History (Surrounds Us) #AtoZChallenge

Too many people, I suspect, developed a distaste of history from the way it is taught too many times in school - a dry collection of dates and names.  Who cares, children think.  And they are right!

What isn't always taught is that history is OUR story - the story of each of us.  It's the story we need to pay attention to.  A rootless people are a people without hope.

History is the story we are living now, a story sometimes horrible, sometimes fascinating.  It's the story of our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, and those who lived when they lived.

I was reminded of that when visiting my community garden raised bed this afternoon to do my first garden planting of 2022 (peas and lettuce, if you want to know) and was reminded of a sign just a few feet away from where we garden.  Yes, our community garden is located next to a cemetery, one that was associated with a poor farm up the road a little, that operated from around 1833 to approximately 1930.

Let's look at a little more history local to where I live, history we who live here pass every day.

I've written posts about my exercise walks on the Vestal Rail Trail.  A tragic accident happened on the railroad tracks that ran on this land back in 1901.  How many people pass by the historic marker without looking?

 Even further back, there was a war against the indigenous people of this area, because they took the "wrong" side in a war we were fighting.

 

Let's expand our look at history a little to cover more of our country. Depending on your age, you may (or may not) remember these shelters. I found this sign several years ago in Richmond, Virginia.  Let's pray that we never have to start building them again.

This is the entrance to a house in Fayetteville, Arkansas, whose occupants, at one time or another, included people who eventually became: An oil company (Sinclair) president.  A pioneer in frozen foods (Swanson).  A future President and his spouse, a future United States Senator and Secretary of State (Bill and Hillary Clinton).  Does a house confer greatness, one wonders?

And from humble beginnings, history teaches us, anything can happen.  Look at the little store on the right side of this photo.  From this store in Bentonville, Arkansas grew the retail empire Wal-Mart.

Yes, history surrounds us, and it can be found in ordinary houses, in ordinary signs, in ordinary places like walking trails, and in small five and dime stores in a small town.

"H" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme:   "From Florida to Vermont With Stops In Between".(today, with a side trip to Arkansas).