NH OUTLOOK, Tuesday, 12/24/2002
script iconHello script iconGoodnight
script iconIntro Tomie dePaola script iconfounders
script iconTomie dePaola script iconIntro Haller
script iconIntro Hardscrabble script iconkey: Culture / Arts
script iconHardscrabble script iconJames Haller
script iconIntro Pinsky script iconTonight 10:00
script iconIntro Ronan script iconWEB PROMO
script iconTomorrow  

script iconHello
Return to index of stories... 		Hello. I'm Allison McNair. Welcome to this special edition of NH Outlook.
Many of you are sitting around your living rooms with family and friends at this hour.
Perhaps you're talking about your favorite source of inspiration.
For the next half hour, I want to show you some of my favorite interviews. They're some of New England's many inspirational authors and performers.
script iconIntro Tomie dePaola
Return to index of stories... 		We begin with Tomie dePaola. For children around the world, dePaola's picture and chapter books have long been treasured. I visited Tomie at his New London studio to learn more about the man behind the stories.
script iconTomie dePaola
Return to index of stories... 		1-1:45 "When I was only four, before I even went to school, I told everybody that when I grew up, I was going to be an artist and I was going to write stories."
Narr: More than 200 children's books later, Tomie dePaola is still living that dream.
Ext. of studio
Narr: New London is where Tomie calls home. In this 200-year-old barn, he works on a new children's picture book. Tomie's stories are recognized worldwide. They have the trademark illustrations and simplicity that have endeared them to so many. Its been more than 50 years since Tomie discovered his love of drawing.
1-26:21 "We had an attic. I think that every child should have an attic. My parents were really wonderful. They gave me half the attic for my studio when I was nine or ten years old."
Narr: In his book "The Art Lesson," Tomie recalls how his eager anticipation of art class was somewhat dampened by his first grade teacher.
1-22:42-23:30 "Literally, this woman said this: 'These are school crayons and they're school property. So don't break them, peel the paper off or wear down the points.' The other thing she said was, 'This is your one piece of paper so don't ruin it.' She had this room full of paralyzed kids afraid to use their crayons. I had just gotten these crayons that were turquoise and peach. These school crayons had red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown and black. Wow!."
Narr: Tomie was born into an Irish-Italian family. He was blessed with many relatives, many of whom continue to live within the pages of his books.
2-1:33-1:45"My grandfather was one of five brothers. He was a butcher and he was full of it. He really had the gift of blarney. He was the best storyteller there was."
Narr: In fact, he became a story. The book "Tom" is based on his Irish grandfather Tom Downey. One of the tales involves a pair of chicken feet.
2-4:47 "My grandfather taught me how to pull the tendon. And you pull the tendon and the chicken feet will contract."
2-5:06 "Of course, I scrubbed them because they were pretty smelly and I borrowed my mother's nail polish and I painted the nails bright red and I practiced over the weekend, doing this and I pulled my sleeve so just the chicken feet were hanging out. And I went to school and scared people in the school yard, including a teacher. Well that was the end of my chicken feet. At least at school."
Narr: Many of Tomie's books are autobiographical. "Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs" was the first to be completely based on his childhood. It tells, very poignantly, about the love he felt for his great-grandmother and grandmother and the sorrow he experienced when they died.
1-12:09 "I have gotten so much mail from parents because of that book. Because of a grandparent or a great-grandparent, some older person who dies and the parents don't know how to explain death, because it's so final and so they go to look for other material and invariably get Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs."
Narr: This illustration portrays the sadness he felt as a four-year-old trying the understand the concept of death.
1-14:50 "When I drew this picture, that's when I cried, when I was four. And I did that picture in the first edition and I almost had a nervous breakdown. I cried for almost two days because of all the pain in doing that."
1-16:00-:37 "But she is in memory, which my mother told me. When someone dies, you won't ever see them again but they'll always be there whenever you think of them. That's very consoling. But there's something about you that keeps what that's like fresh. How is that working? I think I've just been blessed with a good memory. But not a memory of facts so much as a memory of feelings. I can remember how things felt. I don't know where that comes from. That I get from outside myself."
Narr: While he shies away from preaching values in his books, Tomie's readers find his stories interesting and relevant. "Oliver Button is a Sissy" tells about the teasing he endured because of his love for tap dancing. The "Strega Nona" series, a folkloric type tale, is about the importance of love and generosity.
Narr: At 67, Tomie has no plans to retire. He's currently working on the fifth book in the "26 Fairmont Avenue" book series. And these illustrations will be used in a Mexican version of the story Cinderella.
2:24:00 - 2:24:20 "It's a cinderella story but there's no glass slipper, no fairy godmother and no pumpkin coach. In fact, when she comes to the fiesta she is asked 'who are you?' and she says 'just call me sienna sienta,' meaning cinderella.
Narr: Tomie's childhood dream of being an artist and writer, it seems, may never end.
2:28:22-2:29:13 "Books really have been an important part of my life, they've helped answer questions, they've helped give me courage, they've helped fuel my imagination. And, I would just hope that there's one child out there that one of my books would do that to. Now I've received so many letters that I don't need that to be proven to me. It has happened. I hope it continues. I hope my legacy is leaving behind a literature and art for young people that will enrich their lives, make them laugh, make them cry. I'm very fortunate in that respect. I've never met Beatrice Potter but I certainly know who she was and I hope someone can say that about me 50 years after I'm dead."
script iconIntro Hardscrabble
Return to index of stories... 		For many people, small town life is what draws them to New England. Whether it's the neighborly residents or the rural scenery, there is something that's unique. Here in New Hampshire, some of those idyllic towns still exist. I had the chance to speak with one New Hampshire woman who turned her years in a small village into a new book called "The Hardscrabble Chronicles."
script iconHardscrabble
Return to index of stories... 		Author talks about the idea for the book
0224
"I'd lived in Hardscrabble all my adult life and I never said, gee I should write a book about Hardscrabble. What happened was, a neighbor down the road, an elderly lady had just lost her husband and I was outside working on the garden or something, and she came over and she was crying, and she said somebody should write our stories, and the only one who can is you. Now this isn't because I was the only one credentialed to write the stories of Hardscrabble. I had been the town columnist for years."
0302
In fact, Laurie Morrow - the author of several books - knows well that Hardscrabble can be an inspiration for writing. She learned that from long-time resident and author Corey Ford.
Author talks about Corey Ford
0535 "He came to Hardscrabble and started writing stories about our village, and the eccentric people that lived there. Now his slant which was done in columns for Field and Stream between 1952 and his death in 1969 were under the title The Lower 40, and so most people will know him today as the author of The Lower 40 columns in Field and Stream, but if you look at his body of work, 33 novels, over a thousand short stories, the man was actually, I think, one of the unsung literary giants of our century."
0611
Where are towns like Hardscrabble? Laurie says they're everywhere.
Author talks about Hardscrabbles in the city, country, and suburbs
1002 "I think you could go into, especially since 9-11, any neighborhood in New York City and find a Hardscrabble. I think that you can certainly go to any small New England town and find a Hardscrabble. I think you can go to any place in suburbia. Hardscrabble is as much a frame of mind as it is anything else. Oh it's real, and it does exist. I live there, I've lived there for 30 years. But the kindness of people, the comraderie of people, the laughter, the sorrow, the tears; if you stop and think about it, you probably have a Hardscrabble in your own hometown."
1044
The neighborly element of Hardscrabble is one of its most important qualities.
Author talks about support of townspeople
1200 "Tuna casseroles it all really boils down to tuna casseroles. Whenever anything went wrong with anybody in the community, if there was a death or if there was a family in need and it was the winter and their larder wasn't quite full, you could count on tuna casseroles and then the men would come and the would cut your wood. Now does this exist today, yeah, as recently as last week when we buried a young man who I had known since he was an hour old who took his life. And it was mental illness, it was I think, beyond any of our comprehension and what did we all do in town, we cooked and baked, because that's how we do it. Maybe in the cities you'd send flowers. We have flowers in our garden, so we cook."
1248
Author talks about the people of Hardscrabble
1138 "It's the people that make a town and certainly the people of Hardscrabble made Hardscrabble, and made my life what it is today which is pretty rich."
1148
It's not just the people, though, that give Hardscrabble its unique charm, it's the wilderness and rural quality that Laurie, who hunts and fishes, says offers a window into the history of the town.
Author talks about hunting and fishing in Hardscrabble
1738 "The hunting and fishing thing, today it's more sport but back when I came to town it wasn't that at all, it was sustinence If you didn't get a dear, for some families, you didn't have meat for the wintertime, and fish, well that was your supper. So hunting and fishing didn't have the connotation that it does today which is you get out in your four by four and get your license and sling a deer on top of your SUV and then drive home. It really was imperative for survival. And there are still some few families who need to have a deer in their freezer to get through the winter, and there are certainly others of us who, if we do take a deer, and I don't actually deer hunt, I bird hunt, it's in order to have a lovely dinner."
1833
Animals play an important role in Hardscrabble, but they're not always being hunted.
Author talks about dogs in Hardscrabble
2626 "Dogs for some people are part of their family and in some cases, they're like their children. In Hardscrabble dogs have that kind of importance but a little more because when you live in a rural community where winter seems to be nine months long, and your neighbor is far away, then your dog is your companion, and your dog is the element of your life that keeps you alive."
2700
script iconIntro Pinsky
Return to index of stories... 		Former National poet laureate Robert Pinsky gave a poetry reading for the New hampshire Humanities Council to celebrate Poetry month. Last spring I had a chance to sit down with him.
script iconIntro Ronan
Return to index of stories... 		If you're a frequent viewer of New Hampshire Public Television you've probably seen the Three Irish Tenors perform.
Some of the faces have changed from time to time - but there has always has been one constant: Ronan Tynan.
I had a chance to catch up with Ronan before a solo concert in Lowell Massachusetts. He talked to us about his autobiography, Halfway Home: My Life 'til Now
script iconTomorrow
Return to index of stories... 		On the next New Hampshire Outlook -
Christmas in Berlin, celebrating the holidays with music. It's a concert you won't want to miss.
script iconGoodnight
Return to index of stories... 		That's it for this edition of our program. For all of us here at New Hampshire Public Television, I'm Ally McNair. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time on New Hampshire Outlook.
script iconfounders
Return to index of stories... 		Thanks to our founding sponsors who have provided major funding for the production of New Hampshire Outlook:
New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
Public Service of New Hampshire
Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust
Putnam Foundation
Stratford Foundation
script iconIntro Haller
Return to index of stories... 		It drives him crazy when he sees commercials with moms making cookies from premade dough. He thinks parents should be spending time with their children teaching them how to cook. He also thinks Emeril will go down in history for his role in bringing men into the kitchen and making cooking macho. He's James Haller - author and renowned chef. And we had a chance to visit him in his kitchen in South Berwick Maine.
script iconkey: Culture / Arts
Return to index of stories... 		NEW HAMPSHIRE OUTLOOK Air Date/Time: 12/23/02 22:00
HOST: Allison McNair Length: 26:46 minutes
In this edition of New Hampshire Outlook, NHPTV's nightly news magazine, It's special because we're bringing you some of Ally's favorite interviews. They're some of New England's many inspirational authors and performers.
PRODUCER/REPORTER: Allison McNair
NAME OF PARTICIPANTS:
Tomie DePaola\Author and Artist
Laurie Morrow\Author
Robert Pinsky\Former Poet Laureate
Ronan Tynan\Irish Tenor/Author
script iconJames Haller
Return to index of stories... 		Chef and author James Haller talks about his new book Vie de France and mixes in amusing anecdotes about cooking and life. Host Allison McNair learns how to make a peach tart.
script iconTonight 10:00
Return to index of stories... 		Tonight on New Hampshire Outlook.
Join us tonight at 10:00 only on New Hampshire Outlook.
script iconWEB PROMO
Return to index of stories... 		Tonight on New Hampshire Outlook.
. Tonight at 10pm on New Hampshire Public Television.
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