Category Archives: writing and publishing

Towson, Now and Then

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“Friendship is…..one of those things that give value to survival.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Today I am going to take a trip down memory lane during the 1950s and 1960s  to my native stomping grounds of  Towson, Maryland (in Baltimore County) . It’s the  home of Goucher College http://www.goucher.edu/  and Towson State College (now known as Towson University)http://www.towson.edu . Johns Hopkins University http://www.jhu.edu/ and Loyola University http://www.loyola.edu/ are  just down the road in Baltimore City.

When I was a young girl, Towson Plaza, was our shopping mecca. Stores like Tuerks (Twerks, as Fanny the stellar character in my memoir called it), Reads Drugstore and The Plaza Florest were just a few of the stores located there. Of course, S.S. Kresges (aka  Kresgeree’s according to Fanny) was the “flagship store.” It anchored all the rest of the stores and really kept the shopping center active with business.

Towson Plaza

Just down the street, within walking distance was Towson Bootery, Stebbins Anderson, Finkelstein’s and Sunny Surplus – my Dad’s favorite store! The last time I went into Sunny’s was in the mid-to-late 1970s when I took my husband-to-be there. He nearly went crazy. I wonder if it’s gone out of business?

In the early nineteen-seventies, during the years I went off to college in Vermont, progress really began to take place.Commercial real estate development changed the entire look and feel of that area of town. Evidently, it’s gone through several renovations and revitalizations since then. Here’s a photo with just one of the crown jewel stores in the “Towson Plaza” area now.

towson plaza now

 

Although I visit family in Towson now and then, its been quite a while since I have been to the “Towson Plaza” area. I bet I’d have a hard time finding my way around. I’m hoping to return to the area this fall and do a book signing of “Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.”

I’ll keep you posted. It would be wonderful to see old school friends, aquaintances and people who have done business with five generations of the Batton building businesses throughout Baltimore County and beyond.   http://on.fb.me/1k1hWb5  and http://bit.ly/1u2nrdE.

 

 

 

The Start of Independence

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“Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.” ~ Doug Larson gphdiez3.JPG

Remember the first time your mother let you go to the department store with your girlfriends and gave you some money to buy a sandwich at the lunch counter? It was a big, big deal!

I bet you ordered a hot dog, grilled cheese or maybe splurged on a BLT? Perhaps a cherry coke,a frappe or a ginger ale to go with it. And then there was the juke box. Remember twirling the song selector around and around trying to find “the perfect song?” There were so many “pop hits” but with only a few extra coins in your pocket, playing dozens of songs, just wasn’t possible.

Where was your favorite lunch counter? At a drugstore, department store or at a regular malt shop? What did you find there that was so fulfilling – your independence, the food, the friends you met up with or how fast you could get the stool to twirl around and around?

I love writing about nostalgic times. It’s one reason I penned the memoir  “Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.” Click here for info & ordering. Its now available in an audio book, narrated by the author and the voice holds the real treasure! Look forward to seeing you on Monday. See you then.

Images Stir Things Up

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I am so impressed by the life-giving power of literature. ~ Maya Angelou

Writing personal stories is a way of  communicating what we value in ourselves and others and in our world. A process of self-evaluation.picture of milk carton from 1950s

Images – the emotions they stir! They become catalysts for ideas for  books.

Can you imagine that the sight of a half pint of milk on a lunch tray could cause overwhelming feelings and prompt someone to write about it? Every day in elementary school when I pulled my three pennies out of my pocket to pay for the milk that I knew would only get chucked, I felt real sinking feelings of inadequacy and not being up to the task.  My stomach could only hold a few sips.

The other day I saw a book that  me feel differently about a little carton of milk. Perhaps not being a big milk drinker as a young child might not have been a bad thing.

Check out this book called “White Wash: The Disturbing Truth about Cow’s Milk and Your Health” by Joseph Keon. It unveils some interesting research. Milk may not be too great for your health which is contrary to what many of us have always thought.  The words in this book may forever do away children hearing from their parents “You can’t get up from the dinner table until you finish your milk!”

White Wash This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected. Click on the title to see more information on the memoir.

Do return tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling. I will see what else I can dig up that might be helpful to our readers who are interested in living happy and satisfying lifestyles.

Chiggers at Vespers

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“Oh, no!” I said out loud to myself, as I finally read my mothers e-mail correspondence from last weekend. My sister has the chiggers.

“Wow, does that ever bring back memories,” I thought. The first time I ever  heard of the chiggers was when my parents sent us twins off to overnight church camp in Virginia. Camp Glenkirk holds many fond memories for me. I recall my mother’s anxiety as she and my dad drove off leaving us girls in someone else’s hands for a week. It was the first time I was away overnight from my parents since my “pioneering” heart surgery.

Although I didn’t completely understand the magnitude of that turning point in my life, I know it was a step toward independence from the watchful eye of my parents. I don’t recall my uneasiness, only that of my mother’s. My anchor, my rock, my twin sister was by my side. And when there were certain strenuous camp activities that I was unable to participate in, my sister sat on the sidelines with me. She never left me behind. What a loyal sister! quotesonprayer

What I  also remember is when we went to evening vespers (evening group prayer), I prayed saying, “Lord a Mercy,” (mimicking Fanny, the stellar character in my memoir), “please don’t let me get the chiggers!” I’d heard from other campers that they itch something awful.God knows, there were plenty of them in the backwoods of  Virginia but, I managed to stay free – I guess someone greater than myself was watching out for me.

Jan – I hope you get rid of those chiggers real quick! Find something to sooth the itch! Be still and know that it is just the chiggers driving you crazy!

Today’s blog is brought to you by author Sue Batton Leonard and that was just another childhood memory  not included in my publication Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

A Questionable Start

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“Something really got messed up!”  I often thought as a child.  How can I be three minutes older than my twin sister? ”  I mean, look at the size difference!  Surprising, isn’t it? In my memoir I share some insight into more of my thoughts from the perspective of an child who had a start filled with uncertainty.

Sue Mary Kellogg and Jan

 Photo above – left to right: Yours truly (Sue), Mary Grace (our childhood friend who is one year younger) and Jan, my twin.

At other times I thought:

go with it.

As an adult I’ve come to know deep in my heart,  it was no accident – we are all according to God’s  plan. Believe it or not, He has one for each and every one of us!

how it is supposed to be

 

There is a lot of truth in that statement, isn’t there?

Thanks once again to www.unbridledimages.com for surprising me with this photo that was dug up out of their archives- it is a treasure. Who would have thought I’d be corresponding with long lost friends, exchanging picture and reminiscing with people of my past so frequently? Unexpected things happen when we tell our life story. It’s been truly delightful.

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

 

 

 

 

 

e-Commerce! Fulfilling Dreams!

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Audio Book is Here!

 

“You’ll fall even deeper in love with Fanny when you hear her voice,”  narrated by the author Sue Batton Leonard

Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected is now available in Audio Book format.

Brought to you through Audible.com – Amazon’s audio book division!

“Sue’s ability, through dialogue, to share Fanny’s voice and powerful role in Sue’s developing years is a gift to readers.“

~ Mary Kurtz, author

Click here for easy ordering

Cd Cover Gift of a Lifetime from postnet

Listen to this memoir on your Kindle Fire, through the free audible app. on Apple, Android and Windows devices.

“Audible ~ Fulfilling Dreams through e-Commerce” ~  Sue Batton Leonard

Click here for easy ordering

 

Tomorrow I will have a photo for you of my sister and me as young children. You may not believe we are twins when you see it!

This blog brought to you by http://www.AllThingsFulfilling.com and author, Sue Batton Leonard

Life in Chapters and Stories

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Cars, beep, beep they pass us by and then it’s time to get down to business. ~ Big Time Rush quotes

The college years! What fulfilling memories I have from 1971 to 1975. The story I recounted a few days ago on All Things Fulfilling, about my notable car in college is just one of the many memories that I like to look back on. If you missed the blog, here is a link to it.http://bit.ly/1q9rlPg.

Not only did I build friendships of a lifetime during my four years at Johnson State College http://www.jsc.edu it was the first time throughout my education that I felt I could establish meaningful student-teacher relationships. Our college town was tiny. We ran into our professors off campus on a daily basis – in the grocery store, at the local ski areas and yes, in bars. Understand that this was decades before the days of Facebook and other social media and that is how we “networked” – face to face. There were only so many public places to meet-up in a remote area.

During the college years I felt as footloose and fancy-free as any other time in my life. It’s a beautiful feeling and the college years are a great time for young adults to discover who they are, what their passions are and what they want to do in life. I wish every individual could have an opportunity to experience living on a campus but with the cost of college sometimes it is prohibitive. So many life lessons are learned when a student lives away from home and in a dormitory with others.

In my memoir I recount a college experience that changed my life forever, abruptly. With that came huge realizations about life. I wrote about this event in Chapter 32 An Awakening. This chapter is an example of why memoir writing is so important. As Karen Armstrong, author of The Spiral Staircase once said, “We should probably all pause to confront our past from time to time, because it changes its meaning as our circumstances alter.” Click for Info on Karen Armstrong books.


Life, like cars, passes by quickly. Sometimes we make stops in our journeys through our different experiences. After the college years came the responsibilities of career, marriage and child rearing. And with those events came more stories!

JSC photo

Dibden Center for the Arts, Johnson State College, Johnson, Vermont

http://www.jsc.edu

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of A Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.  For more information on my publication, click here Sue’s memoir.

Angelic Antics

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“Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit; for without being seen, they are present with you.”    – Francis de Sales

It’s funny, I have never considered myself as a particularly creative person. I didn’t take a lot of  lessons outside of school growing up. Kids of my generation spent more time outside playing in nature rather than being shuffled to all sorts of organized sports and other extra curricular activities.

However, I did take a pastel drawing class at the YMCA one summer with my sister. It is a happy memory that stays steadfast in my mind all these decades later. Although, I didn’t have any innate talent, I found fulfillment in it.

My experience with the clarinet was another story. I’d much rather forget it and so would my parents. Their ears are still damaged from all the squeaks that came out of the instrument when I played it. Their pocketbooks became emptied having to so frequently replace reeds that both my sister and I ruined.

My twin sister and I had a different kind of creativity – we were full of ideas that were not always angelic!  Like how to “get Fanny’s goat” (Fanny is the stellar character in my memoir) and how get her involved in our childhood antics. Her creativity came from how to teach us life lessons that we’d later come to realize was about our silly, double trouble.

Thank heavens for Fanny. She was an angel for putting up with my twin and I and our two brothers. And I am  also grateful for all other angels my life~

angelsamongus2

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.

Sue’s memoir

Getting the News Out

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“Educate a boy, and you educate an individual. Educate a girl, and you educate a community.” ~ ― Adelaide Hoodless

communications todayFriday’s blog News over the Fence made me think further of how communications have changed over the ages. Through the decades we have gone from “meet me at the fence” to meet me on I.M. For those who are not tech savvy, that means meet me on the computer and we will talk digitally through instant messaging!

In the early years of telephone communications the women who ran the switchboards had their own web of communications through party lines. Reportedly the operators listened into everybody’s conversations, and when something of hot interest happened in small towns, the switchboard lit up, then the good word spread like wildfire throughout the community.

Women also gossiped when hanging laundry on the clotheslines in their yards, if their neighbors were close enough to dispatch the latest low-down.

Way back in history,  town criers broadcast news from the town square and men on horseback rode from town to town spreading the latest hearsay. The telegraph was also useful in tapping out messages of urgency.

When the printing press came into being, spreading the news became much easier. In fact, when I was growing up many newspapers, like the Baltimore Sun, had morning and evening editions of their daily publications.

These days, news travels in an instant through computers. And once it is broadcast digitally, there is no way to retract what we say. It’s delivered in the blink of an eye through cyberspace, so be careful. There can be great benefits to that however. It means we can learn of happenings and events globally, very quickly.

Return tomorrow on All Things Fulfilling, I’ll tell you a story of how news over the internet sidetracked my plans for Mother’s Day this year.

This blog brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard. Author of Gift of a Lifetime:Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.Sue’s memoir

 

 

Life Transitions

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Since I left high school in Towson, Maryland in 1971, I rarely have looked back to those teen years. In fact I have never driven by the site of the school, not even to get a glimpse to see if anything has changed and I’ve never returned for a high school reunion.

A couple of summers ago when I was in the area of where I grew up, visiting family, I did drive by my three childhood homes, all within the same neighborhood. How I was feeling was hard to grasp. I suppose it could be described as a mixture of beautiful feelings and a very quick dash of sadness that life marched forward. The melancholy feelings lasted only a few brief minutes.

Funny, isn’t it, how some people live their entire lives in one place feeling completely fulfilled and others move on. For me,  I can’t imagine having stayed for all these years in the same environment where I spent my childhood.

My husband feels the same way. He left his childhood surroundings on the northern shores of Massachusetts (north of Boston) and never looked back. I suppose we were meant for each other – Baltimore girl, Boston boy, parents to a son raised in Vermont – now living in Albuquerque, New Mexico – a transient three, aren’t we?

Its taken me a life time to learn there is truth in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quotation, “the only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”   I’ve come to many more conclusions about how life takes unexpected turns as I have written my memoir.My reckonings will give me plenty more to write about.

towson high school

Photo Above: My high school in Towson, Maryland.

Interesting fact: Swimmer Michael Phelps, holder of 22 Olympic medals, also graduated from this school about twenty-five years after me.

Photo below: Overhead view of where I grew up – moved to three different homes in the same neighborhood. My dad built all three. The first house was a small cape style house, then onto what might be described as a southern colonial farmhouse and then to a 1970’s modern-style home which is smack in the middle of this picture.

Glenellen ct arial view-1

Tomorrow’s blog is about a hard learned lesson that happened in the 2nd of my childhood homes.Sue’s memoir

Do return to All Things Fulfilling tomorrow. This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected.