By Diane Forrest
Growing up in school, history
was not one of my favorite subjects; in fact I would say it was probably one of
my least favorites. Listening to things
people did hundreds of years ago didn't interest me. The older I got, however, I began to
appreciate the stories of how things around me came to be, and things the
people before me went through so that I may have a better way of life.
I am fortunate enough to live in
a small historic community. People from
all over the world come to my small little town to see the way things used to
be, and how far we have come. The other
day in our newspaper, there was a story about the planning of our community's
tri-centennial. It seems like yesterday
when we celebrated 275 years of the beginning of our town. The City was settled by the French in 1716,
followed by the British, then the Spanish, who ultimately laid out the city’s structural
grid. Each of them left their mark on Natchez, and nearly every inch of
architecture in the historic areas of the City, is influenced by the three
nationalities. There is so much history
here as there is in most communities.
Some good ways to discover your
town's history is to first check out the local Library. Maybe there are some books written about your
town, or if not, you can check the newspaper archives. Another good way to explore history is to
visit local cemeteries. As a way to
raise money for care and upkeep of our local cemetery, the custodian decided to
have a fundraiser on Halloween. He
organized several people who dressed up as members of the deceased residents
and each acted out the story of their lives.
It was a huge hit, and now each year many others participate in the
telling of the stories and several hundreds tour the grounds for a small
glimpse of history.
Take some time out this month to
see what new things you can find out about your community. You may be pleasantly surprised by what you
learn.
(Images from Google)
No comments:
Post a Comment