swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,795
She was visiting from D.C. in the first year we lived in our house, and she simply knocked on the door of our house randomly because she was in town for a Stanford University reunion and said she wanted to revisit her childhood home.

She could have been a complete nut job. But she said a few things about the house that only someone in there would know so we gave her a tour. She told us some really cool stories about the place that we had no idea about. And I just saw in the 1940 census info today: there she was. Guess she wasn't a complete mental case. ;)
 

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,795
;) More like victory gardens on the side of the house for WWII, an open cold box installed in the wall in the kitchen that used to be used for storing root vegetables before the days of ice boxes and refrigeration, and stairways that were built over.
 

Kate

Moderator
Feb 7, 2011
18,595
She was visiting from D.C. in the first year we lived in our house, and she simply knocked on the door of our house randomly because she was in town for a Stanford University reunion and said she wanted to revisit her childhood home.

She could have been a complete nut job. But she said a few things about the house that only someone in there would know so we gave her a tour. She told us some really cool stories about the place that we had no idea about. And I just saw in the 1940 census info today: there she was. Guess she wasn't a complete mental case. ;)
That's pretty cool. We went to visit my mother's childhood home a few years ago, and the woman who lives there now let us in. There was a wonderful point where my mother pulled up a piece of carpet to see the hole her brother had burnt through the floor was still there, and indeed it was, though the home owners had no idea about it :D
 

swag

L'autista
Administrator
Sep 23, 2003
84,795
That's pretty cool. We went to visit my mother's childhood home a few years ago, and the woman who lives there now let us in. There was a wonderful point where my mother pulled up a piece of carpet to see the hole her brother had burnt through the floor was still there, and indeed it was, though the home owners had no idea about it :D
Cool. And for the people who live there now, that's a cool story as well.

History can be far more engaging that most teachers make it out to be. Lately I've been on a bizarre kick that started from reading a New Yorker article on the first hours of LBJ's presidency. That lead to watching the live CBS footage on YouTube of how the events were covered for the JFK assassination.

No conspiracy theories or anything. But it's fascinating to see the details we miss today like all the anti-UN psychos who beat down the US ambassador in Dallas less than a month before JFK's arrival -- and how reporters thought the events could be connected. Or how they knew within two hours who was the shooter, where he shot the president from, etc. But they got stuff wrong, like claiming a secret service agent was dead.

History comes alive with first-hand stories like that.
 

Kate

Moderator
Feb 7, 2011
18,595
Cool. And for the people who live there now, that's a cool story as well.

History can be far more engaging that most teachers make it out to be. Lately I've been on a bizarre kick that started from reading a New Yorker article on the first hours of LBJ's presidency. That lead to watching the live CBS footage on YouTube of how the events were covered for the JFK assassination.

No conspiracy theories or anything. But it's fascinating to see the details we miss today like all the anti-UN psychos who beat down the US ambassador in Dallas less than a month before JFK's arrival -- and how reporters thought the events could be connected. Or how they knew within two hours who was the shooter, where he shot the president from, etc. But they got stuff wrong, like claiming a secret service agent was dead.

History comes alive with first-hand stories like that.
It really does. Especially seeing attitudes towards people like JFK, who may now be idolised and almost mythified, but who at the time was not...at all.
 

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