I discipline churchgoers with godly lessons and sharp words if they do not change their ways. My goal is to open their hearts so that they seek forgiveness. (William Brewster) William and Mary Brewster are my great x 12 grandparents. While doing research for the two historical novels I wrote with them as the main characters, I spent as much time in the 16th and 17th centuries as I did in the 21st one. The […]
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Armistice Day
In 2018, on Armistice Day (now known as Veterans Day), I was sailing toward New York on the Queen Mary 2. So much has happened since then. We’ve changed presidents and struggled through a global pandemic that is still infecting people. We’ve watched in horror as Putin invaded Ukraine and now Hammas has started the war between Gaza and Israel that is claiming thousands of innocent lives. Armistice Day 2018 marked the 100th anniversary of a […]
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Popular Culture Library
Travel back in time where the past greets you on the fourth floor in the Ray and Pat Browne Library within Bowling Green State University’s Jerome Library. This Popular Culture treasure was established in 1969, two years after the $4.6 million new campus library opened its doors in November 1967. Library founder Dr. Ray Broadus Browne (1922-2009) envisioned a space within the new library to acquire and preserve research materials about American Popular Culture. The […]
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Columbus or Indigenous Peoples’ Day
In 1937, Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared October 12 a federal holiday. I grew up knowing it as Columbus Day in honor of Christopher Columbus. In recent years, pushback from the Native American community has led to numerous communities renaming it as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, now noted on calendars as the second Monday in October. I have a vested interest in this issue for two reasons. I now live in the city named […]
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Labor Day in 1620
Welcome to an end-of-summer rerun of the “Labor Day 1620” article I ran a few years ago. As you read this, I’m in New England preparing to finally meet up with a group of Brewster descendants for my first attendance at their triennial Elder William Brewster family reunion. I hope to come home with many new Brewster relatives in my contacts list and more stories to share with you about the history beyond this fascinating […]
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