30 Points of View

Things I Used to Know for Sure

Most of the history I learned in school turned out to be a lie, but I don't hold that against my teachers. I'm sure they taught me the best version they knew, or at least the one deemed most appropriate for my tender sensibilities. In fact, I'd argue that the truth ...

History Lesson < 500 Words "Graveyards of Massachusetts"

This is a shortened article review I wrote recently. It discusses the significance behind graveyard locations in Colonial Massachusetts. Title: “For Honour and Civil Worship to Any Worthy Person”: Burial, Baptism, and Community on the Massachusetts Near Frontier, 1730-1790. Author: John L. Brooke Brooke discusses the location of graveyards in relation to the ...

Mr. Dickson

Wednesday Mr. Dickson stood in front of an open wardrobe freshly showered in boxers and undershirt. Considering his possibilities for a moment he removed a a coral dress shirt and teal double-breasted suit from padded hangers and put them on. He took a matching bow tie from his breast ...

Making History

History and math were always my best subjects in school. Mainly because I have an astounding, elephant-like memory. (yes, tooting a horn there….however, this does not always come in handy…see: relationships) Being a short month, I bowed out of writing in February with a bit of a ...

Thanks(giving) for Nothing

Thanksgiving of 2009, I decided to start a new family tradition. All this time we've been living within a stone's throw of Plymouth (formerly Plimoth before the settler's learned proper English) the very birthplace of English colonization and what would eventually become the United States. Being the father of a ...

Love, Baseball, and History

Let me begin with a greeting to the 30pov writers and readers. I hope to add yet another unique voice to the lineup here and get people talking (or angry, which has always been a skill of mine). With that said, on to the topic at hand. “Of Historical Significance.” I think ...

Gone to Sheridan, Wyoming in My Mind

My love affair with the American West has spanned more than a decade – roughly one-third of my life – and it started as many torrid affairs do, a combination of disinterest and loathing. I grew up in New England. My family took vacations to Florida, California and up and down ...

Crushing Infinity in the Palm of Our Hand

As the number of ways we can express ourselves as individuals increases, our collective sense of history has to be shrinking. The study of history helps put the groups to which we belong into a sequence and gives them permanence. We identify with our language, our occupation, our country, our race, ...

Two Evil Dudes

I have a love/hate relationship with history, those who read it, read into it, interpret it, and work it like a series of scattered puzzle pieces that need be re-collected and pressed into place. Everything is connected. Who knew that the cod was the most significant creature to rise from ...

February 3, 2010

So far, I’ve lived 35 years, was lucky enough to have known, and remember, three of my four great grandparents and all four of my grandparents. I lost both of my granddads last decade, both to prolonged illnesses after years of sickness, both smokers, both World War II vets, both ...