Marlene Wagman-Geller

“You can never tell who your enemies are, or who to trust. Maybe that’s why I love animals so much.”

   The modern zoo originated in 1907 when a German animal whisperer opened the eponymous Carl Hagenbeck Animal Park. Hans Augusto Rey, a frequent visitor, spent hours drawing monkeys he later immortalized in his literary creation, Curious George. A Polish zoo was also a curious place whose owner understood that those who emulate the three proverbial monkeys-see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil- are complicit in inhumanity.

Revolutions have made deep inroads on the face of history: the French, American, and Russian Revolutions irrevocably altered the world. However, there was another type of upheaval, equally ideological, but far less bloody, that led not to political change but to revolution. Moreover, in the process, a bird once only indigenous to the Arctic became ubiquitous throughout the world.

Rose to Blanche, “I thought you wore too much make-up and were a slut. I was wrong. You don’t wear too much make-up.”

    Picture it: Miami, 1985. NBC aired a novel series that featured women of a certain age who did more than strategize where to place their crotchet creations. Instead, the Four Musketeers from The Golden Girls proved there was life post menopause.

   From time immemorial, relationships have often been expressed through gifts. Some, like Eve’s apple and the Trojan Horse, proved unkind to those who received them, while other gifts have been odes to romance. Few women have received as wondrous a present as Cosima Wagner did when Richard composed the Siegfried Idyll for her birthday. Tsar Alexander’s Fabergé egg gained mileage with his young bride, as did Burton’s 68-carat diamond to his ladylove. Resplendent as the symphony, the egg, and the ring may be, nothing could rival a son’s tribute to his mother.

“Two hundred women, no phones, no washing machines, no hair-dryers, it was like Lord of the Flies on estrogen.” Piper

     Television series centering on female friends? check; on family dynamics? check; on landing Mr. Right? check. Not until the arrival of Netflix’s dramedy, Orange is the New Black, did the small screen turn to the hell of incarcerated women.

Harriet Tubman Home (opened 2017)

180 South St. Auburn, New York, 13021

“There was one of two things I’ve got a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive.” Harriet Tubman

    The old Negro spiritual holds the plaintive words, “Swing low, sweet chariot/Coming for to carry me home…” For the enslaved, home referred to heaven, the end of earthly misery. The Harriet Tuman Home is a testament to dreams do not have to wait for the hereafter.

“I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.” – Frida Kahlo

Museo Frida Kahlo (opened in 1958)

Londres 247, Colonia del Carmen, Coyoacán, México 

            In the early and mid-twentieth century, Coyoacán was Mexico City’s Montparnasse, Greenwich Village, and Haight Ashbury as artists congregated in its free-spirited enclave. And the queen of Boho, Frida Kahlo, reigned from her eclectic blue Casa Azul, (the blue a nod to the cultural tradition that it wards off evil spirits), now the Museo Frida Kahlo.

Chapter # 9:  Don’t Forget Me 

“I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.” – Frida Kahlo

Museo Frida Kahlo (opened in 1958)

Londres 247, Colonia del Carmen, Coyoacán, México 

            In the early and mid-twentieth century, Coyoacán was Mexico City’s Montparnasse, Greenwich Village, and Haight Ashbury as artists congregated in its free-spirited enclave. And the queen of Boho, Frida Kahlo, reigned from her eclectic blue Casa Azul, (the blue a nod to the cultural tradition that it wards off evil spirits), now the Museo Frida Kahlo.

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched-they must be felt with the heart.” Helen Keller

Ivy Green

300 N Commons St W, Tuscumbia, Alabama (opened 1954)

   It would be difficult to refrain from crying while watching The Miracle Worker. Tears flow along with the water from the pump as Helen cried out, “Wah! Wah!” Helen Keller’s birth house, Ivy Green, is testimony to prevailing over seemingly impossible odds.

"I am constantly having to make an upheaval for some reason.” – Sarah Winchester

Winchester Mystery House (opened in 1923)

525 S. Winchester Blvd. San Jose, California

            How the West was won - or lost - depending on one’s perspective was determined by who wielded the Winchester Repeating Rifle. The heiress to the company’s fortune, Sarah Winchester, had a life bookmarked by guilt and guns.