Jenson 1
Vice Jenson
Professor Winisky
English 101, 15:00
September 10th, 2014
Goodbye, My Hundred-Year-Old Friend
“No, I guess not. Here’s a letter my brother wrote the day before he died. Here’s an old-time
hat. These feathers—never got to use them. No, there isn’t room …. How can we live without our lives?
How will we know it’s us without our past” – Chapter 9, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. To
answer that question, like Dr. Walter Havighurst used to say in the announcement of National Historic
Preservation Act of 1996: “We do not choose between the past and the future; they are inseparable
parts of the same river.” The past is told by everyday stories, which also tell people who we are.
