Sometime in the middle 1970's a distant cousin of my grandmother's from England was in the USA doing work on a script for a Clint Eastwood film, and he came to the farm in Michigan for a week. His mother was my great-grandmother's sister - she had visited a few years before - shortly before her death. Donald was a successful writer for television and film. He and his brother Derick co-wrote several films. His brother was somewhat infamous for making X-rated sexual comedies.
We took Donald to see the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. I remember three things from that day. Donald looking at machinery in the museum and remarking, "we are still using this stuff, it is modern by our standards." We were in one of the restored colonial houses in the village, and the docent started making comments about the British and the American Revolution, and Donald opening the door and stepping out saying "before I say something and start another revolution." I remember buying a loaf of bread hot from the oven in the village bakery, getting home and sitting around the table cutting off chunks to enjoy with butter and cheese and listening to him talk about the places he had been and the things he had done.
The museum, a collection of whatever Henry fancied, holds a world of wonders and curiosities, and revisiting it brings back a flood of memories.
Donald died a few years after that visit.
I love these kinds of memories. Sounds like Donald would have been interesting to talk with. In hindsight, maybe he should have started another revolution. We had a docent at a plantation in Virginia refer to the Civil War as the War of Northern Aggression. I heard that phrase often after that, and it’s a wonder I didn’t start another War of Northern Aggression.
ReplyDeleteI went to half of high school in Florida and had a history teacher who was a southern racist, an entirely different spin.
DeleteThe Henry Ford museum would be right up my street.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder how people who share a common language exchange between two very different countries. Australians seem to adapt to either quite well.
My experience was, once I moved past the "that's not how we say it, think it, or do it" stage of thinking, the exchange is very enlightening.
DeleteDonald sounds like an interesting fellow. I've heard docents put their own spin on stories on several occasions. Most of the time I remain quiet but once I did speak by questioning the comment.
ReplyDeleteHe was a lot of fun, I regret that we lost contact with his nieces and nephews - there is family there that we have lost. He also served a judge.
DeleteAs soon as I saw this I immediately recognized this - and I have not been to the Henry Ford Museum since 2001.
ReplyDelete