Remembering

Hi neighbors. Another Fourth of July has come and gone. I hope everyone had a great day!

And I sincerely hope everyone took time to remember and to recognize those who have fought to save the celebration of July 4th throughout America's history -- as well as those still fighting today.

Many families enjoyed the Fourth with family gatherings and picnics. Others attended town events with firework displays and carnival events. It is truly America's holiday and we should all celebrate it in one way or another.

Being older and less enthralled with loud noises, I decided to spend the day at home reading a history book. That's my version of a patriotic party. In past years I've drug out the American map and traced the migration of my ancestors from state to state.

Most of my family started in England or Scotland and ended up in Tennessee and Kentucky before moving on to Missouri, Ohio and Kansas.

After searching the map for odd names of small towns, I went to Google Earth and then street view to see firsthand the places my family tree has sprouted branches from rambling roots.

I was fascinated to see my old elementary school in Kansas. It is not a school now; it's the home offices of a trucking firm. The entire neighborhood is now industrial and the many homes that surrounded the school are all gone -- lost to the memory of us old folks and small town history books.

The best parts of American history are too often left untold. Places and people and events are "history" only to those who had first person contact unless some tangible primary source is made at the time and preserved.

In the case of my old school; when the last person who ever attended there dies, the building now standing will be forgotten as a school. There are a few photos, but most are in albums or shoe boxes of people my age. Once we are gone those proofs of existence will be tossed out and it will be as if the school never existed.

All those memories of how the school smelled on the first day back after summer vacation. All those recollections of shouts and laughter in the hallways, hushed giggles in the library, yells of encouragement in the gym and on the playground ... those will be gone.

Where do memories go when they disappear from the minds of those who created them? How can they be captured and shared anew? Is everything we have done, thought, said or dreamed lost when we forget those things?

I don't want to believe that. I know myself that sometimes an errant wind will blow an odor into my nose that my mind will recognize and attach to an old memory. That memory will pop up and I'll remember another time and place that odor was in my life.

I like to think that memories don't just go away. And I'd like to believe that places that now exist only in memory will exist anew with one stimulus to a hidden recollection.

I hope you take time with big events like family reunions, picnics, vacations, births and deaths to take photos and notes to keep those memories alive not only for those of you who lived and created them; but also so those who find your photos and notes can bring those events, people and ideas back to life.

Until the next time friends, remember, so much of who we are is not defined only by what we do, who we know and how we live; but also by what we think -- and what we remember.