Friends, we have made it to Friday. Not just any Friday, mind you, but the start of Memorial Day weekend.
Take sometime this weekend to go for a ride, visit a small business that’s new to you, explore a hiking trail or do some other thing that makes your heart feel good.
Life isn’t meant to be survived. It isn’t meant to be spent on a dull treadmill. It’s meant to bring you joy and learning, new horizons and fresh opportunities
This is a good day to start acting like it.
What are you waiting for? The door is open. Go explore now!
Remember when I told you about the National Museum of the American Coverlet and how it’s in an old school in Bedford? Well, they have done a fantastic job of preserving that old school and some of its unique features.
The front hallway features a folk art mural of the town as well as this mural of the Big Bad Wolf spying on the pigs. Isn’t it fun?
Here’s a bigger picture view of the history mural and the pigs.
These odd and random things we run into out in the world are more or less what I live for. The coverlets in this museum are amazing but I found myself sometimes distracted by features of this old building. How fortunate were to get a peak inside!
Swaying palm trees. Rough seas. Brilliant red Poinciana trees. Cotton candy sunsets that light up the canvas in ways you might not know possible.
That’s what you’ll find among the paintings of the Florida Highwaymen. I had the pleasure of seeing several as part of a special exhibit at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art a few weeks ago.
From the early fifties through the eighties, there were 26 African American painters who were called The Highwaymen. They painted gorgeous rural and beach scenes from the Florida landscape.
They painted in home workshops and garages, creating a prolific catalog of work that they sold door-to-door to businesses and individuals. They could also be seen selling from the trunks of their cars along the highways. Back in the day, these paintings cost about $25 apiece. Today one of these paintings can command $5,000 to $10,000.
Despite the talents of these individuals, racial segregation in Florida prevented them from being sold in professional galleries.
The museum had laminated sheets for each painter with brief biographies and I was fascinated by the origins of these artists. Most were self taught. They knew each other and mentored one another and you can see how they influenced one another.
Their stories are tragic and discouraging, inspiring and thought provoking. Their work is stunning.
This exhibition just closed so I’m sorry to say you can’t go see these paintings in Pennsylvania. That’s a shame too because they did a nice job showing the art while telling the stories of the artists and of the Jim Crow world they lived in. The fact they faced such a grim and racist reality but chose to paint such beauty is incredible.
If you ever get a chance to go see some of these paintings, I hope you will. They are extraordinary.
Want to know more about these painters? Click here to find biographies of the 25 men and one woman who we know as the Highwaymen.
Doesn’t this look like a nice spot to sit and read a book or just watch the clouds roll by? My pal and I spotted it on our way out of the National Museum of the Coverlet and we agreed that it looked peaceful.
And yet, it never occurred to me that we could stop to sit there.
Sitting idle is difficult for me. I often admire those people in cafes who are peacefully reading a book or the folks who are just sitting on a park bench as though there’s no place they would rather be.
There’s just so much to see and do in this world, I want to go see it all. And yet, I want to be a person who sits on benches too.
Author Richard Kadrey famously said “Being able to embrace contradictions is a sign of intelligence. Or insanity.”
Maybe we shouldn’t discuss how his theory applies to me!
Do you stop to smell the roses and sit on benches or do you prefer to be on the go?
Twenty years ago, I sat in the passenger seat of a car and pointed to a fantastic old stone tavern visible from the Pennsylvania Turnpike. My statement that it looked like a neat place to stop fell on deaf ears as my now ex-husband barreled on toward our destination.
Fast forward to my most recent trip to see my Pittsburgh friend. We were headed to historic Bedford for a day and she wondered if I would be interested in a meal at the historic Jean Bonnet Tavern?
Yes, it was the tavern I had seen so many years ago!
Oh, the value of spending this life with the right people.
So, after a day of wandering around Bedford, sampling candy and perusing antiques, we headed straight to the Jean Bonnet Tavern for an absolute feast.
This place was built in 1762 and is located on what we now call the Lincoln Highway. Back then, it was called Forbes Road and was the only east-west road from eastern Pennsylvania to the Ohio Country. Countless settlers and travelers passed through here. The tavern and inn was built as a safe haven for those weary folks who needed a place to lay their heads and have a good meal before continuing on their treacherous journey.
It was also believed to be a gathering place for the farmers involved in the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion.
This building is large and stone with big white porches and moody lighting inside.
You enter the restaurant through a wooden door into a room with a large stone fireplace. When you are seated, a hostess will set the mood by lighting a taper candle in a pewter candlestick. Those approximate two foot thick stone walls are decorated with coverlets. The food is good and the portions large.
There were other people in our dining room but for a few short minutes, there was no one in my field of vision. I could hear the clink of glasses and silverware but could see no one else. Flickering candlelight and simple decor harkened to Colonial days in a way that excited my imagination.
For a brief and shining moment, I was a time traveler. Was it 2026 or was it 1776? Who knew? Maybe George Washington’s Army was encamped right outside. Maybe a lengthy journey on horseback laid ahead of me the next day. Time had no meaning here.
This is not just a place to eat. It’s a place of experience. You can stay there too and I’m kind of hoping I get to do that someday because it looks nice.
Friends, this is why we travel. We go places for these glimmering, golden moments when we experience something so special we know the moment was all our own.
This locally owned shoe store is packed with all kinds of quality and interesting shoes. While I wasn’t in the market for shoes, I was smitten with the outside of their building. The colors! The sign! Oh my!
Plus, if you look closely, you’ll notice dust flying in the distance. A crew was mixing cement for a sidewalk repair and causing all kinds of mess on this tree-lined street.
It’s basically the best depiction of a Pittsburgh neighborhood I can give you!
