A poem to remember the late-great Joanne Allen
By Chuck Wiser, I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels
As Michael Jackson sang… 🎶🎶Just Call My Name and I’ll Be There 🎶🎶. Once again, I mentioned an entity that uses a monitoring system whereby; if you name them in a public story or article, they will reach out to you, sometimes even presenting you with gift packets if they are a “product” producer. Recently I named a regional institution, the name of which I will avoid as they already reached out to me. I did receive a very nice email from their Assistant Director of Communications, (ADC) asking for a copy of my original Wellsville/Hornell/Keuka Sun column wherein I named them. She wished to circulate the article among those nurses and staff members involved with my care as they would appreciate the comments rewarding their service as theirs was a difficult, high stress, job. I sent off my original copy as presented to owner/editor Andrew Harris. The ADC didn’t identify which division of the Medical Complex she represented but I suspect it was due to the recent expansion of the Sun into the Finger Lakes region.
My reward is more than ample compensation for my Wramblings as people reach back to me thanking them for being noticed, being commented on, and/or appreciated. I may have to modify my “Signature” phrase to say something like “I write the words to share what my eyes see; my heart feels, and those who are responsible for those visions.”
It does seem that “time fly’s,” and here we are again near mid-April. There are many people in my life ranging from childhood friends and continuing into the present. Many people make April a special month for me, and few surpass the influence that former Allegany Arts Association member/officer JoAnne Allen had on poetry writers like me. April, among other notoriety, is National Poetry month and no-one appreciated and promoted poetry more than JoAnne did.
April is one of those months that I consider “emergent” months and not in the sense of describing an “emergency” but rather, to me, means a month that blends the end of Winter with the coming of Spring. As March morphed into April, its unusually, perhaps record setting mild temperatures, rapidly turned “about face” with the frosty below freezing days. Fortunately for “Maple Syrple” producer’s that is what they need. Freezing nights and days of thaw optimize the sap flow of the maple trees allowing the rendering of the sap from the trees into delectable products for your pallet. I fondly remember all-night stints watching over the sap boiling as for a few years I had tapped our trees, now gone, and spent day and night boiling the sap down into syrup. I’m not sure if it was the particularly high sugar content of the sap sap from our trees, or my calculating methods, but my sap to syrup ratio typically was much better than the typical ratio as advised by many official sources. Our grandson, Ethan Graves, now produces an excellent Maple Syrup, and typically shares some with us.
Picking back up on my contact mentioned in my opening paragraph, this “reach out” was not the first that I have experienced. It is obvious from previous contacts that businesses and organizations have a monitoring program in place that “captures” their name being used and affords them the opportunity to reach out for any number of reasons. Adding your name to their “phishing list” isn’t the only result of this outreach. Thankfully.
I recently received a phone call from a representative on behalf of the Friendship Homecomers, formerly known as the Friendship Oldtimers, asking if I would be interested in a writeup for the Wellsville Sun advertising their 100th Anniversary at the end of July. As many of you know I am a “product” of Friendship via a hamlet therein, named Nile. This request is right up there with only a couple of others as meaningful to me. Except for one, the only events that share this honor were the bitter-sweet invitation to write eulogies for a couple of my closest and dearest friends upon their passing. My daughter Kristin’s request for me to sing “The Lord’s Prayer” as part of her marriage ceremony in the late 90’s remains #1 of all the honors heretofore blessed upon me.
Although I (we) have lived in Scio since the 70’s I still fondly, and proudly, cite my hometown as being Friendship/Nile, NY.
As you can see, my Wrambling’s survived the eclipse earlier this week. Many, many, too many, comments, concerns, and criticisms have been offered up on most forms of mass communication. I will not dwell upon any of those. We all differ in our sense of the significance of anything that is newsworthy. For some an event such as this can be high on the list. For others, it begs the question “What eclipse?” Any event worthy of public comment opens the door for all to show their wisdom, or lack thereof, via social media. Presenting your thoughts verbally may expose a few flaws in basic grammar usage. Writing them in the form of comments, or maybe even in the form of a Meme, makes one’s language shortcomings painfully obvious. I have mentioned before that I go by “what sounds right” as my initial guide and then deeper research for anything more sophisticated or doubtful, such as I mentioned last week in the use of the word used. If my writing is to be seen in the eyes of the public, I am a little more diligent. Whether written or spoken nothing like starting a sentence “I seen…” disturbs me most. I don’t judge. I just cringe. How can you go through life having read books, or newsprint without having seen the proper way to communicate even basic phrases. I am not error free. Sometimes my typing fingers overrule my mental attention span and despite knowing the differences between: There, Their and They’re, I am amazed to proofread my work only to discover that the improper use of the same sounding word worked its way into my writing. Just last week an example of that slipped through. As soon as I saw the posting “by the light of the Sun,” an obvious error became even more blatantly obvious. I immediately contacted owner/editor Andrew and asked for a correction to be made.
Circling back to the April topic, there are several lesser-known holidays or at least “recognition days” in April, also including some relatives Birthdays. Other significant, or distinctive, April days include some of the following; Easter, but only sometimes, as the biblical derivation is dependent on the date of other related religious events; Earth Day; Arbor Day; April Fools Day. Food recognition includes Cheese Balls and Oatmeal Cookies and Chocolate Mousse. The list will continue with but a few, maybe frivolous or humorous of the many. National Autism Awareness Day, National Walk to Work Day, National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, National Hug a Person Day, National School Librarian Day, National Barbershop Quartet Day, National Rubber Eraser Day, National Good Deeds Day, not to be confused with National Wear Your PJ’s to Work Day, National Columnist’s Day, International Astronomy Day, (for Dave Toot), National Tie Dye Day, Passover Start and End; National Zipper Day, Find a Rainbow Day, National Dandelion Day, National Beer Day and National Health Day. Note: there are No Federal Holidays in April
There are several Weeks to celebrate, some of which include: Wildlife Week, Library Week, Animal Care and Control Appreciation, Black Maternal Health, National Work Zone Administrative Professional, Gathering of Nations (Pow Wow), Be Nice to Spiders, Wildlife Week, Public Health Week, Volunteer Week, Dance Week, Preservation week and to close on an appropriate note 🎶 World Musical Therapy Week.
Last night while quietly contemplating which topics to discuss, our scanner sounded off with a very long same sound pitch note for “nigh onto” a full minute. I told my wife it was probably an alert and that a message should follow. It didn’t. I told her it was reminiscent of the old TV sign-off when there were only the few local (Buffalo) channels and at midnight the channel “sign off page” would appear on the screen.
Speaking (Writing) of TV related issues I am tired of the various ads inviting me to sign up for a media package at a very low price, and which included access without a cable connection. Too bad the outgoing signal for those targeted is only reachable in about a 50-mile radius, outside of which we reside. Channels 2, 4 and 7 were our only source of programming back “in the day.”
I will end this April writing and go out for a short walk breathing in the freshness of recent rainfall and enjoy the warmth of another day. Our tree buds and flowers are trying to catch up with the progress that my Pennsylvania friends taunt me with, they being a few weeks ahead of us.
If you have comments, cares or concerns about this article please feel free to reach out to me at
IM.Wiserdad@gmail.com Topical suggestions are always welcome.
