All Hail the Magic Conch! Or in Praise of Sarah Vowell...

Some people think I am a bit wierd. Just cuz I like death and historical stuff, and yes, I like dragging my family with me to see said death-like places. Well, I have found a kindred spirit in Sarah Vowell, and having just finished "Assassination Vacation" I must say, I am at the very moment contemplating something I rarely contemplate....writing a fan letter...

Her writing concerning her obessions with Lincoln/Booth, has reminded me of summers when I was young when my family would visit the Lincoln Museum in Indiana, where I forced my parents to take me more than once. My treasured possessions from those times were the pamphlets from the museum and the books on the many caricatures of Lincoln. On a more recent trip to Washington D.C., my husband and I (and our son, 3 years old at the time) went on a Lincoln Assassination walking tour, guided by an assassination authority and author (Michael slept in his stroller, while we walked to Ford's Theatre and gazed at the room across the street in which Lincoln died). As Sarah Vowell describes the Lincoln Memorial in her book, I can recall vividly how awestruck I was when we visited it on Memorial Day 2002.

Reading Vowell's book reminded me of all the things I enjoyed about our trip to D.C. and made me realize how wonderful it is to be a little eccentric when it comes to those vacations. I mean, how many people can say that this past Memorial Day weekend they went to an old Copper Mine that was the first capital prison in the United States? I think Sarah Vowell would have been proud (and would have enjoyed the Civil War Encampment we went to on Memorial Day--I have pamphlets! Maybe I will send her some in my fan letter...).