Dog Days of Summer

It has been over a month since I last posted any comments- not only have I been busy (which is a constant, and not much of an excuse, I know), but I had been working on another post which was only tangentially related to my research. Several weeks ago now, the United States House of Representatives issued a formal apology for slavery and Jim Crow (H. Res. 194). In that apology the Congressman who issued the legislation commented on the need to "rectify the lingering consequences" of these two institutions. Issued in the middle of the summer, as the Olympics began, on the heels of the major party conventions, and all the other events that have demanded the attention of America, it seems to have been quickly forgotten. But the promise "to rectify" the wrongs done shouldn't be so easily set aside. I have my own ideas on how to begin rectifying, how the conversation needs to change. One of the consequences of these peculiar institutions is just how damn difficult it is to begin discussing, and I found myself having trouble finishing the brief essay. So I have decided to set it aside for now and discuss research related topics, living it to simmer on the back burner for later.

After a brief visit to Central New York I have returned to a quieter St. John. Most of the tourists are gone, and as we get deeper into hurricane season more and more of them are trickling out. We have already had one "tropical wave" this week, Faye before she became a depression, which is less scary than it sounds. It was a massive rain storm, complete with wind and thunder and lightening, which I could see through my eyelids as I tried to sleep. I woke up the next morning to a river running through my neighborhood, tearing up the already cracked and crumbling cement on the road. Mangrove swamps washed out at Cinnamon Bay, taking a large portion of the beach with it, and some of the bays were brown with run off for a day or so. But it filled up our cisterns and turned the island green, so now we just wait for the next one.

John and Jess both straggled back on island a few days after I did, and within a couple days of each other. Although I love my little purple farmhouse with my husband and flocks of random pets, having roommates this summer has really been a lot of fun, and a constant learning experience as I have had to remember how to share space and food, and try to suppress some of my more annoying habits, all around people who never met me before I moved my stuff in.

Research continues at the National Park. I'm still spending quite a bit of time wading through files and old reports, although mostly I have been identifying what might be important, photocopying it and adding it to the pile to be gone through back in NY. I have moved on to GIS data, and had a productive conversations with Chuck, a local historian who seems to be an endless font of knowledge. More field work needs to be done, but this week we have the Secretary of Interior visiting, so we've been preparing for that as well as doing all the work we normally have- today we moved Mandy's 12 boxes of artifacts into the curation facility.

So, I guess I've just been easing back into island life, and will have fun and exciting news in the (very) near future.