Thank you; I'm sure I would. But more thanks for giving me another opportunity to direct 
the attention of the members of this list to the real thrust of my "What if". Again, next 
year in April, a Virginia History Forum is scheduled to convene. There is just the chance 
that the committee setting the agenda will include a short session to discuss "what if": 
all to the point of finding a way to resurrect the Virginia Cavalcade, hopefully to a 
degree of quality it enjoyed as of its "demise" -- not by amateurs such as myself -- but 
by professional historians. What I enjoy is of little consequence: the larger picture is 
the Commonwealth has lost an important and central "vehicle" for the preservation, 
exploitation, and preservation of its heritage. Can it be restored?

I used to give a subscription copy as a Christmas gift -- and the reports from my 
recipients of this gift were glowing. It was easy shopping. Truthfully, my "hubbub" is all 
about: "I'm just lazy a shopper."


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harold Gill" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 6:26 PM
Subject: Re: 09282048Z07 What If


Maybe you would enjoy the Colonial Williamsburg Journal. Many of its
articles are available at History.org
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Walter Waddell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 4:51 PM
Subject: [VA-HIST] 09282048Z07 What If


> My 180-degree panoramic northwest porch view here in Verona, Virginia
> hardly compares with
> the ambient pleasantness and grandeur of the sweeping vistas viewed from
> Madison's
> Montpelier, Jefferson's Monticello, or Monroe's Ashlawn-Highland estates.
> Similarly, my
> life accomplishments, successes, and failures are hardly material for
> historical note. But
> I believe I did once enjoy something more than these great men may have
> had either the
> time or opportunity to do so during their occupancy of those great
> estates.
>
> I keep an old, but beautifully restored, milk box on my porch. My wife has
> colored it in
> keeping with the porch's décor and weatherproofed it for me. I store
> varied reading
> material in it and after yard work and on other occasions when I am just
> enjoying my
> porch; I can reach in to my outdoor library and have, to my mind, some of
> the best of what
> this world offers.
>
> In preparing the milk box to winter over, I was made to empty it contents.
> At the bottom
> of the stack were several issues of the Virginia Cavalcade. I thumbed
> through them and
> remembered that I had read one or two articles from each but had not read
> all the articles
> from all of them. All of these issues were very recent to the announcement
> to the magazine's
> death. I had this thought that I had at one time all the intentions of
> perusing their
> contents; but, upon knowing that the magazine would no longer be a regular
> in my mailbox,
> I "kinda" gave up -- succumbing to the sin of despair, disappointment, and
> defeat --
> nothing to look forward to so why bother.
>
> As I write this, I remember the wonderful Virginia stories, the colorful
> and beautiful
> photographs and art work, and the engaging maps and drawings this magazine
> brought to my
> mailbox and the pleasure I had enjoying a good read on my very own
> porch -- again
> something I had that those fellows above may not have had.
>
> James Shreeve said in his "The Neanderthal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of
> Modern Human
> Origins: "By all appearances, the people of the Upper Paleolithic came
> into an innocent,
> unexamined world and galvanized it with symbol, art, metaphor, and story.
> They did not
> simply invent better means of surviving. They invented meaning itself."
> The rationales for
> the emergence of modern humans are varied and many. "No matter the cause,
> 40,000 years ago
> our ancestors developed an imagination. They learned to ask, What if?.."
>
> What if: a pool of authoritative, talented historians could submit digital
> material to an
> authoritative, professionally managed editorial staff?
>
> What if: approved material could be published entirely and only in "html"
> or "pdf" format
> complete with photographs and graphics and published on a web site?
>
> What if: interested readers could subscribe to that web site and enjoy
> complete
> "downloading" rights to published material?
>
> What if: interested subscribers could print out that material in a variety
> of quantity and
> quality forms including, but not limited to, glossy 8 x 10 photographic
> paper?
>
> What if: interested subscribers could bind or insert downloaded pages into
> plastic sleeves
> and create their own copy of a magazine?
>
> What if: I could sit on my lowly porch and relish something that former
> magnificent
> Virginia "thinkers, movers, and shakers" couldn't even imagine despite the
> splendor from
> their own vistas?
>
> What if: someone has a better idea?
>
> What if: they made it known?
>
>
> -- 
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> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.13.39/1044 - Release Date:
> 10/2/2007 11:10 AM
>
>


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