Everyone’s a part of human history in the making

By Sun Advocate

In my work at this newspaper, as well as with some of the free lance writing I do, I spend a lot of time going through archives of previously printed materials. Some of what I see are original publications while other pieces I view are in an electronic format, but regardless the form, I am still surprised that, after almost 50 years of writing everything from silly stories when I was a kid to writing similarly silly stories for the paper as an adult, how we are all threads in the woven fabric of human history.
It doesn’t matter whether I look at a Carbon County news from before the 1920’s or a Sun Advocate from the 1950’s, the story of this community goes on with vigor and enthusiasm, not because of how the stories are told or that someone took the time to publish news about them, but because they were tales about real people; individuals who mattered to this town and built the base we are all living upon right now.
One of the things that drew me to journalism originally was the fact that as a writer, I not only get to compose the stories I design, but I often get to live those tales with those that are part of them. On Saturday I spent some time at a benefit car show that was given for Jace Marietti at the Creekview Shopping Center. As I wandered through the cars and the silent auction I ran into many people from the community I know, giving of their day in one way or another to help this little boy and his family. Some of those people had cars in the show, others were presenting entertainment, some were there bidding on the various items that were placed on long tables and others were present just out of curiosity. For an outsider driving through town it might just have been just another car show in another small town. But for Jace and his family, and for many in our area, it was an event, a celebration of a giving community for a worthy cause.
As my eyes glance through the archives of the passing years in this county, it is hard to count the number of such activities that have taken place and been highlighted in the papers of the past. Few had more than a photo or a couple of paragraphs noting the event, but they were there time and time again. Surely there were also a lot more that were never mentioned. Nonetheless they are part of the story of Price and the greater Carbon County area.
For most people history is something that is presented in a book, something with tales of wars, political movements and disasters in them. They see famous people from the past mentioned; presidents, generals, politicians, leaders, inventors and revolutionaries. But for every person who is named in a history book, there were millions of people who lived at that point in time who were making history too, only they are not noted individually.
When I review the archives I often think about the people in the stories, about their lives, their times and the people who surrounded them. And I have to ponder about the fact that in 70 years someone may be doing the same thing with what I am writing today and they will wonder about the people in my stories.
Each day we live our life we are a part of history. Maybe we won’t be mentioned in a book somewhere and in three or four generations even our ancestors may not recall our names. But we still are a part of the fabric of time that leads to the future of our community.
The choices we make and the actions we take today will affect that future, and those who live here in that time.