I enjoy presenting to groups all over the country, but I'm especially fond of coming home and sharing my research with my fellow Mississippians. Like my first talk last year, this one was in my home county. But it was at 4:30, so I had to rush after school to have time to set everything up. I was flying solo this time.
Even though I have all equipment necessary and told them that, I was very impressed and pleased to see that they already had a projector set up and ready to go for me. But I shouldn't have been surprised. They were teachers. *grin* That saved me some time in having to get mine out. And while I was untangling wires, they were setting up a nice spread! It was so cute!!
You can't see it, but there are Civil War books under the candles with a ribbon loosely wrapped around them. "Mississippi" appears on the ribbon. I really appreciated the time, effort, and thoughtfulness it took for them to put this together.
As usual, I brought some of my gear and set it up for them to examine.
The binder contains some newspaper articles, service records, copies of letters, and other documents I put on display with my gear. In front of that is a piece of paper with QR codes that will take guests directly to my blog and Facebook page when they use a free app to scan them with their phones. Nobody has done that yet, preferring instead the "old fashioned way" of just taking a business card or writing down the web addresses. But this time, I noticed a lady hovering over my table with her phone held out in front of her near the piece of paper, and I thought she was going to be the first to try it! I got excited....and then disappointed. She was only taking a picture. But she was interested in learning how it worked, so I walked her through the steps of downloading an app and scanning the codes. So I count that as a success! As we were waiting for the app to install, she told me about her grandson who had a profound interest in the Civil War and that she was taking pictures for him. What really impressed me was that he's in the second grade! I just hope that when he gets older that there are still Civil War sites and monuments left for him to study and appreciate. Further conversation revealed that this family is related to a male soldier whom I quote during my talk. How cool is that?!
This was a small group but seemed genuinely interested in my topic. The ladies all nodded their heads in understanding or agreement, laughed, and generally interacted with me, which I appreciated. And I have to say that as many times as I have given this talk, I actually got choked up at times. While I have brought women, and at least one man, to tears in the past, this was the first time I had to pause due to overwhelming emotions I felt.
Afterwards, I enjoyed a few of the snacks and some delicious sweet tea. And trust me. I know my sweet tea! These wonderful ladies then presented me with a variety of very thoughtful and nice gifts. I really appreciate all of the hospitality they showed me. They were all so very kind.
The first talk was a successful one, and I look forward to more presentations this year.
Until next formation.....rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment