History is stories! From Tim J. Myers’ “Rude Dude’s Book of Food”

          …because, dudes, that’s what history really is—a story. In fact, it’s THE story of everything and everybody! And there’s nothing cooler than stories—you know it, I know it, and the babies in their strollers know it.

          Let me give you an example—just a teenie-weenie one out of all the awesome stories that make up the Big Story of history. This one isn’t about food—but it’s about water.

          Maybe you’ve heard of Alexander the Great; maybe you haven’t. But he was as real as you or me. He lived in Macedonia long ago, a king’s son, and he conquered most of the known world. You know, got a big army and took over different countries—from Greece all the way to India. (And this was at a time when the only thing faster than your own two feet was a horse!).

          Okay, two things right off.  First, Rude Dude thinks conquering is very uncool—but some people back then thought it was a good thing to do. Second, maybe you think even this story’s boring. “Okay,” you may be saying, “so dusty old Alexander was a hot-shot conqueror guy. Big snooze.”

          But just let me tell you a bit of the story. Here’s how I heard it.

          He and his army were crossing this huge baking-hot desert in Central Asia, and they’d almost run out of water. The soldiers had none left, and they were suffering—bad. At one point Alexander called a halt, and one of his servants came running up with some of the last water, carrying it in Alexander’s helmet. The servant bowed and offered the water to his lord.

          Alexander turned around, looked at all his parched and dusty men, then lifted the helmet—and poured the water out on the sand.

          He didn’t say a word, but they understood: He wouldn’t drink till they all did.
          Like I say: History is stories. And even something as ordinary-seeming as food has lots of great stories that go along with it!

Like the article? We bet you’ll love this book:

It’s actually true that Mongol warriors rode with slabs of raw meat under their saddles then ate them that night in camp! It’s actually true that Chinese archaeologists found 4,000-year-old no…

Rude Dude’s Book of Food

Tim J. Myers

Buy Now

If you like
Tim J.’s articles,
you’ll love
Tim J.’s
books!

Tim J. Myers is a writer, storyteller, songwriter, and senior lecturer at Santa Clara University. Tim earned his master’s in literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has 32 years experience teaching, both at the classroom and universit… Read More

CHECK OUT Tim J.’s BOOKS