Childhood Dream Powers Opening of Mount Granita Storefront in Little Italy.
The owner of Mount Granita honors Little Italy’s history and his Sicilian heritage by renovating a new storefront for his business. By Katie McDaniel
Opening a storefront on Murray Hill Road in Little Italy was always in the back of Christopher Giancola’s mind. As a 12-year-old boy, he helped his great-grandparents paint the inside of their apartment building between tenants. He climbed up the ladder and began painting the walls. He lifted one of the tiles and saw a beautiful tin ceiling above.
“That’s when I knew, I’m going to do something with this one day, and here we are,” says Giancola, owner of Mount Granita.
Mount Granita opened its storefront on May 19, 2023, after three years of running the business from a street cart in front of the building. They serve authentic Sicilian granita inspired by Giancola’s family heritage. His great-grandparents immigrated from Sicily in 1955, and he remembers watching his great-grandmother Emilia Pinzone make granita.
“She used to make a granita very simply,” Giancola says. “It was the espresso flavor granita, which is just basically leftover espresso from the stovetop, mixed with some sugar and then put it in the freezer and mix it up after a little while. It was a good way of making something out of basically nothing.
Christopher experimented with many recipes and is dedicated to only using fresh fruit and no syrups. He took his inspiration from the traditional flavors and processes of granita made in Sicily.
All of Mount Granita’s flavors are made with natural ingredients. Step 1 in their process is to find good-quality, reliable, fresh fruit. Step 2 is to mix the perfect ratio of fruit to cane sugar to water. Then the mixture is put in a machine for a spin while it’s freezing, and the end product is a smooth, refreshing, cold and fruity treat.
Because no stabilizers or preservatives are used in the product, they hand blend every flavor each day to get it back to the fluffy smooth consistency before opening.
“Granita is something that reminds me of what my grandma would make, and it’s something that’s traditional to me and holds a very sentimental place in my heart,” he says.
The building has been in his family for more than 60 years when his great-grandfather bought the building after it was converted into an apartment. From 1914 to the early ’60s, the building housed several merchants and businesses.
“Many of the side streets in Little Italy used to have dozens of different niche stores,” Giancola says. “Our building was first a small grocery store. At one point, it was a barber shop, a diner, an ice cream shop, a shoe cobbler and an art studio.”
Before they renovated the building, two drop ceilings covered the original tin ceiling, plaster and drywall was crumbling off the original brick walls and several layers of flooring covered up the original maple floors.
With the help of family and friends, Giancola worked hard to restore and uncover the building to show off the craftsmanship, the building materials and the building quality that existed in the early 1900s.
When remodeling the building, Giancola wanted to keep the building’s traditional look. He wanted it to look like it belonged in the neighborhood, so he chose to install a striped awning reminiscent of storefronts he saw in old photographs of Little Italy.
It was important to Giancola that his storefront had a serving window to emulate the original street cart and to encourage a sidewalk presence, which, he believes, is the best way to meet people and to have a healthy neighborhood.
“Sometimes as you’re walking along the street, you don’t really want to go into a place, you just want to experience a place,” Giancola says. “The sidewalk part of it was important to us. It’s something for everybody, that includes our bubble machine. Even if you’re not coming to our shop, it’s just something that fills the air and brings up the spirit a little bit.”
BEDFORD, Pa. — Sitting around a campfire last weekend with his four great-grandchildren, my father regaled them about the time he was pulling his Thompson Sea Coaster out of Georgian Bay with his truck when disaster struck.
It was 1966 — a time without cell phones or four-wheel drive — and he was cranking the winch when the emergency brake on the truck failed. He watched helplessly as his brand-new yellow Ford submerged under the water — the headlights somehow staying on the whole time.
With that campfire tale, he introduced the children — all of them born 80 years after himself and 120 years after his parents — to a different time, to places and people they had never heard of before: the Grey Bruce Peninsula and Lake Huron, my father’s career designing glass furnaces for PPG and of course the colorful reaction of their immigrant great-great-grandmother, who was on that trip.
I’m pretty sure the enthralled children will pass that dramatic and humorous story down to future generations, introducing some future campfire children to a man they will have never met.
Folklorist Steve Zeitlin said what my father gave my grandchildren was the priceless gift of connectivity across the generations, best described decades ago by American anthropologist Margaret Mead.
“In his storytelling there is something like five generations of living memory that can be carried on,” said Mr. Zeitlin, who is the founder of City Lore, New York’s center for urban folk culture. “In America that is one of our great cultural treasures because of the diversity of our people.”
“There’s just so many threads of immigrant and also native stories — whereas if you grew up in Europe or in France or in most countries in the world, you have one line of stories. But here, there’s so many different groups, and from Jews to African Americans to Native Americans to Italians to Irish,” he said.
All of these groups have had great storytelling traditions that have intermingled, creating unbelievably good storytellers in many different media. “I think that’s why American literature and American storytelling is so rich,” Mr. Zeitlin said.
The tradition of storytelling often fell to the elders in a family or to a tribal leader in a village, and always involved multiple people listening to the stories — often harrowing tales of grit and perseverance from a family’s or a village’s history, explained Dave Isay, the founder of StoryCorps, a nonprofit that preserves Americans’ stories by recording and archiving generational conservations.
All of those family histories are the story of America.
Mr. Isay said he began StoryCorps in 2003 — at a booth in New York’s Grand Central Station — as he watched the digital age start to replace human engagement. Twenty years later, over 700,000 people across the country have volunteered for StoryCorps interviews, in which people ask their loved ones questions about their lives, revealing stories that might otherwise go untold.
Mr. Isay said all of those stories are recorded and placed for generations to come in the Library of Congress. “It is the largest collection of human voices ever assembled,” he said.
StoryCorps travels around the country with Airstream trailers — mobile “campfires,” if you will — to which you can bring your mom, your grandma or anyone you want to honor by listening. The participants simply step inside the Airstream and talk.
At the end of the interview, the participants get a copy of the recording, and another is sent to the Library of Congress — so that their great-great-great-grandkids will be able to hear their voices and learn.
“To be honest, StoryCorps is less about storytelling than about listening, and I think a lot of what’s important about storytelling, in many cases, is the listening. When you sit in a booth with your grandkid, they’re reminding you that you matter and you and your experiences and your part of the fabric of this country won’t be forgotten,” he said.
The project has earned support from across the political spectrum.
Mr. Isay said storytelling transmits the collective wisdom of humanity. “I think that there’s so much to learn from the stories and the poetry and the wisdom that is hiding in plain sight all around us when we take the time to listen — and much more important than the nonsense we’re fed 24 hours a day.”
A story well-told shakes you by the shoulders and reminds you what’s important, and often what’s important is our connections to other people.
“Storytelling around the campfire or in our living rooms has the opposite impact that a lot of social media does on us — and has a possibility for healing some of the fraying fabric of our country that is being ripped apart so quickly because we don’t have proximity to each other,” Mr. Isay said.
In many ways, podcasts have renewed the art of the amateur American folklorist. While most people listen alone to a podcast downloaded from a server onto an iPhone, there is a growing trend of people holding get-togethers — podcast parties — to listen to episodes together, returning to the communal aspect of storytelling.
Outdoorsman, hunter, New York Times bestselling author and host of the long-running television show “MeatEater,” Steve Rinella has a podcast that averages a whopping four million downloads a month. He and his guests spin stories of adventure and history that often have listeners on the edge of their seats.
Mr. Rinella said in an interview from Alaska that good storytelling — whether it be around a campfire, on a fishing boat in the middle of a lake or on a podcast — tends to gain energy from itself, and one story jolts another storyteller in the group to remember something that happened to them or someone they know.
“We’ve had multiple people who’ve been mauled by grizzly bears come on the show, and incredible experiences which led me to seek out good stories from regular people whose experience wasn’t exactly the right format for a podcast but deserved something much more,” Mr. Rinella said. Those stories became his New York Times bestselling “Camp Fire Stories” audiobook of 16 often perilous but inspiring true stories told in the spirit of a gathering ‘round the campfire. The audiobook was so wildly popular it inspired a second edition — and a third that will be coming out in the summer of 2024.
Relaying stories from an experience or a time gone by is a gift we give to our future generations: My grandchildren begged for so many stories last weekend my father eventually lost his voice.
Mr. Rinella says he gets it: “My father served in World War II. He and his friends who were veterans, would tell riveting stories about the war, and they were out outdoorsmen, and they would tell riveting stories about the outdoors.”
“Looking back on it now and looking at who he could have hung out with and who he chose to hang out with, he was attracted to really colorful storytellers, and I now realize that he went out of his way to introduce me to, to expose me to colorful characters who told great stories, and it was appreciated and cherished,” Mr. Rinella said.
Stories he now shares with his three children.
North Side native Salena Zito is a national political reporter for The Washington Examiner, a New York Post columnist and co-author of “The Great Revolt”: zito.salena@gmail.com.
Ordering from an Amish Restaurant / Store. Mary Yoder’s in Middlefield, Ohio. And a few great recipes. One of our favorites. Was just there this past Tuesday.
Mary Yoder’s is a Amish restaurant my wife and I frequent often. Actually going there for dinner Saturday and I’ll be getting several loafs of bread. Also I’m giving you a link to their store if anyone would wish to order from there.
I’ve had their bread, pies, pastry, plus jelly and jams. For those who don’t live nearby, they have online ordering.
Currently Featured Amish Recipes
Hearty Hamburger Soup
1 tbsp. butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup sliced carrot
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 lb. ground beef
2 cups tomato juice
1 cup diced potatoes
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/3 cup flour
4 cups milk
Melt butter into saucepan, brown meat; add onion and cook until transparent. Stir in remaining ingredients except flour and milk. Cover and cook over low heat until vegetables are tender. Combine flour with one cup of milk. Stir into soup mixture. Boil. Add remaining milk and heat, stirring frequently. Do not boil after adding remaining milk.
This recipe can be adapted to your family’s taste. Celery can be substituted for the green pepper if you wish.
Pineapple Sheet Cake
Filling:
1 can crushed pineapple
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp. corn starch
Dough:
2/3 cup warm milk
4 tsp. sugar
1 cake yeast
3 beaten egg yolks
3 cups flour
1/2 lb. margarine
Preheat oven to 350o. Combine crushed pineapple, sugar and cornstarch in pan. Cook until thick. Cool. Cut margarine into flour as for pie dough; crumble yeast into milk and add sugar. Let stand until mixture bubbles, add to flour mixture. Mix in beaten egg yolks. Knead dough lightly and divide into two parts. Roll out one half of dough on floured board and fit in a 9 x 13 inch pan. Spread pineapple mixture on top. Roll out second piece of dough and place on top of filling. Let stand for one hour in warm place. Bake in 350o oven for 30 minutes. At once put on thin confectioners sugar frostiing. Other fillings such as blueberry and raspberry may be used instead of pineapple.
Cinnamon Bread
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 pkgs yeast
1 1/2 cup lukewarm milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup flour, plus
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg beaten
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water. Soak for five minutes. Combine lukewarm milk, 1/4 cup sugar and salt. Add 1 cup flour, shortening and beaten egg. Continue to add flour until you get a soft dough. Let rise for one hour. Punch down and let rise again. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon. roll dough into rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixture and roll like a jelly roll. Let rise again and bake at 350o for about 30 minutes.
Delicate Lemon Squares
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup sufted flour
Preheat oven to 325o. Mix all ingredients.. Pat into a 9inch square pan. Bake at 325o for 15 minutes.
Filling:
1 cup sugar
2 tablespooons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
juice of one large lemon
2 eggs, slightly beaten
Combine all ingredients. Pour over baked layer. Bake at 325o for 25 minutes. Cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into squares.
Chicken and Dumplings
1 chicken – preferably a 4 pound hen
1 teaspoon salt
Water to cover
4 medium-sized potatoes, sliced
2 tablespoons parsley
For Dumpling dough:
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2-3 tablespoons water
Cut chicken into serving pieces and cook until tender. Season with salt. When chicken is almost soft, add the potatoes.
To make dumplings, make a well in the flour and add the eggs and salt. Work together into a stiff dough, adding the water or milk if too dry. Roll out the dough as thin as possible (1/8 inch) and cut in 1 inch squares with a knife or pastry wheel. Drop into the boiling broth, which should be sufficient to cover the chicken. Add the chopped parsley. Some flour can be added to the broth to make it like gravy. Serves 6-8.
Looking for ideas for what to do with those homegrown beefsteaks or the abundance of sungolds you found at the farmers market? From a savory tomato tart to a sweet tomato chutney, make the most of growing season with these summery tomato recipes that perfectly complement your favorite grilled foods.
Creamy and bursting with flavor, these goat cheese-stuffed tomatoes are juicy and filled to the brim with velvety tangy cheese and the best crunchy breadcrumb topping.
This incredibly simple tomato sauce is Chicago chef Tony Mantuano’s secret weapon in the summer. He marinates peak season tomatoes with olive oil, basil and shallots before spooning the over grilled fish or piling it on grilled bread.
This basic onion tomato chutney is frugal, fresh, and packed with sweet, spicy (optional), tangy flavor with only 7 ingredients and in under an hour. Perfect for serving with snacks, burgers, sandwiches, pasta, and more.
Does anyone dress up when going to weddings? Lately I’ve noticed that more and more people are not getting dressed up when going to a wedding. About 10 years ago I stopped wearing a suit, but I still will wear a nice polo and dress pants. And if I wear a dress shirt, I will wear a tie. Now this jeans and shorts for men just is too casual.
Some of the women I’ve seen lately, same thing. Shorts, jeans, and dresses you would see on Sunset Blvd. So what happened to going out and dressing up?
And the way the couples dress? They’re getting married not going out for a good time. Call me old fashion, but weddings should be more formal.
A great road trip is hard to beat. Exploring by car allows you to immerse yourself in the journey rather than hurrying to get to a specific destination. Road trips in the United States are so popular that an estimated 50 million Americans embarked on one in 2019, according to a AAA Travel survey. From cityscapes to untouched wilderness, you can see it all in the country with boundless diverse landscapes. Take a look at the best road trip in each state for some extra travel inspiration.
Alabama – The Gulf Coast
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Take in Alabama’s beautiful white sand beaches on a road trip along the Gulf Coast. Cruise along Alabama State Routes 180 and 182 — which link the state’s borders with Mississippi and Florida. If you need a place to stop and dip your toes in the water, both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are home to plenty of hotels and restaurants, not to mention sandy spots to lay a towel. Make sure you grab lunch at The Hangout, a beachfront seafood restaurant with live music and epic views. Extend your trip by heading north through Mobile, Alabama’s port city, to Montgomery, the state capital.
Road Trip Highlights: Although the entire drive is scenic, stop at Gulf State Park for biking, paddle boarding, and kayaking. Here you’ll find the Gulf State Fishing and Education Pier, the largest on the Gulf of Mexico.
Alaska – Seward Highway
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If you’re looking for a road trip with breathtaking views around every curve, you’ve found it. The stunning Seward Highway starts in Anchorage, which lies just south of the coastal town of Seward, and is an adventurous journey you can’t miss. Pass the dramatic shores of Turnagain Arm, a waterway in the northwestern Gulf of Alaska, before reaching the dramatic Chugach Mountains. Once in Seward, you’ll have the chance to admire Resurrection Bay, a favorite among photographers, and the Kenai Mountains.
Road Trip Highlights: Stop at the Kenai Peninsula, home to Kenai Fjords National Park. The Exit Glacier in Kenai can be reached by road and offers hiking trails with gorgeous overlooks.
Arizona – Monument Valley Scenic Road
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No trip to Arizona is complete without witnessing the iconic red rock formations of the American West. Monument Valley Scenic Road is the nickname for Highway 163 that runs for 27.7 miles through the tall, staggering sandstone structures of northern Arizona. The alien terrain is eerily empty, and this scenic drive is sure to take you on a journey unlike any other.
Road Trip Highlights: Add an additional 17 miles to your trip when you stop at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park to learn about the Navajo people and discover famous red clay buttes. The loop drive features two hiking trails and 11 lookout points. Also be sure to visit Alhambra, a volcanic core on the side of the road and the village of Mexican Hat to see the sombrero-shaped rock formation. Both make for perfect photos.
Arkansas – Hot Springs National Park to the Ozark National Forest
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Start your road trip in the Ouachita Mountains in Hot Springs. Stroll around the historic downtown area and wander through Hot Springs National Park. When you’re done soaking in the natural springs, dry off and hop back in the car to head northwest. There are two different routes you can take. Outdoor enthusiasts should head towards the mountains of Ouachita National Forest to take a hike or even camp for the night. City lovers, on the other hand, should take the route through Little Rock, the state capital that sits on the Arkansas River. Continue north before ending your trip in the Ozark National Forest — an area that spans 1.2 million acres.
Road Trip Highlights: Stop at Mount Magazine to see the best of natural Arkansas. Take the scenic drive to the peak, where a charming stone overlook will greet you.
California – Pacific Coast Highway
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Take the ultimate California road trip and travel the entirety of State Highway 1 — more famously known as the Pacific Coast Highway. Start at the northern border of California near Oregon in Crescent City. Travel south until you reach Redwood National Park where you should stop to take in the unique scenery. Multiple beach towns and both national and state parks litter this route, and you could spend weeks or months exploring every coastal corner. Keep going and you’ll pass through such cities as Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Malibu, Los Angeles, and San Diego just to name a few.
Road Trip Highlights: While there are many iconic stops along this route, be sure tostop in Monterey, a quintessential Californian beach community located about 100 miles south of San Fransisco. Here you’ll find attractions like Cyprus Point Lookout, Pebble Beach, and the charming town of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
Colorado – Million Dollar Highway
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Winding through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the Million Dollar Highway is a journey through time and nature. Drive through mountain passes and old mining towns as you journey from Ouray to Silverton. The terrain is challenging, but the views are worth a million bucks — hence the road’s name. Many people drive the Million Dollar Highway to earn bragging rights, but exploring the mountain towns of Ouray and Silverton are worth the trip alone too. Located in a box canyon, Ouray is a charming town with a historic street and nearby ice-climbing park. Meanwhile, Silverton is a little sleepier with charming restaurants and antique shops.
Road Trip Highlights: Rest your weary body in geothermal heated mineral pools at Ouray Hot Springs outside of Ouray.
Connecticut – Historic Coastal Drive via U.S. Rte. 1
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First established in the 1630s by the Dutch, this coastal region of Connecticut features plenty of unique historic sites for travelers. Take U.S. Route 1 starting in Greenwich, a classic New England town by the sea. Pass sailboats bobbing in the ocean and lighthouses dotting the coast, until you reach New Haven. There, tour the historic grounds of Yale University, visit a museum, or picnic in one of the many expansive parks. Head up the coast until you reach the Rhode Island border, stopping at the small coastal communities along the way.
Road Trip Highlights: Don’t miss your chance to tour the hallowed grounds of Yale, the third-oldest college in the country and one of only nine colonial colleges that were chartered before the American Revolution.
Delaware – Brandywine Valley Backroads
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Discover the charming countryside of the Brandywine Valley in northern Delaware on the border of southeastern Pennsylvania. Boasting sprawling estates and beautiful gardens, this area was once home to some of the wealthiest families in America and earned the nickname “Chateau Country” due to heavy European architectural influences. The easiest way to explore Brandywine is by taking Routes 100 and 52, which loop through the quiet countryside. Enjoy a slice of American history as you pass through the wildflower-lined roads and proud estates.
Road Trip Highlights: Visit Nemours Mansion and Gardens, a 300-acre classical French estate that will transport you to Europe in an instant.
Florida – Emerald Coast Drive via 30A
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Although Florida has seemingly unlimited road trip opportunities, get off the beaten path and head to the panhandle of the Gulf Coast for a relaxing tour of the Emerald Coast. Named for its shimmering turquoise waters, this coastal region is dotted with small beach towns that will tempt you to pull over mile after mile. Start at Fort Walton Beach and drive across Okaloosa Island on State Road 30A. Observe parasailers, kayakers, and boaters enjoying the sun as you drive over this narrow strip of sand — or maybe park the car and join them on a watery adventure.
Road Trip Highlights:Stop at Alys Beach and Rosemary Beach — exclusive resort towns with delicious restaurants and beautiful homes. Once there, leave the car parked and rent a bike to explore instead.
Georgia – Atlanta to Helen via I-85
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If Georgia is on your mind, head down this rural road trip through the mountains to explore the state’s completely underrated interior landscape. Start in Atlanta and head northeast up I-85 towards the small town of Helen. Along the way, pull over at Lake Lanier, one of the best-kept secrets in northern Georgia which features resorts, live music, bars, and boating. Continue north through the mountains and visit quaint mountain towns before stopping to rent a cabin for the night. Enjoy your morning coffee with views of fog rolling over the rugged landscape as you consider moving here permanently.
Road Trip Highlights: Stop in Helen for a night or two. Known for its Bavarian-style buildings, river tubing, and epic hiking trails through the Chattahoochee National Forest, this town has something for everyone.
Hawaii – Road to Hana
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If you’re looking for adventure in Hawaii then take a drive on the famous Hana Highway around the island of Maui. Start in the town of Kahului and continue east through Pā’ia, stopping at Ho’okipa Beach to catch a glimpse of native sea turtles. Carefully continue along winding roads that hug cliffs and dangle over the sea. This trip isn’t for the faint of heart due to sharp turns and one-way bridges, so make sure you stay alert. Protected forests and state parks will greet you towards the end of your drive. Wai’ānapanapa State Park is a great place to wrap up your trip. With black lava sand and tidal caves to explore, this quintessential Hawaiian beach doesn’t disappoint.
Road Trip Highlights: Make roadside stops for waterfalls like Twin Falls, an easily accessible, secluded area about 20 minutes from Pā’ia.
Idaho – Boise to Idaho Falls via I-84
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See the diverse landscape of Idaho with this road trip through the southern end of the state. Start in the capital, Boise, continuing east on I-84. Leave the jagged mountains and downtown skyline behind you as you head towards the famous Shoshone Falls Park near Twin Falls. Known as the “Niagara of the West,” these falls are breathtaking and measure 45 feet higher than Niagara Falls. Then wrap up your trip in Idaho Falls, which is located on the Snake River.
Road Trip Highlights: Take a short detour north to visit Craters of the Moon National Park. This unique park is known for its vast, dormant lava fields and exciting hiking trails through caves.
Illinois – Historic Route 66
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See the very best of historic small town U.S.A. on this relaxed road trip through the Midwest. The famous Route 66, also known as the “Main Street of America,” begins in Chicago and ends at the Santa Monica Pier in California. The first chunk of the route stays in Illinois, passing charming small towns with antique shops, landmarks, and historic diners. Begin in Chicago on Lake Michigan and work your way south through Springfield, the hometown of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
Road Trip Highlights:Stop in Litchfield to visit the last operating drive-in theater on the Illinois stretch of Route 66. Step back in time and enjoy a movie at Sky View Drive-In Theater for just $5 per person.
Indiana – Fort Wayne to Evansville via I-69
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Enjoy traditional midwestern towns as you travel through Indiana from Fort Wayne to Evansville via I-69. Break up charming countryside views with Indianapolis, the largest city in the state. Check out a museum or tour the striking state capitol building. When you hit the road again, take a detour west towards Parke County and Cloverdale, which is known for its scenic covered bridges and historic farms. Continue down the interstate and end in Bloomington, a charming town in southwestern Indiana and home to Indiana University.
Road Trip Highlights: Take this drive during the fall to enjoy colorful foliage and festivals at local farms. The covered bridges and rustic barns in Parke County set the perfect backdrop for an autumn day.
Iowa – Great River Road
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Take a scenic drive on the Great River Road along the eastern border of Iowa to see the countryside from north to south. Enjoy panoramic views of the Mississippi River along your route, pulling over at protected parks and marshes along the way. For accommodations, be sure to stay in one of the many quaint bed and breakfasts. Along the Great River Road, stop at the Effigy Mounds National Monument in Harpers Ferry, the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, and the George M. Verity Riverboat Museum in Keokuk.
Road Trip Highlights: Stretch your legs at Pine Creek Grist Mill in Wildcat Den State Park. Take a relaxing stroll past waterfalls through the forest or try a hiking trail along the canyons and cliffs.
Kansas – Prairie Trail Scenic Byway
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Travel along I-70, the main stretch of highway that cuts directly through Kansas from west to east, which is also known as the Prairie Trail Scenic Byway. This trip will dispel any notions of Kansas being flat and boring, and introduce you to all the spectacular scenery the state has to offer. One of the first stops through this boundless landscape is Monument Rocks National Natural Landmark. Here you’ll find unique chalk formations where 80-million-year-old fossils have been uncovered. Further east along I-70 is Mushroom Rock State Park, which is aptly named for its oddly-shaped sandstone formations.
Road Trip Highlights: Stop in Canton to take a tour of the 2,800-acre Maxwell Wildlife Refuge to view local elk, bison, birds, and native plants. The tram ride through the prairie gives guests a true taste of wild Kansas.
Kentucky – Bourbon Trail
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Take the ultimate Kentucky Bourbon Trail road trip to see the most notable distilleries in the bluegrass region. Even if you aren’t a whiskey drinker, this route also features some of the best attractions of Kentucky. Start in Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city, and home of the Kentucky Derby. Visit favorite distilleries like Angel’s Envy and Rabbit Hole, while sampling and learning the history of the trade. Continue southwest to Owensboro, a small city on the Indiana state border. Just remember, if you plan on sampling the alcohol, designate a sober driver or plan on staying the night in a nearby inn or hotel.
Road Trip Highlights: Take a tour through one of the best-selling bourbon brands in the world at Jim Beam American Stillhouse in Clermont. With a recipe dating back to the 1800s, you’ll learn the history of this successful company and sample some of their best products.
Louisiana – New Orleans to Lake Charles via I-10
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Louisiana is a melting pot of French, African, and American influences due to its creole and cajun cuisine and culture. See this in action with a scenic drive along I-10 from New Orleans to Lake Charles. Spend some time in New Orleans to start your trip with stops at Audubon Park and along Magazine Street. Continue to Lafeyette, the heart of cajun country, for some unforgettable food and local characters. At your final destination, you’ll find Lake Charles to be a lively city home to festivals, casinos, and rhythm and blues music.
Road Trip Highlights: Although each Louisiana city is enchanting, the landscapes are just as scenic. Be sure to stop along the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest marsh and bayou system in the country.
Maine – Bold Coast Scenic Byway
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Traverse Maine’s Bold Coast Scenic Byway, a 125-mile route near the border of New Brunswick, Canada. From Milbridge, watch the rugged coastal cliffs pass by as you visit active fishing harbors and historic towns. Parts of the highway stretch inland, where you’ll experience farmland, blueberry fields, marshes, and lakes. Continue northeast until you reach Lubec, the easternmost point in the United States.
Road Trip Highlights: Stop in the charming town of Machias for delicious blueberries and a history lesson. Not only is this town known for its Wild Blueberry Festival every August, but it was also the location of the first naval battle of the American Revolution.
Maryland – Blue Crab Scenic Byway
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In an area known as “Tidewater Maryland,” you’ll find a remarkable amount of rivers, wetlands, marshes, coves, and beaches and the best way to discover them is by taking the Blue Crab Scenic Byway. Located between the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay, this 210-mile journey links quaint, coastal villages such as Salisbury and Princess Anne for an imperfect loop. Don’t forget to try fresh-caught crab along the way.
Road Trip Highlights:See the 200-year-old neoclassical Teackle Mansion in Princess Anne and be sure to stop in Crisfield, a town famous for the Crab Derby.
Massachusetts – Essex Coastal Scenic Byway
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Drive along the rocky New England coastline to explore Cape Ann and the charming fishing villages along the Essex Coastal Scenic Byway. Travel from Newburyport to Rockport, where you can explore art galleries, amazing seafood restaurants, and charming shops near the harbor in Rockport Cultural District. Then head south to Salem, taking in the seaside views and lighthouses dotted along the coast. It’s the perfect refreshing road trip for when you need to relax and clear your head.
Road Trip Highlights: Stop in Gloucester for a whale-watching tour to catch sight of humpback and blue whales.
Michigan – Lake Michigan via State Route 31
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Appreciate the wonder of Lake Michigan, the third largest of the five Great Lakes, from the coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Starting in Grand Rapids, take Route 31 for 175 miles towards Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, where you can see massive sand dunes tower 450 feet above the waters of Lake Michigan. Expansive lake views dominate this trip as you travel north to the Straits of Mackinac — the scenic waterway between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas. On the other side of the famed Mackinac bridge are protected parks with abundant hiking, camping, and fishing.
Road Trip Highlights: If you have time, take the ferry to Mackinac Island to experience a picturesque island town completely free of cars and chain businesses.
Minnesota – Minneapolis to the Canadian Border
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After enjoying the cultural landmarks of Minneapolis, hop in the car and head north towards Duluth. The latter half of this journey hugs the coast of Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes. Littered with state forests and parks, mountains, and lodges, this quiet drive up holds something new around every turn. Grand Portage is the last U.S. city you’ll reach before the Canadian border.
Road Trip Highlights: Visit Split Rock Lighthouse, precariously perched on a rocky cliff. Take a tour of the historic landmark, dating back to the 1920s, or stay overnight in a cabin overlooking the lake at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.
Mississippi – Jackson to Gulf Coast
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Spend some time in Mississippi as you traverse from capital city Jackson all the way to the Gulf Coast beaches. Highlights of Jackson include the Mississippi Freedom Trail, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, and LeFleur’s Bluff State Park. Head south through the rural countryside and marshes, stopping along at small towns to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement and to try some delicious Southern dishes. Cruise Route 49 until Gulfport, then head over to the resort city of Biloxi on the Mississippi Sound for a little post-road-trip R&R.
Road Trip Highlights: Sometimes called the “Las Vegas of the Gulf Coast,” Biloxi is worth a visit. There, you’ll find nine casinos, along with lots of restaurants and nightlife. Additionally, Biloxi features pristine white sand beaches.
Missouri – Big City Tour
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See what makes Missouri great by visiting its three largest cities — Kansas City, Springfield, and St. Louis — all in one trip. Start in Kansas City in western Missouri, which is known for its barbecue, jazz, and beautiful downtown fountains. Springfield, Missouri’s third-largest city, is less than 200 miles south of Kansas City and is a great place to visit museums and city parks. Continue northeast for 200 miles to St. Louis, home to the iconic Gateway Arch on the Mississippi River. Breweries, art museums, blues music, delicious food, and botanical gardens are just a few things to enjoy during your stay.
Road Trip Highlights: Many know of the iconic Gateway Arch in St. Louis, but few know of its detailed history. After taking pictures at the arch, stop at the Gateway Arch National Park Museum to gain a better understanding of what this arch means to St. Louis.
Montana – The Road to Big Sky Country
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Enjoy the wide-open spaces of Montana and learn why the state is known as “Big Sky Country.” Start in Billings, a town full of western heritage on the Yellowstone River. Travel west on I-90, through winding roads as you transition from the Great Plains to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Once you reach Missoula, take the scenic road and travel north up Route 93 — passing through the Flathead Indian Reservation. Continuing on, you’ll find Kootenai National Forest to your west and Glacier National Park to your east. Both feature fantastic trails, campsites, and sweeping views.
Road Trip Highlights:Glacier National Park is must-see terrain on the Canadian border in Montana. Enjoy historic chalets and untouched wilderness, then travel along the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road for even more photo opportunities.
Nebraska – Oregon Trail Route
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You’ll feel as if you’ve stepped back in time when exploring the Oregon National Historic Trail. Though the route passes through six states, its Nebraska leg is one of the most iconic and features several protected historic locations including California Hill and Fort Kearny State Historical Park. Explore landmarks that travelers used as they crossed the country like the Courthouse and Jail Rocks — massive clay and sandstone rock formations that jut out from the countryside. Enjoy a sunset over these unique sandstone rock formations as you make your way through the state.
Road Trip Highlights:Scotts Bluff National Monument is a must-see landmark on this road trip. This 3,000-acre park is home to remnants of the historic trail and picturesque rock formations.
Nevada – Las Vegas to Lake Tahoe
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Kick off your Nevadan road trip in Las Vegas with all the classics: shows, casinos, world-class resorts, and so much more. Then, leave Sin City behind to travel northwest along Route 95 for about 430 miles through vast desert landscapes. Pull over to stretch your legs and enjoy roadside attractions like the International Car Forest in the tiny ghost town of Goldfield. You’ll eventually reach Carson City, the gateway city to the Nevadan side of Lake Tahoe. Here you’ll end your journey in style, by relaxing along the beach or heading to one of the many area ski resorts.
Road Trip Highlights: Consider stopping at Incline Village and Crystal Bay at the northern end of Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side. Visitors love this spot because of its never-ending list of activities including water and snow sports, shopping, casinos, and restaurants.
New Hampshire – From Canada to the Atlantic
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You can travel the entirety of New Hampshire from north to south in as little as three hours making this a quick yet enjoyable road trip. Start in Pittsburg near the Canadian border and travel south to the shores of Hampton Beach. On your way down Route 3, stop at state parks to get some fresh air and enjoy the state’s forested peaks. You’ll also pass through Concord, the state capital, and quaint mountain towns on your way to the rocky shores of the Atlantic Ocean.
Road Trip Highlights: Visit White Mountain National Forest and drive along the Kancamagus Scenic Highway, a 35-mile stretch featuring classic New England views. Fall is especially beautiful when foliage decorates the landscape in fiery hues.
New Jersey – Atlantic City to Cape May
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A traditional Jersey Shore road trip can be just the ticket for some summertime fun. Start in resort-filled Atlantic City for gambling and nightlife before traveling south to iconic Ocean City, the location that most locals call the true Jersey Shore. Further south you’ll find Sea Isle City and Cape May — both are idyllic seaside retreats. Dip your toes in the water, grab some ice cream, and soak up a little sunshine.
Road Trip Highlights: Stop at the Ocean City Boardwalk for some family-friendly fun. Go for a ferris wheel ride at Gillian’s Wonderland Pier or walk to Playland’s Castaway Cove for more amusement rides.
New Mexico – Santa Fe to White Sands National Monument
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Plenty of adventures are to be had in this southwestern state, and you can travel along I-25 from Santa Fe in the north to White Sands National Monument in the south to hit all of the essential New Mexican stops. Along the way, admire outstanding Pueblo-style architecture, devour some excellent Mexican food, and marvel at the state’s stunning natural landscapes. Spend some time in Old Town Albuquerque, which was founded back in 1706 as a Spanish colony. Continue south through Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge or Gila National Forest to see New Mexico’s diverse natural terrain, ranging from deserts and prairies to forested mountains and waterfalls.
Road Trip Highlights: White Sands National Monument in the Chihuahuan Desert offers unparalleled beauty in southern New Mexico. The dramatic views of the expansive white gypsum dunes are unforgettable.
New York – Finger Lakes Tour
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The Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York is home to some of the finest lake views in the northeastern United States. This family-friendly region has something for everyone, from amusement parks to winery tours. Cruise along the winding roads from Rochester to Syracuse, bypassing the 11 lakes that make up the area. Each lake has its own unique set of attractions, such as the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail or the Canandaigua Lake Boat Cruise.
Road Trip Highlights:Visit Letchworth State Park for its whitewater rafting and hot air balloon rides.
North Carolina – Blue Ridge Parkway
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Immerse yourself in Appalachian beauty as you wind through North Carolina along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Although the entire journey is 469 miles and stretches through neighboring states in the region, the North Carolina leg is especially stunning. This leisurely mountain road is dotted with endless vistas and overlooks that make it one of the best ways to experience what some call “America’s Favorite Drive.”
Road Trip Highlights:Along the parkway, you’ll get to discover some of the world’s oldest mountains including Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the eastern United States. The Linville Gorge is also located along the Blue Ridge Parkway and is the deepest gorge east of the Grand Canyon.
North Dakota – Fargo to Theodore Roosevelt National Park
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Take an authentic American road trip through North Dakota — a western state that boasts eclectic roadside attractions and a serene national park at the edge of the Badlands. Start in Fargo and take I-94 directly through the center of North Dakota, before stopping in the capital city of Bismarck. Continue until you reach Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the western border of the state. Throughout your journey, you’ll find unique roadside attractions such as the National Buffalo Museum and the Frontier Village.
Road Trip Highlights: Visit the charming town of Medora, just off of I-94, before entering Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Home to a variety of wildlife to encounter, take the Scenic Loop Drive for easy access to overlooks and trails.
Ohio – Ohio Waterfalls Route
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Ohio is full of stunning waterfalls just waiting to be discovered by road trippers. Embark on a journey to chase waterfalls across the state, from Columbus to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Spot urban waterfalls that are an easy walk and stunning natural springs that require a more extensive hike. Map out your own journey to check waterfalls off you list, or follow this pre-mapped route which takes around 10 hours.
Road Trip Highlights: The 65-foot Brandywine Falls are perhaps the most famous of Ohio’s waterfalls, and can be found in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio’s only national park.
Oklahoma – Talimena National Scenic Byway
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Winding 54 miles along Rich Mountain and Winding Stair Mountain in Ouachita National Forest, the Talimena National Scenic Byway is home to stunning valleys and historic towns worthy of your time and attention. Though Oklahoma is considered a relatively flat state, you’ll find rolling hills and scenic overlooks along this route.
Road Trip Highlights: Stop in Broken Bow and visit nearby Beavers Bend State Park for canoeing, bird-watching, camping, horseback riding, and other outdoor activities.
Oregon – Historic Columbia River Highway
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Adventurous travelers in search of the towering trees that make the Pacific Northwest famous should make their way to Oregon. Start 13 miles east of Portland on I-84 to travel along the Historic Columbia River Highway. This 70-mile highway runs through the Columbia River Gorge, home to the famous Multnomah Falls. The lush, green fir trees and ferns stretch on and on, and while you can see everything from inside the car you’ll want to pull over to breath in that tranquil air for yourself.
Road Trip Highlights:Wahkeena Falls, located just 30 miles east of Portland, is well worth the stop. This 242-foot waterfall is surrounded by hiking trails that extend from the overlook parking lot to Lemmons Viewpoint for a 1.4-mile hike.
Pennsylvania – The Big Four
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While Pennsylvania is often overlooked, it’s home to some fantastic major cities. Visit the four largest cities in the state — starting in the southeastern corner in Philadelphia. An icon of American history, Philadelphia is home to the Liberty Bell, Philadelphia City Hall, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art, which includes the famous “Rocky Steps.” The state capital of Harrisburg is 100 miles west. Stop at the National Civil War Museum, or for chocolate lovers, Hershey Park. Head further west until you reach Pittsburgh, the city of bridges. Boasting nearly 450 bridges, this city is home to lively arts, culture, and food scenes. End your trip by heading north of Pittsburgh to Erie, the fourth largest city in the state. Here, you can enjoy the best sunset you’ve ever seen on the shores of Lake Erie.
Road Trip Highlights:Visit Presque Isle State Park in Erie for coastal fun at Pennsylvania’s only “seashore.” This 3,200-acre protected peninsula is home to a high concentration of the state’s endangered, threatened, and rare species — making it a perfect spot for nature lovers.
Rhode Island – Providence to Newport Mansions Loop
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Known for its colonial-era towns and Atlantic beaches, Rhode Island is the perfect place for a seaside road trip. From Providence, the historic capital city, take a drive south and stop in coastal communities along the way. Enjoy a peaceful lunch along the beach as sailboats dot the shimmering waters. Soon you’ll reach Newport, which is home to impressive mansions from the Gilded Age. Your journey south will end at Narragansett Bay by the Castle Hill Lighthouse — a granite lighthouse built in the late 1800s.
Road Trip Highlights:Spend some time in Newport exploring stunning mansions from the Gilded Age. As a summer home for the Vanderbilt family, this estate is worth stopping for a tour. Cruise along Bellevue Avenue to see the rest of the mansions in all their glory.
South Carolina – Charleston to Hilton Head
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Slow down to take in the sights with a Lowcountry drive along the South Carolinian coast. The region, known for its strong cultural and historical roots, boasts Spanish moss-laden oak trees, exceptional cuisine, and Southern charm to boot. Significant stops on this route include Charleston, the port city with cobblestone streets, and Beaufort, known for its antebellum missions and historic district. Hilton Head Island is often considered the southern cut-off point in the Lowcountry region, so make sure you head in that direction to get the full experience. Enjoy some time at the quiet, expansive beaches in the area, while taking in the cool breeze and sweet smell of seagrass.
Road Trip Highlights: Take a detour 30 minutes north of downtown Charleston to see Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, the most visited plantation in the state.
South Dakota – Highlights of I-90
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Take the nearly 400-mile stretch of I-90 through the entirety of southern South Dakota to enjoy the diversity of this underrated state’s landscape. Begin in Deadwood, a classic Wild West city with Gold Rush roots. Rapid City is only a short drive east and is known as the gateway to Mount Rushmore, which lies just 20 miles south. Drive straight through Badlands National Park, admiring more than 244,000 acres of craggy terrain and prairies. Sioux Falls will greet you in the east, where you can end the trip observing the Big Sioux River tumble over the rocks in Falls Park.
Road Trip Highlights:Go back in time and experience the Wild West of the 1800s in the historic town of Deadwood. Located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, this quirky stop boasts gold mine tours, a dinner theater, a casino, and traditional old west saloons.
Tennessee – Nashville to Gatlinburg
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The bright lights and music of Nashville will send you off on your Tennessee journey in style. After the nightlife and excitement of the big city, slow down with a relaxing retreat to the mountains. From Nashville, head east on I-40 towards Gatlinburg near Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We recommend renting a cabin in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, the home of Dollywood.
Road Trip Highlights: Before leaving Nashville, stop at The Gulch, a neighborhood between historic Music Row and downtown Nashville. Visit Two Old Hippies for shopping and live music, then head to the rooftop bar at L.A. Jackson for stunning city skyline views.
Texas – Willow City Loop
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Although it’s short, the historic, 13-mile scenic drive through Texas Hill Country is the best place to spot Texan wildflowers such as bluebonnets, yellow and white daisies, Mexican poppies, sunflowers, and Indian paintbrush. The narrow road is only two lanes and runs from just outside Fredericksburg toward Llano.
Road Trip Highlights: Stopping to smell the flowers is worth taking the drive, but the charming German town of Fredericksburg is also a great place to pass the time. Despite its proximity to big cities like Austin and San Antonio, Fredericksburg has small town charm. Home to more than 40 wineries and tasting rooms, antique stores, and charming restaurants, this small Texan town is a must-see highlight.
Utah – Moab to Kanab
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Want to see as many national parks as possible on one giant road trip? Utah might seem a little intimidating if you’re unfamiliar with the desert terrain, but the trip from Moab in the east to Kanab in the south will make sure you don’t miss out on those spectacular landscapes you’ve yet to explore. Red-rock formations galore and riveting red sunsets make this road trip one to remember for the rest of your life. Along the way, make plans to stop in Arches National Park, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Road Trip Highlights: If you find yourself a little dry driving through the arid Utah desert, stop off in Lake Powell. This reservoir on the Colorado River straddles the border between Utah and Arizona, and features plenty of opportunities for boating and jetskiing.
Vermont – Burlington Loop
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Vermont is home to some of the best road trip views in the country. Take a loop through northern Vermont to stop at two of the most populated cities in the state, Burlington and Montpelier. Start in Burlington, a vibrant city on the shores of Lake Champlain, known for its Church Street Marketplace and freshwater beaches. The small town of Vergennes is a short drive south, where you’ll find Button Bay State Park. Heading east towards Montpelier on Route 17, enjoy a 50-mile stretch of charming countryside. The city of Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the country and is home to just under 8,000 people. Take back roads on your return trip to Burlington and stop at Camel’s Hump State Park, the third tallest mountain peak in Vermont.
Road Trip Highlights: Head to the town of Waterbury for a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory. Then, take a detour 10 minutes north to visit Cold Hollow Cider Mill, a charming spot with a bakery known for cider donuts.
Virginia – Shenandoah Valley Wine Trail
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Fun fact: Virginia comes in at number five on the list of the states with the most wineries. Couple this with the scenic Shenandoah Valley on the western side of the state, and you’re in for a picturesque Wine Trail road trip. Enjoy the art of winemaking — a craft that has been around since the colonial era in Virginia. Barboursville Vineyards and Linden Vineyards are two premiere wineries to add to your list of stops. Some wineries are modern while some are more rustic, and many even have lodging, so that you don’t need to worry about finding a safe ride home (you can find the full list of wineries in the region here). Enjoy sunsets over the rolling hills and vineyards as you make your way through the countryside.
Road Trip Highlights:Veritas Vineyard and Winery should be at the top of your list for must-see stops during this tour. They take pride in their “European heritage meets Southern charm” atmosphere, while offering casual and fine dining options as well as charming accommodations at The Farmhouse.
Washington – Puget Sound on I-5
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Full of must-see locations, this route should be your first choice if you’ve never been on a road trip through Washington state. Take a journey along the shores of the Puget Sound on I-5 from Washington’s southern border near Portland, Oregon all the way north to Bellingham, near Vancouver, Canada. Along the way, you’ll stop in must-see cities such as Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle. Take a detour further west to Whidbey Island, a rugged island on the Sound. For outdoor enthusiasts, Olympic National Park is also right next door.
Road Trip Highlights: Make a stop at Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands — both accessible by car via bridge or ferry. Travel across the iconic Deception Pass Bridge that connects the islands while enjoying the misty canyon views.
West Virginia – Wild, Wonderful Loop From Morgantown
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Home to exciting caverns, picturesque mountains, and rolling valleys, this scenic loop drive will show you the very best that West Virginia has to offer. Trek through the Appalachian Mountains on your drive through West Virginia starting in Morgantown — home of West Virginia University. Continue southeast towards the Monongahela National Forest, a 900,000-acre forested region known for its camping and skiing. Continue your journey west towards Charleston, the capital city of West Virginia with its stunning, gold-domed capitol building. Head northeast up I-79 to complete your loop to Morgantown.
Road Trip Highlights:In Lewisburg, take a detour to the Lost World Caverns, where you can descend 120 feet into the caves.
Wisconsin – Milwaukee to Madison
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A fall foliage road trip through southern Wisconsin might not be an obvious choice — New England usually gets all the attention — but you’ll be amazed at the beauty of the backroads in this midwestern state. Take a relaxed drive between the two largest cities in Wisconsin, with small-town stops along the way. Start in Milwaukee on the western shore of Lake Michigan, known for its breweries and Milwaukee Riverwalk District. Head southwest on rural back roads to Lake Geneva before heading northwest towards the capital city of Madison. Stretch your legs on the scenic Capital City State Trail along Lake Monona.
Road Trip Highlights: Stop at Lake Geneva where you’ll find Big Foot Beach State Park, Yerkes Observatory, Black Pointe Estate and Gardens, and Fontana-on-Geneva-Lake, a charming lakeside village.
Wyoming – Beartooth Highway
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Wyoming is home to some of the most beautiful wild terrain in the country. Witness this stunning state in all its natural glory by driving Beartooth Highway. This 68-mile journey begins in southwest Montana, but travels through northwest Wyoming to the Northeast Entrance at Yellowstone National Park. Top attractions at this famous park include Mammoth Hot Springs, Steamboat Geyser, Old Faithful, and the Grand Canyon.
Road Trip Highlights:This road trip is the perfect opportunity to enjoy swimming in natural hot springs in the region. Yellowstone National Park has a few areas where you can soak in the springs, including Boiling River, Firehole River, Madison River, and the West Thumb Area. The John D. Rockefeller Parkway Hot Springs are also located just two miles south of Yellowstone.
For most 12-year-olds, any free time after school is spent hanging out with friends, competing in sports, or playing video games. But budding entrepreneur Alejandro Buxton, from Fairfax County, Virginia, has another pursuit on his agenda each week: making all-natural candles that he sells online and at a local mall.
The idea was inspired by his mother, Patricia Buxton, who had to give up many of the scented candles she’d filled their home with after realizing the chemicals within them were exacerbating her allergies, causing her frequent headaches.
“My mom really loved candles, like really really,” the seventh grader told The Washington Post. “It was hard to see her sad.”
So, in 2019, at just 9 years old, he started experimenting with making his own, mixing ingredients like soy and coconut waxes with essential oils. He dubbed his first iteration “Jurassic Orange,” for its color and fragrance. Though his mother was a big fan, and the scent didn’t cause her head to ache, Buxton wanted to improve upon his work.
Within the next few months, the Post reported, he’d developed a line of six uniquely scented candles. By the following year, in the midst of worldwide lockdowns, he’d created his own Etsy shop. (How’s that for making the most of a pandemic hobby?)
Soon after, Alejandro began selling his products on his own website, “Smell of Love Candles,” where shoppers can find offerings with creative names like “Sage the Day!” and “Alexa, clean the house.” He also lists hand-dipped incense, reed diffusers, and room sprays for sale.
According to the site, his younger sister Valentina serves as assistant of operations (her contributions include “helping pass the bubble wrap during shipping operations [and] keeping everyone laughing”), while his mother assumes the role of assistant to the CEO.
Now, the enterprising youngster is operating his business in a brick-and-mortar location as well. This past September, he opened a stand in D.C.’s Tysons Corner shopping center — making him the youngest leaseholder at the mall.
Speaking to ABC 7 News at the time, his mother held back tears of pride: “I have no words, to be honest. It’s so hard to express.”
Besides inspiring fellow kids with his entrepreneurial spirit and talent, Alejandro is also a positive role model for giving back and making a difference: He donates a portion of his profits to a local charity.
He told ABC, “We can change the world by helping each other.”
Why Do We Paint Windsor Chairs? And other goodies. Recently someone who follows this website as if it were a religion was worried that by painting Antique Chairs, the value would be next to nothing. Well I think that this article explains it best.
Folks online tend to get in a tizzy when it comes time to paint my Windsor chairs because they want to see me “stain or oil the natural wood.” But here’s why we paint Windsor chairs…
If the chair were a single species of wood, or two species that made for a beautiful contrast (like maple and walnut, for example), I’d be right there with them loving those natural wood tones and being wary of covering them up.
I generally steer clear of stains of any kind though, because call me a purist, but I want the wood I’m using to build to look like the wood I’m using. Pine just can’t passably be made to look like walnut and vise versa. But I digress.
The real reason we paint Windsor chairs is because that’s how they were traditionally finished. That’s in big part because they’re made from three white-ish (in color) species of wood that are too similar in color to contrast well, and yet too dissimilar in texture and pore structure to oil without the chair ending up looking, well, tacky.
Types Of Wood Used For Windsor Chairs
MAPLE
The smooth maple used for the legs, rockers, and armposts is used because of its rock-hard nature; it can stand up to the abuse of leaning and tipping that is common in chairs. Maple’s ability to show crisper turning details and take a really nice finish right off the lathe tool with little to no sanding is definitely a plus when it comes to production turning (think of having to turn 56 baluster style chair components for a set of 8 chairs). Maple develops a nice natural polish with oil and tends to stay pretty “white” in color, though it does “yellow” and darken over time.
PINE
The seat of a Windsor chair is pine, which grows big enough to make solid seat blanks, is soft enough to carve and it also tends to compress around the harder wood components during the joining process, making for tighter, longer-lasting joints. Pine soaks up a lot of oil initially, giving it a more immediate “yellow” tone with oil.
OAK
The spindles and chair backs are traditionally made from white or red oak, which is a really stringy, porous wood. Oak, however, grows really straight and tends to split really well, giving us the opportunity to get really thin, refined-looking spindles that have some “give” as you sit in the chair, but retain the full-grain strength of the tree within their length, so that “give” doesn’t result in “snaps” as you lean back in the chair.
Were we to use maple for the spindles, we’d be forced to leave the spindles much thicker which would make for a much more “top-heavy” looking chair. Red oak gets very red as it ages, and white oak turns more of an amber color when oiled.
Now the several antique and reproduction chairs are made of the 3 different wood. To stain them would just ruin them and the value of the chairs would be cut by 90% if I were to sell them.
Make this cherry tomato basil salad for a dish that’s healthy and loaded with flavor! Featuring mouthwatering mozzarella cheese, fresh vegetables, and a basil oil dressing, this salad is great with an entree or by itself!
Cherry Tomato Basil Salad Recipe
Ingredients you will need:
1/4 C. olive oil
3-4 basil leaves
Squeeze of lemon
1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
2/3 C. fresh mozzarella, cubed
Drizzle of balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper
First, chop 3 or 4 basil leaves. Place most of the basil in a mixing bowl, saving some for later.
Pour 1/4 cup olive oil into the mixing bowl with the fresh basil.
Squeeze lemon juice into basil mixture.
Stir.
In a separate bowl, toss together 1 pint cherry tomatoes sliced in half, 2/3 cup cubed fresh mozzarella, and the remaining sliced basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Drizzle basil dressing over the salad, saving more for later if you wish.
Make this cherry tomato basil salad for a dish that’s healthy and loaded with flavor! Featuring mouthwatering mozzarella cheese, fresh vegetables, and a basil oil dressing, this salad is great with an entrée or by itself!
Ingredients
1/4C.olive oil
3-4basil leaves
Squeeze of lemon
1pintcherry tomatoessliced in half
2/3C.fresh mozzarellacubed
Drizzle of balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper
Instructions
First, chop 3 or 4 basil leaves. Place most of the basil in a mixing bowl, saving some for later.
Pour 1/4 cup olive oil into the mixing bowl with the fresh basil.
Squeeze lemon juice into basil mixture.
Stir.
In a separate bowl, toss together cherry tomatoes sliced in half, cubed fresh mozzarella, and the remaining sliced basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Drizzle basil dressing over the salad, saving more for later if you wish.
Helping those in need.
Photos courtesy of Morgan's Wonderland
Acts of Kindness.
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This Dad Built a Fully Accessible Theme Park for His Daughter With Disabilities.
AUTHORRebekah Brandes
In San Antonio, a one-of-a-kind theme park has welcomed visitors from all 50 states and across the globe — but the main attraction isn’t a sky-high roller coaster. Instead, people flock to Morgan’s Wonderland because it’s a fully accessible space designed with people who have special needs in mind. And it all began with one dad who wanted to make his daughter happy.
Morgan Hartman, now nearly 30 years old, was born with cognitive and physical disabilities and would eventually be diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Tatton-Brown-Rahman syndrome. On a family vacation back in 2006, her father Gordon noticed Morgan being excluded by a group of children she was trying to play with at a hotel swimming pool.
Morgan and Gordon on a ride togetherPhotos courtesy of Morgan’s Wonderland
“It almost puts a lump in your throat because it gives you a sad feeling that, all Morgan wanted was to participate,” Gordon said when recounting the moment to CBS News. “She just wanted to play.”
So, like any good father who sees his child being hurt in some way, he set out to fix the problem — and in a big way. A philanthropist and former house builder, he resolved to create a space where everyone felt welcome: those with disabilities and those without. Four years and $35 million later, Morgan’s Wonderland opened to the world. The nonprofit theme park features 25 rides and attractions and offers free admission to anyone with a disability.
Photos courtesy of Morgan’s Wonderland
Morgan’s Wonderland is “Ultra-Accessible,” meaning all visitors have the same opportunity to participate and be included. Ultra-Accessible standards surpass those put into place by the American With Disabilities Act, the nonprofit notes, and all compliant accommodations must “blend in seamlessly to the surroundings and never attract unnecessary attention to their use or existence.” It’s a model the organization is actively encouraging the wider community to adopt as well.
Photos courtesy of Morgan’s Wonderland
At the theme park, those above-and-beyond accommodations include sound-absorbing floors and pink noise to reduce disturbances for those with sensory sensitivities; a specially designated outdoor service animal area; and quiet rooms where visitors can seek repose when feeling tired or overstimulated.
“It’s the small things that make the big difference: having fun,” Gordon told CBS. “And for too long, I think, individuals had to watch and say, ‘I wish I could.’ Here at Morgan’s Wonderland and all the different Morgan’s venues, you don’t watch. You participate.”
But the Texas native is clear that Morgan’s Wonderland and its 2017 water park addition, called Morgan’s Inspiration Island, welcome all individuals, encouraging the kind of interactions he saw his daughter denied of so many years ago.
Photos courtesy of Morgan’s Wonderland
“That’s the beauty of this place is that it’s an opportunity for everyone to truly enjoy playing together. But also, no matter what their condition may be, that’s not a question anymore,” he said.
In addition to rides and games, Morgan’s Wonderland also offers an experience called the Home Lab, where visitors and their families can practice daily activities — like preparing food, getting dressed, housekeeping, and socializing— in a safe, comfortable setting using regular materials and assistive technology.
Morgan and GordanPhotos courtesy of Morgan’s Wonderland
For out-of-towners who cannot afford the trip to the Lone Star State, the park works with another nonprofit, Project Angel Fares, which was set up specifically to provide children who have special health needs or disabilities the chance to visit Morgan’s Wonderland with their families.
To find out how you can volunteer with or donate to the theme park, click here.
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but where does that leave reinvention? The best cover songs don’t simply repackage something familiar – they completely reinterpret the source material, dismantling the song and reassembling its parts into something exciting while keeping the core of what made it great.
Let’s hear it for cover songs. Sometimes the original can never be copied. It’s that good. But there have been many cover songs that were actually been better. I’ll put some tunes and ya all can see what is and is not as good.
Good morning.Saturday morning in June = BIG time to hit up a farmers market. Yesterday, Matty asked everyone: Which vendor at the market do you always go to first? Our answers…
Molly: pickle stand
Sam: the closest one that’s giving out free samples
Abby: bread, because they always run out if you don’t get there early
Cassandra: compost drop-off
Neal: eggs for those marigold yolks
Matty: hummus vendor
In my area, North east Ohio, we have mostly Georgia and Florida corn and peaches. Some California fruit and vegetables. How about you? Below are just a few Ohio Crops.
Has the end come? In 1900 this fig tree arrived here from Italy. The Gentleman passed on this three to his grandson. The grandson had this for almost 45 years. Knowing first hand the figs from this tree was delicious.
Well the Ohio State folks told my friend that he no longer needed to bury the roots every winter. Just keep the tree in a heated garage. Well he did that and as of yet there are no leaves or buds on the tree.
He usually has leaves on the tree the first week of May. But so far nothing. Let’s hope that the tree somehow survives and it’s 100 year history continues.
Celebrate the Holiday. This weekend remember those who can’t be with us because they died defending their country. Also it gives me a chance to post my wife’s great decorating skills.
Sit back and post a poem or two, or even a song. Also enjoy the pictures or post your own.
Decoration theme is the red white and blue. Hopefully you enjoy Mrs. M’s decorating. It’s a joy of love for her.
Looking at a timeline of Kirstie Ennis’ life, it’s clear that to call her a go-getter would be a considerable understatement. The 31-year-old has completed three master’s degrees, worked as a Hollywood stuntwoman, earned a real estate license, walked 1,000 miles across England, and climbed six of the world’s tallest mountains. And if that wasn’t impressive enough, she accomplished it all after a tragic accident that resulted in the loss of one of her legs.
The former U.S. Marine sergeant — she enlisted at just 17 years old — was riding in a helicopter above Afghanistan in 2012 when the aircraft went down, a crash that nearly killed her and left her with brain, spine, and ankle injuries. She underwent 40 surgeries over the next three years, and in 2015, a severe infection required her left leg to be amputated. Forced into medical retirement, Ennis needed to figure out a way to both process her trauma and continue to protect people, one of her main motivations for joining the armed services in the first place.
She found the answer in the great outdoors. She began snowboarding and climbing, participating in sponsored events to raise money for nonprofits. Soon, she had a more specific goal in mind: She would scale all Seven Summits — the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. Since beginning in 2017, she’s checked six of them off her list, according to Axios. Next spring, she’s set to tackle her final frontier, and the most difficult climb, Mount Everest.
If you have any doubts at all about her abilities, Ennis would love to hear them. “I like people looking at me and being like ‘She’s small, she’s a woman, she has one leg,’ and me being like ‘All right.’ I like being the underdog,” she said on an episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.
Besides her lofty climbing goal, Ennis is on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible — and, from this vantage point, there is seemingly nothing she can’t do. According to her Instagram page, the intrepid young woman is flying planes, riding motorcycles, and scuba diving.
She’s also set up the Kirstie Ennis Foundation, which helped earn her the Pat Tillman Service Award at the 2019 ESPYS. The organization partners with nonprofits, offering educational and healing opportunities to veterans and people who have lost limbs and introducing medical device technology to underserved parts of the world. Its mission is fitting: “To inspire individuals to stubbornly climb the mountain in front of them.”
Charlie White, photographed in 2008 at age 103. Doug Dalgleish
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Early one August morning during a heat wave in Kansas City, Mo., I stepped outside to fetch the Sunday newspaper — and something stopped me in my tracks.
My new neighbor was washing a car. In my memory (this detail is a matter of some disagreement around the neighborhood), it was a shiny new Chrysler PT Cruiser, the color of grape soda pop. It belonged to my neighbor’s girlfriend, and I couldn’t help noting that the vehicle in question was parked in the same spot where she had left it the night before. I deduced that a Saturday night date with the glamorous driver had developed into the sort of sleepover that makes a man feel like being especially nice the next morning.
My neighbor was bare-chested, dressed only in a pair of old swim trunks. With a garden hose in one hand and a soapy sponge in the other, he flexed his muscular chest with each splash and swirl, his wavy hair flopping rakishly over one eye.
Charlie, I soon learned, was an extraordinary specimen: hale and sturdy, eyes clear, hearing good, mind sharp. His conversation danced easily from topic to topic, from past to present to future and back. Even so, one does not expect, on meeting a man of 102, to be starting — as we did that day — a long and rich friendship.
Actuarial tables have no room for sentiment or wishes, and this is what they say: According to the Social Security Administration, in a random cohort of 100,000 men, only about 350 — fewer than one-half of 1 percent — make it to 102. Among those hardy survivors, the average chap has less than two years remaining. After 104, the lives slip quickly away.
Yet on that muggy Sunday morning, it was clear to me that Charlie wasn’t close to done. In fact, he would live to be 109.
Life seemed somehow to rest more lightly on him than on most of us. I wanted to know the why and the how. As our friendship grew, those questions deepened, for I learned that life had dealt Charlie some heavy blows: grief, victimhood, helplessness, disruption.
I came to realize Charlie was not a survivor. He was a thriver. He did not just live. He lived joyfully. He was like a magnet, pulling me across the street and into his confidences, where I discovered something about life’s essentials. The sort of something one wants to pass on to one’s children.
Charlie as the author knew him. (Family photo)
When my children were young and learned Daddy was a writer of some kind, they began asking me to write a book for them. I wanted very much to deliver, to pull a bit of magic from my hat and spin it into a tale of brave and resourceful young people making their way in a marvelous, dangerous land. But every stab I took at writing a children’s novel failed. Gradually, I saw this would be one more in a catalogue of ways in which I would disappoint them.
Telling Charlie’s story might be my redemption. Although he was not a superhero — no wizards or talking spiders populated his tale — his was a story my children needed. A story many of the world’s children might need.
Today’s children, yours as well as mine, will live out their lives in a maelstrom of change and upheaval. Revolutionary change — which has the power to remake societies, cultures, economies and political systems — can be hopeful and might sound exciting. But it can quickly turn downright scary. For many young people, the future is less a fresh field at dawn than a darkling plain at twilight, ominous and fragile.
Parents of children living through such a time want to give their kids the tools they need. What does it take to live joyfully while experiencing disruption? What are the essential tools for resilience and equanimity through massive dislocation and uncertainty?
That hot August morning, I began to understand that Charlie was the embodiment of this vital information. To my unending gratitude, he welcomed me in, waving hello as his girlfriend’s car sparkled.
Charlie was always game for an adventure. (Family photo)
Charlie was a physician. He knew how the human body goes — and how it stops. And he was the first to say his extraordinary life span was a fluke of genetics and fortune.
Born Aug. 16, 1905, in Galesburg, Ill., Charlie began life at just the moment that (in the words of Henry Adams) history’s neck was “broken by the sudden irruption of forces totally new.” The setting of his childhood was a world recognizable to farmers from the age of Napoleon. Civil War veterans were a part of daily life, their battles closer to Charlie than Vietnam is to a child born today.
Charlie and the future grew up together. With one foot planted in the age of draft animals and diphtheria — when only 6 percent of Americans graduated from high school, and even middle-class people lived without electricity or running water — Charlie planted the other foot in the age of space stations and robotic surgery.
He lived to be among the last surviving officers of World War II, among the last Americans who could say what it was like to drive an automobile before highways existed, among the last who felt amazement when pictures first moved on a screen. He lived from “The Birth of a Nation” to Barack Obama. From women forbidden to vote to women running nations and corporations.
Still, as I’ve reflected on this remarkable friend, I have come to see that he was more than a living history lesson, more than the winner of a genetic Powerball. He was one of the few children of the early 1900s who could tell my children of the 2000s how to thrive while lives and communities, work and worship, families and mores are shaken, inverted, blown up and remade.
Charlie’s love of cars spanned nine decades. (Family photo)
Charlie was a true surfer on the sea of change, a case study in how to flourish through any span of years, long or short. Or through any trauma.
For his incredibly long life, I came to understand, was indelibly stamped by a tragically shortened one. He learned early — and never forgot — that the crucial measure of one’s existence is not its length but its depth.
How early? At just 8 years old.
Around 10 a.m. on May 11, 1914, Charlie’s father rose from his desk in the downtown Kansas City office where he worked selling life insurance, donned his coat and hat, and set out on an errand. When he reached the elevator in the corridor — one of the early electric passenger cars — he might have noticed that the usual operator was not at the controls. The door was open. A substitute stood with his hand on the lever.
As my friend’s father moved into the car, the operator unexpectedly put the elevator in motion. The box lurched upward, doors still open. This created an empty space between the unmoving floor of the hallway and the rising floor of the elevator, which was now waist-high. It happened so quickly that instead of stepping into the car, the unlucky man put his foot into the open space beneath.
His upper body pitched onto the elevator’s floor, his legs dangling in the abyss of the shaft. In an instant, the climbing car crushed his torso against the upper door frame so violently that the impact left a dent. Horrified, the inexperienced operator panicked and threw the elevator into reverse. When the compartment lurched downward, Charlie’s father slipped loose, his body following his feet into the shaft, where he plunged nine stories to his death. He was 42 years old.
Over the course of our friendship, I heard Charlie tell this story at least half a dozen times. Not once did he indulge in the sort of “Why, God?” or “What if?” questions that so naturally follow a freak accident. He never remarked on the apparent injustice of a good man’s premature death in a world where history’s most murderous despots — men such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao — had decades of life ahead of them. He never asked: What if an experienced operator had been at the elevator controls? What if my father had set out on his errand five minutes earlier or later?
Yet whenever he talked about his childhood, I noticed a tone shift between the tales of his early, carefree childhood and those that came after his father’s death. In the earlier stories, he was light as a lark. After the tragedy, the boy was armored in self-reliance — as independent as Huckleberry Finn, as resourceful as the Artful Dodger.
As I reflected on this subtle change, it occurred to me that after suffering a loss so enormous, and surviving it, Charlie decided he could get through anything. Brought face to face with the limits of his ability, of anyone’s ability, to master fate or turn back time, Charlie began reaching for the things he could control — his own actions, his own emotions, his outlook, his grit. As he put it: “We didn’t have time to be sad.”
Charlie was not a student of philosophy. Yet in those words, I recognized the essence of a credo that has served human beings for centuries: Stoicism, one of the most durable and useful schools of thought ever devised. It has spoken to paupers and presidents, to emperors and the enslaved. It’s the philosophy of freedom and self-determination, one that seeks to erase envy, resentment, neediness and anxiety. Its pillars are wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. It is a philosophy of radical equality and mutual respect.
Stoicism can be equally as compelling to a grieving boy in the early 20th century as to an abused slave such as Epictetus, who smiled as his sadistic Roman master twisted his leg until it snapped. It teaches that a life well lived requires a deep understanding of what we control and — more difficult — all that lies beyond our control. We govern nothing but our own actions and reactions.
A true education, Epictetus taught, consists of learning that in our power “are will and all acts that depend on the will. Things not in our power are the body, the parts of the body, possessions, parents, brothers, children, country, and generally all with whom we live in society.”
For the enslaved Epictetus, this insight spoke to the resolve to live with purpose and dignity, even as a master controlled his body and actions. He could be bought and sold and worked like an animal, but he could not be made to think or act like an animal.
For the same reasons, Stoicism spoke to Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who survived the Nazi slave labor camps. From his observation of prisoners who maintained their self-respect and goodwill even in those hellish circumstances, Frankl concluded that “everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way” of meeting what life presents.
Nelson Mandela was stripped of his freedom by injustice and hatred for more than a quarter-century and emerged from prison stronger than when he went in. “The cell,” he said stoically, “gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you.” What he made of himself inspired the world.
Charlie often counseled his friends and family in times of anger or annoyance: “Let it go.” But the same spirit — which underlies the qualities we now speak of as grit and resilience — is celebrated in the famous Rudyard Kipling poem that urges:
… force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
Let it go and Hold on! — in the way of so many great philosophies, those apparent opposites prove to be two sides of the same coin. To hold securely to the well-formed purposes of your will, you must let go of the vain idea that you can control people or events or the tides of fate. But you can choose what you stand for and what you will try to accomplish.
You can choose, when hopes and fears are swirling in your head, to clutch at hope. Amid beauty and ugliness, to fasten on beauty. Between despair and possibility, to pursue the possible. Of love and hate, to opt for love.
These are choices, entirely in our power to make. Charlie showed me how.
Charlie in the Army Reserve. (Family photo)
The year I met Charlie was also the year Apple introduced the first iPhone. I didn’t immediately understand the fuss. Perhaps because I write for a living, and started so long ago that I used a typewriter, I’ve always related to computers initially as fancy typing devices. The iPhone’s tiny touch screen struck me as a lousy substitute.
This was an epic example of missing the point. If I had been around when humans harnessed fire, I might have complained that the early adopters were burning up perfectly good wooden clubs.
Charlie wouldn’t have made that mistake. This was a man who understood that thriving through change begins with an eagerness for The New, even — especially — when it comes along unexpectedly.
His career is Exhibit A. Charlie’s medical education, which began in 1925, came at the threshold of modern medicine, when quacks hawking miracle potions were the norm, and genome sequencing was beyond imagination.
Charlie learned before antibiotics, when the leading causes of death in America weren’t heart disease and cancer. Today, those maladies kill mostly older people; when Charlie was a student, most people didn’t grow old. They succumbed to the same viral and microbial illnesses that had stalked humanity for ages.
Charlie didn’t cure disease in those early years — no doctors did. His stock in trade was his bedside manner, a mixture of knowledge, common sense, kindness and confidence that comforted and encouraged patients and their families while natural immunity won (or lost) its battle. Without a pill or injection to work a cure, the general practitioner was wellness coach, motivator and grief counselor in one. “All we could really do,” Charlie admitted long afterward, was “sit by our patients and pray.”
Charlie’s first doctor’s office. (Family photo)
This was the case when World War II interrupted the medical practice Charlie had struggled to build through the Great Depression. Commissioned in the U.S. Army Air Corps., Capt. White was assigned to a windswept plain by the Great Salt Lake, where Camp Kearns airfield and training base took shape in a frenzy of construction. His tasks at the base hospital ranged from ambulance maintenance to the personal care of the camp commander.
The war was one of history’s most powerful engines of innovation in manufacturing, logistics, transportation, communication, computing, physical science — and medicine. Two major medical advances directly affected the midcareer doctor, turning his world upside down. In Charlie’s response lies a lesson for today: He adapted cheerfully to both of them.
The first was the mass production of penicillin, the breakthrough antibiotic medicine — an immediate blessing on humanity after which medical science would never again settle for nature’s natural course. Charlie was smart enough to recognize that penicillin spelled the death of his brand of doctoring. Physicians of the future would not be generalists making house calls. They would be specialists, masters of a narrow set of treatments or procedures. Specific expertise would rule.
The end of house-call doctoring might have demoralized Charlie, who had spent years building exactly such a practice. Instead, this curious, stoical man eagerly scanned the horizon, where he caught sight of the second major advance.
World War II, with its awful violence, transformed the use of painkillers and anesthesia. Advances in trauma surgery accelerated the use of endotracheal tubes to open airways, support breathing and administer anesthetics. Doctors perfected the use of numbing drugs administered through intravenous lines, and realized the value of local and regional blockers that could shut off pain in one part of the body without putting a patient entirely under.
These head-spinning changes came so quickly that the War Department was suddenly seeking anesthetic specialists.
Charlie reached out and seized his future.
Having earlier mentioned to his Army supervisors that he had experience administering ether, Charlie was Camp Kearns’s designated expert in anesthetics. Now, with so much urgent attention to the long-neglected field, he was promoted and given a new assignment: Report to Lincoln Army Air Field in Nebraska to serve as chief of anesthesiology at the new base hospital.
This is how Charlie found himself in 1943 in Rochester, Minn., at the Mayo Clinic, for a three-month course to turn general practitioners into anesthesiologists. The “90-day wonders,” these instant anesthesiologists were called. Charlie breezed through, then traveled to Lincoln to finish out the war.
Just like that, Charlie had turned the threat of change into an opportunity to grow. No longer was he an endangered generalist trying to hang on to a precarious piece of a dying field. Instead, when the war ended, he returned home as a pioneer in a new and rapidly growing specialty — one of the first anesthesiologists in Kansas City, and with a Mayo Clinic seal of approval.
To me, this episode contains the essence of Charlie’s life. And a crucial lesson for the rest of us.
It’s natural to feel anxiety and even fear amid looming change and intense uncertainty. My own field, journalism, has shrunk by half over the past 15 years. Artificial intelligence might finish off the other half. What will self-driving technology do to truck drivers? What will contract-writing software do to attorneys?
But it helps to understand that change is nothing new. Nearly 40 percent of Americans lived on a farm when Charlie was born. Today: 1 percent.
The fact that the future is full of uncertainty doesn’t necessarily mean it is full of gloom. Realism and optimism fit together powerfully. Too many people believe that realism — seeing the world as it is, with all its pain and threats — demands a pessimistic response. The optimist is deluded, they believe, a Pollyanna moving blindly through a bleak existence with a dumb smile.
Charlie was realistic about the professional dead end he had reached. Yet he was optimistic about new beginnings. So, when he saw a door closing up ahead, he didn’t stop and walk away. He pushed it open and strode through.
Charlie as a young man. (Family photo)
Charlie’s new life as a specialist allowed him to indulge his bottomless curiosity and zest for experiments. Horse-tank heart surgery, for instance.
After the war, one of the riskiest frontiers of medicine — and therefore among the most exciting to Charlie — was open-heart surgery. Like penicillin and anesthesia, the idea got a boost from World War II. Battlefield soldiers arrived at hospitals with shards of shrapnel in their hearts. Conventional wisdom held that the heart was inviolate; therefore, there was no way to extract these metal fragments. A heart wound was a death sentence.
But an Iowa-born doctor named Dwight Harken, billeted to a London military hospital, reasoned that if soldiers were going to die anyway, there was no harm in trying to save them. He experimented with finger-size incisions in the heart wall to allow him to reach quickly inside and remove the shrapnel. The gamble was a huge success: Harken saved more than 125 lives.
After the war, Harken and others realized that the same technique might be useful in treating mitral valve stenosis, a potentially fatal condition that often resulted when a youthful strep throat infection worsened into rheumatic fever. Fibrous tissue inside the heart caused the mitral valve to narrow, leading to high blood pressure, blood clots, blood in the lungs and even heart failure.
Charlie and his colleagues in Kansas City were intrigued to read in medical journals about experimental surgery to repair stenotic valves. “The surgeon could reach in real quick,” Charlie said, and with his finger probe for the fibrous tissue, stretch the valve, break the adhesion and get out. “The whole thing could be done in under an hour.”
But even a relatively brief valve surgery ran a high risk of death unless the flow of blood through the heart could be slowed dramatically. Researching the matter further, Charlie learned of experiments in which patients under anesthesia were chilled to thicken and slow the flow of blood. To pioneer open-heart surgery in Kansas City, he simply needed to figure out how to safely chill an unconscious patient.
Historic Kansas City (Family photo)
Enter the horse tank.
After work one day, Charlie was tending to some horses he had purchased along with a little plot of land. As he worked, his eye fell on the large oval trough that held water for his livestock. In a flash, he realized this was just what he needed.
A horse tank was big enough to hold a sleeping patient. “I bought a horse tank and we put the patient under anesthesia and packed him in ice,” Charlie told me. When he was cold enough, “we lifted him from the tank full of ice, placed him on the operating table, and quickly the surgeon opened the chest and made an incision in the heart. He went inside, broke up the fibrous tissue, sewed him back up, and it was done. In an hour, the patient was all thawed out.”
Charlie’s horse tank served as the leading edge of cardiac surgery in Kansas City for some time. “We never lost a patient,” he said.
People familiar with the lingo of Silicon Valley might recognize in this story what is known as IID — iterative and incremental development. It is a supremely practical, pragmatic approach to change, a philosophy that recognizes that great transformations rarely come as single thunderbolts.
There is a Stoic flavor to the approach, because it works with the material and the moment at hand, rather than pine after something better beyond one’s grasp. IID says: Don’t demand a perfect solution before tackling a problem. Move step by step (that’s the incremental part), improving with each new learning experience (that’s the iterative part).
Thomas Edison tested 6,000 filaments to find the best one for his lightbulb. Charlie understood that open-heart surgery wouldn’t arrive in fully formed glory, like a Hollywood ending. First, progress had to spend a year or two in an ice bath rigged from farm equipment.
This is how we live with change: step by step. This is how even elderly and change-resistant people have learned to pump their gasoline with a credit card reader and watch their great-grandchildren take first steps on social media. Charlie embraced that he would be learning new things as long as he lived, and he moved forward by accepting that he would advance in small increments.
He was also willing to make mistakes. Charlie told me he was glad to have worked in an era before malpractice lawsuits were common — when he could participate in what he estimated to be about 40,000 surgeries and “be innovative and not fear the stab of the lawyers, you know?”
And mistakes didn’t come only in the operating theater. After the war, when a buddy suggested that Charlie invest in a fledgling Colorado ski resort called Aspen, he scoffed: “That’s just a ghost town!”
Definitely a mistake.
A salesman by the name of Ewing Kauffman once tried to interest Charlie in a start-up business he had launched in his basement. “He was cleaning oyster shells in a washing machine and grinding them into antacid powder,” Charlie said, still slightly incredulous. Charlie held on to his money. Kauffman’s business, Marion Labs, became a major pharmaceutical company worth billions.
Another mistake.
I once commented on the various fortunes Charlie had missed, and he cheerfully replied that I didn’t know the half of it. He seemed to derive as much delight from recalling these blunders as he did from remembering his triumphs.
Mistakes can have virtue, Charlie knew. They show we’re making the effort, engaging with life, “in the arena,” as Theodore Roosevelt put it. Or as Epictetus, that marvelous Stoic, said: “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
An avid skier, Charlie missed out on investing in Aspen. (Family photo)
A very long life is like a very large mansion. There are many rooms and all the rooms are big. Charlie had not one but two careers as a doctor: years as a general practitioner, followed by decades as an anesthesiologist. His retirement was as long as most careers. He had not one but two long marriages, plus years as a single man.
Everywhere he went, of course, people asked him for his secret to longevity. His answer was deflating: just luck, he insisted.
His genome, over which he had no influence, had not betrayed him with a weak heart or a wasting disease. Unlike his father, Charlie never saw his number come up in the cosmic lottery of freak accidents.
Luck.
His mother started a May morning in 1914 as the married parent of five children and by noon was a widow with no job and no prospects. She didn’t go to pieces. She turned her home into a boardinghouse and encouraged her children to pitch in. She taught them to be independent and self-sustaining simply by “putting the responsibility of life on us,” as Charlie remembered fondly. Because she believed in them, they believed in themselves.
Luck.
Charlie was also, of course, fortunate to have been a White man in the 20th-century United States, free to go where he pleased and dream as big as he wanted. The same Midwest of the 1920s that nurtured his optimistic spirit was a hotbed of populist nationalism and the Ku Klux Klan. Unlike women and people of color, he could seize opportunities because doors were open to him that were closed to so many others.
Luck.
Charlie’s stepdaughter began feeling poorly after a vacation at age 66. A scan disclosed tumors throughout her body and she was gone within months. A few weeks after she died, Charlie turned 102.
Luck.
That’s the age Charlie was when I met him.
My luck.
In 2012, when he was 106, Charlie slipped on a patch of ice outside his front door one frigid day, and his ankle broke with a pop. In typical fashion, he shrugged it off.
At 107, he was hospitalized with pneumonia — a disease so efficient at bringing long lives to relatively merciful ends that it has a nickname: the old man’s friend.
Nope.
Then, at 108, Charlie at last lost his independence. He moved into a nursing home, and one day word came from his family that he was fading fast, telling loved ones that death was near and assuring them he was ready. His wide circle of friends and admirers braced for fate to catch at his collar. But springtime blossomed again, and Charlie had a change of heart. His birthday was near, and having come so far, he decided he might as well keep going to 109.
How unlike Charlie, I thought to myself — to imagine he had control over something as powerful and capricious as death. One of the core teachings of Stoicism is that death keeps its own datebook; it can come at any time, and the only certainty is that it will eventually get to you. Therefore, “let us postpone nothing,” said the amiable Roman philosopher and playwright Seneca. “Let us balance life’s books every day.”
The glories of May warmed into June, sweltered into July. On the day my phone finally rang — Charlie was gone — I checked a calendar, then shook my head, which swam lightly in a flood of amazement and delight. It was Aug. 17, 2014. Quietly, in the wee hours after his birthday, Charlie had let go.
In the end, Charlie defied the actuaries to become one of the last men standing — one of only five fellows from the original 100,000 expected to make it to 109. By the time he was done, he had lived nearly half the history of the United States.
Among Charlie’s things after he was gone, his family found a single sheet of notepaper, on which Charlie had boiled 109 years into an operating code of life. He filled the sheet front and back in flowing ballpoint pen, writing in definitive commands. Among them:
Think freely. Practice patience. Smile often. Forgive and seek forgiveness.
Feel deeply. Tell loved ones how you feel.
Be soft sometimes. Cry when you need to. Observe miracles.
Charlie with Mary Ann Cooper, his final romance. (Family photo)
As I studied Charlie’s list, it seemed to me that each directive, by itself, was like a greeting card or a meme. Charlie’s takeaways from more than a century of living were things we already know, for we have heard them a thousand times.
But after a few years to think about it, I have arrived at a theory that a life well-led consists of two parts.
In the first, we are complexifiers. We take the simple world of childhood and discover its complications. We say, “yes — but …” and “maybe it’s not that easy.” Nothing is quite as it seems.
Then, if we live long enough, we might soften into the second stage and become simplifiers. For all the books on all the shelves of all the world’s libraries, life must in the end be lived as a series of discrete moments and individual decisions. What we face might be complicated, but what we do about it is simple.
“Do the right thing,” Charlie remembered his mother telling him.
“Do unto others,” a teacher told his disciples, “as you would have them do unto you.”
Charlie lived so long that the veil of complexity fell away and he saw that life is not so hard as we tend to make it. Or rather: No matter how hard life might be, the way we ought to live becomes a distillate of a few words. The essentials are familiar not because they are trite, but because they are true.
Centenarians are an oft-celebrated population for their remarkable longevity and wisdom. But how do some people live so long? A study published in The Lancet this past March has identified unique immune system characteristics that enable certain individuals to live to age 100 and beyond.
“We assembled and analyzed what is, to our knowledge, the largest single-cell dataset of centenarian subjects that allowed us to define unique features of this population that support the identification of molecular and lifestyle factors contributing to their longevity,” senior author Stefano Monti, an associate professor at Boston University’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, said in a press release.
According to the researchers, the immune system generally declines — becoming less responsive and adaptable — as we age. But the immune profiles of the centenarians studied seemed to buck that trend.
Henrik5000/ iStock
The study sought to identify “immune-specific patterns of aging and extreme human longevity,” first performing single cell sequencing on immune cells circulating in the blood of seven centenarians. The subjects are enrolled in a concurrent study of long-lived individuals called the “New England Centenarian Study,” led by Thomas Perls, who is also among the new study’s authors.
The information obtained by the single cell sequencing was then integrated with two publicly available datasets, and researchers used advanced computational techniques to analyze the combined data and see how the cells change as subjects age. Per the study, the results pointed to “the presence of elite immunity that remains highly functional at extreme old age.”
Senior author Paola Sebastiani explained in the release, “The immune profiles that we observed in the centenarians confirms a long history of exposure to infections and capacity to recover from them and provide support to the hypothesis that centenarians are enriched for protective factors that increase their ability to recover from infections.”
Jeremy Poland/ iStock
However, the study could not pinpoint whether this increased ability to recover is due to genetics or a confluence of factors.
“The answer to what makes you live longer is a very complex one,” Monti told USA Today. “There’s multiple factors, there’s the genetics — what you inherit from a parent — there’s lifestyle, there’s luck.”
What the study did accomplish is providing the researchers and other scientists a foundation for studying the immune resilience of centenarians and using that knowledge to develop healthy aging therapeutics.
“Centenarians, and their exceptional longevity, provide a ‘blueprint’ for how we might live more productive, healthful lives,” another senior author, George J. Murphy, said in the press release. “We hope to continue to learn everything we can about resilience against disease and the extension of one’s health span.”
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