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,"
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.