If we’ve learned one thing over the past two years, it’s that history doesn’t look like history when you’re living it.
With that in mind, Town of Conesville Historian Kimberly Young has begun collecting first-person accounts of what it’s been like to live through COVID.
A Social Studies teacher at Cairo-Durham, Ms. Young and her students work with primary sources and know how valuable they are.
Ms. Young said Conesville has quite a bit of local history from the 1700s through the 1900s--but not as much from the 2000s.
Not a surprise, she said.
“We often forget we’re living history every moment,” and it’s often not until we look back that we wish we’d done a better job keeping track of it, she said.
So Ms. Young has begun reaching out to Conesville residents, asking them to share the highs—and lows—of the past two years.
“Just as conversations about the 1918 Influenza epidemic have resurfaced in the past two-plus years,” she said in a letter to the community, “the COVID-19 pandemic will be talked about for generations to come…
“There are uplifting moments and moments of grief and sadness. Above all, there are a lot of memories and diverse experiences that need to be documented, honored, and preserved.”
For now, Ms. Young said, she doesn’t have any specific plans for what she collects; she’s just trying to gather it all in one place.
She stresses that she’s not necessarily looking for “big news,” but everyday recollections including diaries, family photographs, or accounts written specifically for the collection.
Included on a list of things that might help jog people’s memories:
Drive-by birthday parades, shifts in education and employment, take-out food, property transfers, the physical experience of having COVID, and politics.
Also: grocery shopping and shopping online, entertainment, virtual meetings, masks, medical services, vaccinations, and religious services.
Ms. Young’s willing to meet people at the Conesville Town Hall to pick up items they have or for interviews.
They can also email items to her at younghistorian22@gmail.com, mail them to her at Kimberly Young, 144 Davis Road, Gilboa, NY 12076, or call the Conesville Town Hall at (697) 588-7211 to arrange a time to meet.
Ms. Young asks that as much information be included with the submitted materials including names, dates, locations, and any other important information.
For her part, Ms. Young checks several of those COVID memories boxes.
A teacher, she experienced online teaching.
She also moved back home so she could be closer to her family.
“I’d urge people to share anything they have or remember,” she said.
“Nothing is too insignificant. It’s hard to judge the value of it all now. We just don’t know.”