Addressing history in a small community

Moving from one community to another has become such a routine thing. Far fewer, if any, emotions attached to it. We adjust and can easily get into a new circle of friends. Join a new church if church is a "thing" for you. 

This phenomenon has been widely commented upon: our more mobile society. In line with this is the ease of commuting. I am amazed at the extent some people do this. To each their own, of course. I remember a Morris High School principal who lived in Willmar. His last name was like "croquet." I do not understand why any such arrangement would be practical or desirable. 

So the question arises: Is it really so necessary to appreciate the history of the community in which you live? There should be at last a cursory recording of any community's history. But I'm wondering about a full-fledged museum. This is on my mind on this early morning of mid-August because of our "historical society" here in Morris. Make that Stevens County I suppose. 

Well, the museum has fallen into some tumult. It's in transition. 

I'm thinking about the museum's location in west Morris. 

What to make of west Morris? It is separate from the "business district." Not nearly so much business over there. It is obviously "on the other side of the tracks." Is that expression sort of a putdown of that set of neighborhoods? Generally speaking the residences show signs of aging. I sometimes shoot baskets at Wells Park and find there is an industrial noise issue. Maybe when you live close to that, you learn to ignore it. 

Back when the "cemetery chimes" were rather a raging controversy in east Morris, people would bring up the church bells. They'd argue that no one really had an issue with those, so why the hubba about Ted Storck's chimes? Is this another case of where people learn to ignore the sounds? 

Simply making the pro-chimes argument probably made people think about church bells more. So after a few moments of considering that, maybe we'd conclude "church bells are a total anachronism." Maybe they were once helpful for being aware of the time of day. Well, nowadays? No such need at all. Maybe we're just hoping that God is paying attention to us. 

People mention also the trains that come roaring through. Do we learn to just blot that out too? It's nice to not be distracted by noise pollution too much. As for the industrial noise, we certainly appreciate the presence of local industry. 

Our Stevens County museum

It is easy for our local museum to be out-of-mind. The building is in an out-of-the-way place, tucked in among the old but charming west Morris neighborhoods. Really, you have to go out of your way to have the museum cross your mind, don't you? 

My belief has always been that the library and museum should be in the same building. This would make people much more aware of the museum. Helpful for getting $ considerations. But in this age of our "more mobile society," just how top-of-mind is the local community's history? 

And weaved in with this is: how important is it to have a local cemetery? Do we need it at all? 

Decades roll past and the residents of Morris in past eras become strangers to us. Quite different from when America was in what I would call the "Peyton Place era." The latter: So many lifetime residents out and around, each with a life story including of course warts, and then they're buried and we're reminded of both them and their warts. 

Today people move around so liberally that you can erase the slate.  Forge sort of a new identity. Of course many people, I believe, just protect their privacy more. Maybe that is a very healthy thing. 

Along with "Peyton Place America" I would offer the term "Norman Rockwell America." We didn't even have an interstate highway system until the '60s, right? Man, just think how transformative that has been. We got a preview with "Route 66." Remember when "Lucy and Ricky" took the trip on Route 66 with their apartment landlords? And there was a whole TV series called "Route 66." 

Route 66 seems primitive now compared to all our contemporary assets for travel. Let us emphasize here too that cars are so much better made now, able to withstand serious commuting. Man, does anyone worry about getting a "flat tire" anymore? Many of you might remember the days of agonizing over that. Mercy. 

I wrote just a few days ago about how a local ELCA minister's husband has reportedly taken a job in Minot. This is totally consistent with my thoughts as I write this. No longer a bombshell move: moving to Minot or anywhere else. When our chief librarian of a few years retired and moved out to Idaho, no big deal at all. We might forget that in a past era this kind of relocation would be seen as drastic. The America of today is so different. 

We wonder if the ELCA minister who I reference can even stay in Morris. She is so highly thought of, I presume she could find a new parish in short order. But it's all speculation. 

Our world has gotten smaller because of the Internet of course. We can research new opportunities that might be presented anywhere. Just with a few clicks. 

Some might say we are losing our sense of community. Perhaps it's a maudlin thought, just like the idea that people at the local diner will "know your name." That's how it used to be. Morris does not even have the classic type of main street diner. I used to go into "Ardelle's" (or "Kelly's" before that) and see familiar faces at a certain hour. People who went through standard routines. 

The "Peyton Place" type of town had an array of interesting personalities. The downside was that we'd get to know people's baggage and peccadilloes. Yet we loved our "hometowns," right? Of course we did. So it was natural to get your body put in the ground there when you died. As for someone who might move to Idaho at retirement, well I wonder how necessary that is. Not necessary at all, I would argue. 

I can walk through our Morris cemetery and see a whole lot of names that might have once carried weight with memories. Many do not any more. "Edson." Who was that? Well he was sure important once. God rest his soul. But time marches on. Change marches on. We can only hope that change is for the better.

 

Ah, Ms. Grove

Our Stevens County museum is in the "Carnegie" building. So it was established as a library. Mom and I used to walk to the library there. We were familiar with Ms. Grove. The building had aesthetic value on the outside. Was it worth preserving for that reason alone? Inside it is nothing. Many very old buildings are like this, seem rather cramped on the inside. 

The huge flaw of our museum is that there is no parking lot close by. Just residential streets. That's why I wish the museum was just built onto the library. Would make a world of difference for foot traffic. 

West Morris is a residential place. That's wonderful. But the important public stuff is concentrated on the east side. That's wonderful too. 

I think the "mobile society" trends will increasingly make a small town's history less important. Remember how iconic the local "bank presidents" were? You ought to smile at that reference. Today it's totally different as we have "branch managers" who really just blend in with the rest of us. And that's wonderful too.

 

Addendum: The great movie reviewer Roger Ebert talked about how movies portray small towns as the most desirable places to live, "where everyone knows your name at the local diner." The irony, he noted, is that the people who make movies do not have that view at at all. 

Garrison Keillor comes to mind too, how he wrote about the small town newspaper office that gets subscription renewal checks with exotic place names on them. These subscribers just have to know what's going on in their old stomping grounds, Keillor wrote. "Is Norm really selling the hardware store?" These people have to know the goings-on in such a place, even though they wouldn't choose to live there again "even if you paid them."

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com