Nothing draws a group of people together like a trip down memory lane.

No matter how they align with each other in age, political beliefs, religion, socioeconomic status, etc., when a group of people shares an experience, they in turn share a bond — if only for a short time.

This is probably part of why social media pages and websites focusing on nostalgic photos, remember-whens and old stories are so popular.

If you’re on Facebook, you’ve likely seen the pages:

“If you grew up in Niles…,” “You know you grew up in Dowagiac, Michigan if…,” “I’m so Cassopolis…,” etc. People of all ages share memorabilia of times long gone, or use the site to connect with old friends.

While the communities that make up the southern-most part of southwest Michigan are very diverse, there are a few memories that tie us all together. Although a lot of the posts on these pages refer to experiences and destinations that were in southwest Michigan decades ago, I think there are plenty of so-called “inside jokes” even the younger generation can appreciate.

Here are some of my favorites.

You know you’re from southwest Michigan if:

• You or someone you know insists on calling Mishawaka, Granger, Roseland and Notre Dame “South Bend,” instead of their proper names

• You skipped two hours of class a day for a month in the third grade to learn to swim at the YMCA

• You’ve had a first date at the 5-Mile Drive-In, Hacker’s or the Cass County Fair

• You’ve been a camper at Camp Friedenswald, Five Pines Ministries, Fitch Camp or Fernwood

• You tell out-of-towners you’re “X minutes from Notre Dame” or “X miles from the haunted house” to explain where in Michigan your small town is located (and when that fails, you’ve pointed to it on your hand)

• You’ve gone ghost hunting at the Morris Chapel

• You’ve dressed head to toe in camouflage when you played the Bucks or drawn toilet swirls with the words “Flush the Eddies” on game-day banners

• You’ve taken a trip to Tower Hill and ventured back to the clay pits to cover yourself in the hardening mud

I could go on and on about my favorite memories from my childhood, and I’m lucky to live in a town where I can reminisce about them regularly.

Each Friday in our daily publications, we reminisce with readers using old photographs in our Almost Yesterday section. Photos can be as recent as just a few years old, or decades old. If you have a photo full of people you’d like to identify, we’re happy to ask readers for their assistance in naming them. If you already have that information, that’s great, too.

If you’d like to submit a photograph, feel free to email them to me at news@leaderpub.com, or come in to the office and we’ll scan it and run it in the next available paper. Our office is located at 217 N. Fourth St., in Niles.

We’d love to see more of your photos displaying memories like these, and I’m sure our readers would appreciate them, too.

 

Ambrosia Neldon is the managing editor at Leader Publications. She can be reached by phone at (269) 687-7713, or by email at ambrosia.neldon@leaderpub.com.