Let's play Andersonville!

I must admit that I am a complete and total shopaholic when it comes to gift shops at historic sites.  More than anything I just like to peruse the merchandise but I sometimes cringe at some of the items that are for sale.

Among the serious items such as books and documentaries, there are sprinklings of such things as historical lipbalm.  Recently I ran across Johnny Reb mint julep flavored and Billy Yank U.S. mint flavored chapstick.  I guess your lips choose your side of the Civil War.

On my recent trip to Andersonville, carefully hidden from view was a Andersonville play set.  Yes, you can not only tour the former site of the prison camp, but if the mood strikes you then you can play it out.  I guess it is not much different from kids playing war, but the kids pretending like their little figures are dying from starvation or diarrhea seems a little extreme.  It make me wonder 100 years from now as the memories of the Holocaust become embedded in our distant memory, will there be Auschwitz play sets?  Yes, it seems preposterous to think that would ever happen, but I'm sure survivors of Andersonville never could have predicted a cheap playset would eventually be sold at the place where they suffered.

Something to ponder.

Apparently I have a blog.

It is pretty amazing how caught up in life that you can get.  I fully intended to be writing and updating this blog consistently but here it is MONTHS later and this is my most recent post.  Eh, I don't consider it a failure.

I have spent the last few months finishing the school semester and then went directly to DC to guide some student groups through the Capitol.  I never thought that I would grow tired of seeing the Lincoln Memorial, but holy crap enough is enough!

I have been home a few days now and am growing antsy to hit the road again.  I have never been much for just laying around doing nothing so I have been trying to figure out who and what I can visit on the cheap.  The unfortunate thing is that pretty much all my friends are working year round so they are never available to go with me on trips, not that being dragged to historic sites across the US would be all that appealing to them anyway, but they are growing to appreciate what I do.

I intend to make this my last year of regular teaching, yep i'm finally ready to put that out there.  I have been teaching for 15 years and although I do love teaching history, I find that the classroom is increasingly more confining with each year.  With my site One if By Land Adventures, I still plan on teaching but on my own terms without administrators or any of the other distractions that take teachers away from what they are really good at which is TEACHING.

It's time to finally pursue the dream.  I have waited long enough.