January 2011

Nathan Ward says in his essay on Brooklyn in this issue that one in seven American families has its roots in that borough’s soil. This sort of claim is a fact-checker’s nightmare, but nobody can deny the powerful hold that Brooklyn has on the national imagination.

It colonized mine in a curious way long before I ever set foot there. I became obsessed with Coney Island when I was about 10 years old. I had no reason even to think about Coney. I was a Westchester County boy, but all I wanted was to go to Steeplechase Park.

For those of you who think the drive-in movie theater is a thing of the past, we have good news. There are still more than 400 drive-ins operating today (40 of them have been built or reopened in the last five years), and most are showing first-run films. (See drive-ins.com for a searchable list.) Even though this is significantly fewer locations than were open during the drive-in’s heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, the experience they offer remains magical.

Jump in Your Car and Come as You Are Screenings What Happened at Fort Pillow?

Contact Cunard ( www.cunard.com ) or your travel agent to see what’s on the schedule, from the 6-day Atlantic crossing to a 38-day passage around Cape Horn. Know that however long your voyage, you will not be bored. Not only does the ship itself reward days of exploration, but there is a full program of activities, entertainment high and low, movies, fitness classes, a wonderfully well-stocked library to browse, and lecturers specializing in liner history and the places you’ll visit. On my trip a very good university lecturer pulled together the disparate pieces of Caribbean history; he specializes in the sugar trade (and his wife in coffee). A “heritage trail” through the QM2 tells the story of all the great Cunard liners, with wall exhibits, an audio tour, and interactive stations where you can watch newsreel footage of the first Queen Mary coming into New York Harbor.

Years ago, I acquired a wonderful piece of memorabilia, an invitation to the September 26, 1934 launch of a ship known as No. 534, with Their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary in attendance. The vessel’s name was a closely guarded secret until the Queen smashed a wine bottle against its hull, thus christening the Queen Mary. I was decades late for that ceremony; nor did I get another chance when the present British monarch christened the second Cunarder of that name on January 8, 2004.

Wall Street, the world’s greatest capital market, is inevitably a mirror to the global economy. What happens in the world is quickly reflected in Wall Street as market forces and new technology cause old industries to fade and new ones to rise. And nothing illustrates better just how much the economy has changed in the last half-century than what’s happened to the major companies traded on Wall Street.

A Rip Van Winkle who dozed off in 1955 would probably be startled to learn that, of the 30 stocks that then made up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, only 5 —DuPont, General Electric, General Motors, Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon), and United Aircraft (now United Technologies)—are still on the list in 2005. Several of the mightiest companies in the Dow today, such as Home Depot, Intel, Microsoft, and Wal-Mart, did not even exist in 1955. And Rip would surely be flabbergasted to learn that General Motors, the mightiest industrial corporation on the face of the Earth in 1955, would have had its bonds demoted to junk status in 2005.

Kudos to Kevin Baker on his memorandum of sorts, “A Matter of State,” in defense of his home. It is a little masterpiece of philosophical eloquence, with some simple beauty on the side.

I hope someone distributes and reads this exemplar of homespun common sense to a joint session of Congress, especially around any election time.

Thank you, Mr. Baker.

Kevin Baker’s column “In the News: A Matter of State” (April/May 2005) shows the author was just another sour-grapes loser in the most recent election, and I am glad he’s not holding his breath for an apology. I did have the privilege of being born in Massachusetts and had a wonderful education in the New Bedford schools, where I was made well aware of the history we native sons are proud to claim. Can you imagine trying to compare the great character of John Adams with the current politicians in the little “bean” state where millionaires buy their elective office? Would you trust your daughter to be alone with one senator or to go into combat with the other? If the state has earned the nickname “the Socialist Republic of Massachusetts,” perhaps there is a reason.

Wow! Stephen W. Sears’s article on James Longstreet is so overdue (“General Longstreet and the Lost Cause,” February/ March 2005). It is disturbing that the general’s reputation was maliciously destroyed, seemingly with the blessing of historians who should have known better. Civil War history is very important to us as a warning about the pitfalls of pride and prejudice. Longstreet’s bravery after the war, just as strong as it was during, should be heralded as an example of sacrifice and patriotism. He is truly a significant example of heroism now in a time when we need it.