Some Things Don't Change

As I was on my daily walk this morning, I began to reflect on how I started my research journey into my ancestors. Now I am considered an elder, but when I began exploring my family’s history almost 40 years ago, I was about the age of some enslaved people on the trail, who were in their early to late 30s and survived to be documented in their 80s or 90s, on a Dawes Land Allotment card. I can only imagine the hardships they endured, and despite all my aches, pains, and ailments that come with age, I imagine that when they sat down to apply for their land allotment, those weeks of walking, walking, and more walking were undoubtedly more grueling than anything I face each day, in comfortable shoes, a warm hoodie, on pleasant fall mornings. In the three years I’ve been walking, it has been incident-free, but this week someone left graffiti along the path I walk, a reminder that some things don’t change. © Terry Ligon 2025