Middle-aged, Single White Female Takes a Drive 3 months, 10,000 miles alone to the middle of nowhere. “So how was your trip?” they asked. First of all, she turned 50. Isn’t that how it goes with aging? It was an outrage—how did this happen? Her children grown, husband gone to cancer, their business sold—Gloria Jean had reached middle age; she was on her own. Next! Was it a bucket list thing, life too short? Didn’t matter, Vagabond Chic beckoned; the first day of the rest of something lay ahead as her bold vision materialized, and once inspired, the odyssey seemed to plan itself. Months of research stretched to two years of getting prepared—a journey all its own. “We do not take a trip,” said John Steinbeck in his Travels with Charley. “A trip takes us.” This would come to mind many times as her May to September journey commenced. She drove the main streets of outer space—small towns, cheap motels, an assortment of critters, and more than once, a high spirited, didn’t-see-it-coming, moment. Train whistles echoed divine exhilaration across the prairie, as America was browsed beyond any route imagined, passing unnoticed along northern borders—Lake Superior to Fargo, the quiet solace of Wounded Knee in Dakota; the eureka moment in Hathaway, Montana; and the extraordinary personal discovery in Sheridan, Wyoming. Isolation weighed heavy at times, but the search for her personal holy grail weaves a compelling, serendipitous plot straight to its unforeseen conclusion. If it’s courage you seek for your own long-held inner something: “Courage is feeling the fear and doing it anyway.” Oprah said.
This book is about bugs living in our gardens and what they do. Some bugs are pollinators... Insects, bees, butterflies, flies, and moths, pollinate the flowers in our garden's. Some bugs are called predators, because they eliminate pest by eating them. Some bugs lay their eggs on plants or in the other bugs, and when their eggs hatch, their larvae feed on host insects. There are beneficial insect and bugs in our gardens, ants, bees, beetles, butterflies, flies, moths, and wasps. Bats, birds, other types of animals, and wind also pollinate plants in our garden.
Tapping a wellspring of comfort, inspiration, and renewal, Gloria Jean Pinkney has gathered twenty-two African-American spirituals and reverential songs. She's carefully chosen a psalm for each to illuminate its meaning. Soaring artwork by her husband, Jerry, and their sons, Brian Pinkney and Myles C. Pinkney, graces these pages. Expressing themselves in three distinct styles, these award-winning artists draw on a shared heritage to create images that meld beautifully. Including notes on music by daughter, Troy, and Gloria Jean Pinkney's moving tribute to the importance of spirited music in their lives, this is a book families will treasure. It evokes a universal feeling of harmony, with time-honored songs, psalms, and wondrous art to stir the heart. Your whole family is invited to join in as Gloria sings the twenty-two selections chosen for this book on the accompanying CD. Gloria Jean Pinkney grew up with the tradition of churchgoing, but she was a reluctant soloist until the Lord and His Redeemer strengthened her confidence. Her most recent publication is a book about the Holy Spirit, In the Forest of Your Remembrance.
First time author Gloria Constantia Johnson chronicles the first thirty years of her life growing up in her native country, Jamaica, W.I. After suffering the loss of her mother and an event that caused her great emotional pain, she journeys to the United States. Overcoming many trials she realizes that God has a plan for her life. Born into a large family whose parents were educators, she has always aspired to becoming a writer. Her family is an integral part of her story.
Unearthing Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching: The Legacy of Gloria Jean Merriex focuses on the theory and practices of a highly successful mathematics teacher of African American children in a high-poverty school. The book aims to contribute to the limited literature base in this area in mathematics education. The discussions in the book center on the ideals of culturally responsive teaching (CRT), and seek to build understanding of this concept in the context of mathematics. Further, the story of Gloria Jean Merriex speaks to the importance of historical influences on teaching practice. Her story is couched in sociopolitical realities of the American educational system, and is discussed as such. Cultural incongruities that exist in classrooms and contribute to the black-white achievement gap, particularly in mathematics, are also discussed.
Even though eight-year-old Ernestine lives with her family up North, "back home" is Lumberton, North Carolina, the place where she was born and where her mama grew up. From the moment she steps off the train, Ernestine feels right at home in the lush, green countryside, working on the family farm, and spending time with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. This nostalgic, sweetly humorous visit home--based on Gloria Pinkney's own childhood memories--is perfect for intergenerational sharing.
In October 1955, three Chicago boys were found murdered, their bodies naked and dumped in a ditch in Robinson Woods on the city’s Northwest Side. A community and a nation were shocked. In a time when such crimes against children were rare, the public was transfixed as local television stations aired stark footage of the first hours of the investigation. Life and Newsweek magazines published exclusive stories the following week. When Kenneth Hansen was convicted and sentenced for the murders, the case was considered solved—until questions were raised about Hansen’s presumed guilt. Shattered Sense of Innocence: The 1955 Murders of Three Chicago Children tells the gripping story of the three murdered boys—thirteen-year-old John Schuessler, his eleven-year-old brother, Anton, and thirteen-year-old Bobby Peterson—and the quest to find and bring to justice their killer. Authors Richard C. Lindberg and Gloria Jean Sykes recount the bungled 1955 police investigation, the failures of multiple law enforcement agencies, and the subsequent convictions of Kenneth Hansen, in 1995 and 2002, and present new information concerning two suspects overlooked by police for five decades. The authors deftly examine all sides of this tragic story, drawing on exclusive interviews with law enforcement agents, with horse trainers affiliated with the so-called horse mafia, and with the man convicted of the murders, Kenneth Hansen. This intensely intimate account offers a rare glimpse into one community and examines how these atrocious crimes altered public perceptions nationwide. Shattered Sense of Innocence, which is also a story of political controversy, a determined federal agent’s quest for justice, and a community’s loss of innocence, includes fifty illustrations.
As a senior citizen of the United States for my lifetime and ancestry back to the 1700s, I would like to encourage all people to love the United States as much as I do and strive to be the best citizen that they can be.
In a personal journey of remembrances, Gloria Jean Pinkney shows how she came to recognize the many miraculous events in her life. In her engaging voice, Ms. Pinkney narrates thirty-three short "tellings" and uses quotes from the Bible to frame each story. This heartfelt work offers an inspiring call for her readers to enter their own "Forest of Remembrance." As Clifton Taulbert writes in his wonderful foreword, "As we read, we will be challenged to become 'dear hearers' within our own daily lives. This book will help many to personalize and anticipate the joy of 'unselfish living.'" A book to be shared with the whole family, this spiritual memoir is also a family project. Ms. Pinkney's husband, Jerry, and two of their sons, Brian and Myles, provide illustrations, with each artist using a different medium.
I love driving. I have driven since I was six, and learned on the old Farmall tractor from childhood days in rural Northern Ontario. We never had a car growing up; I swore when I grew up, I would drive somewhere every day. My happiest place is behind the wheel. Home nursing gave me that perk, and every patient I visited turned out another story, names never used and situations slightly changed to assure privacy for participants. My mother lived a thousand miles across the province from us, so in order to ensure my little ones knew their grandmother well, we often dropped everything and headed for 'Grandma's'. Each of those road trips was a story in itself. Something of note would happen every time we set out on such a journey. For instance, my daughter and I were at one time both nursing new babies (and THAT is yet another book). Between the uprooted schedule we both maintained for our babies, we did not take into consideration that our nerves would get the best of us. I recall my daughter saying she was headed for the river bank halfway to our destination and don’t bother coming to get her. I could keep both babes since it was obvious she knew nothing about mothering. I swear I don’t recall questioning her parenting, but to this day she claims I did. Loudly. Could have been something to do with the fact my last baby was born when I was 45, not much left in the patience locker. I am an obsessive fisherman. My fishing rod is always in the trunk. I would travel out of my way for one little cast to see if fish are biting at a nearby lakeshore, or I would jump into my boat and be gone for hours, sometimes days after the big catch. Those lake trips added many miles to my log of distance and stories. I also play music in a bluegrass band with my daughter. We log many, many miles gong to festivals, practices and local and regional musical events. I have always had a rather large vehicle to contain in the early years kids and all their quilts and cuddle toys and sippy cups and anything else they snuck on board. Later years I had to carry medical supplies, briefcases, office supplies, and the like for work, then instruments and sound equipment for the festival circuit, and a front seat filled with coffee maker and a sizeable cooler for the many meals I had to consume while driving. At all times I carried a clipboard and attached pen to record the noteworthy things that happened on my various trips. Those clipboards filled quickly. In later years it was a laptop and/or tablet and cell phone gracing my passenger seat. Since my nursing career began in the early seventies, and motherhood as well, and musician matters all my life, plus the fishing and the snowmachine miles, you can imagine I had ample grist for this ‘Million Miles’ mill. The book is filled with my life on the road, a memoir.
Pete, my husband of forty-eight years, jokingly asked, "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?" After a good laugh, God jolted me into a journey back through time. A cold chill sent a quick chill down my spine as vivid memories filled my thoughts. Life is good, but that was not always so. God has numerous stories in the Bible that tell us that He is always beside us. In Mathew 8:24-26, Jesus falls asleep in the boat with His disciple's and He is asleep when the storm hit the boat. They were afraid. Jesus reminds us that He is always with us, even when the storms surround us. The storm in this story lasted for eight years.God would not let me rest, I was up many nights as He put memories in my thoughts that I had to put to paper. The experiences of the little girl in Two Watches are real and it is through the gifts shared by others that I can share this story. His love was abundant in the cold dark, lonely years I experienced. I can not take credit for this book. It all came through God and I realize He gave me my journey as a gift. He never left my side and the people He put in my path, the ones who reached out to me had the love of Jesus living in them. I think I finally understand the words of my dad when he said to me, "Gloria, it is not what you are given in life, it is what you do with them that will determine who you are."It is my desire to share my story to give Glory to our living God. My prayer is that it will help you through your storm.
Come on an adventure with Glory and her best friend Bee, a funny little bumble bee who is a little nosey and seems to get in the way at times as Glory has a fun filled day with the animals in Heaven. While in Heaven Glory sees her Grandpa and her dog Max who she hasn’t seen in years and finally at the end of the day, she has tea with Jesus and asks him so many questions, maybe one of the questions is a question you would ask Jesus if you were with Glory! The adventure awaits as you join Glory and bee while they visit Heaven and Jesus and see all of God’s creation, your trip awaits!
Driving down the alley between the Continuous Learning Center (CLC) and the Laundromat, I was filled with excitement and trepidation. I wondered if my twelve years of experience had prepared me for the challenges of working at an alternative school? Would these high school inner city kids accept a middle class teacher with an elementary school background? Well whatever the outcome, I knew that my destiny was here. I first walked down the halls of CLC 14 years earlier. As a part of my training for an undergraduate degree in special education, I was required to observe emotionally handicapped and socially maladjusted students at this inner city school.
Middle-aged, Single White Female Takes a Drive 3 months, 10,000 miles alone to the middle of nowhere. "So how was your trip?" they asked. First of all, she turned 50. Isn't that how it goes with aging? It was an outrage-how did this happen? Her children grown, husband gone to cancer, their business sold-Gloria Jean had reached middle age; she was on her own. Next! Was it a bucket list thing, life too short? Didn't matter, Vagabond Chic beckoned; the first day of the rest of something lay ahead as her bold vision materialized, and once inspired, the odyssey seemed to plan itself. Months of research stretched to two years of getting prepared-a journey all its own. "We do not take a trip," said John Steinbeck in his Travels with Charley. "A trip takes us." This would come to mind many times as her May to September journey commenced. She drove the main streets of outer space-small towns, cheap motels, an assortment of critters, and more than once, a high spirited, didn't-see-it-coming, moment. Train whistles echoed divine exhilaration across the prairie, as America was browsed beyond any route imagined, passing unnoticed along northern borders-Lake Superior to Fargo, the quiet solace of Wounded Knee in Dakota; the eureka moment in Hathaway, Montana; and the extraordinary personal discovery in Sheridan, Wyoming. Isolation weighed heavy at times, but the search for her personal holy grail weaves a compelling, serendipitous plot straight to its unforeseen conclusion. If it's courage you seek for your own long-held inner something: "Courage is feeling the fear and doing it anyway." Oprah said.
In the author's own words: "Have you ever been at a place where you felt you had absolutely no control over your life? Well! That is in my opinion is exactly what has happened to me. While living here on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It's like something takes me over at times. I will meet people, see things, smell a fragrance, or hear a sound that will trigger a response from deep down in my soul that I feel takes over my whole being. As a result it has been coming to the surface as poems. They are simple and understandable, heart felt, and at times when I have been transferring them to the word processor I myself have broken down crying uncontrollably, 'Sounds Crazy' you say; it can't be any crazier than it feels to live it day by day.
Madame Fortune Taylor - She Bridged the Gap is a commemorative book celebrating the life of Madame Fortune Taylor Ransom, Fortune Street, and Madame Fortune Taylor Bridge in Tampa Florida.
Gloria Jean is a nurse/bluegrass musician/writer living in Northern Ontario, Canada. Her stories of growing up in rural Kipling have been featured in a long-running weekly newspaper column, aAs I See It, a for more than two decades. It is a collection of these stories and others based on true events that will be found between the covers of Rural Roots #1.
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