Flo and Friends by Jenny Campbell for September 07, 2021

[Winnie replies in a W.C. Fields voice] Get away from me, kid, ya bother me! :-)

English was my favorite subject in school, but history was my second favorite. I became an English teacher. Back then all the social studies positions went to the male coaches!

And that’s why you need to learn history kid.

She looks like a little little old lady not like a kid

Imagine what it would be like in some other country. The Edo shogunate was ruled by a single family for 250 years, longer than the USA has been in existence. The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for over 300 years. Can you imagine having to memorise the names of all the emperors of Japan? And I mean their dead names, not the names referred to by outsiders, like Showa, not Hirohito, and all the shoguns not in the Tokugawa family. Be thankful for not having to name the Presidents of the USA during the Articles of Confederation era. Or the colonial governors of New York.

At that age, the history I was supposed to learn was so white washed, it wasn’t at all interesting. In college I understood how people could become history buffs because events were linked together and motives were discussed. Now days I look at history buffs with a kind of cynical wonder—how much do they really know or will admit happened?

Knew that was coming. English was my fave too, Sue Ellen.

And now you’re history.

Two things every child should have on their bedroom walls: a timeline poster of world history and a world map.