I will give thanks once again to CITY monthly magazine. So much of what I knew of Rochester city living faded in the last two years and this monthly is a reminder of what’s still out there. It may seem strange to say, I was pleased to see the page 5, full-page ad for the Walk to Fight Suicide, set for Oct. 1. The Out of the Darkness Walk is so important for sharing hope.

As a long-time booster of shopping local, I couldn’t decide about the long piece on BIDs, business improvement districts, in downtown Rochester. I really liked the picture of Shawn Dunwoody, one of the most community-minded artists I know, with Bleu Cease, longtime community arts advocate. Shawn is for it; Bleu not so much. It was good to see tickets going on sale for Rochester’s Fringe Festival in September, another lively local event. Skipping over a messy local controversy, I was happy to read about plans to upgrade Maplewood Park. Our parks are sanity savers. The article on the Norman Rockwell exhibit in Utica made me want to hop in the car and feast on all 323 covers that he did for the Saturday Evening Post from 1916 to 1963. I’d seen some of them before, but all of them? It was good to read that Rockwell left the Post in 1963 in order to have more artistic freedom. He then depicted 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, a Black girl, being escorted to an all-white school by U.S. Marshals. There were more good articles about the art scene and a fun and funky two-page spread of snapshots from the Pride Parade. I’m looking forward to visiting Nine Spot Brewing, opening soon. It will offer drinks and food connected to New York cities and regions.

Some early birds are still calling out at 5:30 and in the last week instead of going back to sleep, I’ve been getting up. The change in my body clock is slowing me down later in the day, but I’ve had the satisfaction of tackling my to-dos at a marvelous time of day. But, but, but, today’s morning air was so humid, I felt queasy and had to remember, Easy Does It.

Blog post. https://rokeefehistory.com/blog #amreading; #RochesterNY; #CITY;#StopSuicide; #ShawnDunwoody; #BleuCease; #rochesterfringe.com;#MaplewoodPark; #NormanRockwell; #PrideParade; #NineSpotBrewing; #EasyDoesIt;