PEOPLE TO BE REMEMBERED & GOODBYE TO THE GOOD OLD DAYS

How often have you found a family picture and wished those people pictured would have told you more about their lives? How many times will some of your descendants pick up one of your pictures and wish they knew more of your story?

The Morrison Historical Society is in the process of publishing a book called "People To Be Remembered." We put together a long list of deceased people that had been an interesting part of Morrison’s history. We chose at random about twenty-five people and are printing a short biography of each. Along with those, we added stories of some of the people who were featured in our past cemetery walks. Because there are so many interesting people on our list, we hope this will be the first of a series of such books. Watch for an announcement of when the book is ready for sale. We think you will want one!

As we assembled the stories for the book, we found some had their stories written, some family members provided the information, and some we had to do a lot of "digging" to get our story. That brings me back to my first paragraph. Have you written anything about your family or your story?

Someday someone may want to know about your family--or about YOU! Don't we all have some of those pictures with no names on the back? We know they must be somebody we should remember, or we wouldn't have their picture. Write names on the back of your photographs!

I have a friend who is always telling little interesting stories about his growing up and about his family. I kept telling him to write them down. His answer was always "there isn't that much to write, and who would care?" I told him someday his family would care. A few months back he told me he had started to write some of his family stories. The last I heard, he had written over thirty pages and figured he was going to need about forty copies made. Not bad for a start. I hope you will start writing your story. It is fun, and you will bring back a lot of treasured memories.

This will be the last of the GOOD OLD DAYS for at least awhile, as I take a break. I know there are many stories out there still to be retold. I also know there are several people who love to research and love to write. I hope they will share their writings with you.

I have a couple of thoughts that I have collected, that I will pass along to you writers. Sometimes you have to sacrifice historic accuracy to get dramatic effect--or--never let fact get in the way of a good story. Some famous historian once said, "The best history is usually the biggest lie." I hope my stories have been mostly fact!

It has been fun and educational as I researched these stories. I want to thank you for your many kind comments. Recently I had a phone call from a lady in Canada wanting information on one of my stories that she had picked up from the internet. It is a small world.

I was cleaning out some of my files. I came across this little poem I had written a few years back. With a few changes to update it, I thought it was appropriate for today. I called it THE FINALE; it goes like this:

I've written rhymes and stories, for what seems like quite awhile.

I hope I've brought back some memories and made a few folks smile.

I've talked about the old time weather, of people, and the such.

Now, it's time to quit this writing, while enough is enough,

And before enough becomes too much!

Now, I have to get busy and identify those pictures I've taken and start writing my own family history!

(by Orville Goodenough, Guest Columnist)