App File
Valentine’s Day
Many RVers travel with their significant other. Even if you’re not currently planning a romantic getaway for Valentine’s Day, the following apps are great for arranging fancy dinners, sending flowers, or just listening to some tunes on the way to your next destination.
OpenTable: Taking pride in bringing people together in the restaurants they love, OpenTable lets users reserve seats at restaurants; scan menus, photos, and reviews; or even find the best parts of a city with its editorial guides. Making reservations is free to the user, and the company provides access to online reservations for over 50,000 restaurants around the world. You can search for restaurants by dates, times, type of food, and even price range. A points system can be used to redeem discounts at member restaurants. Free on iOS and Android. www.opentable.com
1-800-Flowers: One great way to show your love and appreciation for someone is the gift of flowers, plants, or even food baskets. But if you’re on the road, out of town, or even at work, 1-800-Flowers makes flower and gift delivery simple. With just a couple of clicks, confirm an order and send it to the desired address. You can search for specific flowers, mixed bouquets, or other floral varieties to find the perfect gift for the occasion. Free on iOS and Android. www.1800flowers.com
iHeartRadio: If you’re struggling to find a radio station that suits you and you are looking for more variety in what you listen to, especially while you travel, consider iHeartRadio — a radio and podcast streaming platform with thousands of live AM and FM radio stations near you or across the globe. You can even create personalized music stations based on your favorite artists — your “Favorites Radio” collects your most-loved songs and enables you to easily access them, all in one station. Even if listening to music isn’t your thing, the app includes thousands of podcasts and live radio programs as well. Free on iOS and Android; a premium version without advertisements also is available. www.iheart.com
Bookshelf
Understanding Family
FMCA’s Supersized Book Club selection for the Perry, Georgia, convention spotlights a daughter’s journey to uncover answers regarding her mother’s past.
Justine Cowan will discuss her book and the family secrets she uncovered at FMCA’s upcoming convention in Perry, Georgia.
Justine Cowan was raised in an upper-crust San Francisco family. During Justine’s childhood, her mother filled their home with upscale furnishings, held lavish dinner parties, and made sure she and her sister received the best education. Justine always believed that her mother came from an aristocratic English family. But did she? And why did the two have such a contentious relationship?
Next month, RVers who attend FMCA’s “LUCKY 13” convention in Perry, Georgia, will be able to meet Justine and learn about her quest to unlock family secrets, detailed in her book The Secret Life Of Dorothy Soames (HarperCollins Publishers). She is the latest author in FMCA’s Supersized Book Club lecture series.
Justine’s mother always exhibited erratic behavior – fits of rage, obsessive cleaning, food binging, and more. One day, Justine found her scrawling an unfamiliar name over and over: “Dorothy Soames.”
The Secret Life Of Dorothy Soames takes readers to a children’s home in London formerly known as the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children.
The two never saw eye to eye, and Justine distanced herself emotionally and physically. Even so, when her mother died, she grieved deeply. She found herself drawn to an envelope containing a manuscript her mother had written years earlier. She had never read it, and as she finally pored over the words, Justine questioned who her mother really was.
The Secret Life Of Dorothy Soames takes readers to a children’s home in London formerly known as the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children. The Foundling Hospital, as it was commonly known, took in children of unwed mothers. The stated goal: to prepare them for menial service careers and allow their mothers an opportunity to restore their places in society. Justine’s mother was accepted there in 1932.
Each foundling was assigned a new name — her mother’s was Dorothy Soames. Raised from infancy with a foster family, at age 5 she was brought to the Foundling Hospital and thrust into a cold, impersonal, joyless world, having minimal contact with the outside world.
As did hundreds of other foundlings, Dorothy endured years of physical and mental abuse by sadistic superiors and staff, which included beatings and long periods of being locked in dark closets.
Justine deftly weaves her mother’s intense upbringing with memories of her own. As she researched, she saw just how far-reaching the institution’s impact had been on her family.
Readers may be struck by the historical context surrounding the Foundling Hospital. Once considered a hub of art and culture, it was the site of benefit concerts by composer George Handel and the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Justine shares Dorothy’s chilling World War II memories of Germany’s airstrikes over London, which raged overhead night after night as the foundlings cowered in a basement shelter.
Yet, despite Dorothy’s traumatic years at the Foundling Hospital, her spirit remained unbroken. Through Justine’s research and conversations with other foundlings, she came to know her mother as a little girl who, she wrote, was “feisty and courageous, and, improbably, full of dreams.”
Justine will appear in Perry on Saturday, March 18. Attendees are encouraged to bring a copy of the book. For more information, visit join.fmca.com/ga23bookclub/.