Friday, December 16, 2011

Beulah's Boogie: Part 1

    “Our children won’t have to ride in the Jim Crow car,” Nassau Knapp promised his new bride.  


“They won’t have to bring shoe boxes full of cold, greasy chicken on the train or eat behind a screen in the dining car."


"Our children will ride the freedom train. "


   “That’s why I signed up to train as a fighter pilot down in Tuskegee."



"My people have been free and settled in Massachusetts since the Revolutionary War."



"I had never been south of the Mason-Dixon line before,"


"and some of the cracker officers we had didn’t want to see Negroes flying airplanes."

 

"We sure showed them!"


  
“Pampelleria,"


"Lampedusa,"


"Limosa..."


"…every time I flew into battle I thought I would die,"


"but I swore that if I made it back alive I would keep fighting until liberty and justice for all was a reality on the home front as well as abroad."



   “I know you’re young, Beulah."



"I should have asked your father’s blessing before I carried you off like this."


"I should have given you the time to plan the big, beautiful wedding every girl dreams of."


"I should have waited for you to finish your education, but you seemed pretty fond of that clown you were dating when I met you and I couldn’t take the chance the he or some other fellow would snap you up."


   “I love you so much, Beulah -- I need you so much."



"Thank you for doing me the honor of becoming my wife.”


To be continued...
***

Here is a sneak preview of meals i'll be making in upcoming tutorials: 


Most will feature healthier foods, but sixty years ago people didn't know that the traditonal "country breakfast" was full of artery-clogging cholesterol and carcinogenic nitrites so Nassau ordered an omelet, sausage patties, and a hot biscuit with butter and jam while Beulah ordered a sunny-side up egg, two strips of bacon, and toast with jam.  This story has at least two more installments so stay tuned to find out how Beulah and Nassau met and to see the tutorial on making the updo twists wig Beulah is wearing.

À Bientôt

10 comments:

  1. Phenomenal story! Love seeing all the wonderful props. Those GI Joe men are just so handsome. You did a really nice job on the food. I look forward to seeing your healthy food, too.

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  2. How when I read your stories I get some emotional!

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  3. Wonderful story! Looking forward to the next two!

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  4. Hi Ladies,

    Glad you enjoyed the story. I had a lot of fun shooting it. The good thing about using black and white photos is you can't see how many of the props were obnoxious Barbie pink! I borrowed the uniforms from Hasbro's Tuskeegee Airman G.I. Joes but didn't use any Joes in the story. I bought Nassau Knapp at Dollar Tree in 2004 or 2005. Two of the other airmen are Power Team guys.

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  5. Beautiful love story! Would love to have my own Nassau.

    The food looks appeitizing. We ate like that as children (eggs several times a week, bacon, whole milk, etc.), but interestingly no one got sick and cancer was unheard of. Our food was real, unprocessed or not as processed and not hormone and sodium laden as it is today. Today we've given up longer preparation of better food for processed quick meals that are filled with cancer-causing additives.

    dbg

    dbg

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  6. Hello from Spain: uf, that wonderful history of how it was of hard the life in the past. Before everything was valued more because much work cost to leave forwards. I already see that Beulah and Nassau was known and married in this surroundings. Very good work with the wig of Beulah. The photos and the clothes enchant to me that you put to them. We follow in contact of blog blog

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  7. The black and white photos helped set the period, the history of the story. I loved how you used B/W film for most of the photos. The historical aspect enriches the story and lends a realism to it.

    I kept trying to figure out who Nassau is, but I couldn't "place" him. I congratulate you for being able to use less expensive dolls effectively. Part of your storytelling genius.

    Thanks for sharing this story. I look forward to seeing future stories with these characters.

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  8. Hi Debbie, D7ana, and Marta,

    Thank you for your comments. Debbie you are right that food was much less processed and had fewer additives in those days. People were also more active so they burned the calories they consumed.

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  9. Bravo, bravo!! Nice story. I look forward to the future ones. Your food looks good. Another tutorial - yay! I love your tutorials.

    Have a lovely Sunday!

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  10. Great story. Loved the historic angle.

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