I think I have mentioned I love words! I always have. If I don’t know the word I have encountered, I am only too eager to gobble up the opportunity to acquire a new piece of word candy. Racing for a dictionary to find the new treasure, I carried a pocket-size Webster dictionary for years. And now I have eluded to my inner nerd! This morning, my discovery, word, and appreciation are for the word Apricate! Apricate; means to bask in the sunlight or expose to sunlight! Naturally, being a redhead, I avoid direct sunlight. It only takes 2.5 seconds for me to go from dayglow to burnt to a crisp, and that is with the SPF5000! But WORDS!! Take Efflorence, which means to reach a state of optimum development, to bloom! How freaking cool is that? Seriously! I love writing, getting lost in words, and finding ways to describe things with words! My happy place of freedom exists on a blank page that I get to fill with just “ahhhhh” WoRdS!
I absolutely love binging out on movies. Most of my favorites are surrounded by the late 70s and 80s flicks. Maybe it was a cool time. I love the original Halloween, and I know it’s dorky and not even really scary, but it’s creepy to me. It reminds me of a time when we had values, and we stuck by them. I love Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; it is sweet and heartfelt. I love the Gnome Mobile and Darby O’Gill, and the Little People. Sometimes it is just about the simplicity of something beautiful and appreciate its grandeur. I love rainy days and cool days under a blanket and the aromas coming from the hot cup of coffee and simply existing. For me, it is not about “Gee wiz, what can I take from someone!” which the world appears to have fallen in lust with. It’s about long walks, beautiful scenery, and gorgeous architecture! It’s about seeing the magic in people and places and appreciating each event and circumstance! The world and people have forgotten some of the reasons that make us better human beings! We get one world, one shot, and we can either hurt and destroy one another or value our time and make the world a better, kinder place for everyone!
I often spend time on historical journeys, and one of the most extensive resources I return to is A.N. Ruley’s History of Brown County! The work that he created was singularly a historical treasure! If you have not had a chance to peruse his work, please do so. The man had so much vision for what needed to be captured for future generations of Brown County! What we know today, thanks to the work or treasure of the heart completed by A.N. Ruley, is that Brown County had two types of rattlesnakes, yellow prairie and black rattlesnakes. The course of treatment for the previously mentioned rattlesnake bites included whiskey. While I have never heard of the medicinal qualities of such snake bites, it certainly adds a certain zest of interest for history. I haven’t heard of any physicians whipping out a bottle of whiskey for a snake bite today! The county also had more than ample stories of firsts that are all treasures! Brown County had not one but at least two grasshopper plagues and a cyclone!
A.N. Ruley also described the account of the first well being dug for the township. The excavators were the Swan Brothers, who worked for a company out of Colorado. The brothers described in detail their discoveries, which were salt water at 1445 feet. Following this discovery, the company insisted they use a core driller and go to more than 2500 feet. The contract had been pre-established was a payout of $3 per foot. The payout on the first well contract was $4,634.55, which, do the math in 1889, was a sizable payday! The Swans were not contracted for any other well excavations in Hiawatha, and the town secretary, John E. Moon, disappointed by the entire experience, submitted his final report and resigned! As always, there is so much more to every story! Find it! Be sure to stop by and share with me what you discover! #historymysteries #travel
Brown County Historical Society will participate in the Hiawatha Community Foundation Match Day in May 2023. Stay tuned for more information on our match-day goals. As a reminder, you can donate anytime to the museums. On match day, being a part of the Hiawatha Community Foundation, we receive special incentives to participate! The incentive is that they match our fundraising! What could be a better incentive?
2023 Membership Drive. As always, if you are interested in being a part of “all things history,” we hope you might consider joining our society. Contact us at bchsdirect@gmail.com for more details surrounding membership levels. Or stop by the museums to discuss interest and involvement!
2023 Annual Meeting Dinner, Farmers and Merchant Appreciation Dinner, and Ice Cream Social. COVID is finally at a level where these honored events will be a part of the BCHS calendar for 2023! Stay tuned!
Jere and Patty Bruning Memorial Building! The Bruning family designed the building carrying out wishes that inspire future generations with hope and a love of all things history. The builders have recently completed the Aspen interior walls!
Windmill Museum, the future home of an additional 40 Windmills! The project is waiting on windmills to begin entering the facility.
HAATS Art Walk, Plamann History Center will feature elementary school art for the month of March 2023. We hope you will be planning your next visit where you will be able to see some of the artistic creations of local students.
Windmill Lane Flea Market, June 9th and 10th, 2023. Vendor spots are $50.00 for a 20 X 20 spot, no exceptions on pricing for each spot and location.
Pictured Hiawatha Train Depot part of the Brown County Historical Society Collection.
Does it have to be traditional “shopping”? I shop for necessities or things that I need! My shopping excursion for fun would be for people I love, other people, and not myself! I would spend my money on historical events, museums, and architecture that I can attend, absorb, and appreciate. I have gotten to the place where I desperately need the world to be a better place. Where I can explore, enjoy and regurgitate in writing for people what occurred. I value people, connections, and explorations. I’m not too fond of bureaucratic red tape that prevents hearts from being together in the same zip code. My heart and I exist together but long to physically be together much more than visits. In a perfect world, a dream job is one of them.
Is it weird that I dream of jobs? Maybe people would even allow me to put together photographs and journaling and to write their love story and how it began, which evolved into all that jazzy jazz! So, my perfect shopping trip doesn’t exist entirely in “a store.” Im probably the weirdest girl on the planet because when I go out. What really gets me going is sexy trucks, and they don’t have to be brand-new extreme tread tires! I love museums, nature, and forests! I love a great meal with people I love! Although I would never turn down window shopping with anyone, a little eye candy absolutely never hurt anyone! I love quality designer purses. That is one of my guilty pleasures, anything Star Wars and phone cases! If my wallet were supplied with never-ending resources, I wouldn’t spend them at the store. I would use it for traveling and creating positive energy and vibes all around the world. I want to make my own vertical forests, plant more trees, and make a difference to stop and prevent further climate change and global warming! I want to help with building projects for my family! I want to give yurts to homeless people! I want sustainable drinking water for all people. There is so much more to this story! As always, I am searching for my little bit of sparkle in the world. It all starts with making a difference, being present for humans, and being better humans ourselves!
Let me take a moment to brag a little!! I love Brown County Historical Society’s museums! I absolutely adore talking to everyone I encounter; I love the research! I love all the things I have been able to learn and create due to my position within the museums! Whenever I walk into the museum, or someone calls me, sending me off on a history exploration, I get to be a part of it! For me, the investigations are so incredibly remarkable! I am so honored to be a part of the journey with everyone I have had the chance to meet along this incredible journey! The story of each person is a privilege! I love sharing the uniqueness of each gem of his or her history! Please make no mistake; I don’t discriminate. I cannot think of a single piece of history that I do not get entirely nerdy in anticipation!
I love that each year since I began working for the museum, I get to be a part of the One Room Schoolhouse Program and help alongside Mrs. Mary Benson as she takes the children back into 1912 for the most incredible days. I loved that every day the one-room schoolhouse program operates, Gene Swearingen took time out of his day to each lunch with the children and share his experience from the one-room schoolhouse. Gene’s smile lit up the room, and lunch will undoubtedly be quieter this year as Gene will not be with the children. Now that I have shared just a few of the pieces (reasons) the museums are so extraordinary, I hope each of you will consider visiting soon and perhaps discovering some of the many ways you can contribute to keeping history and all the mysteries alive. As always, there is so much more to every story! Find it! Be sure to stop by and share with me what you discover! #historymysteries #travel
Dear self! Hey Girl! It’s been a second! While I write every single day, I can’t think of the last time I wrote a letter to myself! First, advice! Fucking travel more! Girl, you have been wearing your big girl panties for a second; you don’t need anyone to tell you what you can and cannot do!
Next, my superpower, which is, I know, a big surprise for each of you! Cryptonite can kiss my ass, my superpower is defending my zip code, and my rose-colored glasses view of the world! Guess what? If I choose to see and look for the beauty in people, love, and kindness, that’s mine! You don’t get that! It’s my fucking sparkle, and I don’t give a giant freckled ass if you love it, like it, or hate it! I have faith, and my faith is mine entirely! “Faith is taking the first step without seeing the staircase!” Martin Luther King! Civil Rights leader and Pastor! Our Heavenly Father has something to say about people passing judgment! “Let ye who is without sin cast the first stone!” John, Chapter 8, verse 7! In case you need to dust off your bible! From Moses and the commandments “Thou shall not bear false witness!” and finally, our Heavenly Father describes how we should return to him. As children! As children! Guess what… I can’t think of a single reason more sparkly than that!
Back to the topic at hand, Last year, during my routine mammogram, they found a lump. I will save everyone the major melodrama that ensued! It was a scary time! The upside of a year! A lot happened during that year! So my first bit of advice! Lynn, don’t you fucking dare apologize for other people being toilet bowls! The second bit, love you more! You are not responsible for carrying the weight of everyone’s burdens and troubles (add your creative verbiage) on your shoulders! You have for most of your life, and this is all a result of the trauma you experienced as a child. Those traumas were not your fault! For each of those traumas, the responsibility lies with the adults who were too busy with their own self-inflated egos to do what was right! To protect the CHILD!
Now on to current events! I recently went on this fantastic journey to a place I would never have traveled to uncover history; what I discovered was much more than I ever could have possibly expected. I found beauty, history, more incredible stories, and genuinely kind people excited to share their stories and history! I found a tremendous desire to discover more, and along the way, I found more of myself. Most importantly, listen to you more!
Have you ever embarked on a journey that, in the process, you thought to yourself, what in the world am I thinking? Those were some of my first thoughts. At the beginning of this journey, I had a massive freakout. I went on my first big girl trip across the world! The journey was for work, history, and, most profoundly, for myself, for my heart! I love to write, and I planned to write along the way. I wrote less than I wanted along the way. I thought about everything I planned to write about and rarely touched my phone. Back up, hit rewind, and read that again… you heard me correctly. I barely touched my phone. I didn’t look at the tv except for the news for two nights. I completely disconnected, and I learned! It wasn’t working anyway, so I interacted with people. If you see me out exploring history, I am usually armed with something to take notes on, and these are usually clues and little reminders of insightful parts of the journey. I have each of the memories, which bit by bit, I am slowly unwrapping and sharing! I had nine days in Dubai and took photos to record most of these reminders. I spent this journey listening to people and interacting, and my goodness gracious! I cannot wait for my next trip to Dubai and want to see everything. I hope to purchase a bloggers recorder eventually; I have yet to evolve to that. Color me silly, or maybe it’s because that is also how I pen my poetry and books in physical format and then watch as the writing grows and evolves. I had my notebook in Dubai but didn’t carry it with me. Ok, where are we at advice #3 is it! Freaking do more of what makes you happy!
Here are the holy shit; this girl has never traveled outside of the United States as a big girl, so here are a few practical mental notes and tips!! Tip number one, when ATT says you get an international pass that will work for cell phone service, it won’t! Please do not believe them! ATT, you lie so bad!! Now get an international sim and get someone to help you, purchase a limited data plan nobody in Europe operates like we do being a slave to our cell phone plan! Don’t get me wrong, in the right context I love ATT, but man oh man! Ok so figure out how to operate the data plan that will keep you connected. Or disconnect, it’s freaky the first few days! Tip number two, trust yourself because, after the initial shell shock, you will love the disconnect that allows you to connect to PEOPLE!! Tip number three, drink the coffee. The delights of every memory will only add to the aroma of your journey! Double and triple-triple check the hotel’s WIFI because the Stella, while visually spectacular, had minimal, albeit ancient, definitely not working WIFI. Tip number four, bring more cash because the US-based debit card does not work, and the credit card will say, WTF is that little redhead doing in Dubai? Surely, this cannot be our smidge-over five feet tall, freckle-faced redhead over there in the desert! Pull out all the stops! AND FREEZE THE CARD, and then remember you didn’t have cell phone service, so telling them it was, absolutely, in fact, the smidge over five-foot tall, freckle-faced redhead sweating her ass off in the middle of the desert! Turn it back on for the love of all things holy! The debit card did work in Germany, thank goodness! I ate the pretzel! #historymysteries #DUBAI #historyrocks
And finally, where in the fuck have you been hiding my heart all my life. A girl who had dreamed of my Mr. Darcy smashed together with chemical Christian Grey, the man who thoughtfully, articulately has the power to both infuriate and create such passion from within my soul! Where are we at finally, tip number five! Love the people who love you back! I developed a deeper, more profound love for this red-haired, curly chaos of curls mess only my kryptonite is Umair! Umair sets my heart on fire and can sometimes drive me to utter distraction with all of his thoughts and ideas, he should be a philosopher or historian for sure! As always, there is and always will be so much more to every single story! Fucking get out there and find it! Don’t smash other people’s sparkle either, that’s kind of a shitty toilet bowl Lex Luther kind of move!
I love the museums; I adore talking to everyone I encounter; I love the research! I love all the things I have been able to create! I love everyone I have had the chance to meet and the places I have had the opportunity to explore! I love my husband and all the ways he encourages my passion for my job and my writing. He is my biggest fan and absolutely my hero! I love that he sees what I am capable of and is my cheerleader! I dislike micromanaging and hateful and ugly people who are so consumed with self-loathing they have to hurt others to make themselves feel better about themselves! So, in a nutshell, I love my job! To all the toxic toilets, I would appreciate a little assistance from the tidy bowl, man!
If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be, and why?
I have a freaking list! I love history and learning, so can I say I want to be someone who gets to go in and out and watch various parts of history that really have me intrigued. I don’t even know how to choose which one! So many, for example, choice number one, and these are by no means in order of value my list is likely to change from day to day! First, Paul Revere’s ride. Paul was just a part of that ride, now made infamous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. There were, in fact, five riders, Paul Revere, William Dawes, Samuel Prescott, Israel Bissell, and finally Sybil Ludington, daughter of Colonel Ludington, who was at the time 16 years, and her ride was double Paul Revere’s ride. How many of you know of this young rider’s infamous ride or story! Later, commended by George Washington for her acts of heroism. A patriot at the mere age of sixteen! Perhaps passionate about her beliefs! You can see a statue in Carmel, New York, and other historical markers that recount another version of a piece of history! Truly, I would just love to see so many pieces of history, I want to absorb and appreciate them all! Every piece of the story has value. So the next time you think history is boring, drab, or just nah! Take a moment to reflect, history is just a story, a story about him, her, and us. Take time to appreciate. #kindness #sparkle
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
Well, that was a shit show! Just kidding, isn’t life what we make it? There have been moments when I have basked in the glorious sparkle of whhhooo hooo! And others times, I didn’t think I was going to get out of the trenches of holy shit, that’s a lot of shit! In the end, though, isn’t it the journey that we got to have things that so many don’t get the opportunity, to squander or take for granted? I am so grateful either way! The good and the bad experiences are all experiences that I got to have! I don’t discriminate; I equally appreciate and value the sunshine and the rain! With the wind blowing through the trees, we take a moment to either write this or read through it and appreciate that someone else no longer has the opportunity to enjoy, value, or be grateful for the experiences! With that, one final note! It’s your own personal concert every single day! Get up, put on your boots, sneakers, or naked tootsies, and rock it out! Sparkle and shine! Love more! Give more! In the world, universe, and the entire grand scheme of things, what we give to others in kindness costs us absofrickinglootely zero! Being hateful comes at a price that I am absofrickinglootely unwilling to pay! It robs you of life, love, and connections! #aforestofwords #kindness #sparkle
I write things every day; it’s kind of what I do! I want to share with you a particular passion that fills my heart. I have always wanted to help people! Always! So this is nothing new I am talking about wanting to help others; it is just a place where my passion hits! So we are all a little aftershock after COVID, but that is no surprise. What changed for me was that it took a pandemic for me to realize that we should not be waiting around to do the things that matter. I challenge each of you to take the time to make a difference. Did you know in countries all over the world, there are people less fortunate than you and I? Hard to imagine, right?
Not really; now, this all started when my son and I were having a conversation about ways to make a difference in the world. People worldwide live without housing, fresh drinking water, or even a gallon of milk in their fridge. Some people still have their gas shut off daily in an effort to reduce drains on the energy grid; these people don’t have central air conditioning or heating in their houses! Some people I am speaking about need a physical home will walls that are theirs! The people I am speaking about live in makeshift residences and make the best of a truly shitty situation, and they do it with a kind heart! How many of you have had the opportunity to meet a homeless person? Whenever my twins and I would go to conferences (yes, they tagged along and were the best part of the conference, I still have not heard the end of it from them not getting to go to Alaska with me!!) The twinkies and I had this routine; each day, we would buy a meal, donuts, and a few other items and pick a person to give the meal to, etc. While this happened, I was a single mother, raising two exceptional children (so, I am a little biased! I believe each of my children is singularly the best thing in the world!) and have never been part of the fortune 500 club! Let’s be realistic!
The end of this pitch goes a little like this: I have waited my entire life to contribute more significantly to a world where I can empower, motivate and create, but I dream of achieving! I want to be a part of a better world. I want to live in a world where having faith and sparkle are not bad things! But admirable! So let’s call this campaign what it is; a dream that started with the twinkies should also be named for them! Wondertwin powers activate! Twinkies unite! I was hoping you could help me be a part of a better world and the solution. I want to give at least four yurts to homeless people; I want to buy trees to share on my journey and then start creating and inspiring hope and change in the world. Create homeless care kits to hand out. I want to provide gift cards for meals and inspire others to create community gardens that homeless people can access with take-what-you-need portals that would be refurbished regularly. I love to connect with people, and I want to start a chain reaction of sparkle worldwide. Be a better human being! Not one of us is getting out of here alive! #kindness #sparkle
Forest of Words 