This has been such a good day. I am well-exercized, stuffed with excellent treats, and hot on the trail of one of my more mysterious Civil War veterans. It doesn’t get any better than this.
We’ve had sunshine and just a dusting of new snow. I gather that south of us a big storm is dropping piles of the stuff on the State Legislature. That may be a good thing, don’t you think? In any case, we have been spared just this once, and had a lovely walk.
I needed the walk to wake me up as I had been up all night reading with the sort of rapt attention usually reserved for a new mystery. I was deciphering handwritten government documents and devouring typescripts of affidavits in a century-old legal squabble over a pension. Big yawn, right? Ha. Each page I turned brought new secrets into focus.
Thomas Gardner, who may have been Charles Green—was he a deserter from the Confederate Army or a Union Private in the 7th Indiana? And why did he hang himself? Caroline Rebecca Banks, widowed twice, pursuing her soldier’s pension for a dozen years—is she a tragic heroine or a con artist getting by as best she can? Louis Burnett, born in slavery in North Carolina to a mother named Love, sold away to Jack Shine’s Alabama plantation when he was ten, a soldier in Company B, 28th U.S. Colored Infantry—how on earth did August Stuter ever persuade him to move to Central Lake Michigan to become a farmer?
All of that arrived in the mail on a disk full of PDFs. Just the questions, not the answers. 138 pages of ’em. And another 200 pages on the way. I love this stuff. My eyes were trying to decide whether to swell shut or fall out of my head when a message from Louan popped up. “I think this might be a gumbo day.” Rescue!
It is our practice, whenever the mood strikes, to repair to Pearl’s in Elk Rapids for spiritual refreshment, which often comes in the form of cheese grits, collard greens, and gumbo. The Louisiana style cuisine is soul-warming, and the staff just plain fine. We lingered over coffee for three hours catching up on the news. I would show you photos of us, but Louan’s hair is completely gone for the moment and she feels it’s not really a good look on her. (On the other hand, she’s doing really well at knocking back the cancer, so on balance things are great.) Instead of our winsome selves, then, I offer you this:
May you have a day every bit as fine.
Torch Lake Views 
Kiwidutch
February 2, 2011
Don’t you just love how the snow fell off the rail but kept it’s shape! Brilliant!
I too love local history and have been inspired to start something for my neighbourhood. Gerry, I wanted to leave a note on your “about” page but couldn’t find a comment box…?
but back to this post… tracking down the histories of old Civil war veterans must be so satisfying when some of the pieces of the puzzle come together.
That walk though the snow looks amazing… we had some snow before Christmas but not since, I get to enjoy yours without the cold.
I hope that your gumbo was delicious and that Louan continues to face the cancer head on… please tell her Gerry: bald may not be a good look but your beauty is in your spirit and not your hair so don’t sweat the small stuff, smile and fight on!
Gerry
February 2, 2011
I’m glad you enjoyed the visit! I’m sure Louan will see the good wishes. Believe me, of all the people in the world who have to deal with damncancer, she’s one of the best-equipped. She has a well-developed sense of proportion.
I turned off comments on the About page because things seemed to land there randomly. Blogly management is often a guessing game.
Fee
February 2, 2011
There seems to be some horrendous storm systems wherever you look in the world at the moment – the Aussies are bracing themselves for mayhem (I know this because my friend has had to evacuate), and your eastern states are taking a bashing. Has Mama Nature gone a bit doo-lally? (http://wordsmith.org/words/doolally.html)
Thanks for the update on Louan – I’m sure I’m not alone in still rooting for her. My last hairdresser, having battled the invasive species, got a headful of curls when her hair came back, it having been poker-straight before. Our local specialist unit calls it ‘the Chemo Curl’.
Gerry
February 2, 2011
It has occurred to me to wonder whether Mama Nature is going through The Change. There’s a concept for you. Thank you for today’s word.
Louan is working up a comedy routine for gatherings of People with Damncancer. She says the one thing everyone tells a person who’s going through chemo is that “the hair will come back, and it will be curly! And red!” Louan loved her luxuriant, long, straight, silver hair, so you can imagine the horror of a curly red mop. Nevertheless, she is glad to have soft baby-stubble growing and wishes it well, whatever it will become when it grows up. It is cold out there, and she is tired of piling insulation on her head.
Karma
February 2, 2011
It does sound like a really fine day, Gerry, but I’m a wee bit confused! Did you type this up very late last night? Like, after midnight late? The date of your post is Feb. 2 but it is only 10am as I am reading – that sounds like an awful lot to have packed in before 10am, even for the earliest of risers! 😉
Gerry
February 2, 2011
I did type this very late on February 1, and did not manage to press “Publish” until shortly after midnight. I considered manually changing the date and then decided heckwiddit and went to bed.
uphilldowndale
February 2, 2011
Yay for good friends and good food.
Gerry
February 2, 2011
These are the gifts that fill life with promise. Besides, when you put them together, considerably laughter often erupts. I like that in a day.
P.j. grath
February 2, 2011
Most urgent question: Does Pearl’s gumbo have okra? I have a positive yen for okra and can’t find it in grocery stores near me.
Blue sky and bright sunshine here (2:30pm).
Did you already have information on the people whose mysterious lives brought forth such questions? Are you research those individuals?
Love Louan’s sense of humor. Yours, too. Glad you got to Pearl’s.
Gerry
February 2, 2011
Yes.
I am surprised that there are grocery stores open near you at this time of year, let alone ones that might be hoped to have okra. (I am surprised at almost everything this time of year.)
Here, too, 4:56 p.m. and counting.
Yes and yes – but I had nowhere near as much information as I have now, and not a patch on what I’ll have when the next 210 pages arrive!
Me too.
Preston
February 2, 2011
The snow looks way too deep to walk in. There are several civil war re-enactors around these parts. Was an article in the Topeka paper recently claiming the war had started four years earlier or later, I forget which, according to some distant grandchild of some civil war soldier.
Gerry
February 2, 2011
Hello, Preston! The snow is about to get deeper, but we have snowshoes.
I think I know what your Kansan was trying to say about the Civil War. I think the same, that the war began out in “Bleeding Kansas” and along the Missouri borderlands years before it burst into flame along the eastern seaboard. The struggle over slavery was at its fiercest right there, where you live, back in the 1850s. There are some pretty good arguments that it didn’t end with the signing of the peace at Appomattox Court House, either, but that the Wild, Wild West of Jesse James and the Younger brothers was just a continuation of the guerrilla warfare waged along the frontier.
This is why, if I ever get this book that’s in my head born, I want that Kansas barn from Surface and Surface–the one in the blood-filled light of the setting sun–as the frontispiece for the chapter on John McPherson and Angie Evans.
Preston
February 3, 2011
Now that you brought it up the article in the paper was referring to “Bleeding Kansas”. Also we would be most honored should you choose one of our photos for what will be a truly fascinating book.
Gerry
February 3, 2011
This is good. Now we just have to find the photo. And, um, I have to get the book written. (That barn was in a post of yours before you remodeled your website.)
Nye
February 3, 2011
Gerry, you’re not kidding when you said the snows stay till April, no sign of melting at all. The walking trail looks beautiful in white.
Gerry
February 4, 2011
I never kid about snow. 😉
flandrumhill
February 4, 2011
Those fence photos are lovely. The snow looks like icing.
Gerry
February 4, 2011
I’m so glad you like them! I’ll tell you a secret. The first one had unaccountably turned pink, or at least pinkish, in processing. I replaced it just a little bit ago and you got to see it at its best. I like fences, as long as I can see a way around, under, or over ’em.