Art on the Library Walls

 

Frederic Spione

Frederic Spione has an extensive background as a successful commercial artist and illustrator in NYC.  Relocating to Pine Bush, NY, Spione now works in his converted garage studio painting landscapes, abstract imagery and whimsical pictures inspired by his idyllic rural setting.For the last 20 years, Spione has also worked in the field of Creative Aging facilitating and training staff and older persons to share memories and life experiences through visual art.Spione facilitates creative workshops for adults, children and persons with dementia.  He also provides private art lessons with a special focus on helping people overcome artistic blocks.Frederic Spione is a member of the Pine Bush Area Arts Council (PBAAC) and the Middletown Art Group (MAG).He was a featured exhibitor at the Crawford Gallery of Fine Art (CGFA).

“I discover a texture, see color and shapes or hear a melody that then awakens in me a desire to create and capture mystifying understandings.”

 FS

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RAVE REVIEWS   by Jean E. Eustance

RAVE REVIEWS   by Jean E. Eustance

This summer’s reading program was “A Universe of Stories.” With that in mind, last month I reviewed The Astronauts Wives Club. It covered the years 1959 to 1972 and was about the Race to the Moon. The next book, Hidden Figures, starts in 1943 during World War II and ends in the present, with the epilogue.  The book covers a great many changes to American life.  You could say it is “To boldly go where no one has gone before.”

 

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race is written by Margot Lee Shetterly. It is upstairs in Adult Services, in the non-fiction part of the Pine Bush Area Public Library.  It is about the black women who worked as “human computers” for first NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) and later for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration.) The lives and careers of four women are the main focus. They are Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden. This is a deep and intense book, and it deals with many different people (not only these four) and their struggles to be treated as dignified human beings.

When I hear the word “computer” I think of machines that make life more complicated. Originally “computers” meant “people who can compute” or, in other words, people who are astonishingly good with math. And these women were astonishingly good.  What nowadays is done by soulless machines was done back then by women with adding machines, paper and pencils. It was the math to get rockets up and down and, when they were manned, to get the men back to earth in one piece.  John Glenn was one of them: the first American to orbit the earth.

NASA was using IBM computers, but some people wanted the human computers to check on those numbers. Shetterly writes “Every engineer and mathematician had a story of double-checking the machines’ data only to find errors…The human computers crunching all those numbers—now that the astronauts understood.  The women mathematicians dominated their mechanical calculators the same way the test pilots dominated their mechanical planes…Spaceship-flying computers might be in the future, but that didn’t mean John Glenn had to trust them. He did, however, trust the brainy fellas who controlled the computers.  And the brainy fellas who controlled the computers trusted their computer, Katherine Johnson…therefore, John Glenn trusted Katherine Johnson. The message got through…”Get the girl to check the numbers,” said the astronaut.  If she says the numbers are good, he told them, I’m ready to go.”

 

On page 223, the book reads, “Katherine organized herself immediately at her desk, growing phone-book-thick stacks of data a number at a time…She worked through every minute of what was programmed to be a three-orbit mission….At the end of the task, every number in the stack of papers she produced matched the (mechanical) computer’s output…The pressure might have buckled a lesser individual, but no one was more up to the task than Katherine Johnson.

 

“God speed, John Glenn,” and he got into space and safely back down thanks in part to Katherine Johnson, the human computer. Nowadays she is called a “retired NASA mathematician” and she is 100 years old and she has written her autobiography. Atheneum Books for Young Readers is bringing out her story, Reaching for the Moon. It is for middle readers.  It is now in the Junior Biography Section of the Pine Bush Area Public Library.

 

Back to Hidden Figures.  It’s not all “God speed.” The book starts in 1943 at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, in Hampton, Virginia. The black women joined the West Computers.  White women joined the East Computers. Then there’s the cafeteria, which was segregated. “Most groups sat together out of habit. For the West Computers, it was by mandate.  A white cardboard sign on a table in the back of the cafeteria beckoned them, its crisply stenciled black letters spelling out the lunchroom hierarchy: COLORED COMPUTERS.

 

This is a book I can’t do justice to in a review. There is so much more to it than I can tell you about. Many different people and many situations make it a dense and strong book. Margot Lee Shetterly has moved heaven and earth to write about the black women and their families in the space program. And she says that she has not been able to cover everything that she had intended.  So you must read this book for yourself, to get the true measure of it. Find it in the non-fiction section in Adult Services in the Pine Bush Area Public Library. And look in Chapter Twenty-Three, “To Boldly Go” for the conversation between the actress Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura of Star Trek) and Martin Luther King, Jr. She was thinking of leaving the show in 1967. Dr. King convinced her to stay. “You can’t leave the show,” King said to Nichols. “We are there because you are there.” There—in the future on a starship which had no signs in its cafeteria about who could sit where.

 

 

 

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WORKING WITH WORD – AUGUST 19TH @ 3:00 pm in the Pine Bush Library Community Center

Image | Posted on by

AUGUST 2019 NEWSLETTER AND CALENDAR

Click on the link below to access the August 2019 newsletter and calendar:

August 2019 Calendar August 2019 Newsletter

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Rave Reviews by Jean E. Eustance

Rave Reviews by Jean E. Eustance

July and August 2019 should make quite a summer!  It’s the fiftieth anniversary of both the first lunar landing, and the Woodstock Festival.  For those of us who can remember watching the TV when the astronauts landed on the moon, and who can remember seeing the chaos of Woodstock also on the TV, it’s a case of “Hey, man, where did the time go?”

You know the old joke, don’t you?  If you can remember Woodstock, you weren’t there.

Very few Americans were “there” near Houston or Cape Canaveral for the Race to the Moon, but now you can get an “in” with a marvelous book called The Astronaut Wives Club. Lily Koppel published this in 2013. We have this book upstairs in Adult Services in the Pine Bush Area Public Library.

I expected it to deal mainly with the lunar landing of July 20, 1969. To my surprise, the book started with the Mercury missions. On the first pages of the book, the wives are listed so you the reader can follow who these women were (and are) and who were their astronaut husbands.

“In April 1959 NASA’s first spacemen, the Mercury Seven astronauts, were announced in Washington, D.C. and their wives were like America’s first reality stars:…Louise Shepard, wife of Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space…Annie Glenn, wife of John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth; Annie was what NASA wanted the wives of its seven astronauts to be…Betty Grissom, wife of Gus Grissom, the second American to go into space on a suborbital flight.”

In The Astronaut Wives Club, things went on, with the Gemini missions and the Apollo moon missions, and more women were added to the roster as their husbands were chosen to risk their lives. And I was surprised at how risky it really was. On Halloween Night of 1964, a reporter showed up at the door of Faith Freeman’s house, asking about “the accident.” Her husband, Ted Freeman, had died in a crash of his jet, a T-38.  The official people, who were supposed to tell a woman if her husband had died, were no where in sight.

The fire in the Apollo 1 capsule was also covered in this book. Lily Koppel writes, “That morning, January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom climbed into the Apollo 1 capsule with his crew, Roger Chaffee and Ed White. This was a dress rehearsal for the actual flight, so while the booster was not fueled, the Apollo 1 capsule would be sealed and pressurized with pure oxygen as they ran through everything, including a T-minus countdown.”

As some of you remember, electricity sparked and caused a fire, and this killed all three astronauts, needlessly, on the launch pad. By 1967, the “protocol” for announcing deaths had tightened up. Betty Grissom was at home, and two of her friends, fellow astronaut wives, just “happened” to come over for a drink, and were there “when Dr. Berry, the astronauts’ physician, arrived” to announce the death. The women who were involved in the space race “knew their unspoken promise, ‘If you need us, come’.”

The book covers the day-to-day lives of the women in the years of the big missions. Obviously, the moon missions were covered, including Apollo 11 which landed humans on the moon, and Apollo 13, which did not. Jim Lovell is now renowned for saying, “Houston, we have a problem”

Eventually the moon missions ended with Apollo 17. Barbara Cernan was waiting for her husband, Geno Cernan, to come back. (He did, safely.) Lily Koppel writes, “Barbara sat in the dark…On his previous Apollo 10 mission, a “dry run” for Apollo 11, Geno had radioed back to Houston that riding around the moon was a piece of cake… ‘It was definitely not a piece of cake for me,’ said Barbara. ‘If you think going to the moon is hard, try staying at home’.”

And that is what The Astronauts Wives Club is about. Detailed, fascinating, and going into the present, with “where they are now.”  It is about friendships and heartbreaks and bonds that cannot be broken. “If you think going to the moon is hard, try staying at home.”

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An introduction to setting up and using Email – Monday, August 5th @ 1:00 PM

 

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JOIN MEADOW, ARTIST/INSTRUCTOR, THURSDAY, AUGUST 1ST & THURSDAY, AUGUST 15TH – ART FOR KIDS AGES 7 & UP!

 

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THE FLOWER ARRANGER’S GARDEN THE CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION MASTER GARDENERS THURS., AUG. 8TH 1:00 PM

PLEASE CLICK ON LINK TO VIEW THE FLYER!

FLOWER ARRANGER’S GARDEN

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AARP SMART DRIVER CLASS – WEDS., JULY 31ST @9:00 AM-4:00 PM

AARP SMART DRIVER CLASS

GET A DISCOUNT ON YOUR AUTO INSURANCE AND/OR LOWER POINTS ON YOUR LICENSE

SIGN UP NOW!!!

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2019  –  9 AM – 4 PM

PINE BUSH AREA LIBRARY COMMUNITY CENTER

$20 FOR AARP MEMBERS

$25 FOR NON-AARP MEMBERS

       (MUST REGISTER.  CALL 744-4265, EXT. 2)

AARP SMART DRIVER CLASS

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SPECIAL CHILDREN’S PROGRAM: MAKING SPACE FOR POLLINATORS! MONDAY, JULY 15TH 3:30 PM @ THE LIBRARY COMMUNITY CENTER

PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW THE FLYER!

Pollinators

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HANNAFORD HELPS REUSABLE BAG PROGRAM!! ALL DURING JULY 2019!

PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW THE FLYER!!

HANNAFORD

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Pine Bush Library July 2019 Newsletter and Calendar

July 2019 newsletter July 2019 Calendar

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Make your own Tie Dye Coaster – July 9th at 11:00 am at the Community Center!

Make your own Tie Dye coaster

with Ms. Rebecca

Tuesday, July 9th at 11:00 am

at the Library Community Center

Call 845-744-4265 Ex. 2 to reserve your space

SPACE IS LIMITED!

please click on the icon below!

Tweens-tie-dye doc

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A UNIVERSE OF STORIES, ART AND MOVIE NIGHT! AUGUST 3rd STARTING @ 6:30 PM

Come join the Pine Bush Area Library on Saturday, August 3rd, for a family night of fun for everyone!

Please click on link below for the information:

A Universe of stories, art and movie night

 

 

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“A UNIVERSE OF STORIES” THE ADULT READING PROGRAM THEME AT THE PINE BUSH AREA LIBRARY CALLING ALL CREATIVE WRITERS!!

Please click on the link below for information:

A UNIVERSE OF STORIES SHORT STORY

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SLAVERY AND WORLD HISTORY

SLAVERY AND WORLD HISTORY

PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE CONTINUING LECTURE SERIES PRESENTED BY

 JOSEPH BRITTO, ADJUNCT LECTURER SUNY/ORANGE

AND PROFESSOR EMERITUS SUNY/NEW PALTZ.

“Where Slavery Died Hard”, an historical documentary 

  showing evidence of enslaved African-Americans in Ulster

  County, NY, around 1790, will be shown during the Tuesday,

  July 16 session at 6:30 pm in the Community Center.

PLEASE REGISTER BY CALLING 744-4265, EXT. 2

 

Please click on the link below for information:

slavery-and-world-history 2

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RAVE REVIEWS BY JEAN E. EUSTANCE

RAVE REVIEWS by Jean E. Eustance               July 2019

I’ve just finished The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, and I feel like I’m a kid again, and I’ve found a book that feels like the ones I used to read. This is a book that will stay with you for years and years. Get this book from the Children’s Department of the Pine Bush Area Public Library. It’s written for middle readers, grades four and up. It’s one of those books you, the grownup, will wish had been available when you were a child.

Jeanne Birdsall has written a marvelous book about a family of one widower and his four daughters, and the problems when his bossy older sister says that he must start dating again. His daughters don’t like the idea. It’s also about how the daughters support each other and love their Dad.

They come up with a Save-Daddy Plan. Aunt Claire says that the girls’ late mother had left their Dad a letter saying that it isn’t good to be alone too long. Four years after Mrs. Penderwick’s death, Aunt Claire introduces Dad to the first blind date and the whole thing is a disaster. She says that Dr. Penderwick should go on at least four dates and then if it’s just too much, he can stop. The eldest daughter, Rosalind, figures that if they can find three more truly awful dates for Daddy, the whole thing will be over and they will be left in peace.

Then Dr. Penderwick says that he is dating a woman named Marianne whom he met in a bookshop. No one else has met this woman, and when Aunt Claire tries to steer him towards another blind date, off he goes again with Marianne, um, Marianne Dashwood. (Turns out his late wife’s favorite book was Sense and Sensibility. If you’ve read it, you will recognize the name.) The kids have a Save-Daddy Plan but Daddy is trying to save himself by dating a woman who does not exist. Meanwhile, a new neighbor has moved in next door in their hometown of Cameron, Massachusetts. lantha Aaronson is a professor at the same college that he works at, and she is a widow with a cute baby. The Penderwick girls adore her and her child. The youngest daughter, Batty, is always over there, visiting them. Can you see where the plot is going?

The book is about more than just the Save-Daddy Plan. The kids have other interests. For example, Skye and Jane are the soccer players. Skye has a temper. She has been known to call the referee a kumquat. She loses her temper during a match when Jane has been fouled worse than usual. Jane, meanwhile, has a technique for keeping from crying during matches if someone bashes into her. She “channels” a British soccer player whom she says is named Mick Hart. When their soccer team, Antonio’s Pizza, is playing their arch-rivals, Cameron’s Hardware, things explode.

When Jane got hit too hard, bad things happened. Sometimes she started to cry, and sometimes she forgot how to play. And sometimes– and this was Skye’s least favorite possibility— she became Mick Hart and shouted odd things in an English accent… The ball was passed to Skye… when a shout rang out behind her. “CAMERON’S HARDWARE ARE GORMLESS DUFFS!” Rats, thought Skye, she isn’tfine and now she’s Mick, and who knows what “gormless duffs” means, but it sounds terrible.

Just like that, Skye’s temper was gone, and she didn’t care. For what good was a temper if you couldn’t throw it away when your sister was being kneed in the ribs?…and even the goalkeepers joined the battle, and the referees’ whistles were blowing.. The game was officially declared over, and everyone was sent away in disgrace.

This book is a lot of fun, with other things going on, like Rosalind not realizing that her old friend Tommy really, really likes her. She thinks he is just pond scum. She says to her friend Anna, “l really do hate him,” and Anna says right back, “l really do believe you.” The author, Jeanne Birdsall, can really, really write. This stuff is so good that the reader just eats it up. This is so much fun! So come in and read The Penderwicks on Gardam Street. You’ll wish you lived on Gardam Street, yourself.

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FREE CHILDRENS’ MIXED MEDIA WORKSHOPS WITH INSTRUCTOR/ARTIST “MEADOW” AT THE PINE BUSH AREA LIBRARY COMMUNITY CENTER… IMAGINARY CLAY ANIMALS: THURSDAY, JULY 11TH @ 1:00 PM & SOCK DOLLS: THURSDAY, JULY 25TH @ 1:00 PM

MEADOW WORKSHOPS

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Summer Poetry Reading THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2019 AT 7:00 PM

Summer Poetry

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THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF WOODSTOCK

Woodstock

Meet NICK AND BOBBIE ERCOLINE,

The Iconic Couple on the Cover of the Original Woodstock Album and Our Hometown Neighbors! Hear them tell what it was like to be at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and how this “Universal Event” changed their lives.

PINE BUSH AREA LIBRARY COMMUNITY CENTER

THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2019 AT 7:00 PM

Please Call 744-4265 Ext. 2 to Reserve Your Seat.

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