Reflections of Seasons Past
Personal Perceptions Over 8 Decades
by
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A New Yorker who had lived in the big city all of his life was taking a friend who was visiting him from out of town on a subway ride. The train made a stop and hurriedly the New Yorkers pushed his friend from one crowded subway to another. When the friend reached his destination, the city man exclaimed proudly to the visitor “By changing trains we saved five minutes.” Quietly the friend asked, “What significant thing shall we do with the minutes we saved?”
And, so this is my question, “What are we doing with all of the extra moments freed of labor that this advanced computerized civilization has given us?”
Often my mind goes back to what was once called the “Good Ole Days.” For there were acres of forest and fields, and many persons developed an unhurried attitude about life. Most of the earlier Americans said there was beauty in slowness. Gandhi’s famous phrase was “There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
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About the Book
This book is personal journey that a couple made when they left the Rural South to live in the hustle and bustle of New York City. Mary gives us an insight into that journey in a way that recounts her perceptions of life, as she settled and grew in the Big Apple. She became an accomplished seamstress as she and her husband built a successful life. She recounts her life as they rubbed elbows with the rich and famous from the assorted cultures surrounding their daily living. She blends her reflections on black historical events with the history of her own life. It enables us to look through the crystal and understand Mary’s well grounded values, forged from her southern roots, with hopes of a better future that will lift our spirits and enable us to reflect on our own seasons past.
About the Author
“Aunt” Mary Booth, Bright was born in Gloucester on the “Middle Peninsula” of Southern Virginia, which lies between the York and Rappahannock Rivers. She grew up in this farm country and was married here.
She and her husband went to
Mary’s writings have been written through the years with a child-like candor as she grew and struggled with the upheavals of leaving the sedentary culture of the southern life and thrusting herself into the hustle and bustle of New York City with its tall buildings, subways and elevated trains.
She and her husband often went to Harlem and the Cotton Club where she sat on a stool next to Duke Elligton as he performed for her.
She spent a lifetime writing to her mother back in Gloucester about the things that she experienced and reflected on during her life.
“Many of the writings are set in my mood at that time in my life”
These are her reflections of her life and of life in general. Her special wisdom and mother-wit is truly a blessing to all who share her thoughts and insights of life as they unfold in Reflections of Seasons Past, with her concerns for seasons present and hopes for seasons yet to come. Her thoughts and musings meander through a stream of consciousness….and what’s wrong with meandering…..??