The memory bank
I have realized that the only one who is responsible for recording my history is me I cannot depend upon my siblings nor my progeny they have a different set of memories and with that comes another responsibility. If I do not try to recall what I learned about my ancestors along the way it will be lost. You can say that it is not important but with that goes the idea that no history is important and we know that is not the truth let me look at what I know of my grandparents. I know their names?? I know where they were born and died and lived at least in part I have visited the homes of my grandparents. I know their relative professions and their children. A good start; all of my grandparents came from small villages very small in some cases the only house around was theirs. The family homes of my grandparents are still in place. A rare thing in an area where house fires consumed so much. I have been to their graves and I have tried to let my own children know some of the story. Their names are mentioned from time to time in the daily newspapers. No infamy, rather that they were known as members of their own community. If we go back a further decade or two I can actually tell you a little about my great grandparents. The same sort of information where they came from and where they died where they lived in part. I was asked recently if I knew anything about the home of one of my grandmothers; a question from someone that knew her when they were very young and I can tell you that the house was across that field for what that is worth, that house was gone before I had memories. I have visited the home of my great grandparents on one side and I have a very important photograph for me, that was another house consume by fire. What will my own grandchildren know of my life? Who will tell my anecdotes? This blog is in part a way of passing on memories to others. They may not know it, but this sort of thing will be important to them later in life. I will probably pass on a little of my music, too personal to be easily shared and if you ask who were my dogs I can give you that information. Although it has little importance. We all edit our identity’s for better or worse I hope that my own children will have a few details about me to be added to their memory bank. These thoughts came to me after listening to a blog about what was remembered from the days of slavery. Sound recordings were a new technology but we have snippets, important in the larger scheme of things.
