The Memory Keepers

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As we grow older our memories of the past change and fade. This is evident when listening to members of an even older generation repeat stories of their younger days and we realize that some of the people and events in the stories have changed or don’t match previous tellings. Personal and family history are important to me. I come from a family of “memory keepers” who maintained photo albums documenting their daily activities. When I was in high school I began compiling a family tree and as a freshman in college I created my first scrapbook chronicling that significant year of my life. I subsequently became the caretaker of the dorm scrapbook, which hadn’t been updated in years, and created annual scrapbooks of my four years in college.

After I married and before I had children the need to document my life faded. However, in 1981 when I had my first child, the urge to record family history began anew. Each of my three children has a completed baby book and their own scrapbook/album recording their activities during the first year of their lives. Since that time I have made an annual family scrapbook. The early ones were created in the days before scrapbooking became popular, so instead of stickers and fancy printed papers many of the pages are embellished with drawings and memorabilia. Our collection of scrapbooks also includes scrapbooks that document a life rather than a year. I made a “This is Your Life” scrapbook when each of my sons turned 21, my daughter turned 18, and my husband celebrated his 50th birthday. I have started a wedding scrapbook and a scrapbook of the “missing years” between marriage and parenthood is in the planning stages. Most days these scrapbooks sit on the bookshelf untouched and unnoticed, but at least once a year a family member gets the urge to “relive” their past and we spend hours browsing through the books and remembering the days when our lives were a blur of endless activities.

Now that my children are grown the new scrapbooks are thinner and document holidays, parties, special days, and things I believe are important enough to remember, like the pumpkin I grew last year or the new koi we purchased at an annual fish show. Three years ago, when my daughter began her freshman year of college, I gave her a scrapbook for her to fill. I come from a family of memory keepers. The tradition continues.

"Remember me in the family tree My name, my days, my strife; Then I'll ride upon the wings of time And live an endless life." ~Linda Goetsch
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