Three Visions of St Francis

Summertime growing up in Villas, NJ lots of my friends’ families were Catholic, Irish or Italian, some German or Polish. Almost all were blue collar, factory & shipyard workers. Or they got by otherwise. Some stayed with grandparents. The blessed Virgin was ubiquitous: on dashboards, front lawns, jewelry, framed next to her Son in every dining room where the mother fed the neighbor kids as well as her own. Some kids went to St Raymond’s school on Bayshore Road, but most went back to Philly, where their real homes were; the Villas was for summer vacation, fresh air for the kids, breathing room for mom and the Villas Fishing Club on the bay for men- only. The boardwalk over in Wildwood for everybody with a car or bus fare.

Labor Day Weekend marked the end of summer firmly as a door closing. The following Monday morning the streets were silent, window blinds pulled down, driveways- twelve hours earlier festooned with wading pools, kids, grills, beer bottles & fishing gear, empty. A vacuous quiet descended. Left behind we were all watchers in this new found emptiness, watchful for artifacts of the prior occupants, for signs that summer had existed at all. Mary would stare dolefully back at us from within her blue robes at various locations throughout the neighborhood, daring our trespass.

And then there was St Francis, keeper of beasts & of nature, benevolent & compassionate. Guardian of the wildness inside us all and protector of the earth, he would keep watch along the bay all winter long, and ever after.

Three Visions of St Francis Guarding the Delaware Bay

Three Visions of St Francis Guarding the Delaware

Three Visions of St Francis Guarding the Delaware Bay

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People and Places

In reviewing my work  as I decide what to put on display next month, I’m a bit dumbfounded to encounter the common threads running through the photos, regardless of disparate locations, attitudes, equipment and intention at shooting time.  Here are few that I was considering today for “From Back East to Midwest” at Timberlane Coffee in April. If you’re in the vicinity of Boscobel, you’ll want to stop by and share a great cuppa joe  with the good people at Timberlane.

Lincoln Tunnel Helix, Elizabeth, NJ. “Now about 74 years old, the Lincoln Tunnel is one of the busiest crossings in the world, carrying over 40 million vehicles per year. In addition to passenger cars and trucks, each weekday morning, the busiest bus lane in the nation known as the Exclusive Bus Lane, or XBL, operates at the tunnel.”

Ain’t That America: Heartland Red & Green

Sunset Rush Hour, Ellenboro Wisconsin

Cove Beach, from Cape May Point

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Mind Wandering Back East

With the weekend weather in our region expected drop the windchill close to -60, my thought have turned to sunshine and warmer places. Cape May county NJ last fall was beautiful every day, a paradise for being outdoors. Lots of ocean, beach and birds. This shot was taken along the Delaware Bay side of the peninsula, where quiet beaches and the cleaned up Delaware Bay make it a peaceful alternative to the busy Jersey Shore towns to the east.  This great white egret didn’t think much of us passing by his marsh however..:), even though we were picking up trash as we walked. Which I think is so necessary to do whenever you visit wild places. Even if its just one small bag you carry out, the difference is made for the critters that live there, and collectively, for the health and beauty of our one blue planet. If most people would do this consistently and work together,  we’d see results, don’t you think?

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Contrasts

Travel’s all about contrasts, how they live there, who we are here, where’s everyone going, who knows their destination? Wisconsin and Jersey are worlds apart, but the people not so very different.

Springtime horseback ride downtown, downhome

The cutural chasm separating neighboring Wildwood and Cape May, NJ- one a summer-long spring break simulacrum rooted in 1950’s pop-culture, blue collered and raw with life, the other a Victorian resort town straight out of EM Forester or Henry James, dignified, wealthy, upwardly mobile– looms far greater than that between these ‘Sconnie horseback riders in the town of Ellenboro and the folks running the Dickenson family’s Hidden Valley Ranch in West Cape May.

Life’s a Beach, Cape May Point

So much to be learned from just looking and waiting for the moment to arrive, and with it understanding of how vast the world remains, and how much of an effort we owe toward understanding it before- if ever– we move to judgement.

Coaster cars rocket through the loop above Crayola Alley, Wildwood Boardwalk

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Text Me Tonight

No teenager ever grew up near the boardwalk without a summer night like this: illuminated dreamscape, coasters rattling, crowd chatter, sweet stink of cotton candy and corndogs all around, barkers hollering for a mark, all the while hunkered down in some dark retreat you call or wait for a friend, a smile, a sparking coincidence to lift you up and whirl you into the surrounding , pulsating crowd, instantly alive, electric, no longer alone.

Every kid who grew up at the shore can see themselves here for a moment, on a hot summer night, waiting for the next best thing

 

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Weekend for Paul, South Jersey Shore

Last Friday, 7/13 600+ came to honor, respect and celebrate the life of our friend, mentor, teacher and champion Paul Mathis, in the theatrical house that he built@ Lower Cape May Regional. We mourned, cried, laughed, remembered, loved and celebrated his life. And recollected the abundant magic that he encouraged us to discover within each and every day. Taking photos over two days following the concert, every snap was a promise to honor his mantra & seize the moment.

Shawcrest Channel, Wildwood

Photography, Cape May Point, after Berenice Abbott in Florida

Morey’s original pier and boardwalk midway, Wildwood NJ

Time sure funs when you’re having a good fly, Wildwood Boardwalk NJ

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