I believe it has finally happened. The world has now entered the Twilight Zone.
Back in spring when this pandemic began, it seemed that everything had turned upside down — stores were forced to close, people were told to stay at least 6 feet away from one another, and we were all told to stay home. Now, it looks as though we’ve come full circle.
Thanksgiving was all but canceled, we’ve been told to stay home if we can, and businesses are once again being told they must close for the safety of their patrons. It’s as if 2020 has been a smelly Limburger sandwich — the shutdowns are the bread, and the election is the stinky cheese in between. At any rate, with the latest executive order, the museum has been forced to close to keep our volunteers and guests safe during this unprecedented time.
With that in mind, I thought it’d be a good week to pull out a few random historical facts that you won’t hear just anywhere.
Random Fact No. 1: You’ve probably heard of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In case you haven’t, they are the cities that were targeted by the United States in 1945 as strategic sites to drop two atom bombs in hopes of ushering an end to World War II. The dropping of the bombs resulted in the killing of 129,000-226,000 people.
Many who were in the cities and survived the bombings were scarred for life, both physically and mentally. One such man, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, was in Hiroshima when the first bomb was dropped. He then traveled to Nagasaki one day before the second bomb was dropped and survived both bombings.
Random Fact No. 2: The Civil War was America’s deadliest conflict. It is estimated that at least 620,000 Americans, from both the Confederacy and Union armies, were killed in the conflict.
The initial engagement of the war, the First Battle of Bull Run, was fought in Manassas, Virginia, specifically on the farm of a man named Wilmer McLean. When the battle was over, McLean left Manassas and relocated to Appomattox, hoping that by moving from northern Virginia, where much of the war was being fought, to southern Virginia, he would be far removed from any future conflict.
As fate would have it, however, on April 9, 1865, McLean received a knock on his front door. It was a Union Army messenger who told him that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee required the use of McLean’s house for Grant to accept Lee’s surrender. McLean reluctantly agreed. When it was over, Wilmer McLean could say that the Civil War began in his yard and ended in his living room.
Random Fact No. 3: Edgar Allen Poe was best known for his dark style of writing. He often wrote about death in a macabre way, emphasizing the struggle, fear and suspense that would often take place in the moments prior to someone’s death.
In 1839, Poe wrote "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket." The story is about four crewmen aboard a whaling ship that gets wrecked and stranded. The four survivors of the ship are forced to draw lots to see which would be sacrificed and cannibalized by the other three. The cabin boy, Richard Parker, was the unlucky one.
Forty-six years later, a small ship bound for Sydney, Australia, capsized and four crew members survived. Just as in Poe’s story, the four drew straws to see which would be sacrificed. And just like in Poe’s story, it was the cabin boy who was the unlucky one. Even more ironic, however, is that the cabin boy’s name was Richard Parker. Was Poe a poet, or a prophet?
That’s all the random facts I have for you this time around, but I do have some museum news to share with you.
Considering the recent executive order, the museum has canceled its in-person annual meeting that was scheduled for Dec. 14. In its place we will be sending our members ballots, as well as a condensed annual report in the mail. Members can fill out the ballot and send it back to the museum if they wish.
We apologize for the situation, but 2020 being a Limburger sandwich, we’re just going to have to take a bite.
