"America's Hidden History"

I finished reading a great book the other night called "America's Hidden History" by Kenneth C. Davis. I have a few other books by him on history, but it's probably been about 15 years since I read them (hold up, that can't be right because that would mean I'm OLD and can reference things in decades rather than years....urg).

The reason I'm bringing the book up is that it differed from many history books in that he kept to a small sub-set of stories, and he put a lot of effort into bringing the stories to life. Let's face it, as much as I love history, a lot of the books about it can be, well, dry. And when I say dry, I mean the tumbleweeds blowing, sand in the eyes, while eating saltines with nothing to drink kind of dry. Genealogy is the same way when taken at face value. It takes effort and imagination to bring the dead to life.

I have a bad habit of loving my genealogy data. I like facts, filling in my family database with fact after fact. Birth date, death date, baptism date, joined the military date, list of children. You can export data and graph it, see how many people were born in the spring vs. the fall, see how many people share a given name or a surname, nerdy stuff like that. But it's important to stop once in a while and think about the person whose data you are looking at....they were alive, they laughed, cried, made dumb mistakes, loved, hated and sometimes ate too much for dinner. They skinned their knees as children, and missed their parents after they had passed. And even though they may seem to be a few dates and facts on your computer screen, if you make the effort, you can weave together their story.

What does all this have to do with Davis's book?

Well, he did a great job of weaving together some stories that give you the real flavor of some historical people. He gives us 6 short histories in the book, each focusing on a main historical character, but there are some detours here and there. Interestingly, he begins each story with a couple pages of facts, dates and what happened on that date, that pertain to the subsequent history. He then gives us the real story.

I learned a lot about the very beginning of colonization here in America, Puritan life as it really was, what George Washington was actually like and a lot about the American Revolution and how incredibly disorganized it, and our fledgling government was. Sound dry? Well, some of you won't like it no matter what I say, and really, I can't figure out why you're still even reading this blog posting, but for the rest of you, have a crack at it and learn a little bit. Or not, your choice! :-)

"To remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child."

Stop reading here if you are not a history buff (just a friendly warning, you will be bored, I promise you).

So I just finished reading this AWESOME book called Albion's Seed Four British Folkways in America. Yes I know, isn't that the most thrilling title you ever saw?? Of course I was drawn right too it in the Borders or wherever I was. It's paperback, but weighs about 87 pounds. It is, in every sense of the word, a tome. And I carried it all the way down to Jamaica, started reading it, carried it all the way back, read 2 different books, then finished it.

But I digress.....

So it was such a great book! It talked about the different groups of people that first came over to America from Great Britain, what their religions were, what their customs were, basically just what type of people they were, and how that shaped the regions and the history of colonial and revolutionary (and modern) america. I deal with these people (colonists) all the time in my genealogy research and most of them are just names and birth/death dates and places. Long lists of children, with the same damn name as the parents. So John and Elizabeth had children named John and Elizabeth. And let's say Elizabeth died young, then they would name the next girl who was born Elizabeth. You start to lose perspective. But you do start to appreciate unique names (thanks mom and dad for mine).

Anyway, it's so hard to picture them as real human beings that laugh and do stupid things (which is what comprises about 95% of my day). But this book actually gives you some insight into all that. The main four he discussed were the Puritans up in New England, the Anglicans down in Virginia/Maryland, the Quakers in the Delaware Valley and the Northern Britons that ended up in the Appalacians and South. He even discussed language and how it evolved (which of course I thought was so interesting, I love the history of the english language).

Very cool book, has really helped me gain a better understanding of why things are the way they are (and were) in colonial america. Highly recomended. If you are in to that sort of thing. And if you are not, I don't know why you are still reading this, don't even think about making fun of me because I am a dork. I know I am a dork, and I told you not to read this. Go on, go back amazon or wherever you were before.....and forget all about this. :-)

"Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance."

Using the turnpike to drive to Pittsburgh takes me through 4 tunnels under mountains, one under water. That's 10 tunnels to drive through within a 72-hour period. When I was little I liked tunnels. It was weird how your radio would go away and you were underground where it never rained and the sun never shone and the dirt was covered with shiny clean white tiles.

Thanks to Stephen King that all went away! After reading The Stand, I never felt the same about tunnels again. I drive through them, hands at 10 and 2, looking to see which side has the little walkway, just in case I happen to need it in the future. That scene in the tunnel out of manhatten was truly one of the creepiest, most unsettling things I ever read.

The one other scariest thing I ever read was from The Shining. It's not in the jack nicholson movie version, but is in the mini-series with that guy from Wings. It's the scene where Jack Torrance is outside with the hedge animals. The first time I read it, I was actually, literally afraid to turn the page!! I've never felt like that since, I probably never will (too jaded!).

And that concludes my list of scary scenes I've read.