The View from the Loggia
Peter LaPorte, Executive Director
In Praise of Nostalgia
I am a child of the 1940s, born a month before D-Day. Somewhere in a trunk of things from that now-distant past is a 1944 ration book issued in my name. I cherish it.
My children and grandchildren look bewildered when I wax nostalgic for the long-ago. They can’t imagine what life was like before TV, when radio was the center of our evening's entertainment. Their imaginations are unnourished by programs like "Our Gal Sunday", "Amos and Andy", "Suspense" (which terrified me), "The Great Gildersleeve", or “Fibber McGee and Molly”.
When finally we got a TV -1949 I think - it was an eight-inch Fada - with rabbit ears, of course. I was five years old. The highlight each week was watching the wonderful Peggy Wood in "I Remember Mama" which aired until 1957. To my impressionable mind, the show captured the world I knew.
Today's youngsters (and some not-so-young youngsters) know none of this. They have no idea what a floor-mounted dimmer switch is or how a telephone party-line works. Few spent time licking Green Stamps. They never watched their Mom mix yellow dye with oleo to make it look like butter. They never had ice delivered by a horse-drawn wagon, or awakened on a lazy Summer morning to the call of "raaaagss!" by an old man walking slowly through the neighborhood with his mule and cart collecting odd bits of cloth. They missed the delight of lying on the shelf under a car's rear window, looking up at sky, clouds, trees, and telephone poles as they flashed by overhead.
Historians have little patience for nostalgia. "Sentimentalism", they call it. "Glossing the past." "An attempt to make ourselves feel good and ignore reality." "A longing for the good old days which really weren't that good," they say. Historians deal in facts - or at least reasonable approximations of facts. Nostalgia is just emotional fog.
No doubt we Americans are a fact-driven, progress-oriented people. We worship progress even though the results often have unforeseen results. Nostalgia gives comfort when facts and progress fail us. Reminiscing about by-gone days can soften our disappointment.
Facts and progress alone fuel neither our hearts nor our imaginations. Nostalgia evoked through recollections, reminiscences, and stories - these are what invigorate us as individuals and as communities. They lie at the heart of the culture of a place.
Author Clay Routledge extolled nostalgia when he wrote in his thoughtful book Past Forward:
Nostalgia exists not because we are a past-oriented species, but because we are a future-oriented one. When we look for guidance and inspiration to build a better tomorrow, we need our cherished memories. Nostalgia isn’t a weakness. It’s an undeniable strength.
Let us wax nostalgic always.
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Historically Speaking: The Surprising Legacy of Maryland's Spiro Agnew
Will You Share Your Cherished Memories With Us?
Whether or not nostalgic stories gloss over the past, they contain elements of beauty and truth that bridge the past to today. Many of the Historical Society's most memorable meetings have been rooted in nostalgia - the reminiscences by and about people, places, and happenings that touched us. They are, for better or worse, the things that define us and the County in which we live.
We don't want these recollections - these memories - to be lost. Preserving them is to preserve St. Mary's County's culture.
For that reason, we ask if you would consider sharing your stories with us. We'd love to hear about you, your family, your town, your school, your life. Particularly those who live in Ridge or Scotland, in Dameron or on St. George's Island or in Bushwood, out on Half Pone Point or up in Charlotte Hall. Tell us about the people you knew and the things you did. About oystering, fishing, making stuffed-ham. About baseball and high-school proms. About Penny's or daring to climb the water tower in Leonardtown. Fill us with your cherished memories.
We ask you, perhaps along with your family, friends, or neighbors, to sit down and talk, to us. Pick a subject. Draw out each other's recollections. Chuckle. "Remember when. . ." is the only cue. And if you have photos, all the better! We'll capture them and preserve them, too.
If you're interested, please shoot an email to director@stmaryshistory.org. We'll follow up with you!
Mark the Date: May 29th
The Spring Dinner & Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday, May 29th this year at The Olde Breton Inn. Yes, a Thursday for a change.
 We are delighted that attorney, journalist, and author Carol Booker will join us. Her recent book, The Farmer's Wife: A Revolting Murder, A Remarkable Year, will be her focus. It's the true story of a coldblooded murder in the tiny hamlet of Friendship in Anne Arundel County; a murder which made headlines across the country. Among her other books are: The Waterman's Widow, also a true story of murder, this time on Solomons Island, and Cove Point on the Chesapeake.
As a journalist, Carol covered everything from civil rights in the U.S. to the Nigerian civil war. She worked as a writer, editor, and reporter for the Voice of America, and freelanced in Africa for Westinghouse Broadcasting. Her articles and photographs have been published in The Washington Post, along with Ebony and Jet magazines. After being graduated from Georgetown University law, she became legal counsel to public and international broadcasting organizations, Greenpeace, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She is a retired Member of the Bars of the District of Columbia, the State of Maryland, and the U.S. Supreme Court. An Historical Society member, Carol lives just across the Patuxent in Lusby.
Reservations will open in a couple of weeks. Meantime, mark your calendars for what is sure to be a perfect evening with an extraordinary tale told by an extraordinary author.
"Preserving Leonardtown's History"
Tudor Hall Times readers may have seen the cover story in the February 27th St. Mary's County Times regarding St. Mary's County Commissioners' support to preserve historic Tudor Hall. The article by Guy Leonard followed on the Commissioners' recent and unanimous approval of a Letter of Support to the Maryland Historical Trust on behalf of our application for a grant to hire a specialist in historic preservation to develop a full, detailed, and actionable preservation plan for Tudor Hall. We've received Letters of Support from several prominent sources as well as the County.
Some background.
The Maryland Historical Trust is a state-supported agency that endeavors to preserve historic properties like Tudor Hall. To that end, they offer Capital Preservation Grants each year in amounts ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. These grants don't require matching funds from nonprofits like us and they're usually awarded for "brick-and-mortar" projects to repair or restore structures. But, the Trust also offers Pre-development Grants for sizing, planning, and estimating the costs to do the preservation work. This is the type of grant for which we are applying.
Back in 1989, five years after acquiring Tudor Hall, the Historical Society received a grant from the Trust. With all Trust grants comes an easement on the building and property. Our easement is in perpetuity (i.e., forever) and means that any and all repairs or modifications made to the building or grounds must be approved by the Trust to ensure consistency with its history.
The easement places some burdens on us in that we must conform to standards of work and use certain materials. But it that the Trust is, in essence, a partner with the Historical Society in the stewardship of this fine old building. That doesn't mean that our grant application will be approved automatically - there are many applicants from around the State and limited pool of funds. What it does mean, though, is that like the County Commissioners, the Trust recognizes the importance of preserving Tudor Hall. As the County Times article noted, winning the grant is a step, albeit an important one, on what will be a long path.
The 2025 grants will be announced in mid-June. Fingers crossed!
Past issues of the Tudor Hall Times can be found on our website under Publications
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