Anyway, our first meeting was attended by a few people, but not as many as I expected. Present were a well-known blogger and living history buff interested in doing a WWII project, a heritage committee member, a lovely mother and daughter of a family interested in being contributors, a town sage, a retired museum curator also on the cemetery committee, a nice man in the investigative/organizational stage for a similar project for Battle Ground and me. Not what I would call a crowd, folks.
I would also like to publicly thank Kay Stringfellow, owner of the Pickled Heron Gallery, who donated the use of her lovely banquet hall so that we could have our meeting. She's a huge community supporter, by the way, so please make sure you frequent her frame shop and art supply store.
Anyway, I publicized the meeting pretty well, but I didn't want to over-promote it. Candidly, I wanted only those with a burning passion of some sort to show up. Selling people on the idea was not my impulse, as I wanted to find like souls who find this sort of historical treasure hunt incredibly meaningful. Our town is small, but our area has about 15,000 people in it. Granted, I could have chosen a bad night - there were many other things going on all over Ridgefield, as usual - but we all make time for what we find compelling.
So I have not yet decided how I will continue. There were some territorial issues some brought to the meeting, others had a personal interest in a particular area of the project only, and my idea of collaboration did not seem to resonate with more than three of the attendees.
My original community-building enterprise was envisioned to bring all these groups together, and to add a major element, newcomers. This would be defined as anyone who has been born, lived or come here only sometime in the last 50 years (starting on January 1, 1960 and anytime until present). After the meeting I would expect this 'Newcomers' segment will probably be the thrust of what I will be doing in the future. The Heritage Committee, of course, will continue its efforts with its target group. I wish them great future success although accept there is no interest on their part in collaboration at this time.
As there is no interest to my knowledge in the Newcomers either, I should not be stepping on toes or duplicating what is already being done as I pursue that avenue. It will provide my effort with plenty of wonderful living histories to collect and preserve. Of course, there may be some crossovers on both sides, as some people may choose to contribute to one effort or the other. That's certainly not a problem for me.
The photo grid project will be mothballed for now. There was no one interested in that project at all. Some members expressed concerns about the idea of people snapping shots of their homes, although I explained the photos would always be from public access only. Then again, it can be difficult to contain enthusiasm, so one has to respect this viewpoint as valid.
This may be something the photographers in town may want to do, or perhaps it could be a contest used as a fundraiser for Birdfest or Overlook Park as it will take something to get that one going. We have such a beautiful refuge, all those river and lake banks, the woods and territorial views. It would be absolutely wonderful if we could get our population snapping shots of their back or front yards and emailing them all to the blog or some other archive vehicle.
The historical society and museum seemed to be something that attendees felt was a good long-term goal, although the difficulties of getting there are obvious. Mainly money, fundraising, etc. Certainly, this would be a long-term goal. The eventual museum might want to be independent or affiliated in some way with the Clark County Historical Museum, but this is a future vision. Archiving is expensive, of course, but a rotating or active, temporary series of exhibits would seem to be the most logical with 'borrowed items'. One attendee suggested she would like to see the mammoth tusk that was found in Ridgefield returned to Ridgefield. I agree, as fair is fair, after all. That cannot happen, of course, until we have a way to exhibit or store this kind of fossil.
Well, friends, onward and upward. Not all ideas are embraced as enthusiastically as I would like, and so I will march to the sound of my own drum for a while. I had intended to pursue this in a more dramatic way if there was community support. As there does not seem to be a burning desire for leadership in this area, I will paddle along solo. In the interim, anything that people want to post on the blog, please send it to me at: ridgefieldlivinghistory@gmail.com If you don't have email, call me at 360-887-4530 and I'll arrange to pick it up or give you my mailing address.
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