Norman Rockwell's Urban Connection

A second generation Polish-American, Fenic can still jump a pretty mean double dutch, thanks to spending her first nineteen years enjoying 1940's New York City street games with black and Latino friends.

Norman Rockwell put black and white playmates together in Homecoming GI, not to make a civil rights statement, but because, on the streets of Troy, New York in 1945, they were really there.

Another Norman Rockwell urban setting was Los Angeles, California.

During the winter of 1948-49, while vacationing with his in-laws in Los Angeles, Rockwell paid a visit to a Mrs. Merrill, widow and owner of a rooming house for women. He wanted to borrow her entire house.

Located in the MacArthur Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, 719 South Rampart Boulevard was a three-story tenement flanked by similar structures and the "Pacific Telephone and Telegraph" building, the place of work for many of Mrs. Merrill's boarders. Rockwell sought Mrs. Merrill's permission to stage a photo shoot in front of her building. Capturing the street as well as some of its residents as models, he would then use these photos to create one of his famous Saturday Evening Post covers. But Mrs. Merrill said no. Apparently, even back in 1949, not everybody loved Norman Rockwell.

The feisty middle aged landlady felt that, in his paintings, the famous artist did not adequately "enhance" his female subjects. Rockwell persisted in his request however, and Merrill finally gave in: for payment of $50.00.

The camera crew showed up on South Rampart while one of Mrs. Merrill's roomers, Antonia Piasecki, was doing her laundry. In a letter to the Norman Rockwell Museum she writes: "Mr. Rockwell asked me for some fancy undies for the clothes line. I gave him nylon stockings, black lace trimmed panties and a bra which he hung up himself... "

A moving truck arrived, complete with California license plates and two moving truck drivers. Lots of photos were taken. The result was Road Block, the character-filled illustration which appeared as the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on July 9, 1949.

Norman Rockwell put himself in the painting: he's the violin teacher looking out the window of what was actually Ms. Urban EntertainmentUrban dwellers can be fierce - embracing life with full vigor. We may have grown up in an organized religion. The experience may have been negative or positive. Life's distractions and dissatisfaction with the organization may have sent you searching for salvation in other places. A good restaurant can be so much more interesting then a church, synagogue or a mosque. Living in difficult times, raising a family or just the need for some deeper meaning created a yearning for the familiarity of your religious roots. What may have seemed overwhelming when you were a child can now seem perfect. The experience of adulthood allows you to make better choices about your moral and spiritual life. You can go back to what you know or explore new opportunities. Your choices are diverse.

There are many forms of Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism that can be investigated. You can visit spiritualist churches or learn the teachings of the Koran. Or you can delve into the lives of the Goddesses.

Some Suggestions: Don't be afraid to attend different places of worship.