I was raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, went to the local elementary  school until 8th grade when I was sent to The Baldwin School, an academic,  independent girls school.  The curriculum there was classic and rigorous, which I tried my best to ignore, being more interested in my friends, but some of the quality education seeped in, for which I’m forever grateful.

After Baldwin, I went to Sarah Lawrence College for freshman year, where  “progressive education” was quite new to me but well-suited and I was free to explore ideas in English and Social Science that interested me.

But life took an unexpected turn that summer, my long-time boyfriend was drafted and we decided to marry before he left.  I became a wife and mother, moving around, keeping house, raising children.  When all three were in school, I began taking courses at the Community College. I went at night for about two years –by now I was on fire about learning– and graduated Summa Cum Laude, 5th in a class of 2,000.  Very proud.  It wasn’t what I’d expected.

So I applied to Bryn Mawr College, was accepted, and spent the next four years ( part-time, I still needed to take care of my family) reveling in the study of every subject they required of me. The demands were high, the standards higher, and I loved it all.

When I finished, I had a yearning to teach English (my major) at my old school,  Baldwin. I think I had some notion of making up for my largely misspent years there. I’d decided it was either Baldwin or a Ph.D.  During the summers, I’d taken graduate courses at the University of Pennsylvania.  But I  got the job, teaching 8th, 11th, and 12th grades, eventually becoming Head of the English Department, and stayed for fifteen years.  

1. Then another change, or how I got to Lancaster.  An opportunity came along to buy a 75 acre farm in Lancaster County.  It offered dreams-come-true for both of us.  For my husband, an architect, there was a 250- year- old abandoned farmhouse to restore to its original (almost) condition, and for me, a stable for a horse and lots of grassy area for what would be my chickens, Chinese Silkies.  

When we’d been settled for about a year, I began to miss teaching and started volunteer tutoring in reading and classroom assisting in the Lancaster City Public Schools.  The kids were great, I watched them learn, and we had fun.  I also attended a Short Story class at Quest, an adult enrichment program, and realized how much I missed reading and discussing literature.  When the current leader retired, I was asked to take his place and I said, happily, “Yes”!  And there began “Discovering Short Stories” and many years of discussing the joys of literature with adults. That going well, I formed the same class at the Lancaster Public Library.  It, too, drew enthusiastic, serious readers and I was delighted.

Now I want to write about Poetry.  The poems I like most.  I’m hoping there are some of you and others out there who will like them, too, and please feel free to comment.

Judy