On the 114th birthday of Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, click here to read Grant Sinclair's moving piece about unexpected moments of discovery and insight while hiking above ground.
And She Walked Barefoot
Click here to read Jennifer Fliss' essay on trading city life for the wilderness, and the challenges in letting go of past comforts.
Central Park Memories: The Ice Skating Rink
By Beryl Brenner.
I am young. I am six years old. We are a poor family but my parents have prepared an adventure for me and my two older sisters, one who is eleven and the other who will turn ten soon. We enter the subway at our East Broadway station, on the Lower East Side of New York City. The station is in front of “the Garden," a vegetarian restaurant where my parents first met at the end of World War II, and down the block from The Forward, the foremost, prominent Yiddish newspaper in America. We are leaving our little world on the Lower East Side and heading uptown, to the bigger “New York” world of Central Park.
Once there, we walk toward the ice skating rink. I have never skated before, and I am both excited and nervous at the same time. We rent skates and my parents help me to lace them. Walking on skates is like walking on a tightrope. I enter the icy rink. I am terrified. I cling to the banister along the side. I am afraid of falling. My big sisters have done this before, and they are more confident. Suddenly they appear; one on each side of me and holding my hands to give me courage. They guide me along. The three of us glide on the ice like ballerinas. The fear subsides, and eventually they leave me to skate on my own.
Soon, the cold winter weather sets in and my tiny body feels it. I skate to the entrance to the rink and my father is there to greet me. He takes me to the concession and buys me a hot chocolate to warm me up. And then he takes both of my tiny cold hands and places his big warm hands over them. He rubs my hands to warm them up. My mother joins us and so do my sisters. We all drink hot chocolate to stave off the cold. We smile and we laugh and talk about how great this day has been. We know this is a big treat. We are a poor family but no one is richer than us.
Beryl Brenner obtained her BA in fine arts and her MA in Art Education from Brooklyn College. She has worked with a variety of materials and techniques. Ms. Brenner completed the glasswork for Our Lady of Guadeloupe Church in Danbury, Connecticut and for Beth Shalom Synagogue in Atlanta. She has been granted 8 one-woman shows throughout the country, including with the National Park Service, the National Landmark Bok Tower Gardens, and the prestigious Williamsburg Art and Historical Center. Her art has been shown in numerous American museums and galleries, including Ann Marie Gardens, a Smithsonian affiliate, the Attleboro Arts Museum, Dot-Fifty One in Miami, Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis, and the Philadelphia Sketch Club. In Brooklyn, her works have been shown at the Crest Hardware show, the Robert Lehman Gallery of Urban Glass, Brooklyn Borough Hall, the Williamsburg Salon, and the annual Represent Brooklyn exhibition in Bedford Stuyvesant. Her work is part of the permanent collection of Williamsburg Art and Historical Center. Ms. Brenner serves on the Board of Directors of Brooklyn Streetcar Artists Group and promotes art exhibitions in previously underserved areas of Brooklyn, NY.
Photo by Derek Wright.
California Dreams: Yosemite’s First and Lasting Impression
Click here to read Steven Lomangino's essay, "California Dreams: Yosemite’s First and Lasting Impression." The scale and magnificence of the Yosemite valley has a profound effect on a teen who is steadily gaining self-confidence and independence.
Pearl Harbor, A Remembrance
In the early hours of the morning on December 7, 1941, the radar operator at Fort Shafter’s radar information center on O’ahu, east of Pearl Harbor and further inland, noted a profound surge in signal, indicating a large amount of aircraft activity one hundred miles north. First Lieutenant Kermit A. Tyler assumed the surge was from an expected delivery of United States B-17 bombers. One Japanese pilot later wrote that he had been trained to think of his aircraft as if he and the plane were one body. The USS Arizona was bombed at least five times with B5N torpedo bombers, both from air and sea, via midget submarines. The last bomber is believed to have exploded the ammunition magazines on board, which burnt and hollowed the ship’s interior, fire and smoke venting through the sides. Black smoke and flame swept the shoreline. Fires burned for two days on the surrounding shores. Sailors swam to nearby Ford Island for refuge, their bodies burnt and coated with oil. Civilians died by friendly fire, officers desperately shooting against an enemy that had already retreated. By the end of the attack, of 2,335 sailors, soldiers, and marines, as well as 68 civilians were dead.
The permanent exhibit at the Pearl Harbor Museum, within the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument on O’ahu, reflects that the attack was “the end of the age of the great battleship.” Pearl Harbor is now under the auspices of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, established in December of 2008 and comprising national sites Hawaii, the Aleutian Islands, and Newell California. All commemorate U.S. engagement in the Pacific theatre of war during World War II. Via the site in Hawaii, you can also tour the USS Missouri, where the peace agreement between the U.S. and Japan was signed in September of 1945, the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park, and The Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor, on Ford Island.
USS Arizona Memorial, photo by Derek Wright.
We visited Pearl Harbor in 2013, and were deeply moved and sobered by the memorial, more finely understanding the fear and devastation that the surprise attacks wrought. The collected, recorded stories of soldiers and civilians helped us imagine the feelings of being foisted to the front line of a new war, hours if not days away from immediate assistance.
The USS Arizona Memorial, designed by Alfred Preis, is set atop the sunken USS Arizona, still lodged in the Pacific. Leaking oil from the ship, also known as “black tears,” stains the surface of the water; park rangers say the ship will leak oil for decades to come. Visible from the memorial are the USS Missouri and Ford Island. The names of those who perished are set upon the entire rear wall of the memorial.
USS Arizona Memorial, photo by Derek Wright.
Memories of our visit to Pearl Harbor flooded back this past fall, when we visited the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site, in Hyde Park, New York. The site is comprised of Roosevelt’s home and Presidential Library and Museum, a considerable portion of which is devoted to interpreting his immediate response to Pearl Harbor and the aftermath, as Commander in Chief of a country at war. We see the drafts and rewrites of his appeal to Congress on December 8, 1941, the day after the attacks; the speech was initially intended to be pointed and brief, but subsequent rewrites in collaboration with his advisers shaped the version we know today. As per the National Archives:
“…the President calmly and decisively dictated to his secretary, Grace Tully, a request to Congress for a declaration of war. He composed the speech in his head after deciding on a brief, uncomplicated appeal to the people of the United States rather than a thorough recitation of Japanese perfidies as Secretary of State Cordell Hull had urged. President Roosevelt then revised the typed draft—marking it up, updating military information, and selecting alternative wordings that strengthened the tone of the speech. He made the most significant change in the critical first line, which originally read, "a date which will live in world history."
The Senate unanimously voted in support of war, and only Montana pacifist Jeanette Rankin dissented in the House.
Draft of Roosevelt's speech to Congress, photo by Derek Wright.
The original draft of the speech is preserved, Roosevelt’s pencil markings and edits a unique glimpse into the writing and editing process moments after a crisis. One critical amendment to the speech was to, at the last moment, change “a date which will live in world history” to the words we know today “a date which will live in infamy.” Roosevelt, an intuitive archivist, recorded his thoughts throughout the war. He later wrote that upon receiving the phone call about the bombings at Pearl Harbor, his first instinct was to record his thoughts in writing, knowing his response would become part of our national historical memory.
This year’s remembrance of Pearl Harbor will be made particularly special, as for the first time, a leader of Japan’s government, the President himself, will be present to mark the day. On the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, we wanted to reflect upon this moment in history, and to remember the lives of those that perished in the attacks, as well as in the years of war that followed.
World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, O'ahu, photo by Amy Beth Wright.
Banner photo, USS Arizona Memorial, photo by Amy Beth Wright.
Winners of the Fall 2016 Essay Contest
You can read the winners of our Fall 2016 Essay contest here! Thanks to all who submitted writing to the contest, we received so many powerful and beautiful entries.
Morning on Assateague Island
Morning on Assateague Island
The following is an edited excerpt from Wood's Journal, written by Martin James Wood. To read the original and full version, click here.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Sky: Blue, with a very thin layer of stratocumulus clouds
Air: Still, warm and humid
Precipitation: None, but it rained night before
Ground: Dry, with some puddling
Sunshine: Bright
Temperature: 79 degrees
Time out: Mid-morning
Temperatures are moderate and pleasant. Bursts of storms with hard rainfall are short and intermittent.
With all of the harsh news of the world, there isn’t a place to find peace… Peace of mind. But step away, and look into nature. Look deep into it...
I head out to Assateague Island National Seashore to take in some of the primitive beauty of the day. A trail leads me out to the marsh, and also runs alongside the ocean. I notice the sulfuric smell from the marsh’s salty air. In the high grass I watch a young rabbit, looking for its mother, I assume. The young rabbit appears frantic as it regards my company; also, he’s not able to locate his mother. A little later on, I can see her further down the trail, fully indulged with grazing, and savoring the grass before her. She seems to be completely unaware of both my presence and the younger rabbit’s panicked state.
Off of the trail, there are quite a lot of fallen trees lying among the tall marsh grasses, which are growing up and around the limbs. I’m sure this makes perfect cover for these rabbits. Dark brackish water lies between these little islands of cover, with high grass and remnants of felled Loblolly. The silky long appearance of the grasses, plush and soft to the eye, is a perfect contrast to the coarse and jagged bark of both the standing and prostrate piney timber that is intertwined and interwoven throughout this sandy coastal forest.
Approaching the tiny and now frantic rabbit, I crouch down, and examine him a little more closely. I lay on my belly and hold the camera out. The little rabbit, which is no bigger than my fist, seems calmer and begins to eat at the grass around him. It isn’t long before mom becomes aware of the photoshoot. I can see her notice the little one’s moving about, and I watch her as she becomes concerned, and then moves quickly toward us.
I move further along the trail. A pair of cardinals touches down beside me, as if spontaneously deciding to stop in for an informal visit. But, as quickly as the spontaneous calling had come, the couple departs, perhaps remembering an engagement of theirs, so it appears…
The marsh opens to a vast expanse of sea green grass stretching almost as far as I can see. How beautiful are the colors of the grasses and the water in between, reflecting the sky. Standing amidst these colors is a perfectly white Great Egret. With my camera in hand, I study the long necked egret as it saunters through the water, in between the tall stems of grass. Eventually she decides to take flight as well, and leaves me staring out at the marsh wanting more, more of this peace…Peace of mind.
Step away, and look into nature. Look deep into it...
Nature enthusiast Martin James Wood is an outdoor writer and blogger for The Wood's Edge. He has spent his life among the forests and woods, admiring nature with a camera and pen. His writing, artistry, and outdoor photography celebrate nature’s simplicity and beauty. A Pennsylvania native, Martin James is a loving father and husband, and a friend to our nation’s forests who believes in protecting and preserving our wild lands.
Photos courtesy Martin James Wood (top) ; Mao Teng Lin/USFWS (bottom);
