Bicentennial year a chance to honor county?s history

Tomorrow will mark the dawn of a new year and a momentous anniversary for Warren County ? its bicentennial year. The beautiful and hospitable piece of country we call home will be 200 years old in 2007, and seven years into the 21st century, a far cry from the wilderness area where Warren County was founded in 1807.

If some kind of arcane time machine could transport them from their world to ours, what would they think?

No doubt the settlers from that time would be dumfounded if they could see what exists here now. All kinds of shiny and otherworldly contraptions traveling roads made of materials far beyond their ken ? and at unbelievable rates of speed.

They would be amazed, and perhaps frightened, to see people walking around in strange attire speaking into small metallic instruments clutched to their ears, or gazing at small gadgets with screens that actually display moving pictures.

Other buildings would reveal those same images expanded to unimaginable size and clarity, accompanied by loud and raucous sounds that seem to issue out of thin air.

A visit to a grocer would bring on another kind of amazement. Displays of meats, produce and canned goods from all over the globe would both intrigue and confound a visitor from two centuries ago. They would undoubtedly know apples, but not the dizzying variety of types available on the shelves. Oranges and bananas would probably bewilder the majority of those who had not encountered them in their travels.

And what about the foods in cases that somehow magically reproduce the effect of winter cold in their brightly lit confines? Foods encased in strange metal containers with garishly colored labels. Cakes, candy and sweets on almost every shelf. Oh my, they would probably think, no one should worry about starving in this place.

A trip to some of the other local emporiums would bring on more wonder from our ancestors. Clothing made from a bewildering variety of materials and in an equally confusing array of styles and colors.

And everywhere machines, big and small, that move and function with no discernible source of power.

Then there?s the amazing, impossibly beautiful lights defying the darkness in this land. Lights everywhere, all colors and configurations, inside and outside. Lights that spell out words. Lights that tell those fearsome vehicles when to stop and when to go.

To our ancestors from the early 1800s our world would be considered a sort of magical, mysterious and even terrifying place. But amid all the wondrous changes, our forefathers would find one thing much the same, the people who still live here on the land they cleared all those years ago by the sweat of their brow.

Some of the family names would be familiar to them, maybe even their own descendants. Others would seem foreign, as would the people who bear them. But they would find the people themselves, for the most part, still exhibit the pioneer spirit that founded this place, and has kept it a great place to live.

As we begin our bicentennial year, let us think back on those who came before us. Let us ponder their courage and accomplishments.

They are the reason we?re here today.