Tag: Civil War
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By the Shores of Solon Pond (8)
Dan’s secret is exposed. “And what of the slaves…” Dan began. “My boy, you read one novel,” Joel said more heatedly, “and you’re a raging abolitionist—it’s a disgrace.” “I’m not ashamed of it,” Dan said. “The injustice of selling families and such. I’m awake to it.” “Oh, wide awake this, wide awake that! If you…
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By the Shores of Solon Pond (5)
Negotiating pay is tricky business for young farmer boy Waldo. His brother’s coughing woke him early. Coffee bubbled below and his father’s slightly burnt corn cakes gave off a sweet, acrid smell. The water in the washbasin was slightly reddened by a clot of his brother’s blood and a wave of yesterday’s worries flooded him…
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By the Shores of Solon Pond (4)
Waldo worries his uncle will find fault with him on the first day of work. Lucian bounded over the hill with his pair of overly enthusiastic yoked calves. One day, he would sell them and set aside the money for his own savings. Waldo envied him a moment until Lucian smiled and waved. “Waldo’s come,…
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A Civil War Envelope
First time I wore a corset I became a woman. Before that I was a person not at home for trying to be too many different things to too many people. I had felt responsible for the world’s destruction since I was five and put before the TV to watch crying Indians and baby seals…
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NewYork & The Civil War
A Dead Civil War Soldier Waldo Potter was a cousin of mine who perished on the battlefield the day before Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. It was only the beginning of April and in Upstate New York where his family awaited news of his whereabouts the earth was still barren of color and cold.…
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Jubilee Singers And Their Biggest Fan
“There were many times, when we didn’t have place to sleep or anything to eat. Mr. White went out and brought us some sandwiches and tried to find some place to put us up.” Other times while the singers would wait in the railway station, White “and some other man of the troupe waded through…
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Novel Inspiration (3): The Scapegoat
INSPIRATION: Every addict needs a scapegoat. Captain Simon McCullough’s motto: Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die. This gets John Weldon’s goat. How unfair it is that Simon coasts through life suffering nary a scratch while drinking, womanizing and joking all the way? Weldon fails to note the fatalism in Simon’s motto.…
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Bravery=Freedom
What would you do if you saw a person you knew as an acquaintance being taken away by two strange men? John Price escaped from slavery in 1856 with few skills and in sorry health. When the residents of the utopian Christian town of Oberlin, Ohio took him in, they found Price odd jobs and…
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Amusement Parks and Masculinity
We talked about Lena Dunham wanting to be loved not for her writing but for her half-naked figure in grungy underwear as we sat by the lake watching boys split into rival teams; ISIS vs.soldiers and super heroes. One hundred and fifty years ago both Union and Confederate soldiers “spoke routinely of deluded people,…
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Death and Life in a Hospital
I wonder if many people still name their children after the great men and women of the past or have modern historians poisoned that well too. I named my daughter after Theodore Roosevelt not so much for his policies (some of which I disagree with) but in honor of his zest for life and fearlessness…
Author Adrienne Morris 