GROWING WITH STELLA

RTN: Ghost Walk Project at OneTrueMedia.com

2011-12-03T08:55:00.001-05:00

Done. On to the next project.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

2010-06-11T07:55:00.002-05:00

The Secret Life of Cowboys at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-03-17T11:02:00.001-05:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Josie and Grant - Summer 2009 at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-03-09T08:18:00.001-05:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

TGIF Drive to Work

2010-01-15T19:15:00.005-05:00

If I time it just right I avoid most traffic, including the schoolbuses, as I pass through Manchester in the morning. If I had been five minutes later coming into town this morning, I would have behind traffic backed up all the way to Manchester pool (like yesterday).

Cutie Pies

2010-01-15T18:49:00.002-05:00

The Fuplers: True Romanth

2009-08-11T06:53:00.001-05:00

Gotta love this family--especially the mother!

TIGER LILIES

2009-08-02T09:45:00.002-05:00

SOUTHERN READING CHALLENGE - HAIKU

2009-07-27T18:04:00.002-05:00

Sweet Potato Queens
Say men taste just like chicken
Makin' The Promise

BOOK REVIEW # 2

2009-07-20T19:09:00.007-05:00

The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love
by Jill Conner Browne

The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love is the first in a series of books by Jill Conner Browne about the Sweet Potato Queens. The Sweet Potato Queens consist of Browne and a group of bad girl belles in Jackson, Mississippi, who are the main attraction in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. These girls love a parade. These girls love to have fun. In essence, these girls love life. And they’re not afraid to show it with their antics.

If you didn’t know that Southern women are just downright different from most other women, you’ll know soon enough as you begin reading The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love. Sure, Southern women talk with funny accents. And plenty of Southern women have big hair. But one thing most Southern women aren’t is STUPID—especially relating to men. Browne shows us how she and her fellow Queens manipulate (did I use that word?), I mean encourage, men to do their bidding. As she says, “Queens love men. They taste just like chicken.” Browne shares the Queens’ magic words they use to get any man, any time, any where, to do their bidding. But, as Browne is quick to point out since her momma is probably gonna read her book, the Queens never have to follow through on their Promise. Just the Promise, most especially with an audience to hear the words, will get the Queens anything they want from a man.

Browne is a funny person. She’s also a funny writer. This makes for a laugh-out-loud kinda book. And the Southern expressions (many of which I’m familiar since I’m a Southern girl) are quite entertaining. It’s been a long time (I’m a Southerner transplanted to the North) since I’ve heard the expressions/words “he was fixin’ to,” “he don’t know jack shit” and “there’s a nekkid man,” but I was instantly transported back to the South as I read Browne’s words. You don’t have to be a Southerner, however, to understand and enjoy The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love. You’ll get it.

Man Of Constant Sorrow - Ralph Stanley

2009-06-29T09:02:00.001-05:00

Ralph Stanley will be at the Farm Museum on Saturday, July 11th. God willing.

Look Down That Lonesome Road - Tim O'Brien

2009-06-29T08:51:00.002-05:00

Tim O'Brien will be at the Farm Museum on Sunday evening, July 12th. Can't wait!!

BOOK REVIEW # 1

2009-06-02T13:16:00.005-05:00

Blood and Grits by Harry Crews

Until I took a look at some of the authors and titles that Maggie had listed on her blog as suggested reads for the Southern Reading Challenge 3 this year, I had never heard of Harry Crews. However, Crews’ non-fiction book, Blood and Grits, seemed a logical choice for me because I’m a non-fiction reader for the most part, I’m from the South and I already know what grits are. Plus, the juxtaposition of those two words is pretty stark, so I was hooked from the start. That image of red blood and white grits flew out the window, though, once I started reading this book. It just goes to show ya’ that you don’t always know what you think you do.

In Southern vernacular, a Grit is usually a fellow Southerner. He can be a tough and uncompromising realist, possess an abrasive personality, be a sumbitch or even a shit. But we usually love him anyway because he’s a real son-of-a-bitch. If there’s one thing a Southerner can’t tolerate, it’s puttin’ on airs. And trust me, you won’t find any of that here. If you want a pretty little story all wrapped up in a bow, don’t read Blood and Grits. And if you want to read about people who treat each other with respect, you’ll want to skip this book.

Each chapter of Blood and Grits is a stand-alone story, originally published in Playboy or Esquire, with Crews as the narrator as well as participant. The settings are mostly in the South although one of the stories takes place in Valdez, Alaska, and the time frame is the 70s. If you’re thinkin’ trippin’ on acid, ridin’ a big rig while yakkin’ on a CB radio, or watchin’ Big Oil install their big oil pipeline in Alaska, you’re ready for Crews’ stories.

Just remember, though, that things aren’t always what we think they are. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. I even had to read many of these stories aloud to my husband because I just couldn’t believe what I was reading. I would say that Crews, at least with Blood and Grits, is a man writing for men. But you don’t have to be a man to enjoy these stories or to recognize talent when you see it. Crews is now at the top of my list of authors that are too good to pass up. This man knows how to tell a story. And you don’t want to miss these.

SAYULITA 2008

2009-05-28T21:14:00.005-05:00

CHICKEN COOP PROJECT - FINISHED!

2009-05-24T09:48:00.006-05:00

Thanks, Wendy. It looks really good. And the green paint on the chickens looks good, too!

Southern Reading Challenge Three

2009-05-06T19:25:00.011-05:00

Maggie's Southern Reading Challenge 3 kicks off this month.

"It's that time of year! The time when you pour a glass of lemonade or sweet tea and take your official summer spot on the porch. Lean back in that chase lounge surrounded by geraniums and ferns, and begin the summer long journey into Southern culture.

Yes, it's hot! Yes, it does get uncomfortable, but it is well worth the effort as you discover our unique "Southern" point of view. You may choose to read any style of Southern book such as Appalachian tales, Civil War sagas, Gothic myths, Grit lit, and heart-wrenching biographies...Just as long as you read three (fiction or nonfiction) between May 15th and August 15th."

Visit Maggie's blog for ideas/titles of books to read for the challenge.

My SRC list for this summer:

1. Blood and Grits by Harry Crews
2. The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love by Jill Conner Browne
3.

CHICKEN COOP PROJECT

2009-04-24T07:05:00.005-05:00

As you can see, the coop is coming along nicely. I just wish it would warm up, so we could work without having to hover over the burn can periodically.

At 7 o'clock this morning, smoke is still rising from the burn can.

THE HAPPY COUPLE - APRIL 18TH, 2009

2009-04-20T19:22:00.000-05:00

SIGNS OF SPRING 2009

2009-04-14T18:39:00.006-05:00

Raising the coop - the chicks will be happy when they can leave their cardboard box under the heat lamp in the basement and stretch their legs outside under the sun.

Their nesting boxes will be on the outside on the front of the coop with a hinged lid. This view is from the back, where there will be a drop-down door to clean it out. The coop will have an adjoining framed chicken-wired enclosure so the chickens will be safe. More pictures of the completed coop to follow.

Shiro plum tree blossoms. Sweet.

SPRING CHICKS - Golden Comets & White Rocks

2009-03-28T13:26:00.005-05:00

PEPPY & COCO

2009-03-15T10:16:00.003-05:00

Why would this dog...

...be afraid of this dog?!!

EARLY SIGNS OF SPRING

2009-03-15T09:51:00.005-05:00

Elephant garlic - up already.

Snowdrops - what else?

The window-well toad - is he the same toad that we liberate year after year?

THE MAN BEHIND THE E-MAILS

2009-02-22T12:07:00.002-05:00

So, tell us what we are doing wrong with our e-mail accounts. Can you help us fix our problem?

COOKIES: ANYDAY...ANYTIME...ANYWHERE

2009-02-22T11:37:00.001-05:00

As preparation for the blurb book project and program, I must make/bake cookies and snap some pictures as I go. So I am doing just that. However, since my favorite cookies (and some of my friends' favorites) are the ONLY cookies that will be included in The Cookie Shop book, I have no choice but to eat those cookies. Somebody's got to do it, right?

I discoverd this cookie just recently, and I must say that it is the most delicious chocolate cookie that I have ever tasted. The cookies are soft and chewy. And they are huge because, even though the recipe makes a lot of cookie dough, you shape just 18 cookies. Besides the cocoa that's in the dough, you chop bittersweet chocolate and add to it. I added chopped walnuts the second time I made the cookies, and I believe I might have eaten all 18 of them.

LOVE THOSE ORCHIDS!

2009-02-22T11:28:00.003-05:00

ORCHID IN BLOOM

2009-02-15T09:58:00.006-05:00

It's been in bloom since January 9th, and it has a few more weeks to go...

2009-01-27T12:29:00.001-05:00

WEBCAMMING

2009-01-27T11:56:00.000-05:00

So, how do I do this?

FINALLY!

2009-01-22T16:31:00.000-05:00

A FEW MORE BUDS TO GO...

2009-01-16T14:52:00.002-05:00

SOON...

2009-01-07T15:24:00.001-05:00

SAYING GOODBYE TO THE CHRISTMAS...

2009-01-07T13:51:00.012-05:00

pickle

potato

ice cream cone

die

jester

gourd

mushroom

ladybug

purse

dragonfly

chimney sweep

snowman

church

SAYULITA FLOWER OF THE WEEK # 2

2008-12-11T10:27:00.008-05:00

...and bee! I couldn't keep up with these guys! They are the biggest bees I've ever seen. I chased them all afternoon and managed to get just this one picture--they didn't stay still very long.

THANKSGIVING DINNER AT "THE SAYULITA CAFE"

2008-12-10T12:17:00.001-05:00

THANKSGIVING IN SAYULITA

2008-12-05T08:04:00.011-05:00

After playing a few games of rummy, and after enjoying a couple Pacificos, it got a little dicey trying to climb "down" the steps from the Crow's Nest.

No sign for the distance from Sayulita, Mexico to Carroll County, Maryland?

The streets are ready for the parade and celebration in town.

SNORKELING

2008-12-04T20:50:00.004-05:00

BACK OFF - YOU'RE GETTIN' WAY TOO CLOSE!

SAYULITA FLOWER OF THE WEEK

2008-12-02T12:50:00.001-05:00

MEXICAN ARTWORKS

2008-12-02T08:58:00.003-05:00

FINANCING THE REVOLUTION

2008-12-02T08:51:00.001-05:00

We'll never think of burritos in the same way--ever. Best we've ever eaten. Couldn't get enough of 'em.

RANDOM SHOTS AT CASA MAR DEL SUR

2008-11-29T20:24:00.006-05:00

ENGAGED

2008-11-29T13:07:00.007-05:00

Aren't they quite the "engaging" couple? (This picture is MY choice for the engagement announcement section in the Carroll County Times.)

STELLA'S VEST SHRUG

2008-11-15T08:54:00.002-05:00

APPLES FOR APPLESAUCE

2008-09-30T20:42:00.008-05:00

LYNN'S VEST SHRUG

2008-09-19T15:04:00.003-05:00

END-OF-SUMMER HIGHLIGHTS

2008-09-14T16:12:00.007-05:00

This little hummingbird had to take a break from sucking nectar out of the thunbergia flowers below. I'm not sure why, but the flowers on this vine, also known as a black-eyed susan vine, don't have the black centers as they usually do. Weird.

One kiss, Peppy, and then I have to get back to making my loom!

Butterfly perching on loveage and oregano.

MORE MUSHROOMS

2008-09-09T11:27:00.010-05:00

This puffball weighed in at one-and-a-half pounds. That's POUNDS! That's half as much as Alex's brain weighs. (Assuming that Alex's brain weighs about as much as the "average" adult brain.)

Steve's job was to carry the concord grapes he found on our 'shrooming adventure. He's doing a good job of it, wouldn't you say? (There were lots more grapes - Steve, Alex and Wendy went back with a container to pick more.)

Be sure to educate yourself about edible and non-edible mushrooms before you eat any of them!
We've found The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms to be the premier reference for 'shrooming and identifying your finds.

So we've had a lot of rain, and that seems to bring out the mushrooms. And that, in turn, brings out the 'shroomers. We found these babies in our yard and our neighbors' yards. I wonder if our neighbors noticed anything going on out there?

PUFFBALLS FOR DINNER ANYONE?

2008-09-04T07:46:00.002-05:00

Fried up crisp, hot and buttery--they certainly stole the show last night at the dinner table!

This puffball is one you DON'T want to have for dinner tonight...or any night!!

END-OF-SUMMER FRUIT

2008-09-01T08:31:00.005-05:00

Waiting for the pears to ripen so I can make lemon-pear butter for the winter.Last of the peaches waiting to be turned into spiced-peach preserves and peach butter.
White grapes almost ripe--they'll become white-grape jelly.

GET OUTTA MY WAY DUDE!

2008-08-27T11:51:00.000-05:00

BIG MAMAS FOR SALSA

2008-08-27T11:03:00.006-05:00

Thanks, Lynn, for the big mamas. I'll save a jar of salsa for you.
And thanks, once again, for sending me away with my hands full--this time with a bouquet of zinnias.

IN PURSUIT OF THE PERFECT SOIL

2008-08-21T11:54:00.002-05:00

JURASSIC PARK - WE MADE IT TO THE WATERING HOLE!

2008-08-19T07:55:00.006-05:00

SO - WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS?

2008-08-08T15:01:00.006-05:00

TENNESSEE DREAMS

2008-08-07T07:43:00.023-05:00

Front yard (wrap-around porch & grass to come!)

View from back door.

Willis's home from September to June. No electricity or plumbing--just a wind-up radio and lamp.

Woods on all sides.

Tennessee toad - I almost stepped on him.

Back-of-the-camper at the edge-of-the-woods privy. Worked well unless it was 10 degrees and the wind was blowing. Then the 1/2 mile walk up the driveway to Aunt Faye's house was more appealing.

GRANT - I DIDN'T FORGET YOU

2008-08-04T11:51:00.000-05:00

THE WAY OUT - GOODBYE!

2008-08-02T21:58:00.002-05:00

THE PERFECT PAIR: WILLIS & KATHY

2008-08-02T21:24:00.003-05:00

A WALK IN THE WOODS

2008-08-01T09:42:00.002-05:00

TENNESSEE SOLAR POWER

2008-08-01T09:37:00.004-05:00

How green are YOU?

WILD 'SHROOMING IN TENNESSEE

2008-08-01T09:04:00.004-05:00

MUSHROOM HUNTING - SO MUCH FUN!

2008-07-28T11:41:00.004-05:00

Summeerrrttiiimmmeee - and the livin' is easy!

2008-07-28T11:35:00.003-05:00

So, Chris, do ya know you picked up a few hitch-hikers while picking blackberries in the woods?

NON-FICTION BOOK REVIEW # 3 (coming)

2008-07-24T07:43:00.002-05:00

NON-FICTION BOOK REVIEW # 2

2008-07-24T07:30:00.006-05:00

“She is Ana, and this is her story. It begins the day she is born infected with HIV, transmitted from her young mother. Now she barely remembers her mamά, who died when Ana was only three. From then on, Ana’s childhood becomes a blur of faint memories and secrets—secrets about her illness and about the abuse she endures.”

Although this is Ana’s story, it could be anybody’s story who struggles with a debilitating illness that carries the added burden of shame. Society doesn’t always treat people with serious, life-threatening illnesses with care—many times those patients are shunned and become isolated as their illness progresses.

Ana’s Story, A Journey of Hope, written by Jenna Bush and based on her work with UNICEF, clearly documents what it’s like for a child to live with a secret that, if exposed outside her immediate family, would isolate her from friends, classmates and even some members of her extended family. This is also the story of a girl who struggles to break free of her environment of abuse, neglect, poverty and illness.

Ana’s Story, aimed at an audience of young adults, will educate those young people as well as people of all ages who pick up the book and read it. The book consists of very short chapters that don’t always fill an entire page, larger-than-average sharp black text on crisp white pages, and attractive, colorful photographs. This book can be read to the end very quickly, but don’t let that fool you—Ana’s Story packs a powerful punch. This is one story that will stay with you long after you put the book down.

TUTEUR: MORNING GLORY & MEXICAN ROSES

2008-07-19T07:40:00.004-05:00

NON-FICTION BOOK REVIEW # 1

2008-07-17T20:54:00.002-05:00

I was hooked by the title of Liza Campbell’s book, A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth’s Castle, as well as the picture on the cover. The brief introduction written by Campbell on the inside flap of the book reinforces the image on the cover of Campbell growing up in an unusual situation. Campbell writes, “We grew up with the same parents in the same castle, but in many ways we each had a moat around us. Sometimes when visitors came they would say, ‘You are such lucky children; it’s a fairy-tale life you live.’ And I knew they were right, it was a fairy-tale upbringing. But fairy tales are dark and I had no way of telling either a stranger or a friend what was going on; the abnormal became ordinary.”

Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing that Campbell’s memoir never goes deeper into her story than the words on the book flap. Campbell writes about her family members as if she is peering at them from a distance—there is never a feeling that she is connected with any of them either physically or emotionally. She delivers information about her family’s history, and how the castles came into the family, interspersed with the occasional telling of a particular family situation. However, those situations are never anchored with enough information to create a bigger picture of exactly what is going on at the time. She tells us that her father has affairs. She tells us that he drinks. She tells us that she asked him, when she was a little girl, if he would stop drinking. She tells us that their life is unusual and painful. Therein lies the problem—she tells us but never convinces us.

Sure, growing up in a castle and knowing who your family members are 25 generations back is unusual. But Campbell never convinces me that her childhood, or her relationship with her family, was dark or even all that abnormal. She never truly opens up and reveals herself or her family--her examinations of particular incidents she writes about are cursory, at best. Is it because she’s Scottish and reluctant to let it all hang out? Or is it something else? I suspect that Campbell’s inability to write a moving account of her unusual family and her childhood is because she is too close to the story. It’s her story, but in the hands of a master storyteller, it might have been better.

NON-FICTION BOOK CHOICES

2008-07-13T17:46:00.010-05:00

Mariachi - again!

2008-07-08T07:17:00.003-05:00

MARIACHI SIN NOMBRES

2008-07-07T17:48:00.004-05:00

Mariachi Madness at the Westminster Branch of the Carroll County Public Library

2008-07-07T11:48:00.004-05:00

Mariachi sin Nombres in Dewey Park.

BOOK REVIEW # 3 - The Widow of the South

2008-07-02T10:56:00.008-05:00

Ok, so I read Robert Hicks’ The Widow of the South, the third of three books for Maggie's Southern Reading Challenge . Hicks is a Floridian who moved to Franklin, Tennessee (the setting for this historical novel) and wrote about the Civil War carnage that took place there in 1864, so he’s a Southern author and it's a Southern setting for sure. I’m not typically a fiction reader although I can and will read top-notch, well-written fiction that comes my way. And I don’t read much about the Civil War, either. However, I chose this book because it was highly recommended by a couple of co-workers and because it is based on a true story.

Unfortunately, Hicks’ clumsily crafted love story between Carrie McGavock and a Confederate soldier by the name of Cashwell prevented me from fully experiencing the tragedy that took place in Franklin, Tennessee so long ago. More than 9,000 men died there in a single day, and McGavock’s home was used as a field hospital to treat the Confederate soldiers. Many of them were severely injured, and died anyway, and were buried nearby. McGavock and her husband later reburied, on their own land, almost 1500 of those men when the owners of the original grave sites wanted to plow the land under.

Carrie McGavock’s home being requisitioned by the US of A as a prison for the injured Confederate soldiers/prisoners, as a Union officer informs Carrie after the battle, is a compelling story. However, it is laborious having to wade through the fluff of Hicks' irrelevant descriptions and poorly constructed relationships between many of the characters to get to the heart of the story. This tragedy would be more compelling if it had been told as non-fiction, with Hicks sticking to the facts and focusing on the reburial of the soldiers by the McGavocks. Only after reading the Author’s Note, at the end of the book, did I begin to feel the magnitude of this tragedy.

State of the mule: Beating with sledge hammer - page 62.

LINEBORO, MARYLAND: MASON-DIXON CROWNSTONE

2008-06-29T19:39:00.009-05:00

Who would have guessed that the Mason-Dixon marker in our midst is one of several crown-stones brought over here as a ballast in a ship? Charles II of England sent two surveyors (Mason and Dixon) to America, in 1763, to settle the question of boundary lines between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Once they finished “slashing their way through primeval forests and encounters with American Indians who weren’t especially hospitable, Mason and Dixon finished their task of defining the boundaries. Every mile of the Mason-Dixon Line was marked with a stone, but every fifth mile the surveyors erected special ‘crown-stones.’ Opposite sides of the five foot stones were carved with the coats of arms of the Penn and Calvert families, leaving no doubt about who controlled which side. The dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania was now settled. The Mason-Dixon Line soon became important for another reason as it represented the boundary between the North and South, between free states and slave.”

After reading the article titled Mason, Dixon Made Mark in Carroll in The Carroll County Times this past Sunday—written by Mary Ann Ashcraft, our library volunteer for the Historical Society of Carroll County—I jogged down to the marker, which is about two miles from my house. I've stopped and looked at the marker in the past, but this time I took a closer look. According to Ashcraft, this marker is one of the five-mile crown-stones, so I slipped my hands between the bars to feel for the coats of arms since I couldn’t see it. There is a faint, raised spot on the surface of the marker, nothing more. Even though bars are erected around the marker to protect it from vandalism, it seems that nothing could protect it from time and Mother Nature.

BOOK REVIEW # 2 - The Prince of Frogtown

2008-06-27T13:59:00.010-05:00

I began reading The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg before stumbling on Maggie’s Southern Reading Challenge 2008. After a few pages, I put the book aside. I just couldn’t seem to muster enough interest in this story. Bragg’s All Over But the Shoutin’ and Ava’s Man are at the top of my list of all-time favorite books. Rick Bragg is more than an author--he is a true story teller, and I expected to jump right into his latest book and feel the same way about it. He uses a different technique to tell this particular story, however, so I was put off a little and also disappointed. Once I decided to participate in Maggie’s challenge, I picked the book up again. And, as I said to my husband upon finishing Frogtown, I’m sure glad I did.

Why should we read a book about a derelict dad? Why read about a man who is an alcoholic and mostly absent husband? Is there anything positive, enlightening or even good that can be said about a man who shirked his duties to his family his entire life? Because Charles Bragg was out of his family’s life more than in it, his life could be resurrected and patched together only through the eyes and memories of others. Some of it is good. Some of it will make you hoppin’ mad. But most of what Bragg tells us about his dad’s life is just darn right sad.

Rick Bragg could have written a book about how he felt growing up poor and without his father. Instead he contrasts his rough-and-tumble life growing up poor and fatherless in a box-house, with very little room for all of the people trying to live in it in rural Alabama, with that of his stepson, whose pampered existence consists of two houses full of stuff, bible study classes, video games and gummy worms. Rick Bragg’s attempts to understand, even influence, his stepson’s view of life enable him to gain a different, maybe even better, perspective of his own father’s inability to be a father to him. And that, ultimately, allows him to grow and be a better father to his own son.

2008-06-27T07:54:00.001-05:00

JELLY-MAKING SEASON

2008-06-24T07:32:00.010-05:00

Well, maybe not the grapes yet.

THE PRINCE OF FROGTOWN by Rick Bragg SENSE OF PLACE CONTEST

2008-06-11T20:12:00.009-05:00

The stream began in a jumble of rocks beside the Piedmont Highway, bubbling up cold and clear...

But if you followed the water a meandering half mile to the west, through a dark, spiderwebbed, monster-infested culvert tall enough for a small boy to run through, all the picnickers and weenie roasters vanished behind a curtain of gnarled, lightning-blasted cedars and thick, dark pines.

BOOK REVIEW # 1: Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

2008-06-05T22:11:00.015-05:00

Many people all over the country, not just Northerners and Southerners, are fascinated by the Civil War. This is evident in Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. As a child, Horwitz had a passion for all things related to the Civil War and most especially the underdog Rebel soldier.

As an adult, Horwitz resumes his childhood passion shortly after moving to Virginia. Horwitz is awakened one morning by Confederate and Rebel soldiers firing muskets in the road in front of his house. He steps outside and becomes acquainted with a group of “hardcore” Civil War reenactors (fundamentalists, if you will). These people (mostly men although there are some women and children participating) travel the Civil War circuit, from one battlefield to another, reenacting and reminiscing the lives of soldiers who fought in the war. We get to see soldiers “spooning” to keep warm on cold nights as they try to sleep on the cold, hard ground with no shelter. We see them marching, with real blisters on their poorly shod or bare feet, for miles and miles as the soldiers did during the war. We also see them falling on the battlefield—one soldier in particular having perfected the art of bloating to mimic a fallen soldier whose body would have lain on the battlefield for a couple of days before being buried. And Horwitz spends a whirlwind week in a “Civil Wargasm” with one of the reenactors—a week packed with as many battlefields as they can physically get to while also reading and learning about many of the soldiers who fought and died there.

Horwitz spends more than a year traveling throughout the South, visiting battlegrounds and cities affected by the war, talking to people whose sympathies lie on one side or the other, although occasionally both. We see people mourning the loss of a way of life that they didn’t even experience in their own lifetimes. We see people resentful of black people who have the audacity to believe they are equal to white citizens. We also see insensitive, Confederate-flag-waving Southerners who refuse to consider the impact their actions have on others. And we see obnoxious, loud and rowdy, disgruntled Southerners getting the attention of the rest of the nation, while giving the South a bad name.

You might think you understand the Civil War and what it was about, for the most part. You might also think you understand how the people of the South must feel about losing the Civil War. You probably think that the war was a terrible time in the country’s history, with many lives lost, but it’s over now and the country has moved on. Think again. Many Southerners still think of the Civil War as the War Between the States, and they also believe that it is still going on. There are people in the South who have a good grasp of reality and know that the South lost the fight more than 140 years ago, and they have come to terms with that history, but there are also plenty of people in the South who refuse to believe that the fight is over.

Horwitz ends his book as he began it—still trying to pin down the feelings and motivations of the people of the South as they relate to the Civil War so that he might understand them better. Although we see that many people (both black and white) have managed, for the most part, to leave the past in the past where it belongs, we are left with the feeling that there are still way too many people in the South who won’t let go of that past. It feels as if they are waiting for an opportunity to prove to the rest of the country (particularly the North) that they can, and will, whup somebody's *** if given the chance.

2008-06-02T19:22:00.001-05:00

Anything you can do, I can do better!!

SOUTHERN HAIKU CONTEST

2008-05-31T21:03:00.002-05:00

CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC:
DISPATCHES FROM THE UNFINISHED CIVIL WAR

by
Tony Horwitz

Hardcore reenact
Spooning shooting bloating rebs
No farbs to be found.

2008-05-31T20:32:00.002-05:00

Fastest turtle in the west! I helped him across the road and he turned and started running back across. I picked him up and carried him back the other way and he took off running through the weeds. As I repeatedly tried to snap his picture, he kept turning and running.

SO MANY FLOWERS - SO LITTLE TIME

2008-05-30T07:53:00.000-05:00

2008-05-30T07:42:00.002-05:00

Where's your mustache, Mario?

THE SURVIVOR

2008-05-30T07:36:00.002-05:00

Alex after being cut from the car with the Jaws of Life. (Oh, the drama! Drama Club, that is. End-of-year, near prom-time, drama on the school parking lot. Alex was texting, which is a no-no while driving, and he paid the price!)

...AND ANOTHER NEIGHBOR

2008-05-27T11:34:00.001-05:00

MEET MY NEIGHBORS

2008-05-27T11:22:00.002-05:00

2008-05-22T20:58:00.007-05:00

GARDEN BUDDY - NOT!

2008-05-16T10:48:00.004-05:00

What's HE doing in my garden? Eating that row of spinach? Or nibbling on my peas? Maybe eating from the row of lettuce or even eating the lettuce that seeded down all over the garden? I guess there's enough there to share--I just hope he saves US some.

2008-05-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

TULIPS

2008-04-28T12:51:00.001-05:00

BLUEJAYS AT THE DINNER TABLE NOW

2008-04-28T12:41:00.000-05:00

Spring flowers - what else!

2008-04-28T12:33:00.006-05:00

bloodroot

windflower

MAGNOLIA BUDS

2008-04-10T08:26:00.000-05:00

SPRING IN THE GARDEN

2008-04-08T06:38:00.008-05:00

Pea poking from the ground.
Blueberry buds awakening to spring.

Wintered-over rows of kale and spinach, and a row of garlic behind the spinach, are lookin' good!

2008-04-07T15:27:00.002-05:00

2008-04-06T21:23:00.003-05:00

LENTEN ROSE

2008-04-03T07:47:00.008-05:00

Breakfast Time

2008-03-29T08:15:00.004-05:00

Spring has arrived

2008-03-28T09:03:00.001-05:00

One More Orchid

2008-03-28T08:54:00.005-05:00

2008-03-18T09:57:00.001-05:00

Sorry I woke you up!