Why should children be the only people to dress up on Halloween? The day dawned well in my weaving class, as Sandra came in her Re-enactor’s Revolutionary garb. I wonder if any costume tonight will be as lovingly made, authentic, and transforming?
Happy Halloween!
The ABCaesars
For several months, I’ve been volunteering on the committee for New Haven Reads (focused on student literacy) to plan its one fundraiser–the Spelling Bee. Well, they certainly didn’t need my help planning, as they have the event details down. So I did some fundraising, and tonight was the big Bee.
I was a greeter, dressed for the chilly night, and got to see every ‘swarm’ as they came in. Yes, the spellers sign up as teams of 3, and 6 teams, called swarms, compete in each preliminary round. Swarms. Bees. Get it. The swarms compete in rounds until the last standing vie for the honors of Best of Bee. High school teams and adult teams compete separately, and interestingly, the high schoolers didn’t seem to dress up. Did I mention the award for best costume?
Of course, the swarms come up with good names, too. I liked the Librarians from Hell, from the New Haven Public Library–pretty ghoulish, but awesome spellers. Bee-Attitudes were pretty clever, too. The Greater New Haven Community Chorus team was the Bee Sharps.
Swarm 1, the Librarians from Hell are on the left
Unfortunately when I was greeting, I wasn’t taking pictures, so I can’t show you all of the funny costumes. Here are some random shots.
The Opening Ceremony
Gearing up to compete
Doctor Bees
All the bees had fun
Artventures™ Game came off the presses yesterday. Now to get it into the world…stay tuned!
So why all the mystery? That’s the question I wanted answered today. Yes, it’s the annual-favorite Open House New York weekend, celebrating architecture. While I only made one tour, it was a good one.
The Masonic Lodge certainly isn’t hiding, there on W 23rd, with its office building rents contributing to the cause. The building was built in 1910, but with one thing or another, its friezes and trompe-l’oeil trickery weren’t painted until the 1980s. Apparently, the Lodge is always open for tours, so you can see for yourself what all the fuss is about.
The Egyptian room
The Egyptian room; every room has an organ
Freemasons referred to free men (versus slaves or servants to the church), who could cross national lines and were paid wages for their efforts.
They didn’t have a union card, but these men could go to a construction site, and by stating a password or providing a secret handshake, prove themselves a Freemason. Having completed apprenticeship training (which included moral behavior instruction as well), and achieving ”master mason’ level, the Freemason work quality would be higher and lead to better assignments.
Cathedral-like stained glass in the Renaissance room, depicting mason’s tools
After the cathedral-building boom ended, around the Renaissance, membership started to fall. So the focus shifted from craftsmanship to intellectual and philosophical connection to architecture. The meeting place called a temple, meaning ‘place of knowledge’, continued the focus on self-improvement.
Secrecy continued, in order to preserve the safety of members sharing their belief systems that might be controversial to the status quo.
I peppered our various tour guides with questions to piece together what I just shared with you. The story gets murky with the American Colonies. Why the secrecy about who was a mason? I kept suggesting it was because George Washington and his colleagues needed a safe place to talk revolutionary politics. But no, from the beginning, Freemasons didn’t discuss religion or politics–the causes of all wars–when at a lodge or temple. “That’s what the Sons of Liberty were about,” explained one guide. I don’t think GW would have wanted to hang out with a bunch of 20-year-old rabble-rousers.
Interesting that on the battlefield (Revolutionary or Civil Wars), a dying soldier on the opposite side would be comforted by an enemy mason. How would they know, I persisted. The password or handshake, which of course, no tour guide would share as a matter of ‘character’.
Ornately painted Renaissance room, with its daylight sky overhead and depictions of the Liberal Arts and Virtues
Secrecy continued to be needed as Hitler apparently persecuted free thinking Freemasons. Interesting that misogynistic Henry Ford and Ty Cobb were masons. Mozart must have squelched his party-hardy behavior long enough to get voted in.
It’s easy to imagine John Wayne as a mason, but Clark Gable and Red Skelton? And what about Count Basie? Patriotic John Philip Sousa was a mason, as were Irving Berlin and Danny Thomas, Jewish celebrities, continuing proof of the mason’s tolerance value.
Pineapples – a symbol of welcome
Want to be one? You can join the two million American masons, 4 million worldwide. Women join the Evening Star sorority; boys and girls have their own organizations, too. You just have to swear to a belief in God (any God).
And it helps to know someone. That will help prevent being blackballed. When the Freemasons vote on new members of their union, now fraternity, you drop either a white ball or a black ball into the ballot box. You get it.
The Universe Globe atop a column, near the organ with disconnected pipes (painting the pipes ruined the tone)
If you’re a new member in New York City, you will then enter the door of the Renaissance room, between the columns topped by a globe of earth and a globe of the universe. These globes remind you of the self-improvement, education-oriented, philanthropically-focused masonry.
Connecticut Historical Society currently has a crowd-sourced exhibition of 50 Objects/50 Stories. Community members provided the uncurated objects, and they are on display through the end of the year. Here’s what stood out for me.
I know sailors had a lot of time on their hands to whittle, create intricate sailor’s valentines out of shells, and carve ivory. I hadn’t seen anything though that combined that past-time with a game. This carved walrus tusk has a cribbage board for decoration. Clever way to provide endless hours of fun, created around 1905vby Harry, a native of Hudson Bay.
Sailors also brought nutmeg back from their travels, and Connecticut became known as the Nutmeg State. This nutmeg, actually carved wood from the Charter Oak, references a hoodwink pulled by Yankee peddlers. No problem huckstering the fake nut apparently. And there’s the other link to the state’s history. The Charter Oak, a huge, 400-year-old oak in Hartford, was hollow and apparently served as a hiding place for the state’s charter, preserving a measure of independence for the colony. Due to a storm in 1856, it fell, and remnants show up in intriguing ways like this fake nutmeg.
Although I hadn’t thought about it before, now it makes sense. During World War II, at war with Japan, silk wasn’t available to make parachutes. But nylon was (sorry, ladies, there goes your hosiery). Pioneer Parachute Company, still in business in Connecticut providing parachutes to NASA, developed a ‘ripstop’ nylon for parachutes, first tested when Adelaide Gray jumped from a plane in 1942. You go, girl!
Those courageous women.
I was part of the ERA push, modeled by my politically-active, lawyer aunt who fought for the ERA in Texas. Sigh. What I don’t remember was a suit like this, apparently worn by supporters, along with the banner, in Connecticut.
I’m pretty fascinated by all things buttons, inheriting a jar of buttons my mother saved from her seamstress mama. Waterbury was the historical center for button manufacture here, and I love this centennial display of U.S. Button Company’s brass buttons from 1876. Just gorgeous.
You know I love the quirky. In Windsor, the springtime shad run (that’s a fish, folks) is now celebrated with the Shad Derby, complete with passing this derby hat on each year to a new festival chairperson. A tradition since 1970. Museum-worthy? Apparently yes!
Yes, that ritual-oddity quirk is part of the Yankee personality, and so is Yankee ingenuity. In 1821, Sophia Woodhouse patented this Leghorn Bonnet, woven from reeds collected from the Connecticut River. Women like Maria Francis continued to make the hat to supplement household incomes. The bonnet is famous enough to be the subject of a satirical poem, also on display at CHS.
In the mid 1800s, the West Hartford School for the Deaf and Dumb used these teaching scrolls as a foundation for learning concrete cooking and farming words. Students would link pictures to the words, later adding more complex, abstract ideas and written paragraphs. Considered innovative, I think reading learning may be taught the same way now for the hearing, too.
Stephen Walkley, Jr, a Southington soldier in the Civil War, was issued this piece of hardtack in 1864. That it’s intact today suggests a couple of things. One, it was so awful, Walkley likely ate anything but, and two, it was made to last. Flour, water, and salt was all it took to make hardtack, used since 1588 by the Spanish Armada. Civil War soldiers were lucky enough to be issued hardtack dating from the Mexican War 13 years earlier (I guess that’s better than centuries-old hardtack). Hopefully this piece isn’t infested with any weevil larvae!
A different kind of war was fought in the Tobacco sheds in the Connecticut River Valley. Women would ruin their fingers sewing cigar leaves together, until this sewing machine was invented. Working in the tobacco sheds was apparently a local rite of passage. Glad I missed that one.
Bandaged fingers, a rite of passage
You gotta love these small, niche museums that are filled with passion and focus. Like the Witches Dungeon Classic Movie Museum in Bristol, CT.
From the age of 13, Cortlandt Hull knew what he was passionate about. The son of a Hollywood-set-painter father and seamstress mother, Hull made Zenobia, his first wax movie figure, at 13, embellished by a costume stitched by his mother and jewelry from his grandmother. And the museum of horror movies was born.
Isn’t her movement wonderful? I think that’s truly the meaning of special effects!
Seeing how committed Hull was to celebrating the classic horror film, he was given and collected the tools of the trade. This “life mask” of Bella Lugosi was used for the actor’s makeup tests. Steven Spielberg didn’t realize the value of his original ET, and here it is.
And this Golem was used in the 1920 movie. Wonderful!
Carmilla, glowing in warmth (not), took us through the museum of wax figures, made by Hull throughout his life, his personal tribute to the films he loved. I’m getting in the Halloween spirit already!
Bella Lugosi as Count Dracula
The vampire skeleton, safely tucked away in the casket, unless…someone removes the stake through its heart!
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
The science experiment gone terribly awry, with “The Fly”
The original Werewolf. Hull did have some Hollywood help with the hair.
Frankenstein
‘The Beast” from the French version. This costume is sumptuous.
Phantom of the Opera
I’
m excited to let you know that Artventures™ Game is on the press! It’s due off on October 19. Keep your fingers crossed. Plus amazon has approved the game for its Vendor Express program, pending how well samples sell.
So I hope you’ll help me spread the word about the game. I’ll let you know when the samples are on amazon. In the meantime, here’s the scoop.
