History Lesson

Well, here it is next week, and I’ve just come back from a class on blogging. I get the gist of it, but still feel very incompetent. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I say it just takes an old dog longer.

Our family vacationed at Chincoteague, Virginia last week. We had perfect beach weather, and I found the perfect beach read. Nestled in the bedroom bookcase, my husband discovered Giants, a book that parallels the lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Buried treasure. Maybe I couldn’t work on my middle grade Underground Railroad novel this week, but I could do research as I soaked in the sun and watched my grandkids play in the sand. Life is good.

I learned something interesting. There were no child labor laws back then. Abraham Lincoln’s father hired him out many times before Abe was twenty-one. Guess who got all the money? Yep, his dad. This was the cultural norm in the early nineteenth century. It was also the law. Abe felt a little like an indentured servant. I had to go back and rewrite a bit of my book when I found this gem.

History gives us perspective. It’s kind of like growing old. We have a lot more wisdom when we can see where we’ve been.