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Listening To The Heartbeat Of History

photo provided Famed around the world, cherry blossoms were the treat for the visitors.

photo provided VUHS Travelers pause at the feet of Abraham Lincoln to reflect and look out over the city of Washington DC.

photo provided One of the sites all Americans should witness is the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Tuesday April 10, 2012

By Cookie Steponaitis

      Every nation has a heartbeat, a pulse that resonates with the messages of the past and the promise of the future. Americans who listen to that heartbeat can learn about the past and the common denominators present in all of us. They can harness that power and use it to move the country forward. Twenty three VUHS travelers experienced four fast paced days and did just that. Leaving Vermont in a sultry 80 degree heat wave the travelers made a historic loop that included Washington D.C’s White House, Supreme Court, War Memorials, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Holocaust Museum, Tomb of the Unknown at Arlington, and an evening live show at the Kennedy Center. The group then went south to Mount Vernon the home of George Washington, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown and looped north to the battle fields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Sleeping little and walking a lot, the group found not only hospitality, amusement and fun, but a thread woven throughout all of U.S. History, a sense of the power of the people and belief in unalienable rights and the intensity with which this nation continues to grow and change.

   “I was fifteen years old when I was deported to Auschwitz,” shared Holocaust survivor Henry Greenbaum, when talking with the VUHS students at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. “When the troops came to liberate us, I weighed 75 pounds.” With the students captivated by his every word, Greenbaum went on to speak of the power of freedom and the ease with which it could be taken away- one thread invisibly woven around the travelers on those days. Another voice came from Garamond, the guide at Colonial Williamsburg who showed them how to hike up their pant legs, present their best calf muscle and dance for the ladies wearing wigs and proper attire. Besides sharing the importance of the 18th century streets and events of Colonial Williamsburg, he reminded the students that important people would have silversmiths make useful items out of the coins of the time. So, when the time came, a wealthy person could display his spoons and to coin the phrase, “put his money where his mouth was.” Walking through the mountain of despair and gazing up at the newest monument in D.C., as Reverend Dr. Martin L. King walks out of the stone of hope, the travelers paused to reflect and stand in awe of what this man represents. Later the guide at Yorktown challenged the group to reflect on the medical conditions of the time and cures for diseases such as scurvy and techniques used for amputations when wounds of battle became inoperable. Walking the paths of Mount Vernon the travelers came face to face with George Washington the man and found him even more intriguing than the legend or the face carved into mountains and memorialized on money. Silhouetted against a sunlit sky at Gettysburg, the group experienced the horror of the battle and walked the land simulating the charge of the Vermont Brigade during the battle. During that evening, as the shadows on the field darkened, a guide took the group through the town and told of the horror that engulfed Gettysburg as fifty thousand descended on the city needing escape, treatment and attention. At each stop and throughout each phase of the trip, the voice of tour guide Kim Lonzo added historical facts, anecdotes and first hand accounts about the events adding to the richness of the traveler’s journey through history. “It was mind blowing,” shared traveler Megan Stearns. “I just kept looking around and realizing what events had gone on there and how those people had struggled and survived to give us a start and a new nation.”

   Social Studies and history teacher Pamela Taylor shared, “I watched the student’s faces as they looked up at Rev. King’s monument with respect and when walking the battlefields of Gettysburg feeling the spirit of that battle and the pride they felt about Vermont’s role in it and understanding how it must have been for Americans fighting Americans and the meaning of that war or any war. I teach my students that history is about people and their stories and how events impact their lives. We were honored to meet a gentleman who survived the Holocaust and as I watched the kids listen carefully to his voice I witnessed their emotional connection to what he shared. We had the opportunity to “tie one on” at a colonial dinner and learned where the expression originated while eating with a knife as they did during colonial times. I enjoyed watching the kids have great fun while listening to songs from the times. History became alive for them and these types of experiences are invaluable.”

   When the bus returned to Vergennes in the wee hours of the morning of day five, the trip was still too fresh and over powering to put into words, but one tired traveler did. Turning to hug her mom who collected her luggage and give her a ride home she simply said, “I felt America. I touched it.” One heartbeat found and recorded. One legacy, link and passion passed on to a new generation who will in turn be the future of the next heartbeat of freedom, responsibility and connectivity to something greater than ones self- the history of our nation.

   The travelers to Virginia would like to thank the Vergennes Eagles, American Legion, and Vergennes Rotary for their kindness and support of monetary donations toward the trip.

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