Tuesday, January 09, 2018

Don't Know Much About History

So far, 2018 isn't going a bit better than 2017 did. As a result, I'm miserable, and depressed...furious, heartsick, bitter. Cold.

     I don't know the psychology of it, but when I get severely depressed, everything changes. I quit doing things like working in my kitchen (baking, canning), working on our home improvement projects, my de-hoarding project. I was working on some craft projects before Christmas I haven't touched in a few weeks. I haven't taken the Christmas trees or decorations down. Need to pay bills.
     I only do the very basics like fixing something to eat (usually frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, tacos, sandwiches), wash up the dishes when the sink gets full, do a load of laundry when needed, taking Kev to doctor's appts and PT, clean the litter box, feed the chickens.
     Last week, or weeks, I sat in my recliner and occupied my mind watching tv. I can't remember what all I watched except a movie called "Bright" which was alright I reckon, and three seasons of "How to Get Away With Murder", which I think would have been better titled, "Just Dumb Luck". It started out pretty good, but the Strong Leading Lady got depressed and starting failing and it was depressing. And, typical Hollywood these days, there was just too much gratuitous sex. Sex scenes unnecessary to the storyline.
    Also me and Kevin sat and watched hours and hours of Family Feud, until I realized Steve Harvey says the same line every show. "I'm your man, Steve Harvey, We got a good one for you today". Found some older Family Feud shows from the 70's on Amazon. I was telling Kev how Richard Dawson used to kiss all the ladies on the mouth.  Steve Harvey don't kiss the girls, but the questions/answers on the more modern shows are a lot more suggestive to downright skanky than they used to be.
     I miss old tv. I watched some Petticoat Junction, which was cute and funny, and some old Andy Griffith show.

I had enough of tv, and came in here to my desk..intending to work on the bills, I think.
     There were some papers on my desk I decided to sort through first, and one was a scrap piece I had jotted a note to myself to look up some family genie info in the census. So I went ahead and did that, and from there, one thing led to another.

Years ago, before internet, I used to have to visit the Library and look up information in books and from microfiche.
    One time I found some info in a book that a man with my Last Name was in Virginia a good 100 years before when the made up story of our ancestors said they arrived in America.  My notes about that are lost in one of the several boxes of thousands of notes upstairs, but now it's (2017, at the time) and so much info has reached the interwebs, I decided to search and see if I could find the info online.
    I didn't find that particular one, but I did find another man with my Last Name in Virginia Court records in the 1670's.

This guy, William, was the servant of Mary Rose.
   Generally, a servant was an indentured servant. Usually someone transported, or paid the passage for people to come to the Virginia Colony, and those people worked for (with) the person who paid their way for a certain number of years, then were free to go and get their own Claim.

William was Mary Rose's servant in March and May of 1677. In July of 1677 she was engaged to marry him, and he was apparently dead by September of the same year, leaving her custodian of his estate (which I suppose had been hers, becoming his when they married?).

Trying to find out when William was transported to America, I started researching Mary Rose (who I believe might have been a Black Widow), which led into a lot of general research, about the land/Plantations, how things worked back then (not like I thought they did), indian wars, etc.

As I was chewing on what I had learned, I figured out a couple of things:
1) I was likely taught American History in school, but hardly remember any of it, and
2) I apparently have the Sense of Time of a toddler.

If I had to write a paper on early American History, it would go something like this....

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue...and discovered America. This one:


And then the Pilgrims (who I had thought were the first white people in the New World) came on the Mayflower, and landed at Plymouth Rock, and they nearly starved to death, and the Indians gave them food and helped them.


And then the people that had came to Jamestown/Yorktown/Williamsburg (sometimes after the Pilgrims got here) decided they wanted to be free, and not be subjects of the King of England anymore, so they declared their independence, and fought the Revolutionary War.


I have pretty much no concept of the fact that the timeline between Columbus (aka the Spanish) and the Pilgrims' arrival was over 100 years apart.
From Columbus's arrival to the Revolution was nearly 300 years.

Prior to American History? I have it condensed down to...England fought wars with France and Scotland. Before that, Englanders lived in mid-evil castles. Before that, Noah and the ark. Before that, Jesus was born, grew up and died on the cross. Before that, God lit the Earth and created Adam and Eve, and Cain killed Abel. Before that, there were Cavemen and dinosaurs. (Yes, somehow, I have it that Cavemen and dinosaurs came before God lit the earth and made Adam and Eve and the other animals.)

Persia, the Far East, Macedonia, Rome, the Vikings...I have all that filed in the same mental folder as when Englanders lived in mid-evil castles. After the Flood, before regular houses.

I would feel dumb about all this, but I know I'm far from the only one that doesn't have a good concept of History and past happenings. 
     I always did well in reading/comprehension, so it's not that I can't read History. I just can't....organize it, in my mind.  I have problems with Math, though - dyscalculia - so maybe that has something to do with it. Time is numbers, in a way.

Oh well. I'm done rambling on for tonight.

Not that I agree today (that it's a wonderful world), but here's a music video for you enjoy:

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