Audio Postcard #2 – Beckett and the Day of Museums

Even though I was in the midst of a family vacation, how could I resist getting back on the highway, knowing I was within striking distance of The Women’s Civil War History Museum? The museum itself was light on artifacts, but heavy with amazing stories (most of which I’ll save for a future subject or two). I told you about three of the many “Homefront” stories I learned there:
  1. The Bread Riots of Richmond, VA
2. The Sad Story of Jennie Wade, sole civilan killed at Gettysburg: http://july1863.homestead.com/jenniewade.html (you might want to put this site on “mute.”) 3. The Roswell Women: http://www.women-will-howl.com/index.html At the “regular” (i.e. “men’s) Civil War Museum, we were captivated by the submarine models. What? Subs during the Civil War? Yes, Ma’am. Read about them here: http://americancivilwar.com/tcwn/civil_war/naval_submarine.html Or here: http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1862submarines.htm And what kind of a cannon fired a 42 pound ball?

An 8500 pound one, that's what kind. This one is at Fort Sumter.

And I am NOT going to depress you by recounting the tale of the drummer boy. No, no, no. The lady at the small-town comfort-food buffet would not give me her recipe for either the meatloaf or the lemon pie. The angels wept. 🙂 And last but certainly not least, the Oscar Getz Whisky Museum, completely worth seeing in this land of Bourbon, where I met up with some old friends:

They really mean it!

Postcard: Pretty Pockets of Painted Ladies

Greetings from Missouri!

I didn’t get too far from my house in Missouri before I  stumbled across our first postcard subject. Beautiful, multi-hued Victorian homes are just waiting to be admired all over the country, and I got to do just that in Plattsburg,  a small town halfway between Kansas City and St. Joseph.

These homes were built in the mid 1800’s to early 1900’s  but didn’t officially get their name, Painted Ladies, until the 1970’s in the book Painted Ladies: San Francisco’s Resplendant Victorians by Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen,with photographs by Morely Baer.

Book from the '70's which looks kinda vintage from this 2011 angle

The authors have since written a more current version, photographs by Douglas Keister:

Second verse, similar to the first

The term ” Victorian”, when you talk architecture, really is a catch- all for homes made in many different styles, and materials. Grand estate homes, to small cottages, to row style homes made of stone, brick, wood in Classic to Gothic architectural styles. All different, all Victorian. The color schemes changed as times changed. Typically there are several colors on Painted Ladies, all working together to show off the trim and architectural uniqueness of the home.

In this very short podcast, I’ll tell you a bit about the history of these homes, of the town of Plattsburg, and of other pockets of these stunning houses all over the country.

Here is the link to check out the Victorian homes of Lizzie Borden’s town: http://fallriverpaintedladies.com/

And here is the link to the Morris Arboretum, they have a miniature train display dotted with Painted Ladies. http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/arboretum/gardens_railway.shtml

I really do believe that there is  beauty where ever you go, all you have to do is open your eyes. Ok, sometimes you also have to turn your head to the side and squint. But I didn’t have to do that the day that I drove into Plattsburg.  I went dreading sitting in the blazing hot sun at, yet another, baseball game. I left having been treated to a gift. Beautiful old homes,  preserved and displayed for anyone who had the pleasure of driving by.

Susan

Shownotes Season One Wrap-Up

When we started this project we decided that a season would consist of ten full- length episodes, posted approximately two weeks apart, with an option of unlimited mini episodes to allow for spontaneity. We also decided that we would end the season with a series near and dear to our hearts. We thought this would give us some structure, and a goal, as well as the freedom to deviate if we wanted to chat a little bit about someone- or something- related to the subject of the full episode.

We had a plan. And, for the most part, we stuck to it. Marie Antoinette, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Cinderella Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, Lizzie Borden, Helen Keller, The Mrs. Astor, Gilded Age Heiresses and Jennie Jerome Churchill. We supplemented those episodes with mini-conversations: Abigail Adams and Feminism, Books in the Little House Series, Little Red Riding Hood, Anne Sullivan Macy, The Age of Innocence movie, and Gilded Age Servants.

And we have big plans for next season as well. Oh yes, we do! But we will be taking a short break from posting full length episodes so we can get ready for that season. And have some summer fun with our families that does not include midnight editing and writing sessions, child care juggling to ensure quiet while recording, and rushing to bring back long overdue library books.

But, just as we had a plan for Season One, we have a plan for this hiatus and you will barely know we are gone. We will be putting out some postcard type entries when we stumble across (on purpose) things we know you might like. And we will be monitoring both our website, facebook page, google+ and twitter (although, we admit, we are not the best tweeters out there. We’ll own that and work on it).

This episode is a question and answer grab bag. We posted a call for questions which we answer in this episode, as well as some odds and ends we thought would be fun. We tell you a bit about National Novel Writing Month, about how we met, how we worked, and some other questions that  listeners asked us. First off here is the link to NaNoWriMo- http://www.nanowrimo.org/. (Which has nothing to do with history except our own.)

Here is our solemn vow ( in print!): When we hit 1000 likes on facebook we will have a Tudors series.

Listen to the podcast for more info…but we know how much you like your visuals. And we get asked this question A LOT:

What do you look like?

Can’t we show you where we record instead, it’s so much more interesting…

This is where we sit when we talk. It might explain a lot.

Ok…we snapped some pics and this is our favorite image of us. Totally shows you who we are and what we look like:

Beckett wore cute shoes that day, Susan went for comfort. Actually, Beckett always wears cute shoes and Susan always goes for comfort. And we have the same size feet. True.

Oh! You want to know what our FACES look like! Got it…

Susan- action shot.

Yeah, we could do this all day.

Thank you for your encouragement,and emails and notes to us! Thank you for telling us who you would like to hear us discuss, and thank you for telling us where you listen to us. Thank you for clicking our stylish DONATE button, and for writing such wonderful reviews for us on iTunes. Thank you for listening! We are having a wonderful time and are very excited to come back to you very soon with Season Two!

Peace!

Beckett and Susan

I should have used my "fairy pixie" shot. Maybe next season... Beckett

You could have just googled to see this. Susan