{"id":21620,"date":"2014-04-16T08:26:44","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T12:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21620"},"modified":"2014-04-16T08:26:44","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T12:26:44","slug":"spring-awakens-sanderson-after-a-wintry-slumber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21620","title":{"rendered":"Spring awakens Sanderson after a wintry slumber"},"content":{"rendered":"

Museum namesake, Rip Van Winkle crossed paths many times<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Linda Banks<\/strong>, Special to The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"ChrisasRip\"<\/a>

Christian Sanderson, seen above in costume as Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, was fascinated by the character and story for more than 50 years, after first encountering it as a student at West Chester Normal School.<\/p><\/div>\n

Springtime in Pennsylvania is guaranteed to bring mixed garden chores, weather, and events.\u00a0\u00a0 Old Man Winter never appears quite certain that he wants to shake off his icy coat.\u00a0 Daffodils struggle to forge\u00a0through bits of bark and debris as they burst yellow before us.\u00a0 Just as certain is the opening of the\u00a0Christian C. Sanderson Museum, which reopens each March and remains open to the public on its usual\u00a0schedule through November.\u00a0 And in keeping with all of these vital seasonal events are memories of Chris Sanderson himself as he came to life as Rip Van Winkle.<\/p>\n

Christian Sanderson cultivated a broad range of pursuits throughout his long, productive life.\u00a0 His fertile\u00a0imagination and deep enthusiasms fostered the growth of many interests.\u00a0 Small seeds of discovery\u00a0blossomed gradually into full-blown loves — some nurtured regularly, others following alternating seasons of slumber and renewed awakening.\u00a0 His life was a succession of Rip Van Winkle moments.<\/p>\n

Chris’s earliest mention of Washington Irving’s iconic character occurs in a letter which he wrote to his\u00a0mother (Hanna Carmack Sanderson) and his brother.\u00a0 Chris’s attendance at West Chester Normal\u00a0School stretched the family’s resources to their limit with little left for entertainment frills. In September of\u00a01900, Chris somewhat apologetically wrote to tell his mother that he had spent 10 cents to see a Rip Van\u00a0Winkle matinee in West Chester.<\/p>\n

Two months later he wrote a second letter to ask (somewhat less apologetically) for an advance of $1.75\u00a0to watch another Rip Van Winkle performance.\u00a0 By this time Chris was hooked on Irving.\u00a0 In equal\u00a0measure, he was hooked on the acting of 80-year-old Joseph Jefferson, whom he described with hyperbole as “the greatest living actor in the world.”<\/p>\n

The $1.75 was reluctantly advanced, but mother and brother gained interest on their money.\u00a0 Chris gave\u00a0them vividly detailed accounts of what he had seen.\u00a0 He summarized the Rip Van Winkle play act by act\u00a0and boldly described “terrible lightning and crashes of thunder so intense you would swear that a terrible\u00a0storm was raging outside.”<\/p>\n

Just a year later, Chris launched his teaching career at the Garwood School.\u00a0 When he planned the\u00a0school Christmas pageant, what did he include? You guessed it . . . Rip Van Winkle to be played be John\u00a0Bechtel, noted local educator.<\/p>\n

Jump ahead to 1937, and the dormant Rip is revived by Chris on the stage of the Longwood Open Air\u00a0Theater. \u00a0\u00a0He crossed the lines of history and literature, education and drama, past and present to inhabit a place and character that were dear to him.<\/p>\n

His mother attended this performance and afterwards wrote that she was “proud of Christie’s ability as ‘Rip’ . . . and was ‘swamped’ by congratulations.”\u00a0 As late as 1950 (when Chris was almost seventy), he\u00a0repeated his legendary Longwood performance.\u00a0 He may have concluded by quoting Rip Van Winkle\u00a0himself:\u00a0 “Are we soon forgot when we are gone?”\u00a0 And the answer to this question for both actor and\u00a0character would\u00a0have to be a resounding “No, you are not!”<\/p>\n

Irving, the father of the American short story, lives on in his folk lore based tales.\u00a0 Sanderson lived on in\u00a0the name of a dorm that once stood on the West Chester University campus, in the name of a Boy Scout\u00a0camp, in the memories of all who knew him, and most clearly at\u00a0the museum that bears his name and\u00a0houses his collection.\u00a0 To see\u00a0images of Chris as Rip Van Winkle, as subject of Wyeth paintings, as\u00a0historian, musician and teacher (He\u00a0wore many hats!) plan to visit the Christian C. Sanderson Museum.<\/p>\n

The Christian C. Sanderson Museum \u2013 A Man\u2019s Life, A Nation\u2019s\u00a0History. An eclectic array of art, military memorabilia,\u00a0presidential artifacts, local history and collectibles. \u00a0History\u00a0like you\u2019ve never seen it before! Open March through November,\u00a0Thursday through Sunday, 12pm to 4pm. . \u00a0Admission to the museum is $5 per person and free for members and children under 12 when\u00a0accompanied by an adult.\u00a0 Visit at 1755 Creek Road, Chadds Ford, just north of Route 1, or at\u00a0www.sandersonmuseum.org<\/span>.\u00a0 Also open by appointment. Call\u00a0610-388-6545.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Museum namesake, Rip Van Winkle crossed paths many times By Linda Banks, Special to The Times Springtime in Pennsylvania is guaranteed to bring mixed garden chores, weather, and events.\u00a0\u00a0 Old Man Winter never appears quite certain that he wants to shake off his icy coat.\u00a0 Daffodils struggle to forge\u00a0through bits of bark and debris as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[39,5373,5374,288,5375],"class_list":["post-21620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-chadds-ford","tag-christian-sanderson","tag-rip-van-winkle","tag-sanderson-museum","tag-west-chester-normal-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}