Bill Holton's Recollections

May 1985

“What was it like when I was growing up? What did we do before TV? How were things different?

In these few pages I have written a few recollections at random of things which seem particularly significant to me for one reason or another. Most of them are little things which may not seem to have much meaning. But, taken together, these bits of trivia are part of what makes me what I am today.

Maybe after reading this you’ll have a better understanding of life in the “good old days” – many of which really weren’t that good.” Christmas 1987

This week I reread "Recollections," written in 1986 and 1987 by my father, Bill Holton. Reading through them was bittersweet. I am thankful Dad recorded so much for his posterity. I'm sorry I didn't read them more thoughtfully earlier and ask the questions that come to my mind. 

At the front of one of the booklets, Dad included the following quote. 

“ … I wondered about my own children, and their children, and children in general, and about the disconnections between children and parents that prevent them from knowing each other. Children rarely want to know who their parents were before they were parents, and when age finally stirs their curiosity there is no parent left to tell them. If a parent does lift the curtain a bit, it is often only to stun the young with some exemplary tale of how much harder life was in the old days.

“We all come from the past, and children ought to know what it was that went into their making, to know that life is a braided cord of humanity stretching up from time long gone, and that it cannot be defined by the span of a single journey from diaper to shroud.”

“Growing Up,” by Russell Baker

Dad's comments are a reminder of the importance of recording and sharing our stories.