Commodore Frank H Foster, III – December, 1985
This is a request. Or perhaps more accurately a plea and a prayer. It is difficult to write and probably more difficult to read, but I feel a responsibility to write it. As BLYC Historian I should attempt to collect BLYC History. However, there is much history in the form of photographs, articles, memorabilia and recollections which exist now, which will not exist a decade or two from now. My responsibility, as I see it, is to preserve these things for future generations.
The problem is people die. I didn’t make the world that way, God did. All of us will end up with the same result. Hopefully, we will meet in Heaven to reminisce in part about past activities at BLYC, but one thing is for sure, if we do, we will not be able to site there and look at old photographs and read old newspaper articles together. Those we will leave behind on this earth. When we leave this earth we can neither take our pictures and memorabilia nor can we leave our recollections.
Unfortunately, what I have stated above is only chapter on and perhaps not the principal problem. The facts of life are, and my experience has been, that for most people our heirs usually have neither the knowledge or the interest in BLYC history that we did. The result is that those things which have been such treasures to us often become “junk” to be disposed of by our heirs. Thus, things become lost forever. They deserve a better fate.
For example, let me tell you a true story, some of which I have repeated before in these articles. A few years ago, I began in Courthouse records to see if I could find any heirs of Kyle Armstrong, the BLYC and Buckeye Lake Historian who wrote books about history of the lake and of the club. Kyle was Commodore in 1947. The death certificate gave me his lawyer’s name and his lawyer told me his only heir was a daughter living in Columbus. Boy did I think I was lucky. I called his daughter and asked if she was aware of any historical records which Kyle had kept from his obviously extensive research into BLYC and Buckeye Lake history. She was aware of nothing. She did remember a trunk and said she would look and see if anything was still in it and call me back. Apparently there was nothing to be found. Did Kyle Armstrong really have nothing? Is it possible that with all of his writing he had nothing of historical interest? Or is it possible that those who were innocently unaware of the significance of his materials got rid of his old “junk?”
And now the request, the plea, the prayer. Think of those things which you have stored away and not looked at for years. Donate them to the BLYC History Department. Call me in Columbus at 464-2700 and set up a time we can get together. I would love to go through your old pictures and articles, discuss them with you and tape record what you say so that your recollections can be preserved.
None of us will live forever, but we can pass on to succeeding generations our memories and recollections and the pictures, articles, and other memorabilia that go with them.
Editor’s Note – February, 2018; While we are fortunate, thanks in large part to Commodore Foster’s efforts, to have a fairly extensive archive of BLYC historical materials, there is still much about the history of the Club that is missing and presumed lost forever. If you have items that you would like to share with the Club – gift, loan, or let us digitally archive it and you can have it back – please contact P/C Steve Harris, BLYC Historian.