Author Dennis Higgins
  • About the Author
  • Time Pilgrims Trilogy
  • Pennies From Across the Veil
  • The Old Scrapbook
  • Blog
  • The Writer's Apprentice
  • Steampunk Alice
  • The Adventures of Black Lace
  • Parallel Roads
  • Katya and Cyrus
  • Almost Yesterday
  • Tomorrow's Borrowed Trouble
  • Confessions of an Internet Scammer
  • From Here to Eternity - Fan Club
  • The Vacant Lot

March 29th, 2013

3/29/2013

13 Comments

 

Gone but Not Forgotten

My passion in life is and always was… things that are gone but not forgotten.
In other words, I love things from the past. This is why I write time travel stories.
It helps me become one with the past that I would
otherwise never experience, things like the American Civil War, the great San
Francisco earthquake of 1906 or the Woodstock Music Festival. I was also fascinated with the great ocean liner called RMS Titanic years before the Cameron movie made it popular. I also like great unsolved mysteries from the past such as the Lindbergh baby, the Kennedy
assassination and to discover what happened to Amelia Earhart.  But
for me, the ultimate, especially for a Chicago born and bred guy was the great
Chicago Fire of 1871. It is hard to fathom an entire city going up in flames for
miles upon miles. I once talked to a very aged neighbor of mine who told me
about his grandparents sitting on their porch (of the very house he still owned)
and watching the glow from that fire. I realize that the fire devastated and
even killed many people but aside from the tragedy, I would have loved to
witness it. This is why I wrote Katya and Cyrus Time Pilgrims. Through their
eyes, I was able to be in the fire and experience it firsthand.


However, not all of my gone but not forgotten passions are
tragedies or disasters. I also would have loved to experience the old world’s
fairs where people witnessed things like electricity and television for the
first time. The Ferris wheel on my blog page is the very first one and came from
the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Each car held up to sixty three people. I also
love and miss musicians from the past such as the Beatles and Buddy Holly (oops,
I’m back to disasters again). Sometimes it’s a way of life that I wish I could
have lived. I read about people who lived in earlier times, such as the great
depression or the war days of the 1940s and how they loved the simpler and more
ethical ways of living, simpler time they call it. One of those simpler ways is
how people would travel the roads of America back then. We didn’t have super
highways with extravagant tolls; we had roads that went through all the small
towns...slowly. That way people could really experience life in other places,
even if it was just neighboring states. These were roads like the Lincoln
Highway, Highway 41 and the most famous road in the world, Route 66. I was
probably on this road as a kid since it wasn’t fully decommissioned until the
mid-eighties, but I had been on the old road since, which is now posted as Historic Route 66. I always wondered what it would have been like to travel the road back then, perhaps riding in
another disaster, a Ford Edsel. That is how my first novel, Parallel Roads (Lost
on Route 66) was born (minus the Edsel). In it, I am able to travel the road,
again through the eyes of my characters in modern times and in the past.  


Perhaps you are younger and have your own
gone but not forgotten passions. Perhaps you miss TV shows such as Blossom or the original 90210 or Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Maybe it’s a favorite band or type of music. What is your gone but not forgotten?

13 Comments
Virginia Wright link
4/11/2013 07:43:07 am

Great blog post, Dennis! This explains your time travel writing. I too have an interest in things gone, but not forgotten..."heirloom recipes."

Reply
Dennis Higgins - Author
4/11/2013 09:58:25 pm

Thank you, Virginia. I also think heirloom recipes are great. I know my 83 year old mom still uses her mom's (my grandma) recipe book for certain things. My German grandmother made a dish called Shaumtorte which is mostly forgotten. People in Germany never heard of it but Germans in Milwaukee, WI have. That's where Gram was born. But I have to say, the ones you get in Wisconsin are small. Gram's was the size of a pie.

http://worththewhisk.com/2009/08/16/wisconsin-schaum-tortes/

Reply
Patricia
4/13/2013 04:56:55 am

I love old recipes too. My favorite is what I call Veggy Mash, it goes back to my great grandma, It is rutabaga, carrots, and sweet potato cooked and mashed together with only butter, salt, and pepper. Everyone loves it. We grew up on root vegetables and they are sadly underused these days.

Virginia Wright link
4/14/2013 08:25:46 am

Dennis, I wasn't fortunate enough to get any of my mother's cookbooks. But I managed to get one wooden box that says recipes, and I cherish it.

I checked out the link you sent. Thank you. The Shaumtorte looks like a Meringue, however the recipe for meringue doesn't include vinegar.

Wow! Shaumtorte the size of a pie. Did you eat the whole torte? I will have to read about them further. Interested in knowing if you put anything on them, or eat them just as is?

Virginia Wright link
4/14/2013 08:28:42 am

Veggy Mash! Yumma! I love root vegetables with real butter, salt, and pepper, Patricia. Thanks for sharing your heirloom recipe. -Virginia

Jodi Desautels
4/11/2013 08:16:20 am

I enjoyed this blog, Dennis. I also relic the "things gone, but not forgotten." There have been times when I have felt that I was born in the wrong time frame... that I some how would feel more comfortable in a different time. I like to experience the "good ole days" as well. Thank you for posting!

Reply
Patricia
4/12/2013 02:05:06 pm

I agree with you and wonder sometimes if past lives do exist and perhaps we lived in some of those times. Since that cannot be proven, time travel books keep me entertained.

Reply
Dennis Higgins - Author
4/12/2013 09:48:52 pm

I personally don't believe in reincarnation as such but I do think past energy can be channeled to others. In other words, we can feel the past lives of people and events.

atricia link
4/13/2013 04:41:43 am

I am open minded to anything including reincarnation if there is no evidence to the contrary.

Patricia LaPolt link
4/12/2013 11:40:40 am

I loved Katya and Cyrus and cannot wait for the next book, when will it be out? I have read many time travel books and love you using American History, so many are European. I will console myself with route 66 but the books need to be a bit longer as I am a fast and avid reader. Thank You for the enjoyment I got from this book. Please include the Civil and Revolutionary wars in future books and Abraham Lincoln.

Reply
Dennis Higgins - Author
4/12/2013 09:54:44 pm

Thank you for your kind words, Patricia. I also like American history but I do have to admit, there are a couple of British sequences in my upcoming book, Almost Yesterday but it still has even more American time travel.

Ironically, I plan on a Civil War pilgrimage in book three, but it is not written yet. I will think about the Revolutionary War also. Good idea.

Reply
Patricia
4/13/2013 04:50:27 am

Whatever you include I am sure it will be compelling and interesting. If it weren't for Amazon I wouldn't even know about you and so many other good authors. I just buy myself a gift card every few months. Books are the greatest gift to humankind and I love reading them on my Kindle. Keep writing as fast as you can.

Dennis Higgins - Author
7/13/2013 10:56:55 pm

I wanted to say that my latest book in this series is out and available. It is my personal favorite. It's called Almost Yesterday. I hope you have a chance to read it.

-Dennis Higgins

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Dennis Higgins
    Author of romantic, fun, time-travel stories.

    Categories

    All

    Archives

    May 2022
    March 2019
    July 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.