Soiree's Past Week

At My Soiree - December 13 - 19/09

This is post number 100!!!

Posts from the last week before Christmas. Enjoy!

The Weird, Wild, Wonderful Four from December 13 - 19/09 - December 19/09
The Jinxed Blog Post - December 18/09
Life as Writing Practice - December 17/09
Lunch at the MRA Department Store - December 16/09
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Grandmother - December 15/09
Good Thinking About Art - December 14/09

Lunch at the MRA Department Store

As a child of three or four, I was taken uptown regularly by my mother to meet my grandmother for shopping and lunch at Manchester Robertson Allison Department Store - or MRA as everyone called it.

The two buildings in the 1930s photo (below) belong to MRA, but are only two of several that connected down the hill (pictured) and behind. Because of being situated on a hill and comprising several buildings, each with several floors, the interior of the store had a unique arrangement of departments, to say the least - around corners, up or down a few stairs,  into nooks and crannies, and down little passageways.

I remember the tea room being on an upper floor, although my mother says I am wrong. Maybe the importance of the occasions raised the status of the venue in my memory. I remember tablecloths and waitresses in starched uniforms and proper cups, saucers, and teapots. (Always put the milk into the teacup first; then pour the tea, my grandmother insisted.)

Ladies lunching out in the 50's dressed for the occasion - hats, gloves, dresses or skirts, never, never pants. The same rules applied to children, and I remember starched dresses with big bows in the back, white gloves, white socks and black or white patent leather shoes. For the adults, handbags were de rigeur, and occasionally a fur stole. My grandmother had one that actually had the head of the animal attached - to this day, I don't know why anyone thought that was a good thing! I was always a little afraid of that animal around her shoulders; what if it weren't really dead? what if it thought she wasn't looking and bit me when I walked behind her?

My mother and grandmother always dressed very stylishly as well, especially with hats and costume jewellery. The hats weren't necessarily large, but they did have impact. I remember particularly the hats with veils.They made their faces look as if they had black measles, very intriguing for a kid. Even more intriguing were the veils with the odd sequin instead of a dot. Wow, sequined measles!

Lunch was always the same for me: a chicken salad sandwich and a glass of gingerale. I have no idea what my mother and grandmother had, except for the tea. My grandmother used to read tea leaves, but I don't recall her doing so in MRA's at lunch - ladies probably didn't do that sort of thing in public.

Ladies did, however, smoke in public, at least I think more women than just my grandmother did. Her cigarette was always part of her outfit somehow and definitely connected to having tea. My she was stylish, most dramatically so. She would inhale, tilt her head back, and blow a long stream of smoke towards the ceiling. - later I found out that they did this in the movies, and it wasn't really her "move," so to speak. I would always break the straw from my gingerale to the same length as a cigarette and pretend to smoke because that's what grown-up stylish ladies did. I felt very important with that straw cigarette, with my gingerale, in the tea room.

I loved those lunches. My grandmother has been gone now for many years, as has that department store. But my mom and I share the memories of those lunches out at MRA.


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This has been a great week for memory and for synchronicity as well - lunches, department stores, and, grandmothers. Santa, too.

A recent post in ART and ARCHITECTURE, mainly brought me right back to those lunches at the MRA. Yesterday, I found a story about the 13 indigenous grandmothers. Today, searching for a picture of the MRA, I found a story dated December 13/09 about department store Santas, and guess what? The Manchester Robertson Allison Department Store was the first department store in Canada to have a Santa.

My visit with that MRA Santa might just be my only claim to fame:

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Grandmother

As Christmas approaches, it is good to remember that many traditions have paths to salvation and healing. Some have come together in the form of a council called the International Council of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.

The grandmothers' council began  in 2004 and continues to raise awareness and hope : 

Through the years, they've become teachers and icons who are galvanizing and uniting a rapidly emerging global movement. They are awakening people to the urgent need for change if we are to survive on this planet. But they are not using fear as a weapon. They are offering us hope. What many people see as a threat, they see as an opportunity. They show us that by going back to the ancient and time-proven earth-based traditions and practices of our Indigenous people, we will be able to break away from our destructive habits and make the changes necessary for our survival. (Read more here.)

Alison Rose Levy in The Huffington Post, Dec 12/09- "A Meeting of the Hearts: the Dalai Lama and the Thirteen Grandmothers," - writes :     "They have circled the globe, meeting with the Dalai Lama, leading healing ceremonies and prayer circles in India, Nepal, the Amazon, Alaska, Mexico, and Nicaragua."

Levy goes on to quote one of the grandmothers:

"Together, the grandmothers have almost nine hundred years of experience," said Flordemayo a Mayan healer from Nicaragua, "We are thirteen voices strong to remind humanity that we must unite to move into this new millennium. We're in the process of birthing a new way of being, a new way for all of us to be gentle with each other. We should connect our hearts and become one."

All of the grandmothers believe that greed is the root cause of all our ills, causing humans pain and the earth and its creature dire consequences. The grandmothers have joined voices and knowledge to help all people heal both themselves and Mother Earth.

The grandmothers are:

(The two flags are just a sampling of those connected to the grandmothers.)
                                                                                                                                           ( Lakota flag)

Aama Bombo, Tamang, Nepal

Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Tekelma Siletz, Oregon USA

Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance, Oglala Lakota, SD

Bernadette Rebienot, Omyene Gabon, Africa
Clara Shinobu Iura, Mapia Amazonia, Brazil                                        
Flordemayo, Mayan, Nicaragua
Julieta Casimiro, Mazatec, Mexico                                                                            (flag of Nepal)
Maria Alice Campos Friere, Mapia Amazonia, Brazil

Margaret Behan, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Montana
Mona Polacca, Hopi/Havasupai?Tewa Arizona
Rita Pitka Blumenstein, Yupik, Alaska
Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance. Oglala Lakota, SD
Tsering Golma Gyaltong, Tibetan, Canada

Pictures and bios of the grandmothers are here.

For the Next 7 Generations is a movie about the grandmothers by filmmaker Carole Hart. She felt compelled to make the film because she was healed of terminal brain cancer by elders in an indigenous healing ceremony. The film's website has a wealth of information about the grandmothers,  their coming together in 2004, and the making of the film.

 

For The Next 7 Generations Trailer from Laughing Willow on Vimeo.

We need the grandmothers, their vision, and their action, now more than ever.