How Long Is This Post? About 2, 500 words, 12 minutes

Children working on craft activity — How can this *possibly* have been twenty years ago? All these kids are now about thirty! Aieeee! My first ever Non-Boring History event: Colonial Kids Fair, Statesboro, Georgia, 2003 Image, Annette Laing, 2003

Hello!

Today's occasional NBH newsletter is proudly awash in kids and baked goods. Here for serious history? Serious history moves in mysterious ways. Stick with me.

FIRST-EVER Sip ‘n Chat for Nonnies (paid subscribers)!

Thanks to every Nonnie—from Washington State to Washington DC to Trowbridge, Wiltshire (UK)— who joined me at Non-Boring House in Madison, WI, via Zoom, with coffee, tea, or something a bit stronger, for our VERY FIRST NBH Zoom Sip ‘n Chat.

We talked (and laughed) about Unlucky, my two-parter on the 1743 autobiography of an English indentured servant in America, touched on the relationship between indentured servitude and slavery, and discussed Sea Pie (described in Unlucky) with National Pie Expert and Nonnie A huge thank you to every Nonnie who joined us, and a special shout-out to Nonnie Sheila, who Zoomed against a background of Gnomes. Which was awesome. The Non-Boring House Gnomes were thrilled. AND a special shout-out also to Nonnie Dr. Julia Griffin, who kindly read the original book on which the posts were based, and offered great alternative takes from the perspective of English literature.

Our next Sip n Chat for Nonnies will be in early March. We'll chat about an upcoming post in which we’ll meet a charming but fierce American woman. Raised in a wealthy family, and educated at an elite college, she was one of those many posh Victorian activists on both sides of the Atlantic who dedicated her life to social justice. Months before she died in the 1950s, she was still campaigning for civil rights in her 90s, and she lived to see the end of legal segregation in America. Did I mention she was born into slavery? Yup. That too. Read that again. I know it doesn't add up. Still happened. Want to join us? Become a Nonnie, a paid subscriber.

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Calendar! Annette's Upcoming Events in Georgia

Savannah, GA: Blitzed: How WWII Bombings Affected Brits (and still do) Savannah, Georgia: Saturday, February 4, 2023, 11 a.m. at National Museum of the Mighty 8th Air Force 175 Bourne Ave, Pooler, GA 31322 (near Savannah/Hilton Head Airport) RSVP required. Talk for adults and older teens on how the WWII Blitz affected British people, including women, men, and kids. Free. (Museum admission is required only if you visit the exhibits.) Optional lunch (reservations required): $10 for Museum members, $15 for non-members. I’ll be signing my books immediately after talk. Reserve your place(s) for talk and/or lunch here, or contact 912-988-1835 or education@mightyeighth.org

Savannah, GA: Private Meet ‘n Greet with Annette for Nonnies, Saturday, February 4, 2023, 2: 30 p.m. Pooler.

Location TBA. Nonnies (paid subscribers), please RSVP by hitting reply, using Subject Line: Savannah Meet n Greet, and I'll send you info. Feel free to bring guests!

Could You Be A WWII Kid? Savannah, Georgia: Sunday, February 5, 2023, 1 p.m. National Museum of the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum: 175 Bourne Ave, Pooler, GA 31322 (near Savannah/Hilton Head Airport). Talk for families (about 20-30 minutes). This is Super Museum Sunday, so free admission. I’ll be signing my books in the Museum lobby or gift shop for most of the day. For more info: 912-988-1835 or education@mightyeighth.org

Atlanta, GA: Private Meet ‘n Greet with Annette for Nonnies, Sunday, February 12, 2023, 2 p.m.

Location TBA. It will be near an exit from 285 in Gwinnett, ample parking. Nonnies: Please RSVP by hitting reply, using Subject Line: Atlanta Meet n Greet, and I'll send you info. Feel free to bring guests!

Not a Nonnie? NBH is great value!

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Want to be a Nonnie but can’t? Fixed income? Student? Tough times? Just hit reply to this email, and let us know, and we’ll try to help.

Marmalade, Elections, and the Baking Ladies

Most food history you see isn't written or taught by academic historians. That’s why it’s fun. But this historian is a keen baker. I'm always happy to talk food history with certain writers I've dubbed The Baking Ladies, and try to complicate it a bit when I can.

Most of the Baking Ladies are no more than one degree of separation from Julia Child. When we met on Zoom, I was the odd one out. But, hey, I have a Julia Child Christmas tree ornament! I've read Julia's published letters and memoir! And I've seen Julie and Julia four times! So there.

The Baking Ladies are:

Jolene Handy at is the nicest New Yorker I've ever met. Jolene kindly asked me recently to talk about marmalade to accompany her delicious recipe for a marmalade cake. Here's the post: How The Mundane Can Connect Us To The Marvelous. You'll find my remarks below Paddington Bear. Which is about right.

at in Nashville is not only the original famed Cake Mix Doctor, but has brilliant recipes for busy cooks and bakers for every occasion, writing I look forward to, and an intellectual independence I love. Plus she's lovely, and her integrity shines. I contributed to Anne's recent post on foods in the history of elections (with recipe for Election cake!) Read it here: The Deep Dark Secret of Election Foods.

comes from cozy Pie Cottage in Port Angeles, WA, home of all things pie, led by the marvelous James Beard Award nominee Kate McDermott. I took an online class with Kate recently, and I've since made the best pies ever, and upped my crust game. Kate's wise and compassionate pie-related life lessons are the icing on the . . . pie. And I was thrilled when Kate, a Nonnie, joined us for our first ever NBH Sip n' Chat. She had pies with her. Sadly, there was no way for her to share. But here is the story of those pies, and the rest of Kate’s day at Pie Cottage. Kate doesn't know this yet, but I'm appointing her official virtual pie supplier to our online meetings.😂

at brings color, warmth, and a diverse foodie travel experience from Los Angeles, California, and beyond, with great recipes, tips, and insights into all kinds of tasty eats, especially Jewish food and family stories that come with it. Ruth's writing is just so inviting: Her kindness and decency shine, and then there are all those yummy photos of food, and my beloved California. Ruth often works with her husband and fellow journalist as they travel around the state and far beyond (think Paris) writing and filming about photography, people, and food for.

Here’s to The Baking Ladies. You’ll be hearing about them again. And since you didn’t ask, here’s a close look at my own recent bake, a banana cream pie made to a recipe from Kate McDermott:

Banana cream pie — It’s the Great British Baking Show (UK GBBO) at Non-Boring House! Image and Pie: Annette Laing, 2023

18th Century America, Twenty Years Ago

It’s been two decades since my very first history outreach to the public, the Colonial Kids Fair at Georgia Southern University. And it's a lot more important than it looks. In fact, it’s why Non-Boring History exists.

Welcome to a temporarily sunny spring day in Statesboro, Georgia, in April, 2003. Hundreds of local kids and their families have descended onto campus for a popular Art Fair for kids, run by the Art Department, and, tacked onto it, our (my student volunteers and I, that is) Colonial Kids Fair. That’s not a name I could use now, but in those days, people assumed—rightly— I meant 17th and 18th century America, which I did, and not some sinister effort to train children as imperialists, which is silly, but being absurd is no obstacle to Twitter Types. How did this lead to NBH? That’s a long story, and this is a start.

Children gathered at tables — The kid in the foreground carries a Colonial Kids’ Fair passport, which she would get stamped every time she completed an activity. Kids love that! Image: Annette Laing, 2003

Non-Boring History

Baking Ladies, Colonial Kids, and Georgia

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