Dwight Young’s anthology, Road Trips through History: A Collection of Essays from Preservation Magazine, was an extremely enjoyable read and opened my eyes to many aspects of preservation I had not considered. As a collection of essays written over a decade, Road Trips Through History is hard to pigeonhole into a category, the essays are too wide ranging. However, as mentioned, this quality reveals the breadth and scope of the preservation movement and the amount of effort that is required to keep the physical remnants of the past alive. Young examines life with a tinge of nostalgia and a keen wit, reflecting on how much our environment means to and influences us in all areas of our lives, from porchin’ to gazing up at the night’s stars.
While reading Young’s compilation I was continually surprised with the range of efforts preservationists are concerned with. Prior to reading this book, when I thought of preservationists, the first thing to pop into my mind was historic downtown. I most frequently associate the movement with keeping old buildings from the city or towns founding and once that building is in their hands, preserving it and not changing anything about the structure. That is why I particularly enjoyed the essay about the bright blue home, where Young stated, “Change and historic district are not antithetical concepts.” Change is good and “everything is temporary” (Young, 21). Preservation is not about keeping everything the same. Rather it is about celebrating differences and enjoying the unique. Anything someone took the time to preserve and keep safe is important because of the ideas that are conveyed. This thing is worth remembering and a physical representation is left behind for us to enjoy, contemplate, and even struggle with. Even if it is just two huge pile of waste rock, if something’s disappearance would “rob of something important” it is worthy of preservation.
These essays are a very enjoyable read. Many move you, to sadness, to indignation, to humor. But they all share a message, anything that is meaningful to your community, your family, or yourself is worthy of preservation. Young concedes we have to make room for progress, but that does not mean razing anything that gets in our way. The past has meaning, without physical representation it is difficult to remember that meaning.
The Final Frontier?
15 years ago
1 comment:
I agree with your assessment of Young's conclusion about how the importance of anything is therefore deemed worthy of preservation. I too usede to associate historic preservation with the types of buildings you see in those downtown districts and it was refreshing to see that that is in fact not the case. Your conclusion about remembering the meaning of the past through physical representation proves the old cliché correct: If you don't learn from the past you are doomed to repeat it. These things become cliché because they are so true though; without preserving that remnant of the past that holds some significance to us it becomes lost as time goes by.
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