... About History

Reader, I am many kinds of nerd. I know this. I've accepted it.

I've always been a writing nerd. I've always been a grammar nerd (which I think is really just a subset of writing nerds). I've always been an I-tend-to-fall-off-of-small-vehicles-such-as-jetskis-and-Razr-scooters nerd. Over the years I've also become a random factoid nerd, a Harry Potter nerd, and a Lost nerd (just mere hours to go!).

But to be perfectly honest, Reader, I never considered myself a history nerd, mostly because I always thought history was one of the most boring subjects in school. I understood it, and got decent enough grades, but I was never really invested in it.

In the last few years, however, I've grown to realize that I am, in fact, a history nerd. Just not in the traditional sense. I'm not real big on who was the king and what laws passed when and all that nonsense. But I am very interested in the history of stuff.

I am a material girl living in a material world.

For example: I just came across a penny from 1957. When I first spotted it, lying face-down on the desktop, I instantly felt a little giddy inside. I knew it was a treasure of some kind, because rather than the Lincoln Memorial it had the bold "ONE CENT" text flanked by the wheat tares. I flipped it over to see how old it was - this little penny is in its 52nd year. Amazing, isn't it?

I love when I find old coins like that. I love to think about where it's been. Who's pocket has it jangled around in? What did it buy? Maybe it was lodged in somebody's loafer at Central High School in Little Rock the day the first black students arrived. Maybe Paul McCartney used it to buy a new guitar string before the Beatles rocked Shea Stadium. Maybe Bill Gates used it to buy himself his morning cup of coffee the day the idea for Windows struck him.

This little penny has been around for the moon landing, for the launch of SNL, for the end of the Cold War. This penny was around the Day the Music Died. And yes, while my parents were also around for all of those things, their exact whereabouts aren't as big of a mystery. They are much easier to keep track of than a tiny piece of copper. It could have been anywhere. This penny could have played a significant part in history, and nobody would even know it!

With all the talk lately about the historic-ness of President Obama's election, inauguration, and the start of his term in office, I have to wonder if maybe someday, some other nerd like me will find this little old penny and think to themselves, "Wow! I wonder where this penny was the day that Barack Obama became president?"

So maybe I'm a history nerd after all. But at least I'm not a read-other-peoples'-blogs-and-make-fun-of-their-nerdiness nerd. Those are the worst kind.