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We just got back from a big ol' trip...I choose not to post until I got back...

I suppose for the safety of it...

These next few posts were written in the last few weeks.

That's how my big brother taught me to spell it way back when.  I prefer it to EM-Eye-Crooked-Letter Crooked-Letter...etc. 

So Mississippi.  The FIRST place I CHOSE to go.  Why?  Well, because, this year in history we are going to be studying the Civil War.  I don't know if you are aware of this...but that was a pretty big deal in this country.  I would go so far as to say foundational in how stuff WORKS or doesn't in our country even today.

And you know what, I live within 2 day's drive of pretty much every major battle site.  Let that sink in for just a moment.  My kids can go there, touch stuff, stand and watch the sunset on the Mississippi river, listen to people whose families date back to that era and have left journals and other artifacts and who are interested in the happenings of history because it affected their families.  They can experience a little, even if only a glancing look into the past, not just through books but through tangible objects.

Vicksburg, Mississippi was the first stop on our route.

 

 

 

There is a TON of history in Vicksburg.  We got to go to the McNutt House and talk to the owner who was one of those loves-history-types and has artifacts from the various families that lived in the area, both his own family (well, his wife's family) and the information and artifacts that came with the house.

 

Like the family cannon ball, which actually turned out to be the family mortar shell.  There is a story of someone looking for a cannon ball which is 8-9 inches across and overlooking this 13 inch beast because it was too big, only to discover this is what Granny had meant by, "Go get the cannon ball out of the shed." 

One of the journals recovered was written by a woman who lived in the area at the time of the Siege of Vicksburg.  In it, she talked about these mortar shells looking like watermelons flying overhead and how to avoid being injured.  See, they usually exploded in the direction they were going...they'd hit the ground and decimate whatever was in front of them.  So if you could see them coming, and they were BIG and slow, you could get behind them and usually avoid injury.  But during the Siege of Vicksburg, Grant was hurling them from the Mississippi (about a block and a half from the McNutt House) and from the land so the citizens and soldiers of Vicksburg were caught in the middle.

 

Then there was the family Confederate Soldier.  Apparently there were several endeavors by the various southern associations to relocate all the Confederate dead to cemeteries.  But when they came to move Lt. D. W. Magill, his descendants said, "We don't bother him and he don't bother us" and so there he lays.  Methinks that's a newer headstone, but that could not be confirmed by our guide.

The family Confederate Soldier lead to talk of various ghosts that have been reported around the place.  I guess 185 years of history is going to include a ghost or two.  The most poignant story being that of a little girl named Margaret, who had come to visit and subsequently died of yellow fever.  In the years that the McNutt house served as a Montessori school the kindergarteners would often come back from recess wondering why that little girl in the blue dress didn't have to come in at the same time.  When questioned the children would answer that, "Her name is Maggie". 

I ended up having to shut down the other ghost stories because Monkey Face just is NOT ready for that kind of thing.  Probably best in the long run for all of us, nightmares being what they are in my house.  But it was creepily fascinating, nonetheless.  This is a picture of the patio on which Maggie has been sited most.  Monkey Face could not keep her eyes off of it.

The grounds of the McNutt house were simply beautiful.  I could have sat there all day except for the fact that it was HOT and muggy...still, I'll bet it's beautiful on a cool fall morning.

We also went to the Old Court House Museum and talked to Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Cotton.  At first I thought this was just going to be one of those "stuff" museums.  The downstairs was FULL of stuff.  Many many civil war era artifacts.  Some of them war-ish...and some just mundane and some really beautiful things.

The next few are for my friend, the composer, you'll meet him in a few days...he speaks of Steinway like a long lost love...and I found a REALLY old, rectangular one.  Probably best he wasn't with us...he probably would have wanted to play it or something.  As it was, I had a hard time not asking for a vacuum for some of those strings...

But none of these things were my favorite part of this museum...nope...this was my favorite part...the ACTUAL old Courthouse...(LOOK LOOKIE...there I am...I managed to be in 2 pictures this whole trip...2.  My toes not-withstanding.  But at least I can prove that I was there.)

This was a cool room.  Big high ceilings, wood floors, open French doors on each side to let the light and breeze in...and at the front a sort of dais settled under an acoustic shell.  Very VERY cool room.  All of a sudden the pictures of the early courts came into focus...all the times I'd wondered how they could hear each other without shouting and without modern sound equipment.  One look at this room proved there would be NO problem hearing.  As a matter of fact, I would bet it got pretty loud.

I made the girls sing in it...really quietly so that they could get an idea of how well the room was built for sound. 

 

Later when we went down stairs, as if to drive the lesson on acoustics home, Mr. Cotton said, "I thought I heard you singing up there, it was just beautiful".  He and I talked for awhile about our own backgrounds in acapella music and he said, "I wish I could have been up there to hear you"...so we sang for him again.  He was my favorite kind of audience...glittery eyed and wishing to join in.

As we left he gave us this book...I made him autograph it. I actually think that autograph is my favorite part...it is most certainly my favorite souvenir.

See ya around...