Still looking for houseguest horrors

Follow us on

Calling for more house guest stories in today's grab-bag column

Date published: 5/22/2007

By Rob Hedelt

TODAY'S column is a grab bag--ranging from a polite way to get a guest to leave your home to recognition for a book on the Civil War history of Petersburg.

It's also time to issue an official second call for reader comments on houseguests.

Specifically, I'd like to get responses to the following:

The worst houseguest experiences you've ever had, either as a host or as a guest.

The best guest experiences you've ever had. Either as a host or being hosted.

Details on how you entertain guests when they're in our area--where you take them, what you enjoy doing. Ditto you're a guest elsewhere.

And finally, what tips you might have to get guests who have lingered a bit too long to think about hitting the road.

To share those stories, e-mail to rhedelt@freelance star.com, fax to 540/373-8455 or mail to 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401.

Please, on all responses, I need your full name, where you live (i.e. Spotsylvania, Colonial Beach) and either an e-mail address or a daytime phone.

I'll share one response I did receive to help inspire others.

Donna L. Davis of Hartwood in Stafford County wrote, "I have yet to use this myself, but I can pass along the 'guest dismissal' technique perfected by a Marine captain's wife who entertained a great many of her husband's young Basic School lieutenants and their ladies in their quarters at Quantico."

When the hostess thought it was time for a visit to end, "she told me that she would rise and start moving toward the door, saying 'It's been such a pleasure to see you today. We'll have to get together again soon.' She assured me it never failed."

The Hartwood resident added, "I can attest to that, since she used the technique on me after dinner about a year after our conversation!"

A book written by a former Fredericksburg historian, A. Wilson Greene, featured in a recent column, has picked up a prize.

The Austin Civil War Round Table of Austin, Texas, has awarded its 2007 Laney Prize to Greene for "Civil War Petersburg: Confederate City in the Crucible of War."

The Laney Prize is given for "distinguished scholarship and writing on the military or political history of the American Civil War," according to the group.

Greene, president of Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Dinwiddie County, spent years researching the book to detail what life was like for Petersburg residents and Confederates defending the city during and immediately after the war.

Date published: 5/22/2007