In December 1920, an innocent three year-old named John asked his father about a person he'd heard rumors about for the past few weeks. Who was this Father Christmas fellow? Where did he come from? Where did he live? Simple, ordinary questions from a curious child, not unlike queries pressed upon parents all over the … Continue reading Father Christmas and The Goblins
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The Great Smog of London
2020 has been a year to forget. Every time we turned around, a new threat. COVID. Tiger King. Murder hornets. It was always something else to kill our mind, body, or soul. But I guess it could have been worse. At least the air wasn't trying to kill us. On December 4, 1952, a cloud … Continue reading The Great Smog of London
Yo-Ho-Ho and an ‘X’ Marks the Spot
On November 14, 1883, pirates were born. Well, pirates as we know them. After months of serialization in the children's magazine Young Folks, Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" was published as a novel on this day by Cassel & Co publishers. The swash-buckling tale of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver was massively popular and … Continue reading Yo-Ho-Ho and an ‘X’ Marks the Spot
The Panic That Never Actually Panicked
In 1898, English novelist H.G. Wells published a novel entitled The War of the Worlds in which a spaceship from Mars lands on Earth, inciting panic and leading to conflict between humans and extraterrestrials. It was groundbreaking for its time, highly popular, and still ranks among the most read and most celebrated science fiction novels … Continue reading The Panic That Never Actually Panicked
A Celebratory Piece of Turkish Delight
In 1939, as Hitler began his swift march across Europe, three children made a journey of their own, arriving at the doorstep of the Kilns in Risinghurst, just outside of Oxford, where C.S. Lewis was a professor of English Literature. Although only forty, his request to re-enter military service was denied and the armed force's … Continue reading A Celebratory Piece of Turkish Delight
An Ode to the American Roadtrip
It's no secret that COVID has changed a lot of things in our world. Not least among them is how we travel. Airline travel is at its lowest level in decades, with more and more Americans choosing the relative safety of their own vehicles and embarking on that simultaneously most-dreaded and also most-loved traditions: the … Continue reading An Ode to the American Roadtrip
From Plymouth to Plymouth
Four hundred years ago this week, on September 16, 1620, the people we now know as "Pilgrims" set out from Plymouth for the New World, seeking relief from religious persecution in their home country. Every Thanksgiving, children don paper hats and cardboard bonnets to reenact the life of these settlers after their arrival. Their difficult … Continue reading From Plymouth to Plymouth
Will the REAL Independence Day Please Stand Up?
Happy Birthday to the United States of America! Wait...what? America's birthday is generally accepted to be July 4. Independence Day. A day filled with hot dogs, fireworks, and flags. The day our founding fathers banded together to declare independence from Great Britain, marking the end of colonial rule and the birth of a new … Continue reading Will the REAL Independence Day Please Stand Up?
It’s All The Farmers’ Fault…Again!
It's that time of year again. A time of simultaneous joy and dread, elation and despair, all depending on which side of the fence you sit. Summer. Break. That too-long but oh-so-short hiatus in school schedules and homework, book reports and science projects, early mornings and jam-packed afternoons. It's weeks upon weeks of bare feet, … Continue reading It’s All The Farmers’ Fault…Again!
The Baptism Heard ‘Round the World
On May 22, 337, a man entered baptismal waters, publicly declaring his faith in Jesus Christ. And while all baptisms are a momentous occasions, this particular one not only changed the life of the one exiting the water, it also inspired a marked change in direction for an entire land, an entire people, and ultimately … Continue reading The Baptism Heard ‘Round the World
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