Poplar Forest

Since Aaron and I failed at visiting Poplar Forest in March of this year, we decided that it would make for an excellent mid-summer "meet in the middle" location. Yes, Aaron was out of state this summer interning...again. One of these summers Aaron and I will both be in the same state. 2012, anyone?

Back to the mid-summer meet in the middle trip. The drive to Lynchburg from Raleigh is gorgeous. Lots of small towns and farms. To give you an idea of how rural and untraveled the road was, I saw, perhaps for the first time ever, a live hippity-hoppitying little brown bunny on the side of the road. I resisted the urge to stop in the middle of the road to watch it munch on wild grass and continued on. I think downtown Lynchburg is in the beginnings of a revival, because while some blocks were lively and busy, other sections were nothing but broken windows and empty buildings. Still, not a place I would want to be walking around alone at night.

I had done some food research before leaving to find some local places to eat while we were there. We ate at a roadside diner for breakfast for what I hoped would be down home and tasty food. Well, they got the down home right, but not so much on the tasty. Both of the plates Aaron and I ordered came different than how we ordered (different sides and omelet fillings). I am not that great of an egg maker, but I probably could have made a better, fluffier omelet than what I was given. Live and learn, I suppose.

Poplar Forest, for those who are oblivious to what it is as we were earlier this year, is the retreat home of Thomas Jefferson. It was designed entirely by him and is smaller, quieter, and more removed than Monticello. It sits near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains far from anything resembling a city, both then and now. The house itself is an octagon with an offshoot bottom floor that housed the kitchen, some slave quarters and such. Jefferson designed the landscaping as well, with a mix of formal garden and open lawn.

This place is amazing. The preservation society has worked methodically to regain as much of Jefferson's original land as they could, and the results vastly improve the entire experience when visiting. Standing on the back lawn, looking across to the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance, there is no sound of cars, no barking dogs, only the muffled voices of other visitors and guides. And suddenly it is crystal clear why Jefferson selected this place as a retreat. Here, he could get away from the visitors, the obligations, the busyness of Monticello and read, relax and reflect. I think he earned it, too!

I hope I am correct in speaking for both Aaron and I when I say we fell in love with this place. It lacks the grandeur of the other presidential homes we visited; it is not polished or put together. But it is personal, so simply handsome. Those who are restoring the property and home are meticulous in every detail. They read Jefferson's letters for any hints of the moldings and furniture; they have plant archaeologists combing the ground and soil for remnants of roots and seeds from when Jefferson began plantings. They hope to restore many of the poplar trees that gave this home and property its name. It is apparent how dearly these people care for this place, and I think it rubbed off on Aaron and me. Poplar Forest invites the same sentiments Jefferson must have striven for then in its visitors today - reflecting, dreaming, resting, and re-energizing.

Sadly, we eventually had to leave Poplar Forest. However, my pre-trip food searches paid off this go around with a fantastic coffee shop, The Muse Coffee Company. Aaron and I found a table upstairs and enjoyed bagel sandwiches and some great coffee with an afternoon of chatting and reading before we had to head our separate ways for the remainder of the summer.

For those interested in a presidential homes' tour like Aaron and I accomplished in two parts, I would highly encourage it. In fact, here is a suggested route!

Mount Vernon - George Washington's home outside of Washington, DC

Montpelier - James Madison's home near Orange, Virginia (southwest of DC)

Monticello - Thomas Jefferson's home near Charlottesville, Virginia (southwest of Orange)

Ash Lawn-Highland - James Monroe's home near Charlottesville, Virginia ( down the road from Monticello)

Poplar Forest - Thomas Jefferson's retreat home near Lynchburg, Virginia

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Spring Break (finally!)

Back in March, Aaron and I took a little spring break vacation to Charlottesville, Virginia. Our goal was simple: visit a bunch of presidential homes. Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, James Madison's Montpelier and James Monroe's Ash Lawn-Highland are all located within an hour of Charlottesville, so it was a Founding Fathers road trip. After an unexpected overnight in Richmond due to a blown tire, which is a story in and of itself, we started our vacation visiting Monticello.

Aaron likes Jefferson. Really really likes him. I think if Aaron could be someone else in a past life, Jefferson would be high on his list. Maybe it is because he secretly yearns to be a redhead. Maybe Aaron wants the freedom to wear breeches and a tricorn hat without all the stares and whispers. Whatever the case, Aaron was eager to see Jefferson's home, library, and some of the inventions. The tour was great and very thorough, going room by room and sharing not only Jefferson's hand in the design, but the histories of specific pieces and who may have visited or why things were historically significant. It was still early spring and rainy, so the gardens and yard were not at its best and brightest. It was still beautiful, it just took imagination to think of what it looked like in full bloom on a sunny day.

After drooling over everything in the gift shop and resisting the compulsion to spend a small fortune there, we headed down the hill to Mitchie Tavern, a refurbished colonial era tavern and inn. They have a little restaurant that serves food that could have been served at the tavern in the 1700s. I think the menu changes seasonally, but what we had was fantastic. It is served buffet style, so Aaron and I got a little of everything. I think the best fried chicken I have eaten, stewed tomatoes, pulled pork, roast chicken, rolls, green beans, beets, cornbread, slaw. So very very good - sit by the fire and eat off tin plates while the wenches ask if you would like any more food. I think if they were renting rooms I would have stayed just so I could eat the next meal. After we glutted ourselves, we made our way over to the inn and a wench took us through the house. This was an interactive tour, so we played some games they would have played (I beat Aaron) and danced a little. It was especially appealing for me to see the kitchen tools they used - like the toe stir! She also showed us tea bricks, which are compressed tea leaves that people would use when traveling so the leaves would not spoil and use as a form of money. After seeing these at several places, I caved and got a small brick of black and green tea. Still have yet to try it out, and even if it is not delectable, the designs are pretty neat.

That evening, Aaron and I went to downtown Charlottesville. For a relatively small city removed from other metropolitan areas, I was surprised how vibrant and modern the downtown was. If Austin could be compressed into one street, Charlottesville's downtown is close to how it would look and feel. We ended up having dinner at a panini and wine restaurant. The sandwiches and salads were excellent, Aaron enjoyed his wine and I was all but driven to distraction by two ladies nearby who spent about 45 minutes and several tastings of wine to try and find the bottle they wished to purchase. I am new to wine lingo, so I could not tell if they knew what they were talking about or knew enough to be dangerous with buzzwords - tannins, oak, earthy, floral, etc. The poor wait staff was opening bottles, pouring glasses, and trying to remember which wine they served 3 glasses ago.

The next day, Aaron I drove out to Montpelier, Madison's home. We came upon a happy accident when, at the gate, we were told it was Madison's birthday and entry to the park was free. The tours of the house were special, too, as they were set in 1810, the year Madison turned 50. All the questions the tourists asked referring to events and dates after 1810 were quickly answered by the guides with an "I do not know what you are referring to. What is this you speak of?" It also worked well as they are still working to restore Montpelier and the house is bare save for a couple swatches of wallpaper and a dining room table. Fortunately, Dolley Madison was redecorating in 1810, so the absence of decor fit well into the story.

That afternoon, a ceremony was held at the Madison family cemetery where the local, state and national government, as well as Thomas Jefferson's descendants and historical societies gave speeches and presented wreaths at Madison's grave. A Marine color guard was in attendance to provide a 21-gun salute. All in all, a special, unique and unexpected experience that made Montpelier come alive.

Aaron and I were able to drive back to Charlottesville in time to go to James Monroe's Ash Lawn-Highland before it closed for the day. This was perhaps my favorite house - it was more modest, less palatial and felt more retreat-like than the previous two. It did not hurt that we had the best tour guide ever. Seriously, this guy was phenomenal. He knew all these snippets of the Monroes' lives that made the tour of their house more alive and intriguing. For instance, the master bedroom was the warmest in the house in winter, so it was typical that if there were guests, one would invite them to sleep in the master along with the husband and wife. Well, Mrs. Monroe, being from New York and not used to Southern ways, detested this. After Monroe passed, she converted part of the slave quarters into a guest house so, should guests stay over, they could sleep somewhere other than her bedroom. I have no clue if all the tales he told are true or not, but I am not positive it matters all that much. He knew how to spin a yarn and I was happy to follow along with him.

The final day of our spring break history trip was thrown together on the fly. We got through the presidential homes more quickly than we expected, and were left with a day to fill with something. In reading some of the pamphlets, we learned that Jefferson had a retreat home outside of Lynchburg, so we decided to go there. After circling the city a couple times and going over a questionable wooden bridge, we found the entrance to Poplar Forest. Unfortunately, in our haste and excitement, we did not read in that pamphlet that Poplar Forest did not open for the season until April. Oops. Oh well, I suppose we shall save Poplar Forest for another time. (More on that in a later post...someday.)

Thankfully, Appomattox Court House is relatively close to Lynchburg, so we redirected ourselves there for the day. I was most surprised by the quietness of the area. There sat this little town, largely as it looked the day Grant and Lee met there to end the war, with only small glimpses of a road or car. If you had even a small amount of imagination, it was simple to picture the procession of Confederate soldiers as they surrendered their arms. No whoops and hollers from the Union soldiers lining the road, only a quiet dignified respect for their brothers. (Can you tell I am a sucker for the Civil War?) The museum on site had many items, both small and grand, from the events that took place at Appomattox. The park rangers have done an excellent job of presenting what happened there, keeping the area how it would have looked to the eyes of the soldiers, and have a wealth of knowledge about the details of the surrender process.

And so our historical spring break came to an end. Despite the rough start, we saw everything and more than we had planned, and both agreed to come back to Monticello, Montpelier and Ash Lawn-Highland again someday.

African American Lives 2

Thank you, internet banner ads! I was on a website just now and noticed an ad for The Root. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was a website dedicated to ancestry, namely that of African-Americans. And I realized, this was something I watched on PBS last year. It is a special where Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps "famous" African Americans (Oprah, Whoopi Goldberg, T.D. Jakes, Quincy Jones and others) find their history both in America and Africa through looking at records and through DNA testing. When I watched it last year, I was utterly fascinated with both the stories these people had in their history, and with the technology that exists to tell people what areas of the world course through their blood.

And now, you can watch it...well the second "season" of it! It comes on next Wednesday (Feb. 13) at 9 pm ET (8 central) on PBS. It is just about the neatest two hours of television a person can watch on a Wednesday night. I have to miss the "live" broadcast due to church commitments, but I am taping it for sure. To hear the history of people, famous or not, and to watch them discover the hardships and successes their ancestors came through can only be described as bonding. Bonding lives together that before seemed separate and even alien. I wish I could think of a way to entice you even more to watch this show, but I can't so, I will beg. Please, sit down and watch this. Learn about famous people, learn about America's past, even your past.

**Just saw that it is probably a two-part series that began on Wed, Feb. 6. Check your PBS stations for rebroadcasts so you don't miss anything. I am taping Wednesday's broadcast from 2-4 am Friday morning so I don't miss it.

History and 'staches

One of the most difficult things for me in college was a task that, on paper, looked rather innocuous. It would say something along the lines of "Write a #-page paper on a topic related to Xth-century history." A whole century to choose whatever topic I liked! And then came the avalanche of options. Do I write about a person? An event? A battle? A war? An election? A crisis? Do I try to find a topic that is not commonly written about in Xth-century history?

One of the most popular history courses in college was one I honestly feared to take - History of the Holocaust. I feared it because it is a hard subject to read about, not be biased toward. And, I wondered, if after a whole semester of reading about the horror and atrocity, would I be a little more immune from it? It was not something I wanted to be immune to. I did not want to think of it in so-called academic perspective, rolling off the statistics and quotas and percentages. So, I did not take that class. Or any class related to World War 2.

However, if I had been in a World War 2 class and been asked to write an essay, and I had as much time and creativity I could muster, this would be the essay I would want to have written. There are a few things that come up quickly that would not have worked for my situation. I am not Jewish and I am not a man. But to study the history of the toothbrush "Adolf" mustache, see where it began and how it changed the world, that would have been an excellent paper.

Rich Cohen, the author of the article, alludes to something, but does not say it outright. He writes about some of the US presidents and their facial hair of choice. After World War 2, no president has sported facial hair of any kind. It is like to have facial hair at all risks reminding people of that last famous political facial adornment. And, as Cohen mentions, the so-called "evil" political leaders after the war to today are the ones with facial hair. Castro, Guevara, Pinochet, Abdullah, Hussein.

This is not to say all people with facial hair are evil. I know men sporting the face hair and they are wonderful, kind people. But it is an interesting facet of history to look at.

A Rumor of War

Written by Philip Caputo after his tour of duty as a Marine at the outset of the Vietnam War, A Rumor of War provides a personal account of what it was like to join in this "splendid little war" before it morphed into what some look at now as a blemish on American history. How did I come across this book? It was assigned by one of my favorite professors in college, and one I did not finish reading at the time. I was only able to get through the first few chapters before it was time to move onto the next book. But, even from those few chapters, I knew this was a book I had to return to read and give it the time and attention it merited.

Caputo entered Vietnam idealistic, ready for an adventure, prepared to answer the call President John F. Kennedy sent forth, "Ask not what your country can do for you..." These boys went out seeking adventure and glory, and were met with the invisible killers of Viet Cong, disease, and booby traps, living the nightmares found in the the confining and confusing jungle of their surroundings and minds. They began with excitement, which turned to apathy, which grew into a rage so strong that Caputo, who in the book seems a voice of reason, set aside the ideals of duty, honor, and country in order to answer that question, "why?" Why were they there? Why did his friends die? Who killed them? From these questions, Caputo and others decided any Vietnamese person they encountered was Viet Cong, and so they sought after and murdered to understand "why."

Since most of my history classes in high school took longer than expected on one era in history, and in college I focused on other times in history, most of the 20th century's history is unclear to me. In a way, I feel like 1900 arrived and everything socially, politically, and economically became more fractured and complicated. Maybe this assumption is correct, maybe it is just me. What A Rumor of War provided me was an eye not into the inner workings of the politics, history, or economics surrounding the United State's entrance into Vietnam, but a discovery of the country, adulthood, death, and hatred alongside Caputo and his buddies. A history unable to be told with policies, speeches, and posturing, but through the voices, lives, and deaths of the sons of America.