Memories bloom at Lodi Historical Society
DURLYNN ANEMA
LODI NEWS-SENTINEL
Love this comment from one of my Scattered Brotherhood readings.
“It’s so important not to drop the moments on the floor!”
Memories! Yes, I talk about them often not only because of my “Memories” book but because of the interesting items gained from people who take my class. During my last desert sojourn I taught three classes and each person had a different reason for attending. All realized the importance of their memories but stories varied, which is why keeping your memories alive is important.
One woman’s story was fascinating because she and her two sisters were going to write memories of their father and how they grew up. Fascinating because this woman had grown up in Alberta while one half sister was raised in Newfoundland and the other half sister in England. They didn’t even know about the English sister until after their father died. Now they thought it was a good idea to compare notes!
Another woman decided to write her memories from her past before she married her children’s father. She felt now was the time to describe her “first” life. The military was important to two men — one with war experience, the other with world travel. Another man loves writing stories of the old west and wanted to learn how to incorporate his trips into the tales.
When I rattle the cage of memories many thoughts emerge. A woman down the street accosted me one day saying, “I just hate you!” Then she smiled. Seems she awakens in the middle of the night and starts thinking about her memories, then can’t get back to sleep.
On Wednesday, March 28 I will be challenging Lodi Historical Society members and anyone else who wants to join us to do three things: start thinking about your memories, listing some that come to mind, then hearing my easy method to write them.
Everyone has loads of memories to unload. Anyone over 40 also has a life to tell which is totally different from today. For me, this includes my children although not my grandchildren. For others grandchildren may be included.
We led entirely different lives from those of today — freer in many respects while at the same time more disciplined. We could play in front of the house or down at the school but also had to call our parents from a “land” line if we were going to be late. Of course, technology had crept in with the “boob tube” which did encroach upon family space.
When I was talking about memories at Casa de Lodi, Barbara Miller brought in some yardsticks. This brought back telephone numbers with a name and then the numbers. I even remembered my old number — (who knows how?) — Randolph 6552. What fun to do this — and to tell about it for posterity.
Hope to see you at the meeting March 28 at 7 p.m. at Hutchins Street Square. And bring paper and pencil or pen. I just may have you write a few ideas or ...
Talking about memories — as you know I grew up in San Diego and the Salton Sea was east. My fascination with it happened when my grandfather took my dad and I to see his piece of agricultural land west of the sea. We only went there once but I was fascinated with crops in the desert. He died when I was 16. When his wife (my step-grandmother) died I found out he left the land to me. I was excited until learning she had sold it, giving me a few dollars for what had been my land.
This was why I read a wonderful old book titled “The Winning of Barbara Worth” by Harold Bell Wright. This is a fictionalized account of the sea’s formation.
A recent desert article told the real story. Seems there was a Dr. M. Wozencroft who saw the Coachella and Imperial valleys in the late 1800s and thought they would make wonderful farmland if only irrigated. He spent his fortune digging large canals through the Imperial Valley with the basis of his venture on an ancient river bed. In 1901 the Alamo Canal was opened and they began to irrigate about 1,500 acres of barren desert.
Then in 1904 the Colorado River flooded its banks. The deluge was so intense that it overwhelmed the canal and its cuts. Consequently, the entire flow of the Colorado went into the canal and Salton Sink creating the Salton Sea, which became the largest lake in California.
Today concern and publicity revolves around the sea as it slowly declines. In the ’60s and ’70s it was a recreation spot with two nice resorts. Now everyone argues about what to do with it, an important story for California and our water troubles.
Have a great week.