We stayed with my brother and his family in Homosassa. They really liked having the bell in their yard.

Day16-Bell and marathon. History Center. Orlando, FL

We drove around lots of construction trying to find the museum and ended up parking on a blocked-off street next to some really loud music and amplified voices. It turned out that it we were parked next to the finish line for the Marathon and it was just over. So people received their awards and walked right by the bell on their way home. I rang it for every person who was announced- not that anybody noticed.

Norman’s sister didn’t like that nobody was coming to ring the bell so she went into the little park in front of the museum and told the kids who were playing there to go over and ring the bell. So they did. Some of them had been playing in the fountain and brought their dad who had won first place in the men’s division. It was very exciting.

So the kids rang the bell and got their pictures taken for the newspaper. The same photographer who was covering the marathon had to shoot pictures of the bell. He wasn’t happy about it, either. He didn’t want to ring the bell and certainly didn’t want any postcards. He said he had enough junk, basically. I wanted to ask him why he was so averse to ringing the bell but didn’t want to antagonize him. But I think from now on, I’ll risk it. What the hell? It’s my bell and while I’m not out to piss anybody off, I am interested in all reactions and shouldn’t waste the opportunity to ask.

Norman’s sister said if those kids hadn’t come to ring the bell she would have felt it was a failure. To the contrary, today clarified something for me about what’s going on. There seems to be 2 types of events. One is where I invite people to ring the bell- It’s kind of fun and I enjoy trying to get people to stop and I like talking with them and hearing what they have to say about the whole thing. The other type of event is more personal and I am going to do it more and more. It’s why I am ringing the bell. So far the only times I have done this is when there is nobody else around. That’s when I stand and ring it for an hour or so. It’s very solemn and purposeful. So far, I am ringing the bell for the dead. It’s inevitable and I want to make the most of this opportunity to do so.

So from now on, I plan to ring it each day by myself. When the occasions present themselves to invite others, I will ask them to ring it, too. For whatever reasons they like.

History Center. Orlando, FL

9/15 Heading south. I 95 Florida

Norman is practicing to get the “Welcome to Florida” sign as we approach the border. We’ve only managed to photograph 1/2 of those “welcome” signs so far. It’s tricky.

Later on, I left the lights on in the car while we ate dinner and the battery was dead so we were delayed in resuming our journey. It may have been a stroke of good luck for us that we weren’t in the accident that caused this huge traffic jam we sat in soon after getting back on the interstate.

Day15-Hostel in the Forest

Some chickens and bells in the forest. The stick sounds much better than the clapper

9/15/06 Hostel in the Forest. Brunswick, GA.
Rather than describe the whole place, I recommend that anyone reading this go to this website and check it out. Read the list of rules. Look at the pictures. Then come back. www.foresthostel.com

We arrived last night in the dark and had to walk from the car through the woods to get to the hostel. It was scary and very dark- I heard a noise in the trees off to the side of the path and got out my cell phone to call them at the desk. I got the machine. So we walked until we saw some little lights through the trees. It was a little buggy, too.

The lights came from some geodesic domes that were all connected with wooden porches, and we found the one that looked most like it would have a lobby. There on the desk was the phone- off the hook. We followed some voices and found a few guys having dinner in the next dome where they invited us to join them. Since we had already eaten, we just hung out until they were finished and then Mikey gave us a tour and orientation. He didn’t even need a flashlight so we stumbled along behind him in the dark and heard about all the places we could visit in the morning when we could see.

Our place, the Bamboo House, was one of 8 tree houses and it was lovely. There was a ceiling fan and light and some candles. The forest was filled with sounds of insects and later in the middle of the night- a rooster off to an early start. The grain in the wooden floor was embellished by either tracing with a sharpie or blacking with a wood-burning tool. The lines in the wood would become snakes or intricate designs then revert to woodgrain again. It was pretty incredible.

Looking down from the porch in the morning, I saw a huge labyrinth (the 4th largest in the world). If you sliced the circle into a pie, each quarter was created with a different material and element in mind. The path on one quarter was made with white sand that contrasted with the black sand dividers. Another path was defined with piles of big stones. A trail of tree stumps formed one quarter and the last was made with leaves and pine needles. It was huge and intricate and felt in touch with something ancient and slow.

Before leaving, we did some chores, rang the bell and called the chickens over. There were some very odd-looking birds living a very good life.

Day14.Honda Dreamin'

I95 Southbound near the Honda factory where they wouldn't let us in past the gates

9/14 Noon. Pedros South of the Border.
Pretty deserted. We drove around once and parked along the road near the end of the strip. A guy on a ride mower, several golf carts carry assorted maintenance people passed by. At times a steady stream of trucks and cars, then nothing.

There was no foot traffic so I just rang the bell for almost an hour, sometimes waving to people driving by, sometimes not. A security vehicle passed on several occasions and I waved.


Later the same guys passed us on the highway and beeped and waved. A few cars with flag decals on the doors honked and the people waved and smiled. It makes me wonder about the symbolism of the bell around here.
I don’t want to sound cynical, but maybe it’s inconceivable that anyone would ring a bell for any reason that wasn’t patriotic. A lock on patriotism and its symbols?
I was so tired this morning, it felt really good to just ring and ring that bell.

PS Avoid the Super 8 Hotel in Dillon, SC.
PSS I recorded over the movie footage Norman shot here.

Day13PM-Pedros South of the Border

9/13 PM Pedros South of the Border. Dillon, SC.

Over the years, Norman (and many other people who drove up and down I 95) have stopped at Pedros South of the Border. There are billboards announcing the number of miles to go before you get there. Nowadays, these billboards only start to appear about 50 miles or so before hand. Apparently they used to start showing up in NY and count down from there, which worked the kids in the car into a frenzy so that the parents had to stop once they got there. We arrived at night and will go over there in the morning to ring the bell. I hear you can get any souvenir that was ever made.

Day13-So who's listening anyway?

Panning around in the rain to see if anybody notices the bell

9/13 Carrboro, NC. Across the street from Weaver’s Market.
A former Explainer from the Exploratorium (www.exploratorium.edu) came by with her young daughter. Caitlyn was a teenager when she worked at the Exploratorium as an Explainer. This had to be at least a dozen years ago, and although she no longer has bright red hair and multiple piercings, she still looks like a kid. She and her future husband met at the museum and they now live in town with their young children. Caitlyn came by with her little girl to ring the bell and talked about how competitive it used to be among the Explainers to ring the bell at 5 o’clock each day when the museum closed. Since this bell will replace that bell, it was like a christening of some kind to have her ring and approve of it, along with the next generation.

When we first arrived, I parked around the corner from the market in a public lot away from the main street. We wondered how people would react if they couldn’t see the bell. It seemed like many people either didn’t like it or were only mildly curious about it. The traffic and rainy streets obscured the sound enough that we decided to move the bell onto the main street in plain sight. It was raining pretty steadily, but many people stopped by. I know we annoyed the people who worked in the ice cream parlor and the hair salon since we were parked right in front, and I apologize should they ever come upon this.

Here’s a nice article from the day:
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/486079.html


Thank you, also to Sherri for a wonderful visit.

9/12 UMBC Anna Rubin’s Electronic Music class
Since I was nearby, Anna invited me to bring the bell over to the University of Maryland in Baltimore so her class could ring it and we could talk about the project. One student recorded the bell as part of a class assignment and another shot this video. It was a fun visit. We tried out the major hearing protection.

Day12-Easier on the ears?

Two solutions- hearing protection and a sock

Linda is my friend from High School, and we stayed with her and her family for 2 days. whew. And many, many thanks.

We really lucked out on the parking- right at the corner of the lot across from the water. It was perfect location for hanging out with the bell and an enviable parking spot in a crowded lot. I was there with my good friend from High School that I rarely see and we took turns coming up with different strategies for encouraging people to stop and ring the bell. Just asking people to ring it is pretty unsuccessful. Ignoring, pleading, inviting, or writing signs doesn’t work much better. My suggested that I ask people, “Would you ring this bell for me?” It worked 100% of the time. Unbelievable. People would ask why, and I would tell them what I was doing, and they would ring the bell. Every single person.

So I have a question for anyone reading this. I am not quite satisfied with that question even though it “gets results”. Yes, people do come and ring the bell which is the end result I am hoping for. However, does it matter that people are ringing it because I am asking a favor of them? I am not only interested in the bell ringing but also in the motivation.

I am searching for a question that arouses a person’s curiosity about ringing the bell and lets that motivate him or her to investigate further. Any suggestions?

9/10 3:45 Dock. Annaapolis, MD. Time to leave.
When it was time to leave, I couldn’t work the buckle on the strap that wraps around the wheel. It was stuck, stuck, stuck. And there was an audience waiting for the parking space. (Very patiently, I might add). After a few minutes, it was clear to me that I wasn’t going to be able to figure it out anytime soon, so I went up to the driver’s window and asked him to help me tie up the bell. Three men got out of the van and came to see what was going on. After they finally got the strap to work, we looked up and the van was gone. Fortunately, in the meantime, the people they had left behind in the van had driven off and found another parking space.

9/11 12:50-1:40 Arlington National Cemetery. Visitors’ upper level parking lot.

I rocked the bell steadily from side to side for 50 minutes, ringing it nearly 2000 times. It was deserted in the parking lot, quiet and grey. In the background was the soft stream of traffic punctuated on two occasions by the muffled boom of cannons firing in the distance.

Day9Lambertville

I was afraid he'd hurt his ears so I cut him off after a minute or so. It's ear plugs time for extended ringers

9/9 Noon. Lambertville Elementary School, NJ

This was the end of Main Street in a quiet town on a Saturday. Kids don’t generally come near a school on the weekends and adults rarely do at anytime. So there wasn’t much activity- One man came over because he and his daughters were eating and heard the bell and wondered what was going on. So the man actually got up from his meal and walked down the street and around the corner to check it out. He said he would go back and report and tell his girls to come over, but they never did.

Most of the photos are of members of my extended family who all live in Lambertville. There’s my Charlotte and my Dad, Laura and my nephew, Andrew. Some people from the nearby playground came for a moment to examine the bell, and the crowd of boys was the loyal audience who stayed the whole time.

DAY8 NYC

This bell is Way Too LOUD!

9/8/06. 5:00 PM. 6 and B Community Garden. Lower East Side, NY
Some of my favorite encounters:

A man with a large portable radio playing something he obviously enjoyed because he kept it playing while reading the postcards. He then accompanied the radio with some choice bell ringing.

A young girl who said she didn’t want to ring the bell because she had a headache only to show up 20 minutes later completely cured. It was a miracle.

Emilio, the skeptic. He kept trying to figure out what the catch was until he finally decided it was as it appeared and then was so happy. He said he was going to write to his friend in Puerto Rico and say that he met the Bell Lady.

Why? The most common response people seem to have is to ask why. Why are you doing this? Why should I ring it? My response varies. A few times, I have asked the asker -don’t you have a reason to ring the bell? And the answer comes after a short pause…A little smile, a lurch toward the bell and a hard yank on the wheel.