The Threads of History

Long ago, in a gift store, I found a brass plaque which read, "At this location, in the year 1847, nothing happened." I always thought that was terribly funny, but my dear wife was very clear on the point that we shouldn’t buy it and, if we did, it wouldn’t be hanging anywhere at our house. She is very wise, after all. And as we have meandered through life I’ve come to believe that something happened almost everywhere. For that reason, wherever I go I ask a few extra questions, drive down the side streets, visit the hokey little museum and the like. Most of the time there is something interesting to be learned, some anecdote to share and remember. Life is all about the details and knowing them just adds icing to the cake of our experience. We’ve all had a chance to study the "big history," which can be found in textbooks. However, I also enjoy the "small history," the obscure stories that add flavor to individual locations. That is what makes a place interesting, and all the more so if it turns out to be family history, etc. Now, I know that your family, much like my own, probably loathes stopping at historical markers along the highway. Yet, even little things like reading the names on the map or browsing a book on an area prior to visiting add a little something to every trip. No need to go far, though. There is plenty of history to be found right in your own back yard. Who knows, maybe something actually did happen right here in 1847 ... it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

The Threads of History
You can find a little history
Most anywhere you look
Not just in documentaries
Or dusty library books
Every small town has a hero
Or a story it can tell
Some relics still to be unearthed
A statue where soldiers fell
The site of an Indian massacre
Or where cavalry did the same
If we ask we may find the significance
Of most any location or name
Something interesting happened everywhere
And by taking the time to explore
We learn valuable lessons about the past
And leave more enriched than before
For what we are today and will become
Is a product of what we have been
And wise are the folks who look to the past
And are willing to take it all in
The world is larger than most of us know
And looks different to you than to me
But we can understand each other more
In the light of our history
Each race and each nation, each family and town
Has a history of it's own
Each block of information hewn
From a common human quarry of stone
And each is a piece in a puzzle which spans
Across time and around this big sphere
Which binds us together from there and then
And right up to now and here
There are lessons to learn from the past for today
To unlock if we search for the key
Treasures still to be found in any small town
Each a part of our history
By Frank Carpenter ©