7 Quick Takes Friday Part XX

1. I hate how during the day, I think of a really interesting thing, that's I can't wait to refer to in a Quick Take, and by the time I sit down to write my Quick Takes, I have no idea anymore what it was that was so interesting and so important that I wanted to share it with perfect strangers on the internet.

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2. My youngest sister is going to her senior prom tomorrow. Oh. My. Goodness. That is all.

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3. Earlier this week, I finally finally finally learned the date of my great-great-great-grandfather's death. It's a crucial bit of genealogical information that I've been looking for for months, but it wasn't until I finally thought to do searches under his second wife's name - she survived him - that after all these months, I came across his obituary. That just goes to show you, don't ignore anyone. Not even your great-great-grandmother's stepmother.

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4. Speaking of which, I've come to realize:
Negative effect of doing genealogy: All your friends think you're a nerd.
Positive effect of doing genealogy: All your relatives who are over 70 think you're the cat's pajamas.

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5. I need to start reading more. Like I said the other day, I've started reading The Screwtape Letters. When I read for pleasure - which is rarely during the school year - I usually read novels. I'd like to start reading things that are still fun and interesting, but have some substance. I don't know where to start looking for ideas, though.

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6. When I was younger, my dad used to tell me how one of his favorite things to do, once he hit college age and older, was drink with his parents. When I was a teenager who scrupulously hid any sign of my (limited) drinking from my parents, that sounded absurd. Now that I'm of the legal age, and my relatives are among my only friends above the Mason-Dixon Line, well, you know, drinking with my parents is one of my favorite things to do.

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7. One of my favorite things about working in a historical field is the ability to - nay, the necessity of - occasionally using terminology that is very much not PC. It's just a little fun, even though you'd never say these things in real life. But after all, the USCT are still the USCT, even though we wouldn't ever say that "C" in any other situation. But every so often, like this afternoon, you run across something in a public history institution that was written - academically - 100 years ago that's just downright racist. That makes you want to hide it in the back of a file cabinet and conveniently forget to make it available to the public. It's a fascinating look at the past, but it really makes you squirm.

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Check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!