When I was a kid, my Dad used to take me with him on his sales trips driving all over Kansas to small towns. He used to talk about the places we went and what he imagined they used to be like in frontier days, partly to keep me from getting bored but partly because I think this is just how he thinks. For my Dad, a hillside was never just a hillside- it was a vista where one could view a wagon-train! I now recognize these as (mostly) fantasies of a man who had grown up in the east watching a lot of westerns as a kid, but at the time they seemed very real to me. We did see actual wagon-ruts in places where the Oregon Trail is still visible.
Faulkner said “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” and I feel that’s true. I would look at those ruts and wonder how I would have measured up to my ancestors who left behind everything to settle the frontier. Every place in the world has a story, and that story connects us to the people who came before us, and those who will come after.
I now walk through Grand Central Terminal at least once a week and the place is made extra special by a few choice membits that are there. The picture above is just amazing to see in person. A man and a woman standing right there in front of you, 50 years ago. I wish they could look over and see me, and I wonder what they would think.
Membit is a small team of people who have made a tool that will let everyone tell the story of the places that matter to them to others, both now, and in the future. We’re finally in the AppStore with our “Minimum Viable Product” but this is only the beginning. When it Matters, Membit ™!
-Jay
