leroy fretz from volume two in this project, born in 1920, passed away november 20, 2018.

leroy fretz from volume two in this project passed away last week at the age of 98.

he worked for glen-gery in the world of brick-making for almost four decades in his younger years; i just happened to use a glen-gery knit beanie on a snowman built with my niece nights earlier (sometimes, you just want to make a snowman in the evening) after having it stored away in a drawer for a year or two. 

and on the day when i learned of his passing but before i'd actually heard the news, i'd taken a long walk around wyomissing on my lunch break and discovered a hidden-away driveway with a no trespassing sign. deciduous tree branches probably of a more weedy variety were overgrown on the pavement, and i was tempted to check it out anyway, but in the end, i didn't and moved on in my walk around the borough. but before i moved on, i saw that glen-gery was the business name on the plaque noting not to trespass.

i had not stopped to think of glen-gery for probably months or even a year or more, before this.

—some eerie yet comforting happenings for ties to a man i so enjoyed my brief minutes with in visiting him a few times to document the memories of his job life. and also seeing how much he cherished and savored coloring beautiful images on sheets of paper into his 90s.

here is a link to leroy's obituary. 

summer 2018: the corner shoppe in gilbertsville is now carrying these volumes of poetry.

the corner shoppe in gilbertsville, montgomery county, a few miles from berks county's southeastern border, began carrying copies of all volumes of the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history of berks county this summer.  it is well-worth visiting and is known for its colorful spinners along the sidewalk up to the front door.

this gift shop joins the peppermint stick candy store, the swamp door, and firefly bookstore in selling these volumes.

(letter bead + hands photo = by lilly-jay hetrick ludy)

a poetry reading at the berks county heritage center this august 2018.

the berks county heritage center, as a part of summer programming through the berks county parks & recreation department, is hosting a poetry reading for the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history of berks county on sunday, august 5, 2018 at 2 p.m. 

the address of the heritage center is 1102 red bridge road, reading, pa 19605.

see more about this project at hetrickmedia.com.

a poetry reading at keystone villa at douglassville in april: celebrating national poetry month.

in early april, i ventured to keystone villa at douglassville and hosted a poetry reading from all three volumes of the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history of berks county in celebrating national poetry month. it's always nice to find out the mills in the histories of residents with their own job-related stories. knitting mills often come up in the sharing of memories. this particular crowd especially enjoyed casket factory stories from boyertown which isn't too far from douglassville.

a poetry reading with the women's group at good shepherd evangelical lutheran church in muhlenberg township in late march.

earlier this week, i visited a women's group at the good shepherd evangelical lutheran church along stoudt's ferry bridge road in muhlenberg township to do a poetry reading for them.

barb greth invited me to speak and read to the group a few months ago after attending one my poetry reading featuring shirley kohl as a special guest from my second book last year at the muhlenberg community library.
 

barb kindly assisted with photography, so she's not in the eye-scenes here.

since i began handing out one sample poem (in large font, to boot) for people to follow along with and keep at each of my poetry readings in the past year or two, to help those in the audience absorb the language a little more easily than just hearing the lines, i featured charlotte o. moyer's poem as an introduction. barb and i decided on this in advance since we wanted to have a woman's story as the first focal point during march as women's history month, and while i read many other female-based poems, we mixed in some from men by the end, too, including the one based on john groff's jobs as a resident of earl township, born in 1936. john was a part of a poetry reading at oley valley community library in september of 2016.

below is charlotte's poem from my third and final volume of the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history of berks county.

charlotte o. moyer, upper bern township | born: 1938

mae fisher nudged me to get a job at glo-ray knitting mills
in 1958. i knew mae from church—a friend of my parents.
a woman from west lawn drove through south heidelberg,
picked up me and mae on the way to robesonia. we’d give her
some cash to help her out, thank her for the ride. i remember

children’s sweaters, striped across the chests and arms with
dyed red fibers, white ones in between the wide lines. trying
to match up the stripes perfectly, linking the arm-parts and
what touched the back and belly, seemed like some cruel joke,
silly but real stress by day. i checked sleeves first, then sewed

them into their grand finales, finishing off the wait of selvage,
the underside of excess where the two faces of material met.
i started up the sides, from the bottom of the waist to a loop
around the armhole. workers would bring me one heaping
pile of sleeves and the main middle halves. you had to be very

exacting with those sleeves because if you stitched too far by
a small measure in the intended zone, they’d turn out more
than just a bit awkwardly. and nobody wants clumpy-fitting
sleeves, nor would those be approved for packaging. merrow
manufactured the machine i used. it stitched and cut off any

excess at the same time. every night, i came home, felt fuzzy
wads of sweater aftermath in the creases of my neck, elbows,
irritating, pesky annoyance to scrunch my nose at once i
walked through the door. i extracted them from my skin,
pulled off pieces of clammy sweater debris sticking to my

clothing. at a picnic one summer, they had a shaving contest,
women taking razorblades to santa claus-like faces of men,
done up in cream. they draped long, red fabric over the guys
to keep from getting far too messy. i took some of that ruby
textile with me—they were going to throw it out, anyway, and

i still have it in a box, to this day. that game of passing a single
orange from one person’s neck to another, with the no-hands
rule in full use, is in a picture i took that afternoon, a camera
often stuffed into my purse, even back then, documenter

of history that i am, knowing simply—stories are everything.

a poetry reading at keystone villa at fleetwood in mid-march.

in mid-march, i visited keystone villa at fleetwood and hosted a poetry reading from all three volumes of the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history of berks county. this served as a part their history program series. the event was coordinated and sponsored in part by the fleetwood public library.

several residents in the audience mentioned that they knew edna machemer from volume one since they worked at diener's underwear mill in leesport with her, too. they remembered her hard work ethic but also great wit and how fun she was to be around. her edna-specific humor is evidenced in her poem, which is above where her name is hyperlinked.

a poetry reading at the boyertown area historical society in mid-february.

the math of mixing snow-rain as ice meant the original date for a poetry reading at the boyertown area historical society was pushed out to this past wednesday from the previous one. but a nice crowd arrived for it, and thankfully, alice gerhart was able to make it as a special featured guest, even though harold schoenly unfortunately couldn't.

besides talking about alice's short-lived job in a paper mill in west reading where parachutes were made during world war ii, she also told us about her father owning a knitting mill in the city of reading, selling hosiery to businesses in european countries, and being an inventor of an inspecting machine in his industry.

this audience involved some really great curiosities with questions asked, like about any inspirational poets and styles impacting this project's work. while the style of the poems is a blend of many influences and creative utility fleshed out across years of working with words, interviewing, documenting, and translating details onto the page, i did mention a few names of recent poetic appreciation: ted kooser, jim harrison, and nayyirah waheed. and i talked about their lives and approach to writing for a bit, too. 

photography credits during this event go to eric eidle of the boyertown bulletin.

library-borrowing of volumes from this poetry project.

it is so nice to see when volumes from this project are taken out of the berks county library system by patrons.

this poetry project as the final feature in a positive-only local news publication called news, not blues.

in 2018, i've finally retired my positive-only local news publication called news, not blues and used this poetry project to do so. here is a link to the final feature to say adieu to the publication.

a poetry reading at the boyertown area historical society—*rescheduled to wednesday, february 14 at 7 p.m.

the boyertown area historical society is hosting a poetry reading for the recent release of volume three of the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history in berks county on wednesday, february *14 at 7 p.m. (recently rescheduled from wednesday, february 7 due to expected winter weather) the poetry reading will also be a final recap of volumes 1, 2, an 3 in this project.

the historical society's programming room at the front of their main building is located along 43 south chestnut street, boyertown, pa 19512. for non-members, the cost of attendance for the event is $5.

special featured guests for the event will be alice gerhart from volume one and harold schoenly from volume three. there's a chance someone from volume two may attend as well, but that can be a surprise for now, since it's in limbo.

here is harold's poem, as a hint of what the night's programming will involve.

*

harold schoenly, douglass township,
montgomery county | born: 1931

after richard yoder checked the documentation to match
my workload, i learned 1968’s fatal gunfire of senator robert
kennedy led to his body joining a casket i’d made with my
own hands. these caskets didn’t sell so often, priced high, not
so profitable. i’d started at the casket factory in boyertown

in 1958, remember hearing that these three-inch thick planks
as mahogany caskets cost around $5,500, even back then. we
called them no. 4900 mahogany. they were heavy—a finished
casket might weigh around 300 pounds. i spent 15 years
making these caskets, but how long it took to do them well

meant you didn’t make much money per hour. i think i still
have my first paystub, $46 typed out across that old piece
of paper. my mortgage cost $36.30 a month back then. i’d left
the u.s. air force in 1957 after carving out three years serving
in germany, glad i knew pennsylvania dutch so i could

understand some of the conversations better. i’d learned
intelligence, tested in, signed off with a top secret clearance,
but you can’t ask me about that. you can try, but it won’t help
you any—history is bound to be hidden sometimes. john
brower did help me get into a casket once, closed that

lid down, didn’t lock it shut on its cart. olive johnson
walked over to push it to the finishing room. when she
went to grab the tag inside, she saw me in it, my eyes open
boldly—jumped back, screamed. the lid bounced back down.
i built houses around town for a while, some before i quit

in 1973. by 1979, boyertown planing mill company hired me.
i did shaper work, a white-knuckled kind of job, especially
with fancy stair railings, elegant, but the pressure in getting
it right made me think i even left fingerprints in the wood
sometimes. a desk at one of the philadelphia television news

stations had known its early changes through my palms.
i retired in 1996. my handrail work is still in an 11-story
hospital in wilmington, delaware. what comes from trees
remembers who touched it, whose eyes know its integrity,
how much it misses the memories of its oldest roots.

a book review of volume 3 published in "north of oxford" based in philadelphia.

north of oxford, with its hometown as philadelphia, recently published a review of the third and final book in this poetry project, beautifully penned by local writer marian wolbers.

here is a link to the review published in january 2018. north of oxford is run by editors diane sahms-guarnieri and g emil reutter who have been wonderful to work with in getting to know them in the past few years.