I am Quitting, Eaton History & Museum, and the Keepers of the Fire and you!

This week’s blog is about quitting…yes quitting.  I am a person who never gives up…really!  I started the quest to help Eaton get a business since 1995.  The only thing Eaton the Town and Hamlet had going for them at that time was “History”. So the little group called Neighbors for Historic Eaton… that has morphed into Old Town Folks today… set out to use that history as a vehicle to gain recognition and to put Eaton into the public eye. We have certainly accomplished that and now have a museum that works to that end.

I started doing Fall Festival History Weekends to bring not only Eaton’s History to the public, but also all of the small town museums that have been overlooked.  To accomplish this I put up an early website called Our Old Town.  We did 8 years of these fall history tours.  Today I have expanded this to include the history of upstate New York with our current website www.historystarproductions.com.

As Madison county Historian I worked to save the records that had been long since forgotten and abused.  Records that record the lives of the people of Madison County.  I have a hard time getting people to visualize that a county is not a drawing on a piece of paper but is people…the people that live within it…both past and present.  In that capacity I tried to save the Madison County Fair…donating my time and much of my own money.  We have a Fair today.

I have written so many articles in the past 20 years on our shared history, so many weekly blogs, books, and in all this time have never been paid for any of it and almost never thanked either.

I have toured to promote each of these quests…doing public speaking engagements, 31 in one year alone for the Fair.  I have done numerous public speaking lectures to raise money for my museum…but I have to stop.  Of all the things I do…public speaking is the thing I hate the most.  This month I am retiring…really.  I am giving the Eaton Cemetery tour on the 31^st…yes Halloween…and that is it.

The museum will still be there, the history will still be in the public’s eye.. but I won’t be.  After 20 years I am turning the job of promoting our cultural heritage in the form of history back to you.  I implore you to support your local museums; …mark your memories by labeling photographs and donating important pieces of your communities’ history to your local society or museum…do not wait for it to be sold at auction to cover your debts.  Also remember that your children my not prize that memorabilia as you do. Volunteer with a group that works for your community such as fire departments, churches, cemetery association, and museum groups…etc.

Remember…each town, village, and hamlet needs what I call “Keeper’s of the Fire”.  In the old days whole groups of people traveled together to market with their goods…. travel that took in their time days by ox cart…they always left a few folks home who kept the home fires burning until their return.  So I ask you to become a modern keeper, by preserving and promoting the history (remembered lives) that founded our rural America, the future generations will be richer because of it!

   

Have you hugged a newspaper today??? Why not!

I am becoming very skeptical about the future of newspapers in print!

You know this is going to be terrible for historians and writers if the newspapers in print continue to slip away.  I myself prefer a newspaper, even though I dash around to all of the on-line new sites during the day and night.

In the past local history, national history, and world history, have been clipped and snipped and pasted into scrapbooks for future generations to view in museums and archives. 

History hoarders tell me that have kept every one of my local history articles for their children’s children.  Right now I have 2 over 100 year old newspapers on my desk to read and get information from, information that really can’t be gleaned in many cases from a history book written on the subject.

It is said all of the news will be scanned and saved for the future…but in what form?  Will someone have to continually update its form to be viewed on new software as the old is discontinued?

Obituaries of the past are so useful in locating relatives when doing genealogy, some of the information is of course a little tilted or skewed…but overall it is there…dates, places, relatives, reasons for death...all of it.  Museums are filled with this kind of thing.

To truly know about your area in the past the old newsprint is vital…let alone know what's going on locally.  Think of those famous newspapermen of the past like Ben Franklin and Mark Twain..we have actual copies of what they wrote!

I really wonder how many people are going to print things out to clip and save...and if they do…is the ink they use going to survive or will it fade???? Good question…

So support your local historian and museum…buy a newspaper…enjoy holding it while you sip your coffee or tea….and remember  newspapers have been around for a long time……and I hope it stays that way!