PEACE AND HEALING ON PLANET EARTH, ONE HEART AT A TIME
INTERESTS
HUNTERDON REVIEW, March 19, 2003
By LINDA SADLOUSKOS
HIGH BRIDGE - There may be no one else who knows as much about the
history of chenille, from fabric styles to the details of its invention by a
15-year-old girl in Georgia in 1895.
Perhaps she's the only one who's studied and lectured on the effect of
diet on psychic abilities.
And few people might have worked as hard to establish a museum in
Solitude House in High Bridge - which is, incidentally, the setting for her
first novel.
Christina Lynn Whited is a true original.
Sitting in the living room of her old house on Main Street - which has
turned into a workroom for CoCo:Chenille since her shop was soaked
along with two others in a major fire along Main Street last November -
Whited wears a dress made of the tufted chenille that's her specialty and
talks about her many activities.
Whether by design or circumstance, Whited always has a lot happening in
her life.
Besides her more unusual ventures into the paranormal, Whited is also
president of the High Bridge Business Alliance.
In that role, she's busy opposing a county plan to restrict parking to one
side of Main Street. "We like people to go slow on Main Street. We like our
children to be safe, and secondarily, we like people to see what we (local
stores) have to offer," she said.
n preparing the circa-1725 Solitude House for its grand opening on May
3, Whited also used her talent to rid the old structure of its lingering ghosts.
"A lot of people who lived there over the last 60 years mentioned the
ghosts," she said. Whited said she uses a series of prayers to persuade
spirits to move on.
The longtime residents of Solitude House are now gone, she said, "and
I have had independent verification by other psychics that the house is
ghost-free."
As a business owner, Whited sells vintage chenille and items such as
baby toys and bathrobes that she makes out of the specialty fabric.
The store has been operating in her home at 76 Main St., and via her Web
site (www.cocochenille.com), since a devastating fire damaged the stores
and apartments in the building at 15-19 Main Street last November.
"The job was immense," Whited said of her hurried attempts to save her
chenille goods the morning of the fire and the clean-up afterwards.
She said local friends were really helpful, especially in the beginning.
Customers called and said, 'Is there anything I can do?' I said, 'If you want
to wash bedspreads, you can stop by.'"
Whited has been a fixture on the High Bridge scene since shortly after
moving to the borough in 1991. Originally from upstate New York, she was
living in New York City when she learned about Hunterdon County from a
friend who had relocated to the Oldwick section in Tewksbury Township.
She said her first rental in High Bridge was virtually the only suitable place
she could find. "I knew I was where I was supposed to be."
Whited lived in local apartments before buying her 1880's house on Main
Street in 1998. She had three children when she moved into the borough,
and one remains at home.
"People were very welcoming," she said of her High Bridge neighbors.
Whited opened her shop, CoCo:Chenille, in 1994. A student of the
Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, she was designing women's
hats out of 1940s drapery material and needed something heavier for the
winter. She came across chenille bedspreads, which were most popular in
the 40s, at various yard sales.
Her sources for her chenille spreads, which include some historic
pieces, are "a trade secret," she says.
Whited is busy writing a book about chenille, an American-born craft
she said can be traced back to the creativity of a teenage girl in Dalton,
Ga. The word chenille means caterpillar in French and the material has
many raised tufts and dots of twisted threads.
During the 1930s, Whited said the handmade fabric became
mechanized, thanks mainly, she thinks, to the tinkering of some men
unemployed during the Depression who may have resented their jobs of
necessity doing piecework on chenille spreads alongside their wives.
Through studies and traveling to Georgia, Whited said she became an
expert in chenille. In addition to working on her book, she is also scheduled
to teach a one-night course on the History of Chenille through the
Hunterdon County adult education programs on Monday, April 7. Whited
will be instructor for another class on the Esoteric Meaning and Use of
Color slated for Monday, April 14, through the adult school.
Whited's other book is the first in a planned series for young adults.
The book is set at Solitude House in 1778, and involves time travel, she
said. She is still searching for a publisher.
Whited said she learned much about the history of Solitude House and
the Union Forge Ironworks while researching the novel. It was that
research that led her to begin the movement to set up the museum last
August. The Union Forge Heritage Association, which she leads, presented
the Borough Council last September with a petition signed by about 900
people in support of the project, she said.
In the meantime, she continues the work closest to her heart of doing
psychic readings for people which she said eliminate unseen negative
influences and help them achieve clarity. Most important, she said, is
"giving each person the tools they need to move ahead in their spiritual
development."
For the record, Whited said that green beans, snowpea pods and
purple grapes inhibit psychic insights.
Whited plans to continue her civic work, too. "I love it here in High
Bridge," she said. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be so involved in the community."
©Recorder Newspapers 2003
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