THOUGHTS

April 13, 1923

April 16, 2019

This week brought back a memory I had not given thought to in years. It is the book Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. To be truthful, I never read the book until after I actually saw the outdoors pageant. Living in Riverside, California most of my young life, everyone in town know about the annual performance of Ramona, performed in Hemet, California. The play is usually done this time of the year in April. In fact, the first performance was April 13, 1923. No, I am not that old. I saw my first play of Ramona back in the early seventies. But, it was so fascinating, that it stuck with me to this day.

The play is performed outside, up in the hills and usually in warm weather. It is held over three consecutive weekends in April and May.
There were, I remember, wild flowers and the excitement of the actors/actresses, horses, all the commotion going on, it is just so much fun to be there. For those who do not know about the story of Ramona, it is a love story between Ramona, an orphaned half-Native American and half-Scottish, who was adopted by Senora Moreno, a Mexican-American woman; and Alessandro, son of Pablo Assis, the chief of the Temecula Indian tribe. This story has so much history native to not only California, but the area of Riverside and Temecula.

Helen Hunt Jackson was an author and reformer. Born in 1830, Helen (born Helen Maria Fiske) was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the United States government. Helen was friends with Emily Dickinson. Helen married Major, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers / Inventor of an early submarine, who was the first U.S. military submarine fatality at the early age of 41.

I hope you will consider reading Ramona or maybe some of Helen's poetry shared at the following site: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/helen-hunt-jackson


Thanks for stopping by!
Seabreeze