Barry Lopez’s The American Geographies was an engaging
read. Lopez writes in a more familiar and easy-to-digest way, which I believe
allowed for a better in-class discussion. After I finished the passage, I talked
to my mom about the concept of local experts. I believe that my dad is such a
person. “…they are nearly flawless in the respect they bear these places they
love. Their knowledge is intimate rather than encyclopedic, human but not
necessarily scholarly. It rings with the concrete details of experience.”
(Lopez, pg. 916) I immediately think of my dad, who has lived 90% of his life
in the town that I call home. We live on his family’s farmland, land that he
has worked and explored for many years. If given the chance, he loves to share his
knowledge about this land.
About half a mile away from our house, there is a bend in
the creek surrounded by flat, sandy land. My dad spends most of his free time
out there, fishing and enjoying the woods. My mom’s family is from northern
Indiana, so whenever they visit, he brings them down to his place in the woods
and tells them the history of the area and his plans for the future. He wants
to build a small cabin on the cliff side so he can stay out there longer. For
as long as I can remember, he has always been eager to share his knowledge with
others. He didn’t study forestry or geography formally, but he learned through
years of exposure. Every time we go to the restaurant in town, he stops and
chats with the older folks about history and how it connects to current events.
He used to be the town’s historian and welcomes conversations that flex his memory
from that time.
Now, as more and more of my town’s elderly pass on, my dad
grieves for the history that is lost with them. “Year by year, the number of
people with firsthand experience in the land dwindles.”(Lopez, pg. 917) For my town, this is especially
true. Young people don’t have many opportunities there, so they move away to
bigger cities and towns. For a long time, I tuned my dad out when he started
with his story telling, but now I realize how important it is to listen and
take to heart the history of the place that I will always call home.
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