Pompeii

 

Photo by K. Jones. Pompeii, 8 Oct 1985.

In October 1985, while our family was living in Germany, my parents took my sister and I on a trip to Italy. One of the highlights of that trip was a walk through the ruins of Pompeii, a city destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. This was a formative visit for 11 year old me, capturing my imagination for history and travel. I later minored in History and Classics in college. This week National Geographic released a three part docu-drama, Pompeii Out of Time, with Tom Hiddleston (see trailer on YouTube).

The Nat Geo program focuses on the story of three Romans during the disaster, interwoven with Tom consulting various experts to understand how these people might have reacted and survived. I like that it tries to tell the stories of these people and the locations of Pompeii and Herculaneum in an interesting way. Yes, there's some cheesy bits with Tom freezing and rewinding time, but just watch.

Me & my sister in Pompeii. Oct 1985.

"History gives us facts - names, dates, places - and while all of this evidence is critical, it will never give us the full picture. How people felt, how people lived, how people loved...I hope that by combining these two things - evidence and empathy, history and story...I hope I've told their historia." Tom Hiddleston, episode 3.

NewspaperFinder

 

NewspaperFinder.com. July 2026.

In April 2026, a small team launched NewspaperFinder, a database for every digitized newspaper available online. At the beginning of July, they kicked off a catalog feature. You still search across newspapers by year and location, but new features are being added. It would be really cool to search by topic across all of these newspaper databases.

I'm partly adding this as a reminder to myself to check NewspaperFinder on a regular schedule.

Nostalgia

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Turoni's Pizza, Evansville. 19 July 2026.

We're now all back from reunion weekend, after picking up the family from a series of flights. Part of this trip in addition to seeing family was returning to old familiar places in the town my wife grew up in. "It's about the nostalgia" she said.

One of the locations was the country club house (now renovated and completely changed) for lunch with her uncle and aunt on her Dad's side. This is where we had our wedding reception back in 1999, and it is a place we haven't seen since.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Oak Meadow. 19 July 2026.

On this visit we stayed in a new part of town, one that was very unfamiliar from the memories of her youth. This is an observation as it is really her story to tell, but places change and evolve. I could sense her frustration not remembering the town in the same way. I probably could not drive around southside or Downtown Indy without navigation helping me get there now. It was that way on this trip, needing navigation to cross town. Some of the roads we recognized, some were completely new.

We played in the family softball game, put up some shots on the barn basketball hoop and enjoyed the time with cousins, aunts, uncles, grands and greats. We held some puppies, surveyed the corn, and generated some new memories among our four.

Travel delays

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. SDF, Louisville. 21 July 2026.

Yesterday's storms forced a overnight stay next to Louisville's Muhammad Ali International Airport, rerouting me on a very early flight this morning back home. I have a lot to catch up on, with further posts from the reunion weekend to follow.

Reunions

This weekend we have a family reunion on Allison's side. It's been a few years since we've been back to the farm, and we're looking forward to seeing cousins, nieces, grands and greats. We have some catching up to do.