0:01

Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class,

0:03

A production of I Heart Radio. Hello,

0:12

and welcome to Casual Friday Chatter Chatter

0:15

with Polly and Tracy. I'm Polly Fry, I'm

0:17

Tracy Vie Wilson. Our first

0:19

episode this week was kind of all casual chatter.

0:22

That's exactly what I was thinking. It was like, we had casual

0:24

Friday on Monday. Yes, uh

0:27

in talking about this this wild

0:29

time that we're living through. But then we got

0:31

to talk about someone that you picked out and who

0:33

is one of the more charming figures

0:36

we have talked about in recent history in my opinion,

0:39

Yeah, lighthousekeeper Ida

0:41

Lewis. So I had a

0:44

circuitous path of getting to this topic that

0:46

I alluded to at the beginning of the episode. This

0:48

sort of illustrates how my

0:51

working life has changed. UM.

0:53

The first thing was I had thought about doing

0:56

UM an episode on

0:58

the Athenian Play and

1:02

I'm I'm not saying I'll never do that,

1:04

but so many, uh

1:06

so many of our listeners have talked about how

1:09

stressed out they have been, and we're

1:11

so appreciative when we dropped a playlist

1:13

of just goofy offbeat stuff. But I

1:15

was like, you know, maybe a really stressful episode

1:18

about a plague is not where I want to go right now. Like,

1:21

I know there's value in talking about the historical context

1:24

for things, but there are so many places to

1:26

get pandemic news right now,

1:29

and so many people have told us about just

1:31

how phenomenally stressed out they were. I was like, let's

1:33

let's do something. Let's find something that feels

1:36

positive and uplifting but

1:38

also seems thematically appropriate to what

1:40

we're living through. And that's how I eventually wound

1:43

up on Idle Louis. But Idle Louis was not actually

1:46

my first choice, which was not the first person

1:48

that occurred to me. UM. The first

1:50

person that I actually thought about doing was

1:52

Emily Dickinson, who was

1:55

not as solitary as a

1:57

lot of people think of her UM,

2:01

and that was one of the things that I was I got very

2:03

excited about this idea of doing

2:05

an episode about Emily Dickinson and talking about

2:07

that that aspect of her. But

2:10

then I was like, Amherst

2:12

is just down the street, not literally,

2:14

it's but you know, we could get

2:16

in the car and go there. We can't

2:19

right now, though, Can I go to Amherst

2:21

uh, And I was like, you know, I would kind of

2:23

rather do this episode at a time when I

2:26

can go um and

2:28

visit where she lived, because you know, when

2:30

I have the opportunity to do that, I really enjoy doing

2:33

that. UM. So I said, Okay,

2:35

I'll put Emily Dickinson

2:37

back on the list of things to talk about later.

2:40

Um. But then when I got into the Idle

2:42

Louis episode, I kept

2:44

running into situations where I was like,

2:47

oh, it really felt like

2:49

UM. Because I do so much work at

2:51

home, Because I do so much work that's related

2:53

to sources that are online,

2:56

I was not expecting a big disruption in

2:59

my work. However, Ida

3:02

Lewis's personnel record is

3:04

something that's open to the public. It

3:06

cannot be requested right now because the library

3:09

is closed. The biography

3:11

that was written of her in the nineteenth

3:14

century that we referenced in

3:16

the episode is a

3:19

lot of stuff of that age has been digitized,

3:21

and you can get to it at places like the Project

3:23

Guttenberg or archive dot org or something

3:25

similar. That particular work

3:28

does exist on microfiche

3:31

and as a physical copy

3:33

in two different libraries that I

3:35

can access. The library

3:38

is closed, though, so It's just

3:40

like, this is a case where I would have

3:42

had some physical sources I might have gone

3:44

to consult, but I sure cannot do that

3:46

because the library is

3:48

closed. I do feel like that's the correct

3:51

decision for the library to be closed, but

3:53

it it kind of tickled me a little bit

3:55

that it turned out that

3:57

that was the case with this particular episode. I

4:00

like that. Um, Again, not

4:02

to make light of any of it, but we have been very frank

4:05

that we're very fortunate because we can keep doing

4:07

our jobs from home

4:09

relatively uninterrupted, but that somehow

4:12

it managed to be interrupted just the same. UM,

4:16

it's interesting. I have a question

4:18

for you, which, UM, let

4:20

me just ask a question. Are you and

4:22

Emily Dickinson person? Uh?

4:26

I own a copy of

4:28

her entire I have a complicated relationship

4:30

with Emily Dickinson. Okay,

4:32

me too, UM trying

4:35

So Emily Dickinson

4:37

is so it tends to be

4:39

such a huge, huge part of American literature

4:42

classes. She gets

4:44

kind of shoved on people in high

4:46

school. And

4:48

and then also when you notice patterns

4:50

in the rhythm of her writing, noticed

4:54

them. What song is it for you? Um?

4:57

Because I've discovered over the years,

5:00

I mean it's a simple pattern, and

5:02

so everybody has like that thing where they're

5:04

like And then it becomes obvious that you can

5:06

sing every one of her poems to this song.

5:09

But I've discovered that different people have different

5:11

songs. Yes, you don't want to know the song if you

5:13

don't want to never be able to unhear it, just

5:15

like I don't know Skip ahead by thirty

5:17

seconds. The theme from Gilligan's Island Oh

5:19

Mine is yellow Rose of Texas. That also

5:22

works both of them. But

5:25

then the thing is, her life

5:27

has been so mischaracterized, um,

5:31

and there are so many just wonderful

5:33

biographies of her that have come out more

5:36

recently that have given us a more honest

5:38

look, UM at what her life

5:40

was like and what uh

5:43

what happens to her literary

5:45

legacy after she died,

5:48

Like I found all, I found all that really

5:50

fascinating. I in a lot of ways

5:52

feel like she is a kindred spirit, even

5:55

though I can't stop myself

5:57

from singing songs while I'm reading her poet.

6:01

I will say I'm not the hugest

6:03

fan of her poetry because

6:06

that sort of makes it feel a little simplistic

6:08

to me in a way that I don't connect to UM.

6:11

But also I think it's one of those things where she has

6:13

been so romanticized. And we

6:15

talked about this phenomenon on the show

6:17

before. She and her

6:19

biography and her life story

6:22

has been so romanticized that it does

6:25

the great disservice of completely

6:28

including the person that she actually was.

6:31

So I'm glad that you're planning an episode because

6:33

we are Emily Dickinson MythBuster H.

6:36

We will keep our fingers crossed UM

6:39

that at some points the

6:41

pandemic has ended, UH

6:45

and you know, are the places in

6:47

Amherst, Massachusetts that are related to her

6:49

life will be open for visitors again. And

6:52

I will UH coerce my

6:54

husband into going on a road trip with me, which

6:56

is UM actually that that

6:58

my I don't know, I don't know what is. I have not asked him

7:00

about this at all. He has been just

7:04

very accommodating and on board. Various

7:06

times that I have suggested some random road

7:08

trip to go to, usually somewhere in

7:10

Massachusetts or an adjacent UH

7:13

state, to do some kind of podcast

7:16

research. UM. He has, he's been

7:18

on board. He's been game for all of that. UM.

7:20

Possibly because of

7:23

the like the ubiquity

7:25

and weird representation

7:27

of Emily Dickinson and most people's high school

7:29

lives. Um, I don't know if

7:31

you would be on board for that one. I could just go by myself.

7:33

He'd be fine, that's true. Uh.

7:37

Yeah, I'm trying to think of any that. I don't

7:39

think I have any in the hopper right now that I'm

7:41

like, I would like to travel to go

7:43

check this out. Well, another

7:45

place that is not quite as close

7:47

to here, but is doable

7:50

and is somebody that

7:53

everybody hit not a lot. A lot of people

7:55

have got a lot of request to talk about Lucy

7:57

maud Montgomery. I know, I'm

8:00

Prince Edward Island though it's just right over

8:02

there. We can all travel

8:04

again. I would like to go

8:07

to their. Yeah, that's

8:09

less of a like a day trip, a bore of a weekend trip

8:11

though, right I keep

8:13

thinking about where I would want to travel

8:15

first when all of this blows over,

8:18

presuming we may it through and all of the places

8:21

I might want to travel are once again open

8:23

and available. I mean, I

8:25

don't know who I'm kidding. I'm going. I'm getting in the

8:27

car and going to Disney World the minute.

8:29

The minute you have a chance. I also

8:31

want to make it clear and just in case anybody

8:34

is feeling frustrated, Uh,

8:36

we understand absolutely that this

8:38

is not something that is literally going to just go

8:41

away without human beings

8:43

taking concrete steps to stop it. So

8:45

when we say blow over, we don't mean like a

8:47

magical ferry is going to make it stop being

8:49

a pandemic. No, I mean when we are on

8:51

the other side of this. However

8:54

long it takes to get on the other side of this

8:57

with we hope as as little

9:00

animal yes, as minimal

9:02

loss as possible, we hope. Um.

9:05

Yeah, I mean I think about I think we're all thinking

9:07

about what it's going to be like to resume normal

9:09

life. And part of that

9:11

for me is because I have been

9:13

traveling so much. Part of it is, um,

9:17

like, where would I travel to just for

9:19

fun? Initially

9:22

it's one of the things that we think about. But

9:24

yes, I'm I'm sure

9:27

there will be somewhere historically relevant

9:29

that I will go. I

9:32

don't know where yet, though, I

9:34

will want to probably go everywhere

9:36

after not not being

9:38

anywhere for a while, So we'll see, Yeah,

9:41

we'll see. Oh and just in case people are curious,

9:44

we were planning to go to Italy

9:47

in May

9:49

that is postponed is postponed, yeah

9:51

to October, just in case people were like, whenever

9:53

it happened to the only trip, that's what happened. The folks

9:55

that have booked on it are all aware.

9:58

Yes, yes, yes.

10:01

Michael, who handles all of all

10:03

of those travels and who managed our

10:05

our trip to Paris last year, has been really great about

10:08

making sure that everybody's bookings

10:10

can transfer over till later in the year and

10:12

getting that all ironed out and squared away.

10:15

Um. So uh

10:17

universe willing. We will be in Italy in October

10:20

hopefully. Um. You

10:23

have questions about the cruise

10:25

to Alaska that we have advertised

10:27

on the show as well. That is not something

10:29

that Holly and I are personally involved with planning,

10:32

so you would need to contact Like, if you're booked

10:34

on that, you would need to contact whatever

10:38

information you got when you booked that. Yeah,

10:41

yeah, that's um, we have no

10:43

we we are still trying to

10:45

figure out what is going on with that as well, so we don't

10:47

have any updates there. But in

10:49

the meantime, everybody continue to take care

10:51

of yourselves and stay safe.

10:58

Stuff you missed in history classes, a production

11:00

of I heart Radio. For more podcasts

11:03

from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio

11:05

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

11:07

listen to your favorite shows. H