...was not only a very interesting year -- the list of shipwrecks alone is staggering -- it is also the number of posts (including this one) that I have created since this blog began in September 2007.
I wonder if I will make it to 2000 posts.
As an example of how interesting 1761 was, here is the entry for August 11th:
Two years after his marriage to Martha Custis and his move to Mount Vernon, retired British Army General George Washington advertises a reward in the Maryland Gazette for the capture of four fugitive slaves, named Cupid, Peros, Jack, and Neptune, averring that they had escaped "without the least suspicion, provocation, or difference with anybody."
Yes, friends, our beloved George Washington was a slave owner.
Live and learn.
I am now 78 years, 3 months old, going on 78 years, 4 months. If my wife and I are both alive on February 20th next, we will have been married longer than her parents were, namely 56 years, 9 months and 1 day.
Mrs. RWP, who was/is a registered nurse with years of hospital experience, says that you can tell when men are getting old when they stop talking about sex and start talking about constipation.
I talk about neither.
I must be timeless.
Timeless is best.
ReplyDeleteEmma, I wholeheartedly agree.
DeleteCupid, Peros, Jack, and Neptune, averring that they had escaped "without the least suspicion, provocation, or difference with anybody."
ReplyDeleteI suspect that Cupid, Peros, Jack and Neptune had different ideas about the provocation and difference they didn't experience. And hooray for being timeless.
Did George get them back?
DeleteRoll on the two thousandth post.
Elephant's Child (Sue), I'm sure you are right about difference in provocation from the slaves' perspective. In America we say "hip, hip, hooray" and in the U.K. they say "hip, hip, hip, hooray". What do you say in Australia?
DeleteAdrian, I don't know whether George ever "got them back" (what a strange way to put it). In addition, I'm rolling as fast as I can.
DeleteIt would appear that Great Britain was singularly quiet on the 11 August 1761. In another 4 days, however, France and Spain signed the Pacte de Famille forming an alliance against Britain.
ReplyDeleteGraham, I saw that entry but decided to use the one about Washington's runaway slaves instead.
DeleteMrs RWP is full of sass. Out of curiosity, is there a connection between slavery and being married for over 5 decades?
ReplyDeleteHilltop (Pam), I never thought of a connection between slavery and being married for over 5 decades, but I suppose that in some people's minds there is one. In mine, if it is there at all, it must be deeply embedded in the subconscious,
DeleteIt's nice to learn that you had as much foresight as me when choosing to marry a nurse. A wife-nurse will provide essential complimentary care when we are bed-bound with the typical ailments of old age. Nurses are therefore a much better choice in the long run than dancers or data processors.
ReplyDeleteY.P., it was brilliant of us.
DeleteIf that's what men talk about, what do women talk about--dribbling?
ReplyDeleteSnowbrush, I have no idea. Why don't you ask one of them. Be sure to have a steak handy to put on your black eye.
Delete