Geographist

Routines are starting to be beautiful things once again around our house.  Activities are picking up and, other than the two of us who sit at the house during the weekdays, our lives are now quite similar to the way they were in February.  Except for the tropics, that is... Sunday - It was an early morning back at church once again, although since neither Mrs. Geographist or I were taking part in the music this week (and therefore no pre-service rehearsal or sound check) we could at least wait a little later to head out.  Plus our local kolache joint was open by the time we passed by!  The morning was bright, but the trip home gave us a glimpse of what was coming.  Tropical Storm Beta was menacing, and as we headed through downtown Houston we said goodbye to the sun for the last time in a few days.  By the time we grabbed pizza for lunch near our house, the crew was having to run through a solid drizzle falling on the parking lot.  Bible study on Zoom ...

 A quick thank-you to everyone who has been a part of this website since the beginning.  This week I got my 5,000th hit, and while that's not quite Amazon-esque it's still a pretty cool milestone that I certainly appreciate.  If you're new to the blog, I encourage you to check out the original two threads: Our Story With God (a trip through the Bible as a single story, and now a published book that you can find at your favorite retailer), and the history of Boston (a geographic review of the Cradle of American Liberty).  Now on to week 6! Sunday - We got to have our first meeting with the new class we'll be teaching this year at church.  I always enjoy working with kids in the 5th grade because it's an interesting year of growing up for them.  As they morph from little children into preteens it is amazing how deep into conversations they can go.  And they mercifully haven't quite hit the surly years of adolescence!  My office had a drive-thru birt...

Labor Day is such a weird holiday - "Hey, let's celebrate labor by not working!"  Yes, I know the history and know what it's about.  No, I still don't think it's a very good excuse for a day off.  Be that as it may, we still have a three day weekend so we might as well use it for something good.  Let's see how this week turned out. Sunday - I tried something new at church: a face shield.  Several folks use them there, and I like the fact that it lets others see your face.  I told my wife, who let me borrow the thing from among her school supplies, that because I didn't remove the protective film from off the front it gave everything a bit of a haze which made me think I was in an 80s hair band music video (probably not the vibe the pastor was shooting for during his sermon).  Mrs. Geographist is going to take the shield back during school days, however, so I'll have to either go find one of my own or keep using the mask on weekdays.  After church ...

Well everyone, this was a week to attempt a return to a regular schedule.  How did y'all do?  Step one for us was obviously to catch up on what we missed, then decide how far we could take things from there. Sunday - To begin the week, we were finally able to rejoin our church family again for an in-person worship service.  It was beautiful to be inside that building once again, but since I'd been able to play in a string ensemble for a couple of services that were broadcast online it was obvious that what we were missing wasn't the structure.  It was the people!  The total number was quite a bit smaller than usual, as can be expected, so we still have more to look forward to down the road.  My parents, who were formerly members of our church before moving east, were able to join us as well.  We tried visiting a popular restaurant near our house for the first time, but apparently it was too popular and we didn't want to wait an hour and a half for a ta...

What a week this turned out to be!  Laura decided to take a chunk out of our schedule, so we had to do some on-the-fly adjusting.  Here's how week 3 played out in our house. Sunday - This marked the final service that is planned to be entirely online, as in-person church resumes next week.  Which also means we've enjoyed our last sermon in shorts and bare feet!  As everyone has gotten into a nice routine of getting up early, it is certainly much easier to be awake in advance of the early start time, and we all seem to be ready and willing to set those alarms even earlier soon to be in the sanctuary for real.  Everyone's Zoom meetings went well and the older two girls (Mrs. Geo and Girly) even got some mall time in.  Shopping is still a necessary event for the ladies of the house, you see. Monday - With our local school district actually beginning classes today, this was the first day that Mrs. Geographist got to teach her students.  The load was suppos...

Last week you got to meet the main characters in our play, and as the weeks go by we'll figure out if the tale will be drama, comedy, or action.  I'm betting it will eventually include all three, like some grand epic that Cecil B. DeMille or David O. Selznick would be proud to produce.  Starting with last weekend, let's get into how this cycle went down. Saturday - Girly had a cello lesson in the morning, which is always a good way to burn off the early part of the day (and when you're talking a SE Texas August, "burn" is the appropriate word choice).  Speaking of our oldest kid and driving, this is the day she began taking driver's ed online.  We're doing the at-home option, because these days who is really excited about jumping into a car with a stranger and breathing the potentially-Covid-inducing air?  Now we wait and see how long it will take her to get the requisite 6 hours of instruction before she's ready to schedule a DPS visit to obtain a...

A quick glance at headlines at any point over the past six months would suggest we're living in an unusual time.  And since I've already got this website, it seemed that the start of the 2020-21 school year might be a great time to document what life looks like to me right now.  The whole world is going through an interesting moment together, so this blog will take a brief excursion to see what is going on with an average family living just outside of Houston, TX. First of all, let's take some time to meet the main characters.  In case you're new to this page, my name is Brian.  I am fascinated by all things history and geography, hence the name of my page and my nickname "Geographist".  By profession I'm a cartographer (yes, that's a map maker) and have worked in various segments of the petroleum industry for my entire 18 year career.  I'm active in my church, where my wife and I serve as 5th grade Bible study directors, I play the cello in the or...

This will be the final post about Boston for a little while.  I'm putting the historic city on hiatus for a period of time to focus on something new going on in the Geographist household - as school begins for all four girls in my home (my wife will be teaching virtually, the oldest two kids are attending in person, and the youngest is homeschooling) I start a new chapter as the stay-at-home dad because my employer's local office has not reopened.  Yes, that makes me a homeschool dad!  And while Boston may have tons of history to learn, it seems important to acknowledge what a unique moment in history we're experiencing right now, and so I will attempt to document how we do things in 2020 during the coming months. But until then, let's focus on the next stop along the Black Heritage Trail...and that is the Abiel Smith School. We've already seen a mention of the Abiel Smith School in previous posts, as it was an important location for the education of the African Ame...

This week, as we approach the end of the Black Heritage Trail in Boston, we come to a group of houses.  Unlike some of the previous homes that we have studied, and that have merited enough attention to be placed under the care of the National Park Service, these locations are much less a story of person and much more a study of place and time.  The various developments that occupy Smith Court, in fact, reflect the changes that occurred in Boston through three centuries of growth and migration within the Beacon Hill neighborhood. Five historic homes stand along the small, dead-end road that cuts off of Joy St. and while they all represent life for residents in this part of town during the 19th century, they nevertheless vary quite a bit by age.  In fact, walking the street that is less than 150' long will take you through nearly that many years as the oldest surviving home was built in the late 18th century, and the apartments on the corner weren't completed until well int...

As we visit another home along Boston's Black Heritage Trail, we have the opportunity to see the impact that affluence can have on a worthy cause.  The builder and first resident of the home at 2 Phillips Street was John P. Coburn, one of Boston's wealthiest African-American residents.  A native of the city, he not only provided evidence that black men could be successful entrepreneurs, but also used his abundant resources to assist the cause of freedom. John Coburn originally worked as a housewright - a term that included construction and repair of homes - but as a young man made a change to the clothing industry that employed many African-Americans.  After his business outgrew his home, he expanded to run a pair of stores on land that is now home to Boston's City Hall, possibly assisted in this venture by his white father, also named John.  By the time Coburn was in his young 30s he had become prosperous enough to hire a well-known architect by the name of Asher Be...

If you won your freedom, would you be more likely to protect it at all costs or to risk it in order to save others?  This week we look at the life and home of a man and his wife who took the more heroic path.  Lewis Hayden and his wife Harriet spent their lives in Boston fighting for fugitive slaves from their home in the Beacon Hill neighborhood - a fight that had an especially personal meaning to Lewis, a former slave himself. Lewis Hayden was born in Lexington, KY, to a family of 25 slaves.  He had two early life experiences that helped him determine his worth: first, at the age of 10 he was traded by his first owner for a pair of carriage horses which was his market value, and then later at the age of 14 he happened to meet Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette, who tipped his hat to the boy and gave him a sense of his real value as a person.  His first wife, named Esther, and their child were bought by Senator Henry Clay and then sold again, separating the...

Throughout Boston history, meeting houses have been important places.  Whether originating as churches or civic gathering points, they have long served as sources of information.  From Faneuil Hall to the Old South Meeting House, we've already looked at how certain locations have been critical to how Bostonians have come together to form opinions, exchange ideas, and mold their society.  The site we will discover this week symbolizes the city's struggle with race in faith, much as the Phillips School represented the fight for equal education. Built during the first decade of the 19th century along the waterfront at the edge of Beacon Hill (before additional land was filled in along Charles River), the original congregation that met at the corner of Mt. Vernon St. and Charles St. was that of the Third Baptist Church.  As with most locations at that time, segregation existed.  Pews were only sold to white members, and black attendees at services had to sit in the ...