Everybody has a story. Some are more interesting than others, some don't want to share their stories, but we all have them. Our story is our own, unique to each person. My story is different than my brother's story and my sister's story as well, even though we grew up in the same household. These stories are shaped by outside forces, our own natures, and the collection of choices we made actively and passively that brought us to the here and now. Because, after all, isn't history a story that is well researched and documented? Excellent story-telling makes for a better experience than a recitation of dates, facts, and supporting documentary evidence. In order to demonstrate a little of what I mean, I have decided to talk a little bit about my story in two parts and the journey to being a historical interpreter.
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Coloring books were the best! Although
the Dimetrodon was extinct long before
the Pterodacyl came about in the Jurassic
period. Just sayin'.
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It started with dinosaurs. Like a lot of little boys growing up in the 1980s, I had a fascination with dinosaurs. I probably had a every published children's book on dinosaurs and knew all the major species and subspecies classified by what era. I can still do this, but to a much lesser degree now. I could say 'paleontologist' before most other 'hard' vocabulary words. Nearly all the books said that the dinosaurs lived ages ago, but you could still find their skeletons today. When you are a youngster, that is all the motivation you need to hear to start tearing up your backyard looking for dinosaur bones so you could name one yourself! I never did find any dinosaur bones, but I did have my first interest in historical things. My focus shifted to human history very soon.
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Yes, it was a dumb movie, but if it
inspired me to take a path to understand
history better and to help others understand
it by making it real, does it matter that it
was dumb?
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As I got a little older, my father brought home a VHS movie rental of "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure". Before you moan and groan, appreciate the magic of movies and a young person's mind. When we were young, we saw the people on screen for what they are, Luke Skywalker, Marty McFly, and Bill S. Preston, Esq. not as Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, etc. We saw the character, not the actor. But back to Bill and Ted, why did these two clowns pass their history class? What turned them around from confusing Joan of Arc with Noah's wife? A personal experience with Joan herself. What we could learn if we could talk to the real thing and cut out all the academic and revisionist baloney that comes with study! Mr. Lincoln, when you said this, what did you really mean? Sure it was a goofy comedy about time travel and history, but it excited something within me that wanted to know what it was really like. Bill and Ted made history come alive for me because the past was not even really the past if it could step out of a time travelling telephone booth. Would not history be like it actually was? Or as Leopold von Ranke, one of the modern shapers of the discipline of history wrote
wie es eigentlich gewesen (how it actually was)? With this idea that history could be made alive came the seeds of a fascination with history and learning from it and making it meaningful. It also started a slow fascination with Living History, or interpreting the time period while wearing the clothing styles of the time period I am interpreting.To present oneself as a historical character was to connect with a person who thinks and acts differently than we do today and perhaps understand them and therefore ourselves in the process.While the film has not aged very gracefully over the years, it was an inspiration that history is an important thing.
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The Petersen house was where Abraham Lincoln died after his
assassination in 1865. It is presently administered by the NPS.
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My father works for Delta Airlines. One of the great employee benefits was cheap travel. So we never did long car rides, just long plane rides. As I grew up, one of the incentives for doing well in school was to get 4 out of 6 grades to be A's, then we could fly to anywhere in the US, except Florida or Hawai'i. My mother insisted that it be educational, and not amusement parks. I loved to travel and explore new places and so that incentive worked well for me. As a result, we went to many places. Our family went to Boston, Gettysburg, Washington DC a few times, and all over Virginia more times than I can remember. As I look back, I realized that the places I went to were innately historical in nature. I wanted to see battlefields, monuments, and places where important things happened. I didn't want to go see nationally recognized aquariums, for example. But I understood the power of
This is where it happened. Abraham Lincoln, who was depicted in that silly movie, his
real blood is on
that pillow on
that bed that he died upon across the street from Ford's Theater. Having that opportunity to be able to go and be at those places helped form me further into the kind of historian that I am today. I soon began to understand the power of place even if I did not understand what it was. Being there on the very spot has power when connecting with visitors.
My journey began with dinosaurs, Bill and Ted, and travel and these early influences are critical in guiding me on my path today. Without them and their influence in my life, I would be a totally different person in terms of my interests, education, and chosen profession. This post is about inspiration and interest. The next segment is going to be about training and passion.
Whatever holiday you are celebrating this year, I hope it is pleasant and enjoyable and I hope that you have a happy new year, 2016!
