Untold History

The other day, I found myself wondering what happened to Esau in those years Jacob was living with Laban. I mean, we see him threatening to kill Jacob for stealing his blessing, then the next time we encounter him in scripture he welcomes Jacob home with no apparent malice.

What changed him? Did he have an encounter with God, like Jacob? One that brought him to a place of acceptance for the path of his life? Perhaps his parents begged him not to rip their family apart by murdering his brother and he loved them enough to forgive his Jacob. Perhaps he simply matured, realized he couldn’t change his situation and decided to accept it, make the best of it. Or maybe he was simply a man whose temper flared hot then cooled quickly, without leaving the smoldering ember of a grudge.

I have no idea what the answer is, but I love considering these types of questions.

What Biblical figure’s untold history captures your imagination?

Thank You, Dr. Onuf!

Long ago, in my college days at SMU, my history professor advisor for my senior thesis asked my next step in the field. Where did I see myself after graduation? Grad school? I shyly revealed to him my ultimate goal in the field of history: to write historical fiction. To my amazement, he didn’t laugh or sneer. Instead, he gave me a piece of advice I’ve held onto all these years. He said, steep yourself in a time period and then write from what you know of it.

I’ve now written two novels for publication set in the years just prior to and including World War I, but I still don’t feel “steeped” in the time period. So I’ve been reading more. The problem is, information is hard to find. The 1910s to 1920 is proving elusive. Oh, there are a few books here and there on the political climate, especially the reason for and situations leading up to WWI, or the military issues of WWI, but other than that, not much. I did recently happen across a few books in a used bookstore, but most of the information on women, their roles and their mindsets, comes from the radical side—and not all women fit into that category. But remembering back to my years as a history major, I remain undaunted in my search. I’m trying to read between the lines, trying to track down documentation of women’s lives in their own words. I want to create characters that are not just believable but also historically accurate. And honestly, as frustrating as it has been, I love every minute of it!

So I want to say thank you to Dr. Peter Onuf. His advice continues to echo in my head as I research a time period from which to create stories.

Winter Weather and the Past

Every time we have unusual winter happenings, my mind drifts back to the Ingalls family and The Long Winter. Blizzards that shut down the trains. Burning hay when the coal ran out. Grinding wheat in the coffee grinder to make small loaves of bread. Going to bed early and getting up late because they’re wasn’t much else to do. It always makes me thankful I live now, not then.

But the weather incident of the past few days has taken my thoughts in different historical directions. Before the days of TV—or radio--in the days before meteorologists made their findings known to us, how did Texas people cope with such an unusual onslaught? Think about our most recent scenario.

Sunday, January 30. Almost 80 degrees. Spring weather. Not terribly unusual, but definitely welcome. But a hundred years ago, no one warning of a coming cold—with ice and snow. No one encouraging them to stock up the pantry and turn up the heater.

Monday, January 31. More normal temperatures of 50s-60s. Back to “winter” for Texas. But our ancestors went through their day without the warnings of coming sleet, freezing rain, plummeting temperatures.

In the middle of the night, rain and thunder. In the days before media, I’d imagine those who woke to the thud of rain turned over with the thought of cooler temperatures on the way. But can you imagine their surprise at the tink of sleet against glass? The white covering the ground as day dawned with icy temperatures and biting wind.

What if all the canned goods were still in the cellar? What if your neighbors had gone visiting and asked you to milk their cow—at their farm? And they couldn’t get back for several days? And you had no telephone to call and find out their plans? And what if you were low on firewood or coal because you had no warning? A trip to the outhouse would be fun, wouldn’t it? Or dealing with chamber pots if you chose not to?

Yes, those are the things I thought of as my kids stayed home from school day after day, as my husband built a fire that I was thankful didn’t comprise my only source of heat. As we come out on the other end of this event and get back to our “regular” lives, I reflect on those that came before. But while I love to venture to that past in my reading and my writing, I’m very, very glad I live in the now!

What kinds of events make you wonder about life in the past? How far back does your imagination usually take you? Do you think about things you’ve read in regard to those events or do you wonder about the things you never read about?

Vintage Baseball Game

We went to a vintage baseball game yesterday. They played by the rules of baseball from the 1860s. Yes, you read that right. 1860s, like during the Civil War.

It was fascinating, really, like watching baby movies of a grown up you know. You see bits and pieces of the person that is familiar to you, and yet it is so very different.

How was it different? For one thing, they didn’t use gloves or any other protective equipment! The ball was a bit bigger and softer than it is now, but playing baseball with your bare hands isn’t easy—especially for the catcher! Because of that, the rules were a bit different than now. A ball could be caught for an out not only straight from the air, but also on one bounce! That included foul balls and foul tips.

The pitcher had a bit more leeway then. Besides pitching underhand, no count of balls was kept. The official only called strikes when the batter swung and missed. Even foul balls weren’t counted as strikes!

Of the two teams we watched play, one regularly plays in these types of games and one was formed for this event. It took the newbies a couple of innings to get the hang of things, but they did. And it really was fun to watch. Our hometown rookies even ended up winning by one run in the ninth inning.

If you enjoy baseball and ever get a chance to see a vintage game, I highly recommend it. It isn’t often you get to “experience” a bit of history, so take advantage of it when you can. 

The Young Victoria

I’ll admit that I have a lifelong fascination with royalty. And truly, if I trace it back, it probably began with checking out Jean Plaidy’s The Queen’s Husband back when I was 11 or 12. It told the story of Victoria and Albert. And I was hooked.

So it really isn’t any surprise that I’ve wanted to see the new movie The Young Victoria. But it was only showing at one theater around us—and that one was over 30 miles away. I thought it a long shot, at best. But lo and behold, we actually found ourselves in that area of town on Sunday and went.

While I understand that movies (and books) based on lives of historical figures often skew the historical fact, I didn’t mind. When the credits rolled and the lights went up in the theater, I was still wiping my eyes.

“That may be the most romantic movie I’ve ever seen,” I told my husband.

The screenplay wove the story well. The actors were topnotch. And the fact that it has been nominated for Academy Awards in art direction, costume design, and makeup tell you it was beautiful to watch as well. Definitely a film that will reside among my DVDs when it becomes available.

Gleaning Historical Tidbits

I love learning about history. Not the history you learn in textbooks, necessarily, although knowledge of those things is an important background. I love the little things. The obscure things. Things important to the people of a specific time and place but not noted by the country or the world. That’s why I love the Dallas History Conference.

This year we learned all kinds of cool things—about the fact that SMU had a medical and pharmaceutical school that opened and closed its doors before the undergraduate liberal arts school had its first class, about the red light district in Dallas from 1910-1913 and the efforts that brought about its demise, about the outlaw Shilo Scrivnor, about the long-forgotten Long’s Lake pleasure park, and about “Dad” Garrett and his inventions. What? You haven’t heard of most of that?

Precisely! Isn’t that fun? While none of those actual topics may find their way into my stories, I learned lots of little things—like the name of one of the biggest employers in Dallas in the early 1900s, several bank robberies that occurred in Dallas in the late 1910s and early 1920s, what hospitals were up and running in Dallas in the early 1900s and some of early medical men whose legacies remain today. I learned some of the history of traffic signals and radio stations and fire and police alarms and an African-American newspaper. Tidbits that can enhance a story and that are just plain fun to know!

Here’s a bonus for you: Did you know that the first car in Dallas was delivered by train to Terrell then driven to Dallas? It took 5 hours and 10 minutes to make that drive!

Someday I’ll have more time to research on my own, but gleaning from the research of others is an amazing thing, too. I’m so glad I live in a place where I can take advantage of that!

Giving Thanks Day 13

I am grateful for indoor plumbing, grocery stores, telephones, automobiles, airplanes, and most other modern conveniences! As much as I love reading and writing about other time periods in history, I wouldn’t have enjoyed living in most of them!

The State Fair of Texas

We went to the State Fair of Texas today. It’s a yearly pilgrimage to fried food and farm animals, with the new car building reminding us we are well into the 21^st century. This year, as my feet walked familiar paths, I remembered that our annual journey to this place is not something new.

The State Fair of Texas has been around since 1887, with its initial draw being horseracing. Aerial shows and automobiles became featured in the early 20^th century. The Great War and the Spanish flu caused its cancellation in 1918. So as we walked past Big Tex and visited the numerous buildings and shows, I imagined others around us, those who over a hundred years ago enjoyed a similar family outing, a day (or in the case of some people, days) of escape from the normal routine. It feels good to walk paths long trod. It gives one a feeling of continuity. A remembrance that though things change, so many, many things remain the same.

Clash of Cultures

Jeff and I will use any excuse to tour a historical site. And to stay over night in one? Well, that’s even better!

Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about the history of southern Louisiana. In the space of a few hours, we got to glimpse the clash of cultures in that region firsthand. In the morning, we toured a Creole plantation house. It was built by a French family. That afternoon, we toured a plantation house built by an English-speaking family originally from North Carolina. A fascinating contrast!

Besides the obvious—French-speaking vs. English-speaking, Catholic vs. protestant—there were some other interesting differences. For instance, Creole houses were painted in bright colors. They had no hallways—one room flowed directly into another. The center doors were not used, though they often stood open. The planters conducted business from their bedrooms, only later using a small dressing room off the bedroom as a designated office space (because their more Americanized counterparts were not comfortable conducting business in a bedroom).

On the other hand, most homes of English-speaking people were painted white. The particular house we visited (and stayed in overnight!) was classic Greek revival with white columns, a large center door opening into a central hall and staircase. Very Gone With the Wind-ish. While in both houses the dining room comprised the largest of the rooms, this house sported two parlors and a library besides the various bedrooms.

Each family viewed their dwelling as differently as they built them. The English-speaking family lived in their house. It was home. For many French-speakers, the plantation house was business, a place to live during planting and harvesting seasons. Many considered “home” to be a house in New Orleans. Not true for all, but more common than for their more American counterparts.

The history represented in both houses is the kind of history I love. To me, the “big” historical events pale in comparison to how daily life was lived out. I love family histories and pictures and memoirs. I loved staying in that historical home and imaging what it would have been like to live there in 1850, 1880, 1910, 1950. We had a lovely adventure into the past at both plantations. I’m glad we got to visit them in the same day.

Pages of the Past

I went to look up just one little piece of information for my historical novel. I knew I needed it straight from the source my character would have had access to: the newspaper. Two hours and about twenty printed pages later, I emerged.

You see, I’m a sucker for old newspapers. They say so much! The language is, of course, important—what words are used and how. I love one ad I found: Estrayed—one fawn-colored jersey cow. Estrayed! What a great word! The articles are important for what is told and the conclusions that are reached on national and international events and questions, especially from the vantage point of looking back and having more information. The ads are wonderful sources of detail to add texture to a historical story and also good research into what kinds of things were available to the general public at a given time.

Page after page after page of fascinating stuff. And very little of it would have seemed so to the people who read it in “real time.” For me, these pages of the past help round out the picture of life for people that lived through the events we read of in our history books. And for me, the lives of ordinary people are the best part of history.

Did You Know . . .?

As I have researched my new novel, set in 1918, I’ve come across some fascinating facts. I thought it might be fun to pass some of these along once a week or so.

Here’s your first installment:

In 1917, Herbert Hoover was the U.S. Food Administrator. One of his jobs was to conserve food at home in the U.S. in order to feed the troops fighting The Great War overseas. In an effort to do this, he designed a voluntary food conservation program. The people took to calling it “Hooverizing.” What was this conservation program? It consisted of Wheatless Mondays and Wednesdays, Meatless Tuesdays, and Porkless Thursdays and Saturdays. Americans complied; avoiding any government mandated rationing of food during WWI.