The good thing about procrastination is you always have something to look forward to and nothing to do today.
One Liner Wednesday is brought to us each week by Linda Hill. Pop over to her place to get the rules and read the contribution of others.
Month: October 2022
Monday Missive – Back Home
I am back from a wonderful visit with my family. I was scheduled to return last Thursday, but when I arrived to check my luggage, I was told the flight had been cancelled and there was not another until the following Sunday. I fly an inexpensive airline and they only fly certain cities on certain days. So, I called my daughter and asked her if she would come back and pick me up. She, of course, said yes. This gave us another three days together which we all thoroughly enjoyed.
I was so thoroughly in the moment I did very little on WordPress or any social media. I managed to get the Throwback Thursday post completed thinking I would respond while waiting at the airport. Since that did not happen, I will try to get to those posts and respond to comments today.
I see the world is still spinning but not without a few things being thrown off kilter. And it all happened without my knowledge and that is divine in my book!
Today I will catch up with everyone as much as is possible. I hope your last 10 days were as enjoyable as mine.
Throwback Thursday #60 – Hello/Goodbye
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.
Throwback Thursday #59 – Passing on Family Stories
Lauren is in charge of the prompt this week and I am looking forward to responding. She is tackling one of my favorite topics. Head over to her blog to read the rules and join in.
This week’s prompt is: Passing on Family Stories
I would tell you I did not get interested in my family genealogy until just 10 short years ago. As a matter of fact, I hated it when my sister went on and on about her family research and her treks through family cemeteries. It was only a few years later that I began to tell my children (and possibly bore them with) the stories I myself had unraveled.
The truth is, my interest in my family history began when I was a child and listened to the family stories I heard at the feet of my elders. Sadly, in many cases, it was a broken history that did not extend much past my great-grandparents.
After my sister passed away and all her research lost, I joined Ancestry. I submitted a saliva sample to reveal my DNA and started gathering documents. I have now become the holder of our family history. I have told many of those stories here in my blog and may link back to some of those stories today.
Our entire family was fascinated by the stories of when my grandfather was a teacher in the Philippines in the early 1900s. He worked at an agricultural school. He returned to the US, married my grandmother, and returned to the Philippines where their first two children were born. I was fascinated by the stories. I learned it took 30 days by ship to make the journey. I learned about the cultural differences and the friendships they made there. I actually found a letter of recommendation sent in support of my grandfather and this teaching position in the National Archives.
My paternal great-grandfather was ‘run out of town on a rail’. He had been married before he married my great-grandmother, but no one really knows exactly why he was so disliked. I just know it left my great-grandmother with five children to raise on her own. I have never been able to find the place where he was buried. I did find his death certificate and it led me to believe he may have been an alcoholic as well.
I found my paternal grandfather had been married before. It was not something anyone knew or talked about. There was a child, too, but I think it was his wife’s child from a prior marriage.
The best stories, though, are the kind that reveal personality and feeling. Like my grandfather’s friend who was killed in a crane accident. Or my Dad’s story of seeing little green men in the living room. I loved the daredevil stories about my mom, too.
After my Dad passed away, we found a note he had written about a near death accident he had as a child. None of us had ever heard it. It must have been traumatic.
For my children, I printed a copy of their family tree and printed photos of their grandparents as many generations back as I could find. They are in a beautiful leather album. At least they will have a head start once they begin to wonder about their heritage.
There are a million questions I wish I had asked, but in so many cases I was just too young.
I have a cassette tape my father recorded for me. My daughter copied the section of the tape where he told me he loved me and recorded it on a chip in a Teddy Bear. To hear his voice again always brings me to my knees.
I know most of my family came from England and Ireland. I have never made it to either place but I still hope I can make it one day.
One Liner Wednesday – Venice
“In Venice, if you didn’t know where you were going, you usually ended up in the Piazza and since that was always true, maybe it was always where you were going.”
― Losing Venice
I have had Venice on my mind. Our trip there was only a few days but it was so memorable. From enjoying pizza along the Grand Canal, to our walk through the Guggenheim Museum to an evening dessert while listening to live music in Piazza San Marco, it was magical. Last night we watched an amazing episode of PBS’s series Nova concerning the efforts to preserve Venice from the increased flooding due to climate change. It was so informative. It is hard to think of this place crumbling into the sea. The entire show is available on YouTube if you are interested.
One Liner Wednesday is brought to us each week by Linda Hill. Pop over to her place to get the rules and read the contribution of others.
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