The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Jess Cifizzari & Shannah Mort Joined Alex Urpí & Xavier Urpí On "Today y Mañana!"

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

Jess Cifizzari, President of The James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage, and Shannah Mort, Executive Director of The James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage, joined Michael Urpí & Xavier Urpí On “Today y Mañana!” “Today y Mañana” airs every Thursday at 10:15 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Today y Mañana” is presented by Emergent Financial Services, LLC, Craddock Insurance Services Inc and Matthias John Realty, with Forward Adelante.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today y Mañana. I'm Alex. This is Xavier. We're very excited to have you joining us on a bit of a wet and rainy morning here in Charlottesville, Virginia. But that's just a great excuse to get into your cozy place, grab your café con leche, and watch some Today y Mañana. It's a perfect day. I mean, let's be honest. I mean, this is the kind of day most people say, I think I'll go out tomorrow. You don't have to go outside. If you don't have to go food shopping, don't go food shopping. If you don't have

to go to work, don't go to work. If you have to go to work, put today on the earphones and listen in while you're ostensibly working. There's always a good reason to watch some today. We are looking forward to that. You're not going to be disappointed because today we're going to be joined later in the show

by two great guests, Jess Cifizari, the president, and Shana Mort, executive director for the James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage. So we already know it's going to be a great show. You're going to find out shortly that it's going to be a great show. So stay tuned for that. I'm glad to be here

with you today. No, I'm delighted you're back. I know that you had a good time while you were away, which is fantastic. That's always important. It was an excellent time. It was a great time. So I enjoyed it. It was a long trip back, but I am back, and I'm glad to be back. So that's always important. Sometimes to go to those remote places takes

a little time to get there. It does take some time. It does take some time if you want to travel, but it is good. It is good. And of course, a big thank you to Emergent Financial Services for presenting, and for our awesome partners at Matthias Yon Realty Credit Series Insurance Forward Adelante. Thank you to all our viewers who are tuning in. Be sure to send us any questions, comments that you may have. We will definitely read them on air and tell our guests how much you love our guests. So we always read the dope ones. Always read the dope ones. So you can be sure of that.

So I don't know about you, but I'm excited. I'm very excited, yes. I mean, we were chatting before, so I know they're ready to go and we're ready to hear. Same here. Same here. So with that, let's not wait any longer. We're welcoming to the show this morning Jess Sifitsari, the President and Shana Mort Executive

Director of the James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage. Jess, Shauna, thanks so much for tuning in to join us this morning. Thanks for having us. Excited to be here. Glad to have you on. So for those who haven't met you yet, maybe haven't been to the museum yet, maybe you could tell us a little bit about how each of you became involved first with the museum and then a little bit about the history of the museum.

Yeah, so a few years ago, I think it's six or seven years ago now I can't remember I have some old family photos that pertain to Orange County history and so I took him by the museum and I said hey would you guys like copies of these and they said yes we would and I looked around and I just sort of never left after that six months later I was on the board, and then a year later, I was the president. And so it's just one of those things, you know, if you love history and you find a spot that really has good history, you get in there and you stay. So I had been, you know, working in history circles in Orange County already. Jess and I we

can't really pinpoint exactly how we met we just feel like we've always in each other but we did have some we did work together some in you know within history circles when I was a curator at the exchange hotel I was invited to come on to the board a little over a year ago and when the board asked me to come in as an acting executive director I was both honored and extremely excited to jump on board and here I am. That's fantastic. Yeah that's great that's great. So it's funny it's a little bit like history right I mean so they don't know exactly when they met it's like history sometimes you just don't know I'm not saying that at all but I'm just saying how history works, right? They say that you can tell

something was a good decision because looking back it seemed inevitable, and it's just one day we just had each other's numbers and we knew each other forever. Yeah, and we know it's been a long time. We just like, yeah, we are always like, where did we really meet again? That's always a beautiful thing.

It really is, yeah. It's true. It gives you that sense that it had to be. So tell us a little bit about, I'm betting there's some viewers who like me had not heard of the museum before. So maybe start us off with a little bit of the history of the museum. How did it get started and what's kind of the mission of the museum? Yeah, so the museum was founded in 1976 as part of the Bicentennial Commission in Orange. We were celebrating everything going on in America and around that time. And at that time, Montpelier was still a private residence. So it was still owned by Marion DuPont Scott.

It didn't move into the National Historic Trust and a presidential home site until the mid to late 80s when she passed away. And so the Bicentennial Commission really wanted to create something to honor Madison's contribution to America, but also to agriculture and to the Commonwealth of Virginia and all the things that he had done. Because not only was he a great statesman and a great thinker but he was very innovative in what he did with farming and agriculture and and the things there at Montpelier and the way that he managed things and so they founded the museum we have been there since 1976 continuously the part of the museum's title that I like to focus on is the of Orange County heritage because now we do have Montpelier. That's a great home site, a great museum. It really does justice to Madison and all of the people who. You know, Montpelier didn't exist in a vacuum.

And so there were people living in the area. Orange County used to cover eight states. It actually stretched all the way to the Mississippi River and up into the Great Lakes area when it was chartered in 1734. Now, granted, it got smaller pretty quickly, but at one point in time, it was that big. And so we really are the stewards of that history of Orange County and everything that it's come through and so we talk about the indigenous people who were here and we talk about the freed settlements of the people who came out of enslavement and all of the history of Orange County is what we're focusing on there at the museum. That's fantastic. Really? Wow. You know, because history, you know, we often think of the big events,

the things we learn in school, the things in the textbook. But like we were talking about earlier, you know, it's really the everyday people, you know, how they were living their lives, what they were feeling, how they were interacting in their communities, their churches. And, you know, I feel like, you know, I guess, Jess, you know, you agree that we want to really focus on the heritage, the people, those people that made Orange County as amazing, as great as it is. And, you know, we have so much rich history going so far back. And I, you know, our mission is to really highlight all of that yeah that's that's awesome

yeah and that's important I mean I mean I think that's you know sometimes you go to museums and they only highlight on certain things right but one of the things that I that I like about museums in some places is that they also touch about the people the people that that were there because it's people that make history let's be be honest, right? I mean, there are events in nature that will create history, but in essence, people is what create history. And so it's nice to see, you know, like I think you mentioned before, you read a letter of somebody that was in the Civil War, and you say, that's true history.

There's a person that is writing to their family, and what he or she is saying is so important. The things that don't often make it into the textbooks. Exactly. And it really provides a whole different context on what we think we know about our history. And it also helps humanize history and not make it just what's written down, what's in textbooks, or even pictures. It really helps humanize and help us understand what people were going through, what life was like at that time. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So what are some of the things people can, so what are some of the exhibits and things people can see in the museum? What are some of the artifacts and things that you have there? So our museum is broken down into sort of different rooms that capture different things. We have a temporary exhibit room that changes throughout the year. Currently that's an exhibit on Bloomsbury, which we'll touch on in a minute, that's getting ready

to change in November. We have an exhibit on Lafayette, the Marquis de Lafayette coming. We're very excited about that. We have our Black History Room which talks about time from

the enslaved people at Montpelier through the Revolutionary War and the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement and we have some Edna Lewis pieces. Edna Lewis was a famous chef who was there from there in Orange. We're very proud to have those pieces. We have our Native American exhibit, which talks about the indigenous

tribes that were living in the Orange County area when the European settlers came through. We have our agricultural hall, which is probably the most popular of all the spaces in the museum because in there we do have two model t cars we also have a original tenant farmhouse that was built in 1733 that was found on property down in rapidan it belonged to governor spotswood and it was disassembled catalog brought to the museum and put together so you can actually walk into a home that was built in 1733. And then, of course, our president's room where we have our Madison pieces. And we also have all of the Virginia-born presidents represented there as well. So there's something for everyone and something that really captures all the pieces of orange there in the museum.

And, you know, with our temporary exhibit room as well, it helps us to keep things fresh, help us keep things relevant. You know, there's always something new to see. Sometimes we think, I've been to that museum once changed. I was just there last year. And, you know, we're excited that that's not the case with us. And we have, you know, so many temporary exhibits coming up that we've got planned that we're excited about. And, you know, it's just, you get a little bit of everything where we are. And we also have the Zachary Taylor Presidential Bed as well. We do have one of our new pieces there.

So you've got some. We do. It's quite a few original pieces. We do have Madison and Taylor's original Campeche chairs. We have quite a few Taylor pieces because Taylor was born there in Orange County. Obviously Madison lived there at Montpelier. And a lot

of people don't realize Taylor and Madison were cousins. I didn't know that either. So there was a lot of familial stuff happening there in Orange between those two gentlemen. That's amazing.

You mentioned Bloomsbury. Yes. Tell us a little bit about that. Sean is going to tell you about that. So Bloomsbury Manor is a historical building that we, through the Helen Marie Taylor Trust, we have been allowed to give tours there, to give educational talks there. It's one of the oldest existential dwellings in Orange County.

We just had the dendrochronology done. We've dated it back to 1752. Yeah. And Mrs. Taylor, it's interesting story. The home was actually bought and given to her by her husband as a wedding gift in, I want to say 1960. and it was brought back into the Taylor family, because that was her family, and he was a Taylor as well, and she spent her life turning it sort of into her own personal museum, filling it with artifacts and original furniture and restoring it, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Old buildings, like we were talking about, are really one of my happy places and so we do give um scheduled private tours of bloomsbury manor it it's an absolutely gorgeous the outside property the inside of the building um you know there's history there from you know the 1700s all the way through the civil war jefferson davis actually spent the night there. The family was just told that, you know, there would be an important visitor coming.

They were told that by Robert E. Lee, we need you to, you know, give him a place to stay, and here comes Jefferson Davis. So he did stay there for a few nights when the Confederate troops were in the town of Orange, because I don't know if you all know, but Robert E. Lee's main center during the Civil War when they were in this area was the town of Orange because, I don't know if y'all know, but Robert E. Lee's main center during the Civil War when they were in this area was the town of Orange. Stonewall Jackson took the other side of Orange in the town of Gordonsville. So that was where his encampment was. Robert E. Lee was based out of the town of Orange. So when there was a lot of- The base of operations? Yes, yes.

Wow. And I mean, there were, you know, in talking about Orange history and things like that, Orange does have a huge history. We've got the Revolutionary history. We've got the Civil War history. There were several battles or engagements that took place in Orange. It just popped up the other day. August 2nd of 1860-something, I can't remember the exact year, there was a cavalry skirmish on Main Street in front of the courthouse. I want to say 64.

I think, yeah. And so there's so much history in Orange, and we're so lucky to be able to cover so many pieces of it through the museum because we aren't set on just one thing. We're able to focus on all of the history. And so we really have something for everyone. I challenge high school students when they come in and they're like, oh, history is boring.

We don't like that. And I'm like, look, you tell me what you like. And I've got something in this museum that pertains to that. We have World War II history. I mean, you know, we cover a little bit of everything, you know. And so there's something for everyone. And, you know, history, if done right, you can make it come alive. And I think we've done a really great job of that in Orange County in general,

but at the museum, I think we've done a great job. I think that's one of the beauties of having something focused on the history of a place. I think sometimes too often there's, okay, the museum of this time period. Right, yes. So you're kind of locked in to that time period, which can be fascinating in its own way. But I think one of the beauties of what you have here is you can sort of trace the history of a place over time. And so there really is that kind of, okay, if the Revolutionary War isn't quite piquing your interest today,

you've got the Civil War. That's not quite doing it. You've got World War. But you can see the change in the history of how people live in a particular place and how, especially a place, I think, as central as Orange because it's had so many major elements. Layer upon layer.

Yes. It's really, one of the things that i love the most is we'll have families come in who've had relatives who lived in orange or they are from orange or something and they come in and there's pieces from their family in the museum there's pieces about their family in the museum because we're talking about the people of the community. And I think that's really, really neat, especially when they don't realize it's in there. You know, they'll be walking around and then they're like, that's my great grandpa right there, you know. And so it's just an amazing experience to be able to bring that to the community and offer that. And we are just very privileged to be the stewards of the history of Orange County and to be helping move it in a forward direction.

And to grow and to not just, you know, our vision now as a board, as a museum, is to continue to grow, to continue to tell history as it happens, to highlight the past and how it's relevant to today, and, you know, and to keep it alive, keep history alive. And that's just, I know that's just as passionate as my passion. And, you know, we have so many people in Orange County that are passionate about the county's history.

We are really fortunate that we've been able to work with an amazing group of people from Montpelier to our historical society, our African-American historical society, some of our sites, some of our families that have been here for generation after generation after generation. I mean, we have a century farm. We have just so many things. And so we're really fortunate to live where we live, to work where we work, and with the people that we get to interact with. It's just really a blessing. And that's important because one of the things that I see in today's world is that we

are kind of a digitized world. And it just seems like we get bombarded with information but information that's just today right and once in a while we we seem to forget that there was a past and i think you know you know when i grew up the past was much more important because you had to read books and you went to school and then you know so there was a lot more book reading but now you know with these little phones here, you're constantly getting just bombarded with quick information and you know, whatever, Instagram or Facebook or whatever you're on, right? It's almost like anything that happened a week ago is no longer relevant. Exactly. So it's nice to be able to go to a place

and see what the past looked like. And let's be honest. I mean, Virginia, in just the state of Virginia in itself, I mean, Civil War, Revolutionary War were so key. I mean, so much happened in this particular state. And obviously in Orange County, that was also such a central place in the sense of Virginia. So it's great to have a place where you can go and, as you said, relive history from a perspective of not just artifacts, but people and how it happened and the whole Orange County

went from being really large to smaller, but the impact it had. And I know before you also talked about Lafayette and something's coming up also. Yeah, so following the Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette returned to America. He did a tour of America. And he came back to Orange because he and Madison had become great friends. And so we are very lucky to be helping host the American Friends of Lafayette in November. They will be coming to Orange for a few days.

And they're going to come to the museum and do a tour there. They're going to do a walking tour. We've got a book talk that we're doing about Lafayette's time. And then we're having an event at Chateau Maryland that's open to the public. So all of these things are open to the public because we want people to come and be excited and be learning and find out things that they, you know, yes, we know who Lafayette is, but what do you know about Lafayette and his time and his relationships and those things? And we're very lucky because, again, talking about letters,

we have letters that people wrote about, oh, he came and he had dinner here and he did this and this is what we had and this is what we wore because they really, they did that in a literary sense with their letters and things like that. Today we're doing it with our Instagrams, with our Facebooks. We have the visual aspect of it, but we really are losing the written portion of it. I'm very excited in September on the, I believe it's the 15th, it may be the 16th,

I can't remember which day it is. It's whatever the Sunday is. We are having a book talk by a woman who's written a book called Presidential Love Letters. And so we chose that date because it's actually James Madison and Dolly Madison's anniversary. It's their wedding anniversary. And so she's going to talk about the Presidential Love Letters and what that looked like in the time of Madison and Washington and all of those things and then how that's changed throughout the years the relationships that we've been able to see you know between presidents and their wives and their families and things like that so you know we've got the the Lafayette event coming up we've got several book talks coming up the farm that Shauna mentioned Michael Carter of carter um of carter family farms family

farms um he's going to come in september also and do a talk so he's a fourth generation farmer yes um we call it a century farm the farm has been in his family um for over 100 years and his talk will be from freetown to carter Farms. And Freetown was an area in Orange County where the formerly enslaved or free African Americans in the county could go, and that was where they lived. And that's where Edna Lewis was born, and, you know, famous chef. And so he's going to talk about, you know, how Carter Family Farms evolved from this small place that his great-grandparents purchased to what it is today. Michael Carter is an amazing person, amazing speaker. The farm now focuses on, they do a lot of farm-to-table talks, so we'll have him coming to talk.

I'm really excited about the presidential love letters. The romantic in me. We're lucky to even have Dolly in James Madison's letters. I don't know if you're aware, Jess, random history fact, but their love letters were saved when the British came back and burned the White House, I want to say 1812. A general saved Dolly in James Madison's love letters. She saved George Washington's portrait, and someone saved Dahlia James Madison's love letter. She saved George Washington's

portrait, and someone saved their love letters. Well, you know, back then, the other things that I love to see, you know, when you read, you know, especially handwritten, first of all, their penmanship was so beautiful. I mean, it's an art, and two, they just

knew how to write. I mean, it was like reading literature sometimes. It's just the words they use, they just knew how to write. I mean, it was like reading literature sometimes. It's just the words they use, how they form their sentences. There's nothing like it. I mean, it just seemed like everybody knew how to do that, not just a few people, you know? So I'd love to read that. Yeah, you know, there was no chat GBT back then to correct your emails, you know? And so another thing that we've lost in this digitized world that we live in now, too, that I think is important is oral histories. You know, you talk about how history was really important when you were growing up, you know,

but a lot of that history came from your grandparents, your great-grandparents, or from your parents that was passed down from their grandparents, their great-grandparents. And, you know, that oral history passed down you know generation over generation and that's where we're fortunate to in orange is having these families that have been there forever that the history has been passed down to and then they're passing it down to us or they're pulling things out of their attic they're pulling letters out they're they're you know letting us exhibit them at the museum and that's just really exciting to to even really be able to experience that. We've been very lucky to work with Phil Odebear, who is a fantastic documentarian and writer,

and he's done a million things. But he has worked with the museum on an oral history project. So we've done a lot of interviews with older people, with people who know some of these really old stories from Orange. And so we have those recorded in videos. So not only can we hear them, but we can see the people talking and we can really get a feel for who they were and that sort of stuff. So we're very lucky to have quite a few of those. And then, of course, we have some of the documentaries that Phil has put together,

you know, in talking about the history of Orange County and how it sort of played out in Virginia. Another thing that people don't realize is Orange County was sort of the blueprint for school integration in the state of Virginia. There's a documentary that Phil and Ross Hunter did called Someday, and it talks about the way that they went through transferring students from George Washington Carver, which was the four-county African-American high school, into Orange County. And to watch that documentary was very interesting for me. My mom taught for 30 years in Orange County. And they were interviewing people that I grew up with.

I just knew these people as people, but they were the educators who were leading this movement and who were making these things happen. And it was a historic thing that was happening, and I'm watching it and realizing that I had just grown up knowing people who had done these amazing things, and you don't realize that because they're just the teacher who's in the room next door who's really fun to hang out with because they give you candy in the afternoon. So it's seeing all of the sides of people and all of the facets and all of those things

because it's everyday people who make history happen. Exactly. I think some of the challenges that we look back and we see them people like James Madison as larger than life figures and stuff but the beauty of things like this where you can read his love letters and see how he was thinking, you realize at the

time he wasn't. At the time he was just a husband. He was a guy living in Orange County. I mean a wealthy guy living in Orange County but still he was a guy living in Orange County. I mean, a wealthy guy living in Orange County, but still, he was a guy living in Orange County who probably, he didn't, at age 10, he wasn't thinking, all right, I'm going to transform the world and be known 200 years from now as the

father of the Constitution, right? He's just living in the moment of what's happening, and everyone around him would have just known him as, okay, that guy, you know, he's one of the Madisons from Orange County, just like these teachers you knew that they were part of history, but they're real people.

They're just, they are actual people, and it's beautiful to humanize them in this sense, to be able to go to something and read, learn about those letters, and to be able to see, oh, this was his chair, to learn, oh, yeah, this guy who's also famous was just his cousin. He wouldn't have been sitting there saying, oh yeah, I know Zachary Taylor. That's my cousin.

That's just that guy. It definitely humanizes people and it changes the way that you can see them. You know, Madison was only 5'6". 4. I'm 5'6", he's shorter than me. He was not a big guy Dolly Madison was actually taller than him

there's this great anecdote about a foot race that they had and he writes about it, how she beat him because her legs were longer so it lets us see them as people and when you really look at history history is not inevitable America's freedom was not necessarily guaranteed. There's a lot of things that if just one thing had gone slightly differently, that's right. Yeah. So many things would have, would have been completely different. And so to

really get into the history and be able to see those things is, is just super fun and interesting. And, um, another talk we've got coming up and I'm really excited about it. It's one we've had before. On January the 5th, we're having Philip Bigler come and talk. He wrote a book called Scandalous Son, which is about Dolly Madison's son, John Payne Todd. A lot of people don't realize, you know, Madison never had children with Dolly, but he was a stepfather to this man. And it wasn't a great relationship. Part of the reason that Dolly Madison was very destitute at the end of her life, and the reason that we have Madison's journals published and all of the things that we had was because Congress didn't want Dolly to be destitute. So they bought them and published them because she was having to pay her son's gambling debts and you know they there was a lot of stuff that went into that and it

it impacted madison in a big way it impacted dolly in a big way and so but we don't talk about him because it's it's not the shiny part of history you know and so that's the other thing that that we want to encourage people to look at all of the history and and and all of it because it's not the shiny part of history. And so that's the other thing that we want to encourage people to look at all of the history and all of it. Because it's all interesting and it all informs what was happening. It all teaches us. It's true. And let's be honest. I mean, if you start looking at people's lives, because sometimes it's like Alex said, they're larger than life.

And you say, wow, what a lucky man, what a lucky life, et cetera. Then you dig deep into their lives and you say, you know, there are circumstances you say, yeah, I would never want to be in that situation, right, because of what happened. And, you know, history is happening now, like Jess likes to say. It's not just a tagline. We're all living history. We are. Everything we do every day, you know know it's happening now and you know that's why it is so important for us to know our past for us to realize that human beings are human beings are human beings you know we all feel we all get angry we all make mistakes some of us make worse mistakes than

others but you know i just think that you know as a historian for myself like I was saying earlier you know to me historical transparency is really really important through that transparency comes healing comes hope comes lessons and you know that's just something I myself have you know chosen to embrace as a historian I know that's something that our board and our museum you know embraces. And to move forward, sometimes you do have to take a look at the past. And you really do have to examine it. And history can be uncomfortable.

And that's okay. It's okay. It's okay to be uncomfortable. And we can learn from the discomfort and we can move forward together and come out of the discomfort. And that's what we really want to offer people. So yeah.

And the other thing that I really just encourage people so much is talk to those older relatives that you have. Get your history. Learn your history because you may find out things that you don't know. You know, there's so many great ways to do that. There's StoryCorps now where you can get prompted questions and you can answer with someone and sit down. They talk a lot about doing that at the holidays with people when everybody's together. But you can do that anytime.

Sit down and record grandma talking while she can remember the stories. Or ask if there's old photographs or letters or things like that. Because that's your personal history. And we all feel a little bit more connected, I think, when we... To the world. Yeah, when we're able to find those things. You know, the ancestry DNA, things like that are really popular now. And people are discovering things.

But the meat of that comes from the things that you may have on hand. Those old family photos, those stories, those things like that. You'll find it infinitely more valuable to know who were your family members, not just the numbers on the little chart, like I'm this percent this, I'm this percent that. But who were they? Who was the person that gave you that blood and that DNA? Yes, yes. And sometimes knowing where you come from helps you understand where you are

or who you are or why you are the way you are, you know. And, you know, history is not just textbooks and historical buildings and documentaries. It's so much richer than that. And it doesn't have to be the big events or the famous people. It's the everyday people that, you people that make us who we are. And we're proud to say we've made Orange County what it is. And it's really exciting to be a part of that. It's really exciting. We're just really excited moving forward to grow,

to learn more about Orange, things that we may not know yet. And shameless plug for our Orange County Historical Society. Some of those videos we talked about that Phil Audevere has done are actually on their YouTube page. And great interviews, you know, great ways to learn about our county. You know, I would definitely visit those. And we're really excited. I'm on the board for the Historical Society as well.

So if there's a board in Orange. I'm on the board for the Historical Society as well. What did you do? What did she do, right? If there's a board in orange, I'm on it. I'm trying to drag you along. The Historical Society is fantastic because while the museum has the physical artifacts, we've got the stuff you can come and look at. They've got the books and a lot of the letters and a lot of that kind of stuff.

So genealogical research is taking place there in a huge way. They write a lot of the letters and a lot of that kind of stuff. So genealogical research is taking place there in a huge way. They're doing, they write a lot of books. They've done a lot of books on the churches in Orange. Orange has something like 200 churches. You know, religious freedom was one of Madison's main things. And part of the reason for that was because of what was happening with the churches in the county and so we've got a lot of um books that have been written you know blue run baptist church we just had a book that was written about pamunkey um baptist church they are celebrating

their 250th anniversary um you know when we're talking about america is compared to europe like we were saying the history here is young but the history in orange is some of the oldest history for America as we know it um but you know we we don't want to exclude the indigenous history because history didn't start when the Europeans got here it existed you know with the indigenous people and so we are working with a couple of organizations on creating some more programming around that because we do want to bring a focus back to what was happening when people got here because there was an amazing history going back thousands and thousands of

years for the indigenous people in this area i will say that that is a historical niche that we are that is missing a little bit. Not because it's not cared about or felt to be relevant, but it's something that we would like to explore and grow more and bring to the public. It takes a lot of work, especially because there's a lot less written records.

You're delving into oral history, you're looking at archaeology, you're having to go back in different ways, maybe new ways. And it's finding, it's very important for us that the people who those stories belong to are the ones who get to tell them you know, we want to do justice

and get to the original source of the material and so, you know, we want to make sure we're connecting with the right people and the right organizations and so we're really excited about some stuff we're working on with regard to that right now. And some programming that will be coming up in the next year as we're talking about that. And then moving into the Virginia 250 things and stuff that we're really looking forward to celebrating with regard to that.

That's fantastic. There's going to be a lot history-wise happening in the state between now and the Virginia 250th, you know, and we're really excited that Orange County is going to be a big part of that. So is Virginia 250th this year or next year? It's actually in 2026. Oh, 2026, okay. But we have got like a year and a half of exciting stuff

in Orange County that we're going to be talking about and putting out there and doing because yeah Virginia is and that's not just our museum Orange County Economic Development and Tourism has got some exciting plans that they've

brought us in on, Montpelier fun stuff happening fun stuff so, fun stuff. So you've got to keep an eye on Orange County between now and 2026 for sure. We will be doing so. We will be doing so. Before we let you go, any major dates that people should have in mind for upcoming things? And where's the best way to get information, find the museum, and go check it out?

So in August, we don't have any book talks. We do have our quilling class that we offer. It's a paper craft that people can come to on August 11th. September 15th, and then the 21st. All of our dates are on social media, on our Facebook and our Instagram. My memory is not doing me any favors this morning. No worries, no worries. But yes, it is the James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage on Facebook. Facebook and our Instagram. My memory is not doing me any favors this morning.

No worries, no worries. But yes, it is the James Madison Museum of Orange County Heritage on Facebook. And then we also have an Instagram. We do have the website, thejamesmadisonmuseum.net. So you can find the information there and sign up. But the majority of our book talks are free because we just want to be providing that information to people.

We do take donations. We are a nonprofit. But we just want to be providing that information to people. We do take donations. We are a nonprofit. But we just want to get people excited about history, and so they can come out and find all that kind of stuff there. You can also contact us through the museum email website, Facebook page, if you're interested in taking a private tour of Bloomsbury Manor. Oh, okay. Definitely.

Is that the only way you can see the manor? We do scheduled tours of it because it's not continually open to the public. We're working on getting on a regular schedule with the Helen Ray Taylor Foundation several times a month to bring group tours out there. We like to limit them to under 15 so that it's more personal. Some of the spaces are a little bit tight. But you can definitely reach out and contact us if there are days that you want to bring out a larger group. We will make it happen.

Reach out to us. We will make it happen. It's definitely worth coming to see the museum, going out to see Bloomsbury. I personally love giving that tour. You get a one-on-one with me. There you go. You get to hear me ramble about history.

I love it. It's one of my happy places. And yeah, definitely. And September 15th. So we have the event at the museum on September 15th, but shameless plug, it's also the Orange County Downtown Street Festival that day. That's the 14th. The 14th. 14th. I apologize. That weekend. It's a big weekend in Orange. Just spend the weekend in Orange. Go stay at the Holiday House. It's the best place to stay. Oh yes, Holiday House. Have a full English tea the Holiday House. It's the best place to stay. Oh, yes, Holiday House.

Have a full English tea at Holiday House. The other thing I do want to make sure that people know, especially our educators, is that we offer school tours. It's free for students. So you just have to pay for the adults, and it's very affordable. So you can bring the entire first grade or the entire fourth grade who are studying Virginia history and you don't pay for the kids.

So when it comes to field trips and stuff these days, that's a nice little pitch for it. We have hands-on activities for the children and we're always willing to cater to a group as well. If our educators or even our homeschool groups have something that they're interested in we're focusing on this unit hey we would love

to work with you to cater something to keep little hands busy and keep them you know interested and so that's you know exciting just I love you know we love working with the kids we love working with the schools and our educators. So is that kids under 18 and over 65? Is that how it works? Yeah, probably. Under 18 and over 65, yeah. And we're also willing to come to you. We're willing to arrange to come to your classroom and talk to your kids of, you know,

however we can get history in front of these, our youth or, you know, or even some of our civic groups that we're happy to do it. Love to do it. That's awesome. Well, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you guys for having us. I've learned a lot. Now I'm really excited to go see the museum.

We're going to hold you to that. Oh, no. We're going to be out there. My wife and I are going to be out there. You're probably bringing along some other Earpies, too. The Earpie clan. It's been a pleasure and thank you both so much for coming. You're probably bringing along some other Earpies too. It's been a pleasure. Thank you both so much for coming. Thank you for having us. It's been so fun. Thanks again.

You can check it out. TheJamesMadisonMuseum.net Instagram is JamesMadisonMuseumOC is the little tagline there. I was thinking about history and how we learn from our grandparents. And I always realized that parents very rarely tell their children their history, right? But then when they have grandchildren, suddenly.

And I guess part of it is because as parents, you're always busy, right? So you don't have time to stop and talk about your history. But then when you're a grandfather or a grandmother, right, it's like you sit back, you're sitting there in the rocking chair or whatever you like to do. And, you know, you start telling the kids the story. And then kids love stories, right? And I think that's where the history comes out, right? Exactly. Because I remember well, you know, writing letters to my grandmother.

And I couldn't wait to receive the letter from my grandmother to see. Granted, it was just to see how she was doing. But back then when you really just wrote letters, because it was very expensive to call international. So you wrote a letter, and I couldn't wait to see what she had to say, and vice versa. It's so important to have that. I mean, we just saw a place where our ancestors, where my grandfather was born, but would we have found that house without asking? No. No.

It's not like you have a book that tells you, here, this is the house where your grandfather was born. No. And not only that, remember, we found where they had the store, right? We thought it was one particular store and then the guy right across the street said, that's what you're looking for. He says, what are you looking at? We said, well, we think this is the store. He said, no, no, no, it's that one.

And to be able to say, wow, so this is where they had the store. This is, you know, and this is where they had their livelihood and like you said, to see the building where you know, your mom building where you know when you know your mom and where your mom's grandfather was born and parents are born they live there and you literally see the building the floor you know they talk about this is where you know they'd go

out at night and go on top of that balcony and know, again, I mean, that's over 100 years. And you really do. You come out of it thinking to yourself, yeah, this is, you can see how this made me who I am today. Yeah, exactly, exactly, yeah. I mean, that's, it is, it's part of your DNA. It's part of your history, and then you go there, and you feel something, you know. You absolutely do. So it's a beautiful thing to do. So I know we have a little time left to just touch on. I think mostly I think our message, we've had definitely some people asking us about, okay, the markets.

What do I think you and I are both kind of similar in that, you know, things are never as dire as they looked on the worst day, and I think already the last two days have kind of borne that out. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I, you know, let's, let's be honest, so, you know, the stock market has had a great run, right week, Michael and I were talking about the market. The market was up as of the end of July about 16%. We talked about how there were seven stocks in there that represented a majority part of that return. It's interesting because when the markets were down, the S&P, I think, was down since the end of July, down about 5%. But things like NVIDIA and Tesla, they're down like 17%, 15%. So the same thing happens

on the way down. In other words, you know, when things are going well, there is that magnificent 7 that seemed to perform very well, and vice versa when markets go down. But just to your point, what happened on Friday and Monday was a result of numbers that came out on Friday, employment numbers in a particular, they called it the Simon rule, which, the Sam rule, I'm sorry, which is only a rule, and it kind of triggered the expectation that there may be a

recession coming, right? And so that obviously triggered selling. Japan and Europe followed through with big-time selling. And so then we came into Monday, and since Japan had sold and Europe had sold, we sold. But then we calmed down, right, because we realized, wait a minute, it's a rule. It doesn't really mean that we're seeing a recession. But, you know, to take a step back, you know, to we do have to recognize the fact that we are in an economic position where it's just not as strong as it was a year ago, maybe two years ago, right? And if you start looking at the numbers, you know, in particular, the one number that continues to bother me is really the U.S. credit card debt.

That continues to rise. And the other number that I'd really look at is the credit card balances past due. That is now the highest since 2012. And these are numbers from the Fed. So these are things that concern me because, you know, we've seen the economy was fueled by the consumer. And sooner or later, if the consumer is consuming through debt, it can't last forever because at the interest rates that those credit cards

are charging, which is 20 plus, right, that purchase becomes extremely expensive if you don't pay it off right away. So people that are not paying off their credit cards right away are going to be challenged and they're not going to be able to continue to spend the way they have. So I think the economy is going to go through rough spots. You know, again, we talked a little bit about, you know, there are other events going on globally that can have the impact on the stock market. We do have an election this year that can have an impact on the market. So I think we may see a stock market that's a little more volatile than we've seen in the past from the perspective of big down days and then maybe a settling. But the important thing, and we always

say that, is really diversification. In those two days, you look at tech stocks. You look at, you know, growth. I mean, small caps, they were hurt big time. I mean, they had big down days. You look at high dividend stocks, you know, they were down maybe 2%, 3%, right? And considering that the market was up about 16%, being down 2% or 3% is not a big deal, right? So, again, diversification is most important. And we can tend to tell our clients the important thing is you gave us, you know, you gave us what the expectations, what your needs are, what your goals are, and we create a custom portfolio that will satisfy that. And we recognize and we talk about it.

It's not a direct. It's not 7% of a year or 8% of a year. You don't want clockwork. Sometimes you go up 12, 13, then you go down four or five, then you go up another 10, and you go down three. Who knows how that happens, right? But the important thing is to make sure you're in a position where whatever portfolio diversification you have is one that you are willing to live with and accept if the market drops. And when you've got a risk level that is appropriate for you,

you have to remember the way that risk level is calculated. Obviously, when you're doing it the right way, you're using the right models to calculate the risk level. That risk level is taken into account up and down movements. Now, granted, it's not taking into account the most extreme scenarios. You can't create a risk level that will prepare for a completely unforeseen event, right? But the business cycle, recessions, growth, recessions, growth, that's taken into account when you're looking at a, you know, I'm targeting this level of risk over a 20-year period. That 20-year period is not assuming

Hunky Dory for 20 years. It's not assuming rose-colored glasses for 20 years. It's assuming that there's ups and downs which result in a level of risk that you're going to see over that 20-year period. So you have to, like you said, you're going to have those plus 16s, right? If you think about it,

most people's portfolios are not targeting the market return. Right. You would not go to your advisor and say, I want a portfolio that if the S&P 500 is up 20, I'm up 20, and if the S&P 500 is down 35, I'm down 35, right? I'd tell them just buy the S&P 500. Yeah, just buy the S&P 500, right? You're usually, most people are targeting some kind of return, right, that's probably somewhere between 5% and 15%, right, given your age, given your rich family.

And so if you're targeting that, you're going to have those fluctuations. Again, you're not going to get clockwork. You're going to get plus 20, minus 4. If you're looking at 5, you might get a plus 10 and a minus 3. So you're going to have those fluctuations. The question is, are they fluctuations that are reasonable given the level of risk that you should be taking? That's what you really need to be looking at. And the one thing that I was happy to see is that, you know,

during those two days, the bond market did extremely well. I mean, the bond market was up, if you took a look at the long end of the bond market, I mean, they were up almost about 6%. So the stock market was about down 6%, 7%, and the bonds were up 6%. So you had diversified asset classes. So again, you have the diversified asset class, and within that asset class you were diversified, you would have pockets where it did very well. So again, that's what's important, is really the diversification, and as

you just mentioned, understanding the risk that you're willing to incur in your portfolio, and what your goals are as far as return is concerned. And as you mentioned, the older you are, you want less risk from a principal point of view. You want more income. The younger you are, you're willing to take a little more principal risk because you know you have time to recuperate. And I would tell people most return is made in

your return is going to be made in the combinations of investments that you choose. It's not going to be made in you perfectly timing. Oh, I sold right before it crashed. I bought it again two days later. Or it crashed, but then I sold because I didn't want it to crash more. If you're relying on that kind of timing, you're always going to lose. You can't beat the market in that kind of timing. What will make your return over the long run

is what are the combinations of things that you have that you just ride over a long period of time. It's not going to be you moving from investments to cash, cash to investments, investments, cash, cash. That is not going to make a return. That's a losing strategy. It really is. Nobody can guess that right continuously.

Nobody can guess that right. And even on a 50-50 basis, it's hard to get that right. The other thing is days like we had are also sometimes opportunities where you say, especially if you're in a situation where there are some reinvestments that need to get done and you're kind of like waiting to see what happens. You get a market like that, you're able to reinvest at lower market prices. So, you know, I mean, frankly, it's only two days. It's very hard to regroup and reallocate assets quickly.

But if in a situation where you look at your cash position, you say, well, my cash position is a little high, and all of a sudden you see a down market, say, not a bad idea to take a little bit and buy something. That's kind of just our two cents on earlier this week, on that kind of manic Monday. Looking back from a Thursday now that it's calmed down a little bit. Prick of Palliative, Kevin Higgins, didn't get a chance, I missed your question on James Madison but I'm sure we'll have Jess and Shona back

so we'll ask James Madison what would he do as president sorry I missed that, I saw that you were at light but I missed the comment, you didn't chalk it up to first day back I'm a little rusty, so I'm getting back into the serenity of today but thanks again for watching the show Kevin always appreciate it so really enjoyed today's show it was fantastic

we always have a good time no matter what we're talking with Jess about we have a good time so that's always great certainly it appears to be a great place to go visit. Absolutely. I will definitely be going out there myself.

So be sure to check that out, the James Madison Museum of Orange. So be sure to check that out. Next week, another great guest, Elena Stifler from Clean Waxed Handles is going to be coming on. So small business owner joining us next week. So be sure to tune in next week to see that. Of course, always love being here with you. Same here. It was a good one.

Welcome back. Thanks to you behind the camera, always making Xavier and I look good. Our guests always look good. They don't need his help, but you and I need his help. So he helps tune me. And of course, love being on the I Love Seville Network.

Thanks again to Emergent Financial Services for presenting and to our amazing partners, Credit Series Insurance, Matias Sion Realty, Forward Adelante. Thanks all of you for tuning in this week. Be sure to stay dry. Do your best to stay dry. Be safe.

We're going to get a lot of rain over these next couple days, so be safe. We look forward to seeing you all next week. But until that time, we'd like to close it out, hasta mañana. Thank you.