Saturday, July 12, 2008

SEVEN THINGS ON A SATURDAY!

1. Today I sat in an auditorium with my fellow citizens and viewed a documentary on polio. I had seen A Paralyzing Fear several times while writing BLUE but experiencing it with the people of Hickory and the filmmaker, herself, added a whole new dimension. I am reminded constantly of just how personal (and universal) the polio story is!

2. Afterwards Nina Gilden Seavey talked to us about her decision to make the documentary and the process involved. Her story was absolutely riveting! We are talking about one bold and talented lady!

Nina Gilden Seavey, Me, and Melinda Herzog (Director Catwaba County Historical Association)

3. I loved meeting Nina, and getting her to sign my copy of her book, A Paralyzing Fear: The Triumph Over Polio In America.

4. I got my picture taken with Victoria Yount, a rising 5th grader at Concordia Christian Day School. She seems to like Blue a lot! And that makes me really happy!

5. The exhibit itself was just magnificent! I was so impressed with the display of historic photos, the polio information provided, and the amount of polio memorabilia that the Historical Association has collected. This machine was used to heat wool fabric which was then put through the wringer, and wrapped around polio affected muscles to prepare them for stretching and massage.

6. Oh and it was really fun to see this polio related item which I blogged about last August.

7. Sadly, due to a death in the family, Heather Deckelnick who worked so hard at pulling the exhibit together could not be there.

7 comments:

  1. Great pictures! Looks like a neat exhibit. I'll have to stop in sometime and take a look at the information provided. Maybe I'll use it as a resource for another research paper someday. ;0)

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  2. I hope you are having a great weekend! Casey and Derek had a good time - only 5 students, I believe!

    So sorry you missed the easy week. But they seem up for helping again. Good to know!

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  3. My weekend was great! Now its back to the lonely apartment and real life. ;-)

    Its good that their first week was easy and nice to know we have back-ups!

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  4. Lonely apartment?

    You just need a pool party!

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  5. Yeah, infamous pool parties! I shouldn't complain about the lonely apartment since there were visitors every day last week, but its been SO QUIET today.

    I'm actually making myself do Spanish homework.

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  6. I recognize the wooden enclosed crib as the item you donated to the museum. How cool. It'a amazing how you just keep on making incredible connections to story of polio and BLUE as well as those who have experienced polio etc. first hand. I am sure these people are as pleased to meet the author of BLUE as you are to meet them. I just heard recently "we will all be somebody's hero some day". That's an intriquing thought. I'd venture to say you are already somebody's hero.

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  7. Hero, huh? That means I've got to behave!

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