Photo courtesy: PEMCO Webster & Stevens Collection, Museum of History & Industry
SHADOWY FIGURE: This morning, we awoke to the news that good ol' Punxsutawney Phil, the famous groundhog in Pennsylvania, didn't see his shadow. That means (with almost absolute certainty) that winter is not going to be prolonged, thank goodness.
We could see our shadows in Seattle today, as we had blue skies and sunshine. The same was not the case 100 years ago on February 2, the day of the Blizzard of 1916.
Back then, the city's many hilly neighborhoods and outlying areas were virtually isolated from the downtown area as snow clogged the streets. In the photo above, the driver and passengers of a "jitney bus" try to dig the rig out. (Jitneys were car-like buses which carried paying passengers, long before Uber arrived on the scene.)
The episode also included a reading of "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt." It's the story of a young slave girl separated from her mother. She longs to be reunited, and sews a quilt that is actually a map to freedom, which she shares with others.
This evening, while CJ researched Thurgood Marshall, the first African American judge on the United States Supreme Court, Annabelle and I worked on a poster for a Black History Month event.
And here's a great old photo (part of the PEMCO Webster & Stevens Collection at the Museum of History & Industry) showing the Coliseum Theatre. At the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Pike Street, The Coliseum was the world's first theater designed just for the movies. The landmark didn't even have a stage - a huge departure for theaters of that era.
Some of the most dramatic photos from that day came from the St. James Cathedral. Its dome collapsed under 15 tons of snow. Check out the photo gallery here:
CUBISM: In Annabelle's art class this morning, the kids had a party since it's the last class of the semester. They celebrated by building pyramids out of sugar cubes. ...
And they also ate Greek food as a nod to the Greek-themed drawings they completed (which were used as a backdrop for the Greek myth play CJ was in). We brought some hummus and ... wait for it ... spanakopita to school (because we haven't made quite enough of that yet this year, ha ha).
BLACK HISTORY MONTH: February is here, and that means it's Black History Month.
Today, we watched an old "Reading Rainbow" episode (season 11, episode 6), called "Follow the Drinking Gourd" that was all about the African American experience. The episode gets its name from a children's picture book of the same title about an old song slaves used to sing. "Follow the Drinking Gourd" was an exhortation to escape slavery by connecting with the Underground Railroad by following the Big Dipper in the sky.
The episode also included a reading of "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt." It's the story of a young slave girl separated from her mother. She longs to be reunited, and sews a quilt that is actually a map to freedom, which she shares with others.
This evening, while CJ researched Thurgood Marshall, the first African American judge on the United States Supreme Court, Annabelle and I worked on a poster for a Black History Month event.
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