Have you ever driven down a road and wondered what it looked like 200 years ago?

Was it a simple dirt path that farmers traveled along in their wagons to get to town? Was there even a road there? Perhaps it was blanketed by woods filled with healing herbs that the local midwives used. Or maybe it was part of a gently rolling hill that people rode across on horseback. Who knows? A small settlement might have even existed on that location at one time.

I found myself trying to imagine what used to be as I visited historic Rockford last week to cover the History and Haints Day sponsored by the Rockford Preservation Society.

Before leaving for the event I asked my editor about Rockford and how to get there. He told me that on a quiet day you could almost picture what the town must have looked like 200 years ago. He was right.

I began on Rockford Street in Mount Airy, and many twists and turns later I found myself driving down a quiet little strip surrounded by historic houses. I knew that I was finally in Rockford, the seat of Surry County from 1789 to 1850.

As I walked up and down the street with the group led by Marion Venable on a history tour, I could imagine what the village used to look like. With court only in session a few times a year, Rockford must have been a booming location when that time finally arrived. People came in to receive help on everything from a property dispute to what to do with an abandoned child found in the area. And with the train rolling through Rockford, people were certainly coming and going frequently.

Now Rockford is much quieter. A passenger train no longer passes through, and the former courthouse stands in need of repair. The location doesn’t have its own post office anymore.

But there are still many people who live in Rockford and have shops there. And thanks to the efforts of the Rockford Preservation Society, old buildings like the Masonic Lodge and York Tavern are being preserved for future generations.

I have always had a fascination with local history, which I inevitably inherited from my mother. Quite a history buff, my mom would spend hours going over old genealogies of our family tree. I remember as a child being dragged to courthouses throughout the area so my mom could try to find that elusive link to the Bray family tree or the root of our Native American heritage.

I didn’t fully appreciate her efforts then, and I still sometimes catch myself groaning when a person asks Mom how we’re related to someone. She will grab paper and pen or use her hands to draw out an elaborate family tree as she talks about cousin after cousin after cousin.

But even though I pick on my mom for her long family tree explanations, I still believe that what she has done is worthwhile. I appreciate the efforts of every historian, whether professional or amateur, and every society who has worked to preserve local history and heritage.

The work they are doing helps remind us about the people and communities that toiled to survive in our past. Without the efforts of the societies and historians, our county’s legacies would be erased.

Maybe you fail to see the relevance in looking through dusty books and deeds and papers to find out more about the past. But I agree with those who say that we cannot truly understand our future if we don’t know where we’ve come from.

Even if you don’t agree with that saying, isn’t there some small part of you that hopes that you won’t be forgotten? That a hundred years from now the story of your life will live on somehow? That people won’t forget the name of the community that you lived in?

Maybe a few hundred years ago people hoped for the same thing. Without the record keepers, historians, and family storytellers, our history would be lost.

One of the reasons that I got into journalism was to help in some small way to preserve the news and stories of people in North Carolina. I feel like my printed stories are one way to preserve the present. Someone may find this newspaper years from now and get to learn about Rockford.

Let’s work to preserve our own stories for future generations, but let’s also not forget the ones who came before us. We shouldn’t reap the benefits of generations of work only to forget the ones who paved the way.

Pick a quiet day in your own community to sit and try to picture what used to be. Then go out and find it.

Meghann Evans is a reporter with the Mount Airy News. She may be reached at 719-1952 or mevans@mtairynews.com.