Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart. ~ Washington Irving

Nothing kindles my heart at Christmastime and the New Year like the poinsettia. La flor de Nochebuena -- this beautiful plant native to Mexico -- is truly the Christmas Eve flower in our family.

Shades of red, pink, green, cream, crimson, orange and white…it’s always been the starflower of Christmas night.  From the time of Franciscan friars 17^th Century celebrations to 21^st Century churches everywhere, the brilliant star-shaped flowers symbolize the Christmas Star, the Star of Bethlehem…and to me the magi and their Star search.

The flower is named after the first United States Minister to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was also an amateur botanist and introduced this beautiful plant into the United States in 1825.

My favorite is pink. I’m not sure why, except that each color seems to express an aspect of the feeling of Christmas.  Red, of course, symbolizes the blood sacrifice – for ancient Aztecs, to the sun, and later to Christians, of crucifixion of the Christ.  Pale green poinsettias bring a light freshness of all things new and healing at the New Year. Cream touches on the gentle spirit of the season; and white, its purity. I’ve not seen many orange-toned poinsettias, but they’d express, to me, the wonder of creativity and of new insights and resolutions at this time of year.

I love the brilliant, rich red poinsettia my husband brought home for Christmas.  Having the plant on the table for family dinners offers the touch of tradition, beauty and meaning to the annual celebrations.

For many years, along with others in our church congregation, we’d order a couple of huge poinsettias .  They’d grace the altar in banks of wondrous pinks and reds until Christmas Eve, and then at that late night service, we’d take them home.  There is something special about that tradition, as well, bringing the poinsettias home on Christmas Eve.

Yes, my husband is partial to the deep red flowers.  I’ve often wondered why I take to the pink tones. But in recent years, I think I’ve discovered the reason.  Pink, rose, fuchsia, ruby represent to me the colors of the heart. The heart of Christmas, which for me, means making the feeling of Christmas last all year long.

Yes, the soft pink tells the story of the magical attribute of Christmas, the beauty of the hospitality of the human heart, which expresses itself most outwardly at Christmastime.

Putting all these colors of the poinsettia together, you have all the harmony of Christmas that you can carry into the New Year. I can nurture my Christmas poinsettia along throughout the coming weeks of winter to remind me.

The starflower’s beautiful blossoms nourish my heart with joy in the midst of wintertime, weaving its magic ith promise of blooms in spring…symbolizing emergence of a new heart within, healing and peace all around us.

La Flor de Noche Buena – the Poinsettia

Joel Roberts Poinsett, US Ambassador to Mexico

The beautiful Christmas starflower story and legends

Caring for your poinsettia after Christmas

The Daily Mandala Archives

(Published Dec. 31, 2011 at LivingstonTalk.com, now TheLivingstonPost.com)

Michigan mystery writer Richard Baldwin continually finds joy in telling a story.Assassination at High Speed is the latest – and 12^th — Michigan-based Lou Searing detective novel from this writer’s pen.

Richard Baldwin's 12th mystery novel

Here’s the scenario: “The State of Michigan is awarded a huge federal contract to build a speed-rail line from Port Huron to New Buffalo. In celebration, the U.S. President, the Prime Minister of Canada, and the Michigan Governor board the train and set off on a Victory Ride… but who won’t make it to their final destination?”

The book, dedicated to “train lovers of all ages,” features stops at Michigan towns along the rail line. The Michigan settings make Baldwin’s book fun for Michigan readers, as you recognize and can often picture exactly where things are taking place, as if you were there. The newest novel is timely, with high speed rail being a hot topic for national debate.

Nearly a decade ago, I interviewed Baldwin for The Mid-Michigan Reader (May/June 2002 Issue Two  – a magazine of Profiles and Observations, published by Steve Horton (currently publisher of Michigan local newspaper, the Fowlerville News & Views). Baldwin was becoming established in the murder mystery genre, having written his first three novels about Detective Lou Searing: A Lesson Plan for Murder, The Principal Cause of Death, and Administration Can Be Murder. His fourth book, Buried Secrets of Bois Blanc: Murder in the Straits of Mackinac, was just off the press(Buttonwood  Press).

There’ve been other articles about the books in between. Perhaps you’ve noticed one of these Lou Searing titles on a Michigan bookstore shelf: The Marina Murders, A Final Crossing: Murder on the S.S. Badger, Poaching Man and Beast: Murder in the North Woods, The Lighthouse Murders, Murder in Thin Air, Murder at the Ingham County Fair, Murder in Tip-Up Town.

Since the tenth anniversary of our first interview is coming up next year, I thought it would be fun to reprint the back story that I uncovered then, about this amazing and prolific Michigan writer.

Mystery writer Richard Baldwin at a Christmastime book signing for his Lou Searing detective novels

Mystery writer Rich Baldwin finds joy in telling a story (by Susan Parcheta for Horton’s Mid-Michigan Reader, May/June 2002):

Michigan mystery writer Richard Baldwin takes the necessary precautions now when being interviewed.

Once in a restaurant, it became apparent that folks in the next booth, overhearing character descriptions and murder plots, were visibly uncomfortable.

It was all just fiction, he told them. They were relieved. After all, it would sound plausible to a Michigan native. Baldwin’s settings  for his Lou Searing and Margaret McMillan mystery series happen  o be familiar mid-Michigan towns – like Stockbridge, Mason, Lansing, as well as northern stomping grounds.

Baldwin’s novels traverse all of Michigan. In his first book, Lesson Plan for Murder, the setting is Newberry in the Upper Peninsula.

Detective Lou Searing solves crimes from his home base of Grand Haven, which incidentally, is Rich Baldwin’s hometown.

Follow along carefully, because it gets tricky. Rich’s characters are the names of his parents, Lou (Searing) Baldwin and Margaret (McMillan) Baldwin. But Rich is Lou Searing in the series. Like Rich, Lou has a hearing loss, is bald and pushing 60. Plus, Lou Searing is a writer in the novels.

As Baldwin puts it, “I write the book about Lou writing the book about the case.”

The second novel, The Principal Cause of Death, is set in the fictitious town of Shoreline, while the third in the series, Administration Can Be Murder, finds Lou and Maggie covering a murder in the golf mecca of Gaylord.

The character of Maggie (Margaret McMillan) uses a wheelchair, is independent, with a background in special education. She represents someone with independence skills, who uses technology.

Baldwin’s newest novel, Buried Secrets of Bois Blanc, is set in the environs of the Straits and the island of Bois Blanc.

A theme runs through them: special education. Richard Baldwin is retired from a career in special education, including seven years (1990-1997) as Michigan’s director of special education.

Now that expertise is blossoming into a writing and publishing career. His early books, beginning with Lesson Plan for Murder have a special education theme and issues.

While each book is independent, the Lou Searing mysteries begin when Lou (also director of special education for Michigan) meets Maggie, an insurance claims investigator, at a conference. They figure they could make a good team, solving education-related crimes.

Maggie lives in Battle Creek with husband Tom. Lou is married to Carol in the books (also Rich’s wife’s name). Carol Baldwin (nicknamed Patty) is a specialist for the Ingham Intermediate School District.

Baldwin chuckles to think of what could happen in trying to explain all this to his grandchildren should they be reading grandpa’s books one day.

The Baldwin children, Scott and Amanda, both have young children. Lou and Carol Searing, incidentally, have two children named Scott and Amanda Searing. Rich has a younger sister, Gayle.

In real life, growing up in Grand Haven, his mother, Mary (McMillan) Baldwin, taught elementary school and his father, Lou, worked for the Muskegon company,   Manning, Maxwell and Moore.

Rich was on the high school golf team, played clarinet in the band, and enjoyed public speaking and drama. Accolades included “Best Actor” for his role as cousin in Arsenic and Old Lace. He enjoyed his summer job at the Water Ski Thrill Show on the waterfront, taking tickets and flipping lights for the nighttime kite act.

Baldwin attended Alma College from 1959 to 1961, dropping out for awhile to work at Laughead Piano Co., before returning to campus. He played golf and belonged to Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He holds the  fraternity’s  “Distinguished Alumni Award.”

Contemplating a career as a Presbyterian minister, Baldwin eventually switched to education. He transferred to Western Michigan University, completing his degree in 1964. He first taught children with hearing loss. He brought first-hand experience to that endeavor, having lived with hearing aids in both ears since the age of two, the condition attributed to measles.

In those early years he married Jean Mosier, mother of Scott and Amanda, and taught hearing-impaired children in Kalamazoo and Berrien Springs.

After earning his PhD in 1973 from Kansas University, he taught teacher education at Kent State and at Texas Tech before joining the Michigan Department of Education in 1977, first as a consultant, then supervisor, and eventually becoming director.

Since retirement, he’s been writing books. “I’ve always been a story teller,” confesses Baldwin, describing the process as if you’re back at camp as a kid, sitting by the campfire. Someone starts a story…”It was a dark and stormy night…you take it, Sue.”

But storytelling continued beyond being a campfire pastime for him, he explains, adding, “Rich never gives it up.”

Baldwin continues, describing his style: “I don’t interview and I don’t research first. I go to my imagination, and it’s like going to a movie in slow motion and I’m involved in it and I record it. I sit at the computer and I tell a story. The first draft just rolls out.” Then comes the writing and rewriting.

Says Baldwin: “The first book is just a lot of joy. You’re just telling a story.”

Currently, Baldwin self-publishes through his own Buttonwood Press (www.buttonwoodpress.com) in Haslett, where he and Patty reside. Self-publishing came about, he says, because “at age 56 I wanted to get the stories out.”

His first book was published through Jenkins Group, Traverse City book publishers. He’s been on his own ever since.

His support group of helpers is extensive: proofreader Joyce Wagner, manuscript reviewer Karen O’Connor and cover art by Marilyn  “Sam” Nesbitt.

Ray Walsh reviews Baldwin’s works in the Lansing State Journal, and notes Baldwin, Walsh likes some, but not others.

Baldwin credits his editor, Gail Garber – also a mystery fan – noting, “She understands my style.”

His research has taken him all over the state. “Oh, it was so much fun,” he says with gusto. “Because I’ve been to those towns. I’ve eaten in those places.”

Although a “down-stater,” Rich holds a genuine fondness for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, partly because of family roots. During the late 1800s, his great-grandfather, John McMillan, was a blacksmith and proprietor of a general store in Dollarville. The family moved to Munising, where Rich’s grandfather, Hugh, was a banker.

His grandmother, Maybelle Howard McMillan, was a gifted musician and artist. Rich noted that his mother also possessed those creative talents and this inspired him, a few years back, to take music lessons.

“Listening to mom play by ear,” explains Baldwin, “I thought genetically, I should have this skill, too.” And, at the cusp of mid-life, age 50, he took piano lessons.

Inevitably, came the recital. A remarkable thing happened. Mrs. Henes’ young students gave this new senior citizen a lesson in acceptance of others that he retells in a special booklet, The Piano Recital.

Baldwin was Michigan’s Director of Special Education at the time. What the students did for him, by insisting that he walk in with them, so profoundly move d him that he began telling his “piano story” at conferences. At last he wrote it down so that others might enjoy it, too.

Combining his love for the U.P. with his love of history and for his  love of history and for his educational field, Baldwin in 1993 wrote a history of special education in the U.P. from 1902-1975. His effort here was to tell “the wonderful story of the people who provided for people with disabilities before the law required it.”

As director of special education, Baldwin says, “it was my job to see that the laws were followed.” For many years, he explains, people with disabilities were excluded and weren’t welcome in the public schools. Programs weren’t available.

Laws were created to hopefully right those wrongs, Baldwin points out. “That is what we did here.” State and federally mandated (in the early 70s), these laws gave people with disabilities the opportunity to be included in the public school system. But the way we went about it, maintains Baldwin, in many ways excluded those with special needs.

“Billy went to the public school as someone different,” he explains. “He had a label.” He was labeled “special,” and was treated differently. Despite laws of inclusion, the system forced him to remain on the periphery.

“We needed the laws at the time,” explains Baldwin, adding, “It’s evolving as it should. I’m proud of the system we have.”

Still, he points out, “We label people. We judge them and we tend to exclude them.” The minister in him exhorts Jesus’ message: “If you have love, you don’t need all the laws.”

Then, he makes a striking remark, thinking back to his experiences in the Department of Education. “I was the head Pharisee.”

Throughout his novels, Baldwin provides the reader with bits of insight into his soul. Follow the trail, and you’ll pick up a crumb here, or a clue there.

The influence of his original call to ministry emerges from under the surface. “If we just loved each other, we wouldn’t need all these rules.”

His underlying belief that we are all connected resulted in his first book of a spiritual nature:  Unity and the Children. Unity is a female spirit who appears to some school children, who then lead an attitude change in public education.

In   this book, Baldwin helps the reader view public education from a broader perspective. While pointing out how laws have created separation and disunity, he paints a positive future in education – where love, respect and unity prevail.

His mystery novels contain thoughtful nuggets for the reader to chew on, as well. “It is my fervent wish,  he writes at the close of Lesson Plan for Murder, “that the future of special education will de-emphasize all that separates us and will emphasize all that brings us together.”
Besides his writing career, Baldwin volunteers at St. Mary Catholic School in Williamston, and he recently was a guest of Webberville Elementary School students who were participating in a mystery writing contest.

He’s a member of Knights of Columbus and Kiwanis, and serves as president of the Lansing area support group for the hard of hearing.

Baldwin is available for mystery shows at conventions and home parties. He also teaches community education classes in self-publishing in Williamston, Haslett, Okemos, and Holt.

As a young man, Richard Baldwin’s career path diverged from the ministry, when he determined to follow the signpost: Special Education.

Now, in retirement, the paths have become one through his writing. And that  – a joy to him – is making all the difference.

Links for Richard Baldwin:

Rich’s website Buttonwood Press

(published Dec. 16, 2011  at www.livingstontalk.com)

Susan G Parcheta may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings. ~  Zuzu Bailey

How much do you love  It’s a Wonderful Life?

You know, the movie.  That one about George Bailey and Bedford Falls.  That 1946 black-and-white film directed by Frank Capra — with James Stewart as George Bailey, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell. That quirky Christmas story that’s oddly become a classic for more generations than you’d imagine.

Go ahead, admit it.  You might love It’s a Wonderful Life almost as much as actor John Lepard loves it.

Lepard, who also is director of the Williamston Theatre in downtown Williamston, Michigan, heeded the call of fans clamoring for him to bring back his award-winning 2009 one-man show This Wonderful Life.

Now, this Christmas, you can once again travel with John down that mythical road to Bedford Falls.  In this solo performance, he becomes the artful storyteller, winging you back in time, weaving playwright Steve Murray’s tale through the eyes of the 30+ townsfolk.

John Lepard's 'Wonderful Life' at Williamston Theatre, Williamston, Michigan

Lepard revels in gathering us around for the retelling.  And, so gathered, we sit spellbound as we watch him transform himself into a town-full of characters.  As for George Bailey, Lepard IS George Bailey…and that evil Mr. Potter, and George’s wife Mary, and his brother Harry, and his little girl ZuZu, Clarence the Angel and Nick the bartender and so on.

This transformational story follows the story of the Capra film, which has surged in popularity since television showings began in the late 1970s.  According to Amazon.com, it’s now among the most beloved American films. “It is also one of the most fascinating films in the American cinema, a multilayered work of Dickensian density,” writes reviewer Robert Horton.

“Capra’s triumph is to acknowledge the difficulties and disappointments of life, while affirming–in the teary-eyed final reel–his cherished values of friendship and individual achievement. It’s a Wonderful Life was not a big hit on its initial release, and it won no Oscars (Capra and Stewart were nominated); but it continues to weave a special magic.”

I ike the Amazon synopsis: “George Bailey has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all – and it’s Christmas! As the angels discuss George, we see his life in flashback. As George is about to jump from a bridge, he ends up rescuing his guardian angel, Clarence. Clarence then shows George what his town would have looked like if it hadn’t been for all of his good deeds over the years. Will Clarence be able to convince George to return to his family and forget suicide?”

Now, imagine an actor being at ease on stage, alone, spinning off 30 different characters and making you believe that you are there with them all in Bedford Falls.  Imagine him being the family man George Bailey standing alone on a bridge on a cold and snowy Christmas Eve.

You know the end of the story of George Bailey, but it still transfixes you – every time. I liked the Williamston Theatre take on it from that first show: It’s “the story of how he got there, and how he found his way back home. Thisreminds us of the power of perspective, friendship and family.”

Theatre manager Chris Purchis, in that year’s program forward, tells us just how much Lepard relates to this story. “What you are here to see is a man who so loves the movie, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ he wants to share it with the world, or at least all of you…..The story is about how one person can touch other people’s lives in ways they never imagined.”

Lepard loves this movie so much, that he energizes the story in a supernova power performance – a one-man 90-minute marathon.  In his words from our 2009 interview: “The show has been a great journey for me. It is difficult and enjoyable at the same time. It takes a lot of energy, and I can feel people when they take the trip with me, so that keeps me going.”

The energy and love for It’s a Wonderful life began — Lepard tells James Sanford in the Lansing city Pulse — when he was 20 years old and encountered the film. He later discovered Philip Van Doren Stern’s original short story, The Greatest Gift, which had inspired Capra for the film. In the interview with Sanford, Lepard explained his attempt to create a stage version, then finding the Steve Murray script. That one-man show earned Williamston Theatre a 2010 Pulsar Award for best play; and Lepard won for best actor in a play. He also won the 2010 Wilde and Pulsar Awards for best  actor for Wonderful Life.

A Haslett, MI native, Lepard is a natural on stage. He grew up as part of the Singing Lepard Family – traveling the country with his parents and three sisters in a bus, Partridge Family style, giving gospel music concerts. A graduate of Michigan State University (theatre) and the University of Nebraska (telecommunications), he did what many aspiring film actors do. He headed off to the west coast.

After 15 years in L.A., though, he felt the clarion call to come home. Lepard’s been back in Michigan ever since, acting in various theatres around the state, including Jeff Daniel’s Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea. In 2006 he and four other Purple Rose folks founded the Williamston Theatre. Lepard is the executive director; his wife, Emily Sutton-Smith is development director; Chris Purchis is managing director; and Tony Caselli (who directs this play) is artistic director.

Bridging the worlds of theatre and film is all in a day’s work for Lepard. He’s on theatre faculty at Lansing Community College, a visiting professor at Michigan State University, performs and directs in area theatre productions, and in his spare moments, auditions for film roles that fit into his non-stop schedule.

Over the past couple of years, with the Michigan Film Incentive, new movie opportunities have come along, including: the Michigan film, Mr. Art Critic(Frank); appearances in Whip It (cop), Conviction (minister); Alleged (Rev. Sutherland), and Red and Blue Marbles (Thomas Jenkins); Scream 4 (teacher); and the TV role of Cyrus Layton on Detroit 187.

While my acquaintance with John Lepard and WT began in 2008, my virtual connection began because of a short film he made when in Hollywood.The Limited: That little film was one of the first selections for director Stephen Simon’s (“Somewhere in Time” and “What Dreams May Come”) launch of the Spiritual Cinema Circle movie club, which is still going strong, seven years later.

I’m a believer in synchronicity, so I paid attention when friends introduced Lepard to my husband and me that fall. We were having lunch at Gracie’s Place, a restaurant across from the Williamston Theatre, when Lepard strode in dressed in painting garb. They were already WT fans, and he invited us all to come over and see the renovations going on. We did

. The rest of the story? I kept thinking what a wonderful person I’d just met. Besides that, he seemed strangely familiar. I knew I’d heard that name before. John Lepard. Meanwhile, I’d suggested that I might write an article for our local paper about him and the theatre sometime. I went home and did some detective work. It didn’t take long; the light bulb came on once I checked the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

The Limited: I’d seen that short film in my Spiritual Cinema Circle collection. I remembered that the movie had affected me for quite some time. And I recalled that I’d been fascinated with the actor who played John in the film, and drawn to the character (John) he played.

The Limited is a train. John is the main character who’s in an accident and finds himself at the train station with hundreds of other passengers rushing to climb aboard. As they ride on The Limited, life flashes before them; and they must confront the choices they’ve made. I suppose the message hit home, because I was beginning a transitional phase in my life at the time.

Lepard’s character, or the way he portrayed it, left an indelible imprint. To think I’d enjoyed a particular actor in a tiny film, and then later met him, was amazing to me. Lepard was just as amazed, as he hadn’t realized the film had been picked up by Cinema Circle. So, instinctively I became a fan of John Lepard, the actor, before I set foot in Williamston Theatre. There, I’ve enjoyed his work in Leaving Iowa; Flyover, USA: Voices of Men from the Midwest; and Home: Voices of Families of the Midwest.

I’ve been visiting for three years, now. The more you visit, the more you want others to discover this amazing place. You find that you want to invite them to join you for a show, or do whatever you can to help keep the wonderful life of Williamston Theatre in Williamston.

Lepard, as director, writes in the most recent WT newsletter, “Our job is to make great theatre. We provide entertainment and escape for our patrons. We preserve the heritage and the voice of the Midwest in our plays. We also serve our community as an economic driver, providing a complement to the many restaurants in the downtown area and creating desperately needed jobs for Michigan artists.”

So far, WT has managed to survive in a turbulent economy. Lepard explains that over half the theatre revenue comes from donations. “We ask you to be a part of the process… a part of the magic… an author of our collective autobiography.” As playgoers who donate, we help secure rights to the plays produced, hire designers, directors and actors, build sets and make costumes, and pay the bills.

Besides monetary donations or bringing a friend to a show, other ways you can support WT include volunteering to usher a show or help do a mailing. There are numerous items on the WT wish list, which you just might be able to contribute. Check out the WT website at www.williamstontheatre.org. Lepard also suggests that you can “make your voice heard.” “Contact your local state senator and representative and let them know how important the arts are to you. This will ensure that arts funding is protected and continues to help arts organizations like the Williamston Theatre.” And, of course, help keep the magic of theatre around us.

Photo courtesy of artist Carol Papaleo, owner Art U.P. Style Gallery in Marquette, MI.

It’s amazing how many people love to take that trip to Bedford Falls each Christmas. I had no idea, since it wasn’t one of the must-do Christmas traditions when I was growing up – and not even in our house when raising our own kids.  I love the movie, yet never felt the tug for a Christmas tradition…that it’s not Christmas unless ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is included.

Imagine my surprise – and delight – to discover that our daughter and son-in-law LOVE the movie and it’s not Christmas unless they watch it. And, at Thanksgiving, another surprise and double delight: Our son said, yes, he and his girlfriend would love to go to the play. They both love movies and she adores Jimmy Stewart and It’s a Wonderful Life.

How is it that this younger generation is in love with a movie that’s 65 years old? Of course, the whole world loves James Stewart and the character George Bailey. The essence of the film is timeless. Turns out, as I discovered on Karolyn Grimes’  (the actress who portrayed Zuzu) website, George Bailey is so loved, that he ranks in the top 50 heroes of all time. This is out of 400 character nominees in the American Film Institute. George Bailey, it seems, came in ninth out of 400.

I was excited to find Grimes’ passion for devoting her later years to promoting the film. Zuzu was my favorite character in the movie. I’m sure you have a favorite character — or part. Here’s mine. It’s the part where little Zuzu Bailey is ill and George goes upstairs to comfort her. She gives him the petals that had fallen from her rose, which he pretends to paste back onto the flower, but stashes in his pocket.

Zuzu’s petals are still in the pocket when George is on the bridge on Christmas Eve…when angel Clarence shows George what life in his community might have been like, had he not been born. It’s as if George, like John riding The Limited, gets to see the significance of his life choices. The petals remind him of the wonder of life.

I walked out of the theatre on a cold, snowy December night in 2009 thinking to myself, “If  only you could bottle up Lepard’s This Wonderful Life’ into a film,  so that you could see it anytime you wanted.” But then, it wouldn’t be live theatre. I thought, maybe John Lepard’s performance could just become a Christmas theatre classic.

This year, my wish was granted. As one of those who clamored for an encore ofThis Wonderful Life, I was thrilled to attend again with my family. Lepard inspires the George Bailey in all of us. Of course, he sounds incredibly like Jimmy Stewart. Such magic: He inspires us to spend some time in Bedford Falls once a year.

It’s Christmas…. Cheers! Let the gift of the season – It’s a Wonderful Lifetradition — resume.

‘This Wonderful Life’ By Steve Murray Through Dec. 23 8 p.m. Thursday & Friday 3 p.m. & 8 p.m. Saturday 2 p.m. Sunday $16-$24 Williamston Theatre, 122 S. Putnam St., Williamston (517) 655-SHOW www.williamstontheatre.comSpecial performances: Friday, Nov. 25 3pm, Tues. Dec. 20 and Wed. Dec. 21 at 8pm

Links for more articles about John Lepard, “This Wonderful Life” and Williamston Theatre: F

ilmography for John Lepard at IMDB

Trivia notes on It’s a Wonderful Life the movie at IMDB

The Limited

Michigan Entertainment Report – Audio: Jim Fordyce interviews John Lepard

Memorable quotes from It’s a Wonderful Life on IMDB

Lepard’s second ‘Life’ from Lansing City Pulse

2009 City Pulse ‘Wonderful Performance’ by Paul Wozniak

Broadway World — Williamston Theatre’s ‘This Wonderful Life’

Wilde Awards in 2010 Best Actor for Drama

‘One Man’s  Life is Wonderful’ by Daniel Skora

Lansing City Pulse 2010 Pulsar nominations

Michigan Equity Theatre Alliance – META Blog

Actress Karolyn Grimes as Zuzu (IMDB)

‘The Greatest Gift’ by Philip VanDoren Stern

Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes) celebrates 65^th anniversary of It’s a Wonderful Life

Artist Carol Papaleo’s Facebook Page – Art U.P.Style Gallery

Three Stars, One Small Theatre by Michael Margolin

Published Dec. 3, 2011 at LivingstonTalk.com by Susan G Parcheta

Emal: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Beam me up, Scotty’…We’re going ‘back to the future.’

I loved Michael J. Fox’s movies Back to the Future, because I knew of the time traveled back to.  Yes, those irrepressible 1950s, an amazing era. How to define that place in time:

Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Rock-n-Roll; Saddle shoes and swirly (OK, poodle) skirts; leather jackets and ducktails; crew cuts and grey flannel; Mickey Mouse Club and Annette Funicello; Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe; Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, James Dean; Dwight Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev; Fidel Castro,  Charles DeGaulle, Queen Elizabeth; The Cold War and the Space Race.

In the 1985 film, Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) hurtles back in time to 1955 to a wonderful small town — a lot like the wonderful small town where I grew up.  You can see the white dome of our county courthouse – above the trees in the distance — from the highway that now whizzes past.  Back then the highway took you through town, right by this familiar landmark in the center of our rural middle-of-the-Michigan-mitten community of Ithaca.

My contemporaries and I – the Class of 1961 – were born almost midway between millenniums, coming of age in the 1950s.  The 21^st Century seemed eons away in 1961.  So did any thoughts of our 50^th high school class reunion…to be held in that far off future time of 2011.

Doris Day sang Academy Award winning song Que Sera, Sera in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 movie The Man Who Knew Too Much (starring Day and James Stewart). The future’s not ours to see…que sera, sera…whatever will be will be.

In junior high, we’d wonder about that future; and, while we couldn’t see into it, on graduation day that future seemed to stretch out forever. All I know is, this summer’s 50^th came and went at warp speed; and time truly does seem to be going faster.

Star Trek, the beloved TV series, wouldn’t take off until 1966, but the stage had been set in our minds for the fantastic possibilities of space exploration to occur in our lifetime. It began in 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, an artificial satellite in orbit around the earth.  Four years later, 1961 would become a monumental marker year – not just for me, graduating from high school, but for events that took place.

It’s fun to review the time continuum from the 2011 perspective, 50 years later. Ah, 50 years. Who could have imagined it, as we walked off the field in blue caps and gowns on graduation day? Notable, historical events happened during that year.

John F. Kennedy took the oath of office as the 35^th President of the United States. A chimpanzee rocketed into the periphery of space in a Mercury Redstone that winter. Cosmonaut Uri Gagarin became the first human in space in April, followed by American Astronaut Alan Shepherd on May 5 in Freedom 7. The Beatles performed for the first time. President Kennedy established the Peace Corps.  On May 25  he declared his vision to land a man on the moon and bring him safely home before the decade was out.

I remember being in class on May 5 when we heard the news of Alan Shepard.  And going to the moon?  What a dream from childhood. I’d gaze at the beautiful light-reflecting orb through my big white telescope that found its way under the Christmas tree one year.  Surely, Mars and beyond wouldn’t be far behind.   Now, 50 years later, maybe time seems to be going at warp speed, but the vision of Star Trek hasn’t moved along as I’d hoped for in this 50-year span of space and time.

Time was on my mind this summer when the Space Shuttle program was closing down and Endeavor made its final mission to the space station. This year’s highlights of 50 years in space felt like another marker year – marking also, a great portion of one’s lifetime.

“What is life? Asks Crowfoot.  It is the flask of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”

Why did I feel compelled to attend the 50^th high school class reunion? Why did everyone else who came? So many that I couldn’t get to visit with them all. Are we all feeling our mortality? Or is it a matter of a nostalgic look back, at a unique time to come of age.

Since the reunion, a few class members are surfacing on our Facebook IHS Class of 1961 page. It’s fun to see the photos.  It’s a great place to reminisce about those ancient places…amazing to see what someone remembers… and then someone else adds to the flashback collage. It’s getting downright nostalgic on that page. And yet, we share  current events of our hometown, too —  most recently our Ithaca Yellowjackets football team winning the Division 6 title at Detroit’s Ford Field.

Back through the years, our local paper the Gratiot County Herald featured historical notes in segments of decades.  After graduation, I’d watch the notices of classmates getting married, having kids. I’d follow their anniversaries. Then I’d begin to notice the obits of our grandparents, then our parents, now  a classmate here and there. Even to find the familiar now, we have to look back to the 50 or 60 years ago. Who’d have imagined? And yet, once a Yellowjacket, always a Yellowjacket.

Class of ’61: Why does the sound of those words feel like home in my heart, no matter how many years have come and gone? I remember at our 25^th, I felt like this must be what heaven’s like when you arrive and everyone knows your name.  Like the popular TV program Cheers. (Even TV came of age in the 1950s).

Everybody knows your name in small town America. If it’s your hometown small town, they know the YOU that you started out with –which is probably closer to the real you, your authentic self. It’s that you, that your old friends, first friends, recognize. It‘s as if they can peer into the soul of you, no matter how many years and life experiences have gone between you.

My friend, Alice, whom I’d barely seen in all that time, that night gave me my senior photo (which she’d kept since graduation) for me to have. That was a sweet moment. Another friend, Linda, who was among the 13 or so kindergarten- to-graduation classmates, gave me my college photo.   And, it was fun to see the gals from our pajama party days (how 50s, right? Sheila, Ruth Ann, Barb, Nancy, Maggie, and Marian – did I leave anyone out?). Judy, my country neighbor, recalls us walking to each other’s house as elementary kids. Marcy (wow, we hadn’t seen each other since graduation) came with her husband and two grown kids for a hometown visit.

Margaret and Bill (among the K-12 group also) also traveled from afar.  We talked about our parents being gone now.  Margaret and I attended the same church and took piano and organ lessons from our church organist. Best friends growing up, we roomed together our first year in college. Maggie married Bill and I lost touch with them – except for her parent’s 50^th anniversary and our 40^th class reunion.

I regret missing the Saturday morning historical walking tour of the streets we’d roamed — from her house to downtown to all the stores that my Facebook classmates are remembering, past the cemetery to the beautiful  woodland park where we’d ice skate in winter.

Sometimes I’d dream of walking those familiar streets of my hometown, Ithaca – the stores, the courthouse, our church, the two-story brick school that is now torn down.  So many dreams of walking its halls (it was our parents’ school, as well), climbing the stairs, driving around the grounds. Only its bell remains.  I’d dream of my grandmothers’ homes…one on East North and one on East South. I’d dream of living in the country; and I’d dream of living in town.  I experienced both.

It would be in later years that I’d come to realize the value of dreams.  Now I love to study and reflect on them, to see what visions and insights might be revealed. Now, I know that anytime I want, I can transport myself to that enchanted land that time forgot, and remember it as I wish.

Beam me up Scotty! In my dreamtime, I can go to the moon and back… to my hometown… or to the future anytime.

Back to the Future Links:

Honoring NASA’s Pioneering Astronauts

John Glenn becomes first American to orbit earth

Alan Shepard, the first American in space

Star Trek and warp drive

The 1950s

Doris Day’s Que Sera, Sera

Fashion trends of the classic 1950s

NASA celebrates 50 years in space

Apollo missions to the moon and back

Space shuttle program over the years

Fifty years of the Peace Corps

Fifty years later…Ithaca Yellowjackets in the news

Ithaca High School alums encourage Yellowjackets football team

Yellowjackets beat Constantine for Division 6 Title