History Made Real

"Grammy, did that really happen?" her awed grandson asked her. He was watching the movie, "Pearl Harbor" and found the events hard to believe.

"Yes, dear, it really did happen," Billie replied, recalling the events of years ago.

The interchange prompted Billie to write her memory of those events for the book her Memoirs class was composing.

In 2005 members of the class wrote their stories and memories of World War II, which they then assembled into a book.

Many of the students gave copies of the book to their children and grandchildren and many of those grandchildren shared their books with classmates or used the stories for schoolwork.

"I had stuff no one else had!" another of Billie's grandson's happily informed her. He used some of the information from the World War II book for his US history class assignments.

History - not just the recitation of facts but the recollections of living, breathing people - made real for future generations, through the work of Fifty Plus students like Billie.