Stay at home and see the world

I recently found this poem in a collection of my family’s keepsakes. My grandmother, Mary Jane Walker Overholser, had handwritten it, in her pretty, lacy writing style. She was the first woman elected to the Wellesley School Committee, and was an original member of the Wellesley Historical Society, founded in 1925. She was also a reader in the Wellesley Hills Christian Science Church.

She and my Grandfather, Edwin Moses Overholser, who was born in Lancaster County, Pa., owned a beautiful big home, on the ledge above the Wellesley Hills Railroad Station, on Worcester Street. We Portland grandchildren loved visiting there.

Among their neighbors were the George Gebeleins, on Cliff Road. After an apprenticeship in Boston and service as a journeyman silversmith with Tiffany and Durgin, Gebelein came to live in Wellesley Hills. In 1909 he opened his own soon-famous studio at 79 Chestnut St., foot of Beacon Hill in Boston, producing hand-wrought silverware. In 1968 Gebelein Silversmiths, Inc. moved to 286 Newbury St., Boston.

Another famous neighbor, across from my grandparents on Worcester Street, was Gamaliel Bradford (1863-1932), one of America’s foremost biographers. His reminiscences of life in Wellesley, from the time he went there in 1867 until his youthful days of 1881, were published by the Wellesley Historical Society in 1928, “Early Days in Wellesley.” They also appeared in The Townsman, the Wellesley newspaper.

I think you’ll enjoy reading this poem.

“Stay at Home and See the World”

We journeyed to Vienna,

To Paris and to Wales,

To Norway and to Denmark

By auto and by rails.

To Egypt and to Smyrna,

To China and Peru,

To Sweden and to Poland,

Explored them through and through.

We traveled on to Naples,

To Lisbon and to Rome,

To Dresden and to Athen,

And then felt quite at home.

We stopped a while at Belfast,

At Calais and at York,

At Argyle and at Limerick

To hear the natives talk.

We hied away to Milo,

Palermo and Madrid.

To Corea and to Gilead

By big green forests hid.

Then back by way of Mexico

In sunshine and in rain.

And through the entire journey

Never left the State of Maine.

Hoping for Barbaro’s recovery

Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winning racehorse colt who was considered to be the odds-on favorite to win the Preakness Stakes, is now recovering at the George D. Wilson Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center.

The Associated Press report in the May 23 Boston Herald stated that shortly after the start of the Preakness, a few hundred yards out of the starting gates, he took a bad step, his leg flared out grotesquely and he veered sideways before jockey Edgar Prado pulled the powerful colt to a halt.

He was taken to New Bolton and after five hours of surgery his doctor reported that his chances of survival are still just 50-50, but his vital signs are good. His trainer said, “I’m hoping for the best. I’m very optimistic. It’s going to be a long time, and we just have to take it day by day and keep our fingers crossed.”

In the May 24 Portland Press Herald article about Barbaro, a Newsday report said that during the surgery, compression plates and screws were implanted to stabilize the injury, which caused multiple fractures of the right hind leg. Dr. Dean Richardson, who performed the surgery, said that on Tuesday, May 23, he observed Barbaro in his stall, casually scratching the area behind his left ear with his left hind foot.

Apparently Barbaro is resting comfortably and supporting weight on the injured leg, which is in a large cast. Both, Dr. Richardson said, are important indicators of his condition and temperament.

The Newsday report mentioned all the good wishes being sent to the New Bolton Center – baskets of apples, flowers, hundreds of e-mails and even stuffed animals -Barbaro has many admirers, all hoping for good news.

RECIPE

We haven’t baked Lemon Tea Bread for a long time, but after finding this recipe in an August 1991 American Journal, I decided it was time I used it again.

LEMON TEA BREAD

6 tbls. Crisco

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1-1/2 cups flour, sifted

1 tsp. baking powder

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup milk

Grated peel of 1 lemon

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Cream shortening. Add sugar and beaten eggs. Add the sifted ingredients to the first mixture alternately with the milk. Fold in the grated lemon peel and nuts. Bake in a loaf pan for 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees.