Gather ’round, kids, and let me share with you a taste 20th century living. We booked our coming trip entirely using the internet: flights, accommodation, taxi. Before the internet existed, to book an airline ticket it was commonplace in those olde days to visit a business – a physical building – that was called a “travel agency.”
“Remember, Remember the 5th of November” now means – thankfully – nothing in the United States.
I find that early period in our history to be truly remarkable. I think it also makes for some pretty good romance/historical novel material, too…
That is the sort of thing that comes from my approach to each day: “So, friends, what are we going to do today?” I consider what might be “happening” with “them.” And then I may just run with whatever comes to my mind.
If history never stands still, neither does how we remember it…
Sadly, it appears that “the future” we had hoped for two decades ago, is over.
Macmillan, British Prime Minister from 1957-1963, once remarked that he felt he had to contend with two types of “anti-Britishness” among Americans, and especially among US officials…
Ironically in the 1780s and 1790s Americans here in England, or in France, or in Spain, or in the Netherlands, often mixed in such places for the first time with fellow Americans from other US states.
If you have had experiences such as my family has had (and yours may have had too), you learn that there are those times that nothing can be done by others to stop self-destruction.
“It was very, very special what you did for her,” my mom declared. “She will remember it the rest of her life.”
When I saw that retweeted into my timeline the other day, what was my reaction?
I could only think… here’s another idea: read a history book.
It is no secret that this US president evokes wildly negative feelings in many. [Full disclosure: I did not vote for him.]
We’ll be in Switzerland this weekend. I had not considered this about the trip until now, but if one believes oneself to be a “global citizen,” who needs a passport, right?
100 years ago, this month, a great-great uncle of my wife’s was killed in Belgium in World War I…
Its two marriageable-age young women, Alice and Cora, are central to the tale…
Welcome here to my semi-weekly journal covering novel writing, travel, international matters, and whatever related that pops to mind…. sometimes seriously, sometimes rather less so. The center (centre) of my authoring universe. I hope you enjoy your visit.
Edward: “I hope I may be quite honest with you that I will be quite pleased for the opportunity to become far better acquainted with Miss Sánchez once we reach Holland…”
Robert: “My friend who wrote that letter, he’s passed eighty now. When I was in Paris fifty years ago, where I met him, he loved her dearly. And, oh, Nancy, how she loved him…”
Béatrice: “We will all of us have a drink to everyone we remember and love.”
Bill: “Fiction comes from fact, and lots of fact makes great fiction when you re-write it as fiction.”
Valérie: “Because you are born on a farm, this does not make you a horse!”
Isabelle: “I’ll set the table… This is better than a restaurant. Oh, and by when I leave… I expect you will have told me all about General de Gaulle also.”
