Rock On, Birmingham Rosies!

   

      Our Birmingham Chapter of the American Rosie the Riveter Association had a great time (as always!) this past Saturday when we met at the historic Irondale Cafe for our quarterly meeting. The gentleman speaking in this picture is Mark Akerman, Director of Education for Vulcan Park and Museum. If you've ever driven through Birmingham, you have probably seen the colossal Vulcan statue high atop Red Mountain, and Mark knew all the great history and fun tidbits to share with us -- we love all kinds of history!

Some of our Birmingham Rosies

    Our Birmngham Chapter has such a great group of Rosies, Rosebuds (female descendants), and Rivets (male descendants) -- they regularly collect toiletry items for Three Hots and a Cot, a local shelter for homeless veterans, and they are preparing to gather and share with visitors on May 21 when the Southern Museum of Flight hosts the "Fifi," the last B-29 airplane still flying, and several other vintage aircraft from the Air Power History Tour.
     And we are gearing up to welcome to the Southeast Rosies from across the country, along with their family members and guests, when the American Rosie the Riveter Association has their national convention in Atlanta, June 10-12, 2016.
     And by the way, you are welcome to join us at any of these gatherings! See convention registration information on the ARRA website here, and join us for our next Birmingham Chapter meeting at Irondale Cafe on June 4, 2016!
     Rock on, Rosies!
   

Reading Across America with Dr. Seuss!

   

     Would you like to read a book?
     Would you help kids take a look?  

     Would you like to read at school?
     Would you think that it is cool?

    Apologies to Dr. Seuss, who was the celebrity of the day on his birthday, March 2, but we had a great time on  Read Across America Day! GranFran celebrated by reading Green Eggs and Ham to Mrs. Bethnee Durham's first grade class at Gardendale Elementary - how much fun was THAT! It was especially fun because GranFran's great-grandson, Parker (who is also my grandson, I must say, BTW!) is in the class. And what a great group of listeners they all were!  ( Click here to find a lot more Dr. Seuss fun at Seussville.)
     GranFran also read her Manners For Me book, which she wrote it in 1957 while teaching a Child Development class at Samford University. One of her students, Marie Smith Hogg, illustrated it, then it sat in a drawer for 55 years until it was published in 2013. But the retro feel still connected with Mrs. Durham's class!
     Thanks for a great day, you guys!

   

Super Sixth Graders at Liberty Park Middle School

GranFran as Rosie at Liberty Park Middle School

     GranFran and I so enjoyed meeting the SUPER sixth graders at Liberty Park Middle School  in Vestavia Hills, Alabama this week! Rosie the Riveter arrived just at the moment these guys were studying World War II in the sixth grade curriculum, and it was impressive -- and encouraging! -- to see how much these guys know about our nation's history! Jean Deal, their wonderful Librarian, made our visit so smooth and seamless. What a great school! Keep it up, LPMS, and thanks for a great visit!

We loved visiting LPMS!
Our thanks to Principal Kacy Pierce and
Assistant Principal Roger Dobnikar. . . 

. . . and Librarian Jean Deal for the invite! Note that
Jennifer Isbell, LPMS's sixth grade Social Studies
teacher, is sporting her own Rosie t-shirt!

Feeling At Home at Samford University

   

Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama
is a Christian school that is consistently ranked among
the top universities in the nation by folks like
U. S. News and World Report and Kiplinger's.

       In case you have wondered, you CAN go home again! GranFran and I did just that this week when we spoke at the Samford University Retired Faculty Association's monthly meeting. GranFran of course, taught Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Samford for 28 years, and my late father, Dr. John Carter, was on faculty for 31 years, retiring as Dean of the School of Education. I graduated from Samford, as did my brother, my husband, two of my children, and a daughter-in-law.
     So it was pure pleasure when Dr. Ellen McLaughlin, this year's President of the Retired Faculty Association, asked us to do our Rosie  the Riveter program for this special group of people  -- those who have shaped and influenced so many great kids as they have gone through this remarkable university.
       My dad was the driving force in getting the Retired Faculty Association started many years ago, and he and Mother have been active in it all along. But it was especially fun for me to greet some of these folks that I knew from my childhood, growing up as an FK (Faculty Kid), and reveal that I am now a grandmother of eight!
     Go Bulldogs!!!

Meeting New Friends at Galleria Woods

Chilling with some of our new friends at Galleria Woods!

GranFran and I had such a good time with these ladies (and some other ladies AND men who didn't get into the picture) when we presented our program at the Galleria Woods Senior Living Community in Birmingham. Some of the residents even had their own memories and experiences to share (though most were only children at the time) -- and that makes for a really rich and fun time together!

Quite a task - 1,000 pieces!

In honor of the day, some of the ladies had put together this 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle -- gee, that gal looks familiar!

Many thanks to Activities Director Lesley Stevens for inviting us to spend this wonderful time with our new friends!

R is for Rosie the Riveter won an award!

We are thrilled and honored that R is for Rosie the Riveter won a gold medal in the 

2015 Indie Excellence Awards in the Pre-teen Non-Fiction category! 

Rock on, Rosie -- keep on inspiring the next generation to have the "We Can Do It!" spirit. 

Cross-stitch kit can be
completed with or without
the words.

And here's some more fun -- our friend, Posy Lough of The Posy Collection, has transformed the cover of R is for Rosie into a cross-stitch kit! Sorry, the frame is not included.

Redwork kit -- Posy made it into
a sweet pillow

And the cover is also
available in a redwork kit (red thread outlines on muslin). Again, sorry, the polka dot fabric and other finishing is not included, but many thanks to Posy for working these out.

Posy's motto is "Preserving Our Story in Stitches," and if you check out The Posy Collection, you will be amazed at the historical buildings and scenes she has preserved in those stitches! We are tickled to be part of her collection.

Order cross-stitch kits through the American Rosie the Riveter Association's Rosie Shoppe, or email me at nellbran@yahoo.com for cross-stitch or redwork kits.

Rosie Mania continues!

Wrapping up the 70th Anniversary of the end of World War II

Victor Jorgensen's
"Kissing the War Goodbye"
(public domain)

     When it was announced in August, 1945 that Japan had surrendered and WW II was over, unbelievable jubilation broke out! Though the official signing of the surrender would not happen until September 2, 1945, most who were living during that time remember August 14-15 as the time of celebration --click here to see a Newsreel video about it.

Isn't this a great picture? My mother and my daughter,
Sarah, both with the Rosie spirit! Sarah had just won the
Southern Museum of Flight's "Why Are You
a Modern-Day Rosie?" Facebook contest.

It has been 70 years since the end of the war. The fall edition of the American Rosie the Riveter Association's newsletter, Rosie's Mail Call, tells of the varied ways that families, ARRA Chapters, communities, and historic places around the country celebrated -- see that issue here. We owe a debt of gratitude to the veterans and Rosies who kept our country intact and--well, still our country--during that time.



And here's a pictorial recap of how some of us commemorated the anniversary through the summer, into the fall, and on through Veterans Day, in and around Birmingham:

ARRA's National Project for the 70th Anniversary was "Rosies Rally 'Round the Troops!" -- a campaign to
write letters to currently deployed troops. Thousands of letters from 21 states came through our box and
we sent them on to Operation Gratitude to send to Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen overseas. And it's not too late -- if you'd like to participate, send cards or letters simply expressing your thanks to:
Rosies Rally 'Round the Troops,  P. O. Box #1, Fultondale, AL  35068.

Even 18-month-old granddaughters can get in on the letter-writing fun--
I told the Soldiers she drew fireworks for them!

In August, we set up a letter-writing table at an Honor Flight reunion.

Of course, GranFran didn't wait for people to come to us -- she went table to table recruiting people
to write letters on the spot! And how nice that they were glad to oblige.

Here's GranFran with Bessie Coleman
(aka Nikki Johnson of the Bessemer Airport Authority)
at the Southern Museum of Flight's Bombers and Bombshells Ball.

We also had a letter-writing table at the Bombers and Bombshells Ball. . . 

. . . as well as a letter-writing event at the Gardendale Public Library. With us are Mabel Myrick, a Rosie who helped host the event, Lisa who is the Adult Services Librarian, and my sweet husband, Jim.

We attended the Spirit of '45's commemorative program at the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo, AL,
along with our friend, Ralph Jones, who is a WW II veteran and an ARRA Rivet.

All of these ladies are real-live Rosies in our Birmingham ARRA Chapter,
celebrating the 70th Anniversary at our quarterly meeting. We meet at the historic Irondale Cafe,
which inspired Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes  -- how fun is that!!

GranFran appeared on "Talk of Alabama" on Birmingham's ABC affiliate,
Channel 33/40, with host Nicole Allshouse.

We welcomed the MVPA (Military Vehicle Preservation Association) to Tannehill State Park near Birmingham, as their
  historic 29-day convoy from Washington, D. C. to San Diego made a stop. The convoy traced the original
1920 Transcontinental Motor Convoy route along the Bankhead Highway.

We visited with some of the participants, like these ladies from California . . .

. . . and reconnected with old friends Bonnie and Auston McNeill of the Spirit of 45 Day Express,
and Robert Corpus from the Spirit of '45 organization.

In November, the Columbus, GA/Phenix City, AL Chapter of the American Rosie the Riveter Association
held a "Rosie Social" at Fort Benning, GA to honor veterans and Rosies. 
Chapter President Jonnie Clasen organized a spectacular event 
with more than 250 in attendance.

More letters!! Thanks to Snow Rogers Elementary students (Tiffany Reno, Librarian),
who wrote letters to deployed troops for our Rosies Rally 'Round the Troops project!

. . . and students at Irondale Community School (Kathryn Bailey, Librarian), who also wrote letters . . .

. . . and students at Gardendale Elementary (Elizabeth Lochamy, Librarian),  who ALSO wrote letters!
These three schools sent hundreds of letters to the troops.
Way to go, students!

GranFran marched into the annual National Veterans Day Awards Banquet 
in Birmingham, to sit at the head table. I enjoyed sitting with a delegation from 
the Blue Star Salute Foundation. What a great time we had, honoring our nation's veterans!

On November 11, Rosies, Rosebuds, and Rivets waved flags and honored veterans and Rosies as our Birmingham Chapter of the American Rosie the Riveter Association participated in the Birmingham Veterans Day Parade.(It's the oldest and largest Veterans Day parade in the country, by the way!) 

The parade is always so much fun -- it was a beautiful day, and the Birmingham crowd is SO supportive! Our family had four generations representing Rosie in this vehicle.

We had a wonderful time on November 23 at the Homewood Public Library,
sharing the Rosie legacy with kids and adults. (Photo by Homewood Library)

Many thanks to Homewood Children's Librarian, Laura Tucker, for planning such a
fabulous event and inviting us to come along! (Photo by Homewood Library)

There is so much to celebrate in our great country! We owe such a debt of gratitude to all the veterans and those on the home front who brought WW II to a successful end 70 years ago. 

May we all know peace again soon.