From the category archives:

History

Come Visit “The Parnassus Pen”

by Jenny 20 March 2018 History

This is Jenny, and I have a few items to discuss. First: Happy birthday to my youngest sister, O.S.G! Sis, if you are reading this, I want you to know that it was so much fun to watch you grow up! Second: Happy spring to everybody else. Now for the meat of this post: This […]

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We’re All Going To Die (Writing With History)

by Jenny 17 March 2018 History

We’re all going to die someday. This is why I woke up rage-inducingly early on my day off – a SATURDAY, and also SAINT PATRICK’S DAY. Why I defrosted my car and drove an hour through the dark from New Kensington to Ligonier today. Today I attended “Writing With History,” presented jointly by Fort Ligonier […]

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Colonial Snakebite

by Jenny 25 February 2018 History

Snakes fascinate me. Today I pulled down “The Day Must Dawn,” by Agnes Sligh Turnbull. (This is a fiction novel about colonial Westmoreland County and the burning of Hannastown in 1782. The author grew up in New Alexandria.) I re-read the rattlesnake bite scene. A rattlesnake bites Viola, one of the main characters, on page […]

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Mystery Writing

by Jenny 24 February 2018 History

  First, I have many special memories about visits to bookstores. I grew up south of Somerset, PA. Even a trip to the “local” bookstore to buy the newest Baby-Sitters Club book was a special treat and an all-Saturday event. The bookstore was more than an hour’s drive from our house. We didn’t shop online […]

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Snakes on a Plantation

by Jenny 14 January 2018 History

I listened to a few episodes of The Nod last month. The Nod, by Gimlet Media, is a podcast about Black life hosted by Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings. I highly recommend The Nod‘s 2 part series The Hairstons. This focuses on the life journey of Ever Lee Hairston, who grew up picking cotton as a […]

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“A Season with the Witch”

by Jenny 13 January 2018 History

So, I read this book: “A Season with the Witch: The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts,” by J.W. Ocker. J.W. Ocker lived in Salem, Massachusetts with his wife and two young daughters for the full month of October 2015. The author claims an interest in the occult, which is amusing because the […]

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The War On Christmas. Also, Happy Solstice!

by Jenny 20 December 2017 History

People get outraged over how other people celebrate December.  Centuries ago, people got outraged over how other people celebrated December. Here’s an episode from New England Legends Podcast which explains all this: When Boston Banned Christmas See, back in the 1600’s, the Puritans persecuted non-Puritans (and also other Puritans) over religious beliefs. Sound familiar? I’m […]

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3 Après-Halloween Folklore Podcasts

by Jenny 10 December 2017 History

Today I read on Facebook that “marriage is just sharing the same germs” or something to that effect. Anyway, I’ve been laid up with a cold since Thursday night. I spent these days sleeping, screwing around on the internet, and listening to podcasts. Now that Halloween is over, it’s harder for me to find “new” […]

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Four Angry Mobs

by Jenny 30 November 2017 History

Today is November 29, and I still listen to ghost/history/lore podcasts during each work commute. This week, I found the American Hauntings Podcast. I think highly enough of it to write this essay right now, and right now it is 10:40 PM on a “school night.” (Ghost hunter Cody Beck and ghost hunter / author […]

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Dance With Me On the Dark Side

by Jenny 10 November 2017 History

          Hi, I’m back!   I have to recommend two more podcasts that I liked so much that I listened to them multiple times. I downloaded both of these from iTunes, but I’m linking here to each podcast’s actual website. Here’s the first: Tales of Terror Vol. 8 from “The Dirtbag […]

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