The Past

I have thoroughly researched all I can on the Internet now about the past of these parts...specifically traced the roots of my current religious congregation, and of this area I live in--now called Beacon, once named Matteawan....and Fishkill Landing. It is fascinating history, dragging me in deeper. I took Camille to see an abandoned schoolhouse built in 1870...she chattered away and told me she "didn't like old things", while I had shivers running up and down my spine. Such beauty in that architecture, and such possibility in that abandoned place. My imagination would have gone wild when I was younger...it still is--as I am sucked in by those stories of long ago. But, I think her interest was piqued by the emotional tenor of awe I held for these missing places in our history books. There are so many missing pages--of those on the fringe, the outskirts of society. Where is that school created by freed slaves for instance? Did anyone record its meetings? As I feel myself being drawn farther and farther into the past, I need to take stock and breathe. Put my papers and mental wanderings aside, and return to the chattering girl in the backseat with all her questions.