The serendipitous discovery of letters and a century-old journal sends the author to a 1907 family gathering in Cuba, through the construction and completions of the Canal, and up the Pacific coast in 1914 with William Hobby, a junior engineer on the Canal.
William wrote with hope of publication.
Other letter writers are William’s independent and adventurous cousin, his aunt, and his uncle–a New England dairy farmer who entered college at age 50.
How did an item manufactured in Vermont find its way to Costa Rica?
How is a tugboat like Mark Twain’s donkey?
A single sentence about the S.S. Sosostres wreck exhumes three versions of the ship’s fate, and a postage stamp may have decided on a canal in Panama instead of Nicaragua.
This is history through the eyes of those who participated in it.
William’s Cousin Mabel writes about the puzzling and sometimes obnoxious behavior of “The Doctor” who is William’s father.
“Uncle Charley” introduces me to Colonel Higginsworth whose book, “Army Life in a Black Regiment,” tells how he trained “trained eight hundred men suddenly transformed from slaves into soldiers” with obvious respect.
My grandfather, a privileged white male with carefully segregated black workers, disappointed me, but I did not delete or disguise his comments.
Uncle Charley, when they visit his wife’s sister in San Diego, describes his first encounter with a rattlesnake.
Back Story:
We found the letters and journal when we cleaned out my mother’s home in Beaverton, Oregon.
I read David McCullough’s “The Path Between the Seas,” found employment records, tracked down relevant photos from museums, on the internet, and in antique postcard collections.
My aim was to put the letters in context with both the Canal history and the letter-writer’s surroundings, but the mysteries of family relationships intrigued me even more.
Back Story:
We found the letters and journal when we cleaned out my mother’s home in Beaverton, Oregon.
I read David McCullough’s “The Path Between the Seas,” found employment records, tracked down relevant photos from museums, on the internet, and in antique postcard collections.
My aim was to put the letters in context with both the Canal history and the letter-writer’s surroundings, but the mysteries of family relationships intrigued me even more.
Website: Debby Detering Wordcraft
