Never forgetting your journey: “Tell me a story, Pop…”

Look forward to where you are going but don’t forget where you have been. Rod shares some thoughts on preserving his memories. 

When I turned fifty back in 2003 I found myself looking back on my life journey. There were many things that came to mind instantly and yet much that had been blurred by the years. Try as I did, I could not remember details of certain events or times in my life that I felt were of some importance. Why could I remember some things as if it were yesterday? Why were other things buried so deep that only partial memories made it to the surface? Memories can be rekindled and with that in mind I decided to write down all those things that I could remember about my first five years of life. The list was short, yet this simple act of putting a mental image into words was enough to get me started on a project that I add to on a very regular basis.  In words and with photographs I have recorded my life story. I am fortunate that Mum loved her Kodak Camera and took photos of us kids and pretty much everything that ventured in front of the lens. I found that these old and sometimes faded black and white photographs invaluable in sparking memories of my childhood. God bless Mum and her Kodak Camera. That must be what got me started on photography.

On my fiftieth birthday I wrote these words as a forward:

“This is the story of my life and of some of the people I have met along the way. It is about the places I have been and the experiences I have had. How they shaped my life and how they have influenced me. It is about my home town, Omeo. It was there that I went to school and grew up. It was there that it all began. Some pages may not deal directly with me but be an account of an event that took place at a certain time or it may be that someone else features. Whatever shape or form this takes I hope that at the end I have an account of the past fifty years of my life and that I can look upon it as a means of documenting the remaining years of my life. When I am gone this book will still be here and I hope that my son and grandchildren and in turn my great and great-great grandchildren and future generations can read it and know a little about my life and some of what took place throughout this short period in history.”

Almost eleven years have passed since that day and the journal has grown and expanded from pages of words and photographs in book and album form to files and documents in the computer. There is so much stuff that I have accumulated. Hundreds of photographs and thousands of words. Even though only eleven years have passed since I began much has happened. On a personal and family level things have been pretty good in general. There have been ups and there have been downs. Some older members of our family have passed on and ill health has played a part in the lives of others. More grandchildren have arrived; along with a niece and nephew. Relationships and marriages have fallen apart and new ones started. Pretty typical of most families I would say.

I think we all love to look back and remember things that happened in our past. The good and the bad and even those memories that bring us sadness are all part of what shaped our lives and made us what we are today. It is human nature not to dwell on those things that cause us pain but such things cannot be shut out from our lives. From adversity we learn to deal with difficult situations and are stronger for it. From the happy times come good memories and of those I have many. So now when my grandson asks me to tell him a story; I will have a story to tell.

How do you hold on to your memories? Photo albums, computer files, written stories or something else?