Jay Smith is back downtown.
City workers returned his commemorative plaque last month to his walkway along Front Street between Kilwin's Chocolate Shoppe and Pangea's Pizza Pub. It rests now on a limestone slab at the foot of a gentle old tree in the rehabbed "pocket park."
This is a good thing, and I'm grateful. His plaque and other historical markers around town are visible reminders that Traverse City has a rich and vibrant local history today, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, often bold, optimistic and daring.
City commissioners named the walkway for Jay almost a half-century ago because of an idea he had in the mid-1920s that helped lift Traverse City out of economic decline following the lumber era. That idea has since become the National Cherry Festival, which also helped Traverse City through the Great Depression.
A native son and good writer, Smith was one of the city's important storytellers, a link between Traverse City's early days and the 1960s. One of seven children, he cut his teeth on his parents' pioneer stories, which informed and shaped his life and perhaps Traverse City's, too. He grew up to become a reporter, editor and columnist for the Record-Eagle for almost four decades after attending the University of Michigan and serving in World War I. He died in 1962.
Local history is important and not something to take for granted. It's what helps a community keep a sense of place. It's part of why Traverse City survived, thrived and became what it is today,
You don't have to look too far down the nation's roads to see what happens when communities lose sight of that knowledge of local history.
A sense of place is a highly valuable thing for a community to shed. I think it will become even more important in this era of global strip malls and pulsating communications technology that can take us anywhere, any time, any place in cyberspace.
Sense of place is a form of strong city self-esteem. It is the key to vision, thoughtful, respectful discussions and healthy choice about this grounded spot where we actually live and breathe.
Local history helps us stay present. It builds a sturdy bridge to new times if we care enough to dig it up, cultivate it and make sure it's visible, inclusive and truthful. It can give a sense of roots, home and community in seemingly rootless and often ruthless times.
From reading Jay's stories and columns, I know he loved this place, advocated for it, came up with suggestions for its improvement and chided it, when necessary, in a newspaper career that started decades before radio and TV.
It's good to get to know him and his times.
Record-Eagle columnist Loraine Anderson can be reached at landerson@record-eagle.com or 933-1468.
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