How Much of a History Nerd are You?
I recently received this YouTube video in a newsletter from The History List*:
[Note: If you’re reading this via email, you will need to go to your browser to see the video. Just click on the title.]
I was amused. I was touched. I identified. And I want to know “What is the nerdiest history thing you have ever done?”
As a full-time professional history nerd, I find it hard to chose. But if I have to choose one: backing up down a road because we passed a historical marker.
* The History List is exactly what it sounds like: a data base of history events and exhibits in the United States. History List as also the organizer of a one-day event called History Camp, which they describe as an “unconference”. Here’s the link if you want to know more: https://www.thehistorylist.com/
I dragged a co-worker on an historical tour of Salem, MA by telling her it would be about witches even though I knew it wouldn’t.
Truth in advertising is a tricky concept for history nerdery.
Driving down a “POSTED” dirt road to get closer to an old South Carolina plantation house I wanted to use as a setting in a book I was writing. Backing up just as fast when we spotted a male figure with a shotgun at the end of the road. Using the house as a setting anyhow–minus the shotgun!
Love it!
My best history nerd moment: Excitedly asking my family to hike Hadrian’s Wall (and thinking they’d be just as thrilled). That was a decade ago. I’m happy to report a modified plan is in the works for September, 2019.
I’m jealous!