Ann Silverthorn

On another brisk winter evening, we met for the second session of the Spring 2014 Erie Ambassador Program, where we learned about two important Erie organizations: Erie International Airport and DevelopErie. This session was held in the Erie International Trade Center building, located on West 20th Street, which runs parallel to the airports southern border. Chris Rogers,…

A couple of years ago, I resolved to love winter. Since Husband Jim has never moved me out of this frosty bucket, I figured I should bloom where I was planted, so to speak. This year, as for many, it has been hard to love winter. I’ll tell you who loves winter, though. Nutmeg and…

Progress is being made on William E. Dimorier’s biography. As I was organizing my notes the other day, I came across an article in The American City, from 1917, which describes an interesting approach to recruiting for high school after eighth-grade graduation. The campaign approach works on more than elections, it seems. In addition, I can envision many applications…

[I deliberated posting this piece to my new website, but I am, so we can see how far he’s come. Boy, was I harsh!] Young Mr. Bieber, either your mother has not had a stern talk with you, or you think you don’t need to listen to her anymore, so, allow me to tell you…

Living near the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC, my son and daughter-in-law have encountered a number of celebrities at their neighborhood pharmacy. A year or so ago, the activity during one of our Skype sessions was a guessing game about their latest sighting. After our many failed tries, they finally revealed that they had seen Dame Judi Dench discussing the…

Thanks to the generosity of some friends who had tickets they couldn’t use, we traveled to Cleveland’s Playhouse Square last night to see the popular musical, Wicked, which first opened on Broadway more than a decade ago. This show gives the back story on the Wizard of Oz and offers some insight on why the Wicked Witch was…

In 1916, the subject of my research, William E. Dimorier, an educator and poet, wrote an article called, “Significance of Poetry” for the Journal of Education. He begins his piece, The memorizing of choice passages of poetry is a popular and well established practice in high schools. In this materialistic age it is well that such is…

The day was November 22, 1963, and I was getting pretty comfortable in the third month of first grade at Our Lady of Peace. I had been so lonely the previous year, when we moved back to Erie from California, and my brothers left me every day for school. OLP didn’t have kindergarten in those…

Ever since my son and his wife moved to Washington, DC, about two years ago, we’ve made the six-hour trip to visit them every few months. Each time, we’ve considered taking a detour to visit the Flight 93 Memorial in southwestern Pennsylvania, but we never seemed to have the energy to add an hour or…

For my last birthday, knowing how much I like The Band Perry, Husband Jim bought us tickets to see them as one of Rascal Flatts’ opening acts. The October 18, 2013 concert would also be the first major event at the newly renovated Erie Insurance Arena, and we were excited to see the new venue,…