The importance of family stories

Hi neighbors. Last Sunday I attended the annual meeting of the Vernon County Historical Society. Officers and board members were voted in during the first part of the meeting.

The presentation was given by Geoff Giglierano, the former Executive Director of the Missouri Humanities Council.

He spoke about "The Power of Our Stories: Preserving and Sharing Community, Family, and Personal Narratives." Giglierano offered stories about some historical events here in Vernon County, including stories about the Badger family as related by family members.

As a local resident of the Twin Towers area, he also told stories about personal experiences during the attack on 9-11 and the panic various people, families and communities faced on an immediate basis the day of the attack.

He told of a local storeowner who let Giglierano take a few groceries when he had no cash with him and all the ATM machines were disabled. He added that not only did this grocer that he did not know personally give him the groceries he needed, he also handed him $40 and told him to pay him back when the ATMs were working again.

We have all heard many stories about the people at ground zero on 9-11; and these stories continue to help us recognize the courage and strength of people, families and communities in times of crisis.

But historical events, even those of such great impact as 9-11, will become just dates and places in the history books of 2025.

The stories of the people of our country, rallying after tragedy to help each other, are the depth and concrete of our collective history.

Just as people telling their own stories of 9-11 will define how future Americans will see these events through the eyes of those that lived on that day; so will your own descendants feel your family's history from the stories garnered from family gatherings if recorded for the future.

Giglierano emphasized that history isn't just battles, dates, discoveries and wars. He explained that these details are the framework of history. Just as a house cannot stand, nor offer itself as a home, without walls, floors, roofs, doors and windows, history cannot teach without connecting the facts with the families.

As Terry Ramsey used to say, it's not yesteryear's dates and events that make history, it's the stories of the people who lived through it that make history real for readers and students of today.

We all have heard family stories. Usually we just laugh, or cry, and get back to our own lives. What are we losing? What stories will our children and their children never hear because we forget them? Now is the time, my friends. Now is the time to write down these precious memories our elders have passed on to us. Because once those elders are gone from our lives, we will forget some of those stories. We will hear a cousin reminisce about some tall tale Uncle Jake told and will suddenly remember how he would slap his knees, relight his pipe and continue his tale with a chuckle. Don't let the memory of your elders slip from the family history. These were real people who lived lives of work, love, family and wartime. They did the best they could to survive and thrive during good times and hard times.

If you want to appreciate how to travel across mountains and prairies, through forests and deserts; go find the stories of how your great-great-grandparents drove a wagon pulled by a team of oxen.

Don't have any of those stories? Ask any of your living relatives -- ask all of them -- and do it quickly. And write down anything any of your family remembers.

And don't forget; time and history are fast flowing streams. Write your own daily activities and your own history the best you can remember it. You might be appalled about how little you can remember.

Fifty years from now, will personal computers, cell phones, laptops, digital cameras and down loadable music still exist? Still be remembered?

Will your descendants know what your daily life was like? You can be sure they will be curious.

Until the next time friends, remember to write those family stories down. I think I'll contact all my cousins and ask them to share what they can remember about our grandparents and their generation of aunts and uncles. Just to see which stories we all remember, and maybe help each other remember the ones we have forgotten.