CARL
E. FEATHER/Star BeaconMATTHEW BROCKWAY, a member of the Jesus Freaks mime
group, performs with the troupe at Carington Park Nursing Home.
By CARL E. FEATHER
Stafff Writer
Their music is contemporary Christian, not a brass band. Their uniform
black
sweats, not standard-issue Salvation Army. And their vehicles for delivering
the
Gospel are motion and facial expression, not words and inflection.
They are the Jesus Freaks, the youth pantomime unit of the Ashtabula
Salvation
Army Corps Community Center. Brenda Brockway, corps young peoples
sergeant major, formed the group two years ago with a core of four youth.
They
now have about 10 teen-agers in the group, which gives performances at area
nursing homes, churches and army-sponsored events. They also compete with
other mime and drama groups in the Northeastern Ohio Division.
Brockway said the contemporary music to which the youth do their pantomime
can reach people where mere words cannot. "They're getting a sermon
without
listening to someone talk to them," she said.
"A lot of people understand music better than words," said
Crystal Huey, a
mime group founder. "I've had people say they didn't think much of
mime before
they saw us."
The group meets at the corps community center on Lake Avenue Tuesday
afternoons for one hour of practice. Brockway said new members can go to
Cleveland on Saturdays and learn mime and drama techniques at a free
workshop sponsored by The Salvation Army. Even the transportation from
Ashtabula is provided free.
Amanda Slocum, 13, said being in the mime group has given her a positive
alternative to sitting at home. "It helps me with my grades and stuff,"
she added.
Seventeen-year-old Kelly Culver said the mime group has helped her find
an
avenue of expression. "I'm a shy person, so with the mime, it's an
easy way for
me to express myself."
Matthew Brockway, 14, said performing mime for appreciative nursing home
audiences is very fulfilling. "It just makes me happy to do it,"
he said.
A Mandy White column
If you're like me, you can't help hearing a lot about our "information
age," and how it's already changing our culture. Not too surprised
there. Computer technology is the biggest thing since the light bulb.
With all the talk about how computer technology will change business,
education, art, our attention spans, and just about anything else you
can think of, every once in awhile I wish some of the pop culture
pundits would answer me this: How will it change Kelloggsville?
The village of Kelloggsville is where I'm growing up. It's my
neighborhood. Almost everyone has one - it's the place you grew up in,
the one you know by heart. Every tree, street, sidewalk crack and
house is charted by you, explored in those magical hours between the
school bell and the dinner bell. You grow older of course, and the
neighborhood becomes more of a backdrop for your life than one huge
playground, but it's still familiar territory. You still know all the kids
on your street and most of their parents. It's comfortable because it's
part of home.
Neighborhoods are an important part of our culture, at least in my
opinion. If the African proverb that tells us it takes a village to raise
a
child is true, then the neighborhood plays a big part in a child's
development.
Kids are usually the active part of the neighborhood. Parents come to
know each other and be friends through us. We're the ones everybody
knows by sight, because we're delivering their papers or riding our
bikes up and down the road 50 times a day.
It's the first world we know. And a lot of us, after we explore the real
world, come back.
So it's pretty natural to wonder what the impact of small town folk life
combined with big-time technology will be on children 20 years from
now - the teens of today's teens. I see some of the first symptoms in my
younger brothers, James and Tim.
They love playing outside, true - when there is nothing "better"
to do.
Given the choice of riding their bikes to the creek with some neighbor
boys or playing a new computer game, it's a tough decision. James
hates to be dragged away from the computer for the time it takes me to
write this column.
I'm not taking much of a risk by predicting that the glut of technology
and entertainment available to kids now will only increase in the
future. Children's interest in computers means a lot of money for a lot
of people.
It's more risky to guess how that will affect small communities. Small
communities depend on their inhabitants' interest to grow and
improve. And people donate time, money and other resources to a
community because they feel a sense of interest and pride in that
community. They know and care about the people who live there and
they want to improve it as much as possible for those people and
themselves. So if the next generation is more attuned to the world
inhabiting their computer screen and beyond than what's next door,
how will that affect nonprofit organizations and programs dependant
on volunteers? Will our nation of joiners turn into a nation of
watchers? Will our neighborhoods be neighborhoods anymore, or just
a place to live until we can afford a condo?
I guess we won't know for a few years. Hopefully, if I ever have kids,
I'll still have a "village" to raise them in. Of course I'll want
them to be
technologically literate. I just don't want them to trade the dodgeball
games for pinball games before they have to.
White is negotiating with PBS for a series, "Misswhite's
Neighborhood." Check out other Mandy White columns,
too.
Compiled By James M. Waid
Love Not Found, Yet Lost
Who can withstand the terrible pain of loneliness?
If it is you, then I would be grateful for your advice.
See, I labor for the day when women show aggressiveness,
In talking to a guy first.
For you shall now know, I am but a shy person,
And am hesitant to speak with women at first.
For I am too insecure to test the water myself.
Patience, a virtue that has its downfall.
Say a woman, withholding of emotions towards you,
Grows wearisome of your patience and waiting for a sign.
Will she not find someone else who is impatient and extroverted?
Forget the answer, but know the question.
-Jeremy Purola
I Am a Tear
I am a tear
I am that one, loving tear
That no one, nobody cries
Yet it sits there on the edge of your eye
And you hold it back.
I am a smile
I am that one, hesitant smile
That you quickly flash
At the one you love but do not show your feelings for
And you wish you did, but not quite yet.
I am a glance
I am that one rapid glance
As our eyes met for a moment
I didn't want you to break your eyes away
Yet something compelled you to do so.
-Brandon J. Metzko
To Wake Up Laughing
To wake up laughing
Comes the knowledge that I'm not insane
Because when I shake the hatred from my brow
I wash a part of me down the drain.
As I stirred, I saw too clear,
The vision of you lying there.
A tiny chortle for your lifeless soul
(And all the crowds could do is stare.)
My revenge arose, hands disguised as mercy
Though its evident that of least is misery
As I saturate your thoughts with gasoline
And watch the flames take over your battered body.
And the weeping and crying and gnashing of teeth
Revealed the blind masses as churches of nothing,
Grasping and groping, sect lords arising,
Fleeing to rosaries that never were anything.
And as they throw their angry words upon me,
And double the burdens that are set upon me.
I know that the moment I turn my back,
They'll fall to their knees and pray for me.
And I woke up laughing
But I still question whether or not I'm sane.
And as I fumble in my penitence,
I wash my filthy portions down the drain.
- James M. Waid
Just One Day
Just one day
I would like
To awaken in my own bed
And enjoy the morning
To go to school
And enjoy learning something new
To come home to my own apartment
And paint
A life I always wanted
Just one day
-Brandon J. Metzko
Have you ever wanted to share your writing with the public? Well,
if
this is so, please send your poetry to me. I am merely compiling this
column and when I don't receive any entries, I'm afraid that it's
impossible for me to do my job. Please give. You can send your
poetry to either James M. Waid; 6688 Route 45; Orwell 44076 or e-
mail me at tinman360hotmail.com or elia-kazanhotmail.com