Preserving the Past by Pat Mulso

My trip to Ohio was a busy one. My brother and I completed a job sorting and photographing over 4,500 documents, which included deeds, indentures, photos, certificates, diaries, ledgers, receipts, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous records that were our great-grandfather’s or our grandmother’s. Some of them dated back to the early 1800s through the 1940s.

Over 100 years of historical documents will help us to add information about the lives of our family members to our family history.

Among these documents were my great-grandfather’s justice of the peace certificate and my dad’s baptismal certificate, which I have been trying to locate for over 20 years. My father did not have a birth certificate, so his baptismal certificate will serve as proof for my first families of Ohio documentation.

Now that all of these items are available for us to study on our computers, we will use programs to help us group unknown photos through a special facial recognition program and where photos were taken will also help us to determine which family lines they belong to.

We also visited the location of our childhood home. The home was destroyed by fire a few years ago, so all that is left on the half-acre plot is a stone fireplace built by our uncle over 80 years ago, an apple tree, two walnut trees and two fence posts. Oh, and some poison ivy. Everything else is gone, except our memories.

Now it is back to work at the museum and we have lots going on during June.

Mark your calendar for Eddie Cochran Weekend! The 28th Annual car show will be Saturday and will be downtown. Car show participants will pay and receive their registration slip as they enter the event on Water Street by the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center. They will be directed to park their cars and then complete their registration inside the American Legion on North Broadway where they will receive their goodie bag. Breakfast will be available in the lounge at the American Legion and our grandstand vendors will be located in the American Legion dining room for spectators and participants to visit. Participant cars will be on Broadway and Fountain Street. Food vendors will be located in the North Broadway parking lot and then we have our local restaurants in the downtown area. The museum will have their famous root beer floats available downtown. Thank you to the local American Dairy Association for sponsoring us again this year.

Car registration is from 8 to 11:30 a.m. The award presentation will be at 2:30 p.m. on North Broadway near the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center. The show is free this year to all spectators. We do request you to respect the car owners by not skateboarding or riding bicycles in the car show area.

We are bringing back the Eddie Cochran Window Contest to the downtown area. Merchants and businesses will decorate their front windows with a ’50s theme. There are two traveling awards, first and second place. The winning windows will receive their award at 2:30 p.m. Saturday during the car show awards presentation.

There will be a shuttle bus from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. from the downtown area to the museum. This will give participants and spectators the opportunity to visit the museum without having to drive during the show. Reduced admission to the museum that day will be $2. Members and children under 11 accompanied by an adult are free.

The 12-mile car cruise will begin at 4 p.m. and will depart from North Broadway in downtown Albert Lea. Following the cruise, Richie Lee will perform 7:30 pm.m at the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center on Saturday.

The cruise-in social starts at 6 p.m. Friday, sponsored by and held at Country Inn & Suites and Green Mill.

The museum and village will be open both Friday and Saturday for the regular hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be Eddie Cochran T-shirts and mugs available at the museum and downtown.  Please plan to join us as we celebrate and honor one of our hometown heroes.

The museum will host a four-hour Smart Driver refresher class from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. June 26. The cost is $20 for AARP members and $25 for non members. This includes an administrative fee. You must pre-register for the class.

The third annual vintage style show brunch fundraiser will be at 9:30 a.m. June 28 in Bethany Hall at First Lutheran Church. Tickets are $15 and are available at the museum, Addie’s Floral & Gifts, the CVB office, Mary Go Round and the Chamber Office. Seats are limited, so don’t delay, get your tickets soon!

 

Pat Mulso is the executive director of the Freeborn County Historical Museum, Library and Village, 1031 Bridge Ave.