M&D Saturday night in Delaware

[David Morris]

>From: "Judith A. Panetta" Notes from the field:
>
>It was a curious event: a cluster of people sitting on logs
>around a dormant "camp" fire watching two young men complain
>about axmen. Yes indeed, this was "living history." I
>suspected that perhaps the audience -the mean age being 12 -
>might be confusing "axmen" with "X-men" as there was much
>confusion as to why the axmen would be cutting down trees.

They shoulda axed 'em if they was confused....

>There was a third "performer," who I later learned was a
>(the?) public historian, who jumped in from time to time in
>an effort to still the restless. After the forest clearing
>issue was resolved, we learned of star gazing and the
>difficulty of determining longitude in the 1760s. (And that
>Harrison's chronometer had a wooden movement. Tsk. Tsk.)
>There was also an interesting spin on the tax revenue
>debate: that the need for the survey was to satisfy the
>homesteaders rather than the collectors and the king.
>Perhaps it was too difficult a concept for the youngsters.
>We played with a chain, counted the links, someone fired a
>flintlock. We were then all assigned duties: cook, axmen
>(no, that's axman, not x-man), driver, etc. No one lifted a
>finger to perform these tasks, despite that fact that we all
>received commendations for a job "well done" - in writing no
>less. (I'm sure this is no reflection on the present state
>of civil service.)

I love this line above best.
>[snip] I brought up the subject of
>the novel with the "public historian."
>
>"I don't have time for (snort) historical novel. I had 3000
>pages of research. Besides I was told that Mason and Dixon
>were portrayed as gay. Who needs that."
>
>Now I don't have a problem with M&D being gay. Why, some of
>my best friends...(sorry, I'll stop). But with a scant 230
>more pages to go in this (snort) historical novel, I just
>don't see the character development going in quite that
>direction.

No?  What about the sub-text?  Don't forget Moby Dick!

DM
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