THE VILLAGE TIMES

   Brooke Mistretta became our new Executive Director as of Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. Brooke will soon be building her own memories, as did our retiring Executive Director Wanda Pore who once said: “I would like to be remembered for ‘the dash between the dates –– to have memories in between the date of my birthday and my death.”

   Brooke recalls: “I was born in 1993 in Manhattan, New York, I was two years old when we moved to Port Jefferson Station (Not to be confused with Port Jefferson), a Long Island hamlet in New York State’s Suffolk County, where Frank Mistretta, my Italian dad, is in real estate.

   “My mom, Lorene, just liked the name “Brook” and, since Dad grew up in Brooklyn, they named me Brooke. I had a happy childhood growing up as one of three – with brothers Dominic and Gerard. We had a big family and I had about twenty cousins. And they, with their extended families, would often have Sunday dinners with Dad’s family at his mother’s house.  

   There were too many of us to buy tickets for every event available at that time so about 20 of us would end up playing board games. I have fond memories of carving pumpkins at Halloween as a family as well as going on Easter egg hunts. I also went to our church summer camp and had lots of friends. For years, I’ve liked to meet with my family on Thursday nights to watch “Survivor” on TV. And for 27 years I’ve had a best friend named Nicole. We first met even before kindergarten. We rode the bus together, and we played after school together.

   “I’ve always loved school. I began my education in Port Jefferson Station as a kindergartner at the Clinton Avenue School, moving on to the John F. Kennedy Middle school, where in 5^th grade I met my favorite teacher of all time, the amazing and inspiring Mrs. Baxter. I invited her to my graduation from Comsewogue High School in 2011, although she was by then retired. (Comsewogue: ‘a place where several paths come together’– as spoken by the native Setauket Indians.)

   While still in New York, I enrolled at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz for four years — first as a pre-med student — later changing my major to education. (I had grown up wanting to be a teacher anyhow.) I graduated in 2015 with a B.A. in Education and, for the next four years, I attended New York’s University at Albany, SUNY, two years of which I earned an M.S. degree in Special Education and history. I also student-taught in Albany for two years.

   Completing my education was one of my most important life accomplishments. One thing led to another and my path has led me all the way to nearby Clayton, here in North Carolina, where I have been a teacher in Wake County for five years.

   When the Covid pandemic hit, we teachers were teaching remotely. After a year and a half I decided that remote teaching was not for me and it may be best to change careers. So I did some research and decided to visit the world of senior living. I eventually applied a job and training at Calyx Senior Living in nearby Fuquay-Varina where I learned how to assist seniors in the kitchen, in the home and elsewhere. I’m known by my friends for my ability to plan and organize things and for juggling multiple tasks to keep several activities on track at the same time.

   It turns out that I loved the job.

   And I love working with seniors. I’m really looking forward to my new position as Executive Director here at Independence Village.

 Speaking of love, I’m getting ready for my marriage to fiancé Davin Olsen, coming up in September of 2025. Davin is a police officer for the City of Raleigh.  He was born in West Haven, Connecticut where he lived until he was six before moving to Apex, NC.

Happy Hannukah/Christmas – by Pat Simpson

  This year, the first night of Hanukkah happens to fall on Christmas Eve — which hasn’t happened in nearly four decades.

   So, I wondered: Just how common is it for the first night of the Jewish holiday to occur on Christmas Eve, like this year, or Christmas Day?

   Curious, I did some research….

   Since 1900, the first night of Hanukkah has fallen on Christmas Eve three times (with 2016 being the fourth). Hanukkah has started on Christmas Day four times in the same period. With eight total occurrences in 117 years, Hanukkah starts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day roughly once every 15 years. Not so rare! The timing that this relationship relies on, though, only actually works out sometimes because the Jewish calendar is a lunar one.

   Looking at the most common start dates of Hanukkah since 1900, we can see that Hanukkah typically starts the week before Christmas. Despite the fluctuation we see on the Gregorian calendar, Hanukkah always begins on the 25th night of the month of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar.

   Though often lumped together as winter holidays, Christmas and Hanukkah are dissimilar in both their religious and cultural significance, and they actually have a pretty complicated relationship.

   While Christmas is given massive cultural significance in America, this is not the case for Hanukkah. We’re not just talking about the banks and schools closing or having the day off work. Nationally and within American Jewish communities, Hanukkah isn’t as big of a deal. 

   Religiously, Hanukkah isn’t as weighty as Christmas. Christmas is a central holiday for Christians, religiously [as it celebrates the birth of Jesus], Hanukkah is a minor holiday in the Jewish religious scheme of things. It commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem after the Maccabees desecrated it. There was only enough oil to light the menorah for one night, but it lasted eight.

   Hanukkah is not mentioned in the Jewish bible. There is no time off work to celebrate this holiday, and going to the synagogue isn’t required.

   Culturally, too, Hanukkah isn’t placed on the same pedestal by Jewish people as Christmas is by Christian people. For many Jewish Americans, Hanukkah means lighting candles for eight days, eating potato latkes, perhaps a present or two, and saying a prayer in the middle of the work week. Then, it’s off to bed and back to work the next morning to repeat the process again seven more times. So, for many who celebrate, Hanukkah is a cheerful addition to otherwise ordinary days, and the burst of holiday joy is spread out, diluted over eight days. 

   Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God. It is one of the most important Christian holidays (the main one being Easter, which marks the resurrection of Jesus). The sacred event of Jesus’ birth is remembered through religious gatherings, including Christmas Eve and Christmas morning church services. It’s also a federal holiday with time off work. Some celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, which is the time between Christmas Day and January 6, also called the Twelve Days of Christmas.

   Secular celebrations began in the early 20th century when Christmas trees, decorations, gift giving, Santa Claus, and parades began being used to mark the season. Both Christians and non-Christians celebrate Christmas in this way.

   Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, begins on the evening preceding 25 Kislev and ends 8 days later, which means Kislev departs as the Hanukkah lights spread their ever-increasing brightness in the winter dusk.

   Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to all!

Remembering Christmas Past – by JoAnn “Joby” Gilbert

   The first Christmas I remember I think I was about four. We lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles off Western Boulevard. We had one bedroom in which I slept, and Mom and Dad slept on a Murphy bed that pulled down out of the wall, which I thought was really neat.

   I really don’t remember much about that year except that before Christmas I crawled behind the sofa and found a doll that I had asked Santa Claus for. I didn’t say anything to Mom about finding the doll and imagine my surprise when it was under the tree on Christmas morning. I was so happy! The next Christmas I remember anything about was one where some Service organization (like Kiwanis or Rotary) had a big Christmas party at a large auditorium somewhere in L.A. Children went up on the stage by age and were given a Christmas present.

   A couple years after that, Mother and Daddy had bought a new house for us to live in. Christmas in our new house was wondrous. Mother loved to decorate for holidays and Christmas was the big one. The mantle was decorated with dried leaves and pinecones and always red or green bows and ribbon stuck in here and there. The front door was also decorated. We had a big Christmas tree and I remember decorating with all kinds of beautiful glass balls and other ornaments. Mother carefully placed tinsel on the branches, one strand at a time, so that this beautiful silver stuff hung down that looked like ice sickles. (Do you remember putting tinsel on a Christmas tree? No one uses that anymore.) But it always got saved to use the next year. Under that Christmas tree presents were placed and every day there seemed to be more and more, and what I remember more than anything else were the number of Christmas presents under the Christmas tree. Most of them were things like panties and socks and new pajamas, and other everyday things, but there was always some fun stuff too.

   One year after my sister was a few years old, Mother and Daddy built me a doll house, which I thought was awfully good. Of course, it was actually made out of a big wood carton that Mother covered in red and white polka-dot material and Daddy divided it into two floors with bedrooms upstairs and the living room and kitchen downstairs. Mother made all the kinds of wondrous furniture and I spent hours playing with it.

   Another year, I got a doll, a beautiful blonde doll with a pink dress and a bonnet; and Mother made all kinds of clothes for me to put on the doll. She made a fur-trimmed coat, a bridal outfit, an ice-skating outfit out of an old sweater, a fancy negligee and underwear, and even a Spanish dancer’s costume complete with a Mantilla. All of these clothes were made from scraps or pieces of old clothes. I passed the doll on to my daughter, and I think she passed it on to hers, clothes full of moth holes and spots, and the doll sadly in need of repair.

   As you can tell, although the gifts were numerous, they were all homemade, with lots of love. And we loved them. These are the best Christmases I remember when think of Christmas Past.

   I am sure you have some of your own.

Eevee’s Christmas Story – by Phyllis Woolly

   Well, Thanksgiving is over and Mom is getting out her Christmas decorations. She gets really excited about Christmas and so do I. Kitties love Christmas too!

   When I was an itty-bitty kitty, Mom had a great big tree. There were so many shiny and sparkly ornaments on it. Since I was so little I couldn’t see them all from the floor. So, like any normal kitty, I climbed up the tree and found the purrfect spot to see everything, even the Angel on the top.

   Four of my cousins lived with Mom. One day I went missing and everyone went searching for me. They even looked for me outside. Duh! Mom has always said I can’t go outside cause some monster might eat me, but she didn’t say I couldn’t get in the Christmas tree.

   I was meowing as loud as I could, but because everyone was running around in a panic, calling my name, they couldn’t hear me crying “I’m here! I’m on this branch!” Peoples are kinda funny and their smellers aren’t as good as cat’s smellers. Peoples have a hard time finding things that are right in front of their eyes.

   Anyway, all of a sudden, my favorite cousin, Jorden stopped right in front of the tree. He had a big smile on his face and yelled, “Found her!”  I didn’t know I was lost, but everyone came running to the living room.

   Jorden reached his hand inside the tree and picked me up! “I was getting ready to look under the couch and all of a sudden I saw these two big eves in the tree!”, a very excited Jorden screeched! “What are you doing in the tree you silly kitty?”, Jorden asked as I struggled to get down. I don’t like to be picked up unless I want to be picked up, and I wasn’t ready to get out of the tree. I didn’t hurt one thing!

   I love Christmas in all its glory. I love family and Christmas music. I especially love a Christmas tree with lots of lights. Sometimes I just lay where I can watch the blinking lights of many colors and the shiny balls hanging on the branches.

   I don’t climb the tree anymore, and I don’t try to knock off all the ornaments. I always feel warm and cozy and know I am loved. What a wonderful Christmas gift, although I wouldn’t mind Santa bringing me some colored springs and some more catnip and treats!

   Merry Christmas everyone here at IVOR and may we all feel peace, joy, and love of family. Toodles 💕💕🐈

November book club news:

   Members are now reading the 2016 nonfiction book Hidden Figures, written by Margot Lee Shetterly about the untold story of the black women who helped win the space race. It explores the biographies of three African-American women who worked as human calculators to solve problems for engineers and others at NASA. For the first years of their careers, the workplace was segregated and women were kept in the background as human “computers”.

   Shetterly explains how these women overcame discrimination and racial segregation to become vital parts of mathematics, scientific, and engineering history. One of them, Katherine Johnson, calculated rocket trajectories for the Mercury and Apollo missions and was ultimately allowed into what had previously been all-male meetings at NASA.

   Hidden Figures reached number one on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers list and got the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction in 2017. The book was adapted as a film by the same name, released in 2016, that was nominated for three Oscars. It received numerous other awards.

   You don’t have to be a member of the Book Club to read Hidden Figures. Ask book club moderator Sandy Ballard or activity director Taylor for a copy. The Book Club meets once a month. Check the IVOR bulletin board for meeting times. You are welcome to attend if or when you can.

The Great Divide – by Frank Howes

   When I was a child, diversity meant blacks and whites. I grew up in eastern North Carolina, and in my area, half the population was black. Blacks were generally poor because this was before Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty and affirmative action. I saw discrimination, but it was little remarked upon because it was so common. Black schools were still separate, and as a result, blacks were taught to speak a different dialect than whites. There was a southern black accent that has now disappeared. All that began to end with the Great Society and integration. It did not go quietly.

   We achieved full integration in my area in 1971 when four neighboring schools, two black and two white, joined to become one high school. At this time a white policeman shot and killed a black man in questionable circumstances in one of the towns involved in the consolidation, Ayden, North Carolina. The black community was up in arms, quite literally, as evidenced by the fact that five black kids got hold of three sticks of dynamite and blew up the back of the auditorium in our brand-new school – while school was in session! I was in American history class when our little-known footnote in American history occurred. I am thankful to this day that no one was hurt, but things were tense after that, and many of my friends transferred to private schools or moved away to less racially charged environments.

   Twenty years later, things had improved, but not enough. At that time, I lived in Charleston, South Carolina where the racial make-up was also approximately 50/50. In 1991 I started working as an operator at chemical plant. I soon saw that the racial divide was a big problem at that plant. It was a union plant, and the president of the union was a black activist; the vice president was a white supremacist; the races did not get along. I tried to reach across the racial divide because I had personally experienced the potential deadliness of racism, and because the chemicals we handled were extremely dangerous.

   On June 17, 1991, the second explosion I have been close to occurred at the chemical plant. Nine people died in that explosion. There were many reasons contributing to the explosion, but I know first-hand that lack of cooperation between races was one of them. At my high school the bombing was intentional. The chemical plant explosion was not intentional; however, it was preventable. The racial divide almost got me a second time.

   Now the racial divide has changed a bit. While the divide between blacks and whites remains, Hispanics are now the largest minority in the U.S. Blacks are now the second largest minority, and there is a growing Muslim minority in the United States. The Muslims are becoming active. Witness the recent Democratic convention and the controversy there over the Gaza Strip.

   The bipolar society that I grew up in has been replaced by a multicultural society – one that barely gets along (how much was the recent presidential election influenced by racism and anti-diversity). Liberals insist that diversity is the ultimate most-desired goal; conservatives are likely to argue about crime among immigrants and who should be allowed to go into whose bathrooms. I fear for the long-term future for the United States. Will we be able to stick together when the going gets tough? Or will the things that divide us overwhelm the things that bring us together?

New: The Community Enhancement Committee – by Paula Moore

    As many of you know, resident Paula Moore has set up a Community Enhancement Committee (CEC) to work with residents, staff and administration. The goal is to enhance what is already happening here, as well as add some fresh thoughts and ideas. Hopefully adding more positivity. Paula has been asking other residents to join her in this effort, as well as members of the Writers Club.

   Paula: “The Community Enhancement Committee (CEC) is working hard to help make life here at Independence Village as enjoyable and relaxing as possible for all of our residents, and the staff as well. Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did full schedules of activities on both Friday and Saturday, and will continue helping Taylor by doing some fun things on the weekends and evenings while she is off. We are working with Taylor on activities for December and into 2025. We have also been working with the newsletter staff to help with some extra articles and small suggestions on things residents would like to see in the newsletter.

   “Our suggestion box is on the table by the front desk. We want good positive thoughts and ideas about things you think would help improve your life here at IVOR, along with your offers to help Taylor with some of her activities. All items put in the suggestion box should have your name and apartment number. Those without name, along with any negative items without a good positive suggestion on how to fix them, will be thrown out. The CEC is not doing anything with regard to food so please do not put anything regarding the menus or your thoughts on the food in the suggestion box. You can give those directly to CB (Charlie Banks, Food Director). We look forward to working with you in the new year.

   Following are photos from the directory of the Community Enhancement Committee (“CEC”). (Note: Photo of John Schline unavailable at this time.)