Since teenagers started driving, one of the rites of passages, at least for those who live near real country dark, are nocturnal drives down creepy old roads. It’s my personal theory that the golden age of haunted country roads was the early to mid 1970s, when it became pretty common for teens to have their […]
The Legends and Myths of Sweet Hollow and Mount Misery: Part IV, On UFOs and Men in Black on Mount Misery
Dearest Miss Bronwen, I never had the opportunity to finish telling you about the men in black, and grey as well, and I knew you would spend the rest of your life wondering about them. You know the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen on Mount Misery? This winter when I hiked up there alone during […]
Daily Life in the American Colonies: Sleeping Patterns in the Pre-Industrial Era
Modern technology sounds a death knell for old ways. This has been true since the stone age gave way to the iron age I’m sure. But is it possible that modern conveniences screw us up, as much as help? Old Bethpage Village Restoration on Long Island holds Candlelight Evenings each December. While most of the […]
Haunted Inns of New England, Longfellow’s Wayside Inn and the ghost of Jerusha Howe
One Autumn night, in Sudbury town,Across the meadows bare and brown,The windows of the wayside innGleamed red with fire-light through the leavesOf woodbine, hanging from the eavesTheir crimson curtains rent and thin.As ancient is this hostelryAs any in the land may be,Built in the old Colonial day,When men lived in a grander way,With ampler hospitality;A […]
Daily Life of the American Colonies: The Production of Flax, Linen and My Bloodline in the Colonies
William Atterbury, my namesake was born in England ca 1700-1710, and was a laborer living in London, somewhere in the area of St. James Church and Westminster Abbey. Around the end of 1731, or the beginning of 1732, William went bad, and was nicked stealing five yards of linsey woolsey – a cloth made from […]
Daily Life of the 19th Century: Patent Medications and Homeopathic cures at Washington Irving’s Sunnyside
When you’re touring a historic home museum, keep an eye out for the little details which speak volumes about the people who lived there. Sunnyside was the home of American author Washington Irving, who wrote most famously, the short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Rip Van Winkle. Irving was a renowned man of […]
Exploring ancient Greece in Nashville, TN: The Parthenon
Nashville, Tennessee has been called the Athens of the South since the mid 19th century. In a part of the country which at the time, wasn’t renowned for educating its citizens, Nashville could boast not only a public school system, but several colleges and universities as well. By century’s end, Belmont University, Fisk University, Meharry Medical College, […]
Daily Life of the American Colonies: Spoons
We don’t give a lot of thought to our silverware, a part of our daily life our ancestors didn’t take for granted A quick history of spoons and status in colonial era Dutch and English New York, at Philipsburg Manor, Sleepy Hollow, New York
