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Speech Transcript (very little editing so not exact)

Barbara, thank you so much for coming on. Please introduce yourself the time to shine today podcast varsity squad. But first, what is your favorite color? And why my favorite

Unknown Speaker  2:11  

color is blue. That’s because blue kit can carry such a range of emotions. It can be pale and soft, like the sky or it could be intense like a sapphire blue. No, I think blue can fit many moods. And I just love to use it in so many ways.

Unknown Speaker  2:36  

I love it. And it’s in your color wheel. You’re even wearing it right now.

Unknown Speaker  2:39  

Yeah, that’s right. I am.

Unknown Speaker  2:42  

I’m here in Jupiter, Florida. And I’m looking at the Atlantic Ocean right now. So blue is kind of my favorite color too. So is beautiful. So let’s let’s get into did I read correctly that you were you went to school to to teach youth? It? Is that right? Or I’m trying to pick it up from website but I just didn’t. I’m not understand your let’s just get to your origins. Let’s just say that you are

Unknown Speaker  3:08  

well educated. I was born in New York City on the border between Brooklyn and Queens. And I grew up in a low class environment. My parents were not highly educated. Neither of them finished high school because they were children of the Depression era. But I had a love of education from the get go, there were something within me I love to read, I was very curious. And my parents did force to that as much as they could. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of financial resources and college wasn’t in the cards for me. But as I began my journey in school, my teachers kind of pushed me along. And in high school, I had a fantastic history teacher. And of course, history would become my ultimate passion. And she was just so dynamic, and she inspired me, but she also saw something in me. And she told me you just have to go to college. And that had never really been in my head. I was going to be working, you know, working in the business world. I was taking courses that would help train me for that. But she motivated me and I said okay, I’m gonna find a way to do this. And I continued to study and work hard. And at that time in New York City, there was available a public college system that was based on merit, and if you had the grades, you could get in and the tuition was almost not exist. Didn’t you just pay for your books and supplies. And I did that I really, really put my nose to the grindstone and I was able to get into the college of my choice. And I continued to work hard, and I was able to get a scholarship for graduate school. So my passion was initially history. But when I finished my undergraduate and graduate degree, I realized that I did love research. But I didn’t want to live in that kind of ivory tower world of academia. So I veered toward kids, I love children, and I liked to work with them. So I decided that I would teach children. And that’s what I did for many, many years. And my career took many twists and turns, I work first with children in a private school, general ed type of setting. And then I realized over time that not everybody learns the same way. And there were so many kids that were being left behind. And I went back to school again, and I got certification and special ed. So I started a whole new career, I worked with children with intense special needs. And I became eventually a principal of a special ed school, and then a school district administrator in New York City. So I’ve always had that tethered to history, I veered off into the education sphere, and, again, being very people oriented. But I was drawn back to that as well, because I always kept my foot in the water. And when I retired, I decided, gee, what am I going to do with myself now, I retired and I was happily moved out of the city and upstate New York now. But I still wanted to work with kids. And I wanted to use my history. So I started writing historical articles for local news magazine. Okay. And then I said, Gee, wouldn’t it be great if I could make history exciting and inspiring? Yes. So that’s what I did. But my husband was the, the catalyst for that, because my husband is an artist. And he said, Well, if you want to make it fun and exciting, why don’t I create a character for you to kind of narrate that series. So my husband has a lot of background in children’s books and all kinds of writing. Uh, he had worked in the children’s publishing, publishing industry. And he does a lot of work with comics and cartooning. So he created Little Miss history. And Little Miss history is a cartoon character who narrates the series is an interactive kind of character who, with his within, children can see themselves within her, I think she’s observed a lot of the lives of kids. So Little Miss history is really me, she’s a composite of me. My husband created a character, I used to wear pigtails like she has, and I love to travel and hike. So she was kind of like a hiking partner. And that reflects that part of my life experience. And she also wears these rose colored glasses, because that reflects my belief that we should always try to put a positive spin on everything, you know, I see the glass. Absolutely. So you know, not half empty, but full Right? Or times?

Unknown Speaker  9:10  

Absolutely. So with your husband being a partner in this, Do you guys ever get into creative disagreements?

Unknown Speaker  9:18  

Usually not. My husband is also a history buff. He loves history, and he’s very, very into exploring all kinds of places and people. But the only time we get into some kind of disagreement is when I have a finished script. And a script for me usually involves at least 10 or 12 revisions because in writing a children’s book, The hardest part is getting it down to the nitty gritty. Sure, it’s a picture book, a multimedia book, and you don’t have a lot of work. Be sure to put into that because you want to make it fairly simple, right and appealing to all ages. Sure. So what happens sometimes is I have my message all set out, and then it’s ready to go to illustration. He takes a look at it goes through it. And his first step is to make thumbnails. So he does his job analysis will be laid out, then sometimes it just quite doesn’t work. His vision of how to portray the story artistically in image form doesn’t always jive with the text. So sometimes I will have to make slight revisions, again, to coincide with his artistic vision. So the only time we will really have a describe that

Unknown Speaker  10:56  

partnership. Love that. So, Barbara, what do you think, then people’s biggest blind spot is to history? Like what do you think? You know, some people it turns them off? What Why do you think that that might be

Unknown Speaker  11:10  

because they don’t understand what history is? History, everything in the world has a history, right? So our music, anything has a history. We’re when we’re born, we’re born in the middle of a story. Okay, there have been people who have come before us, in our family, in our community, in our world, there are people that we’re going to interact with during our lifetimes, we’re making our own history. And then there are people who are going to come after us. So history is really something that’s evolutionary. And it’s something that’s important to every single one of us, because we’re all characters in history, we all have a role to play in creating this ongoing story. So people see history as just a series of events or timelines or dates are really important people like George Washington or Napoleon. But it’s not that history is really made up of everyday people. Yeah, get up. They eat breakfast, they go to work. They have relationships with with family and friends. Sure. And they do their own part to change the world every single day. Right. So that’s what I think is that is the biggest misconception of history. Understood. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  12:41  

So speaking of history, have you seen the movie Back to the Future? Yeah, okay, let’s get that DeLorean with Marty McFly. Let’s go back. Man. Let’s go back to the double Deuce a 22 year old Barbara. What kind of knowledge nuggets as we call them here at time to shine today? What kind of knowledge nuggets might you drop on her net? Someone should change every anything. Okay, but to maybe help or shorten the learning curve your level up or blast through maybe just a little bit quicker?

Unknown Speaker  13:09  

Well, what I think I would tell my 22 year old was to be more bold and to let my curiosity out there and and an act act more on what I’m thinking rather than just think about it.

Unknown Speaker  13:30  

I love it in a way that you can flex your curiosity muscles, so many things become apparent for you to really embrace so I love I love that. And if you don’t know something that you’re curious about, like my good friend Leah Woodford would say you know, get your asking here. Ask there’s people there that can help you. And so how about your dash? How do you want your dash? Remember that little line in between your incarnation date, your expiration date, your life date your death? Because that’s your history? How do you want your dash remember?

Unknown Speaker  14:01  

I think I’d want people to remember my Well, I think you should live every day to learn something new, that you can learn how to live better every day. Wow.

Unknown Speaker  14:24  

That’s deep. A lot of people know I’ve asked that question a few times. No one’s really said that. But you’re right, learn something new. Or even meet someone new and learn from them. So you can live a better life and love that. Wow. So what do you think then? People misunderstand the most about Barbara and

Unknown Speaker  14:45  

I think people when they see me they tend to think I’m very quiet and serious.

Unknown Speaker  14:54  

Though I get like mousy,

Unknown Speaker  14:55  

but I’m not I’m really not very open. And I am I am a quiet type of person. I’m not really loud. But I think I’m very much interactive and outgoing with the people that I move with in my own circle. So I think people think people kind of miss judge me in that way.

Unknown Speaker  15:23  

So what is your favorite point in history that you’d love, love, love to dig into? Because we talked off? You know, Mike, you know about me, I’m proud of the civil war through the Gilded Age, because of all that, to me, that’s happened, because, you know, being an entrepreneur and whatnot and having your Rockefellers and your, you know, JP Morgan’s and your Henry Ford’s and stuff like that. But like, what point in history, really, for lack of a turn turns you on? Like, you’re, oh, I can’t wait to dig into it.

Unknown Speaker  15:54  

Well, that’s changed. When I was first studying history, my specialty and graduate school was ancient and medieval history. But now, I am more into American history, I would say from the revolution through the Civil War. Oh, beautiful.

Unknown Speaker  16:20  

That, it just seems like there’s so like, okay, so you had the Revolutionary War in the 1770s, or something 60s to kind of start into the 1770. So, but then that’s done. And then you had the War of 1812. But you didn’t, it’s like, it’s such a blank slate. People forget that. 80 years between the end of the Revolutionary War, and when the Civil War really kicked off. You know, it’s like, that’s my next endeavor, by the end is to really dig in to that time between the War of 1812 until 1855. Like, I don’t know, Jack, about what happened at that time. And that’s my next kind of endeavor to dig into, even though it just because like you, I’m curious. And like, I couldn’t tell you a president in between 1812 and 1860. Like, yeah, that’s how bad is it for someone that’s really into history. So I love that I’m talking to somebody we’re like, kindred spirits, and a sense that we kind of dig in, but you have the the ability to write about it and what not. So we know that Little Miss history is you. But do you put other people that were in your life into Little Miss history? That stuff? Maybe you’ve learned along your timeline?

Unknown Speaker  17:36  

Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, we’re all a combination of our experiences. And I think sometimes we don’t even realize the, the number of people that have influenced us and you know, it’s just something that kind of filters through our brain in the background, and you don’t even realize how much we’re influenced by little tiny events that happened to us and people that we might meet even briefly, in our in our lifetime. So yeah, I think during my long career, working in education with so many different kinds of people, and, and parents in so many different kinds of circumstances. I mean, I’ve worked with parents that have come from countries all over the world, I’ve worked with, you know, academic, quote, types, who are very scholarly and take a very, you know, formal approach. Yeah, good things, but, and then I’ve worked with young young kids and out of the mouths of babes, what you learn from very, very young children can be quite eye opening. So I think all of this is kind of now come to a point now where I can share little nuggets of you know, what I’ve learned along the way in in Little Miss history and, and in the other things that I do and you know, in addition to writing the books as well, yeah, trying to just trying to share and make things easier for

Unknown Speaker  19:38  

House Beautiful. So with our getting political at all, because I don’t do that here. Time to shine today. But what is your feeling? Again, I just want feelings. I don’t want to go political with this, about some of the history that wants to be raised.

Unknown Speaker  19:57  

I don’t think we live or from a racing anything. I mean, everything that has happened, has happened. And the the way it has happened and why it has happened. That’s all part of the process of learning. History, you know, history when we study history, we’re studying a topic subject of interest. But we have to look at it from the perspective of the time in which had happened. The people who were living there and the influences on those people who were living there, yes. How the communication has changed the way people communicated in the past, and the ability to communicate has changed dramatically. Right. Okay. So you know, what, 100 years ago, we’re talking about the telegraph and writing a letter. Now, we’re talking about instant communication. Right? Our, our, you know, our, the context, the influences, the way it’s communicated. The fact that when we study history, you have to use primary sources, you know, the the letters, the journals, the artifacts, the real pieces of what there was, it’s not this secondary information. And today, we rely largely on secondary ways. Right? We don’t rely on the facts, we give our own interpretation of facts. And then, with social media, we are often not given both sides of the question, we’re not giving the multiple perspectives that we need in order to understand anything so that that is a part of the problem. When I went to school as a young child, I didn’t have computers, right. So if I wanted to understand something, I had to go get some books, read about it. Take notes, then look at my notes, look at all of the information that I gathered. And then I had to infer and interpret and analyze that information. In fact, check today everything

Unknown Speaker  22:31  

Yeah, no,

Unknown Speaker  22:32  

we don’t always do that today. Do we get the news today? Or do we get a panel of quote, experts give us their opinions or something, right? And then we have to decide, Well, who do I want to believe? Depending on what kind of venue we’re looking at? We’re gonna get one spin or a different spin. Right? And our friends influence us when we go on social media makes it okay, so my friends say this, so Oh, I guess that must be right.

Unknown Speaker  23:07  

Right. Yeah. And the thing is, is like even when I’m watching a movie, a good movie, you’re gonna have a time the movie that doesn’t make you feel good, because you want the hero to win. But it’s you don’t not watch the movie. You know what I’m saying? You watch it so you can see it and and that’s where like are my life to me is like a huge movie that I get to watch and see and learn from and I love love the way you put that out there. So what is Barbara’s definition of a life well lived

Unknown Speaker  23:44  

a life well lived well. I think it’s a lot like my philosophy. I think a life well lived is taking all of what you have learned and experienced. And being able to then use that to share and help others

Unknown Speaker  24:14  

say it couldn’t be said better by any. Anybody. I love it in time to shine today, podcast versus squad, we are back and Barbara, you and I could probably sit down and talk about each one of these questions for 15 minutes. Okay, but you have five seconds to answer them with no explanations. Okay, and they can all be answered that way. Are you ready to level up?

Unknown Speaker  24:39  

Okay, but still on the spot.

Unknown Speaker  24:42  

That’s right. That’s right. Here we go. Barbara, what is the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received?

Unknown Speaker  24:49  

Go to college.

Unknown Speaker  24:50  

Beautiful. sure one of your personal habits that contributes to success.

Unknown Speaker  24:55  

Eating well, exercising and working hard. All right every day,

Unknown Speaker  25:00  

probably can’t beat that. So other than your own website and of course time to shine today my shameless plug. What website does Barbara go to? to level up?

Unknown Speaker  25:13  

Oh, one website. That stuff. There are so many. I think I would have to choose history.com

Unknown Speaker  25:27  

Love it. Love it. What if any is your most commonly used emoji when you text?

Unknown Speaker  25:32  

I like a smiley face with hearts.

Unknown Speaker  25:38  

Beautiful nicknames growing up.

Unknown Speaker  25:41  

Big Barbara. And that’s a that’s a funny one because I wasn’t the big Barbara I was. I was big Barbara, because I was older than the girl downstairs who wound up growing up and being bigger than I am so

Unknown Speaker  25:56  

just checkers or monopoly. Monopoly. Gotcha. Go to ice cream flavor.

Unknown Speaker  26:04  

soft ice cream, chocolate and vanilla swirl.

Unknown Speaker  26:09  

Beautiful. There’s a sandwich called the Little Big Barbara. Build that sandwich for me.

Unknown Speaker  26:15  

Okay, let’s say we toast cheese, bacon and tomato.

Unknown Speaker  26:26  

Love it got some man candy on there that bacon. I love it. Love it. Love it. favorite charity and organization you like to give your time or money to

Unknown Speaker  26:37  

veterans organizations. Several of them are like VFW and also for children St. Jude’s Hospital for Children.

Unknown Speaker  26:47  

Thank you. I donate to St. Jude’s every time I get that envelope in the mail, which is like usually once a month. And I also, you know, I served seven years. So thank you for doing that for the veterans. So best decade of music 60s 70s 80s or 90s 60s. Awesome. Awesome. And lastly, and don’t elaborate on this one. Just give me that timeframe. What time would you go back for one day in history where you can come back to that you can’t change a thing. only observe what day in history. Would you go back to and observe

Unknown Speaker  27:29  

the Peloponnesian War.

Unknown Speaker  27:31  

Beautiful, beautiful. So, Barbara, how can we find you my friend.

Unknown Speaker  27:37  

My website is the best place to find me. Little Miss history.com purchase just

Unknown Speaker  27:46  

in squat. It’s little li TT le Miss as an MI SS history.com And you can go there and you can find awesome merchandise. I’m gonna buy this coffee mug actually, you can find awesome merchandise all the reviews, all of her books. And now we’re at the books and she’s got a lot of books and I think I believe 14 books and another book as well. That’s out there in in Barbara like these. I can’t wait to actually myself dig into them and give them the journey of little mystery. But can you tell us a little bit about the latest one you have out the Monticello with the Thomas Jefferson.

Unknown Speaker  28:25  

Right. Okay, so little mystery travels to Monticello the home of Thomas Jefferson gives children a window into Thomas Jefferson’s life. i You can learn a lot about a person from the home he lives in. Jefferson lived in an extraordinary home. He was an amateur architect. And in his home, he the his home evolved in many different stages. And since Jefferson was president and he sponsored the Lewis and Clark expedition, His home is filled with artifacts from the Lewis and Clark expedition. So he was a lover of classic classics. So there are both busts of Rome, Roman art, there are beautiful paintings. He was an inventor. So he had this wonderful clock with weights that went all the way down to the cellar and marked each day. Very, very unusual. And he of course, was one who loved books. So Jemison had a voluminous library, and put his library actually became the basis for the Smithsonian Institution. Big was when Washington was burned. He donated his books, what to what would eventually become the Library of Congress.

Unknown Speaker  30:09  

So that’s all kind of in the book, but littleness history. And

Unknown Speaker  30:16  

there are many, you know, many different aspects to his life. Of course, he was a plantation owner, right? He owned and had slaves. The book is dedicated to all the descendants of Thomas Jefferson, many of which were originally slaves. We talk about the role that the, that’s slavery played in his life. Actually, Jefferson wanted the slave trade banned. And he wanted that written in the Declaration of Independence. And that’s all in the book then. Right? Right. It wasn’t very good. Because of, you know, pressures, and of the colonies and so on. So children learn all about these things. But throughout the book, it’s very interactive. And I ‘s children, their opinions, and I asked them questions, and I give them opportunity to continue the discussion once they’ve finished, beautiful, as well.

Unknown Speaker  31:25  

Excellent, excellent. And in squat, I am going to do a free giveaway, especially if you have a little that you really want them to dig into a real history of Monticello and Thomas Jefferson, because my good friend, Barbara, and does her research and she knows what she’s talking about the first person that puts littleness history in any of our comments. I don’t care if it’s Pinterest, or LinkedIn or Twitter or anywhere that you see this podcast or where you picked it up from or even my, my, our phone numbers in our the show notes. So if you’ve been text a little miss history, I’ll make sure that you get the first one that does it. We’ll get a book mailed to them. And Barbara, I just need to do we one last salad. And leave us with one last Knowledge Nugget that we can quickly one last Knowledge Nugget that we can take with us internalize and take action.

Unknown Speaker  32:21  

If you don’t know your history, you don’t know what you’re talking. I love

Unknown Speaker  32:24  

it. And squad. We just had like a really kind of back in time. fun conversation, my good friend, Barbara and Mohit, you know, she had a love of education from the get go. She grew up really curious. She had people in her life like counselors and whatnot that pushed her the blast through her her identity of humble beginnings in Dakota college. You know, in later years, she went through like she learns that not everybody learns the same way. You know, and kids, she doesn’t want to have any kids left behind. And she has unbelievable patience to do what she did the principle of a special needs school and what she’s Did you know, she has an awesome partnership with her husband, I would love to be a fly on the wall, while they’re in there talking about the creating of the book that would be just this fantastic. You know, she reminds us that everything has a history, we’re born in the middle of a story. So we do does mean something, you level up your life and make it known if that is what your passions, you know, she would remind herself and also to remind you be bold, let your curiosity run while in, let that shine and act more get your you know, asking gear if you don’t know, but take that action, you know, and she wants you to learn something new every day to live a better life and to pass that on to others as well to help them level up their life, you know, that we should imagine we don’t have. We don’t learn by racing, anything. You know, everything is a process of learning, no matter what’s happened in the course of history, whether it’s worldwide or this great country, United States. And she wants you to take again what you’ve learned and experienced, and been able to share that and pay that forward to somebody that might be able to learn and use that because again, it’s a form of mentoring. You know, the my mentor always said, the more you mentor, the mortal mortal you become, because they’re going to keep passing it on passing and passing on. That’s what my good friend Barbara is doing. She’s planting trees that she’s never really going to sit in the shade of but it’s part of her story. We’ll change it to her story instead of his story. But now, in all seriousness, Barbara, you level up your health, you level up your wealth. You’re humble, and curious, yet you’re still hungry to be able to put out great content. I’m blessed to have you on thank you so so much for coming on. Absolutely love your guts.

Unknown Speaker  34:44  

Oh, thank you so much for the opportunity to share with all of your listeners.

Unknown Speaker  34:47  

You bet. We’ll talk we’ll talk soon. Take care. Bye now. Hi. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast, proudly brought to you by Southern New Jersey real estate, real estate excellence who can be read Step 561-249-7266 and online at www dot Sutter in nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com Flash guest. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see a recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you’ve been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating and tell your friends how to subscribe while you’re at it. I’m your host, Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up it’s our time to shine

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