Sunday, July 21, 2019

7/21/2019


Weekly Update 7/21/2019

I spent more time at lectures this week than in the pool. That’s unusual, but the talk-circuit is opening up again, and the water temp in the pool is over 90, which makes it not very refreshing to be there.

I had one lecture at City Hall on Juliet Gordon Low. Just when you think you know everything, you discover how much you don’t know. I had two interesting ones at TLC. One was on the VW Beetle – what’s not to like? (I'll add an old photo here of me with my OLD beetle and my NEW beetle in 2005).





Another was the first in a 6-week series on author Julian Green, who was a member of the Green family (as in Green-Meldrim House in Savannah), but lived all his life in Paris. I’m struggling to read one of his novels, From Distant Lands, and I mean struggle. It’s an antebellum novel about Georgia and Savannah, and written from stories Julian Green’s mother would tell him about growing up here. It was written in French, and translated, and also written at a time when prose was more difficult to wade through (think Jane Austen). So it’s not an easy read for me.

DH also hosted a talk by Kelly Westfield about the enslaved workers owned by Sarah and Isiah Davenport. She is working on her PhD and doing extensive research about these people, but there is so little information. After all, they were property, so there’s as much info about candlesticks and linens as the people that the Davenports owned. She has been able to find some, but much of the stories will never be known.

Kay’s son Adam, and his wife, Erin, will be re-locating from Savannah to Dallas next week for better job opportunities. I’ve gotten to know them quite well, and I will be sorry for them to leave. On Friday, we met at Churchill’s for a good-bye dinner so I’d have a chance to wish them well.

Saturday night, I went to the amazing Tybee Post Theater for a live production of Gold Girls Gone Wild. It was done in drag, and the scenes were all from the tv series, so not much new. But it was wonderful. That show is still funny today, and to hear Rose’s stories of St Olaf, to have Sophia call Dorothy Pussycat, to refer to Blanche as a slut, and Dorothy’s boots and big, baggy cloches, all reminded the audience of the great show it was. And the innuendos by the cast of impersonators was a hoot!



1 comment:

  1. Of course I remember your VWs - some of the trips we took in them were wonderful - great memories! I look forward to my next visit to Davenport since there should be new info to share there by then. Today we went to the Wind River Reservation and visited the grave monuments of both Chief Washakie of the Shoshones and also Sacagawea. It is still disputed whether Sacagawea died young or old at this reservation - very interesting and controversial evidence on both sides of the stories! Sort of like the enslaved people from the Davenport - just not enough solid information even with lots of research.

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