The Future, The Past (Part One: The Past).
The title of this blog comes from a lyric from a Cliff Richard song called “Devil Woman.” There’s a line in the song that goes, “Crystal ball on the table. Showing the future, the past.” The next two blogs are going to deal with the future and the past, or more specifically, my love of both science fiction and history. But since the past comes before the future, we’ll start with that.
My love of history started with a picture I saw in a history textbook when I was very small. I think it was my older brother’s history textbook, and the picture I saw was this one of whom I soon discovered (pardon the pun) was someone named Christopher Columbus.
I soon found out that this person discovered America. Wow, I thought. Pretty impressive. But what was the deal with the clothes? And that hat? Why would someone want to dress so silly, and for a portrait no less? But I think the predominant thought that started me on my road to being a history nerd was, Wow, this person lived in a time when I didn’t even exist! Which was a new concept for a young kid. There was actually an existence that did not include me being in it. What kind of time was that?
Soon, once I actually started school, I saw more old pictures of people long dead who lived in a time long before I ever existed. If I recall correctly, this picture of George Washington was on the wall of my first grade classroom.
Then I saw this picture of Benjamin Franklin in another textbook.
And then I remember this picture of the Pilgrims. Again, I wondered what the deal was with those hats?
The first time I ever studied history as a subject in school was in the fourth grade. This was the actual textbook we used. “Great Names in American History.”
It was divided into 34 chapters, each chapter focusing on a famous person in American history (hence the title of the book). It began with my old pal Christopher Columbus and ended with John F. Kennedy. We would study a chapter a week, and on Friday, we would have a test on that chapter. And thus begun what I like to refer to as “My Personal Undefeated Streak.” I scored perfectly on the first test about Columbus. Then the second one about Captain John Smith, the founder of the colony of Jamestown. And it kept going through the end of 1975, into the bicentennial year of 1976. Through tests on such people as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Lewis and Clark, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Wilbur and Orville Wright, Theodore Roosevelt and his cousin Franklin, all the way to JFK. I aced them all. After the JFK test was over, I was so happy. 34 for 34. Perfection, baby.
Uh, not so fast.
My teacher, a wonderful lady by the name of Linda Robinson, sadly now deceased, had a little surprise for me. There was going to be one more test. There was a glossary of historical terms in the back of the book, and we were going to be tested on that! Might the streak come to an end, at the very end?
Nope. I aced that test, too. 35 and 0. Unbeaten, untied.
At the end of the school year, when we all gathered in the gym at Rosiclare Grade School for awards day, I was given a special pin for my little achievement in fourth grade history. It was a small pin that said “Scholarship” on it. I still have it, locked away in my footlocker. Up until the publication of ASIAN HAZE, I would have said that what I was able to do between August of 1975 and May of 1976 in my fourth grade history class was my proudest achievement. I’m still pretty proud of it, as me blogging about it 40 years later can attest.
I always did well in history whenever I studied it in school. Never repeated the perfect run of the fourth grade, but still did pretty well. History was my favorite subject in school, even more so than English or literature classes. Though I have to say, another wonderful teacher by the name of Charles Cox, also now sadly no longer with us, got me interested in a book in the school library titled FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury. But that story, since it involves my love of science fiction, is for later.
Thankfully, my love of history has stayed with me throughout my life. From watching the History Channel or documentaries on PBS; to reading the historical fiction of such writers as James Michener, John Jakes, Edward Rutherfurd, Jeff Shaara, James Clavell, Gary Jennings, E.L. Doctorow, Gore Vidal, and Ken Follett; to reading the great non-fiction from writers like David McCullough, Stephen Ambrose, Shelby Foote, Bruce Catton, Cornelius Ryan, Rick Atkinson, James McPherson, Nathaniel Philbrick (whose book, MAYFLOWER, Randall Arthur is reading through the course of ASIAN HAZE), and others; my appetite for the past has been consistently, and satisfyingly, fed.
I think history is vital for everyone to appreciate, if we are to survive as a culture. History is the record of human culture, where we've tried to go, where we've succeeded, where we've failed. If we don't know that, then how can we know where to take the right direction next? Some people, even those entrusted with power, have still failed to appreciate the lessons of history. Maybe a more wiser group, consisting of our youth, can lead the right way, can take to heart the lessons of our past.
It is no accident that Randall Arthur is a history professor, someone with a love of history the same as my own. And the same can be said for Randall's pal, Larry Carter, high school history teacher and loveable wise-ass. As I’ve mentioned before, I plan to write several more mystery novels involving the Randall Arthur character. But I would also like to write historical fiction here in the near future. I have several ideas for novels, including one BIG novel, which I’m keeping to myself, for now, except to say it will be the most ambitious thing I’ve ever attempted, ever, in anything. I figure if Ken Follett can go from writing great spy thrillers to writing great historical novels, then I can try the transition from crime novels to historical novels.
Oh, one more thing. You remember that fourth grade history textbook I mentioned earlier? I always wanted to find a copy of that textbook, and buy it. And in early 2012, I found a copy for a little over $20 from a used bookseller advertising on Amazon.com, and bought it. Once in a while, I’ll take it off the bookshelf, flip through the pages, and reminisce about a time when I was perfect, at least for a little while, in the past, in a more innocent and much less complicated time, a time I shared with people still in my memory and my heart.
