Postcards

For many years, I edited “In Focus,” a journal published by the Churchill County Museum Association from 1987 to 2010. In Volume 1, my museum colleagues and I stated that the goal of “In Focus” was “to present perspectives on Churchill County through records of the lives of its people and views of the extraordinary landscape within its boundaries.” In Volume 11, we phrased the goal as “to seek out and print the variations on the themes which make up the life and times of our place.” Within 24 volumes, we published articles, photographs, oral histories, scientific essays, memoirs, poems…you name it, if the material added color or depth to the portrait of our place. 

In August of this year, I met with Mel Glover, the current director of the Museum, and Dale Erquiaga, a creative and knowledgeable force interested in implementing the museum's oral history program. We laid plans to revive “In Focus.” 

Our community is overflowing with stories. Each street and country road, each structure, even the trees and grasses, have borne witness to the stuff of tragedy, comedy, and everything in between. If only they could talk. But streets, structures, and landscapes are silent witnesses. It is the people who give voice to our past and present and who perform the magic of creating the story.

You all carry the stories we want to hear, whether you have spent a lifetime here or moved to the area just last week. We want all of them, but we are also aware that most of you wouldn’t enjoy the task of writing a full-fledged article for publication. Hence, the idea of Post Cards. Write down your thoughts, as if you were jotting a post card, a snippet…a memory, a description, a story (funny or not) about an event or experience or person or place, past or present, punctuated or not, spelled according to “Merriam Webster,” or not. Just write it the way you would say it. Of course, longer, more structured pieces are warmly, gratefully, and blessedly welcome. 

Since most of us don’t write and send real postcards, email your thoughts to [email protected] with “postcard” in the subject line. 

I’ll be the gatherer of the golden nuggets. I’ll print them, or some of them, in this column, and we’ll consider them priceless building blocks for articles to materialize in the future of “In Focus.” I’ll also send out themes or ideas via this column to jog the creative juices, but send me anything related to our place, and feel free to suggest more topics.

For starters, you might scribble me a postcard about any of the following:  

• A Fallon school or a memorable teacher 
• The best close place for a picnic 
• Memories of growing up in town 
• Memories of growing up on a farm 
• First impressions upon moving here  
• The Fallon Pool 
• The Dry Gulch Saloon 
• Fishing and hunting in the valley (opening day story?) 
• Lahontan Dam 
• PTA parade 
• Mr. and Mrs. Club or Rotary or 20-30 Club or Elks (you get the idea). 
• Churchill Arts Council 
• A friend, aunt, uncle, grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, neighbor who is part of your portrait of this community 
• A topic of your own