LETTERS: EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

To the editor:

My granny always says what goes around comes around. Everything old is new again. Just keep it in the back of the closet, and it'll be back in style soon.

If people don't take the time to learn history, they set out to repeat the same mistakes of those in the past. We need to seek out the knowledge of those who have plowed the road of life well ahead of us, gain from their experiences and maybe make the walk a tad easier for us.

Here's an example: Uriah Brock. Uriah used to live in the house I reside in. He was rediscovered a while back, and his grave now has a better marker. He was in the American Revolution, but I guess folks forgot about him -- everyone except us history nuts who knew exactly where he was all along.

Another potential faux pas was the discovery of the remains on the old seminary grounds where a construction crew was pouring footings. Luckily, the state contacted the Vincentian fathers at Perryville for details about the grounds. Otherwise, many lost hours would have been wasted to excavate the area and determine the age of the remains. A handful of locals knew it was the burial ground for the seminarians, priests and scattered slaves, and it was a matter of time before something was discovered.

Hula hoops are back. I saw on TV a couple of weeks ago where they are the craze. Wild. I recall wasting many a lazy summer afternoon spinning those plastic tubes off of all my extremities. Other times they were used as weapons against a younger sibling who was equally adept at whacking me up the back of the head with a hula hoop tossed like a Frisbee.

People are complaining about the sewer work the city is doing. Residents are tired of having to maneuver on one-way or totally blocked streets and walk to their homes. According to the Southeast Missourian's Out of the Past column, that's exactly what residents were complaining about 75 years ago: sewer work and the way it was messing up traffic.

About two months ago my oldest son announced he just had to have one of those new toys everyone else at school had. I am not the fad-type mom, but I inquired so as to be genuinely interested in what my son was fascinated with. It turned out to be a yo-yo. When I explained his mother used to play with those in grade school, he exclaimed, "No way! You're too old!" He has obviously failed part one of American history: Everything old is new again.

I am waiting with bated breath for the next local history discovery. I would like to see an archaeological work crew show up on the doorstep of Rob and Sherry Vandergraaf on Bloomfield Road and assist them in saving their historic property from the highway department. Or is this another case of only the history nuts knowing about it?

DIANA STEELE BRYANT

Cape Girardeau