Along about Christmas many are in a quandary about selecting gifts for the various members of their families.  Each year the cost of gifts gets higher and higher.  Maybe you are more or less confined to home and need help from friends or family to get your basic needs.  In other cases some of your family may have basic needs that gifts will help out.  On the other hand, many families are well enough off that your presence is their best  gift.
 
At this point you may be questioning why is this guy talking about Christmas gifts.   Well, the type of gift I am thinking about, like home brew, needs a little time to ferment and mellow into a good product or you may think a bad product.  But, like home brew a bad product may still produce the desired results.

I am talking about the story of your life or your families' history as best you can recall it.  I see the red flags going up all over the place.  I can't write!  Yes you can!  Write just like you talk to someone.  This type of writing will have character, your character.  You will need to do some planning befiore you start.  Start with an outline of the events of your life.  Make notes of special events - what, when and where.  During your childhood, adolescence, adulthood, senior years, etc.  Get them into some kind of order, then rewrite them to fill in the details and tie them together in a story type form.  If you have done this in handwriting,  you will probably need to fo find someone to type it up.  If you still don't think you can write, there is always the tape recorder.  Again, you have to get an outline put together with memory joggers to keep your verbal narrative flowing. 

Make plenty of copies, as you will be surprised at the number of friends who would like a copy.  The genealogy section of the historical society museum would also like to have a copy to include in our developing research files.

The museum has prepared an information guide for writing a personal or family history.  You may find it very helpful, just drop by the museum, email us, or call us and we will mail you a copy,.

Don't delay! This sort of thing takes some time and planning and Christmas is not far away.

Ivan Pfalser
Vice President
Caney Valley Historical Society