Sunday, September 8, 2013

MUCH OF MY PAST IS ON THE INTERNET!!




I love the internet for exploring my past.  Ten years ago, I would not have thought to do it. But today, I can find almost anything I want or need. Within reason,  of course.

I started writing my memoirs a little over a year ago. When writing one of my first, I  began to reflect on where I lived when I was in school for the first time. I googled Oklahoma City and was delighted to find an historian of my birth place, Doug Loudenbackhttp://dougdawg.blogspot.com/ After messaging back and forth, he provided information of landmarks with pictures he posted on his Facebook and  sent me. And alas, after finding the address which was on my sister's birth certificate, he provided today's pictures of a house we lived in when I was five years old.

My home in Oklahoma City at age five. 


He also had pictures of the amusement park I visited often and nearby movie houses and the old St. Anthony hospital where I was born. I have wonderful memories of Oklahoma City where I have not visited in many, many years. But I now have pictures of favorite places.

The most recent find is a connection to the years my husband and our children lived in Corpus Christi, Texas 45 years ago. On a Facebook site called, "We Grew Up in Corpus Christi," . https://www.facebook.com/groups/eddiemartin/I can bring up restaurants or read what others mentioned and exchange information about the wonderful food we ate,  as well as timely events, such as hurricanes that made indelible memories many of us shared. One of the longest posts on the blog is about "Ship Ahoy", which everyone agrees had the most delicious fried shrimp and salad dressing. We even discovered there exists still a recipe for the latter in the WGUICC Cook Book.That was most exciting. And Hurricane Celia brought up gobs of memories of frightening destruction,  in addition to pictures of its aftermath. Shortly before this I had contacted a family on Facebook that we had ridden out that terrible hurricane with and they said they had vivid memories of the six men in our two families holding up the front door to our house so that it would not blow open and expose us and the house to all the elements. Touching base with those we haven't seen or talked to in many years and sharing old experiences is a great bonus

If you have lived in other towns and cities you might want to recapture some of those images or you may want to renew old acquaintances. You too can try googling them or searching on Facebook  for those whom you knew long ago. Recently, Marion, a girlfriend from my junior high days,  found me on Facebook. That was such a surprise and we have enjoyed reconnecting. When I combine my memoirs for my book my descendants will someday know more about where I have been,  who I knew and see images from my past. Don't wait too long if you are interested in memoirs because you may find obituaries for some of the names you search, as I did, as well.But remember so much is available on the internet to explore our pasts.