Amazing What Memory Retention Can Do

Cutter's Log - Stardate 2102.02.30
Current Song - Couldn't Get It Right (Climax Blues Band)

My youngest brother Danny always tells me that he can't remember anything prior to middle school. I quiz him at times over things he used to do when he was younger, and just can't seem to remember ... and even goes as far as yelling at me because he just CAN'T remember.

My memory retention goes as far back as age 4. I still remember the trips to Madison for my doctor's visits for my autism diagnosis. This was 1990, and from that point on my memory began to build and there were many things that just wouldn't go away. I don't know if this is similar to other human beings, but remembering things from back that far seems impressive.

Going back to Danny's memory retention, as his and mine are far different, I began to wonder if mine is abnormal.

I say all of this because one of my favorite Facebook pages is called "You Know You Grew up in Sterling/Rock Falls If......"

I post on there once in a while, and it seems as if I'm the youngest poster on there that can remember some of the history of Sterling and Rock Falls after 1990. I think there are a couple of others on there just a few years older than I am, but that's all. Since I can remember back that far, I can still recall the buildings that were there before Sterling's biggest landscape change at the time: the demolition of the west side of downtown.

Recently on this Facebook page, there were pictures posted that had these buildings going through the demolition process. There is a photo album in the library (the only place saved from demolition in that area) that stands up on top of a bookcase in the local history room with all of these pictures in it - telling the story in photos of the transformation of the west side of downtown.

Not too many people my age (in my graduating class, for example) can remember going into Eberley's Drug store, or the KFC, or the Kastle, but I can. One of my classmate's uncles owned Eberley's. My mom's mother was one of the managers at the KFC. Seeing all those pictures once more brought back the actual time that I remember seeing them.

But perhaps my best memory of what's no longer there was one of the last days of preschool at Wallace. We all walked over the the Kastle and had ice cream. Then we walked back on West 4th and ran into Mr. Fell, who owned a barber shop along the way. He gave us all one of those hard strawberry candies (you know, the ones wrapped like a strawberry).

Nearly a year later, all of that was gone. There is still debate on whether tearing all of that down was a good thing or a bad thing. The debate was strong enough that, back in 2000 or 2001 there was a calendar for sale depicting all of those buildings for each month. I had one, but can't find it.

Also recently, there has been a spurt of more older pictures of what downtown Sterling used to look like many years ago - buildings that were long gone before my time. These pictures have kept the discussion in this Facebook group alive. I started adding in some pictures of my own, but didn't want to post the same old buildings again.

I wanted to do something different, and post some of the oddball things about Sterling and Rock Falls. Not too long ago, I took my camera and turned the setting to black and white and took some pictures that would try to tell a story.

Among those pictures are: a faded-out painted advertisement along the former Pro Shop bar downtown, the mailbox and its chute inside the Midland States Bank building, the faded-out words reading "Academy of Music" on top of the D&E Furniture building, the traffic control switchbox at West 3rd and Avenue B (still standing after the lights were removed 20 years ago), and a small street leading to apartment buildings just south of Avenue H and West 3rd. I've got a few more on the docket.

For more than five years, I have helped run the Illinois High School Glory Days website. From my experience in researching the histories of the schools, and trying to find the whereabouts of these school buildings, I know how restoring the research helps people dig back into their heads and remember how things were back then. Pictures especially do this well, but most of what I stumble upon are such buildings far from its original purpose - and most times, derelict.

I wonder if looking at pictures of the current shells of what they used to be lead to a visual rekindling of a comparision between now and then. Or is the picture simply that of a ruined old building? Hopefully by putting the pictures in black and white, it cleans up the ruin into two colors and thus help the eye bring back the visual image of what is used to be.

Those little trinkets of nostalgia that don't get talked about often about Sterling and Rock Falls is what I'm trying to find for this Facebook group. Hopefully I can find them before its too late.

They say a picture tells a thousand words. As a writer, I can find ways to expand the artwork into many, many more words. Hopefully I'm doing that with my pics.

Here is the link to the Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/202495229808351/