J E L L...O!

When my friend Mary Beth, from NYC, discovered that there was a JELL-O Gallery near Rochester, she made me promise that I would take her. Many of us probably think of JELL-O as comfort food our moms gave us as children when we were sick. Or if we're at a certain age, we think of it as one of the few things you can eat before having a, um, certain procedure... Either way, it's not a great association! I also think of it as something some people used to bury fruit in in an attempt to make a fun dessert (I always thought it was pretty disgusting).

The JELL-O Gallery is actually in LeRoy, about halfway between Rochester and Buffalo. (LeRoy was in the media a while back for an outbreak of mass hysteria.)  When Mary Beth and I visited, a couple of years ago, we were greeted by two cheerful women, one of whom escorted us into the gallery and explained the history of JELL-O, from its invention in 1897, and the initial problems marketing the product, to its eventual success in 1907, and its merger with Postem, which then became General Foods. JELL-O is now owned by Kraft Heinz, and unfortunately for Rochester, production was moved to Delaware in 1964 (for space as well as tax reasons). It was clear to us, as she narrated the tale of the gelatin's development, that she loved her job. The exhibits were interesting, but the best part of the gallery was the video of the various commercials for JELL-O over the years. Bill Cosby was the JELL-O star, of course. Other recognizable actors also took their turn advertising the product, including Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, Andy Griffith, and a very young Lindsay Lohan.

There weren't many visitors the day we were there (and we suspected that's probably normal).  The downstairs "transportation exhibit" of old automobiles and the like was less interesting. We did spend some time in the gift shop, though. You couldn't buy any actual JELL-O at the gallery, but you could buy JELL-O shot glasses (which seems a bit silly, when little paper cups are easier to use for the purpose...).

one of the few references left to Cosby...

So when my brother visited for the holidays recently, I thought it would be interesting to go back and see whether the recent controversy surrounding Bill Cosby had affected the exhibit. Sadly, the video was indeed gone, and most evidence of Cosby's link to the product had been purged, as if his 25 years as spokesman hadn't existed. The young lady who introduced the gallery to us seemed fairly apologetic, but eagerly offered that there was now a wall of molds in its place. It was a poor substitute, but if you hadn't visited the museum before (and really, who would normally visit this odd little place more than once?), you wouldn't notice its absence, although his general absence from the museum is notable. The gift shop had also evolved - gone were the JELLO-shot glasses, replaced by boxes of different flavored JELL-O. My brother bought a brain JELL-O mold, and almost convinced me to buy a large certificate attesting to my visit (because it was signed by Cosby...).

To round out our trip, we stopped on the return drive to take a few snaps of some Barn Quilts. Apparently there are dozens of these dotted around town, as part of a 2012 town bicentennial project. It was an amusing afternoon out, but it wouldn't bear repeating.

Wendell Castle at the NYC Museum of Arts and Design

one of the two pieces outside that could be sat in!

Practically every time I visit New York, I wind up in the gorgeous gift shop of the Museum of Arts and Design, at Columbus Circle. And at no point have I been tempted to visit the museum. Until now. I figured if there were ever a reason to go, it was to see an exhibit of Rochester’s own Wendell Castle. Even though I’ve only lived in Rochester four years, and even though I’ve never met Castle (but I have heard him speak twice), I still feel a sense of pride in a shared city of residence. So I convinced my husband and my long-time city friend Theresa to join me for what I thought would be a dollar-a-minute breeze through the exhibits.

High Hopes in the middle-ground "exemplifies Castle's
new motto 'go big or go home'"

We were all pleasantly surprised by the museum, which occupies four floors in the renovated “Lollipop Building” just south of the Time Warner Center. We had the two floors of Castle’s furniture almost to ourselves, and it was minor torture to obey the “do not touch” signs (it made me glad for the bench in the Memorial Art Gallery with a sign that actually invites you to sit and enjoy the functional sculpture, and for the various pieces of his around the city that are incorporated into regular living). It was wonderful to see so much of his work on display at one time, and the two short films were extremely informative – not just about his early development, and his process of stack lamination, but about his recent incorporation of computer modeling to achieve even larger and more intricate designs than he would be able to realize otherwise.

models of various larger works

drawing for High Hopes

The exhibit describes his work as organic (“stack lamination gave Castle the ability to realize the voluptuous shapes that he so admired in sculpture”) and whimsical (“many of his works entail a degree of playful risk, in which elements such as furniture legs are not where they normally appear and thus create a seemingly precarious cantilever”). And it explains that the legs and bases of his furniture are hollow, so they are lighter than they appear. It was also fascinating to see Castle’s drawings and models side by side with their actualized counterparts, and to get a tiny glimpse into his incredible creative process.

Double Chair, "a sense of separateness; however their
ergonomic design and slightly slouching posture
create an intimate atmosphere"

The Castle exhibit runs through the end of February, so if you’re in the city, I’d definitely recommend going (the two other concurrent exhibits are a bit strange for my taste…), and check out the restaurant Robert on the 9^th floor, for great food and atmosphere, and an awesome view of Central Park. Oh, and did I mention the museum shop? We ended up purchasing enough things for ourselves and others that it made sense to get a membership for the discount.

beautiful goblets displayed in the stairwell!

Serpentine Floor Lamp, a "product of
Castle's playing with a paper-clip"

Corn Hill Holiday Tour of Homes

As I’ve written before, I love a house tour – who doesn’t like peeking into other people’s houses and imagining how they live, and wondering either what possessed them to hang some particular piece of art, or coveting a particular chandelier or faucet. The Corn Hill Holiday Tour of Homes wasn’t really on my radar until my friend Colleen emailed to say her house was included, so we had to go!

"spite" house

A very large group gathered at the Immaculate Conception Church for instructions for the 30^th annual tour and partitioning into groups of 20 to visit the six homes. Charlie and I were joined by Colleen’s parents, uncles, and in-laws. We had two guides – one a longtime Corn Hill resident, and one who had just returned to Rochester to take care of her aging parents. They kept us engaged on our walks between stops with neighborhood history and lore (mostly fact, but perhaps some fiction?). For example, I finally learned the story of the odd “bubble house” I admired every time I went to the Corn Hill Festival (I teased Charlie that if I’d seen that house before we built ours, I would have tried to cajole our architect into including one of those windows somewhere). Apparently, a couple had lived across the street, and the wife, who worked in the property records office, kicked her architect husband out after she discovered, only through recording the deed, that he had purchased that piece of property. He then erected the bubble house out of spite, so that his wife would have to look out at it!

We also learned that the two small adjacent homes were actually built in Caledonia and floated down the river to their current location. Our first official stop was The Hayden House, an 1850 Italianate home on South Fitzhugh Street, which has been carved up into seven apartments. The owner of #2 gave us the history of the house and invited us all to climb the narrow spiral staircase to his cozy third-floor cupola for a lovely view of Rochester.

Our second stop was The Pagan House, on Troup Street, built in 1983 but designed to blend into the neighborhood. Like most of the homes on the tour, there were various levels to be navigated – up two steps here, down two there – and a compactness that didn’t make the house family or age-in-place friendly. But the angled alcove in this home provided the perfect place for  a beautiful, large Christmas tree!

Ely House - DAR HQ

Next up was our “refreshment stop” at the 1837 Hervey Ely House, a Greek Revival mansion that currently serves as the headquarters of the Irondequoit Chapter of the DAR. What an impressive home it must have been, back in the day when Corn Hill was the place to live, and the streets bustled with activity (before George Eastman arrived and moved mansion living to East Avenue). The house is available for party rental, and our male guide reminisced about being married in one of the rooms, and having his reception in another.

Colleen & Bill's house

Finally, the house we were waiting for – Colleen and Bill’s! The Sabey House, built in 1837, had the distinction of being not just the oldest private home on the tour, but also of having an unusual number of female owners in its past. Colleen shared her enthusiasm for the house and neighborhood, and pointed out her family’s personal touches, from the recently painted exterior (bright blue, with a pink door), reclaimed light fixtures in the kitchen, and a beautiful wood bed crafted by her talented father.

a beautiful home not on the tour

The final two homes seemed unexceptional, although we were treated to a fascinating explanation of the rich history of the neighborhood by the owner of a Mark IV Townhome. Back in the 1830s, East Avenue was a wild and dangerous place, and Corn Hill was where prominent doctors and lawyers lived in mansions, and craftsmen and artisans lived in the smaller homes (like Colleen’s) on Greenwood. It was also a racially diverse area, with an influx of blacks fleeing southern slavery. Frederick Douglas Avenue was the old Plymouth Avenue, a thriving, busy street with shops and stores at ground level and apartments above. After World War II, people moved to the suburbs, and if I heard correctly, several hundred homes were demolished to make way for 490. A 1964 fire was responsible for the loss of more homes. The Corn Hill Neighbors Association, which runs the tours, also coordinates the Arts Festival, and raises funds for area beautification projects. Kudos to them for keeping Corn Hill beautiful and relevant!

Stokoe Farms Christmas Trees

When Charlie and I lived in New Jersey, we had a tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree. There was something satisfying about the combination of a truly fresh tree and buying local. When we moved to Rochester, a neighbor pointed us to Stokoe Farms, about a 30-minute drive south. We expected something similar to the farm we frequented in Jersey – a small, family run affair that just sold trees. So we were amazed to find not just acres (3500 acres!) of any kind of tree you might want, but incredible activities for the kids. We made sure to go with Charlie’s nephew and his family, so we could pretend to be kids again ourselves.

Naturally, 4-year-old Fiona was a bit over-stimulated, and couldn’t decide between the hay ride (really just the vehicle for getting people to the trees and back) and the giant slide. So Charlie’s nephew and I took the two girls on the slide while Charlie and the girls’ mom waited in the ride line. We just went down the regular slide – I was too skittish to do the enclosed twisty one – I might get stuck! Naturally, the kind of tree Charlie wanted – Concolor – was the farthest away, and we always have to do a fair amount of looking and judging before settling on just the right one, but we finally found a lovely, not-too-tall-for-the-room specimen (unlike the year we misjudged and had to do some ceiling repainting in January…). I’m not sure how sturdy this tree will be for hanging ornaments, but the needles are very soft (as opposed to Blue Spruce, with its sturdy branches and prickly needles).

The girls had a great time on Charlie’s “sleigh ride” among the trees, and when we returned to the main buildings, they were mesmerized by the Hillbilly Henhouse, with its puppet chickens singing funny versions of Christmas carols. 

There were a few small animals wandering around looking for petting and photo ops, and an enormous rabbit in a cage with some chickens. Towards the end, I had to bribe Fiona with bits of freshly made doughnuts to sit still for some photos, and then it was time to load our tree onto our car, where our dog was waiting patiently, and get it home before the kids’ melt-down, I mean nap time. I really hope Yair and his family decide to settle down in the area, because going to Stokoe wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without them!

Rochester Contra Dance Thanksgiving Festival

“Qu’est-ce que c’est?” I hear you say! I’d never heard of contra dancing before my niece Alison became an addict, actually traveling to go to contra dance festivals. I’d occasionally see her Facebook posts, and I know I’ve asked her about it, but when she’d start talking about minor sets and triple formations my eyes would glaze over. We invited her to spend Thanksgiving with us, since she’s studying for her masters relatively nearby, and I got an excited text: “Rochester Contra Dance Thanksgiving Weekend Festival!” So even though I have two left feet, and the last time I did something remotely similar was when I went clogging as a pre-teen in what seemed like the remote mountains of North Carolina (where my parents would park my siblings and me with an array of my dad’s aunts and cousins), I had to go check this out.

According to Alison, contra dancing has a very supportive culture and is very well defined. It is welcoming to people of all ages, including children, and beginners as well as experienced dancers. There is never any alcohol, and people are encouraged to dance with different partners each dance.

I was impressed with the number of people who came out on this rainy Friday night. The caller welcomed everyone to the 32^nd Annual Thanksgiving Contra Dance Weekend (who knew something like this existed in Rochester?), and explained the moves before each dance, so everyone could practice a full set before the music started. There were a couple of men in skirts (Alison said they like to feel the twirl of a skirt, just as women do…), and it wasn’t uncommon to see men partnering with men. It seemed like a very friendly and nonthreatening environment, and the only wallflowers were a few people like me, who refused to dance.

Alison had shown me a few steps and they made me understand the need for eye contact with your partner, because even just a little twirling made me dizzy. So even though I did get asked to dance a couple of times, I politely declined. Apparently, in contra dance, the rule is: “Better never than late.” “Never” was fine with me! Plus, it just seemed like too much touching of strangers’ hands. But it looked like great fun, great exercise, and, well, wholesome, so I didn’t feel guilty slipping out and leaving Alison to dance the rest of evening. And I don’t feel the need to accompany her on Saturday for things like Challenging Contras, Hambo, and Zias, 4x4s, etc. Seriously, what?