I tell you, for someone that loves history, I sure didn't like history. At least not the way that it was taught at South Junior High and Loy Norrix High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was just dates. The only thing I really remember was how painfully bored I was. I hold Miss Anna Bodine who taught -- droned -- through a year of US History at Norrix responsible. I know that there are some excellent history teachers out there, my brother Dob Drake being one of them. But maybe, if the substandard teachers were held accountable, they might have tried a little harder.
When I am working on my family tree, I really like to submerse myself and try to figure out where they all fit in time. I want to be able to see it. For example, my Drakes moved from Piscataway, New Jersey to upstate New York in 1800. Not the 1800s, but the year 1800. I have no idea what it must have felt like to push inland, leaving family and friends. Sad yes, but we were capitalizing on the opportunity brought on by the distribution of the war lands. What were they wearing back in those days, eating, dating customs? I know that the Drakes lived with the Stouts, that they traveled from NJ to NY and then on to Michigan. There are many many Drakes in the Stout family trees and vice versa.
One way I get a taste, something that pulls me closer to my ancestors -- those long ago and also my mom and dad who have been dead for many many years is to read random history books. I recently stumbled on a series called:
American Popular Culture Through History. The series contains books entitled:
- The 1900s
- The 1910s
- The 1920s
- The 1930s
- The 1940s
- The 1950s
- The 1960s
- The 1970s
- The 1980s
- The 1990s
- The 2000s
- The Revolutionary War Era
- The New Nation 1783 - 1810
- The Antebellum Period
- The Civil War and Reconstruction
- The Gilded Age
At the moment I am reading The 1920s:
Ive also gone ahead and ordered the 1900s. They aren't cheap, but you should try to get them from your library. Inside
American Popular Culture Through History: 1920s you'll find chapters like Life and Youth during the 1920s, advertising, architecture and Design, Fashion, food and drink, leisure activities, literature, music, performing arts, travel and recreation, visual arts, the costs of products in the 1920s. Twelve bars of Ivory Soap could be had for 49 cents. And you'll note that I had to write out "cents" because the computer keyboard doesn't have a cent sign. I wonder if the kids today, even knows what a cent sign looks like. A Steinway grand piano cost $1425, a Rolls Royce $10,900. Pork chops were 36 cents a pound, bread was 12 cents a loaf.
Of course this may mean nothing to you, but myself and my friends were all children of children who lived through the depression. Practically every one's dad had gone to war. Our moms worked outside the home until they were married. They still worked, but only until the first baby came along. Then they stayed at home until the youngest started kindergarten and they went back to work, but only during school hours. I remember 19 cent gas and 25 cent cigarettes. Hell, I actually remember BUYING Marlboros for my dad when I was 7 years old. Of course, he'd written a note to the gas station attendant that it was okay for me to buy them.
Studying these different eras help me understand my roots a little better.
A side note: on the cover of 1920s are some flapper girls flirting with the camera. On the cover of the 1980s is Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs. Some of you will remember Miami Vice like it was yesterday. Some of you will wonder who they were. It's all relative.
