We’ve all listened as someone told a story making us aware no story is fully told without a journey into parts of the bigger story.
Today is here, the time is now.
I see and feel history completely the opposite direction of most historical writers. Typical history we read is from place -> event -> people. Although not one to say anyone’s view is wrong or attacking anyone, here I ride the fence and live in knowing I cannot make judgement of another unless their actions harm another.
So, here is simply how I view history and am currently writing the first of three books.
The order of history is people -> events -> places. Middle is the same from both sides of looking at the same history. I believe I see and feel history clearer because I reverse what most think and see. People first.
A relatable event and story we all can follow in our minds from things we know personally, though depth of knowledge can vary greatly. Railroad development when the U. S. was still very young, a frontier to experience, expand and grow.
Typical history writing follows railroad development being first. Accounts abound how railroads caused people to settle due to accessibility of rail. I see it differently.
Railroad companies were making investments with the full and open intent of making money for those company founders. So railroad depots were mapped to places where people already lived, worked, raised families. Felt hardship in the frontier, found community and love. Railroad companies mapped to these places, alive with real people, businesses, families, gathering places. The goal to bring more opportunity to already existing places.
That community hall wasn’t built to attract people. It was built to give a common place for people to gather, share stories and their lives. All of it, the good, the bad and the ugly and only people can share. The community hall was absolutely not first without people. I’ve actually experienced situations where it could have been a place being built to attract people. Result is long lost and forgotten landmarks, ripples I feel with and without a landmark.
One such place is in the area of Deerbrook. What was once known as Star Neva, and before that known as Melnik. Walking through the woods with my best friend, hunting small game. We encountered a very old arch built of stone and iron. Standing in the middle of nowhere proudly waiting to be remembered. The words engraved following the arch were “Welcome to the middle of nowhere”… For my life since that event when someone uses this phrase I simply say, “I’ve been there, seen it and got the t-shirt”, they laugh, and then I tell them this story.
Today that ripple is very strong still. That landmark (now long gone); was a testament to the life of the person who created it. That story is there no matter the date being built or the purpose of the building. Yet, that ripple quietly calls me over and over starting before 15 plus years of researching this area.
The books are tied to the story as here I expose more of who I am and how I’ve lived my life. Different than most, quietly, happy and content in life knowing I have “enough”…
Yes, I am Irish, yes the very old Irish saying “I wish you enough”; I know it, I feel it, precisely as it is intended. You decide your enough in life and only you… Your getting your enough is a life well lived and a story worth telling.