One of the perks of a job that allows me to travel is that sometimes I'll leave
the highway and take the leisurely way home.
Such was the decision last weekend.
After a meeting in Richmond and lunch with BN (Beloved Niece),
the run home down I64 was making me twitchity.
Up pops a sign for Rt 5 & the James River Plantations (read about them here),
so I careen across the lanes of the interstate to make the exit.
Lovely, peaceful road, winding along the river with trees arching overhead.
Ahhh. Much better.
How many times have we spared only a glance at the historical markers along the road without really noticing them?
Sadly, they often become white noise in the scenery as we speed along.
If it was really important, it would be lit up or something, right?
Just as I was getting to the pretty part of the road, one of those ubiquitous gray signs whizzed past.
I glanced at it with half an eye, then my brain cleared and I realized what I just read.
One of the most significant, in retrospect, "events" in our story.
Something that has shaped 400 years of history and still reverberates today.
This...
...allowed for these to flourish in the South,
made possible by this,
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/04/13/robinson-on-haley-barbours-diddly-sense-of-slaverys-history/ ; http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/slavery.htm
http://www.crgate.com/shist.htm
(one of the darkest & most shameful scars on our collective history)
and ultimately leading to this.
http://fromusatoday.com/commemorating-the-civil-war.htm ; http://www.soldierstudies.org/index.php?action=webquest_1
http://www.pixelparadox.com/battles_of_the_civil_war.htm
(one of the bloodiest and saddest scars on our collective history)
Makes me ponder "what if?"
What if those early crops had failed?
How would our history have been rewritten?
the highway and take the leisurely way home.
Such was the decision last weekend.
After a meeting in Richmond and lunch with BN (Beloved Niece),
the run home down I64 was making me twitchity.
Up pops a sign for Rt 5 & the James River Plantations (read about them here),
so I careen across the lanes of the interstate to make the exit.
Lovely, peaceful road, winding along the river with trees arching overhead.
Ahhh. Much better.
How many times have we spared only a glance at the historical markers along the road without really noticing them?
Sadly, they often become white noise in the scenery as we speed along.
If it was really important, it would be lit up or something, right?
Just as I was getting to the pretty part of the road, one of those ubiquitous gray signs whizzed past.
I glanced at it with half an eye, then my brain cleared and I realized what I just read.
One of the most significant, in retrospect, "events" in our story.
Something that has shaped 400 years of history and still reverberates today.
This...
...allowed for these to flourish in the South,
made possible by this,
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/04/13/robinson-on-haley-barbours-diddly-sense-of-slaverys-history/ ; http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/slavery.htm
http://www.crgate.com/shist.htm
(one of the darkest & most shameful scars on our collective history)
and ultimately leading to this.
http://fromusatoday.com/commemorating-the-civil-war.htm ; http://www.soldierstudies.org/index.php?action=webquest_1
http://www.pixelparadox.com/battles_of_the_civil_war.htm
(one of the bloodiest and saddest scars on our collective history)
Makes me ponder "what if?"
What if those early crops had failed?
How would our history have been rewritten?
1 comment:
That is a cosmic drive, and is filled with ooh-aah moments galore! We took that route when we went up to Cold Harbor for that family reunion many moons ago (remember BS and Oddie with the turtle?). I keep saying we'll have to revisit it, but just haven't done it yet - maybe it's time!!
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