One of the perks, maybe one of the problems, of being retired is the time available to read—and in our era, time to watch YouTube, X and countless other venues online.
I enjoy reading a pretty broad view of subjects, as long as they’re well-written, and perhaps that’s the result of being a former high school English teacher.
At the time, in the 70’s and 80’s, the 11th grade English fall curriculum included the first research paper, and the department listed about 50 titles of classics for students to base their work on.
The first year I taught that grade, I had to read many of those for the first time, and almost all the books I had to read again. We had to assign, or at least guide, students in choosing their book, and I had a prescriptive system of how they would analyze it.
I remember “Of Mice and Men” being a go-to for students who had a problem with English; they could do a minimum of three paragraphs and satisfy all the requirements of quotes and footnotes. Other students needed to do at least five.
In retirement from teaching and then an unrelated job, at first, I used my reading time well. I started to pare down “The 100 Must-Read Books of All Time” which kept me busy for a while (of course I haven’t finished it).
But after working on those, some best-sellers, and some interesting New York Times reviewed books, I’ve gotten to be a lazy retiree.
I watch too many videos. Unlike others who are spending their time doing good, I no longer have a goal or a project to accomplish.
I follow politics, but I’m not doing anything about it.
So currently, I must admit I love “conspiracy theory” topics mainly online. A recent discovery of mine is actually non-political, dealing not with “fake news” but “fake history” (my term, not theirs).
Channels in surprising numbers hooked me with intriguing titles such as “Mud Flood,” “Old World” and “Tartaria,” the latter term recently mentioned on the Joe Rogan podcast.
What originally caught my eye was pretty mundane: thumbnail photos of half- and even quarter-sized windows at the foundation of many old buildings. We’ve all been in basement sections where high windows looked at outside sidewalks and concrete curbs.
It’s a “so what?” I thought.
I won’t go on the pathways of the low windows topic, but they are many and fascinating. Delving into these foundation level windows, authors and creators go way, way beyond the “new-architecture-over-old” everybody knows from history class.
These new writers on alternative history started about 10 years ago and are recently growing in number.
They use observable architecture, old maps and writings to propose concepts I found mind-bending such as: we are missing about a thousand years of history (the middle ages didn’t happen); the Civil War was one of many societal “resets;” old soldiers’ homes were to limit talk; orphanages, ‘orphan trains’ and child-labor facilities were to educate clones; exhibits such as the Chicago World’s Fair used more existing ‘Old World’ buildings than new ones; state buildings across the country couldn’t have been built with nineteenth century labor and technology.
In this vein, architectural photos of exteriors and interiors are by themselves worth a look.
I have many doubts and questions and “what abouts,” and I’m far from a believer or a proponent of any of it. I’ve never been the smartest person in a room-- I’ve read too many Dannielle Steele novels and watched too many YouTube tutorials on makeup for older women to make any such claims.
So, I don’t believe everything I read but while I can, I’m still going to read it.
Marilyn Stokes is a retired public-school teacher. She lives in Collinsville where she is an active community and church volunteer.