Meet Me at the Corner

Shirley Belleranti - Revisited, Recycled, Remembered

Posted by Marjorie Pagel on July 10, 2009 | 0 comments

This summer I’m going through accumulated paper files for the purpose of culling out and downsizing. Some days it’s slow going because I come across enchanting articles like the one from Shirley Belleranti, “An Environmentalist’s Beatitudes.” It took me down Memory Lane. . . .

In 1982 I joined a writers’ group which met twice a month in the community room of a bank on Packard and Layton Avenues (now Chase Bank.) The organization, Writer’s Ink, is still very active, serving as a resource and support group for writers of all ages. The first Monday of each month is devoted to manuscript critique, where writers read their works in progress and get helpful comments from the others. The third Monday often features a speaker, followed by the roundtable, where members tell what they’ve been working on, what they’ve submitted for publication, and publication success. 

Although I haven’t been attending the Writer’s Ink meetings in recent years, I still keep in touch with some of those I came to know through the organization and remember many of the others with great fondness.  

So many names leap out at me right now. Some are still active in the group: Gail Toerpe, Larry Van Voeghel, Lucy Larsen, Ellen Bourget, Pearl Blanchette, among others. Some have moved away or are no longer affiliated members: Sharon Hart Addy, Nancy Allan, Alice Zillmer, Pat Lorenz, Roses Baer. And then there are those who have died and -- we’d like to think -- are still penning their memoirs in the Great Beyond; I’m thinking especially of three good friends: Shirley Mudrick, May Thibaudau and the woman who inspired this blog: Shirley Belleranti. 

Shirley Belleranti lived in Cudahy and was one of the members I looked up to in 1982 because of her unassuming ways, her persistence and her publishing success. Although she hadn’t done any writing to speak of before her retirement, in those next ten years or so that she belonged to Writer’s Ink Shirley published dozens of non-fiction articles in dozens of publications, and she mastered the art of selling reprints. Sell an article once, make a few dollars; sell it again – make a few more. Not all publishers accept reprints, but Shirley learned how to take the same idea and rework it so that she could market it under a new title. She was an inspiration to all of us. (She even wrote and published an article on “How to Sell Reprints.”)

If Shirley had lived long enough to discover the world of blogs and internet publishing, Google would be spitting out her byline all over the place. As it is, Google led me to only two of her published articles. One was from the Milwaukee Sentinel “Green Sheet” on June 29, 1988: “Riverside Harbors Ghosts of the Great Swing Bands.”

In this article Shirley wrote about the big names and big sounds she remembered from the Riverside Theatre in the 1940s: Ella Fitzgerald, Gene Krupa, Johnny Desmond, Anita O’Day, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, Cab Calloway – and her favorite, Duke Ellington. If you’d like to read it, here’s the link: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19880629&id=Jd4VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oRIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4747,7123450

The other article I found was from The Growing Edge, a magazine still published in Corvallis, Oregon. The title of Shirley’s article, geared to children, was“Kricket Krap – Recycling Nature’s Gifts.” The first part of the article, published in 1990, was reprinted on the website (and I quote):

Several years ago Bricker’s Organic Farms, of Augusta, Georgia, introduced a new fertilizer on a gardening show on national television. The product inspired a radio announcer in Ohio to wonder aloud how thy managed to collect enough of the stuff for one plant, much less entire gardens.

You see, the fertilizer, which they called “Gotta-Grow,” is 100 percent cricket manure!

To read the full article I will have to send $5 to the back issues department. The title made me smile, though, for there was Shirley, on her favorite topic of recycling!

This brings me back to the article I referred to in the first paragraph, “An Environmentalist’s Beatitudes.” It was one of many articles Shirley recycled (reprinted) several times. The article was actually a list which her grandfather had pasted into a scrapbook.  Talk about recycling!  Although I can’t give credit to the original source, before I reprint it here, I’ll give credit to Shirley, her grandfather, and The Lutheran Digest (publication date unknown). These “Beatitudes” are as relevant in 2009 as they were when originally written more than 75 years ago.

Blessed are they who plant long-lived trees and shrubs, for future generations shall call them blessed.

Blessed are the owners of flower gardens, for in the heart of a lower may be seen its Creator.

Blessed are they who appreciate nature’s gifts, for they shall be known as lovers of beauty.

Blessed are they who clean up the highways, byways and home grounds, for cleanliness is next to godliness.

Blessed are they who brighten and freshen their buildings and fences with paint, for improvement and the praise of many shall be their reward.

Blessed are they who speak up for the protection of nature’s gifts, for they shall be recognized as true patriots of the earth.

Great shall be the reward of those who protect our forests from fire, for the bird shall continue to serve them and the fish and wild animal to furnish them food.

Whosoever conserveth our natural resources serveth himself and the generations following. (Author unknown)

Before signing off, I’d like to add one more Beatitude to this list:

Blessed be Shirley Belleranti for her gift of writing, for her love of recycling, and for the article she wrote which inspired this blog!