We had a history lesson last night at The Fallon Post as we worked on getting the paper ready for you. Actually, it went on all day and evolved into a huge crew of help as we tried to caption one little photo for the paper this week.
And it reminded me of the importance of history and records and good memories.
We stole the photo/graphic the museum posted on social media earlier in the week to advertise their Ice Cream Social so we could put that on the Announcement page (see page 4) and make sure you all know about their event. Someone had started asking who the guys were in the photo, and the only one identified was Elmo Dericco. The other two looked super familiar, and I should have been able to figure it out, but when they actually looked like the photo, I would have been only three.
So, we went into research mode.
I had sent the photo in a text early in the day to a friend who I was sure would know. He didn’t but said he would ask another friend and get back to me. When that didn’t work, I thought to confer with the keeper of all Lahontan Valley history, the one person who will always know – Bunny Corkill. But I was stuck in a meeting, and none of the crew had her phone number.
We then started reaching out to other friends who may know, who passed it on to other friends. Eventually, Virginia and Morena got Cyril Schank on the left, confirmed by Ernie. A bunch of us thought the guy on the right was Jim Regan, but some others didn’t think so. Eventually, the majority won, and we made the pink shirt Jim, finally confirmed by Berney.
Interestingly, it came back through two separate channels that the original version of this picture also included to the right of Jim Regan, another gentleman, Rene Daguerre, who served on City Council and was the owner of the Woolgrowers restaurant, which was located for a long time in the old Lahontan Valley News building where La Fiesta is now.
This idea of community history also came up earlier in the week, visiting with one of my friends sitting in the hallway in the county office building while we waited for the Election Results to come in. One of my favorite authors, Robert Louis Stevenson said, “The secret to a good life is a short memory,” but the key to successfully documenting a community is keeping in touch with those of us with very good recollection.
It made me realize yet again how important it is what we’re doing here. And how fun it is that the whole community participates. We just could not do this without all of you, and we wouldn’t want to. You all make this so much fun.
So, while we make sure we’ve got all the names right and think of a new challenge for next week, we will be right here…
…Keeping you Posted.
Rach
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