Tragedy at the Museum

Photo by Larry S. Chowning taken from the Southside Sentinel article referenced and linked to below

This morning I woke up, showered, stumbled into my office and checked my Facebook.  I was horrified to find this article from the local paper the Southside Sentinel. Deltaville's one and only museum- the Deltaville Maritime Museum was destroyed by fire yesterday.  Both the main building and the pavilion are a loss.  This includes the artifacts housed in both areas as well (please read the article for details). 

I'm rendered nearly speechless at the news.  I just can't believe all those artifacts are lost.  I'm nostalgic.  I love history and especially history that includes my own family (there was an exhibit of Deltaville during the Civil War that included my great-great-great grandfather James Jackson).  I save mementos, I scrapbook photos and I write this blog to preserve memories, stories and information for future generations.  Fire terrifies me in that it's one of the surest ways to lose tangible things from the past.

Deltaville has gone through more than its share of strife these days.  The town is still in the process of rebuilding after the F2 tornado that came through April 2011.  But there is one thing that the tornado tragedy taught us, that despite the loss, it will be rebuilt better than it was.

Fire!

 There's nothing more mesmerizing than sitting by a fire on a cool evening and watching the flames.  I have always been a fan of fires.  I remember being about 7 or 8 and wanting to start a campfire in the secret spot my cousin and I had behind our Great Grandmother's arborvitae shrubs.  We asked the adults for some matches.  Obviously, we didn't get any.  We did, however, receive a magnifying glass and with it the promise that if we managed to start a fire with it, we could have a campfire.  Silly grown ups.  I think it took us about 10 minutes to get it going good enough to move it under the shrubs.  And thus, a young pyromaniac was born.  Luckily, with my dad serving as a fire fighter for Baltimore County, I also had a solid respect for fire and what it could do.  I listened to my dad's stories about houses that burned down, and I decided I needed to pack my most prized possessions up so I could grab them and get them out of the house in the event of a fire.  So I used brown paper bags (paper being such an excellent fire retarder and all).  It took 5 bags to hold all my stuff.  When it became a pain to repack the bags each time I wanted to play with something, I gave up on the idea.

Deltaville has always been an excellent place for a campfire or bonfire.  Once Pepop opted to use gasoline to get a large brush pile going.  I think there was some singeing of eyebrows, and I was certain Smokey the Bear was going to show up and tell him he should know better and only he could prevent forest fires (I was secretly hoping Smokey would show up because I was in love with Smokey the Bear, and Chewbacca... it's a hairy guy thing, you wouldn't understand).

Nowadays, we have smaller burn piles that are comfortable enough to sit around sipping wine or listening to music or listening to the sounds of nature.  And I can spend hours staring into a fire and watching it lick the wood.

 And usually attended by a professional:

Sometimes, we even go to a friend's house spur of the moment to drink wine by their fire pit and eat farshmellows and chockit.

Makes for a goom time.