on the terrible stats for girls in Indiana and STEM: Why It Is Imperative to Get Girls in Indiana Engaged in STEM.  

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Also, relative to Indiana - I grew up in Indiana (not in Indianapolis--actually outside of South Bend).  I was a first generation college graduate.  And although at the time when I went to college, I had no idea that first generation college grads really struggle with completing college, let alone going into STEM as a girl - the stats were against me completing.  But, I did.  And now that I'm in STEM (I'm a professor of pharmacy practice at Butler University during the day), I feel an intrinsic motivation to give back in a way that I can best accomplish (through writing a book) and make sure we reverse the abysmal trends in Indiana when it comes to STEM performance and girls."

In addition to funding your Kickstarter project and hopefully one day reading this fantastic story to young girls, what can adults do to help encourage the young women in their lives to pursue this type of knowledge (STEM)?

"The most successful women in STEM now had a wide variety of interests when they were girls (myself included).  

• Get girls (and boys for that matter) a library card early.  
• Take them often to the library.  
• Take children to museums.  
• Get engaged and excited about what they want to learn more about, and co-learn as a family.  
• Don't as a parent get sucked into the gender bias when it comes to toys - if a girl wants to play with Legos or Matchbox cars - encourage her.  

Getting girls and boys interested in a variety of subjects when they are young is the best way to get them to think broadly about their careers and their lives later on in life.  As an aside, I will include a link in the book to resources I'm finding for after school programs, summer camps, and learning programs outside of the traditional classroom that encourage kids and girls in particular in STEM."

Pam Fraizer/FraizerDesigns:

Is this your first gig as an illustrator for a children's book?

"This is the 2nd children's book I've illustrated. The first one was a "customizable" book "God Smiled." It was published by two entrepreneurs as a fund-raising vehicle for churches and schools There were over 30 customizable fields for parents/grandparents to complete. Each book ends up being a story about an individual child—featuring their name, parents and grandparents names, time and place where the child was born, school they first attended, first teacher, friends, etc."

Do you have a favorite fictional character? 

"Charlotte's Web is one of my favorite books! It's an important book about loyalty, friendship and love. This book also has fantastically sensitive illustrations by Garth Williams. Garth's illustrations have an honesty to them that makes the characters come alive. I would have to say Charlotte is one of my favorite characters and a beautiful female role model—smart, resourceful, imaginative and brave."

(For more positive Princess characteristics see Erin Albert's Princess Manifesto HERE)

Thank you so much Erin & Pam! Best of luck to you both! Indiana is lucky to have such creative STEM advocates. 

To make this book happen it needs funding! It's not too late to be a part of the Princesses from Planet STEM- visit the Official Kickstarter Page HERE!!!

I can't wait to introduce the Princesses of the Planet STEM to my kids!

<3 the Local Gal

PS Never heard of Kickstarter? Learn more HERE.

Richmond: The Landscape & Thoughts

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” 

~Leo Tolstoy~

I am not always 100% positive. True, I am more often than not defiantly not negative  (and yes, I mean defiantly, as when facing a barrage of negativity I refuse (within reason) to cave to it). I actively, consciously choose to cherish and value what is good and right here. It isn't always easy. Sometimes I look around my hometown and I see so much potential. Other days I look around and see only an insurmountable to-do list. There is a story about a beggar who asks passersby for pennies, all the while he does not realize that he is sitting on a pot of gold. Is our community like that beggar? When I do occasionally spiral into hopeless impatience, am I that beggar?

Here we are and where do we come from? 

A Local Lady Snap Shot

If I ask my children, they point to my belly. Our genetics shape us but they do not dictate our fortunes. There are more influences at work upon us than just our physical DNA, which is complicated enough. Environment affects us too: the earth and its make up, the shift of atmosphere and weather, the introduction of new substances. Each one and more are like a slight turn of a kaleidoscope. We are the beads that dance and fall into place.

Only the moves we make are our choice. Whether those movements are small or bold, they have the power to change the design and alter a pattern in our society.

Our parents raise us and as years pass, it becomes more apparent. Demographics and class, education, they are obvious, but there's always more at play. Not everyone who is unfortunate or even unloved becomes bitter or bad. Not everyone who is nurtured and cherished can be counted on for good.

How does the landscape affect our disposition?

We live in a valley, in a city where the electric hum and glow of lights offends the rest one can find only in the dark, obscuring the stars and enclosing the people in their narrowly lit perspective. Without a clear view of space, without openness and a broad view of heaven, how can any one be expected to think loftier thoughts? A gorge runs through town, carrying river water and ages old sediments and sewage and rain. My house is between two hills. There is security in this wedge. Storms pass around us above and below, but we remain sheltered more often than not by our geography. We do not flood as much as the south. We are not as cold as the north.

We live above what once was ocean floor hundreds and thousands of years ago. Limestone encases the creatures who came before us both giant and minuscule. The fossils lie calcified in our rocky yard borders. The ground is shifting from extremities of temperature and sudden dryness followed by even more sudden rains. Not even Hoosiers who are accustomed to switching summer and winter wardrobes in a day can ignore this new level of unpredictability. The borders tumble into the street. The cracks grow wider and we cringe at distant news stories of sinkholes swallowing streets, homes and even people. The soil is either cracked as desert or mush and marsh. Willfully at times, we ignore the faults beneath our feet, when they are not directly worrying us. When they worry us, we see only the faults and nothing else.

Our infrastructure is crumbling beneath our feet. The houses, the sidewalks, the clutter of modern necessities: pipes, tracks, lines, poles, pock marked streets, all serve to distract us from the real history of this place. What never goes away are the geological histories. The story that remains with or without people are the stories of water, its' presence and absences. The ocean receded and left thick limestone. The trees and plants that came and went left their deposits, enriching the soil.

There are different worlds even in a small town. Like small countries divided by what could be described as different realities, we exist together on this flat land, near the "highest point" of Indiana. To some of us, Richmond is a small kingdom. A small, cozy pond for big, comfy fish. To some of us, Richmond is a city of underdogs: under-educated or underemployed and only overwhelmed but not over.

That is not to say that there is a "they" or an "us", when we all live here, we are invested together in this place. Our successes and failures are shared, even if not consciously.

This city frets over its past, nursing its wounds and parading its pride and griefs in the streets. The busy generations of yesteryears built their industries that grew our population. They manufactured cars, mowers and more. They played their Jazz hits, planted roses, built monuments and survived disasters. They buried the waste of their industries, but at times the contaminants have haunted the soil and rise as dust to plague us.

We miss the glory of manufacturing, but times are changing. The ground is shifting, and we cannot keep pace by always looking backward. We cannot keep pace by being unrealistically hopeful, not either by wallowing in pessimism. There is a balance. May we find it.

We are Indiana. We are the norm. Our disparity is yours too. We are the voice of the nation's news. Our limestone is the Pentagon and the Empire State building. We are the “Corn Belt”. We are the Midwestern spine of the United States. We are at the crossroads of the nation, and if we are unaligned, then so is America. This matters. The choices we make, the aspirations we chase can change the world.

You can be sure that our future affects the rest of the nation. We are smack in the middle of it all. What kind of future is in store for our city? For Indiana, "the Crossroads of the Nation"?

A Local Lady Snap Shot

As one person, I may not leave a lasting mark on the landscape, but I will do my best to do the good that I am able. That effort is never wasted.

A wise woman told me that "change, real change begins in people's hearts. It can't happen through force or law. It's slow, but it's worth while." When I look around at all there is to accomplish, and when it seems daunting, I try to remember her words and I try to examine my own heart closely.

Just a thought.

<3 Your Local Gal