Shades on Main Blues: Wednesday, March 29th!

'Tis the time's plague when madmen lead the blind. -William Shakespeare, poet and dramatist (1564-1616) 

 
Up at 6:45 am as Duke was agitating to be let out. Had set my alarm for 7:00 am but should have known that with the kitten alarm I wouldn't need a mechanical reminder! Needed to be up and about as I was going to join the hiking group meeting at Shades on Main for breakfast at 8:00 am.

Buongiorno Pancake People! Thanks to Jimbo for organizing the wonderful gathering this morning. It was more than a delight to see those of you I've not been hiking/snowshoeing with, of late. I hope to put on my boots once hills dry out a tad more and re-join this terrific group. Until then, all the best to one and all. Cheers, Patrizzio! Great to see all those smiling faces I look forward to a hike or two this spring soon..I will be back from California next week so a hiking I will go!!! Thanks ,...Elle��😎

Hi California Girl! Glad you enjoyed the snaps! How has your weather been? I gather more rain than state has had in years. Travel safely. Must away, to do a few chores! Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio!

Congratulations Indeed to Zoe and Matt on the birth of Miriam and George! Hip Hip Hooray! Just in time for Easter! Much Love and Cheers, Corinne and Patrick!

Hi Gill, Is it me, you, Phil, Patrick, Judy, Olly, Corinne and Pam tonight? If so I have to let Mike know, he only wants to come if needed. Jos I'm not sure as they didn't reply to me. Patrick do you know? Just phoned Patrick and he's not answering. Mike, can you please phone him later - hopefully he knows 

This afternoon, at the Shatford Centre, we took in a phenomenal documentary, Paper Clips:

Searching for an effective way to teach their students about the scale of the Holocaust, school officials in Tennessee devise a unique class project involving paper clips. The middle school students in a rural, heavily Christian community begin collecting the paper clips to represent the Jews who perished in concentration camps in World War II. After millions of the paper clips are collected, the last step is to place them inside a German rail car, a poignant echo of the Final Solution.

   

A truly remarkable, extremely unlikely project, with so many completely unexpected, powerful, powerful outcomes, on so many levels, for all involved. If you have not seen it, Dear reader, try to do so. Take a box of Kleenex as it is unbelievably moving and heart-wrenching, genuinely so, from start to finish.

That evening we had two tables of bridge at the home of friends, Jack Rabbit Slims and Phillipo, on Spiller Road, up above Naramata Road, so view is spectacular. Group we started seems to be growing as we have graduated from one table to two, over last few gatherings. Good to have a large number of players to draw upon as many are away, otherwise busy, etc., on a given date. 

Pics: Spiller Road Bridge Fiends! Tony Only view; Josinta and Olga Polga engaging in pre-bidding calisthenics; Lady Dar and Jack Rabbit; Bridge royalty, Dame Judy and Lady Darjeeling; Fast Phil unhappy with his play! Naramata Goil, persoanl trainer to Rolly Polly! Josinta, happy with her point count! Puzzled Pamela scratches her noggin, hoping it will help her bid correctly!

In 1998, three middle-school teachers in Whitwell, Tenn. (pop. 1,500) came up with a project for the eighth grade class: Learn about intolerance by studying the Holocaust. The students read The Diary of Anne Frank and did internet research, discovering that during World War II, the Norwegians wore paper clips in their lapels as a silent gesture of solidarity and sympathy with Hitler's victims. 

A student, no one seems to remember which one, said it was impossible to imagine six million of anything, let alone Jews who died in the Holocaust. That led somehow to the notion of gathering six million paper clips in one place at one time, as a tribute to the victims. The project started slowly, with a clip here and a clip there, and 50,000 from one donor, and then the Washington Post and Tom Brokaw got on the story and by the time Whitwell's third group of eighth graders were running the project, they had 29 million paper clips. 

That could be a story like the one about the kid who was dying and wanted to collect business cards, and got millions and millions as his desperate parents announced he had recovered and no longer wanted more cards. But the Whitwell story goes to another level, a touching one, as the students make new friends through their project. Two of them are Peter and Dagmar Schroeder, White House correspondents from Germany, who visit the town and write about it. Many more were Holocaust survivors, who as a group visited Whitwell for a pot-luck dinner at the Methodist church, classes at the school, and a community reception.

And then there was the train car. The Schroeders found one of the actual rail cars used to transport Jews to the death camps, and arranged for it to be shipped to Whitwell. Local carpenters repaired the leaky roof and rotting floor, and the car was placed outside the high school as a Holocaust memorial. Inside were 11 million paper clips, representing six million Jews and five million gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and others who were murdered by the Nazis. Also a suitcase which German children had filled with notes to Anne Frank. 

"Paper Clips," which tells this story, is not a sophisticated or very challenging film, nor should it be. It is straightforward, heartfelt and genuine. It plays more like a local news report, and we get the sense that the documentary, like the paper clip project, grows directly out of the good intentions of the people involved. Whitwell at the time had no Jews, five African-Americans and one Hispanic, we learn; there weren't even any Catholics. By the time the project was completed, the horizons of the population had widened considerably.