Welcome. I’m Jim McGinnis and This is the first episode of Stories We Can Tell. It’s a place for the thoughts, musings and passages of this old Floridian.

What can you expect?

At its heart, reflections on history, literature, and music…stories about individual journeys and struggles and victories.

It’s about Americans, America—or as much of it as I have seen.

I’ve been teaching and coaching down here in my hometown of Melbourne Florida, for the past 35 years, mostly American History…but this is not some collection of oral history lessons (actually that’s not completely true) But anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a hoarder of quotes, and one of my favorite is Will Durant’s description of civilization:

“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing things historians usually record; while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks."

I like to think that Mr. Durant’s words better describe where I’m going with these conversations.

Three years ago, I wrote a book called “Tending to the Past” (imagine that!) —“Reflections of an American History Teacher.” Since then, I published a collection of poetry called “Points South,” And surely a verse or two will slip in from time to time.

As far as the podcasts go, oftentimes, my studio is my back porch, where there are frequently sounds of crickets and birds, barking dogs, rain hitting the tin roof, and trains. A siren works its way in from time to time, along with a motorcycle screaming down 192 . So I apologize for the background noise and raw recordings, but that’s me—I kinda like it that way…I hope you do too…unbridled and unvarnished.

Well, let’s get started shall we?