Wednesday Walk: Reuse That Old Shirt!
Welcome to the Quarantine Creatives newsletter, a companion to my podcast of the same name, which explores creativity, art, and big ideas as we continue to live through this pandemic.
Every Wednesday, I share random thoughts and tidbits with links to let you do some exploring. I call these Wednesday Walks, as it’s the type of conversation we might have walking down a path in the woods- the topics are free flowing, sometimes related, sometimes not.
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A Change in Travel
This weekend, my family and I took a quick trip back to my hometown outside of Cleveland, about a 10 hour drive from Massachusetts. I’ve made this trip many times over the years, although I have not done the drive in roughly the last decade.
Since having children, we have opted to fly more often as it always seemed “easier” somehow. This was true not only for going back to Cleveland, but for going pretty much anywhere.
With the pandemic, we have been driving a lot more. In fact, the only time that we have flown since COVID started was to visit my parents in Missouri, and that resulted in one of our checked bags being delayed by two days. It didn’t exactly cause me to want to fly again anytime soon.
The drive to Ohio was treacherous at times, especially when caught in lake effect snow around Buffalo. The roads were slick and the speeds slow. It was also long, especially with two kids and a new puppy in tow.
Still, I remarked to my wife several times on the drive how much I preferred it to flying. Even though the flight time from Boston to Cleveland is a little over an hour, there was something nice about moving at a slower pace and taking in the countryside and passing cities.
I like not having to worry about what I pack, whether it will fit in the allotted Ziploc bag, and if it will make it to my destination. I like the ability to stop when and where I want; to grab a coffee at Starbucks or to seek out a cool local spot at the side of the road.
Of course, most of our travel of late has been in an RV, and perhaps that is part of what has slanted my bias towards the road. But I also wonder how much my mind has been changed by the pandemic itself and the slower pace of life that came out of that time.
As so much of the world returns to “normal” and my life gets more hectic, a part of me wants to preserve the quiet that came from the pandemic. I was living life at a much slower pace in 2020, and it’s a pace that I think is worth trying to bring forward into daily life now.
Did the pandemic reshape your relationship to travel? I’d love to hear how in the comments!
The Fate of Another Theatre
I hope you enjoyed reading Sunday’s piece about the restored Colonial Theatre in Laconia, New Hampshire. It was really gratifying visiting a fully restored old theatre.
While I was in the process of writing about the Colonial, I came across this tweet with photos of the Michigan Theatre in Detroit, which has retained some of its historic features despite being turned into a parking garage:
The tweet links to Matt Lambros’s blog After the Final Curtain, where he has a beautiful, though haunting, photo gallery of the Michigan Theatre. (Matt also has featured the Colonial Theatre).
The Michigan Theatre was originally opened in 1926. According to Lambros:
“As with many other theaters at the time, the Michigan opened as a silent film theater and was later converted to show ‘talkies’… In addition to showing films, the theater was also used as a live performance venue. Some of the greatest performers of the day played there, including Bob Hope, the Marx Brothers, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. The live performances were discontinued in the late 1930s when the Michigan began showing only movies.”
The theatre closed and reopened a few times in its history, at one point becoming a venue for rock concerts. It closed for good in 1976 and was slated for demolition.
“Plans to demolish the theater were halted when demolition studies revealed that if the theater was demolished the structural integrity of an attached office building would be compromised. The inside of the auditorium was then partially gutted and a three-storey parking garage was built inside. The only remaining parts of the original theater include the ceiling, proscenium arch, part of the upper balcony, the projector room, the lobby ceiling and the ticket booth. The Michigan is still in use as a garage, and has been featured in a number of movies set in Detroit, including ‘8 Mile’ and ‘Alex Cross.’”
It seems unlikely that the Michigan Theatre will ever be restored at this point. Still, given what I learned from the Colonial, the fact that there’s any remnants of the old structure can leave a sense of hope.
If you had a historic building near you, would you rather it be fully demolished or do you like the idea of saving a piece of the old while building the new? Even the nicest parking garages can feel a little creepy though. This one, that’s a shell of a theatre, might not be my first choice for parking in Detroit.
#NoNewClothes- Week 9
It’s now been nine weeks since I challenged myself to not buy any new clothes for a year, inspired by a conversation with Amory Sivertson. In many of these Wednesday Walks, I’ve shared some ideas for making better use of the clothes that we already have.
Today, I wanted to share an idea from Roxanne Ahern, who posts to Instagram under the handle @happyholistichomestead and Twitter at @Happyholistichs. Roxanne reused old fabric scraps to make beeswax wraps.
For the uninitiated, beeswax wraps are a good alternative to plastic wrap. They can seal a mixing bowl, say when you’re marinating meat, and can also be used to wrap up food items, like when a dough is refrigerating. They’re washable, reusable, and made with natural materials. The health food stores and independent grocers near us sell them.
What I love about Roxanne’s method, which she details step by step on Instagram, is that it uses fabric scraps to make something new and functional. If you have an old T-shirt that’s too worn to wear but has a cool pattern or design in it or old bed sheets, why not turn them into beeswax wraps?
Part of the goal of this No New Clothes challenge is to not buy things new, but another is to make use of everything that I already have. Rather than toss clothes into the trash, I love finding ways to give them a second life.
If you’re not used to buying beeswax, check with your local honey supplier. They often sell at farmer’s markets and may be happy to sell you beeswax, even if they don’t advertise it. We’re fortunate here in Massachusetts that Carlisle Honey has a retail operation known as The Colony, which is our source for honey, beeswax, and many other cool products.
My wife makes a really nice hand balm with beeswax, which she shared about recently on Instagram too:
Thank you for reading! I always love hearing your thoughts, so please drop a line in the comments. And have a great week.
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Other Wednesday Walks
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Stay Safe!
Heath