Saturday, July 13, 2019

Lost Corners: Review of Wendell Berry book from 12 years ago


This summer and fall, I'm planning to read some of the works of Wendell Berry, who is described by the makers of the 2016 documentary Look & See as a "writer, poet, teacher, farmer, and outspoken citizen of an endangered world."

In deciding which of Berry's works to start with, I stumbled across a Goodreads review of his 1977 book The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. It was written by "David" in October 2007, twelve years ago. Twelve years seems like an eternity ago, doesn't it? George W. Bush was president, Mike Trout and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were in high school, and Robert Downey Jr. had a nice supporting role in Zodiac but was probably wondering what the next chapter of his career might offer.

I believe David's review ⁠— a very fine piece of writing in itself ⁠— is worth highlighting and saving elsewhere for posterity. So here it is:
"Recommended for: anyone who has felt emptiness in shopping malls

"maybe you'll find this at a garage sale in a beat up box for twenty-five cents. you'll pull it from the box. rub two dimes and five pennies together. you'll read it and research rain barrels. you'll sell that book to some used bookstore. you might. and a thin bookstore employee will set it on a shelf where some manicured hand might find it and bring it back to her loft. maybe she'll turn the pages and sigh at her consumption. maybe. or maybe she wont. maybe she'll walk more. and ride her bicycle to the local market. slowly. in gradual steps. she will find herself in her landscape. here is the revolution she might think as shuts her door for the last time. gone to a place. a plot of land that she cares for and which in turn cares for her. the nurturing of her landscape becomes almost spiritual in her recognition of the land and its affect on her.

"or maybe she is just standing in a shopping mall and feeling the emptiness. with the people walking by. talking into cell phones. bags on their arms. maybe she will stop there in the center of the mall feeling the emptiness.

"or maybe she will be driving city streets. just all green lights and fluorescent gas station lights and the radio playing some seventies song. and she will feel the emptiness. maybe she will pull into a grocery store parking lot at dusk and listen to the grackles as they call and shout on architect planned trees. in the calling of those birds the emptiness might turn into something else. a step. a decision. to bridge the gap of the estrangement of herself from her landscape. maybe her heart moves an inch closer to the right place."

Monday, July 8, 2019

Family memories: The huge Dixie Cup near Easton

Source: Wikipedia

This blog is about paper, so paper cups count, right?

When I was a kid and we were traveling to Dad's parents' place, I knew we were almost there when we drove past the huge water tower disguised as a Dixie Cup. It sat atop the Dixie Cup Corporation factory in Wilson, Pennsylvania, near Easton. They stopped making cups there around 1983, but the giant cup itself remains.

In May, lehighvalleylive.com published an article with the headline "The Dixie Cup plant is about to get cleaned up, plus what will happen to its rooftop icon." It details the potential $100 million redevelopment of the factory into 300-plus apartment units, plus commercial space. And what about the Dixie Cup on top? "Plans include refurbishing, repainting and re-illuminating the big rooftop water tank patterned after a Dixie Cup," the article states.

When I ran this news past Dad, who is now living in Florida, he had this to say:
"That the structure still remains since I was 6 years old in the 1950s is amazing. Think of all the people that worked there, raised families in the area and have passed on. When you take a drink or pour cream in your coffee, it happens because Americans in Easton PA devoted their lives to make Dixie Cups so that America could trust putting their lips on things that went into their mouth. Ironically, there are many Dixie Cups in our landfills. My Father worked to make the cups that people drink from safe. He asked nothing in return but for health, happiness and long life for his family."
And there you have it. Very happy to know that this building where Pappy worked, with its towering Dixie Cup on the roof, should be around for many more generations to come.

Screenshot from lehighvalleylive.com article