A Nation Comes Together

October 15, 2015 | The small plastic bag that I’ve been carrying around since we left Gettysburg reads, “Our Country’s Common Ground.” It was a turning point in the Civil War, and its bloodiest battle. We spent three days there, just like the warring armies. Robert E. Lee was in command of the Army of Northern Virginia and General George Meade led the Army of the Potomac.1 However, the casualties were not limited to the battlefield. The...

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A Ghost by Any Other Name

October 13, 2015 | I’ll admit, I’m writing this blog in between innings of game 4 of the NLDS series. The Mets – my Mets – are down 3-0 after 3 innings. Grrrr...... but, I’m already behind on blogging about our vacation so I’ll soldier on. And speaking of soldiers, yes, we’ve left Gettysburg, but I'm going to re-engage a time or two before I fully retreat. Our ride from NJ to Gettysburg was scenic, beautiful and relatively uneventful....

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Wedding Belles

October 12, 2015 | It’s now Day 4 of our 2015 Harley vacation but the first day I’ve blogged about it. Unusual, yes, but after a stopover in NJ to see the munchkins, 3 amazing days in Gettysburg and a daylong Harley ride to Elkins, West Virginia, there’s finally time to sit and put thoughts to keyboard. There’s so much to tell about our Gettysburg experience - battlefields, monuments, ghost tours and a photo shoot as a Civil War officer...

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All's Well That Ends Well

September 17, 2015 | It’s been a busy summer. I completed a very intensive genealogy research course through Boston University, which had me up to my elbows in citations for 15 weeks. We helped our daughter and son-in-law get settled in their new house in New Jersey. And, we decided that 110 inches of snow was too much, so we sold our house in Massachusetts and moved full time to our house in Virginia. As we trekked from one cradle of...

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Mary Jones: The Tavern Keeper's Wife

March 3, 2015 | One of my interests is history, and locally that includes the Golden Ball Tavern, a National Trust landmark in Weston, MA. The tavern, built in 1767 by merchant Isaac Jones, served as tavern for more than 20 years and as home to six generations of the Jones family for nearly 200 years. As a member of the Golden Ball's Education Committee, I volunteer time to give tours of the tavern, telling the remarkable story of Isaac,...

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