Heritage

I've realized why I am having so much trouble blogging.  My personal history project is a blog, so I can't ever remember if I blogged on this blog or not, because I am blogging every day.  It's a problem.

Anyway.

Today I finished revising my oral history interview project for class, and I was reflecting on the day just over a week ago that I interviewed my grandpa.

Never have I been more excited to fulfill an assignment.  It was a beautiful day, it was rewarding, and it was just plain fun.  On a sunny California day, two days before Thanksgiving, my mom and I drove down to Coronado to talk to my grandparents (her parents).  I wanted to interview Grandpa for my writing assignment and Mom wanted to work on family history with Grandma.

Grandpa and I

As we drove the 35 minutes or so to Coronado, I asked Mom what period of Grandpa's life I should ask him about.  We talked about her childhood and all the amazing things he accomplished, and decided that the 1970s would be a great time period to interview him about.  It was just the two of us, my mom and I, and it was wonderful.  It was great to be open with her and hear details of her life that I had never heard before.  When we got to my grandparents' house, the greatness and the inspiration kept flowing easily.  I learned so much about Grandpa that I never even thought to ask all my life.  Through the interview, I saw him as a father, husband, and provider for his family, whereas to me he had always always been a retired grandfather who walks with difficulty because of an accident he had in the late 80s.  I never really considered thinking of him as a spry, healthy young man with three little daughters and a major construction company.  I was fascinated, enthralled.

During our hour-long interview, my mom and Grandma were in a separate room going through records and old newspapers and websites, trying to piece together more family history.  Genealogy is a project they have both been working diligently on for a long while now.  So much precious history was going on in that house that day.  I felt overwhelmed with gratitude for my writing assignment, for the health of my grandparents, for the ability to record history and to go back through those records in the future.  There was an amazing spirit there.

Grandma and Grandpa
"First Dance"
50th Wedding Anniversary

On our drive home, my mom and I talked about Grandpa's answers to my questions and ended up in a fabulous conversation about 1970s politics.  It was lengthy and surprisingly intense.  Then I asked about her experience with Grandma that afternoon.  "It's amazing to think," she said, "that we can touch history.  The censuses that Grandma and I were going through were from 1910 and 1920.  Someone held those papers in 1910, they wrote with their pens on those papers.  It's incredible."

History means everything to me.  I want to work as an archivist because I want to touch history every day.  I want to feel a closeness to people who have long past.  I want to recognize that the documents stored in archives are not pieces of paper, but have stories behind them.  Someone, somewhere, took the time to write whatever is on those papers.  Someone, somewhere, with a story of their own.

History is remarkable.  There is nothing I have ever been more passionate about.  There is nothing quite like it.

This is my sunshine.  This is what gets me through cloudy days.

<3 Mel