I am in Florida visiting family and I fly home tomorrow. I am already dreading saying goodby to my family. These thoughts are what inspired the topic this week.
This week’s prompt is: Saying Hello and Goodbye
I will give you some questions to help you along. Or, free write if you would rather. You can either respond in the comments or link back to this post. My response will follow.
1. Did you live close by or far away from close family or grandparents?
2. How often did you see or visit extended family?
3. Was the coming together cheerful and celebrated in some way?
4. Which relative did you enjoy seeing the most? Why?
5. Were there relatives you dreaded visiting? If so, why?
6. If you were the visitor, was the trip short and easy or was it a journey?
7. Were your visits short or extended? If extended visits, where did you sleep? Bed, sofa bed, couch, floor?
8. When it came time to leave, was it difficult to say goodbye?
9. How often do you visit extended family now?
10. If you could see a relative who is no longer alive, who would it be? Why?
We were the family that moved away from the home place, so visits back “home” were always a treasure to me. When we moved to Florida we had no family visits. We only lived there a year, so it wasn’t too bad. We moved to Ohio when I was in sixth grade, so we made frequent trips back home to visit our grandparents.
Our trip from Ohio to Virginia was always a long trip. At that time, it took about twelve hours. I75 was in progress but not yet completed. (My dad loved to sneak on the highway and drive it before it officially opened. That always made me nervous!) Much of the final leg of our journey was across mountain roads. We always traveled the West Virginia turnpike, too, and I remember being amazed at the underground coal mine that was always burning and smoking as we passed it. Mom always packed lunches and snacks, and she always had a big bag of orange slices and pink mints for the ride. We always arrived at my grandmother’s late at night. My grandfather had already passed away by this time, so there were four bedrooms upstairs to accommodate the six of us. I always loved being in the Valley again, so leaving was always hard. Our departure always seemed to be in the early hours of the morning and I always felt so sad to leave.
At my maternal grandmother’s house, there were also four bedrooms upstairs. Where we slept depended on how many cousins were there visiting. My grandmother had a big featherbed made of ticking she would pull out of the closet and toss on the floor for the grandkids to sleep on. I can still remember feeling the end of a feather poke me and slowly pulling the feather out of the mattress.
I always hated leaving my grandparents. The drive to see them was fun and exciting, but the ride home was sad and the trip was not near as much fun returning home. I often cried leaving my family. I am still very much the sentimentalist today. Leaving those I love is never easy. I try to be strong within sight of my grandchildren because I do not want them to be sad. I always try to part with the promise of another visit soon.
It is hard to say which relative I would want to see again. I would love for my parents to meet their grandchildren and great grandchildren. I have so many questions I would love to ask my grandparents that I was too young to even consider at the time. And my sisters? I wish they could be here more for their children and grandchildren than for me. I’m not sure I could choose.
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Your memories of your childhood visits to your grandparents are delightful and make me remember simpler times. I’m glad when leaving your grandkids you make a point to tell them you’ll be back again. That seems important to me.
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Those days were the best in my mind. But maybe childhood memories of times well lived are always the best.
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Here are my answers, Maggie.
1) Very close. For a few years we were all on the same street.
2) Almost daily.
3) Parties at Christmas, funerals, weddings. Always big occasions.
4) My mum’s younger brother and his wife. Despite the age difference, they always treated me as an equal, not a child.
5) No. I liked tham all, to different degrees.
6) Mostly short trips. The furthest one was about 30 minutes away by car.
7) We never stayed over. (No need, as we lived too close.)
8) No, because we knew we would see them very soon, perhaps the next day.
9) Twice a year for my family, weekly for Julie’s, as they live in Norfolk.
10) My mum’s younger brother. We always had such a good laugh together.
Best wishes, Pete.
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You were fortunate to live so close, Pete. We were not as far away as we could have been, but it seemed like such a distance!
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Thanks for joining in Pete. I longed for close family growing up. You were lucky to have that. 🙂
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In working-class London, we tended to stick together and help each other out. Most people did not move around that much until 1970, Lauren.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Here’s mine
https://pensitivity101.wordpress.com/2022/10/20/throwback-thursday-60-hello-goodbye/
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This is a prompt I would have written a story. But is 11.15 pm Thursday night but going to make it simple. We lived in a joint family, that is my father’s parents lived with us and We visited my mother’s parents every summer. I have always felt that I was blessed to know both set of my grandparents and learn a lot about my ancestry and their stories. All of them lived to see my marriage which was wonderful. I feel bad for my kids who do not have their father’s side grandparents and my parents are in India. Thanks for making me remember.
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Thanks for joining in. I agree with you that you were blessed to know both sets of grandparents. The fact that they were able to join in with your wedding celebration is wonderful.
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What a wonderful post so ful of lovely memories of your family and grandparents. Sorry just got to give you two songs!
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Here’s my entry
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We lived 3000 miles away from my grandparents. We took the train across the country twice and drove once. I loved the train, especially the dining car. I would give anything to have my Aunt Cary, of whom I wrote a series “An Aunt and an Ort,” back in my life.
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