I Agree with Thomas Wolfe

We just completed the Presidents and Patriots Tour with historian Richard Norton Smith, video'd by C-SPAN. We visited Presidential sites and libraries and, along the way, other places of historic interest.

Our first stop was Asheville, NC and the boyhood home of novelist Thomas Wolfe. Depicted here is "Dixieland," the boarding house described so very accurately in Look Homeward, Angel. As I walked through the home, I could actually visualize and recall some of the passages in his book. We even saw pages of Wolfe's handwritten (and rewritten) work then in progress.

Other homes we toured were furnished with original pieces, or with representative pieces of the time period.Seeing Andrew Johnson's tailor shop, I could almost picture him meticulously hand-stitching suits while engaged in vigorous political debate with the townspeople who gathered there. At the Hermitage, I could imagine a very sad President-to-be Andrew Jackson on his way to his Inaugural, leaving the gravesite of his dearly beloved Rachel who had died after his election. At the LBJ ranch, I almost expected to see President Lyndon Baines Johnson walking along the banks of the Pedernales River after one of his famous BBQs on the lawn of his "Texas White House."

I discovered why I love history so much. It's because it's an opportunity to get in touch with the past, to try to experience what "life back then" was really like. That's why this trip was so enriching and so enjoyable.

However, on one occasion when I was in a "period room" that looked so very authentic, and I looked around and saw all the people on tour (looking a little out-of-place in that room), I realized that no one can ever really encounter history. No one can know exactly how it was, only about how it was... History is living, and our understanding of historical accounts changes according to our perspective and current life experiences.

And so I agree with Thomas Wolfe: "You Can't Go Home Again." History moves on.

I'm so grateful to have been part of this trip. We'll be looking forward to "re-living" it when it is aired on C-SPAN.. I'll be blogging about some of the highlights. Stay tuned!