The Lights of Christmas
I have been stringing lights inside our house, on the outside of our house, and in the yard. This star hangs from a window in my office at home. After various attempts at decorating these wheels that sit beside our…
Tag History
A Short “Jingle Bell” History
Christmas Belles by Winslow Homer, published in Harper’s Weekly, January 2, 1869, courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Ray Austrian Collection, gift of Beatrice L. Austrian, Caryl A. Austrian and James A. Austrian. Though few of us have…
A History of Thanksgiving Day: The Pilgrims of Plymouth
In England in the early 1600s, it was illegal to be a member of any other church than the Church of England. Some English believers, who thought the Church of England did things that were against God’s will, wanted to…
Men of Integrity: John Philip Sousa and Ray’s Daddy
Ray and I have had sweet memories of his daddy recently. Ray was able to reconnect a few days ago with John Vaughan, the minister who baptized Ray in 1971. Brother Vaughan and Ray’s daddy later became good friends. When…
A Visit to the Tennessee State Archives
I enjoy my involvement with the Timothy Demonbreun Heritage Society, which honors and preserves the memory of my French Canadian fur trapping ancestor, often called the first resident of Nashville, Tennessee. The society, made up mostly of us very distant…
The Wedge of Abraham Lincoln, the Railsplitter
We Americans admire people from humble beginnings who achieve success in fields such as business or politics or entertainment. Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and James Garfield were all born in log…