Though I would like to make this post longer, time does not permit it to take too long, so I will do what I can. In a few minutes I need to get ready and head down to Wilsonville for a singing event where I will be part of a group of historians who sing. Or at least, that is what they call themselves. As it happens, Wilsonville has an interesting history. It was founded originally as Boone’s Landing, as it was the location of Boone’s Ferry, a name that remains immortalized in the streets of the suburbs of Southwestern Portland. In the early period of Oregon’s founding the Boone family (related to Daniel Boone and other famous Boones [1]) ran a ferry over the Willamete River that operated for about thirty years. Over time the ferry became particularly famous and well-known, and a small community was founded there, until the last Boone of that line died in a gunfight and the town suffered until it was re-organized by the local postmaster general.

Those who are avid readers of my blog are no doubt aware that my interest in music history comes out often in these pages, whether it is an analysis of songs or commentary on genres and artists, especially those who have been unjustly maligned or neglected. However, I am also fond in general of historical songs, and as a barbershop singer one tends to sing a lot of historical songs in four-part harmonies that were much more common in the past than they are now. Apparently four-part a capella singing was once a very common sort of singing when pianos were scarce or when singing helped to alleviate the boredom and tedium of physical labor. Nowadays these are not concerns, and music has taken on vastly more individual and less social means, to the extent where people can even have and make their own radio stations rather than participate in music with others. As is so often the case in life, when something is gained something else is often lost.

So, in the meantime, I sing historical songs as a throwback to the old times and help others instruct and inform about history, in the meantime learning myself about this area, finding unusual connections and patterns in life as is often the case. And, in my love of music I find a greater depth of ability to help understand and show history in action, how it lives on in the most unusual of ways. Those are reflections that help us realize that the past is not always gone, and even where it is forgotten it leaves its trace on the names of roads, on the patterns of population, and on the hobbies and interests people have, especially those who seek to understand the past even as time marches on ceaselessly into the future. For we never truly leave the past behind us, even if it lies forgotten and obscure, because it shapes us in ways that we often cannot comprehend.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/why-arent-they-in-the-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-pat-boone/