FULTON – You probably have had this happen. You see an old friend at the grocery store or waiting in line at the Post Office, and one of you brings up a memory from the old neighborhood. You both smile and then recall another memory. And another. In just a few minutes, you and your friend have shared something vital: keeping alive Fulton’s proud past.
The Fulton Library understands the importance of your memories. That’s why, for the past twelve years, it has supported a committee of volunteers who have been preserving these recollections in something the library calls the Memoir Project. Here’s how Library Director Caroline Chatterton explained the Project:
“The Project’s committee reaches out to current and former Fultonians to collect their memories of our city’s past. The committee will work with people who want to write their memories as a story, or will sit with those who want to tell their stories. Committee members then edit those stories into a book form, adds pictures and some background history to create an enjoyable reading experience for those who love our city.”
As Chatterton explained, the library has completed six memory books, each with a different topic, including Fulton’s famous downtown Dizzy Block, veterans of World War II and Korea, churches and faith communities, and our schools and favorite teachers. The committee’s current Project theme is Fulton Neighborhoods and Homes. Committee member and lifelong Fultonian Mary Kimball well understands the value of capturing neighborhood memories:
“If you consider yourself blessed, like I do, and you remember your childhood, then you might have moments when you close your eyes and almost transport yourself back in time to that incredible era of your life that you simply recall as ‘growing up in the neighborhood.”
Mary and other committee members have been reaching out to their family, friends and acquaintances to ask what those neighborhood memories might look like. Stories are already coming in. Here are a few examples:
Randy Dempsey, whose childhood neighborhood was on Fulton’s east side, in the “Kiwanis Kidhaven” area, remembers his youth through “activities that were specific to a particular season, whether it be spring, summer, fall, or winter.” Randy recalls spring as “breaking out baseball equipment” and “our primary mode of transportation, the bicycle.” Reading Randy’s memories helps us all reflect on the uniqueness of all four seasons in Fulton.
Former Fultonian Jerry Tetro remembers her childhood home at “105 Union Street, which was off of South First Street in ‘Little Italy.’ Generations of Italians lived in the South First Street area, including many Italian business owners.” Both of Jerry’s parents worked at Nestlé, as did so many of our parents. When her father won an award for a suggestion box idea that saved the company money, “he was awarded almost $500 that he used to remodel and modernize our home.”
You don’t have to be a lifelong Fultonian to appreciate the memories of from our city’s neighborhoods. LaVerne DeLand, who moved to Fulton in 1973, in the Fulton Avenue neighborhood, recalls: “There was a woman, Mrs. Hazel Shaver, who lived a couple blocks down the street from our home. Mrs. Shaver was always a community-spirited person. She hosted teas in her home. She would gather women in the neighborhood and from elsewhere in Fulton and sometimes those teas were sponsored or in support of local organizations like The Salvation Army.”
In the coming months, the Library’s Memoir Project committee will continue to gather stories about Fulton’s neighborhoods. If you have memories to share, please contact the Fulton Library at (315) 592-5159 or through their email at [email protected] You can choose to write your story or have a committee member interview you at your convenience. What a gift you will be giving your family, your friends and the city of Fulton!
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