My Talk for the Poplarville Historical Preservation Society, 2/12/15

The crowd had just started filtering in as I was in the final stages of getting all of my gadgets plugged in.  An elderly gentleman walked in, turned to look at my title slide projected on a wall, and said, "I didn't know women fought in the Civil War."  It is something I hear a lot.  And it strengthens my desire to continue giving these presentations for the purposes of education and preservation of the memory of these extraordinary women.


More people came in, some of whom having had profound influences on my academic path..  And that made me nervous!  I felt as if I were being graded all over again.  There was Dr. Grant, former Academic Dean at Pearl River Community College, who hired me a couple of years before he retired, and Mr. Lowe who taught me American History at PRCC.  As he sat front and center with pen and pad in hand, I heard him say, "Well, this is going to be a reversal" and then asked if there was going to be a test afterwards.  I replied, "Yes sir, I get to teach you some stuff now" and informed him that there wasn't going to be a test, but I was going to ask some questions, so he needed to be prepared.  Mrs. Bosworth was there.  She teaches at the high school, and we helped chaperone a  trip to D.C. with the students in 2007, which was my last year there before accepting my current job at the college.

Photo by Shirley Wiltshire

This talk was shorter than usual because I was ordered to be brief.  It's always challenging for me to determine which information and stories to leave out due to time constraints. 

That probably led to the longer-than-usual question and answer period afterwards.  Participants asked really great questions, which varied from queries seeking more information about a specific topic I touched on, to how I became interested in women soldiers, to my participation in reenactments, to my gear, to who my daddy is!  When you live in a small, rural Southern town, you can't expect anything less than a family reunion breaking out at any function.  Such was the case with my talk.

By the way, while a reader may think it immature for an adult to refer to one's father as "daddy," I can tell you that it's a Southern thing.  Besides, the way we pronounce it, "deddy," doesn't sound childish.  Once a "deddy's girl," always a "deddy's girl."

Photo by Butch Weir

 Afterwards, there were refreshments and time to mingle with the guests, which I always enjoy because you get to hear all kinds of stories about Civil War ancestors.  Not all socialization involved my talk or even the war.  Ms. Holston came up to me and asked if she taught me in elementary school.  She didn't.  She was probably confusing me with a relative.  We all look alike with the dark hair and all.  But she was the librarian at the high school from which I graduated.  That's where we remembered each other.  Good days.  The elderly gentleman who made the comment about not being aware of women's participation in the war as soldiers waited patiently until it was his turn.  He shared his stories, which I liked hearing.  We figured out we were probably related, too.  Butch Weir, the iconic journalist who has been with the paper in town for as long as I can remember, snapped some photos.  We both tried and failed to remember the book that mentioned a woman soldier who assumed the alias, "Melvin Bean."  The book is Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove and the woman soldier was Mollie Bean.  Dr. Grant and I talked about my daddy.  He reminisced about them playing ball back in high school.

And then the president of the Poplarville Historical Preservation Society, Ms. Joan Barrett, posed for a photo op with my rifle and kepi!  How cute is she??!!  And yes, this was her idea!

Photo by Butch Weir

I am thankful to have been given the opportunity to open up my 2015 "presentation season" in my home town.  Even though I felt a bit out of practice and, as a result, my delivery wasn't as smooth as I would like it to be, I nevertheless hope I did everybody proud, especially my mama who has made two of my talks now, which is an immense blessing. And yes, "mama" is a Southern thing, too.