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Ec.rr.com's avatar

Truth

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Sarah Loten's avatar

Such an amazing post! I’ve never thought of archives in this way. How intriguing!

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Janisse Ray's avatar

Yes! I'm enthralled by all the old stories floating around there.

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Sheila Knell's avatar

Blown away by this! Have you ever thought of doing a class on this, how to research archives, how to write local history into our narratives? I feel awful for even suggesting that knowing how busy you are! I also live in a rural area where the young are encouraged to leave. My grandpa once said to me, the one who stayed, that my brother was too good to stay here, basically that he had too much potential.

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Janisse Ray's avatar

Reading that sentence washed me with sadness. Yes, that has been the narrative. And so we send our best talent away to places that grind them down.

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Wendy Pratt's avatar

Absolutely fascinating

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Jane Pike's avatar

Janisse, this is amazing!!! Wow!

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beth duff's avatar

Thank you, what a great site!

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kathryn kyker's avatar

Fascinating! My mom volunteered at the Archives in Montgomery. Such complex layers, thank you for shifting through these specific stories and sharing them.

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Kim Kleinman's avatar

Archives are magical places and archivists magicians.

The Missouri Botanical Garden archives was a locus of graduate school. I’m old enough to have the luck to make a research road trip but also be able to email magicians in Adelaide to get papers/correspondence not possible from that road trip.

Historians, as my advisor once said, have the best job because we get to read other people’s mail.

And what we find is the sheer humanity of our subjects—their resilience, their chafing at the constraints of their lives, their stubborn refusal to be anything but alive.

That’s what you’ve discovered, Janisse, and what you have reminded us.

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Gail Krueger's avatar

Great story

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Jessica Prince's avatar

My roots run deep here. I could lose myself in local history. The day will come and I will finally start that journey and spend time at the archives with you.

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Janisse Ray's avatar

Bring me a cup of your famous coffee when you come!

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Susan Wittig Albert's avatar

I write historical novels and feel the same collapse of historical time that you write about here. Like it or not, the past becomes present, pulls me into it, makes historical people real and alive and in charge of things--in charge of *me.* Thank you for sharing (again) this truthful description of our work as students of story.

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Tanya's avatar

This was amazing! I have been doing some research here in Bryan County…especially the south end. I came across a book called North by South that follows 2 years of his plantation records. It’s fascinating. Now I have begun reading the oral histories from Henry Ford’s employees. It has been eye opening as to the “whys” of how things came about.

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Nancy Friedland's avatar

Oh this is wonderful, from the chutzpah of Ruth, to the person punished for "wandering about in idle pleasure" and everything in between. I've never been to Portland's history museum, but maybe it's time.

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Janisse Ray's avatar

I've never been there either, but I bet it will be an eye-opening day.

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Michele Moon's avatar

“I do approve,” she said. Of course she recognized that you were the only one who would take care of these records as if they were your children, or your stories.

And the night when you lie on that metal cot in the jail, I bet the voices from the beyond will be grateful to share their lives. I bet they will line up for their chance to tell you what they knew.

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Janisse Ray's avatar

I literally get goosebumps just thinking about it, Michele.

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Parjit Kaur's avatar

Omg, what a story! Ruth knew you are the right person to take charge of the Archives and to bring it back with your sincerity, dedication, and hard work. Unbelievable!

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Janisse Ray's avatar

Come visit me, Parjit!

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Parjit Kaur's avatar

Would love to! One of these days…

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Margo Solod's avatar

beautiful

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Janisse Ray's avatar

Thank you, maker of beautiful things.

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