Recorded History

In further efforts to highlight and preserve area heritage, a local organization has published a small collection of poems, essays and short stories by Southeast Missourians.

The Cape River Heritage Museum has put together "Heartland Heritage Anthology 2: A Collection of Writings by Citizens of Southeast Missouri" and will celebrate the book's release with a launch party from 5 to 7 p.m. today at the museum on Independence Street.

The first "Heartland Heritage Anthology" was published this time last year.

The writings come out of Writing Your Own History writer's workshops hosted by Bonnie Stepenoff.

The workshops started as a way for people to record their family history, traditions and oral accounts. When compiled, those stories paint a picture of life in Southeast Missouri.

The stories in this work combine a bit of history -- as remembered by individual experiences -- with humor, like the story of a nun washing a young girl's mouth out with a bar of Ivory soap for cursing on the playground of Holy Family School, Cape Girardeau's black Catholic school in the 1950s.

Another story recounts Christmas traditions from the Depression era, when an orange and some hard candy delighted children and trees were trimmed with candles for lack of electricity.

At first thought, the book might sound irrelevant: a bunch of family stories that don't relate to me or most people I know.

But Stepenoff has guided the writers to a place of humorous anecdotal significance. The museum charges $6 per book -- just enough to recoup the printing costs -- and continues its tradition of preserving the traditions of Southeast Missourians.