September is National Preparedness Month and if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that bad stuff can happen. COVID -19, riots, lockdowns, economic woes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and even an earth tremor have brought out the worrywart in all of us. With winter coming on in the midst of a pandemic, it’s time to take stock of supplies and prepare. …
Nineteen years ago my husband and I were flying to a family reunion. It was Friday, Sept. 14—three days after the 9-11 attacks—and airports were just reopening. Needless to say, security was tight. Two officers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport checked our trunk and asked several questions when we arrived at 6 a.m. Once inside the terminal, we waited in …
Recently my friend Candace suggested I read The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck. It’s really good, she said. She remembered a column I wrote a few weeks ago. It was based on an old diary about my great-great Grandfather John Wesley Cooper and his brother William who traveled west during the Gold Rush. In 1850 it …
If you’re looking for a fun place to escape from this dreadful COVID summer, take a drive to Murray’s Mill Historic District near Catawba. You won’t be sorry. Since late May, the Catawba County Historical Association has revamped and restocked the old Murray & Minges General Store and what a wonder it is! Open seven days a week, the store …
Chalk up another COVID-19 casualty. The North Carolina Humanities Council has cancelled their Road Scholars speakers bureau. Road Scholars, founded in 1990, allowed groups throughout the state to book speakers to discuss a variety of topics at little or no cost to the hosting organization. The Road Scholars program catalog included presentations by more than 60 speakers which focused on …
Every once in a while a dream comes true. One such occasion was last month, when I opened my email and there it was: a complete transcription of a diary written by a young man on a wagon train in 1850. But not just any wagon train; this one involved my great-great grandfather and his brother on the adventure of …
If you listen to Sixties radio or the Beatles station, you know that a milestone is being reached this week: Ringo Starr turns 80. It seems only yesterday that Ringo was drumming for the Beatles. Where have the past 50 years gone? When the Fab Four arrived in the US, I was in fourth grade. Eighty-year-olds were grandparents, born in …
Spray painting and destroying monuments has been a thing these days, instigated by rage over the death of George Floyd. We’ve heard about the beheading, burning and drowning of a Christopher Columbus statue in Richmond, the furor over the Abraham Lincoln Emancipation statue in Boston, where a resident has initiated a petition to demand its removal because the slave figure …
After this extended COVID staycation, many of us have adopted a simpler dress code. Yes, clothing was relaxed well before the pandemic–thank Casual Fridays for that–but the extended quarantine has prompted a state of perpetual dress-down. With no meetings, church services, luncheons or dinner parties to attend, there’s no reason to dress up. And if 30 days form a …
COVID-19 is a novel virus, so by definition it’s learn-as-you-go. I get that, but nothing drives me crazier than inconsistency and condescension, and here lately, we’ve had plenty of both. A few weeks ago I ventured out on a grocery run. I wore a mask and wiped down the grocery cart handle. Immediately, I was fussed at for shopping the …