Snapshots Of The Past At Surrey Museum

TIME PASSED in a snap it seemed since the Anderson family lived in the house that pioneer Eric Anderson built in the 1800s. There could be similar structures in abandoned fields and farms. But this donated one, moved to the foot of the Surrey Museum, is said to be the oldest original log cabin in the area. It contrasted well with the circular modern museum I visited recently.

Some exhibits inside the museum located in Cloverdale, Surrey, looked all too familiar. I sat in front of a television set that was much like the one above not so long ago. The homes that housed them have gotten larger as have the televisions that are digital now like current cameras.

Getting your picture taken used to be a major event ... a rarity. Now anyone can take a decent picture with their cell phones.

Communications is unfettered. Wires are clipped bit by bit and we talk through electromagnetic waves like magicians grabbing signals from thin air.

Transportation has come a long way in a short time from the motorless buggy era to planes that whisk travelers across the globe. Horse-drawn carriages are available in my part of the world only on tours that cater to the nostalgic.

Much of what is shown in museums is recent history and because time flows rapidly it can seem as if key moments of the past happened just yesterday.

Nonetheless, the red dress once worn by country singer Lisa Brokop caught me by surprise. It was hard to believe that more than two decades had passed since I first interviewed her for a magazine. She was a fresh-faced 18-year-old in 1992.

A year later she had a leading role in the movie Harmony Cats where she wore the costume pictured. Surely Lisa is too young and current to be featured in a museum, I thought, remembering that my husband, too, is mentioned in a museum. You can see where and why HERE.

My search through old files uncovered an article I wrote about the local star. I also found Lisa's inspiring latest song Let It Burn on the modern-day marvel YouTube. Faces and writings printed on paper or launched into cyberspace fade and burn more easily than those that are etched in stone.

The Egyptian image (above) of a goddess or queen survived twenty-five hundred years despite numerous earthly disasters.

But what are a paltry thousand years when trilobites, also on exhibit, are 370 million years old? The unbelievably ancient creatures put human artifacts and feeling like an old fossil into perspective.

In a grand timeline the distance between sparking the first flame and sending a spacecraft to Mars is miniscule. Humankind is in its infancy, the old fossils seem to say, and its remarkable ability to dream, make choices and invent gadgets will result in new wonders that will make life, as we now know it, appear prehistoric.

"Whatever you do will be insignificant," said Mahatma Gandhi, "but it is very important that you do it."

Visit Postcards From Penelope Puddle to view more BC scenes.

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Copyright by Penelope Puddlisms