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Illuminated Heritage

March 9, 2009

It was a dark and stormy night…

How many stories start this way? Quite a few I imagine, especially in the horror genre, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about today!

It certainly was dark and stormy over the weekend up by my house which means I pretty much had to amuse myself indoors.  As usual, I went out to the barn to ride and train my horse Prince. Fortunately, we have an indoor arena where we do 90% of our work. Unfortunately, the lights weren’t working yesterday. Well, not a biggie, Prince and I have no problems working is a less-than-well-lit ring, it’s not like we have stuff in the way that we might run over, and there are big skylights. The carts are set up against the wall and we have bright orange cones cordoning off the “guest seating” so as long as we can see the walls and the vague shapes of carts and cones, we’re pretty good (we eat a lot of carrots, Prince and I).  However, about halfway through our ride, just after noon, the thunderstorms rolled in. There wasn’t much lightening, which is good, because that would mean I would have had to get off and give up for the day, but there was some nice booms and well, the skylights kept getting darker and darker. So, here I am, riding a horse around in the semi-dark (the lights from the barn area were helping) during a thunderstorm, and yes, the ceiling was dripping and little puddles were forming here and there. Prince, being the level-headed horse he is, only jumped once – at the first clap of thunder. He was a bit wound after that, but kept himself calm. A lot of that came from the fact that he trusts me to save him from the monsters but then I had to trust him too – a) not to be an idiot and b) to watch for the puddles so he didn’t slip much (his eyesight, is, after all better than mine).  We cut the ride short because of the conditions, but after I got off, it made me start thinking…(yes, we’re getting to the point)

I started thinking about my ancestors, all these people hanging out on my family tree. They didn’t have a safe sandy arena to be riding their horses around in during a rainstorm – they were out there IN the rain storm. Horse was getting them from point A to point B – not learning how to do side passes or pivots or the Spanish Walk. No lights from the barn helping to light the way, reins slippery and wet with the rain, and spooky horse-eating shadows everywhere. They couldn’t see much either and they didn’t have nice soft sand underfoot – they had bumpy ground and tree roots and big puddles the size of small lakes. They too had to trust their horse to get them to their destination safely and I’m sure they did it and didn’t even think that much about it.  And then I started thinking about all the stories like that I would have loved to hear handed down from the ages. I have some – like a great grandfather several branches back who died when his wagon tipped over on the way home back from town. I remember hearing that story (and, actually, reading the newspaper story) and wondering what the heck was going on that a wagon tipped over? And yesterday, I got some perspective on that story – I don’t remember if it was raining or anything, but gees, a tree root sticking up in the wrong place, getting slightly off the path, who knows – it all would have been so easy to tip a wagon – even a sturdy farm wagon – even with level-headed horses.

So, there are 2 things I wanted to leave you to think about today:

1. Do your best to start writing those stories down! I would have loved to hear about the relationships between them and their horses and I know there were some good ones – after all I come from a long line of horse lovers.  To me stories like that would be the best treasures – EVER. So, when you are writing in your journal or recording family stories for later generations – don’t skip the mundane! To me the mundane can be fascinating. Even ole’ Charlie Sigwalt’s weather notations in the Civil War Diaries from Arlington Heights on Digital Past are fascinating in their own way – and it gives us a fantastic link to the past. And don’t forget to jot down those recipies in there too…
2. Take a moment in your busy life and try to see if what you’re doing right now can shine a little perspective on your ancestors’ lives. It might just give you a clue that creates a chink in that old brick wall or at least a new appreciation for the lives that were led before you.

posted by Kay at 12:13 pm | Comments (1)

1 Comment »

1. Comment by antje wilsch, April 22, 2009 @ 2:32 pm

   
   

   Love this post Kay. This is one thing we purport to do at the site I’m a writer on http://www.StoryOfMyLife.com . I’ve been an avid genealogist for years, but realized that my biggest frustrations come from finding something about a person but wanting to now more about them. Building a tree is great and all, but I’d rather read 10 old journals/diaires than have a tree of a million strangers.

   Thank you so much for pushing this fact home. People get so busy and if I had a dollar for every time I heard the words of regret from people’s lips (“I wish I had gotten my mother/father/grandfather/aunt’s stories before it was too late!”)…..

   Antje Wilsch
   writer
   STORY OF MY LIFE
   http://www.storyofmylife.com

   
   

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