Here's What I Said.

"It  was  never  part of Aurora's  culture to steep themselves in the past. There was  little to speak of. We are a young country. A young town.  Our past and our  present is one and the same."

The first part of that paragraph is cited in an anonymous comment

It needs to be read in context of the whole.

A hundred and fifty years grow  less,the longer one lives. It's   a matter of perspective.

2012 is one hundred and ten years since my mother was born.
A  hundred and thirty six since my grandmother's birth.

Their influence and presence  in  my life is still fresh and current.
 My mother died in 1992. The twenty years between have passed in a flash.

It  provides a measurement for  time, a focus to history, I didn't have when I was younger.

It brings it closer. Makes it more meaningful.

My  great- grandfather's generation  founded  Aurora.

I know what they came from and what they came to. I know what they made of it,  how hard that was and how much we owe.