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- Pete
- New Jersey
- Since my first trip to Gettysburg as a young boy, I've been captivated by History. I get it from my mom. Although she passed away when I was just 13, she still had an influence on me. All our family vacations were stitched around some historical site. So, history geeks are in my blood. I'm a graphic designer by profession and a semi-amateur painter. I love to explore history through my paintbrush. I've also done living history to get a first hand feel for "what it was like". Looking at history through the eyes of the common man (or woman) and understanding the personal, human drama is really the spice that flavors the historical stew!
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Who was Amos Alonzo Stagg?
I'll bet that the vast majority of folks who settle in to watch the big game on Sunday have never even heard the name Amos Alonzo Stagg before. Yet, his importance to the game of football is immeasurable.
On Christmas Day in seventy-six....
Museum Design: A Lesson on Getting Kids into History
Before I get into that, let me give you a little story. Some years ago, a reenactor friend of mine asked me to help out in a presentation he was giving to a boyscout troop who was about to embark on a field trip to Gettysburg. So a couple of other guys and me donned our uniforms and performed some demonstrations on stage while my friend, a grammar school principal, gave a narration. Like many of us history geeks (myself included) he has endless info stored in his brain that just comes spilling out once the spigot is opened. It wasn't long before I could see he was losing them. It was becoming just another school lecture. So I stepped in. I got them out of their seats, formed them in ranks and taught them how too maneuver like Civil War soldiers. The kids loved it! So did the scout masters who asked us to teach them too so they could use the commands to move the kids around in a orderly fashion on the battlefield that weekend. A boring lecture turned "hands on" proved to be a big success! It was an eye-opener for me.
Ok, now check out The Family Learning Forum which is conducted by the USS Constitution Museum. Take a look at the ReThinking Exhibitions tab and the section called Steal this Idea. Those ideas, which I find instictive, are seldom used by history museums. I don't know why. They use hands on experiences, miniatures (which kids find interesting in and of themselves), and costumes to stimulate interest. Those are all elements children use when they do what they love the best: PLAY! Duh. It seems pretty obvious now, doesn't it? Here's a good article of a mom's account of her and her kids experience there. The method seems to be working.
I've only explored a small portion of The Family Learning Forum but I have a feeling I'll end up reading the whole thing. Designing spaces like the USS Constitution Museum would be a dream job for me. For anyone who wants to pass on their love of history, there is so much to be learned!
It's time to start thinking outside the display case.
Bigfoot: A History of Hoaxes
Bigfoot walks into a bar and says.....OK, no Bigfoot jokes. Just hoaxes. I did this little doodle while on a less-than-interesting conference call the other day and I thought I'd explore this subject. After all, Halloween is coming up and what better time to turn to the subject of legendary monsters?
I admit that I'm fascinated with the big guy. Bigfoot has a rich and far reaching history, but the biggest headlines come from the hoaxes. Let's take a look at a few.
American Indians may well have been hoaxing Sasquatch for hundreds of years. Some Indians believe that he only manifests himself to those who have lost their way in life as a sort of warning. Can't you just see some tribe throwing a bear skin on the biggest guy and having him stomp around in the woods to scare some wayward teen back to the straight and narrow? They may well have used the same method to scare off early European settlers. OK, I watched a lot of Scooby-Doo when I was a kid but none other than Teddy Roosevelt related his own story that sounds a lot like a scare tactic to me. Europeans reported seeing a big hairy man-like creature as far back as the 1830's. Hmmmm? You can check out some more Bigfoot history here, including a sighting by Leif Eriksen in 986 AD!
The 1884 story of "Jacko" a Canadian Bigfoot reportedly captured turned out to be a hoax. Just over 70 years later, the discovery of foot prints (the very prints that spawned the "bigfoot" nickname) caused a minor sensation. Later, these were found to be the work of Ray Wallace who'd been using wooden "feet" to make the tracks for years. Then, as recently as 2008, two Georgia men claimed to have a bigfoot corpse. It quickly turned out to be just what it looked like: a monkey suit stuffed into a freezer with some road kill gut thrown on it. Hardly worth mentioning really.
Then, in 1967, Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson may have produced the most successful hoax of the 2oth Century. They filmed the creature in the aptly named Bluff Creek area of California. Here's the clip. The only footage subjected to more scrutiny may be the Zupruder film! Experts of all kinds have analyzed the film and most findings are that it can't be disproved. Some even believe it couldn't have been hoaxed as humans aren't capable of duplicating that famous Bigfoot gait. In the end, it may have been good old detective work, not science, that exposed the hoax.
The author of The Making of Bigfoot, Greg Long, has apparently exposed Roger Patterson as an extraordinary con man and connected the dots to the person who made the suit and the one who wore it. Intriguing details, such as the suggestion by Philip Morris, the suit maker, that football shoulder pads be used to bulk up the beast lend an air of authenticity to the story. Experts have always pointed to the fact that Patterson's Bigfoot is obviously female (she's affectionately called Patty) and it's highly unlikely anyone would have thought to hoax a she-squatch. That is unless they were familiar with William Roes famous 1955 affidavit of his sighting and detailed description of a female sasquatch. Patterson was reported to have been interested in the bigfoot mystery so he may have based Patty on that description.
Still, many refute Long's work as flawed. Shows like Monster Quest still analyze the film. People still believe. People still see bigfoot too. Take a trip over to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and check out the recent sightings (attention scout masters: great fodder for campfire stories!). He's seen all over this country and others; Australia, China, and Poland to name a few. It seems every human culture has a legend similar to Bigfoot.
Many of the sightings can be explained has lies, hoax victims, wacko's or mistaken identity. But there are surely a few made by rational people who believe what they saw. Perhaps the great mystery then is: what did they see? Not: is bigfoot real? Maybe there's a deep human instinct that hearkens back to prehistory when Homosapiens competed with other human species. Who knows?
One school of thought is that, for every day that goes by, we are one day closer to finding the hard fast proof that the creature exists. On the other hand, it may be that for every day that goes by without evidence, it becomes less likely evidence exists. I guess it depends on what you believe.
Me? Well, I hope he is out there and that we never find him. I love mysteries....
Never Forget....my thoughts
Forget what? Forget that a power crazed pyschopath orchestrated a mass murder of almost 3,000 Americans in one day in such spectacular fashion? Forget the sight of the symbol of US financial power slowly sinking into an awful cloud of dust? Forget the sight of people choosing to meet death on their own terms, with fresh air in their lungs, rather than be incinerated by burning avaition fuel? Forget the smoldering, gaping hole in the symbol of national defense? Only an alzheimer patient could forget that. Even then I'm sure the memory remains. No, nobody can forget the events of this date nine years ago. It's absurd and thoughtless.
We have forgotten something though. We've forgotten how we felt on this date nine years ago. There was a national sense of unity that only an enormous tragedy could produce. We helped each other. We were decent to each other. We cared about each other. A flag flew over almost every front door. I remember calling the Highlands, NJ police to offer to give rides home to evacuees from Manhattan. The dispatcher took my number and asked me to stay home unless they called me. There were already far more rides than riders. Everyone wanted to help. Petty differences and bigotry seemed to disappear for a while. People understood that this idea of America was bigger than any one of us. People believed in selflessness that is usually reserved for the soldier or public servant. There beneath the spooky, quiet sky, we really were one nation under God.
It was a lesson the terrorists never intended nor could have forseen. I was never more proud to be an American than in those darks weeks following 9/11. While we are all busy "not forgetting" today, let's remember more than just the horror. We owe at least that to those who had their lives snatched away that day.
Another thing we should do while we are not forgetting is think. The events of 9/11 weren't about religion, extremist or otherwise. It was about power. Power sought by psychopaths who only use religion to build a fantasy of justification for their blood lust. Burning the Quaran or protesting the building of a mosque only fuels their fantasy. It's exactly what they want. Don't give it to them. We all need to think before we act.
The Question
Each press person was allowed to ask one question. Most did the obvious. They asked about food. There were some great questions but Debbie chose a different tact. She referenced Paula's difficult past; divorcing an alcoholic husband, raising two boys on her own, battling agoraphobia and finally getting her own restaurant against all odds. Debbie asked for words of wisdom for other single mom's who aspire to be entrepreneurs. Paula loved the question and offered a moving and lengthy response. She even gave Deb a hug! (check out Jersey Bites)
So, Debbie had the chance to ask one of her idols a great question while sitting next to her at a table. It was a big thrill for her. We history geeks don't quite have that opportunity do we? Most of the people that inspire us are all long gone. Woe is us!
One of my favorite historical characters is U.S. Grant but I'm not getting a hug or a handshake from him anytime soon! I can ask him a question though. No, this has nothing to do with mystic mediums or seances. If you do your research you can make a reasonable idea of how a person would answer a question. Granted it might be a lot of homework and you can't hear the answer in their own exact words, but it's an interesting excercise.
The fun part is coming up with that one, really good question. Oh, I could ask Sam Grant, "What where you thinking at Cold Harbor?" or "How did it feel to capture Fort Donelson?". Hmmm, but what would I really like to know? How about, "After you failed in business and farming, how did you find the courage to soldier on?" or "When you re-entered the military at the start of the Civil War, did you feel like it was a great opportunity or did you just think it was your duty?"
So, maybe it's a good idea to approach history as a journalist would. Ask a deeper question, get a meaningful answer.
What one question would you ask your favorite historical personality? Pick up book and see if you can figure out their answer.