Asked how she comes up with these untold stories and makes them into compelling narratives, Mary Ellen Johnson said, “I’m like a little beagle following a bunny ….”

History matters. The stories we tell ourselves about our nation or our town can define who we are — as a people and as individuals. As journalists at The Enterprise, we are authors of the first draft of local history. But what gets remembered, plucked out later, selected over time, to create a narrative of who we are?

Legislator Jeff Perlee, of Altamont, says that Albany County should have an especially active role in celebrating the American Revolution, since it was home to many prominent figures of the time, and was also the scene of a battle that could very well have allowed for the colonies’ eventual victory. 

NEW SCOTLAND — By looking to its past, New Scotland may build a brighter future, Alan Kowlowitz believes.

For centuries, a great primeval forest stretched uninterrupted from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. But, after little more than three generations of European development, the landscape was completely transformed.

GUILDERLAND — By a vote of 8 to 1, the school board here decided on Tuesday to call the federal holiday that falls on Oct. 9 this year solely by the name Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

The first days of winter are the best time to admire the architecture and ingenious engineering of trees. The maples and oaks, having shed their leaves, now reveal their powerful super structures of trunk and branch silhouetted against the winter gray sky.

Bill Howard, Delmar

GUILDERLAND — Historian Bruce Dearstyne has just published a book he hopes will be judged.

History is all around us although few of us delve in, as Christopher Philippo does, to find it.

Take women’s suffrage for instance.