"This is Narragansett Bay...named for the Narragansett Indians who once inhabited this area."
My wife doesn't react, instead she reaches into her pocketbook and pulls out $4.00 for the bridge toll.
"Further to our east, lived The Wampanoag Tribe, led by their sachem, Massasoit. Massasoit felt threatened by the powerful Narragansetts, because his tribe had been decimated by a small pox outbreak (thanks to encounters with European fisherman off the New England coast), and their numbers had dwindled down to almost nothing."
My wife looks at the Google map directions and tells me to watch for road signs. I look in the rearview mirror and see that my daughter has plugged her Ipod earbuds in, and is missing my rousing history lesson.
"Massasoit needed allies against the Narragansetts, so he befriended a group of English settlers that had just settled in Plymouth. It was these settlers, or Pilgrims, who joined Massasoit and the Wampanoags in the first Thanksgiving feast."
"How do you remember these things?" My wife asks.
"Well...I just read a book on the Mayflower and..."
"Why didn't you major in History in college?"
"What do you do with an History degree? Well, now that I think about it... probably the same thing I did with my English degree...become a railroad conductor."
5 comments:
I hope you enjoyed your visit to Little Rhodey
Very good entry. There are alot of things you could do with a history degree. You could go to Law School, become a history teacher, work for the government, or become a historian. The possibiliites are endless. Or you can even become a railroad conductor.
Loved your history lesson from your Mayflower book. Glad your a conductor and a blogger because we would all miss out on your bloggs.You would be too busy as an historian with continual research to enlighten your students had you majored in history and become a history professor at Yale. Sort of reminds me of Stanley's remark something like:"Dr. McDonough I presume?"
Hey Bobby... whatever happened to you? Miss reading your great posts...
Bobby, hope all is OK in your world, I miss your posts a bunch!
Gail
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