In this week’s episode, we hear from Nellie Langford. Nellie is my wife’s grandmother, currently living in Lubbock, Texas. However, Nellie was raised in the small town of Dexter, New Mexico, just south of Roswell.
Nellie had a front-row seat to the event in Roswell back in 1947. For her, the story of the UFO crash is personal. It’s a story that is written by small town gossip and first-hand or second-hand accounts.
But beyond just the UFO crash, Nellie has a million stories from the place I call home. Her stories chronicle just how Roswell came to be known worldwide, how we survived the base leaving, and how we live on to this day. Her stories are treasures to me because they tell me about my history, a history that has shaped me in powerful ways.
For example, a few years ago she was going through a collection of pictures from her years as a young woman in Dexter. In that pile of things, she came across a picture of her that her friends took as they were exploring downtown Roswell. This would have been between the late 1940’s to 1950’s. In the background, above Nellie’s head, happens to be the Bullock’s Jewelry sign. It was the first location my great-grandfather was in, running the very company I have the privilege of running today!
This is the power of history. It gives us a glimpse into our pasts and informs us how we came to be who we are today.
Just this week, I was doing a radio interview for this podcast on KBIM 94.7 in downtown Roswell. The station has been around as long as I can remember. On their wall is a cartoon map of Roswell from 20 years ago. It shows the landscape of the town, the businesses that were there (and some still there). I studied the map, recalling memories as a kid growing up in that landscape – another reminder of how I was formed and shaped by my community.
As John’s story wraps up in the coming weeks, the podcast will be taking a decidedly different tone. I want to reflect on how stories shape who we are and why we do the things we do.
What about your history? Have you taken time to listen to the voices that hand down heritage, ancestry, and experience? If not, take the time to do so.
If we don’t learn about who we are and where we came from, we will never know where we ought to go from here. To forget history is to doom ourselves to repeat it. It is my hope that in this show, you find that history does not become irrelevant because it is old. Quite the opposite. History is more relevant today than ever.
So seek out those voices from the past that have helped form you into who you are today. You don’t always have to believe their stories. Some may seem as far-fetched as aliens crash-landing in the desert! But perhaps there is truth to their stories on a deeper, more personal level than you ever realized.
