Museums and historical societies select, interpret, and communicate artifacts and episodes from the past in ways that are not dissimilar from the workings of autobiographical memory. How can findings from social science on the nature of memory inform our constructions of the past, both personal and collective? Born and raised in South Wellfleet in the house that was once Isaac Paine’s general store, Cynthia Blakeley blends observations on how we remember and why we forget with stories from her childhood and from her family’s past. She teaches liberal studies at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and is a freelance editor and writer. She is currently at work on a creative nonfiction book on memory and memoir.