Wading Through the New Year With Wade Ceramics and Russel Crowe's Noah

 

(Photo by Kit Dietz of Huron, on Lake Erie)

Dear Reader, 

The Wade miniature figurines of which I wrote in my last blog a couple days ago are not the most costly of porcelain miniatures, but for me are among the most sentimental of those I own. Part of the reason I click with them so much is that I know where they cane from--or, to be more grammatically correct (albeit less conversational), from where they came. 

From Where They Came

Wade Animal Figurines

Now known as Wade Ceramics Ltd, Wade Ceramics was first established in 1867 in England. According to Wikipedia,

in the 1950s, the Wade potteries created 'Whimsies', small solid porcelain animal figures first developed by Sir George Wade, which became popular and collectable in Britain and America following their retail launch in 1954, and were widely available in shops throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The figurines have also been offered along with Red Rose Tea since 1967. (Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Ceramics#cite_note-wade_official_site-1) 

Animals on the Ark, in the 2014 Crowe's Noah

Matt Zoller Seitz (2014) begins his review of Russel Crowe's Noah by saying simply that "Noah is a bizarre movie." He then continues that it is  

a modern blockbuster, chock full of the visual and aural and narrative tics we expect from modern blockbusters: flash-cut nightmares and hallucinations, prophecies and old wise men, predictions of apocalypse and a savior's rise, computer-generated monsters with galumphing feet and deep voices, brawny men punching and stabbing each other, and crowd scenes and floods and circling aerial views of enormous structures being built,  scored to tom-toms and men chanting and women wailing.  (Retrieved from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/noah-2014)

I found the whole told tale in this film to be rather shamanic as well as biblical. Not only was the old man and grandfather Methuselah able to make miracles happen (like magic) and thus like a biblical shaman but it was such a wondrously curious moment when the animals start showing up at the ark in long lines of two each (yes, just as we hear in Sunday school two by two) as if they somehow know to do so and where to go in order to do so, and none of them attack any of the others that would naturally be their prey--all as if by some inner knowing given to the animals by some divine guidance (assumedly from God), and this appears--when the animals appear-- as some magical miracle too. Would that all people could get along like that. 

Now, I have read other comments on this film from those who expected a more purely Biblical rendition from those who did not like how the Watchers who turned into stone exploded and then rose into heaven when their time on earth was completed when being attacked by a kingdom trying to take over the ark so as to not be swept away in the flood and die, but I loved watching the rock-monster-watchers who were not monsters at all if they were on your (Noah's) side move slowly and surely and so heavily to guard the family God chose to survive. I also love the biblical bird at the end that bestows the olive branch to let Noah and his family know land is nearly afoot. We all know that ending--it rarely varies. Somehow it is something nice to depend upon as an expected ending just as we have come to know to expect land. Out here on the big lake sometimes we do not see land either, but we do know it is there--and expect it in certain familiar places off in certain directions. 

There is no big message in this blog/journal entry--or at least not one I can find; I wrote it only because the miniatures I recently wrote about that I keep in my printer's drawer, because of my waxing nostalgic about all the years I have been opening boxes of black tea, became freely associated in my mind to the movie I saw right around Christmastime about Noah, the 2014 Russel Crowe version. And it was good. 

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade_Ceramics#cite_note-wade_official_site-1

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/noah-2014

https://www.channelguidemag.com/tv-news/2015/03/20/up-premieres-epic-original-film-noah

Remembering the Simple Things,

Mary Ann

mbenci.writes@gmail.com

Aha Nostalgia (written December 27, 2020 and edited January 3, 2021)

Image by Terri Cnudde from Pixabay

Dear Reader, 

As the New Year approaches and as I open a box of my life-long favorite black tea, I feel one of those nostalgic waves wash over my mind where my life-long memories are stored. Like many people, I run though filmy memories from over the years every Christmas and New Year's Eve. Yet, any time I open a box of Red Rose Tea, no matter what time of year it is, I feel a strong sense of aha! nostalgia. 

I usually buy it at the drug store. Going to the drug store to buy it when I am nearly out (I cannot bear to run out of it) is an established ritual in my life, and I visit the same shelf each time, knowing exactly where it is kept, just as I make a big deal about where it is kept in my kitchen. It always has a special physical place as well as a sentimental one. 

As I remove the plastic wrap (once cellophane) from the box, I hear the familiar crinkle of that particular wrap of plastic as I see the familiarly featured red rose. I always double-check the corners of the box front, in hopes it contains one of the free porcelain miniature sculptures inside for which this tea is famous. In my printer's drawer, I have many a wild animal and dogs, cats, birds, lighthouses, sailboats, and more. When I remove a miniature figurine from the box, I see in the image of the current piece all the other carved pieces I have been able to collect. There is an old-fashioned sense of continuity in time and consistency of place within each box of tea and within my printer's drawer within each piece. However, it is this consistency that lets the mind travel through old memories or the through the making of new ones. The Wade lighthouse figurine pertains to the lighthouses in the midst where I live, and in the mist of fog on the lake; my Wade sea gull and sailboat figurines remind me of the gulls and sailboats here on the lake and of the gull salt and pepper shakers and beachside scene teacup my daughter when young purchased at one of the city-wide garage sales here--and those garage sales also bring back a lot of memories of a lot of people and their arts they have sold there. The city wide garage sale takes place near the marina which reminds me of all the fun festival events that have taken place there year after year. This instantly reminds me of the wood carved painting my mother purchased by a local Lake Erie artist way back when in the 70's. 

(My American Wade figurines are not pictured above with the other photos.)  

I mentioned above that this consistency lets my mind travel (sometimes expectedly to certain things, places, and times and other times unexpectedly); my mind does so not just through the free associations of images I receive but through another fun "surprise" I find in every box. Placed between each row of tea is a thin sheet of cardboard that is the perfect size and shape of a bookmark. Whenever I remove these self-proclaimed bookmark discoveries I place them into the books I am reading at the time. (See photo below.)

Then I put my new figurine in my printer's drawer that my mother bought me when I was young. The printer's drawer hung above my desk in my room. I would sometimes look at it as I wrote. I would sometimes look at it as I did artwork. I would often stop what I was doing and daydream a bit before going back to work at play. I often played with the figurines, configuring them similarly to porcelain puppets or cartoon characters, having them hold dialogue with one another. My daughter, when she was little, and now my granddaughter do the same sort of thing. I am going to wait a few more years before passing my printer's drawer and the miniatures on to my granddaughter. Each of all three of us were (or are) only children, and all three of us have had big childhood imaginations--because with things like puppets, none of us were really ever alone. Living in a world of adults, we all encountered tea (or coffee) at a young age, with which we were fascinated, and later came to love in flavor and not just in the fragrance of the aroma or the sight of tea or teacups, and we all came to love and admire things like teacups or other collectibles at a very young age. 

In keeping to the theme of the lemon tree blog here, I can also add that I do, of course, often enjoy lemon in my tea. And here is a red cup for the bright red color of vitality for the coming New Year. This is a stock photo from a photo shop, not my photo, but it reminded me of all the Chinese New Year parties my daughter had when she was little and all the red decorations I used to purchase each new year. This too, for old time's sake or to think of things ever since long ago. 

To read more about the nature of memory and "old time's sake" here is a link to the meaning of the phrase of the popular New Year's Eve song. "Auld Lang Syne." 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Auld-Lang-Syne

In fact, this blog exists partially so that I myself can indulge in my memories as I share them with you, and that my memories remain here for my granddaughter as she grows up, so she can read them and have that continuity in her life, for auld lang syne. 

Stuff Not Forgotten,
Mary Ann

mbenci.writes@gmail.com