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1. Enlist the help of a family member or friend who can be supportive, physically and emotionally, and help keep you on task.

2. Analyze each room, and list all the activities that need to be conducted in that space, recommends professional organizer MaryJo Monroe. Then sort items and toss, relocate, or donate items that do not serve the main function of the space.

3. Deal with the biggest items that are cluttering your room first so you can see an immediate impact. “Clearing a large amount of space will boost your morale,” adds Monroe.

4. Install organization systems that are intuitive. Every item needs a home, and the home must suit the need. For instance, if the entry hallway is always cluttered with shoes, put a basket there to contain them.

5. Take decluttering in small steps. Working one room at a time or even a portion of a room at a time, such as the kitchen countertop, will prevent you from becoming overwhelmed and tempted to call it quits. “Doing something feels better than doing nothing,” Monroe says.

6. When evaluating items that hold sentimental value, segregate the object from the memory. If you have Grandma’s china but don’t use it, consider keeping a teacup and saucer to display for that memory boost. Donating the rest to an appreciative family member who will use it is often a better way to honor a loved one’s memory.

7. It’s not only important to think in terms of getting organized but also staying organized. Employ a program of ongoing maintenance, even if it’s only a few minutes a day, so that cleanup occurs while clutter is still in the minimal—not mountainous—stage.

If the task still seems daunting, or the situation has gotten a bit too out of hand, consider hiring a professional organizer who’ll come to your home to help you prioritize and systematize. The nonprofit group National Association of Professional Organizers can help you find an expert in your area. For details, visit the group’s website at napo.net.

Illustration by Gwenda Kaczor.

7 Steps to Clutter Control The Saturday Evening Post

Some people wear their emotions on their sleeve. Others manifest it in the nest: The state of their homes reflects their state of mind. When depression sets in, the clutter can pile up.

Charles Miles can relate. He owns a three-bedroom Colonial-style home in Bogota, New Jersey, but when he’s feeling blue, routine maintenance is hard to keep up. “There are dishes in the sink. Newspapers on the floor. Instead of putting things away, I leave them where they are. I think, ‘What’s the point?’ I’m just not motivated. It’s the demon I fight all the time.”

Healthcare professionals know all too well the connection between clutter and depression. The abilities you need to keep a home clean and in relative order go by the wayside with depression. People who lose their drive find it hard to handle basic housekeeping and organizational tasks. “A systematic pattern of home neglect is really a form of self-neglect,” says Dr. Holly Parker, a practicing psychologist and faculty member of Harvard University. “People with depression often have low energy, almost like taking gas out of the tank of a car. They lose the motivation to do things they used to love to do. If they give up hobbies, they definitely won’t do housework.”

Clutter is difficult to contain under the best of circumstances. Every Felix Unger has a bit of Oscar Madison in him. For most, it’s a matter of having too much stuff and not enough places to store it. Some have called it an epidemic of affluenza. As a nation of affluence, we buy without thinking what we’re going to do with it, how we’re going to use it, and where we’re going to put it. And because we’re busier than ever, we have less time to figure it all out.

The fact is that previous generations simply didn’t have all the stuff we have today. They were never tempted by 24-hour shopping channels, blasted with emails about last-chance sales, or bombarded with catalogs and junk mail. Generations from baby boomers to millennials may have it all within reach, but most haven’t learned how to keep it in balance. Homes continue to grow fuller, despite our households growing smaller.

It’s not the whole problem, though. Clutter isn’t just about bringing new stuff into the home but the inability to purge the old. Some adhere to the waste not, want not school of housekeeping. Obsolete electronics? Clothes that haven’t fit in years? Broken tools? Folks with a Depression-era mindset hate to throw anything away. And then there are the objects with sentimental value, the biggest clutter culprits because they’re the hardest to part with of all. It’s little wonder why in the U.S. alone, the self-storage industry is a $22 billion business annually.

Living in clutter is more than just a matter of aesthetics. Clutter is an energy sapper that takes its emotional toll and steals domestic joy. If home is where the heap is, it’s a good bet family members are more stressed and less productive. It can create tension in personal relationships. It can cause people to be chronically behind schedule because they can’t find their car keys or they’re unable to sift through their closets for a complete outfit in the morning. And children can suffer as well. Some youngsters experience problems at school because they’re routinely late for class or under prepared for assignments.

Clutter comes in degrees, from mild to severe, from annoying to debilitating. While it can cause anxiety and depression, it can conversely be a symptom of a problem. Professional organizer MaryJo Monroe, owner of reSPACEd, a residential organization and design firm in Portland, Oregon, says one of the first things she notices working with a client who might be depressed is low energy output. “They don’t have stamina. Instead of working two to four hours at a stretch, they’ll start to poop out after an hour.” Another red flag is difficulty making decisions. When the ability to concentrate wanes, figuring out whether to keep, toss, or relocate things becomes impossible.

Self-esteem issues can be at the root. The attitude? I’m just not worth the effort. And it spirals downward from there. When it becomes hard to muster the motivation to turn things around, it can create a negative cycle that feeds on itself. People often become more stressed and more depressed because of the mess. And the inability to dig oneself out brings on feelings of hopelessness.

Losing his job of 14 years started a downward spiral for “John” who was living outside Seattle, Washington. He defaulted on his mortgage and lost his home. The stress caused the dissolution of his marriage and alcohol took over his life. “I started letting things go. Dishes piled up in the sink, garbage was almost never taken out. After all, what was the use? I knew I could pull myself out of it. But not today. Today I didn’t feel like it. I felt like sleeping.” Through the help of a friend, John went into a detox program and got help for his depression. He moved to a new state, got a new job and apartment. “As for how I feel when I come home, the difference is amazing. Coming home to a neat place, and knowing that everything in it—including the cleanliness—was earned by me, makes everything I do there, from waking up in the morning to watching the Late Show before I go to bed, that much sweeter.”

And that message of hope is exactly the one professionals strive to communicate.

Spring is an ideal time to start getting clutter under control. For many, seasons can have a powerful affect on their moods. In the spring, the days are longer, flowers start blooming, people are out and about. Those who struggle during the short, dark days of winter perk up in the spring. “It’s an uplifting time,” Parker says. “You can capitalize on that time of year by getting more things done and capitalize on that boost of mood that comes with longer days.”

Solving clutter problems is a two-step process that takes planning. The first part is getting to the root of the problem, and a number of treatments can help such as therapy, medication, and doing regular exercise.

The second part is putting a system in place. (See “Seven Steps to Clutter Control.”) Enlisting a friend or family member in the organizational process can give the chronically disorganized the cheerleading morale they need to keep going. A home that looks good helps us feel good. And New Jersey homeowner Charles Miles can relate to that, too. When his outlook brightens, tackling the clutter is job number one. His reward for a home organizational makeover is a sense of accomplishment and renewed self-confidence. “I feel great,” says Miles. “I’m like, ‘Let’s invite the neighbors over for dinner!’”

Illustration by Gwenda Kaczor.

End Clutter Now! The Saturday Evening Post

More than the decorations on the annual Fraser fir tree or the wrapped gifts below it, Ann Balderston Glynn’s fondest Christmas memory is of her mother’s cream pies. She remembers how her mom would crush the graham crackers for the crust, pour hot butter to set it, and then stand over the stove stirring and stirring until the pudding consistency was just right.

“That pie represented home and love and family,” Ann says. As the years passed, she realized she wanted more than the handed-down recipe card from her mother. She wanted the stories that went along with it. So one December, 17 years ago, she returned to her childhood home in upstate New York, gathered her parents in the kitchen amid the ingredients for cream pie, and hit the record button on a video camera as her mother went to work. Ann’s mother spoke about learning the recipe from her mother on their farm in the 1930s while Ann’s father reminisced about a love of cooking that led to his career as a chef. (See also “Story Basics.”)

On that raw, unedited tape, Christmas pie became the centerpiece of a permanent family record.

Ann, 53, a married mother of two, is among a group especially eager to create—and celebrate—family history and turn it into a legacy, baby boomers. “That generation is at an age where they want to pass on family history to the next generation,” says John Paolo Canton of Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource. “It gives them a sense of being, a sense of belonging. They’re finding out family stories no one knew. It’s like a treasure hunt.”

According to a Harris Interactive poll conducted last year, four in five Americans have an interest in learning about their family history. And if there’s an ideal time to bring a family tree to life, it’s during the holidays, the traditional and sometimes only occasions, when multiple generations gather. Reminiscing about the good old days comes naturally.

Peppering the family matriarch or patriarch with questions at the Thanksgiving or Christmas table is a magical moment. That’s when it hits you that your relatives are flesh-and-blood time capsules. “You don’t realize how many questions you have until you don’t have the opportunity to ask them anymore,” says Michelle Ercanbrack, a family historian with Ancestry.com. The holidays are a call to action, a time to “open the door for those beautiful conversations. If that opportunity is lost, think of the cultural heritage your children and grandchildren are being denied.”

Think about it: These conversations fill holes in understanding who you are. Scott Tims of Dallas, Texas, describes the impact of stories told by family members around the holiday table. “My grandmother graduated high school in 1933, one of the very worst years of the Great Depression,” he says. She would describe trains running through town loaded with good, honest men, shabbily dressed, looking for work.

Those stories of hard times resonated when Scott found himself dealing with his own challenges in our current recession. “There were times I really felt sorry for myself and then I thought back to the stories my grandmother and father told me about their growing up and what they had and what they didn’t. It puts things into perspective.”

Treasuring Memories The Saturday Evening Post

The holiday get-together is the perfect place for beginning your family history project. Everything works better if you do a little planning. Here’s how to start preserving your family’s history.

Get Ready
Start with what you know: birth dates, marriages, deaths, etc. Write it all down.

Get set
Transfer your notes to a chart, and organize it as a family tree. You can use the free family tree at Ancestry.com and make use of their repository of 10 billion statistical records from all over the world. Select census indexes; state-specific downloadable charts and forms are available at no charge.

Before the family gathering, draw up a list of open-ended questions with specific family members in mind. These can be as simple as: “Tell us about your wedding day,” or “Where did you serve in the war?” If you have them, gather family photos, letters, memorabilia, and heirlooms. These will help jumpstart memories. (One caveat. Some memories may be difficult for loved ones to share. Don’t push. Be respectful.)

Go!
Select a relaxed moment as dinner is winding down, and start by announcing that you would like to ask members of the family to share some of their fondest memories. Pass around photographs and other collected items to get the conversation started.

Tip: Prompt young children to be the interviewers. Their innocent questions and true wonder about the mysteries of that hard-to-imagine time before they were born can open up reticent elders to share stories they might never share with another adult. Encourage one of the younger family members to record stories using a video camera or smartphone. (Create an instant audio scrapbook using the free iPhone app Saving Memories Forever available at savingmemoriesforever.com.)

Expand your search
The mission to document your family’s past can go well beyond family members you have always known. Use Facebook and other social networking sites to search for distant family members. On Facebook, you can create family-only groups or plan a reunion.

Story Basics The Saturday Evening Post

Whistle Stops The Saturday Evening Post

The National Alliance for Caregiving estimates at least 44 million Americans provide critical care to friends and loved ones with debilitating illnesses. What’s more, some 80 percent of all care received by older Americans is provided by a family member. Medical advances, shorter hospital stays, and an increase in home-care technology means more families are shouldering care burdens and for longer periods of time.

Some caregivers reach a breaking point. Others reach a turning point. For Osborne, witnessing her parents’ ailments was a wake-up call to prevent the same thing from happening to her. While caring for her mom and dad, she sacrificed a lot, but she drew the line at workouts at the gym. “This caregiver situation made me speculate on my own future. That’s why I make the gym such a priority. Seeing my mother’s physical situation makes me really want to avoid the same fate as best I can.”

Turns out that exercise may not only be a hedge against future health risks, it might be a therapeutic way to cope with the current situation. At least that’s what researchers in the College of Nursing at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, are trying to determine. The school has embarked on a study to evaluate the potential benefits of incorporating a physical activity program into the daily lives of caregivers, specifically those tending to Alzheimer’s patients. Caryn Etkin, Ph.D., study co-investigator, says Alzheimer’s is even more perilous to a caregiver’s health “because of the duration of the disease and severity of impairments that individuals have. We’re trying to help caregivers deal with the stress and burden of caregiving through physical activity.”

Life was a pressure cooker for Coskie and her husband, Steven, as they cared for their injured son and their seven other children.
Photo courtesy of Dixie Coskie

The Rush University study is part of an increased focus on the plight of caregivers. They may be the “second victims,” but they’re no longer silent victims. They’re organizing and advocating, joining support groups, logging onto online forums, and blogging about their experiences. “Until recently, caregivers were invisible, but that’s not the case today,” says Suzanne Mintz, caregiver to her husband, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. She is also the co-founder, with Cindy Fowler, of the National Family Caregivers Association.

Dixie Fremont-Smith Coskie of Upton, Massachusetts, found herself experiencing a mysterious illness not long after her thrust-upon role as caregiver. In 2001 her son Paul, just shy of his 14th birthday, was hit by a car while riding his bicycle and suffered traumatic brain injury.

Six months after her son’s accident, just as he was getting back on his feet, Coskie began suffering severe joint and muscle pain. After a series of tests, Coskie was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result of her “reliving the accident” and something called thoracic outlet syndrome, a disorder that occurs when blood vessels or nerves become compressed. Neither was life threatening. “I felt like God was giving me some of my son’s pain so he could get better, and I could take it on for him a little bit. It was kind of silly in that respect, but I would have done anything to get my son better.”

These days Coskie is eager to help other caregivers learn from her experience and recommends finding “reprieves along the way,” if only to remove yourself from the
situation for a while. When others ask how they can help, “have a list ready, instead of having to make others guess.”

And most of all, be kind to yourself. “Know that you … are the silent hero.”

Time Out for Caregivers

Sleep: Get enough of it.

Exercise: Even if it’s in small chunks.

Safeguard Your Health: Schedule doctor’s visits and routine exams such as mammograms. “Prevention is really important. If you think something is wrong, check it out because it could get a whole lot worse,” says Suzanne Mintz of the National Family Caregivers Association.

Breathe Easy: Try meditation, yoga, or deep breathing as a form of relaxation.

Seek Out Resources: Start with th National Alliance for Caregiving (caregiving.org) and National Family Caregivers Association (nfcacares.org).

Labor of Love The Saturday Evening Post

Ever since a New England farmer by the name of Elkanah Watson organized an exhibition of sheep under an elm tree in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1807, fairs have been drawing throngs to this generation-binding celebration of history, agriculture, and above all, Americana.

“It’s about tradition,” says photojournalist Arthur Grace who crisscrossed the country documenting the annual rite in photographs for his book, State Fair. And, of course, it’s about having a great time. “People leave their troubles at the gate. Once they pass into the entrance of a state fair, you see smiles come over their faces. It can be a magical place,” Grace says.

Oldest, biggest, quirkiest—each state clamors for its own superlative. In the showdown of hoedowns, here are seven to put on your calendar.

Indiana

Some fairs are cutting back, but not Indiana’s. The state is swinging open the gates for an extra five days this year and welcoming musical powerhouses such as Keith Urban and Kelly Clarkson, along with homegrown Hoosier entertainment. Homegrown is what it’s all about, from the nationally known livestock shows to a new Indiana Space Travels exhibition commemorating local contributions to America’s space exploration. Inside tip: Get an early start August 14 for the world’s largest drive-through breakfast.

Minnesota

The Minnesota fair is tightly woven into the fabric of the state’s history—and has its place in American history, too. Teddy Roosevelt delivered his “Speak Softly and Carry A Big Stick” speech at the fair in 1901. And native son F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about its “tumultuous Midway” and “aeroplanes that really left the ground” in his short story, A Night at the Fair, published in The Saturday Evening Post magazine in 1928. Today, livestock exhibitors and handicrafters still vie for coveted ribbons, and the art of overindulgence is in full swing. Haute cuisine is anything on a stick—from macaroni & cheese and alligator meat to scotch eggs and walleye—the state fish.

Iowa

More than a million people are expected to meet and mingle in this annual salute to the state’s best in agriculture, industry, entertainment, and achievement. Among Iowa’s boasts? It’s the only state fair included in the bestseller 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, and the inspiration behind Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway musical State Fair. The life-size butter cow is here in all its creamery glory. Ditto the Double Ferris Wheel and one of the biggest livestock shows on the planet.

New York

Despite the metropolis 250 miles south of the fairgrounds, the Great New York State Fair at Syracuse is a reminder that agriculture remains vital to the state’s economy. The fair honors traditional music and homespun skills such as woodworking, spinning, and weaving. Returning favorites include Sky Pirates aerialists, the Harlem Wizards stunt basketball team, and chain saw sculptors, joined this year by extreme wakeboard demonstrations. And for the first time ever, business mixes with pleasure with a job fair featuring firms from across the state. Over 21? Don’t miss a taste of New York state wine slushies.

An Iowan artisan and her butter-sculpted cow.
Courtesy: Iowa State Fair

Ohio

In this ode to all things Ohio, it’s about extremes, and that’s the fun of it. Fair veterans will get a first look at new attractions like the BMX Pros Bike and Board Trick Team, the fastest knitting competition, and sunflower seed distance spitting. And those who have their eye on the prize are always in good company. Last year’s fair drew more than 34,000 entries in open and junior competitions. Many relived the experience by sharing their favorite highlights on the Ohio State Fair Web site’s Memory Wall.

California

Since the first state fair in 1854, California’s big bash has been a showcase of Golden State history—but it’s not all about the past. It’s also about the here and now, which is why you might find graffiti art competitions, surf culture exhibitions, and multicultural presentations. This year’s theme is “Weird, Wild and Wacky,” and Californians are getting in on the act by contributing their oddest collections. Among them? Baby teeth, hotel soaps, and PEZ dispensers.

Texas

Everything about the State Fair of Texas is oversized, from its 52-foot iconic cowboy, “Big Tex,” welcoming visitors with a familiar “Howdy, folks” to its sky-high Ferris wheel, one of the tallest in North America. The fair, at 24 days, is also the longest one in the country. And you may need that time to experience it all. The fair is home to the great Red River Rivalry—the Texas versus Oklahoma University college football game—a 300,000-square-foot auto show with a history dating back more than 100 years and all the corn dogs you can eat.

Giving Back

State fairs are about good times—and good causes. This year, at least 10 college-bound students will each win a $2,500 scholarship, courtesy of the Oklahoma State Fair. The State Fair of Virginia awards scholarships to youths in 29 competition areas. And over the last 20 years, over 2,050 scholarships have been awarded totaling more than $1.7 million. Food drives help thousands who never even step onto the fairgrounds. The North Carolina State Fair holds a Food Lion Hunger Relief Day, one of the state’s largest one-day canned food drives, benefiting food banks to the tune of more than 2 million pounds since it was launched 13 years ago. At the Arizona State Fair, 20,000 admission tickets are distributed to nonprofit groups through a local television station. And on the annual Kiwanis Kids Day, some 2,000 special needs children enjoy free admission, complimentary lunch, toys, and rides.

Dollar-Stretching Value

State fairs are an entertainment bargain, and there are plenty of ways to make your dollar go farther. The Illinois State Fair, already inexpensive at only $3 per adult, offers a Mega Pass good for all carnival rides for the entire fair for $60. Buy it in advance and save an extra $10. If you’re South Dakota-bound, get in free every night after 8 p.m. Carnival rides go on through midnight and beer garden entertainment runs until 2 a.m. Some, like the Kansas State Fair, offer free parking, season passes, and special dollar days. Fans of the North Carolina State Fair save $2 off the regularly priced $7 adult admission by purchasing tickets online prior to opening day at etix.com. Seniors enjoy free admission every day. All state fairs offer some kind of promotion or discounted day so check their Web sites before you go. And if you can resist the knee-weakening aromas of the food vendors, bring a picnic basket and save even more.

Not sure when your state fair is being held? Here’s information for all 50 states.

Alabama State Fair September 18-27, 2009
Alaska State Fair August 27-September 7, 2009
Arkansas State Fair October 9-18, 2009
Arizona State Fair October 16-November 8, 2009. Closed Mondays.
California State Fair August 21-September 7, 2009
Colorado State Fair August 28-September 7, 2009
Delaware State Fair July 23-August 1, 2009
Florida State Fair February 4-15, 2010
Georgia National Fair October 8-18, 2009
Hawaii State Fair (Maui) October 1-4, 2009
Idaho State Fair (East) September 5-12, 2009
Idaho State Fair (West) August 21-30, 2009
Illinois State Fair August 14-23, 2009
Indiana State Fair August 7-23, 2009
Iowa State Fair August 13-23, 2009
Kansas State Fair September 11-20, 2009
Kentucky State Fair August 20-30, 2009
Louisiana State Fair October 22-November 8, 2009
Maryland State Fair August 28-September 7, 2009
Michigan State Fair August 28-September 7, 2009
Minnesota State Fair August 27-September 7, 2009
Mississippi State Fair October 7-18, 2009
Missouri State Fair August 13-23, 2009
Montana State Fair July 24-August 2, 2009
Nebraska State Fair August 28-September 7, 2009
Nevada State Fair August 26-30, 2009
New Jersey State Fair July 31-August 9, 2009
New Mexico State Fair September 11-27, 2009
New York State Fair August 27-September 7, 2009
North Carolina State Fair October 15-25, 2009
North Dakota State Fair July 24-August 1, 2009
Ohio State Fair July 29-August 9, 2009
Oklahoma State Fair September 17-27, 2009
Oregon State Fair August 28-September 7, 2009
Pennsylvania Farm Show January 9-16, 2010
South Carolina State Fair October 14-25, 2009
South Dakota State Fair September 3-7, 2009
Tennessee State Fair September 11-20, 2009
Texas State Fair September 25-October 18, 2009
Utah State Fair September 10-20, 2009
Vermont State Fair September 4-13, 2009
Virginia State Fair September 24-October 4, 2009
West Virginia State Fair August 14-22, 2009
Wisconsin State Fair August 6-16, 2009
Wyoming State Fair August 8-15, 2009

Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine do not have official state fairs. The Big E, the largest fair in the Northeast, acts as a stand-in for these states and includes exhibits, agriculture, history, and entertainment from throughout New England. Learn more about the Big E, which is from September 18- October 4.

The state of Washington does not have an official state fair. Instead, it has multiple large fairs including the Puyallup Fair, the Evergreen State Fair, and the Central Washington State Fair.

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The American State Fair
Some things just seem to say “summer.” Step right up for a nostalgic look at one of America’s finest traditions.

State Fair State of Mind The Saturday Evening Post

The New York Giants, Washington Senators, Boston Braves, St. Louis Browns—thousands of diamond enthusiasts still hold allegiance to these bygone teams. They organize fan clubs, celebrate great moments at meetings, and swap items on eBay every day all in the name of honoring the past of America’s pastime.

And their own youths.

Ron Gabriel grew up two miles from Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, at a time when you could hear radio announcer “Red” Barber’s play-by-play “from every open window in Brooklyn,” he recalls. These days Gabriel lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, but Brooklyn never quite left the boy. On October 4, 1975, at 3:44 p.m., he formed the Brooklyn Dodgers Fan Club. It was 20 years to the minute of the team’s first and only World Series victory.

“I realized this intensity needed someone to bring [Dodgers fans] all together, to kind of act as a clearinghouse. I was confident I could do that.”

Gabriel hosted annual meetings at his home (serving hot dogs and Schaefer Beer, a longtime Dodgers’ sponsor). When the 50th anniversary of the team’s World Series victory rolled around in 2005, he organized a commemorative dinner and passed out bumper stickers: We Loved the Brooklyn Dodgers — and we still do!!

But for Gabriel and thousands of fans of Dem Bums, the world changed when the team moved to Los Angeles beginning with the 1958 season. “I went into a state of shock,

and I still am, still can’t believe it.” Diehards were devastated and many, like Gabriel, never transferred their allegiance to another team. “Once a Brooklyn fan, always a Brooklyn fan,” he says.

There is a common thread that binds fans of defunct teams, a certain poetry in their recollections that are valentines to the boys of summers past. You can hear it in the way they share stories —always in the present tense. Bobby Thompson hits the “shot heard round the world,” Willie Mays makes his magical over-the-shoulder catch. With each retelling, there are new insights, a deeper understanding. The drama of the game continues to unfold. Instant replays, never distant replays.

“We’re in the Twilight Zone,” says Bill Kent, founder of the New York Baseball Giants Nostalgia Society. “To us, the old Giants are still alive. We relive their exploits.”

Kent grew up in the Bronx, a trolley and subway ride away from the old Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan. As a youngster, Kent would sometimes sneak into the ballpark by climbing over the fence before crews arrived and stake out empty seats with his friends. Other times, he’d get picked to turn the turnstiles at the entrance gate, earning spare change and free admission to the game. It was a highly coveted role. “There were always more kids than jobs.”

The Giants society is a loosely knit group of baseball fans, lawyers, teachers, sports writers, and even “a lady umpire and a lady baseball player” among them, who participate in an online discussion group and get together three times a year for what Kent calls schmoozing. Three or four people showed up at the first meeting held at a Chinese restaurant. Word spread, and Kent had to find larger quarters at an Italian restaurant. These days, meetings attract upwards of 50 and are often held in a church basement. Ten dollars pays for the pizza. There are even a couple of Dodgers fans and a sprinkling of Mets fans. “We don’t care. We have nice people, and if they’re not nice, they’re out,” he says.

The 1950s was a turbulent decade for baseball fans. In 1953, the St. Louis Browns played their last game at Sportsman’s Park before moving to Baltimore. Brownies pitcher Ned Garver, who won 20 games for the 1951 team that ended with a 52-102 record, once famously said: “Our fans never booed us. They wouldn’t dare. We outnumbered ’em.” At least their legacy is alive and well. The St. Louis Browns Historical Society and Fan Club is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

In 1954, the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City; in 1953 the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee. And, of course, there was the twin sting for New Yorkers in 1958 when both the Dodgers and Giants made their way to California.

When the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City starting with the 1955 season, it wasn’t a surprise. But that didn’t make it any easier for fans like Dave Jordan. “For a couple of years it was clear the A’s were running out of money,” he says. The city couldn’t support both the A’s and the Philadelphia Phillies. Still, Jordan says when the mayor announced a “Save the A’s” committee, “I was one of few people who took him seriously.”

Jordan is chairman of the board of the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, a robust organization of 800 members spread coast to coast. The society puts out a bimonthly newsletter, runs a museum, and holds functions to which original players are invited. There are a few younger members, but Jordan says that for the most part, its ranks are filled with people who were Shibe Park regulars in the days of Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, Eddie Collins, and Mickey Cochrane. One of Jordan’s favorite ballpark memories was the 24-inning game against the Detroit Tigers on July 21, 1945, called due to darkness.

“I kept score for 22 innings until I ran out of space.” He donated that incomplete scorecard to the Philadelphia A’s Society Museum and Library.

When the team moved on to Kansas City, Jordan stayed a fan. “In 1955 and 1956 I went to Yankee Stadium when Kansas City was in town, but it wasn’t the same. They changed the numbers of quite a few players, and eventually I had to face the fact that the Phillies were what we had left.”

Middle-aged fans are now golden agers and elder statesmen. “That’s something we at the society think about,” Jordan says. “Until recently, we always had a big breakfast in the fall, selling out with hundreds of fans showing up.” But, he says, as volunteers get older, functions are being scaled back.

There are also fewer players alive who wore the uniform.

The repercussions are showing up in the sports memorabilia market. Mike Heffner, president of Lelands.com, the oldest and one of the largest sports memorabilia auction houses, says the 1980s and ’90s were the boom days in memorabilia of defunct teams. “In the past few years, we’ve noticed a slowdown. People who were following teams in the 1940s and ’50s are mostly retired, some have passed away, and their collections have been sold.”

Some team items are valuable not because of the passion of their fans but because of their scarcity. The Seattle Pilots, for instance, played one year in 1969 before becoming the Milwaukee Brewers. “They didn’t have a huge fan base. There aren’t a tremendous

amount of them out there. But a uniform patch or a team-signed ball is very rare, so it’s tremendously collectible,” Heffner says. The Colt .45s (1962-1964), a squad that became the Astros, “were a terrible team, but they had really neat uniforms with a pistol on the front, so they’re highly collectible.” The latest franchise to join the brotherhood of bygone teams is the Montreal Expos, now the Washington Nationals. But don’t look for big returns there. “Canada and baseball don’t go together that well,” Heffner says.

Of course, for fans it’s not about money and not even about memorabilia. Their teams may not be in the box scores, and the ballparks may long be gone, but the boys of summer never grow old.

Reveling in the Past of America’s Favorite Pastime The Saturday Evening Post

Icon Brickell If Alice found herself thrust into a futuristic Wonderland, it might look something like the fantasy lobby dreamed up by Philippe Starck for the Miami condominium Icon Brickell. Starck, known for his dramatic interiors, took his cure from the ancient stone-carved statues of Easter Island. A pair of 22-foot-tall fiberglass moai-inspired statues rules over the lobby, surrounded by dozens of golden moai miniatures and frameless portraits. Enveloping it all is an acid yellow tint on the floor-to-ceiling windows that gives the lobby space an otherworldly hue.

Libery Hotel Call it “jailhouse shock.” The conversion of Boston’s historic Charles Street Jail into a $150-million luxury hotel resulted in one of the more inspired lobbies around. The jail’s central atrium forms the nucleus of the hotel’s lobby, bar, and restaurant. Original catwalks, once trod by prisoners ranging from protesting suffragists to noted imposter Frank Abagnale of Catch Me If You Can movie fame, have been restored and relocated. Other architectural elements, such as the cupola, were painstakingly rebuilt. A focal point is a specially commissioned mosaic by artist Coral Bourgeois that depicts historical scenes and personalities from penitentiaries and true-life crimes. The jail was decommissioned in 1990, and the property is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

McRae Offices Gray cubicles and industrial carpeting? Not in the offices of McRae, a marketing agency on the top floor of the Equitable Building in downtown Atlanta. The firm reached for the brass ring when it hired local artist Dianna Love Snell to hand paint an astonishing 40-foot mural of the Six Flags Over Georgia carousel. You can almost hear the pipe organ music. The trompe l’oeil rendering of this century-old merry-go-round is a nod to company president Joe Snowden’s native Atlanta roots and a conversation starter that immediately puts visitors at ease.

Hyland Software Headquarters The lobby of Hyland Software is minimalist and industrial—what you might expect of a technology company. But there’s one thing you wouldn’t expect, and that’s a giant stainless steel slide. It’s no prop. Employees actually bypass the staircase and elevator and take express rides down to the main floor. It was a first for the design and architectural firm of Vocon, but not Hyland. A plastic spiral slide was already set up in an employee-only section of the headquarters.

The Palmer House There’s a lot of competition for the eye’s attention in the lobby of The Palmer House in Chicago, but it’s the majestic scene above visitors’ heads that causes jaws to drop. It’s not exactly the Sistine Chapel, but it may be as close as it gets on U.S. soil. The ceiling is a seamless panorama of 21 murals portraying figures from Greek mythology. Art Deco artist Louis Pierre Rigal painted the canvases in his native France, which were then shipped and installed in the hotel’s lobby in 1926. Seventy years later, Italian artist Lido Lippi, who had worked on a restoration of the Sistine Chapel, was tapped to clean, restore, and apply a polymer to The Palmer House ceiling, ensuring the murals would continue to astonish visitors into the next century.

Comcast Center Gawk this way. The headquarters of the Comcast corporation, the newest and tallest addition to the Philadelphia skyline, is turning heads not only for its soaring glass-curtain exterior, but also for its stunning public art video installation in the main lobby. Dubbed the Comcast Experience, the LED display screen is massive—83 feet by 25 feet—and five times the resolution of a high-definition screen. Visitors can be forgiven for stopping in their tracks at the computer-generated images. Those 10 million pixels mean the constantly changing videos, ranging from NASA satellite images to historical sites and nature footage, look downright real. The technology was created by David Niles and presented to the city as a gift by Comcast and building owner Liberty Property Trust.

Curtis Center Philadelphia’s art collections stack up with the best of them, but one of the city’s most prized art treasures isn’t in a museum or gallery. Instead, it graces the lobby of the Curtis Center office building—once home to The Saturday Evening Post magazine. Dream Garden is the brilliant mosaic based on a painting by Maxfield Parrish and reinterpreted by artisans of Tiffany Studios. The 15-by-49-foot mosaic, which took six months to install, is comprised of more than 100,000 hand-fired glass pieces. Its iridescence renders it almost jewel-like in appearance.

Adam & Knight Offices The almost ho-hum brick-and-mortar facade housing the offices of communications firm Adams & Knight doesn’t begin to prepare visitors for what awaits them inside: a time warp back to the 1950s. The lobby features a functioning retro diner complete with booths, a milkshake machine, authentic memorabilia, and a refurbished Wurlitzer jukebox. Mr. Sandman, anyone? The lobby sets the stage for the agency’s playfully offbeat offices that spotlight co-owner Bill Knight’s collection of vintage advertisements and original travel posters.

Riverhouse Condominiums Visitors can practically feel ebb and flow in the lobby of Riverhouse, a luxury Manhattan condominium overlooking the Hudson River. Credit designer David Rockwell, whose vast portfolio includes the set for Hairspray on Broadway and the Cirque du Soleil building at Walt Disney World, for a theatrical interpretation of a nautical theme. A “water wall” of twisted aluminum spirals looks like an ocean wave. Nearby, lounge seats dubbed “chocolate whales” for their shapes have been hand-carved from poplar trees. They’re functional and sculptural. And then there’s the fantastical staircase—more twirl than spiral, as if caught in a soft breeze.

Visitor’s Guide

Some lobbies are open to the public. Others are private but available for tours. Call in advance.

Adams & Knight Offices
80 Avon Meadow
Lane Avon, CT 06001
(860) 676-2300

Comcast Center
1701 John F. Kennedy Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 286-1700

Curtis Center
601 Walnut St. Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 238-6450

Hyland Software Headquarters
28500 Clemens Road
Westlake, OH 44145
(440) 788-5000

Icon Brickell
495 Brickell Ave.
Miami, FL 33131
(305) 371-1411

Liberty Hotel
215 Charles St.
Boston, MA 02114
(404) 917-0620

The Palmer House
17 East Monroe St.
Chicago, IL 60603
(312)726-7500

Riverhouse Condominiums
One Rockefeller Park
New York, NY 10282
(212)587-1200

Lobbying Efforts: Inside the Grandest Entrances in America The Saturday Evening Post

On any given day, landscape artist Barbara Ernst Prey is apt to find e-mails from museum curators and patrons clogging her in-box. Prey’s canvases hang on the walls of world-class institutions, in private collections, and even at the White House. But the messages that cause her voice to crack with emotion are the ones from ordinary people who write about the transforming effects her paintings have on their lives. There’s the letter, for instance, from a man recounting how his relative, suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease, found solace in Prey’s paintings. “When he was ill and in a wheelchair, he lined up my paintings on a long mantelpiece so he could just look at them and enjoy them,” Prey says.

Prey is a creator of beautiful things. Among her works is a painting of the Space Shuttle Columbia lift-off commissioned by NASA as a tribute to the families of the astronauts who lost their lives in the disaster. Her images soften life’s blows.

Art has that kind of healing effect. Turns out what’s on the wall is a lot more than a statement of style. Medical experts say it can change a person’s physiology, alter perceptions, and have a calming, curative influence. And they knew it even before they could prove it. In 1860, Florence Nightingale wrote about the effect of “beautiful objects” on sickness and recovery. “Little as we know about the way in which we are affected by form, by color and light, we do know this, that they have an actual physical effect.”

In the early 20th century, medical advancements progressed at such a rapid clip, the human factor became secondary to technology. Modern hospitals were sterile, sleek and stark. Then in the 1940s, the curious new field of art therapy came into its own, advancing the notion that art-making could be used to improve and enhance one’s physical, mental and emotional well-being. Conventional medicine remained skeptical until the results became too compelling to ignore, and that’s only been in the past 20 years, says Dr. Brent Bauer, director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Adjunct treatments like art therapy that were once considered “weird” are now being welcomed. “If looking at a beautiful picture in a room or having access to art-making helps an individual get through a difficult day or a difficult procedure, it’s getting harder and harder not to be excited about it,” Bauer says, “It’s a fun time of medicine.”

These days, studies are drilling down on the mind-body connection, and the mounting evidence of art’s therapeutic benefits is indisputable. Art helps ailing children gain some control over their helplessness. It reduces pain in cancer patients. It helps Alzheimer’s patients develop a new language of communication and combat memory loss. The Museum of Modern Art in New York hosts a free monthly program for Alzheimer’s patients in which its vast collection of modern masters is used as a platform for mental stimulation.

Mayo Clinic launched a pilot program among men and women battling such serious diseases as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, many of whom were in hospital isolation. “The idea was to bring something to the bedside that could help improve their quality of life and reduce stress,” says Bauer. That something was art. “Without even trying to be therapeutic, in many cases it was. We were looking at their pain, their mood. If it was negative, could we improve it? If it was positive, could we enhance it?” The answer was an unequivocal yes. And to Bauer’s surprise, the findings crossed over “gender and age and all things I thought might have been barriers.” Bauer says the trial revealed a “trend toward improvement in pain” and “significant improvements” in mood and anxiety reduction.

alzheimer.jpg“When we reduce stress, we improve sleep and we improve the immune system,” Bauer explains. Mayo has received benefactor support to expand the program.

Art history and art-making workshops are a regular part of the schedule offered at Hewlett House, a cancer-support resource center on Long Island. Eileen P. McCarthy has been a regular since she was diagnosed with her third bout of breast cancer in 2005. “Cancer can be in your mind 24/7,” says McCarthy. “Art pushes all that aside.” Not long ago she was painting a beach scene when her instructor, Laura Bollet, came up beside her and asked McCarthy what was the matter. “The calm sea I was painting was suddenly a storm. I didn’t even realize it but it made me grasp how upset I was. It had been all bottled up. I couldn’t get my ocean to calm.” Bollet says the canvas was capturing emotions before McCarthy had a chance to articulate them. The woman who once told a family member she couldn’t draw a straight line with a ruler now says art has “become a part of my life. It’s an amazing medium. I was surprised at how far I’ve gone and how far it’s helped me.”

The simple act of enjoying a work of art can be just what the doctor ordered. The University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor has an “Art Cart” program, a kind of lending library of framed poster art. Volunteers go room to room allowing patients to select artwork that connects with them personally to hang on their walls.

As an artist, Barbara Prey says, “It’s very touching to see how your work is used in ways you just don’t know. And it’s rewarding to know I’ve done something that’s made someone’s life a little better.”

Trying to figure out what art is the right prescription for health and healing is, as you might expect, in the eye of the beholder. One man’s Norman Rockwell is another man’s Jackson Pollock.

The_Simple_Life.jpgBauer says landscape scenes have shown promise in studies. “We’re wired to enjoy nature.” According to Bauer, patients in hospital rooms that face woods and trees do better than those in rooms facing, say, a brick wall, which explains why so many medical offices and hospitals are adorned with pictures of the great outdoors. “If you’re going to have a tube placed in your stomach, a fairly uncomfortable procedure, and you can stare at a beautiful scene of a mountain or an ocean, it reduces stress and makes the procedure easier,” Bauer says.

For some, familiar images can spark an emotional connection and release a memory that generates positive feelings. Others get that reassurance by staring at pictures of large color fields or religious iconography.

“Art-making or the act of creating involves every single part of the brain,” says art therapist Elizabeth Cockey of Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center in Baltimore and author of the memoir Drawn from Memory (2007). “It stimulates our neurology, and that feels good.”

Cockey ticks off a list of restorative benefits she’s seen as a result of her work, even in her lowest functioning patients: alleviation of depression, enhanced hand-eye coordination, improved motor coordination leading to more independence, and the restoration of self-esteem. When individuals engage in art-making, they realize, “there’s more to life than their own circumstances.”

Hewlett_House.jpgHer experience is backed up by a report released by the National Endowment for the Arts on the impact of arts programs on older Americans. The study found that seniors who participate in weekly arts programs reported better health, fewer doctor visits, and less medication usage than those who don’t.

Julie Gant is an art therapist who works with patients at the other end of the spectrum at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Art is used to help kids as young as two and three offset hopelessness. “There are so many things kids don’t have choices about — surgery, medical procedures, even blood pressure takings — that getting the chance to make choices instead of passively lying in bed counteracts feeling of helplessness,” she says. The choices may be as simple as what colors to select or what materials to use, but if youngsters can pick up a pencil or a crayon, they can take an active role in creating. “It’s a chance for them to make choices in an environment where their choices are limited.”

Art is such a natural part of kids’ lives that it helps normalize their strange and difficult surroundings and distract them from pain or side effects of medication. Gant says that for youngsters who haven’t had a chance to process what’s happened to them, art can help stave off post-traumatic stress syndrome and other related woes. “Art helps them make sense of their situation.” What’s more, it’s a vehicle to communicate emotions they may not be able to articulate. Drawing something might be easier for a first-grader than talking about it.

In the meantime, Eileen McCarthy says she is winning her battle with cancer. “I would not have gotten through this without the art course at Hewlett House. Art has helped as much as any medication.”

That’s no surprise to folks like Elizabeth Cockey. “The truth is, art makes you better. It doesn’t happen overnight. And not everybody is going to get better in the same way or in the same time frame. But it will happen.”

Art’s Healing Powers The Saturday Evening Post