My husband and I just got back from the 75th
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. That’s right,
we rode our bikes 1,875 miles round-trip PLUS daily excursions through the Black
Hills and Badlands. A great experience
and beautiful countryside to ride through.
Have you heard of the Needles Highway? This
route is a motorcyclists dream. Incredible twisties, switch backs, pigtail
bridges hills and valleys, and even a few short tunnels. And the last time we went, my husband was in
control and I took the pictures.
Although we ride
separately to the rally, we want to share the rally experience and ride
together. However, this time I wanted to
ride the Needles so he rode on the back and took the pictures.
It was everything I
thought, the twisties were even twister than I thought, the roads were narrower
and the switch backs were quick. OOWEE! that
was fun. But something happened on that
ride - our viewpoints changed. Until
this ride he had never seen the beauty and I had never seen the danger.
Although we had both been on the same motorcycle on the same
road two years before, we both came away from that ride with a new appreciation
of Needles Highway.
That experience got me thinking about how we look at family history. I believe that it is human nature to see history
through our own perspective and easier still to make judgement. But as family historians, is that our
job? Can we tell the story without
bias? Or can we figure out a way to
switch seats for 50 miles to see another perspective?
When we listen to the stories of our family members, we need
to remember that their experiences were different than ours which makes their
decisions possible different than ones would might have made today. If they made a different choice than you
think you would have made, take the time to ask them why they did what they
did. Find out as much of the
circumstances surrounding the situation and keeping asking “why”. Maybe then your own perspective might change.
I never knew my Great Grandfather George R Bird and my
grandmother never talked about him. When
I found his Workers Progress Administration record I found out that he had been
fired for absenteeism. That was no surprise
to me at all. After all, George had been
a bigamist, kidnapper and overall louse, according to all of the other
documents that I had found. It wasn’t
until talking to a granddaughter from his last marriage that I realized that I
needed to change seats.
The more probable reason why he didn’t show up to work was
because there were four little ones at home and his wife gave birth to their
fifth child on the day he was fired.
Perspective!
Remember with Me is a family
legacy company dedicated to recording the stories of the individual and
solidifying their place in their family’s history. Please call us to
schedule a time with a trained Life Historian to tell your story, archive heirlooms
or identify family photos.
