Click here to subscribe today or Login.
DIANNE DEMING
Tuesday, February 01, 2000 Page: 12
Secret quilts provide a history lesson for the dayHello and happy February!
This is Black History Month as well as Cupid’s favorite time of year. Two
sources have confirmed the rumor I’d heard for a long time that quilts played
an important role on the Underground Railroad during its most active phase,
1820-1861. The Underground Railroad was a network of secret pathways and
trails leading from the old South to northern states and the road to freedom
for more than 75,000 fugitive black slaves. The railroad involved safe houses
and taverns, blacks and whites sympathetic to the runaways and secret codes
and symbols. Some of these codes and symbols were communicated through a
quilt hanging in the window or on the fence of an underground railroad
conductor’s house. The escaped slaves knew what to do or where to go based on
the pattern of the quilt. For example, a bear’s-paw pattern told the slaves to
follow bear tracks over the mountains. The crossroads pattern instructed
travelers to head for Cleveland, Ohio, which was a crossroads on the
Underground Railroad. I’d always heard that quilts were used in this
important way in our nation’s history, but a new book, “Hidden in Plain View:
A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad” by Jacqueline L. Tobin
and Raymond G. Dobard, documents the information. Scouts will find an article
about the railroad in this month’s issue of “Boys’ Life” magazine. And
there’s the history lesson for the week! Sorry if you missed my column last
week. I think my computer is the only serious casualty of the Y2K bug. Of
course the loss of one little home computer is not nearly as bad as airplanes
dropping out of the sky, worldwide blackouts or the massive food shortages
some predicted, but it’s made life more complicated around 50 Valley View
Drive. At one point, I suggested burying the computer in the back yard and
buying a crayon. We have only owned the thing for five years. Amazing how
quickly a luxury can become a necessity, isn’t it? Like microwave ovens, blow
dryers, automatic-drip coffeemakers and rotary cutters, we find it difficult
to function without our computer. My children had great fun during their snow
days last week. Did yours? The conditions were perfect for sledding in the
back yard and for helping neighbors and the piggy bank by shoveling driveways.
So now that we’ve had a good snow, spring is welcome any time, right? Of
course the skiers and resort owners won’t agree with me, but I’m afraid I’m
getting too creaky to swoosh down the slopes anymore. I know people ski in
their 70s and even older; I’ve seen them. I just don’t know how they can move
the next day. I do enjoy those tubing hills the ski areas have now, though.
You ride the inner tube up AND down the hill. You might give it a try before
the season ends. Renee Aquilina is busy organizing Mountaintop’s relay teams
to raise awareness and funds to battle cancer in the Wyoming Valley Relay for
Life come May. She asked me to mention that money raised at the relay is used
for all types of cancer, including but not limited to breast cancer. If you’d
like more information about the May 19-20 event, you can call Renee at
474-2847. A warm Mountaintop welcome to my sister, Kathy Onnen, and her two
children, James and Rebecca. They are visiting from Kansas City, Kan., while
dad’s on a business trip, and we are thrilled to have them here! Thanks also
to all my friends and neighbors who let us borrow toddler equipment. I’d given
most of ours away. I’m still here at 50 Valley View Drive or in cyberspace at
fdeming@aol.com waiting to hear your good news. Send all those birthday,
anniversary and other milestone announcements to me, and I’ll share them with
your neighbors! And have a great week.