The democracy of the dead
January 7, 2017 7:45 PM Subscribe
Share with me your favorite longform articles about tradition and traditions.
I've been reading a lot of depressing stuff recently, and I'd like to brighten up a bit. I'm really into sappy Norman Rockwell/It's a Wonderful Life Americana stuff. Hit me with some other stuff to cheer me up. It might be a high school football thing. It might be a Christmas/holiday thing. It might be something about a small business that's become an institution in a community. Or it could be something else entirely. As I mentioned, I'm pretty old-fashioned by temperament, but I did once use the Rocky Horror Picture Show to illustrate the concept of tradition, so I'm open to less conservative traditions as well. My one real criterion is that it has to be positive. I don't want to read more depressing stuff, and anyway it's not hard to find stuff about traditions dying out, or traditions that should die out. I'd prefer a geographic focus on the American Midwest, particularly small cities, because, as a Midwesterner myself, I can identify. But other areas are cool too.
I've been reading a lot of depressing stuff recently, and I'd like to brighten up a bit. I'm really into sappy Norman Rockwell/It's a Wonderful Life Americana stuff. Hit me with some other stuff to cheer me up. It might be a high school football thing. It might be a Christmas/holiday thing. It might be something about a small business that's become an institution in a community. Or it could be something else entirely. As I mentioned, I'm pretty old-fashioned by temperament, but I did once use the Rocky Horror Picture Show to illustrate the concept of tradition, so I'm open to less conservative traditions as well. My one real criterion is that it has to be positive. I don't want to read more depressing stuff, and anyway it's not hard to find stuff about traditions dying out, or traditions that should die out. I'd prefer a geographic focus on the American Midwest, particularly small cities, because, as a Midwesterner myself, I can identify. But other areas are cool too.
see how many of the links in this 2011 post on essayist John Jeremiah Sullivan still work!
posted by mannequito at 1:49 AM on January 8, 2017
posted by mannequito at 1:49 AM on January 8, 2017
We get this stuff in the local (Vermont) papers all the time, stuff about continuing traditions, hard work done by neighbors, etc. Some of it does have a tinge of "Who is going to step up?" to it, but so far people have been stepping up. Here are a few examples, they're not all longformish but worth a peek.
- Vermont Cemetery Stewards Are Headstone Heroes about the VT Old Cemetery Association
- For us the bells toll: Revere’s works are everyday treasures - about old bells in churches that were cast by Paul Rever and are still in use
- A New Book Documents Restored Theater Curtains - restoration of old theater curtains and the book written about this project
- Draft Horses Bring Fiber to Remote Locations - a personal favorite
posted by jessamyn at 6:47 AM on January 8, 2017
- Vermont Cemetery Stewards Are Headstone Heroes about the VT Old Cemetery Association
- For us the bells toll: Revere’s works are everyday treasures - about old bells in churches that were cast by Paul Rever and are still in use
- A New Book Documents Restored Theater Curtains - restoration of old theater curtains and the book written about this project
- Draft Horses Bring Fiber to Remote Locations - a personal favorite
posted by jessamyn at 6:47 AM on January 8, 2017
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posted by Miko at 8:14 PM on January 7, 2017