A stroll through time

It’s Thursday afternoon, and your Center City Correspondent is watching the snow fall once again. This time it’s falling sideways and not reaching the ground. Odd storm.


Last Friday, Mrs. CCC and I took a walk to the Philadelphia Art Museum. When we moved into town we became members which allows us to enter the Museum anytime it’s open without paying. Even the special exhibitions like Cezanne last year and Picasso this year are free; we just need to pick a day and time to go. Living so close makes it easy to go for an hour or two without disrupting the whole day. We especially like the Impressionists, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, etc. and the Museum has a nice collection of them. Renoir’s portraits are at the top of our list; he makes his subjects appear so life-like, it’s like they are standing in the room with you. Mrs. CCC likes the still-life pictures with fruit, food and bottles. They make me hungry. But last week, I wanted to feel like a kid again so we found the Japanese Tea House that resides in the Asian Art section on the second floor. I remember this exhibit from when I was a kid and we’d come down to Fairmount to visit my grandmother and aunts and uncles. My cousins and I would go to the Art Museum and would walk in for free on Sundays. Even as a youngster I remember being impressed with the size of the place and the beautiful and valuable art work that I was able to see for free. One day I got separated from my cousins and stumbled upon the Tea House. Here was a whole house inside the Art Museum! I had trouble getting my head around that. It was like I had stepped in a hole in the ground and came up in Japan. It is a place of serenity and calm. Seeing it again brought back memories of growing up and being with my cousins, which are always good memories.

I usually don’t comment on current events, but the brouhaha in the Lower Merion School District over the webcam spying merits one comment. The more I read and hear about it, it has the smell of balloon boy all over again. It looks like the family is in it for the money. Why would a family that, obviously, values its privacy hold a news conference in their driveway with all their kids in full view of the cameras? Seems odd, doesn’t it?

And one final note. I praised a young couple a few posts ago who we visited at Christmas. Their bundle of joy arrived the other day, Abigail Ann. Congratulations and best of luck to the new parents. May she bring as much joy that you two brought your parents. God bless you all.

24 days till Spring. It can’t come soon enough.