Preserving history is one of the most important things we can do as a society, especially in smaller communities.

Things can easily be lost, or even forgotten in time, but it’s the people that preserve this history who help ensure we take the right steps to a better future.

The Poplarville Historical Preservation Society does a great job of making sure the city’s history is well documented, with items of the past on display in their museum located in the old City Hall Poplarville Chamber of Commerce.

As a history buff, I applaud the people who go out of their way to make sure we never forget our past.

Growing up in rural North Carolina, my grandfather always shared the importance of history and how we should never forget what happened in the past, even if some events were catastrophes. I remember him telling me that if we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it, and I cannot agree more.

Humans make mistakes, but it’s from those mishaps that we learn and grow in society as a whole. We can only improve by learning from our mistakes, but if we forget those mistakes, eventually we will make them again.

This weekend, the Poplarville Historical Preservation Society is hosting a fundraiser to defray the renovation costs to its museum and I urge everyone to attend and support their community’s history.

Books on the history of our charming cities in the county are disappearing by the year. Recently, I found a book about Picayune in the early 1900s and am eagerly anticipating a chance to flip through the pages.

How this community came to be, through what industry and what life was like back then amazes me. It also gives me hope to see that we are heading in the right direction as a community, striding to a better quality of life not just for ourselves, but for our neighbors as well.