I detested history when I was in school, every bit of it. American. European. British. Ancient. Greco-Roman. So many dates, events and names to remember. What precipitated World War I? What did Americo Vespucio discover? Name the original 13 colonies. I now understand it wasn’t the memorization that soured me to history. I was so busy worrying about getting good test scores, I couldn’t appreciate the meaning of the subject.
Today, I love history. I watch historical documentaries. I enjoy historical fiction. I’m excited to visit and learn about historical places. I was awed when I visited Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, and stood on the same spot where our soldiers landed during WW II. I was heartbroken gazing down into Pearl Harbor where The Arizona rests, a watery grave to the soldiers whose lives were taken one beautiful Sunday morning. I was thrilled to learn about the brilliance of the Roman civilization in the 1st century A.C., when I traveled to Rome.
Learning has been more and more fun since I became FOF. Dining with my sister and nephew at dinner last week, I listened carefully as she explained to him some of the principles of the global economy. I had a superb meal with two wonderful people and picked up knowledge about an important subject.
I’ve often thought I’d like to go back to school to study subjects including literature, French, economics and history. It’s never too late to learn.
0 Responses to “In the know”
Terry Bridges says:
Traveling to the sites of world changing events is incomparable. For those of us who can’t – reading about these places/events is a very close second. Start with the library. Ignore text books at all costs. Text books are all about names and dates. Look for books written by those who lived the events. Read about the not famous people who will give you a ground-level view. Use the library! A fun author is Bill Bryson. If he can’t get a person interested in history, there is no one who can. He’s a great place to start. Next, tune in to C-Span’s Book TV which runs all weekend on C-Span 2. I have a Kindle (am also a hard-core book collector) and there are few things as giggle-w0rthy as downloading a book in less than 60 seconds and paying about $10.00 each. I now have $3,750.00 in books that I payed $1,490.00 for. We won’t even get into how much I would have to have paid for book shelves. Then there is heady feeling of carrying an entire book empire around in my purse. Whee! This is NOT an advertisement for e-books. It is simply a way to share my love of accessible history.
0 Responses to “In the know”
Terry Bridges says:
Traveling to the sites of world changing events is incomparable. For those of us who can’t – reading about these places/events is a very close second. Start with the library. Ignore text books at all costs. Text books are all about names and dates. Look for books written by those who lived the events. Read about the not famous people who will give you a ground-level view. Use the library! A fun author is Bill Bryson. If he can’t get a person interested in history, there is no one who can. He’s a great place to start. Next, tune in to C-Span’s Book TV which runs all weekend on C-Span 2. I have a Kindle (am also a hard-core book collector) and there are few things as giggle-w0rthy as downloading a book in less than 60 seconds and paying about $10.00 each. I now have $3,750.00 in books that I payed $1,490.00 for. We won’t even get into how much I would have to have paid for book shelves. Then there is heady feeling of carrying an entire book empire around in my purse. Whee! This is NOT an advertisement for e-books. It is simply a way to share my love of accessible history.