11/10/2019

Weekly Update 11/10/2019

Beginning on Monday I attended a DH Harvest Lecture that featured Regina Mason, and author, playwright and editor. As a middle class African American growing up in the 60s in California, it had somehow never occurred to her that there was slavery in her background. As an adult, and as she became more educated, she had more questions. Her research led her to discover that one of her ancestors, William Grimes, had written an account of his enslaved years and his life-long quest for freedom. The talk that she gave was wonderfully interesting. As with all the stories I hear as someone who has a yearning for history, I find personal stories ever so much more interesting than the collective, general recounts of history books. This fit my need for one of those stories perfectly. And since it was held at the Second African Baptist Church, I had the added bonus of being inside that historic building.

Regina Mason speaking on William Grimes 

I met Kay and Jane at the Crystal Beer Parlor for supper Tuesday. We weren’t able to get to The 90 last Friday, so this was our “make up” date. I was disappointed that the Bowl of Soul was no longer on the menu, but I liked the shrimp and grits I had. And we shared one of the best peach cobblers in the South.

Wednesday, I needed to be downtown for the monthly CMA luncheon. St John’s Church was hosting their annual Holiday Bazaar, so I went early to stop there before lunch. I was so let down! There was no White Elephant sale, no crafts made by the ladies of the church, and no used books – all things that I have loved in past years. I didn’t even order the chili that I wait all year to eat because I was having lunch at another place, and so I didn’t get to the baked goods sale. I guess that’s one less not-to-be-missed event I won’t have to put on my calendar for next year. 

Thursday, Kathryn and I finally presented our slide show to the BHS annual meeting. We worked very hard to get the photos and the narrative to be interesting, and I think we did well in our little 10 minute talk. We are both technology challenged, and as she refers to herself (and I love this - it sounds a lot better when than when I describe myself as not very social) as a high functioning introvert. We’re not ready to peddle it to PBS, but I think that for two old women, we did fine. There was a lot of good feed back from the listeners, too.  

The first slide of the presentation.  Then I was using my mouse, so I couldn't get any more pictures

a poster board with the photos, just on the outside chance I could't get the slides to work

Kathry and Sam,the cemetery preservationist

Saturday afternoon, I went out to The Landings to go to a concert that Jane had invited me to. It was ok, but actually not the kind of music I find interesting. The singer, Kristen Toedtman, was wonderfully talented, and her voice was clear and melodic. But she sang new wave songs in Spanish, accompanied by her guitar, which, as far as I could tell, was not enhancing the melody or lyrics, but rather playing unrelated notes and rhythms of its own. And while I was struggling to enjoy that, LSU was beating 'Bama! (That was not the worst game of the week end, either)

Kristin Toedtman