By the time I arrived in Oxford, I felt like a rock star! They put Mark and me up in a nice new hotel on the square that had a retro feel to it. When we checked in, we found a goody bag filled with nice things in our room. And before I spoke, I was presented with a cute gift that I opened later. It was a nice piece of pottery. They really rolled out the red carpet for Mark and me.
There were over 50 attendees, including some young ladies from the local Boys and Girls club who were seated on the front row as guests of honor. Another young guest was a gentleman who was fascinated with Mark's pocket watch. We set up a table of gear the guests would pass by just as they walked in, and he was instantly drawn to the piece, so much so that he asked his grandmother for one. Heh. All of these youngsters were very well behaved, mature, and articulate. I was impressed with how they interacted with me during my presentation with their comments, questions, and even more so with the structure of their answers to questions I posed to them.
Another interesting guest was a lady from Orleans, France! She wins the prize for the guest who traveled the farthest. Ha! If I remember correctly, she is going to be teaching French at Ole Miss, which is in Oxford, and she was getting settled in with her host family who just happened to find out the day of my talk about it and asked to attend. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to speak to either lady due to so many people asking questions and chatting with me afterwards.
I was honored to have Scott attend. He has been my Facebook friend for a while, and I had never met him in person until he came to my talk. The three of us had a good conversation afterwards, and I wish we had had more time.
Two gentlemen approached me after my talk and expressed particular interest in a reference I included about several women soldiers spotted in their hometown of Henderson, Tennessee in 1862. One of the men is writing an article about his experience at my presentation for his local newspaper. I thought that was very nice and a good way to spread the word about women soldiers. He is also writing a book dealing with Civil War stories from his community. Best wishes to him for his project.
As for the talk itself, it went pretty smoothly. My haunted equipment messed with me only a couple of times. The battery in my lapel microphone had died. I put a new one in only a few months ago, and it worked fine a couple of weeks ago when I spoke for the American Legion. Thank goodness, the one in the hand-held mic was still good. So I took it out and used it in the lapel mic. It meant Mark had to use what I call a "teacher voice" for his part. Also, my first chapter slide had disappeared. Yeah, it just wasn't there. So these were nothing major. Either that or I've become adept at dealing with my possessed stuff.
There were lots of great questions as usual. Some posed queries that nobody has asked before, including the average age of women soldiers and a request for Mark and me to explain our uniforms. I was wearing mine at the behest of Ms. Greer. Since Mark always dons his Federal kit for the part he plays in my talk, I wore my Confederate uniform for variety. So I got to briefly explain the commutation and depot supply systems. We also displayed authentic, handsewn replicas of the 2nd Mississippi Infantry's battle flag and a generic Hardee corps flag, and we explained those as well. The 2nd Mississippi was formed mostly from counties surrounding Lafayette County where Oxford is located. Residents of Lafayette County formed two companies of the 11th Mississippi, one of which was the University Grays composed of students from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). They suffered 100% casualties at Gettysburg. So my talks sometimes aren't exclusively about women soldiers.
Following the talk, the plantation home, Cedar Oaks, opened its door for tours. So Mark and I joined docents in period clothing there. The ladies were so nice and welcoming. I have a picture, but it won't load. So check my Facebook page later. I'll add it, and others, there.
As for the journey to get to Oxford and back, Mark and I decided to make a week-long trip out of it. We drove up through Natchez, Port Gibson, the ghost town of Rodney, and Vicksburg where we spent two days visiting the battlefield and the grave of "Alfred J. Luther," a woman soldier buried in the national cemetery there. We were worn out by the time we got to Oxford.
After our stay in Oxford, we went north to Memphis where Mark was to catch a flight back home. Before going to the airport, we stopped at the national cemetery to visit the grave of another woman soldier. Forgetting to record the section where she is buried made the search more challenging. I blared "The Ecstasy of Gold" from my phone in order to set the mood for the task at hand....and to drown out all the rap music coming from the other side of the fence. So with the appropriate soundtrack, off I went:
While this was fun, I finally broke down and conducted a search on my phone to find the right section. After finally locating the grave, we paid our respects while offering apologies to Eli Wallach, Sergio Leone, and Ennio Morricone.
The following day, we spent some time in the nice little town of Collierville where Sherman nearly avoided capture, and then headed off to the airport so Mark could catch his flight home. Just like on the way down, the TSA decided to pull his bags aside for additional screening. Neither of us was too happy with that. But I personally didn't have to deal with it since I no longer fly due to the implementation of the "enhanced" screening techniques five years ago. So I drove home.
It was pretty uneventful except for when I was nearly run over by a teenaged boy with a handicapped tag hanging from his rearview mirror. Something tells me this was bogus. Maybe because he lacked the same handicapped emblem on his license plate. And then later on, I looked in the rearview mirror in time to see a teenaged girl holding a cellphone aloft nearly run over me as if she were in a monster truck. I moved out of the way just in time. If she had been going any faster, I would have missed the Hello Kitty bumper sticker. I felt as if I were a part of an Allstate commercial.
Until next formation......rest.
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