I’ve been at a couple of functions over the last month where I’ve had the chance to talk to 3-4 people who have had interesting lives but are now in their 70s & 80s.
They all realise that the history they have lived through is likely to be lost. “My grandchildren couldn’t conceive of a milk man with a horse and cart delivering milk to our front door” said one. “We used to ride a horse 5 miles to and from school when I was 8 or 9” said another as we were talking about parents worrying about kids playing in a local park. “I remember when they used to load timber onto ships tied up to the jetty” said an elderly local.
Unless my call to record their early days is acted on, all the local and cultural history that these people have stored in their memories will be lost to their families and to future generations.
For anyone over 60 who is reading this article, I urge you to record your life history for your children, your grand-children and their children. Don’t use the old excuse that “My life isn’t very interesting”. We all have a story to tell and we have all seen more changes in our 60, 70 or 80 years than have happened in the last 1000 years. Just think about it – we’ve seen a world war, the development of air travel, life before computers, horses and carts as a normal form of transport, steam trains, the first man on the moon just for starters. Simply writing about the changes that you have seen over the years and describing what life was like in the 1940s and 50s is amazing for a child born in the 21st century.
So write it down, type it on a computer or just record it. Whatever is the easiest. The important thing is to DO IT. You don’t have to write a best seller. The spelling and grammar don’t have to be perfect. You’re just telling your friends and family what your life was like for the brief time that you were on earth.
I went through this process last year and the DVD I gave my sisters and my children was probably the best received Christmas present that I had ever given my kids.
Paul McKeon