History is filled with pivotal events – tragedies, disasters, atrocities, war. Often we hear people ask ‘Where were you when…?’ questions. Or ‘What was it like when…?’ questions. It is common for these questions to come after many years. They are usually asked by younger generations who weren’t alive at the time of the event in question or were so young they have no memory of that time.
Shortly after September 11, 2001, I was asked to teach a scrapbooking class about how to create a few pages for a personal scrapbook about this event. Seems like an odd request right?
As I prepared for the class I considered a few things I wish I knew. My grandparents were in their teens when Pearl Harbor was attacked. My grandfather ended up enlisting in the Marine Corps when he graduated from high school. My grandmother wrote to him while he was away. In the fall of 2001 I was suddenly very curious about my grandparent’s thoughts about the events of 7 December 1941. Did they know this would propel America into WWII? Did they know this would mean my grandfather would be serving in the armed forces? How did they feel about these events?
With all of this in mind I tried to generate a list of thought provoking questions for my students to use to help them write their feelings about the events of September 11th. We created a simple, tasteful scrapbook page with a pocket to accommodate several typed pages of thoughts. The second page we created using images and the lyrics to the song ‘God Bless America’.
The class was a somber, respectful affair that gave us all an opportunity to consider how our thoughts about a major world event may someday help our descendants understand that day in a more personal way.
Writing my thoughts about that day was a good way to work through some feelings. It sharpened my perspective, helped me remember the things that really mattered. I suppose you could say it was a healing exercise. But mostly, I hoped I was creating the very thing I wished I had from my grandparents. Personal thoughts about a major event.
As genealogists we often lament that records can’t provide the why. We piece records together and gain some insights and then we infer. But we always want more don’t we? We want to understand how our ancestors felt about things, what motivated their choices, what they hoped for, what they dreamed.
Do we take the time to record for future generations the very things we wish we knew about our ancestors?
What pivotal events – on the world stage and in your personal life – have occurred during your lifetime? Have you recorded your thoughts about those moments for future generations to learn from? What record are you leaving behind? It’s not too late to start now.