Yesterday was very long, but rewarding. I took the day off work and drove Child to a nearby town (~75 miles away) for a doctor's appointment. We had some time to go to the Children's Museum and play for a couple of hours and have lunch together, and I do love singing loudly to kids' songs together in the car. (Only Sandra Boynton CDs, though. If you are a parent and you don't have Dog Train and her other CDs, go forth and buy them now.) After driving back I dropped Child off at Grandma's and hopped on a bus with my hubby and his co-workers for a work social evening. Could've been bad, but the show we went to was amazingly funny (and raunchy), so all was good. Whew. The bus didn't get back into town until midnight, though...
So on to the Discussion Friday topic. Actually two different, related questions today.
1) What is the period in history to which you feel the strongest connection? For me this is a period I almost feel part of: I love the music, the art, the clothes, the popular culture of the time. If reincarnation could be true I'd think I lived there/then. What is your period?
2) If there was a time/place in history that you could visit, when/where would it be? Why? It might not necessarily be the same answer as #1.
I'll come back and post my answers later, but I look forward to reading yours!
Medieval Word of the Day: tither: One who tithes. a. One who pays tithes; usually with qualification, as false, small, true tither. b. An exactor or receiver of tithes; also, a supporter of the system of ecclesiastical tithes.
(As always, all of my definitions come from the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary)
11 comments:
I confess I don't relate much to history. I don't like the roles women were relegated to. So I have to say I prefer the present, and I look forward to the future.
Sara:
Wow. Hard to follow that statement. {g}
I've never felt quite comfortable in the present, though I'm working on it!
Well, I'll answer to the 2 questions.
#1: the 1940s, WWII, particularly on the homefront but also in London. I don't glamorize it, but I feel an extremely strong connection to everything about that time, even language, styles, and culture. I also have a thing about 14th-century England, obviously.
#2: I'm pretty sure I wouldn't really want to visit 14th-century England, as it would be quite a shock (not to mention dealing with plague and other lovely illnesses). I think I would want to visit the 1940s American homefront (I'd drop in on a couple people I know who were around then), but doubt I'd really want to drop into London during the Blitz. I think I might particularly want to visit London during the time of Shakespeare and Elizabeth...that I'd like to see.
Susan:
I have to agree with you on question 1 - ever since I was a kid, I've been obsessed with WWII history. The European theatre, and England, to be specific. I don't want battle details, though - what has fascinated me is the personal stories of how people coped, of what they did to go on. I'm also interested by WWII POW stories, again in the European theatre.
For some reason, I'm also interested in the Selkirk settlement in Manitoba and in early Manitoba history. Maybe that's got something to do with the WIP, huh [g]?
As for questions two and I could visit anywhere, it would be first century BC Rome - there's just something about all those Caesars (not the alcoholic ones, mind, the emperors [g]). I would like to go see the early Manitoba years, and maybe Europe in the Victorian age. That's only if I could though - no great rush on that one.
Never had _any_ interest in the middle or far east, though - strange. Lots of people these days want to go the Thailand or Japan - not me. I want to go back to Europe - I just feel at home there, for some reason.
Julie K
For me it was the dark ages through the late medieval period. Ever since I was very young, I've been fascinated by that period. Part of it, especially with the dark ages, is the not knowing. With no written records to speak of, it's all guess work and good detective skills.
Part of it was also being told by my grandmother that we were descendents of Brian Boru, the medieval Irish king that united the Irish clans and drove out the Vikings. Of course, she went on to say, half of Ireland claims to be descended from him...Even so, the possibility of it intrigued me.
And Susan, I'm curious. Do you personally subscribe to the OED online? Or at work? And do you just browse until you find a work from the medieval period, or is there a section or search function that you find them under?
Julie:
BC Rome! Wow, hadn't considered that one. I don't have a particular interest in it, but now that I think on it I've heard of quite a few people who do. (Do you read Colleen McCullough?)
Maybe we were together in WWII. :) I know two other of our group who have the same fascination as us!
Robin:
Obviously I have quite a connection to the medieval period too! I wish I could trace ancestors back that far, but sadly that whole lack of written records thing applies. (though two of my family names resolve out to Cow-herd and Hen-keeper. Not royalty, I'd bet. {g})
As to the OED, I am lucky that I work on a University campus, and they subscribe to the online version. To get medieval words I type in one that I know has the right date frame (jangleress and forsooth are two of my favorites) and then I "sort by date". That way I only see words that are recorded from my particular period of interest. I use this with great frequency when I'm writing. Of course I don't exclude words of more current usage than my period--I'm not writing in middle english--but I do exclude really anachronistic-sounding words and try to use ones from the right timeframe whenever I can.
Dear Susan:
Oooh. Fun!
#1. Scotland, almost always. Time
period, 1500-1700 or so.
#2. That's a hard one. Versailles, right before the revolution? Australia, when the first criminals were arriving. I'd like to spend a week in a Viking settlement. The Aztecs. The Druids. The Celts. I'd really have to think about it.
Susan:
Ooooh, maybe we were. That would explain some things, wouldn't it? [g]
I devoured the McCullough series on ancient Rome, and always thought that if I did archaeology, that's where I'd like to go. For some reason, I have no real hankering to go to Rome now, but I would have loved to go to Rome then [g].
Julie
Cindy:
Just saw this. You're living dangerous, you are. I think I'd be scared to be in Versailles just before the revolution OR with the Aztecs. (But then I read part of Gary Jennings' book AZTEC, which was enough to scare me to death.) Druids or Celts would be cool, as long as you're not in on the slaughter on the Isle of Mona...
See, I'm a practical time traveler. LOL.
Julie:
I'll admit that Rome was my least favorite city in Italy. I'm a Florence kind of girl. (Yes, A Room with a View had a lot to do with that...)
Oddly, I just got a postcard from Rome yesterday; my Dad is on vacation in that area. Right now he's on a cruise of the Mediterranean. Rough, eh? :)
Post a Comment