Why we love local history (and you should, too!)

I think just about everyone who had to take a history course in high school or college was subjected to the lecture on "Why we study history."

With apologies to George Santayana, lecturers typically conclude that spiel with the tired old maxim: "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."

I always had a problem with that conclusion, because it implies that everything that happened in the course of human history had potential to cause tragic harm if revisited.  

But, that is a discussion for another blog post.

What turns people off to the study of history (besides uninspiring, knee-knocking lecturers) is that it is all too often painted with very broad strokes.  We are all expected to learn the "common core" of history, to borrow a much-despised term.  We simply must know the big names, the big battles, the key words, the important dates, the highlights if we want to pass a standardized test.

Local history is different, because it is tangible.  Its students are surrounded by it, allowing them to instantly immerse themselves.  Thus, it can be explored to much greater depths than might be done in trying to learn about people who lived and events that occurred in distant places.  Even a passing knowledge of local history will give a resident vital context for their present environment.

For example, in this neck of the woods, you will learn the answers to questions like:

1. Why does Orange Avenue split south of Orlando, with only the southbound lanes retaining that name?

2. Why were those northbound lanes named "Hansel Avenue?"

3. Why do the cities of Edgewood and Belle Isle exist?

4. Why don't Holden and Gatlin Avenues cross Orange Avenue?

5. Was there ever a real "Pine Castle?"

If you don't know the answers to those questions, or if you have others you'd like to ask, come visit the "Old Timers Tent" during Pine Castle Pioneer Days at Cypress Grove Park on February 21st and 22nd!  (www.pinecastlepioneerdays.org)