Tuesday, March 15, 2011

history not rifles

i was back on the road this weekend, this time to winchester to the childhood home of one AWD.

there were girl scouts selling cookies at a gas station along the way, so i knew it was going to be a good trip. never mind that i bought a few boxes of cookies as a present for AWD's parents and ended up opening them and eating some before we got there. i'm classy like that.

winchester is a delightful little town. the library has a rotunda and AWD's alma mater high school is big and grand and looks like something out of a movie.

we went to the winchester courthouse museum, which was basically an elaborate seventh grade history report on the civil war, and worth every penny. the top floor of the courthouse was actually used as a prison for soldiers from both sides during the civil war (winchester changed hands a number of times), and they have uncovered some carvings in the plaster on the walls, including a highly creative curse on confederate president jefferson davis. you might think of busting this out next someone cuts you off in traffic:

to jeff davis
may he be set afloat on a boat with no compass or rudder
then that any contents be swallowed by a shark
the shark by a whale
the whale in the devil's belly and the devil in hell
the gates locked and the key lost
and further may he be put in the northwest corner
with a southeast wind blowing ashes in his eyes for all eternity

pretty catchy, right?

the weather was perfect so there was lots of walking outside around old town. or old towne, if you prefer.









and of course, there were pictures to be seen and stories to be heard and family members to be won over, all of which i think went off rather well. even though i ate the most girl scout cookies of anyone.

2 comments:

Evan and Holly said...

Who is he? And what is going on? Dear Francy Pants, you are not giving your faithful dearies all the details. Your dearies feel like we are in the dark.

Unknown said...

/agree with Evan and Holly!