Rebecca Price Janney

Thank you to my friends at the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society for Hosting this special launch party, especially to Carey Birgel!

TEA AND HISTORY LITERARY EVENING

July 8, 6:00-8:00 pm

Celebrate the launch of Rebecca Price Janney's new book

Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society invites you to join us at the 1753 Bachmann Publick House for an intimate evening with three local history authors.

We will be celebrating the launch of Rebecca Price Janney's

Easton in the Valley, the second novel in her Easton series of historical fiction. You will also be able to meet and greet two of her fellow writers and friends: Jeffrey Finegan, author of the I Knew George Washington series, and Richard Hope, author of books on historic Easton and Northampton County.

Enjoy light refreshments, listen to the authors discuss their work, and meet new friends of the book-ish persuasion. Authors will sign copies of their books, which will be available to purchase.

Advance registration required. $5 suggested donation.

Please RSVP to 610-253-1222 or e-mail Carey Birgel at c.birgel@northmptonctymuseum.org.

Bachmann Publick House

169 Northampton Street

Easton, PA 18042

Easton in the Valley Preview

Erin Miles has reached a personal and professional milestone-she's "Doctor Miles" at last! Expecting teaching offers to fill her inbox, she's soon trolling through The Chronicle of Higher Education for a position, any position. Somehow, though, what few jobs there are would take the recent widow away from her family and friends. As she considers what to do next, she's thrust into the role of caregiver when her parents both face health emergencies. Her real passion lies with researching her Easton-based ancestry, especially her intriguing six times great-grandfather, Sheriff Peter Kichline. Just when she thinks no doors will open to teach, she's faced with some unusual offers, a promising romance with an Easton historian, and decisions that will impact her young son and family.

In 1774 Peter Kichline is about to retire from serving his second term as Northampton County's sheriff. He's looking forward to settling into the quieter rhythms of home life, running his mills, and helping oversee the building of Easton's first church building. Unfortunately, the rest of the country isn't in the same mindset. Trouble has been brewing in Massachusetts, culminating in the Boston Tea Party, followed by the first shots of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord. Peter's mother always taught him, "To whom much is given much is required." The question he's facing is-just how much is enough?

Join Peter and Erin in their valleys of decision with this second book in Rebecca Price Janney's engaging Easton Series!

About Rebecca Price Janney

Rebecca Price Janney is the award-winning author of twenty books, including Easton in the Valley and Easton at the Forks, Great Women in American History, and Then Comes Marriage? A Cultural History of the American Family. A native of the Lehigh Valley, she's an ardent history buff and member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Valley Forge Chapter. Rebecca earned degrees from Lafayette College, Princeton Seminary, and Biblical Seminary, which focused on various aspects of American history, knowledge she shares widely as a popular speaker. She resides with her husband, son, and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in suburban Philadelphia.

Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society, 342 Northampton St., Easton, PA 18042

For those of you who live near the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, I hope you’ll consider joining me and two other author-friends for a Literary Evening at Easton’s historic Bachmann Publick House. The Sigal Museum/Northampton County Historical Society is sponsoring this event, which is the Saturday before Heritage Day. I’ll be launching book two in the Easton Series, Easton in the Valley that day. Here’s information about the occasion. Please come to celebrate my new book and to meet and greet my friends, Jeff Finegan and Richard Hope, who will be discussing their own works.

TEA AND HISTORY - LITERARY EVENING

July 8, 2017

6:00 - 8:00 pm

You are invited to the 1753 Bachmann Publick House on Heritage Day eve to meet and mingle with notable local history authors.

Rebecca Price Janney: Join us as we celebrate the release of Easton in the Valley, the much-anticipated second novel in Rebecca's Easton series.

Washington scholar Jeffrey Finegan, Sr. will be on hand to discuss his fascinating I Knew George Washington series.

Richard Hope, author of popular Easton history books and the holiday favorite Santa Claus: A Guidebook for Grown-Ups, will round out our evening.

Enjoy light refreshments, listen to the authors discuss their work, and meet new friends of the book-ish persuasion. Authors will sign copies of their books, which will be available to purchase.

Space is limited. Advance registration required. $5 suggested donation.

Call 610-253-1222 to reserve your space. Bachmann Publick House, 2nd and Northampton Streets, Easton, PA.

A Shout Out for Easton at the Forks!

Last December I had the privilege of speaking to the Patriotic Order Sons of America Christmas banquet in Pennsylvania’s Amish country. The other day their fearless leader, Scott Shultz, sent me the following photo of himself holding a copy of Easton at the Forks. He told me he was in Southwest Harbor, Maine for the pinning of his son, who was becoming a Petty Officer First Class in the Coast Guard which was, as you can imagine, quite a thrill for Scott. Then he went on to say, “I also had the honor of finishing your book. Your mother and father were right – this book should be a New York Times bestseller! I’m looking forward to reading the sequel!”

Thank you so much for those kind and encouraging words, Scott. We writers soak up such support because our work is so close to our hearts, and we love knowing others are touched by our stories.

I just finished the last round of edits on Easton in the Valley, and I’ve begun working with Elk Lake Publishing’s artist on the cover. In just a few weeks, you’ll be able to find out what happens next to Erin Miles and Peter Kichline as their stories continue.

Not many people can say “Happy 95th Birthday” to someone they love, but thanks be to God, I have that glad privilege. Today I’m celebrating the life of my father, Joseph Perio, who came into the world on June 2, 1922 in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. A while back he gave me a book about the history of the 1920s, which to me seem so very long ago. As I read the volume, I was amazed to think my dad was alive for things like Charles Lindberg’s crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, the presidency of Warren Harding, Prohibition, and the discovery of King Tut’s tomb. When my dad was born, there were no computers or television, telephones and cars were just becoming a universal feature of American family life, and radio was taking its place in households across the fruited plain.

As a young man, Dad never rode a bus to school but walked in all kinds of weather conditions. He loved the out of doors so heading out in a blizzard didn’t really bother him. After all, he was a faithful and ardent Boy Scout! What really bugged him most as a boy was sharing a room with four lively brothers!

Dad joined the United States Army after the Japanese attack brought America into World War II, and he spent the next three years in England and Europe defending liberty. He was involved in the Normandy (D-Day) Invasion and endured a brutally cold winter during the Ardennes Campaign. He celebrated with the French after Paris was liberated from Nazi control and grieved with the inmates at Dachau. When he finally came home in November 1945, his troop ship encountered two hurricanes while crossing the Atlantic. He told me he was thinking he’d made it through all that danger during the war and hoped he didn’t end up dying in a bad storm on the way back home.

Dad’s life is much quieter these days than it was in his boyhood and as a young man. He’s no longer raising kids and going off to work every day. He gave up riding a bike in his 80s after a bad spill, and he doesn’t fish every morning in good weather. He’s earned a rest. His life is still full, however, as he’s surrounded by family and friends who love him very much and are rejoicing that he’s reached this milestone birthday. He’s very happy, and not a little amazed, to have lived longer than any of his family members (who are known for their longevity), so far.

I once asked Dad if he’d ever wanted to live anywhere else since he’d spent his entire life in P’burg, except for the War. He told me there was no reason he’d want to leave “God’s country.” What a tribute to his hometown! He’s seem the cathedrals and palaces of England and Continental Europe and heard the lilting accents of other languages, yet he only had eyes for Phillipsburg.

Happy 95th birthday Poppo!

Memorial Day became an official U.S. holiday in 1971 under President Richard M. Nixon, although its roots stretch back to the post-Civil War years when the observance was known as “Decoration Day.” My grandmother actually never stopped calling the holiday by that earlier designation, which during her life, I found rather quaint and charming!

The day is set aside on the last Monday of each May to honor those men and women who died while serving in the United States military across all the years of our storied history.

I recently came across a quote I’d like to share with you this weekend, attributed to General George C. Patton (1885-1945). My father fought through the Ardennes Campaign under the overall leadership of “Old Blood and Guts” in World War II’s European Theater of Operations, so the general has always been of interest to me. On June 7, 1945, about a month after Victory in Europe, Patton addressed an audience at Boston’s Coplay Hotel. According to The New York Times, he said:

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”

Patton had expressed a similar sentiment at an Allied cemetery in Italy on November 11, 1943:

“I consider it no sacrifice to die for my country. In my mind we came here to thank God that men like these have lived rather than to regret that they have died.”

As we head into this Memorial Day Weekend, 2017, I believe we aren’t wrong to mourn those who gave their lives for our nation. Their deaths are painful to those they left behind. However, I hope we will also, like Patton, be deeply grateful to God that they lived.