by BETH A. BROOKS
Flourtown opera singer Megan Monaghan insists that performing for audiences is unpredictable. “Once we were giving a recital for the Union League of Philadelphia,” she explained. “Suddenly a phone on stage started ringing, and it kept ringing throughout the entire length of our piece.”
On another occasion, her husband Daniel Boring was playing with the Pittsburgh Opera Company in the pit. The stage had sand all over it, and the animated performers inadvertently kicked sand in the faces of Boring and the other musicians. “We can laugh about it now,” he said, “but we were not happy about it at the time.”
Despite retirement, Hiller still befriending the elderly
Polly Raday, of Chestnut Hill, recently retired as executive director of Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly, a national, non-profit, volunteer-based organization committed to relieving isolation and loneliness among the elderly.
By ED MAHON
After a couple of retirement parties, Chestnut Hill resident Polly Raday still hasn’t stopped working to help the elderly. For 14 years she worked at Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly (LBFE), a charity organization for elderly people growing old alone. According to Raday’s replacement and current executive director, Virginia Pope-Eagan, Raday practically built the current agency. What started out with a Thanksgiving event grew into a year-round viable agency that gives support to 1,000 elderly and, as Raday says, “concentrates on the 200 most needy.”
Polly started as a part-time assistant directing the 1992 Thanksgiving program. More than 350 elderly people were served dinner. Last year more than 600 elderly were served.
Local sculptor honors ‘miracle’ elephant reunion
by DIANE ‘STANDING WOLF’ COLLINS
The elephant piece you see in the adjacent photo is called “Sanctuary.” The story behind this elephant and her fellow elephants is absolutely extraordinary. I will be telling the story at the Cecilian Center in Mt. Airy as a children’s story. Their story was covered on a National Geographic special I saw a few years ago. The basics are these, though they do not do the story justice: Shirley, the elephant, worked in a circus for years from the time she was five. After a long, grueling life in the circus, after several major incidents marking her difficult journey traveling all over the world as a circus “performer,” having endured battles with other elephants, a shipwreck and fire, what finally got her out of the circus was a horrible battle with a bull elephant, in which she broke her leg.
She was going to be put to death, but apparently there was a public outcry, and the Louisiana Purchase Zoo took her in. She was confined to a small enclosure, the only elephant at that zoo for 23 years. Her only gift in this was that she had the same keeper her entire stay. Her keeper cared very much for her and was saddened that she was isolated all those years. After some years of convincing, the zoo opted to move her to an elephant sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn.
Chestnut Hiller hooked on Native American pottery
by YAGA BRADY
I collect Native American pottery from the Southwest, the hand-coiled, hand-polished, hand-painted, hand-everything wonders created by potters who believe in the sacredness of the clay they work with. I am batty about the stuff, in the same way some people are about stamps, coins or vintage clothing. I was asked recently what actually got me started, and my answer was … Karl May.
Well, for those who want to know, Karl May was a German (1843-1912) who had nothing to do with Indian pottery, but who happened to be one of the most popular authors of American Wild-West adventure stories. May, translated into dozens of languages, is considered a classic of the genre, and his creation, Winnetou, a heroic Apache, is one of the most popular characters in children’s fiction (outside of the USA, that is). As May never set foot outside his native land (actually spending a good portion of his life in prison), misconceptions and errors — linguistic, geographical, historical — abound in his writings. Still, the man’s imagination and writing skills were prodigious. During my very young years, I considered May to be tops, right up there with murder mysteries and The Count of Monte Cristo.
World-traveled Hill opera singer opens local studio