Back from Norfolk, where the historian there gave me a grand tour of the streets Jack Tackett trod over a century ago. His dry goods store has been swallowed up by a huge pillared edifice but Simcoe's house still stands and one of his hotels has been converted to a condominium. Even more interesting: the post office where Jack mailed his love letters to Nancy is now the library where the historian works. The Episcopal and Christ Churches are still there, as well, but the roar of carrier jets and the sight of a battleship permanently moored within the city limits brought home how much has changed since Jack labored to support his family from Norfolk. (This is Simcoe's house today.)

A month has gone by since I penned my last comments. From the 9th to the 14th I was on Virginia's Eastern Shore, where Nancy Lee Fendall spent some time and got her first ride in an automobile, to Cape Charles. She got there by ferry; I drove over and thru the Bay Bridge. I made three presentations there. Watching the sun, then the moon set over the Chesapeake Bay at The Baywood B & B in Cape Charles turned the trip into a delightful overdue vacation.

Next I did two talks for Geo Mason U's Fall for the Book Festival. One was at Blenheim, a farmhouse in Falls Church used as a hospital for Union soldiers. It was my second appearance there and I hope I'm invited back next year.


Yesterday I was the guest of one of the local DAR chapters and the ladies were one of my best audiences. While Letters is about the Civil War, the conditions under which those families lived was not that much different from those experienced by people during the Revolutionary War, 85 years earlier. Neither had indoor plumbing or electricity and horse power was just that.

MUSINGS - A new macadamized road is being laid in front of my condo and I am fascinated by how quickly it is done, allowing cars to zoom over it minutes after it is laid. As I look down from my 12th floor balcony I find myself wondering what it was like to ride a horse along the stream that runs next to the road, in the 1800s. Then I realize there would have been no reason to ride a horse here as there were no houses and certainly no condos. Nothing but bushes and brambles and trees, much like what Ben Fendall encountered as he struggled to lay tracks for the B & O RR thru PA and WV. So once again I marvel at how those in my book survived without any of the conveniences we take for granted today.

It's in the 90s in Alexandria. In July 1909 Nancy Lee Tackett wrote her mother (who always fled Alexandria in the summer) the heat was terrific, adding "all three servants" were getting along nicely. I wonder what it was like back in 1926, when Margaret Mitchell began her epic while recovering from a broken ankle. While recuperating from several operations in June 2007, I began Letters to Virginia but it wasn't nearly as hot as it is now. It took each of us three years to complete our books. . . . Have several dates coming up to present my book, in September. The 10th at Cape Charles; the 12th at Accomac; then the 19th and 20th for the Fall for the Book Festival. At Blenheim first, then Dolly Madison Library in McLean. Still hoping for Norfolk, where Jack Tackett lived so many years.

A LIGHT BULB GOES OFF - On the order of getting late smart, I recently realized Letters to Virginia is like Gone With the Wind. Both are the stories of how three families were affected by the Civil War and its aftermath. In GWTW there are the O'Haras, Wilkes' and Hamiltons. In Letters there are the Eaches, Fendalls and Tacketts. Other than the names, the major difference is the latter families are real and the former a figment of Margaret Mitchell's fertile imagination.
Mitchell created a vixen named Scarlett, then imagined over three dozen more characters for her 1000+ page novel but she did not envision a family with brothers on opposite sides of the conflict nor a brother stealing his sister's funds nor the tragic toll of cholera on three families nor one son being disinherited and another becoming an alcoholic. Melanie Hamilton loved her husband, Ashley Wilkes, but he secretly lusted after Scarlett. Jack Tackett lived apart from his wife, due to financial circumstances, but wrote love letters daily to her until four days before he dropped dead in their garden.
There are similarities between the authors, too, but I'll tell you about them later.

Receiving the 2011 J. Michael Miller History Award from the Alexandria Historical Society

Pictured, from left to right, Vola Lawson, Jim Mackay, Barb Winters, Anne Paul

Barb's Banter

My son has been bugging me to bring my blog up-to-date so I'd better do so. In April I had a delightful time with the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). They were very attentive during my presentation, laughed at the right times and bought quite a few books. They also got the autograph of Rita Holtz, a member and the one to whom my book is dedicated. . . Next up was a talk at a retirement home which registered zero in the book sales department. . . Then came the hilite of the month - the Alexandria Historical Society Michael Miller History Award for 2011. With it came a framed declaration of a lot of Whereases, signed by the mayor, and a beautiful round, fluted 13" silver tray engraved with my name. . . I have another presentation next week and Alexandria is going to start their sesquicentennial commemoration on May 21st, at which time I shall be back at UDC. Then I'm planning to branch out to libraries thruout VA to acquaint others with Letters to Virginia and to learn more history about my adopted state.

More from readers: Diane, an author, wrote "I loved your book. It reads like a novel with characters who engage us because we virtually hear their voices - the 'drummer' Jack, as wrongheaded as he is vulnerable, the flighty young Nancy etc. Your narration sets exactly the right tone, not so much the cold all-seeing narrator as the sympathetic listener, writing from the vantage point of the future, setting the historic scene and then, with a touch of suspense and even humor, stepping back." . . .Rita prefers to savor the book. "I'm about half way through your book - into the Fendalls. I cannot read this book fast - I'm afraid I will miss something. It is sooooo interesting." . . . Dawn likes the way "you fill in the information about the battles that Towny writes about." . . . Converse found "Following the lives of three prominent families during the turbulent years of the 1800s was a compelling and enjoyable read."

reviews

Elly, from San Francisco, says: "It is real class. The content is fascinating history and easy to read while being so erudite." René of Arizona, adds: "I think your book is most unusual, very interesting and quite understandable." Ellen, in Alexandria, wrote: "The primary source material is so wonderful and you have done such a great job putting it into context."